The two fishermen stood beside each other on the front of the boat.
One had a 13-foot baitcasting rod in his right hand, and the other had a small spinning rod. Both were staring at a small sonar screen mounted on the deck of the boat just behind the trolling motor.
Occasionally, a white flash would appear on the screen, and one of the fishermen would drop a jig in the 43-degree water of Lake Washington. They were trying to place the bait dead in front of what was a crappie and hold it there.
Two fish bit on that day two weeks ago, and one was a 2.88-pound crappie.
The man who caught it, Mitch Glenn, is the owner of PICO Lures out of Garfield, Arkansas. He was in town for the 2025 Lake Washington MS Fish Camp hosted by Mike Jones. The camp brings together fishermen and fishing industry people as well as media representatives for three days of fellowship on the lake.
Glenn was tasked with showing two crappie-fishing amateurs the basics of how to catch fish using a live scope in the cold February waters prior to the crappie spawn.
Livescoping is a relatively new technique using forward-facing sonar to allow fishermen to see and target individual fish. It is by no means a guarantee of catching a fish as was demonstrated by the slow results for the day.
Livescoping is also a dedicated technique, as it requires the angler to anticipate the drop of the jig combined with the movement of the boat. The angler must then entice the fish to bite.
In some cases, the best bet is to simply leave the jig motionless and wait for the fish to decide what to do. That’s extremely difficult for a 15-year-old boy who simply must move an artificial bait when it is in the water.
Glenn will say he’s not a master of the technology and that he doesn’t like its influence on the sport, but he does realize its advantages.
He’d rather be pitching some of the jigs his company produces into the cypress knees or pulling the crankbaits he also makes.
Glenn bought the company in 2017 and used a combination of social media as well as skill at developing lures to grow the business.
The PICO brand has been around since 1933 and has changed hands several times before the most recent owner, before Glenn, oversaw a dive in the company’s production.
During the fishing trip, Glenn told a few stories about how the jigs and baits are made.
One of the jigs used on the trip is called the Bunny Butt. It’s a small lead head jig with a tiny strip of bunny fur in a multitude of colors.
Glenn tests the jigs before they are produced and one particular jig was more receptive on the livescope.
He found the jig eye had been damaged by bouncing against the trolling motor. He recreated the damage and produced a jig specifically for livescope users called the PICO Scope Eye Jighead.
He also told stories of navigating the manufacturing world to produce literal millions of copies of the baits he sells. Fractions of a penny per bait make all the difference in the ability to run a profitable bait company and the search for those fractions can sometimes lead to a better product.
Some of the baits produced in the 1930s by the originator of the bait company are still extremely popular. The PICO Perch is the No.1 searched bait for his company and is an original design. The PICO Pop is another original.
Stories like what Glenn told while fishing on Lake Washington are the reason Jones started the fish camp.
The three days culminated in a presentation at the Mississippi Outdoor Museum in Leland on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
During the event, there were more than 274 fish caught, with crappie checking in at 243 total. Glenn’s crappie was the largest caught during the event.
