Skunked With A Full Moon(4/7/20)

Bulldog Tonight

Bulldog 20%

Rock 20%

4:00-5:30PM GOMH SW, Rock, Bulldog
64-68℉, Partly Cloudy, 4-8mph WNW

I started at the GOMH.  There was a guy fishing with his kid on the NE side who got there on a side by side.  Before I arrived at the GOMH I went and checked the Platte Lake Access because it looked like there might be open water up that way, but there wasn't.  I guess the open water line was along Channel Inn North Point to about midway to the Southside of the Big Island.  There was some open water beyond the SPSI.  Wheel House Guy showed up as I was packing up.  He hadn't gotten anything on Long.  I dropped something off for Kim.  Rock was fishable, but no fish.  Same for Bulldog.  I headed home at 5:30.

7:00-7:20PM Rock
7:25-7:40PM Bulldog
7:45-9:00PM GOMH NE SW SE
53-63℉, Partly Cloudy, 0-5mph NW, Full Moon

A big muskrat was at Rock, no fish.

There might have been some fish activity just to the South of where I could cast.  I was disappointed that I couldn't draw a bite at Bulldog.  Thought with the sun today I had a decent shot at getting something.  It didn't happen.

Nobody was at the GOMH.  Got to hear some loon calls. I started on the NE side, nothing.  Nothing on the SW side.  Got the lighted bobber out and tried the SE side with the Cubby/minnow nothing.  Went back to the SW side.  Thought maybe I saw a glowing eye briefly and a baitfish at the SW bridge opening when I was looking down from above with my headlamp.  I tried the NE side again, nothing.  Came back to the SW side, nothing.  I stopped fishing a little before 9PM.  Skunked again.

The weather forecast is not what I want to see.  Multiple cold cold fronts with high winds.  I'll probably put the boat in the water on Friday although if the lake open up by tomorrow afternoon their is a real outside chance I will dump it in then.  Man I got to start catching some fish.  These skunks are beginning to wear on me.

Loons Showed Up Tonight(4/2/20)

Two Loons tonight

Into Chanel In Bay

6:30-8:00PM GOMH NE SW
53-61℉, Cloudy, 3-15 ESE

It got warmer than forecast today with temps in the low 60's.  I opened the Tackle Warehouse up today because of it.   I got over to the GOMH around 6:30PM.  The first thing I saw was a loon swimming on the Sullivan side.   Some guy and his old man and little people were checking things out as I was getting ready.  He was hoping there would be open water to a boat access.  I started out on the Platte side, nothing.  I then went to the SW side.  Lantern Man showed up wondering if I had been getting anything yet. Shortly after that John W. showed up with his girlfriend.   I noticed a second loon off in the distance.  A couple of times the loon came up close, but before I could get a picture it was back underwater both times. They stayed until about 7:40 or so.  I ended the night back on the NE side.  No bullheads tonight. Frogs were chirping when I left.  Never heard a loon call.

Bass Junkies Frog Pond Blog

The guys at Bass Junkies Fishing Addiction have added a new blog to their slate.  It's all about the frogs.

Mercer With Prime Time Frog Action

It won't be long now.

Bagged Some Today

I had to pick up rods from the boat house at Platte Lake because I will be pre-fishing Lake Ida on Wednesday. I decided since I would be at the lake I would fish. I started at Jenny's right around 8PM with a white Spro Bronzeye Frog. I had a strike that didn't get the frog as I was coming up to a clump of rice. When I got on the other side of the rice a fish whacked it, but I didn't hook up. On to the lake place.

I decided I would start from shore casting along the dock with a parrot Outkast Swim Jig with 4" cool ice Action Plastics grub trailer. I hooked up on about the 2nd cast with this 12 incher.

Once I was done with the swim jig I switched to the Spro Frog. As I was fan casting I had something slap at the frog. I reeled in and cast back to the spot a few times and was eventually rewarded with this fish.
I think it was 14inches. I had another good blow up off the dock but didn't hook up and I couldn't get it to strike again.

Eventually I went over to Jim's dock and caught an 11 incher on the swim jig.

Dog and Hawg Night (Ok maybe no hawgs)

Once again tonight there was the chance of thunderstorms, but tonight they missed me completely. There was a pretty big looking storm quite away to the North. When I started fishing at 5:30PM it was overcast with a 7mph West wind, but it cleared up around 6:30PM and the wind died to around 3mph.

I decided to start at the reed bed at the South end of the big island where I started yesterday. I wanted to see if the area might have gotten better, but it didn't. My first fish was a pike on the watermelon red Zoom Horny Toad. I only got a single 14 inch bass on the stuff I fished yesterday. Instead of pulling out when I was done fishing the point of the reeds I headed West to fish in the very sparse reeds and also along the South Shore of the Island. I came to a few good looking trees in the water but they were not holding fish. I did however pick up an occasional pike or bass on a black/red Monsoor Swim Jig with black/red fleck Zoom Speed Craw among the very space reeds. One little area gave up several fish including this 22" dogfish.

I fished around the Southwest tip of the big island and a little ways up the West shore without success. The sun had come out now and once again I retraced last nights locations and hit the docks and reeds off the tip of the North Point of Channel Inn bay. I didn't get anything off the docks but got two quality bass out of the reeds on the Horny Toad. I took this one's picture because it was as big as anything I caught last night at 15.5".


Next I headed to the NW corner of the lake where once again I fished last night. I pretty much committed to the Zoom Horny Toad for the rest of the night catching some quality fish in the process. I caught a 15.5" and then I got this 16.5"

As I got to the end of the run of the big reed bed I was fishing I nailed this 17.5" which was big fish of the night.

A couple minutes later I got another 16". There was still some light left so I ran to a point on the North end of the lake. This move turned out to be a disappointment because I caught 1 small bass, missed a little pike that I didn't want to catch anyway and I missed either a dogfish or a big bass right by the boat; I am pretty sure it was a dogfish. When it was clear this area would not pan out there was still enough light left to hit the other point and so I did that but all I did was miss 3 or 4 bites which very well all might have been pike. I finished around 9:40.

So in 4 hours fished I caught 16 bass, 8 pike, and 1 dogfish. Last night I fished an hour longer had 1 less bass and the size of my best 6 were quite a bit smaller, so tonight was the better night.

Tonight's Platte Lake Report: Smallish Fish

Today was cloudy and humid with temps in the high 70's with little wind to no wind. The big question when I went out fishing tonight was how long I could stay out before a thunderstorm chased me off the lake. While I was out a thunderstorm passed to the South around 6PM and then the storms held off until around 9:30PM which is quitting time anyway pretty much. I beat the start of a thunderstorm to the dock by about 5 minutes. If you ask me, I would consider tonights fishing conditions to be about perfect which leaves me a little disappoined in my results.

I was fishing a little before 4:30PM and my first stop was the reed bed off the Southern tip of the big Island. It didn't take long and I had a hit on watermelon red Zoom Horny Toad. I got a good hookset but the plastic on the frog kind of got hung up on the hook and the fish got off. I was not happy. A little while later I broke the ice with this 13" on the Toad.

A few minutes later I was fishing with a black with Chartreuse nose River2Sea Bully Wa and the biggest fish of the night inhaled it.

It's sad to say, but the night's big fish was only 15.25. I worked this reed bed for about an hour and a half and only got 4 or 5 bass and maybe 1 pike.

Next I decided to head West as it looked like the closet thunderstorm was going to pass to the South. I worked around the North side of the small island with various jigs and a the Horny Toad and only caught 1 small pike. After that I headed to some docks and the reeds off the North Point of Channel Inn Bay. I picked a couple of 12inch bass off the docks on a Strike King Z-Too and then it was into the reeds. I had a really good bite from what I believe was a big bass on the Horny Toad but I didn't muscle the fish like I should have and it buried itself in the reeds and got off. I think I caught 1 or 2 small bass from the reeds and had several strikes from small pike. Once it was clear the reeds were not going to be very productive I worked the rice on the NW shore of Channel Inn bay. I don't think I even had a hit in the Rice.

It was now after 7PM and I needed to make a move. I decided on hitting the NW corner of the lake where there is a mix of reeds, rice, and some pads. It wasn't that bad of a choice as I had my best action of the night getting 8 or 9 bass and a couple of pike with several more strikes. I pretty much went with the Horny Toad and Bully Wa to get these fish.

In 5 hours of fishing I got 15 bass and 4 pike, but I had at least 10 more strikes from what I am sure where little pike.
Bass in order caught: 13,15.25,13.5,13,12.5,12,12.75,13.75,13,13.25,15,14,13.75,12,11.5

Story: I almost forgot. I had a little bass take the Bully Wa frog. Before I set the hook sometimes I feel to make sure the fish is there and I was doing that when this 11 inch bass shoots about 3 feet into the air and spits the Bully Wa up another couple of feet. It was quite remarkable.

Froggy Went a-Catchin' Parts 1 & 2

Dean Rojas talks frog fishing @ Bassmasters.com

Froggy Went a-Catchin

Rojas, Frogs, and Bass

Kirby Puckett Tribute & Frogs

FLW Kirby Tribute
Powerline Tribute
Game Six: The Stuff of Legend Jim Souhan, Star Tribune
Reusse Tribute

BP's Tribute:I may not have gotten to a lot of Twins games when Kirby was a player, but I went to enough of them to wintess Kirby at his Hall of Fame best. Robbing home runs, throwing guys out at the plate, driving in the game winning run, stealing a crucial base. On TV, and through the radio, I witnessed Kirby do all that and so much more. Kirby was a true hero to me and so many other Minnesocoldian's. I read Kirby's book, collected his baseball cards and loved to hear him interviewed because the guy was so funny to listen too.

I was plenty aware that Kirby loved to fish, whether it was pictures of him at Little Jim's Bait Shop in Annandale or the tales told by Spike at Gander Mountain. Hopefully Spike at Living the Dream will eventually share some of his favorite Puckett stories.

Godspeed Kirby.

On BassFan Radio: Minnesota Pro Mark Fisher of Bear Facts and Fish Tales and Rapala is inteviewed. He talks about development of new products (Rapala) for the bass fishing enthusiast and their pro staff.

I really like the look of those new flat sided baits, if they catch fish anywhere near as well as the X-Rap than I'll be a happy camper. I am quite partial to those flat siders in the early part of the season.

Frogger:

There's a saying in bass fishing: "You can't win with the frog, but you can sure as heck lose with it." It's the mafia bait – first your friend, then your worst enemy. Why? Lost fish. Dump a 9-pounder on day 4 of an event and you'll remember it for the rest of your life. But today in Texas, at the Amistad Bassmaster Elite Series, Ish Monroe won with a lot of help from the frog.

Get the rest of the story on Ish Monroe and Fred Roumbanis who were Amistad Frogging Fools. Dean Rojas also said he was frogging it.

BTW-This year, I plan to throw frogs more than I ever have. Horny Toads, Sizmic's, Snag Proofs and Spro's; maybe I'll even pick up a Swamp Donkey if I see one.