National Fishing and Boating Week June 4–12, 2011

This is my National Fishing and Boating Week contest entry sponsored by Take Me Fishing and the Outdoor Blogger Network.

“How do you plan to celebrate National Fishing & Boating Week?”

That is the contest question I need to answer.

This much I do know. June 4th, the kickoff day of National Fishing & Boating Week also kicks off the tournament season for my bass club the Baxter Bass Snatchers. We will be fishing my "home lakes" of "Platte/Sullivan." Platte/Sullivan are connected lakes in Central Minnesota about 15 miles West from the South West End of Mille Lacs Lake. Platte is 1,746 acres shallow (Littoral Area 1,694 acres) and generally weedy with a fair amount of undeveloped shoreline. Sullivan is 1,221 acres, has deep water (Littoral Area 567 acres with a max depth of 57ft), still has a fair amount of aquatic vegetation and is developed everywhere except it's NW corner where the Platte River flows out of the lake. I have fished Sullivan since about 1999 and Platte since 2001. This will be my 5th bass tournament on the lakes; I have a mixed record with 2 OK finishes and 2 terrible finishes. Because of my terrible finishes I look on this one with a bit of trepidation.

I am a non-boater in our club, so I will be fishing out of someone else's boat. By rule I am allotted half the day in the front of the boats on spots I want to fish. Normally I don't take advantage of that rule, but at this tournament I just might. Right now the bass population in both lakes is very good, but for the past 3 years or so I have had a hard time catching quality fish in June. In the past these lakes have been know for their quality fish and the potential is certainly there for some big bags to come in. If fishing is tough it may take only 14lbs on a 6 fish limit, but if fishing is good it may take more than 20lbs. I expect fishing is going to be good, here's why.

One thing that will play a factor this year is high water. The water has been up more than a foot over normal levels since last Fall. We had a fair amount of snow in the winter and it has been a wet Spring and so water levels are still quite high and I don't see that changing over the next 4 weeks. In addition to a wet Spring, ice off was on the late side and it's been cool. Combine the high water with cool conditions and weed growth will probably be a bit behind normal. Last year many area's were unfishable due to weed growth by late May. I expect on June 4th there is going to be a lot of shallow water that is just prime for fishing and in early June in MN the bass should be shallow.

I plan to kickoff National Fishing & Boating Week by rocking Platte/Sullivan largemouth bass. Topwater should be AWWWWWWWWWWN!!!

Mission Aborted!

Last Fall we decided to store the boats over winter behind the house where they would be out of the way. Seemed like a good idea until we have had a late and wet spring. As you can see in this picture of the boats there is standing water where you have to be to pull them out. I figured we were just going to have to wait for conditions to get dry, but my Dad had other ideas. Yesterday while I was sleeping he made an attempt to get the boats.

As you can maybe tell from these next three pictures, the Ford Explorer didn't get there because it bogged down in the mud.


This 4th picture you can't tell my looking but the hole is about 10 inches deep.

At church this morning Dad talked to our neighbor the Niekens who are farmers across the street and he agreed to bring his big tractor over. The tractor struggled a bit but was able to get the truck out. Around the side of the house the Explorer got stuck again and had to be pulled out a second time.

The Niekens have a couple of four wheelers so we are probably going to try to get the boat out with those.

What a mess!!!

Fishing Report From Yesterday Morning

After the slugfest that was Friday night, I figured it might be a good thing to hit the Grumpy Old Man Hole first thing in the morning Saturday and so I did. I left the house about 5:20AM and as I did I wished I had left about 10-15 minutes sooner because of how light out it already was. Wouldn't you know it but a car turned in front of me from 27 onto 8 and they headed straight to the GOMH. The guy was quick about unpacking his gear and went straight to the SW side where I was going to go. I decided to fish on the bridge to the SW, where the people were having lots of success yesterday. I popped 3 nice silver bullheads immediately on the pink Cubby with minnow. The other guy started catching some and a guy and lady showed up and took the SE side. Then after about 15minutes I got a 4th. A man with his son who fished last night showed up and started fishing next to me on the bridge. I got a bite from a nice bass and had to go down to the SW side to land it. I'm not sure what happened but my line broke and I almost lost my wing it bobber, but I did get it back.

I went back up on the bridge and re-tied. I decided to try a tube, but I picked a ball head jig that was just a little to big to get the jig head inside the tube. I did catch one small silver that I threw back on a smoke tube. I tried a lemon tube, then I decided to switch jig heads, to an elongated lead tube jighead. I went with a red sparkle/smoke tail color and snapped two nice silver bullheads right away and I thought I was on to something but unfortunately the silver bullheads almost totally shut off at that point. My next 7 fish were all jumpin bullheads caught on the SW side. I stayed until about 10:30am.

Cheesehead Bass Opener!!! (And a little prediction for MBO)

I'm not there this year. Last time I did that was in 2009 and the fishing was kind of poor.

As for me, it's another 3 weeks before I can go after the bassies with reckless abandon. As it looks right now, there is going to be very high water which I think will be a plus. There is a lot of water in Platte that is normally a little to shallow to fish, especially with the weeds up. But this year that stuff should be prime. I think it might be topwater domination in 3 weeks.

A Bit of Frustration

Weather: Nicest day in a while, high of 67 with sun and little wind.

Today was the day the fish made the big move into the Grumpy Old Man Hole. Unfortunately it was also the day other fishermen showed up to fish it. I headed out the door early today around 6PM and there were quite a few trucks parked as well as 2 boats. One of the boats was sitting right by shore on the SE side of the bridge. I got out of the car to do a little recon and the people were slamming the silver bullheads in one little spot just out from the bridge on the SW side. A couple of old guys could just drop there line down straight from the bridge and they were right in the spot. A guy on the SW side stairs was fishing out and to the west of the stairs and catching orange bullheads. I overheard the guys in the boat at the bridge say they only had two more to go to get their limit, so I quickly went to the car and got set up on the SE side where no one was. Within 15 minutes the boat left. I was able to cast in to where some fish should have been but it was mighty slow for me. I probably should have started experimenting with stuff, but I just stayed with the pink Cubby and a Minnow. I think one of the old guys on the bridge was using waxies and the other guy said he was just using a tube. A third old guy on the bridge had minnows and wasn't doing as well but he was like me and not quite on the spot. I eventually did pop a couple of nice silver bullheads. Two of the old guys up on the bridge got their limits and left. It had kind of slowed down at that point.

The last old guy remarked that it had gotten slow and I said well there were 4 limits just taken out of here and the guy fishing the SW side said there were 3 limits on top of that gotten by people who were there before I arrived. Sheesh!

I would say it was around 7PM when blog reader Mike B. showed up. He had been fishing Little Whitefish and dropped by to see if I was fishing. We talked for a while and I didn't fish. Eventually he went up to his boat to get a rod and I started throwing a beetle spin around. I started catching some small jumpin bullheads on that. Mike hooked into a dogfish but before he could get it on shore it broke his 4lb test line.

Eventually I switched back to the Cubby and Minnow and started getting some silver bullheads. Mike caught some jumpin bullheads and silver bullheads which he gave to me. The guy on the SW side left but was quickly replaced by 3 young guys. Eventually the old guy on the bridge left and kid took up that spot. I got a few silvers and missed some bites. The kid on the bridge started whacking them and the guys on the SW side got into them pretty good. As it got later it seemed like there were at least a few silvers spread out. I ended up throwing a couple of 10 inchers back, hoping for bigger.

Mike left about 9PM and so did the kid. The guys on the SW side kept catching them pretty steady while I just couldn't get anything to go with lighted bobber with the Glow Demon and a minnow. Once those guys left I went to the SW side and got 1 that I kept and that was it. I left around 10:15PM.

Seriously, I got smoked by the other fishermen. This was my haul (2 of the fish came from Mike):

Think I might hit it at first light tomorrow and see if I can't put on a whackfest. Should be crowded tomorrow night seeing how it's the weekend and fish are in.

GOMH Bullhead Slam!

Weather: Early this morning it was in the low 40's and rained/showered from 1AM to about 9AM; We got maybe a quarter inch. After that the day was partly cloudy giving way to sun occasionally and 60°F was the high.

I headed out of the house after 7PM and was fishing by 7:30PM. When I arrived Lantern Man. and his brother in law were fishing one on the SE (LM) and the other on the SW. I moved my stuff by LM and went to fish to the East of him in the rough.
First bullhead of the night was this 16.25" jumper on the black/red Pit Boss. After about 15 more minutes I moved next to LM on the steps and tried the pink Cubby with a minnow. LM's BIL went to the North side, so I went over the SW side. I had the bobber pulled down twice in the same spot but couldn't hook up. I switched to the beetle spin and banged a toothy bullhead. Shortly after that GOM Bud aka the foul mouth GOM, showed up.
We had more visitors watching for a while, but they left as nothing was going on. Eventually I switched back to the Cubby and Minnow and was in the vicinity where I had gotten all the bites when my bobber went down and I pulled in an 11" silver bullhead.

As it was getting to be bullhead prime time I stuck with the Cubby until it was quite dark. I was just about to switch to the lighted bobber when I got a bite right next to the rocks. It put up a good fight and I knew it was no silver bullhead. I had to get my headlamp on while fighting the fish and once I did I was able to see a golden bullhead. That's right I got a Bullhead Slam!
The GB went 21" and because they are not open until the 14th, it went back in the lake.

I stayed until almost 10PM and on my very last cast I got a 10" silver bullhead that was sitting right where the golden bullhead was caught. This one was caught on a Glow Demon.

Elite Series West Point Fantasy Roster

That's right Brody of the Lake.

Fish Fair Is This Friday & Saturday

More at fishingforlife.org

Last Night's Fishing Report (GOMH)

Weather: Sunny most of the day, but turning overcast by the time I fished. It got to 63 and was kind of breezy when I first arrived but it quited down pretty quick.

I had to get minnows at Bear Traxx, so I was at the Grumpy Old Man Hole by 6:45PM. There was a truck parked, but I didn't see anybody so I set up on the SE side. I wasn't there long when Grumpy Old Man Willard showed up in his truck. As he was getting out of the truck I got the first jumpin bullhead of the night. Talked to Willard for a bit then he went to check and see if somebody was on the North side. Sure enough there was somebody there but he said he didn't catch anything. The guy never did come fish the South side, so maybe he tried it earlier and didn't get anything.

While fishing for dogfish with the red/black Havoc Pit Boss I had a fish in the cattail stocks bite 6 times but never hook up. Bowfin maybe??? Anyway I got a few jumpin bullheads on the Pit Boss and a beetle spin. By 7:45PM the action died.

I was fishing the pink Cubby and had a few very light nibbles that didn't take it. Finally when it was quite dark the bobber went down but I missed it. I put the light on that rods bobber and had another bite, but missed it. Eventually I switched up to the Lindy Lighted Bobber with the Custom Jigs and Spins Glow Demon. I managed to get two 12" silver bullheads on that. Here's the 1st one.


6 jumpin bullheads
2 silver bullheads

Bullhead Is Back (and a Dogfish too)

Weather: Today it got to 58°F and it was sunny with light winds. That was enough to bring the fish back in.

I didn't get to the Grumpy Old Man Hole until 7:45PM. I set up on the SE side and I got rid of the skunk on the first cast when a small jumpin bullhead bit. I proceeded to get a bunch of jumpin bullheads over the next hour.
This one was the biggest (18.25")and bit on a pink Cubby Mini-Mite with a minnow.

Once it got sufficiently dark I started getting into the silver bullheads. I caught 3 nice one's, and missed 2 more on the Cubby with a minnow. I then got a bite that was a little different, I set the hook and thought for a second I had hooked into a muskrat. It wasn't a muskrat, it was about a 19" dogfish. I fought it for about 45 seconds and then it got off. In the coarse of the battle I lost the split shot on my line, so I decided to go up and get my other lighted bobber rod that has a Custom Jigs and Spins Glow Demon on it. On that set up I got 1 silver bullhead on the SE side and 1 silver bullhead on the SW side. This was my total haul.

I stopped fishing at 11PM.

Sweet Mother of Ebayt Monkey!

53 handtied swimjigs
- Top quality heads (the vast majority are Brovarney heads)
- Top quality hooks
- Hand tied skirts in various colors
- 27 3/8oz & 26 1/4oz jigs
I got this lot for $21 shipped.

Looks like I'm gonna need a 3rd swim jig box. Also at this price I can forego messing with wire leader on at least 1 swim jig rod.

SCORE!!!

Skunk Served Cold!!!

I arrived at the GOMH at 7:15PM and fished to 9:15PM, not a nibble, not one. Did see baitfish flipping on the surface occasionally. It only got to 45°F today and as the sun went down I swear it had to have dipped down below 40°F. There was no wind but I still got cold. It's suppose to get down to 26°F tonight, but tommorrow is suppose to be almost 60°F, and sunny with light wind so maybe some fish will move back in.

Nothing, Really??!!!

New Bass Fishing Blog Recommendation

I have been coming across quite a few new to me Bass Fishing Blogs in the past couple of days. They are all linked on the Blogroll under New Found Bass Blogs. One that really caught my eye was Wishin' I was Fishin'with Shaye Baker It looks like Shaye is an aspiring Bass Pro and Outdoor Writer who made a name for himself fishing on the Auburn Tigers College Bass Fishing Team. He writes very well and his blog is worth the read and to follow.

He also has a Facebook Page, so go and "Like" that as well.

One Bullhead is Better Than None!

I didn't get out until 7:45PM. Today was cold and windy but the wind was more out of the West so the GOMH was protected a little better. I didn't get bite in the first hour fishing the SW,SE,and NE side. I decided to end the night on the SE side and that kept me from the skunk. I was fishing the pink Cubby Mini-Mite with a minnow close in to the end of the old cattail stocks when the bobber went down. It was the 12" silver bullhead in the picture. I had to go and get my stuff, which was on the SW side. I did have the bobber go down one more time about 10 minutes later but I missed that bite. It was cold, dark, and I figured my chances at a fish were pretty low, so I quit at 9:15PM.

Mille Lacs Lake Ice Is Out

Apparently the heavy winds of the last couple of days have done the job.

Cheesehead Bass Fishing Blog

Somehow or another I came across the Fishing Forward™ boys on Facebook, they have a website with blog. One thing they do is video's. Here is there video on Slop Fishing.
The video is almost 10 minutes long, some of the production is pretty good and some of it not so much. Seriously, what is the deal with washing the dishes?

They have a Facebook Page, so go visit and "Like" them.

Wind City

I arrived at the GOMH by 7:30PM and it looked a bit windy out of the South. I was surprised no one was there fishing. I got out of the truck walked around back and when I cleared the truck I found out it was "a bit windy" all right; Try 25-30mph sustained. I tried to fish the SE and SE side but the wind was pretty much blowing straight in and there were white caps hitting the shore. After giving it about 10 minutes I headed to the North side. On my way I discovered my Rapala Measuring Board laying up on the road under the car barrier. I figured it had blown out of my bad, but it turns out I had left it there on Thursday night and Lantern Man put it up there hoping I would find it.

Anyway I got to the North side which is a bit protected and started flinging and I was rewarded with a 15" jumpin bullhead. I was very glad there wasn't going to be a skunk tonight. The bite gave me hope. A little while later I got another bite on the beetle spin and brought in this 22.5" Pike.

(Yeah I know, lousy pic. This was the best of the 4 I took)

A little after getting that fish Lantern Man showed up. He said it was pretty windy last night too. Said he got a 21inch 6lb+ jumpin bullhead last night, but it was the only fish he got. After about 10 minutes LM caught a small toothy bullhead. He fished for about 10 more minutes then went to try the South side in the wind. Just after he left I got a 26" toothy bullhead on the beetle spin. A little bit after that I had the beetle spin bit off and that was the end of the action. I think I left around 9PM.

DNF

Was in the Twin Cities for the day, didn't get back until 9PM and decided not to go out night fishing because I've been running all day on very little sleep (Not because of watching the Royal Wedding).

I may very well get up early tomorrow to see if there is any kind of morning bite.

FLW Pro Joe Thomas Blog Lucky Craft Giveaway

Surviving in the Reel World with Joe Thomas blog is giving away a Lucky Craft Pointer 100SP in Aurora Black to a lucky Follower or Subscriber.

Joe has really taken to blogging and writes something almost every day. Go check his blog and get entered to win.

Tonight's Fishing Report

Nothin' But Jumpin Bullhead (For Me) over at the Bass Pundit Fishing Log Blog.