1st Bass of the Year on Wed.

17" on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

3:30-8:00pm
32 degrees, light wind, cloudy, a bit of fog when I left.  Luckily I had put a waypoint down on my holes last week because I went the wrong direction when I left.  I went back to the waypoint, got my bearings and got off the lake.

I got back to Rock Lake thanks to getting the Expedition back.  Need the 4 wheel drive to get up the hill at the access.  I went and drilled holes slightly farther to the North of where I had been fishing.  I also drilled holes up closer to the reeds by where I got the perch and sunfish the last time I was out on Rock.  Sure enough that paid off with me getting two bass.

12.5"er took Go-Devil w/maggies

  I also got a bunch of perch on THE Jig, Demon and minnow, and the Go-Devil

I was not aware until this winter that perch were a significant baitfish in rock lake

As it approached the prime time crappie bit I hole hopped out to a deeper spot and pulled up a 9.5"er immediately.  I went and got the trap.  The fish were aggressive coming up but then would stop and look at THE Jig and waxie.  This resulted in dozens of missed hooksets.  I'm not sure if these fish were small crappies or sunfish; most probably a combination.

I went to a bobber and pulled a sunfish

Small crappie on the Demon and minnow

The fish continued to bite, so I continued to fish until 8pm

2 Largies
18 Perch
8 Crappies
1 Sunfish

What I Caught Largemouth & Smallmouth On In 2014

Fishing with Mike Carlson

3:30-6:00PM
Same as the past two days, slightly winder, slightly colder

Today I took out Mike Carlson, a former small group leader from my high school days at Hope Presbyterian Church, fishing.  Mike had never ice fished using a flasher before.  Turns out he really didn't care for "video game" fishing.  It started out kind of slow with Mike getting a couple of small perch and a sunfish.

Glow Demon w/spikes

I didn't get a picture of the sunfish because I was out hole hopping at the time looking for sunfish.  He caught a perch and a sunfish blind.  After I found out he got a sunfish I went in the house with him.  I caught 1 perch. Sometime close to 5PM I got the first crappie.

9"  Demon w/spikes

Pretty quickly after that Mike was bringing up his first on his rod with a minnow on a plain hook.

8" 

We caught fish pretty steadily over the next hour or so until we packed up around 6:00PM.  We fished out of three holes. Two with bobbers and minnows for Mike and me with the Vex with a Demon and maggies.  We had one double.

Some Thoughts at

It's past 5AM.  I tried to go to sleep around midnight, but couldn't.  I went fishing yesterday morning at Rock Lake hoping I might catch a bass along with some sunfish.  I caught 17 sunfish, 1 pike, and 1 perch.  The big thing was that I actually got to use my underwater camera to see fish for the first time in 7 years or so.  I was kind of an idiot and forgot I put a notch in the fin so I can do an almost straight down view.  I was a wee bit lazy and didn't bring the camera to multiple holes but just kept it in the one once I got it set to view the line in a second hole.  Oh well.

I spent a good part of my awake time this morning reading old blogs from when I ice fished before.  I really need to hit up Sullivan and try for tullibee along with a couple other idea's.

My First Fishing Derby Ever

I wrote this over at Bass Boat Central and thought it was worth sharing here:

My first ever tournament was a Boy Scout ice fishing derby on Beebe Lake around 1978 or so that was run by one of my Dad's best friends who was the Scout Master. I had not ice fished more than once or twice in my life prior; It may even have been the first time I was allowed to ice fish, but I don't think so. We didn't really have rods; we used a dowel with two pegs for wrapping the line on that had stiff fiberglass section with a rod tip. If you got a bite you just pulled the line in hand over hand the way people do with tip ups now. I don't think I had a bite that day. I remember being fascinated by a guy who had a small one man fish house and he was catching fish. All the fish houses I'd ever seen to that point were big one's for multiple people.

The Lakes Tentatively Are...

May- Bay Lake
June- Farm Island Lake (Platte/Sullivan lost out in a close vote)
July- Woman Lake
Aug.- Rush Lake (Ottertail)
Sept-  Cedar Lake (Aitkin)
Oct- Mission Lakes

I feel good about these lakes even though all the lakes but Bay haven't treated me so nicely in the past.

Farm Island Lake- Bottom 5 finish with 3 dead fish penalties
Woman Lake- Skunked while helping Jim Smith pre-fish last year
Rush Lake-  2nd to last place with 1 bass caught.
Cedar Lake- Bottom 5 finish with only 3 fish weighed
Mission Lakes-  3 tournaments fished with a 2nd to last place finish, bottom 5 finish, and didn't even get a limit in the Challenge Cup.

This could be my year of revenge

Bass Snatchers Meeting Tomorrow

The cold and wind have kept me off the ice this week.  We have our first Baxter Bass Snatcher meeting of the year tomorrow.  We will be putting together tentative lakes and dates for our 2015 tournaments.  I am hoping that Platte/Sullivan and Woman Lake are on the schedule this year.  I think there is a lot of regret over not going to Woman last year with the huge smallmouth bags it put out for other tournaments.  It's been 4 years since we were last at Platte/Sullivan so I'm thinking this year it's about due.  Speaking of being about due or should I say more like long over due are my re-cap's of the last four tournaments of last year.  I still plan on doing them.  I have almost started doing the Leech Lake Tournament a couple of times.  I can remember that suckfest the most vividly of all the tournaments I fished last year.  I am sure I will get around to doing the recap's sometime before ice goes off the lakes around here this Spring.

How To Filet A Pike

Got Served A Skunk For My Birthday At Peavy

1:30-5:30PM
24 degrees with dropping temps, very windy out of the NW, some snow
5' to 60'

Today I tried fishing around the hump that is out from the access.  I found fish in some of the holes from 15' to 30' of water.  Don't know what they were because I didn't catch them and I didn't put the camera down (Doh!).  I had two bites that I felt.  One got off immediately and one that got off half way up.  The one that got off half way up felt like a good fish, could have been a bass.  Around 3:45PM I headed towards my hole.  But the wind and snow were to much so I turned back.  I drilled some new holes off the South side in the deep water.  I did mark something down about 35' deep in 60', but by the time I got there it was gone.  I also re-fished some holes, nothing.  I may or may not go back to Peavy.

All Was Pretty Quiet On New Years Day

11.5" T.H.E. Jig w/ Waxie

3:00-6:00PM
28 degrees, breezy out of the WNW, Sunny
35' feet down over around 50' of water

I used the window of warmer weather to go out fishing rather than go into the cities to celebrate my older brothers birthday.  Sorry Jeff, if it would have been colder I would have been there.  I went to the place I went the second time I was to this lake.  It was a lot slower between less fish marked and them being on the finicky side.

 The first fish of the New Year was the 11.5", followed immediately by it's partner that took a minnow.  I got 3 more out hole hoping with T.H.E. Jig.  Fortunately pulling the Trap wasn't nearly as difficult today.  It was much easier coming back when the wind was at my back.

5 Crappies.

Last Day of a Lost Season

There are things that I can be positive about this season, namely coach Zim, Defensive improvement, and Teddy.  But all those pail in comparison to the tragedy that was the fall of A.P..

In case you didn't know Adrian Peterson was my favorite player to watch in all of the NFL.  What he did to his kid sucks.  His punishment has sucked just about as much to me as a fan.  I don't think what he did to his kid was right or fair.  I don't think how the NFL handled it was right or fair either.  Two wrongs don't make a right.  Adrian should have been fined for the games he didn't play then been reinstated after the court ruled.  Instead Goodell decided to make an example out of Adrian, just as he did of Ray Rice.  I don't think Ray Rice was treated justly either.  I get it, both men made a mistake.  I think both men owned up to it, and were making amends.  Ray Rice's career as football player maybe over and Adrian's as a Viking maybe over.  Like I said, it's a tragedy.  

New Unnamed Area Lake

10.75" T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:00-7:00PM
34 degrees some sleet and snow mild North wind
30' or so feet down over 50' or so feet of water

When I arrived there was a guy leaving who was fishing with his kids right by the access.  He was only there for maybe 20 minutes and the kids wanted to go.  He didn't really have any info for me.  He usually fishes on Platte for pike.  He was the only person on the lake and I don't think there was a permanent house on the whole lake.  I went and fished in his holes and a couple of H.S. kids showed up.  They had been getting crappie and they headed north.  I worked the area around the point to the north of the access.  I didn't find any life.  After an hour of that I took the Vexilar and went trolling over the deep water.  I marked a fish, so I went and got my stuff.  When I got there the fish was gone.  I trolled around and marked another fish, so I started drilling holes.  It was about 3:30PM or so before I was fishing.  I put T.H.E. Jig down and had two fish move in immediately.  I caught a 9" which I released.  Then I got the 10.75" which I decided to keep.  That was the biggest fish I got.  I caught 10 fish total, 3 went back.  I think 3 of them went 10" at least.  I got the last three on the Glow Demon and a minnow.  I'll be back.

My last fish of the night:

10" on Glow Demon and a minnow

10 Crappies

Winner Winner For Christmas Dinner

Thank You Gamma!

I went with 3lb in their blue ice line, which is a co-poly.

Update:  Turns out they don't have 3lb line, so I went with 2lb.

Same Lake Different Results

8.5" on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:30-6:30PM
Colder today 21 degrees, Windy out of the North, cloudy, it snowed for a bit

I drilled 4 sets of holes on a line from East to West and started approximately where I ended last night at the eastern most holes.  I couldn't see where any of yesterday's holes were.  I got 4 quick fish on the Demon and a minnow.  The fish were smaller than what I got yesterday.  After the first 4 the crappies got fussy.  I finally got T.H.E. Jig and a Waxie down and got 3 on that.  I wish I had drilled more holes when I first started because when I went to drill again I couldn't get the throttle to work, so I couldn't drill any more holes.  I ended up getting two more after dark on the Demon and a minnow.  The fish just weren't as aggressive as yesterday and I marked far less of them.

9 Crappies 7-9.25"

Unnamed Area Lake

11.25" on T.H.E. Jig and Waxies

2:45-5:45PM
33 degrees Light rain and sleet Windy out of the N NW
20-25' over 31' of water

A little better size than Bulldog.  Got several in the 9.5" range and the 11.25" which was the biggest.  The rain and wind made hole hopping difficult.  I caught my first 14 on T.H.E. Jig's with waxies and the last 7 on a Glow Demon with a minnow.   I plan to go back.

21 Crappies

Wet Sloppy Mess

8.5" Bulldog Lake

2:00-8:45PM
40 degrees foggy light wind

All the snow on the ice melted leaving lots of water on the ice.  I'm glad I had an ice cleat for one boot.  I started off on Platte out of Jenny's.  I couldn't find the point and headed off the lake at 3:30.  I was set up on Bulldog by 4:15pm.  I started getting crappies right away on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie.  I managed to get 7 of them and then the bite shut down.  The foggy and  wet conditions made hole hopping difficult because I couldn't see the holes until I was almost on top of them.  I think the fish went down to the bottom as I didn't mark anything up high once it got dark.  At least it was warm out.