After I stepped out of the truck, the trees barely swayed, the sky was white with faded blue marbling, and a half foot of snow met my boots. I unload the ice equipment that I keep in the cab, and put it in the portable blue fish shack, pulled the black rope and went on a walk out to the lake. During this fairly normal winter routine, little did I know that future events would contradict a fishing “can’t do”.
After hand augering two holes through the ice with dull blades, I wondered why I didn’t bring my gas auger. In light of the dull blades, I was going to bank on this spot, so getting cozy in the shack, I hooked one crappie minnow on the bobber rig and sank it. I fished the second pole, my offering was a tiny jig and plastic worm, plain no meat, as a tempter for those panfish.
Before I could open the thermos to pour some hot coffee, my bobber circled in the hole then went down. I put the jig and plastic rod down, grabbed the dead stick, dropped the pole tip toward the hole then reeled in the slack and set the hook into decent weight. The fight didn’t last long as I saw the crappie come to the hole, then roll, throw the hook and swim away.
The quick loss wasn’t a problem I thought because more are sure to follow, plus the sonar showed plenty of fish down below. Eagerly I awaited the bites. After a long twenty minutes of no bites on either pole I started wondering what is the deal!?
So I changed out minnows on the bobber rig. The next twenty minutes consisted of playing cat and mouse with fish pecking on both lines, it became a bit frustrating. Frustration turned to boredom and boredom to curiosity, a little light bulb in my head started glowing, because there swimming in the minnow bucket was an unusual high number of minnows mixed in with my crappie minnows, these interlopers are commonly called the stickleback.
Sticklebacks have four spiky dorsal fins that stand straight up, and two side spikes or fins on both sides of these little torpedo shaped minnows. Sticklebacks also have a pronounced lower lip that gives them an under bite, nothing else looks like them and they really can’t be identified as any other minnow but a stickleback. These oddballs are scorned by fisherman, and seen by most anglers as a complete waste of bait, a minnow to be ignored or killed.
There I sat on the ice, and thought well I can’t do any worse by trying a stickleback as bait. I know fellow fishermen say they are all worthless and weak, but what do I have to loose? At least nobody will see me try one, as I’m alone on this part of the lake.
I lightly nicked the top of the stickleback minnow and hooked it between the first and second spine. Within one minute after lowering that bait the bobber went down. Fish on and iced – a 12” crappie. Sweet stickleback! I thought and put on another one- boom bobber down – nice perch. Then I caught another nice perch on the plastic jig. Then I landed another even nicer perch on the same stickleback that tempted the last fish.
Before I came to any conclusions as maybe the bite is just turning on, or the air pressured changed, and maybe those sticklebacks have nothing to do with the new found success, I put on a crappie minnow. Four minutes went by without a hit. Reeled up, then put back on a stickleback and within one minute another nice perch was iced.
I ran out of sticklebacks after about a half hour of good fishing, and was soon singing the praises of this much-maligned minnow. I got a real kick out of trying to determine if during the bites the fish would hit a crappie minnow, and that experiment showed, no, they wanted those little spiky minnows. The morning turned from a dud to a good perch fry. And so the list of fishing do not’s shortens, all thanks to the revenge of the stickleback. Keep catchin’.
Turk is an IDA field staffer and operates Croixsippi Guide Service fishing for multiple species, he has won five walleye tournaments on the St. Croix River, and can be reached through http://www.croixsippi.com