January 2014 — John Gillespie's Waters & Woods

January 2014

Episode 1
Mills Fleet Farm Highlights Show
Show Date: January 4th & 5th, 2014

It’s our annual Mills Fleet Farm Highlights show! This week we sit down with Paul Gilbert of Mills Fleet Farm to take a look at the highlights of our year, as well as yours. We will be giving away grand prizes to the lucky winners in each of our species categories from our weekly Mills Fleet Farm Fishing Contest from 2013. We also take a look back at our biggest catches that we caught on camera last year.
We hope all of you have a Happy New Year, and best of luck in landing a big catch!

Episode 2
Cold-Snap Lake Superior Fishing
Location: Lake Superior, Chequamegon Bay; Bayfield, Wisconsin
Guide: Josh Teigen [715.813.0575 | joshteigen.com ]

The deep-freeze of winter is sweeping almost all of the United States, and all of Canada, with some places entering the record books for low temps. We do a new and current show every week, and can’t avoid the weather, and we felt every bit of the cold-snap that enveloped the area. Our guide Josh Teigen, undeterred, led us to great fishing with a great group of people to make the most of our time in miserable conditions. The Frabill Shacks kept us warm as we reeled in Trout, Coho, and Splake. We used two main presentations, the Kastmaster and the Sebile Vibrato. They did all the work, and we didn’t need to switch to anything else the two days we were in town.

Episode 3
Castle Rock Ice Angling
Show date: January 18th & 19th, 2014
Location: Castle Rock Flowage, Adams County, WI
Guide: Pro Ice Guide Larry Smith [920-361-4996 | walleyeguide.com]

It's been a while since we've been ice angling on the Castle Rock Flowage, but this week Larry Smith takes us to his hot-spot for some jigging action. We are also joined by our friends Henry, and his buddy Dean "the plumber."

As mentioned, it's a jigging bite, which is a great opportunity to get the Kastmasters going again, for both walleye and crappie. A jig and minnow also work for the walleyes, which are staged right on the bottom. Lightly tapping the bottom is enough to get their attention. We have a great time, and keep a good amount of eaters, while letting the trophies go to keep the system strong.

Episode 4
Lake Erie Monster Walleyes
Show Date: January 25th & 26th, 2014
Location: Lake Erie, Port Clinton, Ohio
Guide: Charter Captain Mike Patterson [419-308-6925 | mikessportfishing.com]

Lake Erie is a special body of water when it comes to walleyes. They can reach legal-size in only two years! It’s been called a walleye factory, and that’s why were so excited to be able to ice fish it this year. Our charter captain, Mike Patterson, has had to endure two seasons where there has been no ice. So, this trip has been a long time coming!

As mentioned, Mike Patterson is a certified charter captain, and he knows how volatile ice conditions can be. He is also out every day, and knows where the safe ice is, and where it isn’t. As a caution, always make sure that you know the ice is safe, or are with someone like Mike who is trained to handle the always-changing conditions.

Once safely on the ice, the real fun begins! We are on a 100% jigging bite, and with the strong current under us, we’re using some pretty heavy baits. We are using Kastmasters and Vibratos in the ½ to ¾oz size. This insures that you can mark your bait on your Humminbird. We also saw some more creative anglers using Little Cleos, as they have got a great flutter action that attracts the walleyes. All of our lures were either tipped with plastics or dead-hooked minnows. One piece of bait per hook, so our Vibrato has 6 minnows attached to it, which makes for a huge profile to attract the massive fish that are feeding tight to the bottom.