Scented cranks are here, Burbot lure mods, Fish-ink Friday

I came across a short 8-sec video posted by Dave Husfeldt in the Ice Fishing Minnesota FB group and had to do a double-take (won’t be able to see the video unless you’re a member of the group).

Dave said he pulled his skid house off Mille Lacs, went to chip-out his blocking and there was a 26” walleye under his house still swimming in about 5” of water trapped under a thin layer of ice.
The real kicker: The fish had been living in its new tiny home for 2 weeks. 🤯

> Dave: It was fairly lively for a fish that was caught almost 2 weeks ago when my girlfriend had a girls weekend. She thought it had gone under the house. I looked with the camera and couldn’t see anything…but I guess she was right [they usually are lol].

> …other than being pale in color, [the fish] still looked and fought healthy…was caught by the ice-road plow guy and released down the hole where it tail-slapped and took off.

Wild! That fish still had some serious shoulders considering it went on a 2-week cleanse.

Same action, size, profile, and dive depth as the standard Flicker Shad…but has that extra edge to turn sniffers into biters!

> “Take scent to the next level with NEW Scented Flicker Shads! Extreme Gulp scent dispersion paired with the Flicker Shad’s proven fish-catching action delivers next level attraction that fish won’t be able to turn down. Designed specifically to accept our Gulp! Hard Bait Gel that comes in every pack, our patent pending Scent+ pockets slowly disperse that Gulp scent as your Flicker Shad moves….”

It only makes sense that the largest Ducks Unlimited event in the nation is actually a fishing derby 🤔🤣 called “Fishing for Ducks,” which happened last Saturday on Mille Lacs Lake in MN.

It was Mark Hogberg’s 1.37-lb tullibee that won the $20K 1st-place prize this year, and got to take home that sweeeeet new Fishing for Ducks Champions Belt 🔥 congrats man!

The full results were posted here. Of the 309 registered fish, it looks like Mark’s tullibee was the only thing registered that was NOT a perch. Altho I’ve gotta call out that the next 5 biggest fish were all 1.01- to 1.35-lb jumbo perch…. 🤫

Soooo…no walleyes weighed?? What happened to Mille Lacs???

Well, I’m sure there were some walleyes caught during the derby – there’s still plenty of ’em in “The Big Pond” right now – but currently you’d only be able to bring in:

> …1 walleye between 21-23″ or 1 fish longer than 28″. All other walleye must be immediately released [per the current regz].

Makes it tough going to snag a weigh-able walleye during a midday, 12:00-3:00pm derby.

And a few other current Mille Lacs regs that may have come into play:

> …all burbot (eelpout) must be immediately released.

> …all northern pike greater than 30″ must be immediately released.

> …all bass greater than 17″ must be immediately released.

I’m ALL for catch and release, and selective harvest, but dang it would be a tough pill to swallow knowing you caught a $20K fish during an ice derby, but had to immediately release it lol. 🤕🤡 #Ouchy

Been awhile since we’ve done a #FishInkFriday, so here we go. Kids – don’t try this at home….

1. This @knoteyetattoo piece looks real enough to automatically put Kev over his limit on Mille Lacs Lake, without even wetting a line….

I didn’t know Mike personally – would have LOVED to get the chance to meet him. I instantly became a big fan after watching him during a H2H Fishing livestream. Take a scroll thru his FB page and you’ll see thousands of comments, photos and memories folks have shared in his honor. He obviously had a major impact on every life he touched, and will continue to do so while he’s gone fishin’ in Heaven. 🙏 Rest in peace, fishing brother.

3. This one’s from tattoo artist @bigtattykayne. And it’s just one more reason artificials > live bait…don’t have to feel bad dropping ’em in front of fish. 😅

4. Another great tribute piece. This one is from Nick Burns who said:

> “My grandpa passed away this last year and I wanted to honor him. He taught me all I know about ice fishing. One of his favorite lures was the Swedish Pimple. The artist overlayed his initials that he had carved into The Fisherman’s Bridge years ago. I could not be happier.”

No offense…I love both hahaha.

1. Would this be considered a dog sled? From outdoor-shooter Brady Rogers somewhere in Ontari-yo:

Btw if you’re not following it yet, Simms’ Instagram just does not miss. Every single post is an absolute work of art. Little more from that recent post ^ featuring the pupdawg:

> “It’s one thing to identify the general zone. However, pinpointing and enticing a 30-yr-old fish to eat is anything but a cakewalk. Targeting trophy lake trout through the ice is a quality game, not a quantity game.

> “Visit our story to learn more about the nuances from a crew that cracked the code.”

1. New NFT Tungsten Short-Shank Jigs are out NOW.

> …uses Northland’s legendary Short-Shank Fire-Ball Jig design in a Tungsten offering. Molded from Tungsten which is 30% more dense than lead, this jig has a faster fall rate and less drag in the water. This allows anglers to use a lighter tungsten jig than typically used when fishing a comparable sized lead jig.

> …the hardness of tungsten increases sensitivity and allows anglers to feel exactly what’s on the bottom. It features a premium short-shank wide-gap hook and dual bait keepers that lock on soft plastics and live bait.

Comes in 3 sizes (1/8, 1/4 and 3/8 oz) and 8 colors.

This is one of the jigs that tourney-phenom Tom Huynh was super excited about when teaming-up with the NFT crew:

> Tom Huynh: “Working with Northland Fishing Tackle is a great fit. They’re legendary. Currently, I’ve been fishing the 1/8th-oz Northland Short-Shank Tungsten Jig and it’s perfect for what I do. The narrow, aspirin-shaped head cuts through the water great and falls in a really unique fish-catching way…the shape of the hook is perfect and the hook shank is right on. It’s also really sharp for solid hooksets on far casts in deeper water, even though I’m fishing a lighter jig.”

Btw if short-shanks aren’t your thing, they also just released the Northland Tungsten Jig Head that’s a more traditional shank-age, but tungsten:

2. MN: Birchmont Winter Bash happening this Saturday.

On the north end of Lake Bemidji (in front of Ruttger’s) on Feb 25. Over $45K in cash + prizes. I believe proceeds go to the Bemidji High School fishing team.

3. SD: Denny Palmer Memorial Walleye Classic, Jun 10.

Registration is now open for the 13th annual derby. Capped at 150 teams. Will be 100% entry fee payouts and guaranteed $7.5K to 1st place. They’ll also be giving away 1 guaranteed spot in the Mobridge Ice Fishing Tournament on Lake Oahe, which always has a huge waiting list just to fish.

4. Z-Man HQ is solar-powered?!

Had no idea. 🤯

> “Following just 1 yr of solar power generation, we’re nearly 100% self-sufficient. In fact, rather than paying big energy bills during the summer, we’re actually selling electricity back to the power company. It’s a pretty exciting development that’s exceeded our initial hopes and started us well down a path toward minimizing our carbon footprint.”

5. TN: Small jig company helping human trafficking victims.

Amazing:

> “Zoe Angling Group started about eight years ago,” said Jeff Coffey, founder and CEO. “We started as Fair Flies with the intent that rather than exploiting people to make sporting goods, that instead we could use sporting goods in our case – flies, jigs, lures – to create jobs that pay double living wages for women that have come out of the sex trade.”

> Coffey says they work in places like Nepal and India and Tunisia, with partners there to create products to be able to create sustainable jobs. “The problem is 92% of those that get rescued end up back in the red-light districts. The reason is nobody will hire them, and so what we figured is that we could create jobs.”

You can check out their hair jigs right here.

6. Garmin Marine Q4 sales were up 7%.

7. NE: Low oxygen causing problems in…

…at least 20 Sandhills and Panhandle lakes.

8. MN: Tommy Kemos speaking at the TCWU meeting on Thurs, Mar 2.

9. TX looking at forward facing sonar use for crappie.

> “At this point the department is more curious than concerned. A year’s worth of data will give us a pretty good snapshot of a fishery and what is going on between forward-facing sonar users and non-users. We’ll be able to look a catch rate comparisons, the size of the fish and size of the harvest between them. From there we could dive into some simulations of what types of impacts that could have.”

10. NMRA welcomes new officers and board members.

Burbot (aka eelpout) lure modifications.

This AnglingBuzz video takes a look at 6 of us burbot-freakazoids 😵‍💫 and how we each like to modify our baits for extra sound, glow, flash and scent to get a few more bites from those belly-draggers.

Some are simple…and some are as complex as drilling a hole in the top of a Rippin’ Rap and adding #8 bird-shot to double the bait’s weight. 👀

“Jewelry looks good on walleyes too!”

– That’s walleye pro Duane Hjelm with his third [!] tagged walleye of the year. Added this one to his collection slinging a VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jig Head on the Missouri River, SD:

National Professional Anglers Assoc. 

MN-FISH