Keyboard warriors called out, Crappie barotrauma study, Simple sled mod

Heads up: Today’s Target Walleye is gonna be a little quicker than ‘the yoozh’ because I’m down at the St. Paul Ice Show. Pumped to see everyone! 🥶 #IceIceBaby

Today’s Top 5

Barotrauma study on crappies. 🕵️‍♂️

I mentioned this last Feb, but there’s more info and a great video out about it now….

The AnglingBuzz crew partnered with the Minnesota DNR to study the effects of barotrauma on crappies based on the depth of water the fish were being caught out of.

> For a lot of anglers, winter crappie fishing revolves around deeper basins…. It’s a relatively simple pattern. In late-fall large schools of crappies dump into deeper water to feed on a number of different invertebrates that are concentrated in the soft-bottom basins.

> With new technology like forward-facing sonar these fish are easier to find and catch than ever before.

> The issue at hand is that crappies caught out of these deep-water basins are suffering from barotrauma and have a high mortality rate. Barotrauma is an injury caused by changes in barometric water pressure.

> For this study, 50 crappies were caught out of 3 different lakes. The fish were measured, fin clipped, and the severity of crappie barotrauma was recorded. The crappies were released into a hoop net that was extended from the water’s surface to the bottom. The goal was to see how many crappies would survive and see how barotrauma affected these fish caught in deep water. The crew came back the following day to record the results.

Lake #1:

> Fifty crappies were caught between 28-32’ in a basin that had a max depth of 44’. In depths greater than 28’ of water 76% of the crappies died or were non-releasable, meaning they could not return to depth.

Lake #2:

> “On this lake, 50 crappies were caught between 16-24’ in a basin that had a max depth of 28’. In this depth range we found that 4% of fish were affected by barotrauma and were non-releasable.”

Lake #3:

> “In the third lake, these crappies were in depths between 22-26’ in a basin with a max depth of 29’. Similar to the second lake, a majority of the crappies were not affected. In the end 4 crappies died while the rest of them recovered.”

And here’s their great video explaining in more detail and showing the process:

This was sort of just a “pilot project” to better understand how they might do a full-on research project of this nature in the future (to have more precise results, start looking at additional variables, and eventually provide guidelines for when it’s appropriate to keep or release these basin-dwellers) but the pre-lim findings were still very interesting. I’ll keep you posted….

This walleye needs help! 🚑🙅‍♂️

I came across this Instagram reel from Jessie Baker hoisting up a big walleye with an even bigger…um…ya:

> Jessie Baker: “I caught 2 walleyes within 5 minutes both with what I am now calling ‘fire butt’…. Anyone seen this? No hooks coming out that I could see….”

Those late-night Taco Bull runs always seem like a great idea – until they’re not. Get that thing some Preparation H and send it back on its way. 🥴

Spend enough time on the water and you’re bound to see some wild schtuff. And no doubt Jessie and her hubby Doug Wegner are one of those power-couples who spend more time on water than land.

Speaking of which, Doug posted a reel the other day of a 48.5” muskie he caught that coughed-up a 21” burbot in the net! You can click the pic below to see the short video:

Wonder if that muskie would’ve had the same “fire butt” going on had it needed to 💩 out that Taco Bell’bot meal lol.

Slabradoodle of the week!

I gotta give this one to my man Sam ‘Sobi’ Sobieck who was testing out the new Clam Tikka Flash when it got engulfed by a giant 15.75” crappie (measured with the mouth closed). And bonus points for the lucky banana shirt. #MythBusters

If you’re headed to the St. Paul Ice Show…quick heads-up that Sobi is doing a “meet and greet” in the Clam booth from 4-6pm TOMORROW (Sat, Dec 2).

If you don’t know Sobi (great dude!) he’s a fishing maniac who jumped full-time in the fishing YouTube’r world about 6-ish yrs ago now…been steady killing it ever since. His #1 goal is to grow the sport of fishing, and IMO his ultra-positive attitude does just that.

So when I see someone make a negative comment under a pic of his…the whole “HoLd It OuT fUrThEr” thing…I get a little defensive lol. But we all know that crappie ^ would still be 15.75” even if Sobi was holding it behind his back! 😅 Which means it’s time for a ‘Rant of the Day.’

It’s time to call-out keyboard warriors! 🤡

There’s a lot of negativity floating around on the interwebz – definitely gotta have thick skin if you’re putting yourself out there. Really, I’ll never understand why soooo many folks are just straight-up angry all the time…especially over such unimportant matters.

Just remember…the majority of negative comments on social media are all coming from the same breed of people commonly known as “keyboard warriors.” #WatchYourOwnBobber

After doing a bit of research, I found out that the actual scientific name for “keyboard warriors” = North American Internet Fisherman. And here we have the privilege of observing one in its natural habitat. 👀

Lol! Little background info on these mysterious creature:

> Closely related to the Sofa Bison, the North American Internet Fisherman is more commonly known for its useless banter and uniformed jargon.

> They are easily aggravated by most success stories, big fish and female anglers.

> Lacking nearly all basic fishing skills, the North American Internet Fisherman depends heavily on the shield of its computer screen to protect itself.

> If you come into contact with one, be sure to back away slowly while hitting the block button.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

“Trolling” on social media doesn’t have to be malicious…it can be tactful and fun for all involved. Otherwise just do everyone a favor and keep on scrolling. Just my “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all” preach-fest of the day….

Phew! Now, where were we??? Hahaha!

Ever try leaving your bait directly on bottom? 🤔

All I know is that I’m definitely going to play around more with leaving a setup RIGHT ON BOTTOM after watching this video of Brad Hawthorne talking advanced rattle reel tips. He’s specifically talking about late-winter in this video, but it’s a trick that could save ya during a tough bite anytime you hit the ice:

News

Back with the regular News section next week!

Win a Two Brothers Innovations ice-rod package!

Up for grabs is a trio of high-end ice rods – from Paul and Gregg Thorne’s Two Brothers Innovations – that will elevate any ice anglers’ game. One lucky winner will get the all new extra-length Wally Perca XL, a fan favorite Evolution Ice Series ES42M-F and the group is topped with another brand new offering, the 2B ICE Klondike!

Only takes a minute to enter by clicking here or on the pic below. 👊

Tip of the Day

Simple mod to make sleds hand-pull easier.

Struggling to tow your ice sled by hand? Then Jason Mitchell has a great (and simple!) modification for you in this Virtual Angling post:

> J-Mitch: “If you’re pulling your Fish Trap out by hand and putting a lot of miles on it, there’s a simple modification you can use to make things easier. When you buy a Fish Trap, there’s holes in the sled and a simple black rope knotted through them. If you’re not going to tow it far, this works fine.

> “Try this instead – put 2 eye bolts through the holes and attach carabiner clips on the ends of your rope to hook into the eye bolts. Switch out the original rope with one that’s a lot longer – maybe 20’ long. If you have to pull your sled out using your own horsepower, this longer rope with the clip system will make it way easier to tow.”

I’ve been adding super long ropes to my hand-toted portables for about 12-ish years now (it’s crazy how much easier they pull – helps tremendously!) but it drives me nuts that I never once thought to rig ‘em up like this with the carabiner clips LOL. Would be super convenient to be able to pop them on/off as needed.

Quote of the Day

“Life is like a burbot stomach, you never know what you’re gonna get.”

– That’s the caption under Kris Radzichowsky’s Instagram post of a corn-fed burbot he caught somewhere in Ontario:

He said an old-timer had a permie close by and that they were pretty sure he likes to chum whitefish with corn. Who’d uh-thunk that burbot would scarf it up?!

Which just gave me a great idea for a new custom-color Rapala Rippin’ Rap. 😂

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

They’re gonna have to start making SnoBears bigger to fit all that Manitoba greenback in ’em. 🤯 Sheesh:

One of many, many giants caught fishing with Icebound Excursions each season. If you haven’t heard of them yet, I 10/10 recommend. They offer guided or DIY SnoBear trips on “Big Windy.” Was legit one of the most enjoyable fishing excursions I’ve been on. Amazing not having to worry about what Mother Nature is doing.

Parting Shot

If your Christmas presents are late this year, it’s because Santa is a little tied up 😅 over at Nathan Skinner’s place:

Get back to work, Santa! Maybe if it were a walleye we’d cut you a little slack….

Have a great weekend and thanks SO much for reading!

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