Used to catch them on early ice up in MN.

I have done this and it works. I won't noodle myself but I've caught some great cats by dropping a jig and pig like we use for bass in front of the opening and jigging it around a bit. Head comes out and chomps down and you hope he bolts for open water and not back in the hole. 50-50 on that. I have also down this on tires people have left laying in shallow water by hopping the jig through the open sand in tire. No noodling but taking them on a flippin' stick is great fun.

Though fish can be caught by mindlessly casting and reeling learning to work baits will do a lot more for you. Get on you tube and study some of the ways to fish various baits. You will do a lot better if you learn to lift and drop while you're bringing in spinnerbaits. Vary your retrieve bumping things like often mentioned above will bring even more hits if you use a ball bearing Colorado single spin with an oversized blade and learn to "kill" a bait and let it drop and spin. Rarely a rattletrap type bait will produce when cranked hard and fast with no pause but that is rare. Crankbaits need to worked also. Lots of rod movement and varied speeds will bring more success than just mindless cast and retrieve.

So named if you took a safety pin and opened it, it has two arms sticking up from the round loop eye. They come in sizes from small beetle spins on up. It is normally a lead head with plastic or skirt on bottom arm and a spinner on top arm. Lots of variety out there and depending on conditions it or an inline spinner like a Rooster Tail is going to get you fish.

Red. And I realize the end is getting closer for me I will start selling a lot of items. I need to do this before I'm gone or my wife will sell them for I told her I paid for them.

Trash... Nothing pisses me off more than having to clean someone's mess before I can use my fishing POLE.

safety pin spinner baits. From beetle spins to over sized musky size. Size to the fish and spinnerbaits work everywhere.