Slowing Moving to Open Water

It only got to 46 degrees today, about 10 degrees cooler than forecast.  I checked Bulldog and the GOMH.  Swans, geese, ducks, and some red wings made for a pleasant night not catching anything.  It's supposed to warm up tomorrow into the 60's the next few days.  Bring it on.

No open lakes in MN yet. (or they just didn't update today).

Bulldog Access

Even without much current the PRO open water area is growing

Not so much on the Platte side
(Click Pics to enlarge)

2016 I Can See the Driveway!!!

It's clear.

I also checked out the GOMH today.  Not open that much more than yesterday, but there were some geese and swans.

Open Water Will Be Here Soon

With temps predicted to be well above normal for at least the next 10 days I can see the area lakes being ice free in two weeks.  I had to get new water for the minnows so I drove by Bulldog Lake and stopped at the GOMH to fish for a little while.  I heard a couple of red wing black birds at the GOMH.  I got skunked.

Follow Ice Out across MN here.

Bulldog Lake

2016 When Will I See the Driveway? #4

Not quite today.  Tomorrow for sure.

Top of the driveway 100% clear

Just this area in the mid section.

Tackle Warehouse Opener will in all likelihood be later this week.

2016 When Will I See My Driveway? #3

It's been a week since my last edition.  Should be clear by Tuesday at the latest.  It's going to be in the mid fifties again tomorrow and may reach 60 on Tuesday.

 

Edwin Evers Clips Christie to Win Classic Title on Grand Lake

Edwin Evers wins a battle of the Oklahoma boys in stunning come from behind fashion on the last day of the Bassmaster Classic with a 29lb 3oz bag.  He won by more than 10lbs with 60lbs 7ozs.

Congratulations Edwin!!!

My Classic Fantasy Picks

I haven't been feeling the greatest the last couple of days and that's why I haven't posted anything on the Classic up until now.  Not a bad line up except for Morgenthaler who pretty much killed me.  Hopefully Rojas, Walker, and Watson will all move up on Day 3.

Update: I spoke to soon about my line up not being too bad.  Christie ends up in 2nd.  Walker and Watson move out of the Top 10.  Only Rojas moved up on the final day.  I don't consider a line up in the 60th percentile very good at all.

Fishing Goals for 2016

Ten years ago, I wrote my fishing goals for the 2006 here on my blog.   I crashed my truck that summer into a deer totaling it which sent me into a depression that ended my participation in the Team Bass Club. We also moved out of the lake place that spring and into where I live now, which threw me off ice fishing until last winter. I never wrote another list of goals again until now.

Bass Snatcher Goals:
1. Get "Wood" in at least one tournament. (1st-3rd Place Finish or Lunker)
2. Win my 1st tournament. (My best finish to date is 2nd Place.)
3. Get "Lunker" in a tournament.   (Preferably one over 5-8 to win the revolving big bass pot that I'm now entered in thanks to somebody finally winning it last year. With 3 big bass lakes on the schedule, there is a shot.)
4. Get paired with Chuck Fields. (He usually only fishes a couple of tournaments a year, so chances of it ever happening are not very good.)
5. Finish in the Top 10 at the end of the year. (Something I haven't done since 2011)
6. Catch a limit at every tournament of the year. (I've done this twice, but in 2012 I only fished 4 out of the 6 tournaments due to a bad back.)

Technique & Tackle Goals:
1. Catch some fish on a River2Sea Whopper Plopper. (This will be my 3rd year with this bait, and I haven't caught a fish on it yet. I'm not sure if I even threw it last year.)
2. Catch fish on my wake baits: Lucky Craft, Livetarget, and Rapala. (I hardly ever tried the Lucky Craft, and I got the Livetarget and Rapala's late last fall)
3. Throw a football head jig at the GOMH. (It will work, no doubt about it.)
4. Get out in the Trophy. (It's been 3 years since I've had it in the water.)
5. Win something in Fantasy Fishing or Facebook giveaway/contest.
6. Catch fish on a Lucky Craft Gunfish 117 (Lures I just won on eBay)

Fish Goals:
Crappie:
1. Catch a 14" or bigger. (This has been my goal for a long time, predating the blog.)
2. Catch* over 300 this year. (Very doable at this point.  I'm at 199 right now)

Dogfish:
1. Win my 3rd Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Championship
2. Catch an MN State Record fish. (11-4  or 35" x 20")

Pike:
1. Catch* over 150 this year. (I caught 205 last year.)
2. Catch a 38" or over.

Bass: 
1. Catch a 21plus inch or 6lb Largemouth
2. Catch a 21plus inch or 6lb Smallmouth
3. Catch* over 500 bass this year. (I caught only 450 last year.)
4. Catch* at least 5 smallies. (I caught 10 last year)

Blogging:
1. Blog about anytime I reach a goal.
2. Blog the BASS Elite AOY on Mille Lacs Lake.

* Catch is anything I deem it to be, including follows by pike or smallmouth (while pre-fishing), a pike missing my lure, fish seen on the Aqua View, and fish that get off before I have them in hand that I can positively identify.

Sod Off Leap Year

Because of today, Leap Day, the first Saturday in May isn't until the 7th.  Thus the MN Fishing Opener isn't until the absolute latest date it can be instead of the absolute earliest it can be.  We lose a whole week.  What a frickin' rip off!

2016 When Will I See The Driveway? #2

I thought I'd be able to see a little more than I can right now due to the temps we had yesterday.  If the extended forecast is correct the driveway should be ice free sometime next week.

1st Open Water Bullhead of the Year

19" STX

3:45-5:00PM
Conditions: 54 degrees, light S wind, mostly sunny, water level is really low.

My Fish Trap doesn't fit in the Kia Soul but my long rods do, so I went to the Grumpy Old Man Hole to try a little open water fishing.  I didn't expect to catch anything, but you never know at the GOMH.  I fished the SW side with a blue/silver STX and didn't see any signs of life.  I then fished the area with a bluegill D & M Piranha.  Still nothing.  Then I tried a chartreuse/white STX and a fish swiped and missed.  I let it sit for about 5 seconds then twitched it a couple of times and BAM! Fish On!  A 19" toothy bullhead is my first open water fish of the year on February 27th; The earliest first open water fish since moving North in 2003.  I fished a few more lures on the SW side and then tried the NE side where there wasn't very much open water.  Nothing on the NE side.

Fishing Season ends tomorrow for pike, bass, and walleye, so I may give the GOMH one last shot tomorrow, if it gets above freezing.  I might go ice fishing tomorrow as well.

All the open water I had on the Sullivan side.

2016 When Will I See The Driveway? #1

I may be jumping gun with my count down this year, but with the rain and warm temps we got last weekend the driveway is showing itself already and it's suppose to make it to 50 degrees or more tomorrow.

Bass Snatchers Schedule for 2016

The Baxter Bass Snatchers have sort of finalized our schedule for this year.  It's only "sort of" because the DNR would throw a wrench in our plans if they switched the first two weeks to immediate catch and release only from the catch and keep regulation they had last year on Mille Lacs.

Here are my thoughts on the lakes we are fishing this year.

May 21st Mille Lacs Lake:  This would be the first time in the 39 year history of the club that we will fish the lake for a tournament.  We are planning to go out of Cove Bay so hopefully wind won't be bad out of the North.  If the wind is bad we could switch to Sunday the 22nd.  I really hope DNR doesn't switch the regulations and shut us down, although I suppose if we have to go to an alternative date later in the year we could still fish Mille Lacs.  I have fished Mille Lacs a fair amount and caught some big fish which are pretty much everywhere for smallies and I've gotten some big largemouth as well.  Really looking forward to this one.

June 11th South Long Lake:  Unfortunately we nixed Platte/Sullivan on this date because another circuit was fishing the lakes that day, well maybe next year.  I've fished South Long four times for two tournaments.  I'm guessing that the lake is going to set up more like the first tournament in 2009 than the pre-spawn tournament we had in 2013 with the late Spring that year.  The two things I don't like about this lake is the access which has limited parking and maneuvering space and our 8AM start time is only going to make congestion there worse.  Also the 8AM start makes a morning topwater bite less likely.  My best finish here was 5th Place.

July 16th Fishhook Lake (Park Rapids):   This will be my second tournament on this lake with the club.  Had a great time the first time and hope the numbers and size structure of the fish is about the same.  I had 13/7 and came in 13th Place with a 4/5 kicker which was the third biggest fish caught that day.  The lake has a small smallmouth population, not sure if they are known to get big like the largemouth do.

Aug. 6th Pokegama (Grand Rapids):  I've fished this lake 3 times for 2 tournaments with the club.  The third big fish lake of the year with Smallmouth and Largemouth.  Love it!  My best finish here was 15th Place with a 12/8 bag in 2008, my first year in the club.

Aug. 20th Rabbit Lakes: This will be my third tournament on these lakes with the club and my fourth tournament overall.  I don't care for the fact it's an 8AM start.  Maybe I'll catch an elusive Rabbit Lake smallmouth.  My best finish was 3rd Place at an Excel Singles.

Sept 24th Whitefish Chain:  This will be my fourth tournament here with the club and fifth overall. Like Pokegama there is a bunch of water I've never seen or fished.  Hopefully a Fall topwater bite will be going this day.  My best finish was a 10th Place in early June.

Hopefully I will be healthy enough to fish every tournament this year.  Last year I missed two do to illness.

Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing Is Open

The Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake is only three weekends away.  So get signed up!

Bass Fishing In the Blogosphere Is Dying

The Final Post at Big Indiana Bass

I was vaguely aware of this fact do to all of the MN Bass Fishing Bloggers that had stopped or mostly stopped their blogging.  I haven't tended to my other blog rolls much over that last few years to realize how bad it's gotten.  I really should do something about weeding out all the blogs that no longer exist.

FYI to FLW Fantasy Bass Players

Tackle Warehouse must have deleted their legacy League and started a new one.  I just discovered it.  I could have sworn the Tackle Warehouse League was there when I registered, but when I went to look for it this morning it was gone from my list of leagues.  I re-registered, but don't know if my score from the 1st tournament will be counted or not.  As of right now my score is not in the list for Lake Okeechobee.  I will not be happy if that is the case.  I recommend you check and make sure you are in the Tackle Warehouse League ASAP.

1st Feb. Ice Fishing Trip In Years

Because it was something I didn't do last year.  This report is from Feb. 6th.

20.5" VMC Tubby Jig w/maggies and Gulp Minnow

4:15-9:15PM
Conditions: Temp 33 degrees, mostly cloudy to cloudy, some sleet, windy out of the South

I got out a little later than I would have liked.  I picked up some minnows at Bear Trax and drove out onto the ice.  Someone had been fishing in my area earlier in the day, but was gone by the time I got there.  I drilled a couple holes in 16 feet.  Then drilled holes up by the maidencaine.  I didn't bring the camera with me.  Going shallow was a waste.  At about 5:15PM I went to the deeper holes and spent the rest of my night there.  I caught a crappie first on the VMC Tubby Jig with maggots and Gulp Minnow.

8.5" VMC Tubby Jig

  Then I got the pike.  Then it was crappies coming in pretty consistently on the VMC Jig.  I had a couple of minnows stolen before I got any crappies on them.  It started sleeting around 6:30PM so I put the ION in the truck.  I had a mark come through at about 8 feet.  I thought it was going to be a bullhead, but it was this chub of a sunfish.

Almost 8" VMC Jig

The minnow got hot and I landed the biggest crappie of the night on it.

10.5" Glow Demon w/minnow

I ended up with 10 crappies on the Glow Demon with a minnow and 13 on the VMC with maggies.  Most fish were right about 9 inches with one potato chip.  I may get out before sunrise tomorrow.

23 Crappies
1 Sunfish
1 Pike

Better Get Those FLW Fantasy Line Ups In

Tournament at Okeechobee starts tomorrow and line ups lock at mid night.

Out With Some New and New to Me Equipment

Thumbs Up on my new auger

3:00-7:00PM
Conditions: Mostly sunny, light SE wind,  temps from the low teens up to about 20 degrees

Today was the maiden voyage for my ION Auger, my new to me Polaroid Dual Screen Waterproof Camera and the "Selfie Stick" my brother gave me for Christmas.  Impressed with the Auger, not so much with the camera or ice thickness.  But I'm not gonna complain about the camera as I got it cheap.  The ice thickness was only about 14 inches and I won't drive the Expedition out until it is more like 20".

With the Polaroid and selfie stick without flash

Same fish with old camera and flash 

  I think I will bring both camera's with me for as long as the Power Shot still works.  I'll keep the Polaroid mounted on the selfie stick.

The sunfish were active today.  I got a couple 7 inchers and this 8" that broke my line, but I managed to grab it before it got away.

8" VMC Jig w/Gulp Minnow and Maggies

9.5" VMC Jig w/same

I got the crappie before I broke the jig off.  I wasn't going to retie as it was prime time.  I put some smaller minnows on the Glow Demon and got a few crappies on that and a Glow Demon with a waxie and Gulp Minnow;  None over 9.75".  Also I got this bullhead that came through suspended about half way up in 15 feet.

10" or so. Glow Demon w/Gulp and waxie

1 Bullhead
12 Sunfish
9 Crappies

Bass Pundit Livewell 2016 Now Open

I started my Livewell 2016 with a 13" crappie I caught this year and I'm pretty sure all my notable catches from 2015 are now in my Livewell 2015.  Please click on the links and check 'em out.

Bass Snatchers Tentative Schedule for 2016

Last Saturday I was unable to attend the first Bass Snatcher Meeting of 2016.  Here are the Lakes they came up with for 2016.  The dates and lakes won't be official until after our Feb. meeting.  I've fished at least one tournament on each one of these lakes.

I think we are a little sketchy on Mille Lacs as bass might not be in season yet;  It depends on what the DNR does with the regulations there this year.  I think I am in favor of going to Mille Lacs provided the season is open.  I believe this would be the earliest tournament in the history of the club.

I hope Platte/Sullivan stays.  The only bummer being that if it's a hot bite I can't fish the lakes on Thurs. & Fri due to our clubs "Off Limits" Period.  I will definitely be putting the Trophy in the water this year if Platte/Sullivan stays on the schedule.  The last time we were here was in 2011.

Fish Hook Lake is southwest of Leech just North of Park Rapids.  It's a lake that has fished really well for the club and 2011 was the last time the club fished here as well.

Pokegama at Grand Rapids is a lake that has just about everything a bass fisherman in MN can want.  When we were last there in 2012 I was dealing with lower back problems and that was the last tournament I was able to fish that year.  Maybe this will be the year I get a smallmouth there.

Rabbit Lakes have been good to me in the past.

Gull Lake I've only fished two times, both tournament days.  I've always caught fish and this could be prime time for a topwater bite; Bring it!

Congratulations To Coach Zimm & NFC North Champion Vikings

4 Species For My Birthday

10" Glow Demon w/waxies

23" Tungsten Jig w/waxie 

8" Glow Demon w/waxies

5" Tungsten w/waxies

2:30-6:15PM
Conditions: Partly to mostly sunny, less wind than yesterday out of the West, 31-28

I got out earlier today hoping to use the Aqua View.  There was no fish where I had visibility and not enough visibility where there was fish.  I started where I got my fish yesterday.  There was nothing doing.  I moved a little shallower and there were perch there stealing my waxies.  I did catch one.  At 4 I went back to last nights holes and some sunfish moved in.  Then I got the pike.  Then crappies moved in.  I got 4 that were 10"ers.  Last fish of the night was a sunny.

1st Sunfish on the Tungsten Jig w/waxies

1 Pike
1 Perch
8 Sunfish
13 Crappies