Sort of funny how a lot of folks (myself included) couldn't care less about catching bluegills or crappies for the other 8 months of the year...but soon as there's fish-able ice we'll hoof it 4 miles down an old logging road to try and catch 'em. 🤣 Half the time not even knowing if that backwater slough even has fish in it or not!

But it's worth it if/when they're fish of THIS caliber...

1) Andrew Kraft (@krafty_38) has been wailing on backwoods pie plates with his 2B "Select Series" Ultimate Nood rod in hand -- believe that bait is a P3 Plastics Micro Spugg...sorta like a mini paddle-tail for panfish. Yup, bluegills can have shoulders too!

2) Jadyn Thomas and his cuz went lake-hoppin' across MN in search of slabs, and it paid off big! He was using that fish-sexxy [!] Elliott Rods Paragon 32" L XF with a #3 Rapala Ultra Light Rippin' Rap:

Few details from Jadyn:

Way to go, fellas!

3) Karlee Tower is back, and the fish aren't getting any smaller. She iced this tall basin-dweller on Lake Nevuhtelja (pronounced: neva-tell-ya! 🤐) using a "black chartreuse" color Clam Drop-Kick Jig:

Btw Karlee said she "highly recommends" that StrikeMaster Allie suit -- even added a couple 💯🔥 emojis in there to make it o-fish-ial. Awesome.

4) Call these Mother Nature's hubcaps -- 2 more and Dylan Foui would have a set!

Dude had himself a day using the original Clam "Maki" plastic (white). Said they caught 150+ fish "with 35 of them over 14" and 6 over 15"...." 🤯 Sheesh!

Said they were primarily fishing in 19-23' where a 10' mud flat sharply dropped into 18-24'. Had huge pods suspended 11-17' down, but the feeders would come all the way up between 6-9' to smash the bait. I'd love to see those thing flying up on the graph!

'Cuz there's still a few diehards chasing those cold-water walleyes...

1) Andy Fisk whacked this razorback running Salmo Freediver 12s on Saginaw Bay:

2) Marc Tremblay (@wallyfishing_marc) loves him some Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow Walleye Deep Divers -- used the "purple tiger" color to fool this cold-water chunk:

...and it looks like I'm going to have to share with my daughter lol:

They're adding limited-edition "HD Flash" colors to the Flicker lineup and Hit Stick:

Here's a little sneak peak posted by Mark Courts recently:

Pics don't even do 'em justice! 😍 More info coming your way soon.

Case you need a chuckle this late in the work week. Which one(s) are you?

...there's a 0.00% chance I'd try to eat this thing -- posted by @bandit_lures:

But I sure wouldn't mind that color combo on a Jigging Rap, crank, or plastic....

It was already out, but looks like some changes:

Believe they dropped the ND event and added another SD stop. Would guess that has something to do with ND Game & Fish now wanting a bigger chunk of tourney $$$....

In case you hadn't heard, ND's now requiring a 10% tournament permit fee -- with no limit/cap to the amount -- based on "gross receipts/entry fees of the tournament prize purse to be paid to them in order to secure the event permit." Used to be the same 10% fee but it was capped at $5K.

If my algebrateria (lol) is right, ND Game & Fish would've snagged a $30K+ (?) chunk of that now-rescheduled NWT stop. And the NWT isn't the only one to switch up their plans to visit "The Peace [of the pie] Garden State."

Head2Head's "Pro Walleye Series" had Stump Lake, ND on its 2021 schedule, but also announced they'll be "finding an alternative site outside of ND. The new policy means the Head2Head event would have had to pay Game & Fish $9.6K rather than the previous cap limit of $5K."

I'm sure some locals are happy to keep "their lakes" to themselves -- I mean no one likes added attention and fishing pressure on their favorite honey holes -- but think about the hit those local economies will take….

Is it $50K?...$100K?...$200K??...or maybe:

Okay…it's not quite to Dr. Evil Hoyer's level, but it is a ton of dough according to a survey done last year in this write-up. They polled the 174 fisherpeeps (I hate the word angler for some reason) in the 2019 NWT Championship at Devils Lake, ND and found that:

Of course the 174 peoples surveyed doesn't include any friends or family that made the trek, or locals who came out to watch all the fishy shenanigans.

Also, I believe there were 87 boats that qualified to fish that championship. The 3 other NWT stops that year averaged 138 boats per event (2-person teams), so about 276 fisherpeoples. Using the same $1,375/person figure above would mean roughly $380K is dumped into each community from the dudes/dudettes fishin'.

And:

No doubt you can expect more people and $$$ to make their way over to fish after watching the pros wallop on fish, and spitting out exactly how they caught 'em.

Another interesting fact from that Devils Lake NWT stop:

And here's how much John Hoyer dropped on dinner after winning lol….

If you've been thinking about going to the dark light side -- do it! You absolutely won't regret it. Few years ago you would've had to fork out $300+ buckaroos to upgrade your lead flasher/graph battery to an itty-bitty lithium one...but nowadays it's getting WAY more reasonable.

One killer option is the MarCum Brute Kit. Comes with a Lithium 12V 10AH LiFePO4 "Brute" Battery AND 3-amp charger for $99 bones. That's a direct replacement for your "stock" battery in most all units = half the weight + twice the run-time! I snagged this exact unit earlier this fall and have been super impressed:

Not sure where I even found this chart, but it's pretty crazy to see the run-times you can get outta specific units -- no matter what brand sonar you're running -- with MarCum's different lithium options:

The live show has been a hit, so pumped they'll be bringing even more episodes:

> Each week, "Bro" and Steve will be joined by other pros and industry experts that offer unique insight into fish behavior, tackle, tactics and equipment to help you hook more fish. Tune in to Frabill Facebook Live after the holidays to catch the new shows, scheduled for Jan 6, 13, 20, and 27.

Show and tell.

Also from that post about those lakes:

> ZebraCide recently announced that it had been granted US patent # 10,863,747 for its all-natural zebra mussel pesticide.

There's supposedly some quality 'eyes in there, so guess now you'll have to start looking deeper. Or maybe the shallow weeds will be more fishable? 🤷‍♂️

Folks have been ice fishing in some of the protected bays for a couple weeks now, but sounds like the bigwater has finally capped solid.

Of course Nick Lindner already snuck out there yesterday to harass him some waldos. And good to see he's bringing the 'stache back lol:

He mentioned it in the vid, but please BE CAREFUL if you're venturing out this weekend. Especially if the wind gets to gusting because it can move the whole ice sheet.

Here we go! 🔥 Have a shot at winning this $350 spread [!!!] of ice-fishing goodness from Acme Tackle and Beaver Dam!

Including a bulletproof (and sold-out everywhere) Beaver Dam Tip-Up, ice-fishing rods and of course more baits 'cuz you can never have enough…am I right? 👊

And if you haven't seen those Acme Tackle Tungsten Sling Blade ice jigs yet, they have a "free-swinging hook" (on a singular axis) that adds a "tail-whipping action" to your bait/plastics, without having to actually move your bait. For you visual learners:

Takes 10 seconds to enter -- can share the link you get for bonus entries. Good luck!

The AnglingBuzz fellas talk how they snatch finicky, deep-water crappies using tungsten in places most others would use jigging spoons.

Also debunk one of the biggest fishin' myths you've probably heard...how if you reel 'em up outta deep water niiiice aaaand sloooow, that the fish'll be just fine -- but that's just not true…. 👀 Jer says you'd probably have to reel that fish up over the course of 3-ish hours [!] for that to be the case. So get enough for dinner, and get out:

Waaaay too funny not to share. 🤣🤣🤣

From @thehorseshoekid on Insta. 👋 Until next time!

National Professional Anglers Assoc.