| Matt Johnson Outdoors Ode to the Bloodworm |
| Matt Johnson Outdoors |
By: Brian "Bro" Brosdahl
I’m pretty sure no one ever paid
homage to a bloodworm. It’d be
like a grouse hunter worshipping
clover or paddlefish snagger
kneeling before plankton. Well
I’m here to say that bloodworms
are religious icons. Not in that
Sunday mass sort of way, but
rather their supernatural power
to grow big panfish.
Think I’m whacked? Perhaps on a wealth of other topics, but not this
one. Bloodworms have the influence to make or break a fishery.
Scientifically, they fly by the name Chironomidae, a non-biting midge.
And I mean “fly by” in a literal sense. The aquatic bloodworm is the
larval stage of the winged midge. The benign hovering insects are
commonly referred to as “lake flies”. Those clouds of non-biting bugs
that hover above your head while casting off the dock? Midge.
Bloodworms are inhabitants of lake, river and stream floors. They are
habitat specific, though, demanding a soft to clayish bottom.
Bloodworms burrow in the top inch or so of the muck where they go in
and out of tiny tunnels feasting on dead organic material, such as
postmortem vegetation.
For ice fishing purposes, let’s focus on the young midge that live in
lakes. (There are some 700 species of midge in North America alone.)
The protein-rich bloodworm is a regular resident of the basin, as well
as soft bottomed holes and offshore bars. And it’s around these mid-
lake structures where bloodworms have the greatest influence.
Perch, crappies and bluegills are all fans of offshore structure,
particularly if the tops feature rocks and vegetation. This layout
affords shallower water feeding opportunities, particularly during the
lowlight periods at sunrise and sunset.
But to make a bar complete it needs to ramp down deep, eventually
dissolving into a mushier bottom. This is the beginning of bloodworm
country. Typically, the bottom substrate transforms from hard to soft at
the base of the break. This is a prime contact point for all species,
anytime of the day.
The spongy bottom can span from a few yards to acre after acre. The
biggest flats generally hold the most fish food – bloodworms – as well
as the predators that crave them. Feeding takes the form of
vacuuming. Panfish literally tip their tails upwards and slurp mouthfuls
of the invertebrates. I call it “rooting,” and have watched it countless
times on my Aqua-Vu.
The camera is killer for studying bottom activity, but I rely on a
portable flasher to differentiate hard and soft bottoms. The
Humminbird ICE 55, with its 6 color display, reports composition by the
thickness of the bottom line. Hard is thicker and soft thinner.
Bloodworms like the squishy stuff.
Now the application part of the show… To run with bloodworms you
need to become one of them. “Match-the-hatch” is an ancient fishing
expression. Its roots are in trout fishing but it’s permeated into the
general lexicon of fishing. It rings true when ice fishing amongst
bloodworms.
Realizing that the market didn’t bare any bloodworm-imitating jigs, in
conjunction with Northland Fishing Tackle, I designed one. Sure, there
are a lot of jigs and jig/plastic combos that suffice, but none that offer
the distinctive tapered tail and ribbed torso. It’s named Bro’s
Bloodworm and is part of the six jig family, Bro’s Bug Collection®.
Regardless of your choice in baits, there are some jigging techniques
that perform better than others. Part of being the bloodworm is mixing
in with them. Becoming the bloodworm that gets eaten, though,
demands that you stand out from the crowd. The larger-than-actual
profile does it. So does the Super-Glo® attractor paint used on four of
the six patterns. But at the end of the day, it’s the dance you bring to
the dance.
My out of the box technique is quivering the bait just above the
bottom. The supple plastic responds by quaking ever so temptingly.
Typically, that’s all it takes to get inhaled. But if I’m marking fish and
they aren’t swallowing, I’ll improvise. That means dropping down to
the bottom and quivering in the muck. Move three is a couple of short
hops followed by several seconds of quaking. Nothing still? Move
along to friendlier fish.
A qualified rod is required to quiver properly, report strikes, and still
yield the spine to set in deep water. (Bloodworm blanketed bottoms
can appear anywhere from about 10 feet of water out into the 40’s or
more.) The tip must have a little wiggle but not turn into a rubber band
toward the butt. Thorne Bros. (www.thornebros.com) builds rods that
work ideally. There’s also a couple models in the Bro Series collection
from Frabill.
If your first fish upchucks a heap of red mashed potatoes, become the
bloodworm. Your catch rate will increase.
Note: Author and product developer Brian “Bro” Brosdahl is the
foremost authority on contemporary ice fishing strategies. Bro, as he’s
known, co-designed the Bro Series Combos for Frabill (www.frabill.
com). He collaborated similarly with Northland Fishing Tackle to design
Bro’s Bug Collection (www.northlandtackle.com). And Bro works
nonstop with Snosuit Performance Winterwear (www.snosuit.com) to
produce the best ice fishing apparel available.
I’m pretty sure no one ever paid
homage to a bloodworm. It’d be
like a grouse hunter worshipping
clover or paddlefish snagger
kneeling before plankton. Well
I’m here to say that bloodworms
are religious icons. Not in that
Sunday mass sort of way, but
rather their supernatural power
to grow big panfish.
Think I’m whacked? Perhaps on a wealth of other topics, but not this
one. Bloodworms have the influence to make or break a fishery.
Scientifically, they fly by the name Chironomidae, a non-biting midge.
And I mean “fly by” in a literal sense. The aquatic bloodworm is the
larval stage of the winged midge. The benign hovering insects are
commonly referred to as “lake flies”. Those clouds of non-biting bugs
that hover above your head while casting off the dock? Midge.
Bloodworms are inhabitants of lake, river and stream floors. They are
habitat specific, though, demanding a soft to clayish bottom.
Bloodworms burrow in the top inch or so of the muck where they go in
and out of tiny tunnels feasting on dead organic material, such as
postmortem vegetation.
For ice fishing purposes, let’s focus on the young midge that live in
lakes. (There are some 700 species of midge in North America alone.)
The protein-rich bloodworm is a regular resident of the basin, as well
as soft bottomed holes and offshore bars. And it’s around these mid-
lake structures where bloodworms have the greatest influence.
Perch, crappies and bluegills are all fans of offshore structure,
particularly if the tops feature rocks and vegetation. This layout
affords shallower water feeding opportunities, particularly during the
lowlight periods at sunrise and sunset.
But to make a bar complete it needs to ramp down deep, eventually
dissolving into a mushier bottom. This is the beginning of bloodworm
country. Typically, the bottom substrate transforms from hard to soft at
the base of the break. This is a prime contact point for all species,
anytime of the day.
The spongy bottom can span from a few yards to acre after acre. The
biggest flats generally hold the most fish food – bloodworms – as well
as the predators that crave them. Feeding takes the form of
vacuuming. Panfish literally tip their tails upwards and slurp mouthfuls
of the invertebrates. I call it “rooting,” and have watched it countless
times on my Aqua-Vu.
The camera is killer for studying bottom activity, but I rely on a
portable flasher to differentiate hard and soft bottoms. The
Humminbird ICE 55, with its 6 color display, reports composition by the
thickness of the bottom line. Hard is thicker and soft thinner.
Bloodworms like the squishy stuff.
Now the application part of the show… To run with bloodworms you
need to become one of them. “Match-the-hatch” is an ancient fishing
expression. Its roots are in trout fishing but it’s permeated into the
general lexicon of fishing. It rings true when ice fishing amongst
bloodworms.
Realizing that the market didn’t bare any bloodworm-imitating jigs, in
conjunction with Northland Fishing Tackle, I designed one. Sure, there
are a lot of jigs and jig/plastic combos that suffice, but none that offer
the distinctive tapered tail and ribbed torso. It’s named Bro’s
Bloodworm and is part of the six jig family, Bro’s Bug Collection®.
Regardless of your choice in baits, there are some jigging techniques
that perform better than others. Part of being the bloodworm is mixing
in with them. Becoming the bloodworm that gets eaten, though,
demands that you stand out from the crowd. The larger-than-actual
profile does it. So does the Super-Glo® attractor paint used on four of
the six patterns. But at the end of the day, it’s the dance you bring to
the dance.
My out of the box technique is quivering the bait just above the
bottom. The supple plastic responds by quaking ever so temptingly.
Typically, that’s all it takes to get inhaled. But if I’m marking fish and
they aren’t swallowing, I’ll improvise. That means dropping down to
the bottom and quivering in the muck. Move three is a couple of short
hops followed by several seconds of quaking. Nothing still? Move
along to friendlier fish.
A qualified rod is required to quiver properly, report strikes, and still
yield the spine to set in deep water. (Bloodworm blanketed bottoms
can appear anywhere from about 10 feet of water out into the 40’s or
more.) The tip must have a little wiggle but not turn into a rubber band
toward the butt. Thorne Bros. (www.thornebros.com) builds rods that
work ideally. There’s also a couple models in the Bro Series collection
from Frabill.
If your first fish upchucks a heap of red mashed potatoes, become the
bloodworm. Your catch rate will increase.
Note: Author and product developer Brian “Bro” Brosdahl is the
foremost authority on contemporary ice fishing strategies. Bro, as he’s
known, co-designed the Bro Series Combos for Frabill (www.frabill.
com). He collaborated similarly with Northland Fishing Tackle to design
Bro’s Bug Collection (www.northlandtackle.com). And Bro works
nonstop with Snosuit Performance Winterwear (www.snosuit.com) to
produce the best ice fishing apparel available.
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