Will This Be My Last Bass of 2023?

 Will this 2lber I got just outside of Jaimen's Reeds on a Big Blade Chatterbait be my final bass of 2023?

Quite possible, here is the long-term forecast:

I'm keeping the Trophy in the lake, but it's gonna be cold water unless I go tonight, which I don't plan on doing right now.

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.  

Wired2Fish on Fishing Largemouth In River Rice

 What I got from this video is using the Tokyo Rig and 2' foot in 2' out of the grass rule. This video could be helpful to me on Pokegama, the Mississippi River, and Gull River among other places. 

2018 Fishing Goals Met

My goal was to catch at least 1,000 largemouths in 2018. On August 5th I caught my 1,000th one.

The smallmouth front is looking pretty pathic this year.  I haven't caught one yet.

I also surpassed my goal of 500 pikes for the year sometime late in July.

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

Two 4lbers Last Night

4.23lbs/18.66" Terminator Frog

4.67lbs/19.75" Terminator Frog

A little camera trickery makes the first fish seem bigger.  It definitely was fatter.  Had the 19.75" been similarly built it would have been over 5lbs easy.  I also lost a big one between catching these two fish.

Yesterday's Full Fishing Report: GOMH & Mille Lacs

Yes, once again it is time for Devin's Birthday Bullhead 

5:15-7:30AM GOMH NE SW SE, Bulldog
Conditions: Low 40's, Mostly Cloudy, Windy NE

Another beautiful sunrise that there is no way I would have seen had it not been for Devin's birthday.  I was dog tired and really was dragging this morning.  It took me a full hour from wake up to be out at the lake.  Normally it takes about 20-25 minutes tops.  I thought with the temps only getting down into the low 40's that maybe the bullheads would be stacked up and chewing on the North side.  Wasn't the case.  I was lucky to get the one.

16.5" Pure Poison/Swim Fluke Jr. (white)

She thumped it good on the third cast.  I had a dink jump and get off the Jerk Shad. I also got three toothy's in quick succession on the Jerk Shad on the North side before deciding I had enough of that.  I went to the SW side and got nothing.  I did have a fish hit at the Gunfish 117 a few times when I was on the SE side. I briefly went to the access at Bulldog.  What a lousy morning of fishing!
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Nasty Conditions on the Pond

8:30-10:00P Mille Lacs North Jetty Corner
Conditions: Low 40's, Cloudy light rain and mist, Quite windy out of the East, 3 to 4 foot roller coming in.

I had originally planned to be at Mille Lacs tonight by 7:30PM.  But we had kind of a late supper and I had other distractions.  I didn't leave the house until 7:30 and then I had to stop at the lake place to pump water out of the boat.  I threw out a few casts off the dock while that was happening and didn't get anything.  That took until about 8:05 when I then headed to Mille Lacs.

15" Rippin' Rap

Due to the wind direction and rain the North Jetty corner was my only option.  I only took two rods out of the car, 6'8" St. Croix Avid and 7' Mojo.  I started out throwing the Grass Pig.  Didn't get a bite on that.  I then tried 3 different colors of Rippin Raps before getting my first fish of the night on the perch color.  That was the only hit I got on the Rippin Rap.  I then tried an X-Rap and didn't get a hit on that.

22.5" Jerk Shad (Chart Shad)

It was now after 9 and quickly getting dark.  I switched to a Jerk Shad.  I tried a slow retrieve with pauses and sure enough a nice walleye wanted it.  I also got a fish on the very next cast.

17" Jerk Shad

 About 5 minutes later I had a good one hit really close to the Jetty.  She was shaking her head and got off, bummer deal.  About 10 minutes later I got a cigar when I went to a slow retrieve, no pause.

12.5" Jerk Shad

It was about 5 minutes to 10 when I got my last one of the night and the biggest.

23" Jerk Shad

Darn rules shut me down and my night was done.

Trophy Is On the Water And Working

In the water, lousy picture

4:00-7:15PM Rock Lake (Rock Platte Outlet Bay)
Conditions: 54-48℉, Mostly Sunny, Windy out of the NW, (Water Temp 54-47℉)

So I remembered I forgot the camera I prefer to use when I was half way to the lake.  Then on the drive in to access the bolt that was holding the back of the fender on the driver side broke. Fortunately it didn't touch the tire.  I duct taped it up.  Then I put the trolling motor wires on backwards, Doh!  I was like great the trolling motor doesn't work, but then I noticed my bonehead move.  Put them on the right way and it works.

The motor started just fine and ran great.  I marked a point that comes out on the NW side then went into the RPO Bay.  As I worked my way back I started seeing baitfish.  Some pads were half way to the surface already.  I started seeing some sunfish and a few bass.  It was tough to see in the wind and there is only about 2 and a half feet of visibility as it is. Finally I caught a sunny.

7" T.H.E. Jig

You can see in the top picture how shallow I was fishing in the hay.  Another 6 inches would really help things out.  Baitfish were all over the place.  Fish in the wind and the hay proved difficult.  I got a bass and a 17" pike on the Cubby & minnow.

14.25" Cubby & Minnow.

I saw a big snapper and a spawning pike.  I got a few more sunfish down by the beaver dam and that is where I got the pike and the bass as well..

7" THE Jig

On my way out I spotted one small crappie.

4 Sunfish
1 Pike
1 Bass

My Eventful Valentines Day Trip To Rock

16" VMC Fly Jig w/Maki Jamei (purple) & spike

I had a close call on the way to the lake this morning with some deer.  I was really lucky to the first one crossed so far in front of the others, so I slowed way down quickly.  I had to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting the second one.  There were several other deer in the ditch looking at me.  Whew!

7:15AM-1:30PM Rock Lake mostly at my spot.
Conditions: 31-28℉, Mostly Sunny, Windy to Very Windy NW, waypoint holes to 11'

When I first got out of the truck

I fished in the morning because of the forecast for high winds in the afternoon and evening.  The plan was to fish with my old Aqua-Vu so I drilled out the waypoint holes first thing.  I sent the transducer down the hole and immediately was marking fish.  I sent down a minnow on the Glow Demon and was bit immediately.  I maybe got a little anxious with the hook set and lost the fish and minnow halfway up.  I quickly put on another minnow and immediately got bit again.  I landed a 9.5" crappie and thought to myself.  It's AWWWWWWWWWWN.  By the time I got the next minnow down the crappies had moved on.  That was my only crappie for the morning.  I saw one other come through on the camera.

7" Tubby Jig w/Jamei and wax

 I started getting some sunfish and also had spottail shiners nibbling at me.  The sunfish started only pecking and staring at my bait and a few perch showed up as well.  I had a pike come in a couple of different times, but it didn't show any interest in hitting my baits.

I went and drilled holes on the four-hole house spot and in 11' of water.  There was nothing but perch in the four-hole spot, so I moved on to the shallow spot.  I was seeing perch and had a small pike come through once again showing no interest in hitting my baits.  The wind started cranking up and I was just about to give up when a bass appeared out of nowhere (it came in from behind the camera) and came in and hit the Fly.  I set the hook and she immediately started peeling line (2lb test Gamma).  I went to pull the transducer out of the hole and the Fish Trap started moving so I had to sit down immediately.  It was a real challenge getting the transducer out of the water.  I thought the bass was possibly hung on the Aqua-Vu cable because something didn't feel right, so I pulled that up as well.  The bass finally came up the hole.

16"

I stayed and fished for another hour hoping another bass might come through, but all I saw was perch.

I then decided to tow the Fish Trap just to the South of the access.  I fished there in 11' to 6' of water and didn't see any activity on the Vex.

I brought the Fish Trap back to the truck to pack up.  It was pretty warm out so I wrote in my notebook when I quit fishing and went to put my jacket in the truck and pulled the iPod out of my pocket so I could continue to listen to it while I broke things down.  I decided to reposition one of my pole clips, then got everything in the car.  I went to put the iPod back in my jacket's inner pocket and my cell phone wasn't there.  What?  Crap!

I went and looked around the holes I had been fishing, nothing.  I went back to the truck and my notebook wasn't in the pocket either.  I could have sworn I put it back in the pocket.  I looked around outside and didn't see anything.  I was really puzzled.  I was in a semi-protected area and it wasn't really windy enough there for my notebook to get blown away.  I got in the truck to go and drive back to where I started to look for the phone.  I grabbed to inspect my jacket one more time.  That is when I realized there are interior pockets on both sides of the Ice Armor Jacket, not just one like the Arctic Armor jacket.  The phone and notebook were right where I left them. Doh!

1 Bass
2 Crappie
2 Pike
5 Spottail Shiners
12 Sunfish
14 Perch

1st Ice Fishing Trip of 2017(1-22-17)

17.5" VMC Fly Jig w/Maki Jamei and maggie

9:00AM-1:30PM Rock Lake My Spot 14'-17'
Conditions: 34 degrees, Cloudy and fog in the morning, light W wind, sloppy and wet on the ice

Sloppy and Wet

With the warm weather we have been having my motivation meter finally started ticking up and so today was the day I put it all together and got out.  There wasn't much going on at Rock Lake and two parties pulled their permanents off of the lake today.  I'm taking that to mean the bite hasn't been very good out there this winter compared to other area lakes.

I had a thought before I started drilling holes that since I didn't have any minnows all I needed was a single hole instead of my usual double.  I found one open hole in the area but that was it.  I didn't really look to hard to see if there were any others.  I think I drilled 6.  I started in the farthest North.  And my first fish for 2017 was a...

1st Fish of 2017

Bluegill on a VMC Tungsten Fly Jig w/white Maki Jamei with a spike

All I got in the first hole was sunfish and they were finicky.  My line on the VMC Fly's rod was getting caught on the spool where I tied to the backing.  I took the time to get the not put at the very bottom of the spool where it is less likely to catch.  Turns out that was a good thing I did that.  

In the second hole I busted the bass first thing after not getting a hit with fish down it on the Rippin' Rap.

17.5" VMC Fly w/Maki Jamei and spike

Not where it was actually hooked

The way the bass ran I thought I had a decent sized pike on.  I was pleasantly surprised it was a bass seeing as how I didn't catch a single one out there last winter.  That fish made my trip.

I also caught some perch.

7.5" Rippin' Rap

This was the only bite I had on the Rippin Rap.

I was satisfied I knocked the rust off and packed up at 1:30PM.  I should have moved around more quickly and drilled a few more holes.

1 Bass
6 Perch
12 Sunfish