Panfish

Method to the Madness

Method to the Madness: Drilling Patterns for Successful Ice Anglers By Rod Woten Ice augers have come a long way in the past 20 years. From the old hand-crank spoon augers to today’s lightweight ice eating machines, making holes in the ice has continued to get easier and easier. Along with that progression, the way […]

Winter Panfish Preview on the Iowa Great Lakes

Winter Panfish Preview on the Iowa Great Lakes By Steve Weisman With the entire open water panfishing so outstanding on the Iowa Great Lakes, ice fishermen can hardly wait to see what the hard water season will bring. Big Spirit, East Okoboji, Upper Gar, Minnewashta and West Okoboji consistently produced excellent panfishing action all summer. […]

Become a Better Hardwater Angler

Become a Better Hardwater Angler By Rod Woten Are you new to ice fishing and want to shorten the learning curve? Are you a seasoned angler that wants to take your game to the next level? Are you frustrated with catching few or small fish…want to catch more and bigger fish? When I first started […]

Early Ice Crappies

Ahhhh…nothing like your first trip out to the ice. Days prior to your first trip you go through the list, Vexilar battery…check; auger…check; load new line on your ice rods…check; ice jigs and bait…check; ice shack…check; lantern and heater tested…check; everything seems to be in order and ready to go. Reports are coming in that […]

Let’s Go Ice Fishing w/ Rod Woten – Podcast

Late Fall Strategies for Cold Water

The bite of cold has overcome Iowa by now, whitetail bucks are in rut and waterfowl hunting is picking up. With so many outdoor related distractions the thought of fishing takes a back burner to many. Even I find myself trading the rods for a shotgun at this point and celebrate the excitement of ice […]

Streamer Madness

As a fly fisherman, I have mixed emotions as I watch summer slowly fade into fall. Gone are the insect hatches that were so plentiful all spring and summer and along with that the heyday of dry fishing in Iowa’s trout country. Always a silver lining type of guy, I also realize that even though […]

Float Fishing A Must Do Iowa Experience

When I first moved to northwest Iowa over 30 years ago and I wanted to go fishing, I headed to one of the Iowa Great Lakes or some of the smaller lakes around. I never gave interior stream/river fishing much thought. About 20 years ago a friend of mind introduced me to float fishing by […]

Don’t Be….That Guy

Throughout my life, I have stumbled across individuals who cause the rolling of my eyes. I’m sure, with a few reflective moments, you have experienced the same. This being brought to surface, we are going to take a look at the cause of such eye juggling, as it applies to hunting or fishing camps. For […]

Almost 10 Things Every Angler Should Know

There’s nothing quite like a tidbit of information to remind you of some of the basic gems that we as anglers should know. It’s possible that some of the things you know were insightful pieces of advice that dad or grandpa passed on down. And I’m sure that there are some useful quotes from gramps […]