3/27 GOMH & Jumpin' Bullheads

 

1st Jumper of 2025 was caught on this Mepps Spinner

4.93lbs Rocket Shad

4.53lbs Mepps See Best Spinner

Dark blue ice and open water out from the GOMH

Bulldog Access

My Juice In 2024

 I do not in any way attribute the disappointing fishing I experienced this year to me sharing my "Juice" last year. This year was just off. The Jumpin Bullhead bite was off at the Grumpy Old Man Hole. The frog and topwater bite were a struggle. 2024 was just off. 

Here is my Juice for 2024

2024 Platte/Sullivan Trips Fish Caught

Sullivan Only Trips

Platte Only Trips

Platte Lake was just brutal for me this year.

Here is the Juice for me in 2024. Where I did my ice fishing:

Sure the panfish and pike are small for the most part, but I got a lot of action.

2022 One Fish Wonders For Bass/Jumpers

 I caught only one bass/jumpin' bullhead on 21 different lures this year. There are 22 baits on the list above; the Big Bite Baits BFE caught 6 Jumpin' bullheads, so it shouldn't be on the list.  

First Open Water Fish of the Year

BAM- Due to a late day trip to Brainerd (see "Bummer"), I did not go fishing at the GOMH until slightly after 8PM. The sun had set by then, and it was getting dark when I arrived. The current was running into Sullivan at a good clip. There was open water as far as the eye could see on the Platte lakeside. At first, I ran the Pink Panther and got nothing. I then switched to a glow Cubby Mini-Mite under a small Wing-It Bobber. The bobber is small and hard to see. I may consider upgrading the bobber size at some point. On the second or third cast, I was giving it the old "Thompson Shake," and I thought I saw the bobber go under, so I set the hook, but nothing was there. I fished the glow Cubby for probably another 15 minutes without any action. Then, when I was bringing it through the bullhead sweet spot, the bobber went down, and I hooked into a hawg. It started pulling drag, and I knew it was no silver bullhead. It didn't take long before it showed itself to be a famous GOMH "Jumpin' Bullhead." It put up a solid fight and swam under the bridge for a while. Once it got back on the Sullivan side, I was able to keep it out of the shoreline cattails and land it. It was between 18.5 and 19.25 inches and fat; I'll call it a 19". I unhooked the Cubby, which was firmly stuck in the upper lip, and released her ASAP. Unfortunately, no camera for pic's again tonight. I tried the Cubby again for a while, then I tried a new bait which I will call The Pink Panzer; it is a close relative of the Pink Panther. After a few casts, I thought I had a fish on for a moment, but then the lure came free. I don't know if it was a fish or if I just snagged the bottom, but I guess it was a fish. I tried the Panzer for about 15 minutes and then returned to the Cubby. It was getting quite dark by now, and I had a tough time spotting that little Wing-It. I didn't get any more action.

"GET ME TO THE LAKE" Local Edition: Long Lake is ice-free!!! I could not tell if Erskine was open or not. Bulldog didn't look like it had opened up much from yesterday. Rock had a fair amount of open water on the North end, and it looked like the main ice sheet had developed a fair-sized chasm of open water.

Platte: In our cabin bay, it was 30% open water, and a chasm had opened up toward the North Shore. The center bay had quite a bit of open water. As mentioned above, the GOMH looked like open water as far as the eye could see. The Public Access Bay still looked pretty locked up with the ice being out from shore from 10 to 30 feet. I suppose there is a shot that tomorrow will be the day I call Platte open, but I guess it will be Friday.

Sullivan: The Platte River Outlet open water is slowly eating away into the lake.

Bummer: This week, I wanted to hit the Brainerd Mills Fleet Farm because the weekly advertisement showed Cubby Rods were "On Sale." This rod is made for fishing Cubby Mini-Mite Jigs. I was delighted to see that I would have another opportunity to purchase one of these spectacular panfish rods. I bought one at Mills a few years back but had yet to see them since. The one I bought got broken at the tip, but I was able to fix it well, and the action of the rod wasn't affected much. The Cubby rod is great because it has an extremely light tip that is fast, but the rod is stiff, not whippy. Long Story short, I looked at every rod in the place, and there were none. I found out that the advertisement was a mistake because they could not get any rods from the manufacturer, so no store had them, and they were not going to get any; bummer!!! At least, that was not the only thing I wanted to pick up from Fleet Farm.

"GET ME TO THE LAKE" MN State edition: Tonka and Whitebear, two of the big metro lakes, are considered ice-free as of today.

Note: In 2006, Platte went out before Tonka; in 2005, they both went on the same day; in 2004, Platte was 3 days later, and in 2007, Platte was 16 days later.

Good Evening at the GOMH (GOM Willard "Bacon" Night)

Fishing Report: Headed to the GOMH at 6:20PM. There were three anglers fishing the SW side. Also at the GOMH was grumpy old man Willard. If he said bacon once, he said it a hundred times over the evening.

Since the SW side was covered with anglers I took the not nearly as nice to fish from SE side. In the first hour I fought two big bullheads but they both jumped me off by slightly bending the cubby hook out. The first hook up was at least a 4lber that jumped numerous times. A lady fishing the SW side said if I gave her the bass to keep, she would give me a couple of brewski's. I think she was half kidding, but then again maybe not.

I landed my first fish, which was a 2lb jumpin bullhead after I had been there about an hour. I was fishing a busted Cubby body with a minnow. I landed two more jumpin bullheads, a 2 and then a 3lber. About 8PM the people on the SW side started getting some action with orange bullheads then by 8:20 some silvers started showing up. I caught an unlucky break when a slimmer broke my line sending my Wing-It bobber into Sullivan Lake. However soon after that my luck changed because the guy and the girl fishing the SW side caught enough fish and packed it up. I immediately took their place.

For the next 20 minutes or so I proceeded to whack and stack silver bullheads on Dad's set up from last night (Chart flu flu and a minnow). Another guy showed up while the action was hot and he immediately started catching them too. As it was starting to get pretty dark the 1st guy left and the action slowed. I put on my lighted bobber and got about 4 more fish. The action slowed the darker it got. I got my last couple of fish on another set up with a Glow Demon. All in all I kept 9 (see pic) and released 3-5.

Word on the street is that Santa Claus Don woke up early and smacked em good in the morning around 6am. He said he also got a 5lb jumpin bullhead.


Classic Bass Pundit: Goings on at GOMH

April 2006 Fishing Log Blog archives...

April 2005 Fishing Log Blog archives...

More Closed Season Vigilanteism at FM.com: Targeting Bass before they are open (Duffman takes a shot at the BP in his post) and Lawbreakers

Hey Duffman, in case you aren't paying attention, I actually do fish for Dogfish. I am the 2004 and 2006 Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champion. I will try and repeat again this year. I think I may have missed a my first doggy of the season the other night. FYI I was fishing for Crappies at the time.

Fishing With Dad at the GOMH

Fishing Report 4/23: It was a nice night of fishing with my Dad at the Grumpy Old Man Hole. There were 2 Grumpy old men (Lee Ander and his brother Lewis). Dad had quite the time chatting with Lee Ander. The weather was a mild 60 degrees with a slight breeze out of the west. We arrived at the GOMH around 6 pm, and several trucks were parked. I thought we would get shut out of the good spot, but as it turned out, only Lee Ander was fishing, and he wasn't catching anything. Dad and I headed down to the SW shore of the GOMH and set up shop.

Dad had a yellow flu flu with a minnow, and I was fishing a white Cubby Mini-mite. Things were slow for the first hour, with Dad missing a couple of bigger fish, probably bass. Eventually, I gave in and tipped my jig with a minnow, and after about 15 minutes, I reeled in a jumpin bullhead of about 15 inches. Not long after, Dad tied into the Jumpin Bullhead in the first picture. It was about 16 inches. I had a fish steal my minnow and Cubby tail. At about 7:45, Dad landed the first silver bullhead. I had a problem with my rod tangled, and before you knew it, Dad had landed three fat specs. When I got my rod situation straightened out, Dad lost his bobber for the 2nd time. This time the bobber was out in current and went bye-bye; we were able to retrieve the bobber the first time it came off. I let Dad use my rod while I rigged his pole. Around the time I was getting Dad's pole ready, our friend Don Weinmeister showed up. Don was using waxies and started catching Silver and Orange bullheads straight away. Dad and I were still catching them but not as fast as Don. I eventually switched to maggies, and the bite for me picked up a little bit between the silver and orange bullheads. The bite was steady until it got too dark for me to see my bobber. We brought home 11 silvers and 1 orange, with a few small silvers and oranges released. Don managed to get 9 silvers. A guy came to fish just as we left; it was quite dark by then.

The Suckers: Stopped by the Rum River, where it runs into Shakopee lake. The suckers are running thick and spawning like crazy. It was a cool site.