Snatchers Tourny At Pelican Lake

 

Smitty's Bigs

Smitty's Fin

DJ's Bigs

DJ, Arnie, Smitty

2/9

Conditions: 62-82℉, Mostly Sunny, 0-2mph Wind

The Day:

We headed NW to a bay up there with a bunch of slop. Smitty had a bass in the boat in about 5 casts out of the pads. I had something follow my frog but not hit it. Smitty got another bass. I think I had something hit my jig back where the fish followed my frog too. We then came across some docks and Smitty would get a bite or two of off each one it would seem like. His 3rd or 4th fish in the boat was a 4lber. I got the skunk out of the boat with my biggest bass of the day (2.53) on a Livetartget Frog next to some cattails. We fished more slop and docks, with Smitty getting fish off of both. We ended up returning to where we started and I missed a bit in the pads and think Smitty culled with a 2lber. He had 3 quality fish off of the docks I think. Next. we headed NE to another slop bay where there was a lot of activity. I got a 24-inch dogfish on a Mag Fluke. Smitty had a big bass miss his frog. I think He caught one as well. I'm not sure if he culled. I got my second bass on Bobby's Perfect Frog. We fished farther East into another slop bay then fished our way back to the area where there was activity. I got my smallest keeper (1.36) that I was never able to cull on the LiveTarget frog. Smitty got a big dogfish. Next, we fished Smitty's favorite docks and they were productive for him. Smitty had mercy on me and offered me the craw tube he was getting them. I think he added two culls while I was getting my rod rigged with the proper weight while I was getting heckled by a guy on shore for not having my act together while my partner caught fish left and right.. Unfortunately, the best dock was occupied. I got a 1.82lb bass on the craw tube out of some reeds. Smitty got a few that didn't help. We ran South to one of Smitty's favorite holes, but there were not really fish around except on the last dock, where Smitty bird dogged me one (1.69) that I got on the craw tube. We then went North again to more reeds and Smitty pulled a 5lber out of the Cane. I missed a bite in the Cane because I set the hook too quick. Smitty wasn't going to fish until I got my limit. I got a short out of some reeds/pads. Finally, I got a keeper in the boat off of a dock (2.11). We went back to the dogfish bay. I had three bites on my frog, but didn't land any of them; Two never got the frog and I rolled the one that did get it on the pads on the hookset.  I ran out of energy shortly after my last bite on the frog. As we headed out Smitty had motor issues, so we went to the bay where we had the weigh-in and fished the final hour there, not getting any bites.

Results: 

My results, meh! But at least I got a limit. Congrats to Smitty for putting himself in the Snatcher record books with that outstanding bag of fish. Also congrats to Arnie and DJ. Dj was top Co-Angler. 

My Thoughts:  With that 2.50lber in the boat on a frog about 20 minutes in I thought it might be my day. But then Smitty put on a clinic above average size fish in the boat with a craw tube on docks. I tried switching to a popper after some activity in open water. Then we got to more docks and Smitty got more above average size fish and my jig wasn't getting bit. We got to an area with pads and I couldn't get bit on a frog or Jig, but Smitty continued to catch fish. It just seemed like all my choices were wrong in the first spot. I got two keepers in the boat at the second spot, but I don't think it held the numbers and size of bass to produce a great frog bite. When we got back to docks. It became clear the crawtube was the deal. So when Smitty offered what he was using I rigged up my dock fishing rod with a light Texas Rig. I was way too anxious fishing that crawtube. I needed to let it sit and give the fish a chance to eat it instead of immediately pulling the trigger. It was unfortunate our run South wasn't really holding a good school of fish or had already been hit by somebody else. Not getting any of those final frog fish in the boat sucked, but that is frog fishing. Catching one of them would have probably moved me up at least a couple of places.

Watching Smitty wreck 'em is the highlight of my year so far.

Grade: C+

My Biggest Fish of 2022

 That Fricken Pike at the crow wing River

Bowfin at Platte Lake

This 4.67lber Will Do, Didn't Get a 5lber in '22

14.75"/1.80lb New Personal Best Silver Bullhead/Crappie

7lb Golden Bullhead/Walleye

MN DNR Will Be Opening Up C & R Records Starting in 2023

 

If the world doesn't end and I don't die. I plan on trying to hold the DNR catch and release record for bowfin and largemouth bass. 

From Star Tribune via Yahoo News:

My Top 13 Fishing Highlights of 2018

2018 was the year of Devin and Steve.  Steve and family moved into the lake place in the Fall of 2017 remodeled the place and about a year later moved on to a new adventure in Chicago.  Fishing with Dev and Steve were at the top of my highlights for the year.

#1 Highlight: Catching Bull Bluegills Off the Dock With Devin 

#2 Highlight: Getting Steve His First Ever MN State Fish at Mille Lacs Lake

#3 Highlight: Teaching Devin about Ice Fishing

#4 Highlight: Bass Devin Caught Off the Dock While We Were Eating Dinner

#5 Highlight: Steve's Big Pike

#6 Highlight Fishing With The Brothers.  Steve, Todd and I fished together on a few trips in the Trophy.  And there were quite a few trips with just me and Stever or me and Todd. 

#7 Highlight: Steve's Big Doggo

#8 Highlight: Fishing the Melon Patch.  Many a melon was snatched and quite a few got away as well (Only linking twice doesn't begin to tell the story).

#9 Highlight: The 17" Hole and Big Rice Point.   Another productive area that provided a number of memorable trips as well as my biggest bass of the year.

#10 Highlight: Fishing and Pre-Fishing the Snatcher Minnewawa Tournament with Keith Tuma and his daughter Breanne.

#11 Highlight: Being the 1st Ever Bass Snatcher Co-Angler Challenge Winner at Lake Edward.

#12 Highlight:  The Hot Fall Bite Off  Of Eddy's Jetty In October and November.  It's a shame winter came early this year.

#13 Highlight (Because I "Make My Own Luck") Catching Big Bass at the Mission Lakes Mini-Bucks.

You can read about pretty much every trip I took in 2018 at the Fishing Log Blog.

Trophy Is In the Water for 2018

We dumped the Trophy into Sullivan Lake around 7:30PM tonight. I wanted to fish the Sullivan Platte River Outlet (SPRO) area so I put in at the NE Sullivan Access.  Everything worked, but the jury is out on pretty much everything about the trolling motor (battery, pull cord, and the trolling motor itself); It worked fine for tonight, but it was dead calm.

15.25" Teckel Sprinker Frog

I caught my first fish on the real Teckel Sprinker Frog Tonight. My frogging skills are a bit rusty as I caught 3 fish out of about 15 blow ups or follows between the Sprinker, Zoom Horny Toad, and Mad Maxx.

Sunset over the Platte River Outlet

Last years rice beds in the SPRO are thicker than I would prefer, basically, treble hook topwaters and buzzbaits are out in this part of the lake. I will be back and better prepared next time.

But that won't be tomorrow most likely.  East wind

Sun/Mon At Eddy's Jetty

24.5"/4.93lb Grass Pig

11:45PM-3:30AM Eddy's Jetty
Conditions: 50's, Clear, No Wind, Water Level Low and Clear

My arsenal tonight

I was pleasantly surprised to see no ice at Eddy's.  The low clear water made for some awesome fish viewing.  I went to the North Jetty harbor mouth.   There were suckers and walleyes swimming together in the harbor.  On my first cast, I had a small pike follow the grass pig.  Also, a small dogfish checked it out.  On about my fifth cast, I got the 24 incher.  I thought this could be good.  It wasn't.  I was about to give up at 1:30AM when I got another eye on the Grass Pig.

18" Grass Pig

The rest of the night was spent watching fish not bite.  Saw a couple of ski's dozens of suckers and many eyeballs swimming around.  When I was packing to leave a SW breeze came up.  I didn't think it would turn them on and I needed a break, so I went home.

My Snatchers Rabbit Lake Tournament Aug 20th.

17.33" Craw Tube Grn pumpkin/brown

7:45AM-3:55PM
Conditons: 65-59 degrees, Cloudy to mostly cloudy, Windy to very windy N, Light to heavy rain

Pre-tournament thoughts:  Rabbit Lake has always given me fish and my boater Dennis' confidence had me pretty confident I would get a limit.  Turned out getting there was more difficult than we thought.

The Day:
The last two boats waited until 7:30 to put in, which annoyed Dennis and me as well.  Conditions were perfect and we easily could have been fishing by 7:30, but as it was we blasted off at about 7:45.  We went straight to one of Guy's spots with Dwight right behind us.  We fished it for about 20 minutes and didn't get anything.  Dwight caught a nice one, but we didn't see it.

Next we went to a spot that was protected from the wind where Dennis got some good fish pre-fishing.  I put on the small Plopper and immediately had a 11.75" bass on.  I think Dennis first fish was a pike. He then got a couple small keepers.  I had a couple fish not get the Plopper, unfortunately all I have is the one color.

Next we  headed to the wood and Dennis got a little better keeper, but that was it.  We got to the spot where I got my best fish in pre-fish and I got an even bigger one (17.66) on a Lake Fork Craw Tube.  Unfortunately that was all we got.  We followed the road out and I got a 15.33" by where I got one in pre-fish.  I also got a pike on the Craw Tube as well and Dennis got a walleye.

I think we then went to the island and didn't get anything there.  We went back to our starting spot and Dennis got a quality fish that came off just as I got the net under it.  Dennis was quite thankful.  We spent quite a while there and Dennis got one more keeper.  I just couldn't buy a bite there except a pike that bit me off.

We left to go to the numbers spot.  Dennis forgot to put the trolling motor up and we got drenched.  We had a good laugh.  I missed a hit right away on the Craw tube and Dennis had a fish on pretty quickly as well.  I think it might have been a pike.  Dennis got a keeper and then he got his big fish.  I got bit off.  I started throwing a white spinnerbait and got a pike. Then I got a 14" and 12.75" pretty quickly as we worked back over the area.  I think Dennis got a couple more keepers and missed some bites as well getting a nice walleye.

We went back to the island and I got a big dogfish.  It put up a great fight.  Unfortunately my attempt at a selfie with it failed.

Dennis got himself a cull.  A rain storm was moving in on us, so we went to our second spot.  I missed a fish on the Craw Tube right away.  Then it started raining.  I had a bass hit the Craw Tube as I was reeling it back to the boat and I landed it (14").  It started pouring.  Dennis missed a few more bites. We got out in the wind and I cast out the Craw Tube and had an over run.  When I picked the bait back up I thought I felt a fish, so I set the hook.  My line cracked as my line broke just above the rod.

We headed back to where Dennis got his big fish.  I got a nice pike on the black blue Piranha and I got a dink on the jerk shad that was only a couple inches longer than the bait.  We got up by the pads and I got 15.5" on the white spinnerbait; the fish really thumped it.  I got my limit with about 2 hours left

We went back to our starting spot and I discovered I didn't have enough line to fish on the craw tube rod.  We didn't get anything.  We went back and tried to expand on our numbers spot, but came up empty.  We finished expanding on our second spot.  Dennis had a fish that would have culled get off just before I could reach it.  My last hit didn't get the spinnerbait and the day was over.

Results:
My limit weighed 11lbs 4ozs and put me in 12th Place out of a field of 16.  Dennis was one more big fish short of contending for the win.  His 15/11 put him in 5th Place.  Dwight "Hammer" Hammermeister took his very first Bass Snatcher victory with a 16/8 limit.  Paul Ruff had a 4lb 3oz smallmouth that took Lunker.

My Thoughts:
I wish I could have gotten rid of the 12 incher.  I would have moved up 1 spot for sure and possibly 2.  I tried a number of lures that came up empty: Super Fluke, Swim Jig, Rattlin' Rap, Baby Minus One, Fat Free Shad, Chigger Craw, Jig and Chigger Craw, KVD Sexy Dog, and RI Vixen.  For whatever reason I just cannot get in sync with the fish, it's frustrating.  I should have been able to catch more than 6 keepers.  Thank goodness I chose to bring the spinnerbait rod with as it was a last minute addition.

Next tournament is at Whitefish Chain on Sept. 24th.

Snatcher Quick Report Rabbit Lake

Big Dog

I didn't quite make it to 12lbs, but I got close.  It took almost all day to land 6 keepers.  Just couldn't get rid of a 12.75". The guys caught them pretty good so I'm pretty sure I'm in the bottom quarter of the field.  I got bit off 3 times and with a couple hours left had the line break at the rod on my craw tube rod with a lot of line out; It was unusable after that.  I couldn't get a hit on the Chigger Craw.  You can't tell from the picture, but the dogfish was a brute that put up a really good fight.  I'd say it was 7 or 8 pounds.  I didn't get a length because I tried to take a selfie holding it up with pliers, but it wiggled loose and off the back of the boat.  I'll have the full tournament report sometime later this week.

Bowfin Selfie fail.

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.

Bass Snatcher Tournament Lake Alexander June 7th

My Boater Chuck Johansen, 1991 MN B.A.S.S. Nation T.O.C. Winner 

The Weather- Calm, cool/cold and overcast in the morning, turning sunny with some wind out of the NW in the afternoon.

The Day- Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we blasted off around 6:45AM because we made a long run up to the NE corner of the lake to fish some reed beds, floating bogs, and docks.  The reeds hadn't started coming out of the water yet.  As we worked our way East I started out throwing a Pure Poison, but in the calm conditions quickly switched to the chart/firetiger Stanley Phantom.  I had what I'm 90% sure was a muskie come up and wake behind that.  Eventually I switched to a gold Frenzy Popper.  I made a long cast out to some reeds.  I'm not sure if I had a little over run that I started taking out or what, but a fish hit the Popper.  I quickly, set the hook but I couldn't reel in because the line was caught on my reel.  It felt like a good fish, but by the time I got my line out of the reel handle it had come off.   I managed to catch a 9" dink on the Popper and missed another one that swirled on it.  We went into some docks and passed by a decent smallmouth that was on a bed.  Next I got a rock bass on a Yabbie and another 9" dink on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke.  Then Chuck got  the first keepers along the dock. We had to be at least an hour into the tournament when Chuck got the first keeper.  I finally got a 12" squeaker and we both got some that didn't measure and more rock bass as we worked our way along the bogs and docks on Flukes and the Yabbies.  Chuck got a couple of small keepers and  I got a 13.5" and a 13" off the docks, then we ran back to approximately where we started.  When we got close to the area where we had seen the smallmouth bed I threw my Fluke into the general vicinity and the fish crushed it.

15"

  That was pretty much all we got on our 2nd pass except for a few dinks and rock bass.  We ended up hopscotching with a couple of boats on the docks on the East side of the lake.  We got down to the SE corner and there was a prime looking area of an old reed bed.  I took a 14.5" on the Fluke and then I missed a good fish that may or may not have been a bass up by shore.  Chuck thought maybe it was a dogfish.  We ended up pulling a double much to the dismay of Chuck Steinbauer who was fishing towards us.  Mine was a 15.75" largie.  Steinbauer left and we worked the water he had been fishing.  Then we made the call to go back over the area again.  I tied on a Zoom Horny Toad with a purple head and chart. legs.  I caught a 24 or so inch pike on that.  The wind came up more than it had been and the sun came out.  Chuck thought we should move, but I suggested we fish down to a pontoon boat.  My suggestion paid off for Chuck when he landed a quality fish just on the other side of the pontoon.  We decided to keep going and I think Chuck got another good fish off of a bog point that had the wind blowing on it and I missed what felt like a good fish on a green pumpkin Lake Fork Craw Tube.  I got a couple of rock bass and missed a couple of bites on the Craw Tube before connecting with a 14" fish that culled out my 12".  I think Chuck got another keeper as well.

Next we went a little to the West of the area we started in and headed West.  I culled a 13" for a 13" and caught some that didn't help as we worked our way through the reed stubble.  We started working some docks and we both got some that didn't help and some rock bass.  I had a good smallmouth follow my Fluke out from a dock.  I let the fluke drop when I saw her. It turned to swim away. I jigged the Fluke again, the fish whipped around, eyed it for a couple of seconds than took it.  I set the hook and landed my biggest fish of the day 16"/ 2lbs 3ozs and final keeper bite.  Got several more that didn't help including one on a Gambler Ninja Spin as well as several rock bass on the Craw Tube.  I think I missed 1 that would have helped at least a little bit on a Craw Tube.  Chuck got one last quality cull off of a dock.

The Results- My 6 fish weighed in at 10lbs 1ozs and put me in 19th Place out of 26 fishing.  Chuck's fish went 12lbs 4ozs and put him in 8th place.  Jim Smith won easily with 16lbs 5ozs, more than 2lbs over Guy who got 2nd Place.  Big Bass only weighed 3-8 and was caught by Dave Branum; I think it was a largemouth.  Only 1 guy failed to catch a limit and weights were up an average of around 2lbs per person over the last two tournaments on Alexander (6-25-06, 9-22-12)

My Thoughts-   Other than the first hour which was fairly slow, it was a fun day on the water with a lot of setting the hook.  Had I got all my bites I guess I would have had around 12lbs as well.  For neither of us getting to pre-fish I thought the day went pretty well.  Chuck was a great guy to fish with, very considerate, and asking for my input from time to time.

Next Tournament- Serpent Lake June 22nd

Black & Decker Tackle Wrecker Strikes Again

I was pre-fishing for my next tournament on Rush Lake near Ottertail when I had a big dogfish hit my Aruku Shad.  Can you tell?  Can't say I've ever caught a bowfin on a rattlebait before.  It was raining so I didn't get a picture of the fish.  I would say it was about 26.5 inches long.  It put up a tremendous fight and got all tangled in the net.

It was raining so I didn't get a picture.

I Got Me a Dogfish!

We got dumped on my a thunderstorm this morning so I didn't get out until after 6:00am.  It was actually still sprinkling when I got there.  There was 1 guy on the SW side and that was it.  I decided to go to the NE side and try for some golden bullheads.  I quickly noticed that all the rain we got had cleared up the water.  No gold today.

While fishing with the Money Minnow I had a jumpin bullhead wrap me around the buoy marker line.  It eventually got off but my line was still stuck.  Fortunately my line broke at the bait, so I didn't lose my wire leader.  I started fishing with a parrot X-Rap and tied into this little dogfish.

 I caught a several jumpin bullheads on the X-Rap.

Then I went up and got re-tied.  All my Money Minnows are waiting for my new Mend-It bottle to arrive.  I accidentally left the cap on loose earlier this week, Oops.  I put on a white Grass Pig and got a couple of toothy bullheads on that.

I also of course got some jumpin bullheads on the Grass Pig.  This was the biggest at 17 inches.

I eventually decided to give the other side a try for some silver bullheads. I missed a couple of bites and got a  real small one before taking off at a little after 9:00AM.

We went into Little Falls to get my new glasses today, so I didn't get to bed until 3PM and I didn't wake up until 10PM.  So no fishing tonight

Horny Toad Tonight

Tonight I got out at 7:30PM and it turned into a Horny Toad night when I put on Pete's waders that he forgot here last week.  At Jenny's I got 5 bass and I missed a couple.  The three biggest were about 15.5".  This was the first of those.

 At about 9PM I went to go to the Grumpy Old Man Hole, but when I saw there were people there I stopped short along where the lake is next to the road.  I climbed down into the weeds and got a 15.5" bass, then I got a little pike, then I got 13" bass,  then I missed some bites before I got another 15.5" bass.  Next I landed this little dude.

Yep I got a little Bowfin.  After that I got 2 more 15.5" bass and I missed a few bites.  I quit at around 9:45PM.

Thought I Had a Big Dog

Tonight I fished on Platte/Sullivan,  mostly in Platte in the Channel Inn Bay.  I was working my way up to the "Dogfish Cut" when I hooked into a big fish, unfortunately it was a big Pike.

35.5"

I thought for sure it was a dogfish after it hit up in a foot of water, man was I bummed when I saw it was a pike.  It had thick head with shoulders.  I decided to land it by grabbing it over the top of his head because it was to big for the net.

I also caught a crappie and a couple of nice sunfish and I got a few bass.

9"

7"

17.5"

The wind came up pretty good just after 8PM, so I headed back to the launch, which was good because my strap rope broke.