Silver Bullheads Moved In(3/14/24)

13" Demon/Minnow

14" Cubby

 Silvers finally moved in. I got the first one over by the Beaver Dam. I was just about to leave when I missed a bite. I then stayed until I ran out of minnows. Catching 2 more silvers and missing 7 more bites. A Bow Fishing Boat came through and I shined two eyes on the Platte side before I left.

2022 Top Lure: The Glow Demon

 

2021 was the year of T.H.E. Jig, a small panfish hair jig.

2022 was the year of the Glow Demon and Crappie Minnow, and it wasn't even close. This combo was my most productive lure in a year, catching me 721 fish, unseating T.H.E. Jig, which brought in 701 fish in 2021. T.H.E. Jig came in second this year, catching me 367 fish. As I said, it was a blowout.

Here is the breakdown of what I landed on the Glow Demon: 

 

  

Thank You, January!

My motto on a hot bite is to strike when the iron is hot. The bite was hot in January almost every time I went out. The minimum number of fish caught per hour during a trip last month was 6.4 fph, the only trip I took in the morning. The lowest fish per hour number for the evening trips was 11 fph. I set records for the number of crappies caught in a month and a year (865), average fish caught per hour in a month (15.74), and the average number of fish caught per trip in a month, 54.3, which blows away the previous record of 33.25, which was set last year. Crappie Minnows on a Bear Trax Glow Demon was the top producer with 379 fish. I have a minnow down at all times and when a pod comes through that wants minnows, that is all I have time to fish.

Another incredible fact about this January is that crappie were the only fish I landed all month in over 55 hours of fishing. I saw a few pike and one small sunfish on the camera and got bit off a couple of times.

1st Fish of 2022 Caught January 4th

 

This is actually the 2nd Fish

First Trip, First Fish, BOOM!

Got 22 Crappies for the trip. Missed quite a few bites as well. Full report at the Log Blog 

Some Silver On the 7th

 

12" THE Jig/Minnow (G/Pink)

Had my crap in order tonight, and Bear Trax got minnows. I got a couple silvers to pull my bobber under.

I Gots Me A Bullhead

7" Cubby Mini-Mite/Minnow

6:30-9:30AM GOMH, Bulldog, Rock
38-44℉, Partly Cloudy, 3-8mph W

So I took my first-morning open water trip of 2020 this morning.  I got a bite, finally. It was none other than a tiger bullhead; First time that has ever happened for a first fish in open water.  I got it on the SE side.  John W. showed up as I was posting to Instagram.  I ended up getting his phone # before he left.
I was back on the SW side ad I made a cast into the hay area.  The bobber was drifting at a steady pace in the wind when it just stopped moving and turned sideway.  Thinking it was caught on a weed I didn't set the hook.  I'm pretty sure I rolled a big jumper because I saw a lot of white.  That was my last bite.

I also tried Bulldog and Rock without any success.

In the afternoon I vacuumed out the Trophy and discovered some treasure I had given to Steve three years ago that he left in Florida when he moved up here the first time. Two Madd Maxx Frogs (Big Sexy and Bluegrass).

I should have done this last year before I put it in the garage

Score

Clear at Jenny's

Heavy Wave with a brisk SW Wind

The vacuuming took longer than expected.  It was filthy and I had to stop for a break to get something to eat.  Steve gave me an energy bar that did the trick.  After I was done I went down to the boathouse and discovered the rods that I accidentally left there last winter.  I had intended to go back and get them late last Fall, but it slipped my mind.

Because I didn't get out of there until after 5 o'clock I went straight home rather than fish.  I ended up eating a Porky Burger which held me up until after 7PM.  When I crossed 27 conditions turned nasty fast.  Heavy snow and wind.  I was like dang.  By the time I got to Church the sun was beginning to poke out.  I went to Bulldog first, nothing biting.  It looked like ice was still on 40-50%.  Then I went to Rock briefly, the ice was out.  I drove Platte Lake drive and could see ice in the North Bay and some along the NW side of the Big Island.  I then drove to the Platte Lake Public Access which was totally ice-free, so Platte Lake ice out is official at Bass Pundit

 

Son of a ******

Even though it was after 8PM and fast getting dark I made the decision to try going fishing in the snow.  I turned onto the Grumpy Old Man Hole road at Richardson Corners.  About a 1/4 mile down I had to brake really hard to avoid hitting a deer. The back seat that is up and supposed to prevent the minnows from tipping over wasn't locked in place and gave way.  The minnow bucket spilled over with such force that the latch gave way and the top of the bucket came completely off.  So basically I had a catastrophic failure of the two things that are supposed to prevent this from happening.  When I looked back and saw minnows flitting around I reached back, got the minnow bucket upright and proceeded immediately to the GOMH.  There I discovered only 2 minnows and very little water left in the minnow bucket.  I spent over half an hour trying to get all the minnows.  Not an easy task under the passenger side front seat of the Kia.  I decided fishing was out and headed home.

I managed to find 2 more minnows when I got home.  Hopefully I got them all.

Well that sucked!  

1st Bass of the Year Tonight

14" Cubby Mini-Mite w/Minnow

I don't know why the sky is washed out.  That wasn't all I caught tonight at Rock.

Fishing with Mike Carlson

3:30-6:00PM
Same as the past two days, slightly winder, slightly colder

Today I took out Mike Carlson, a former small group leader from my high school days at Hope Presbyterian Church, fishing.  Mike had never ice fished using a flasher before.  Turns out he really didn't care for "video game" fishing.  It started out kind of slow with Mike getting a couple of small perch and a sunfish.

Glow Demon w/spikes

I didn't get a picture of the sunfish because I was out hole hopping at the time looking for sunfish.  He caught a perch and a sunfish blind.  After I found out he got a sunfish I went in the house with him.  I caught 1 perch. Sometime close to 5PM I got the first crappie.

9"  Demon w/spikes

Pretty quickly after that Mike was bringing up his first on his rod with a minnow on a plain hook.

8" 

We caught fish pretty steadily over the next hour or so until we packed up around 6:00PM.  We fished out of three holes. Two with bobbers and minnows for Mike and me with the Vex with a Demon and maggies.  We had one double.

All Was Pretty Quiet On New Years Day

11.5" T.H.E. Jig w/ Waxie

3:00-6:00PM
28 degrees, breezy out of the WNW, Sunny
35' feet down over around 50' of water

I used the window of warmer weather to go out fishing rather than go into the cities to celebrate my older brothers birthday.  Sorry Jeff, if it would have been colder I would have been there.  I went to the place I went the second time I was to this lake.  It was a lot slower between less fish marked and them being on the finicky side.

 The first fish of the New Year was the 11.5", followed immediately by it's partner that took a minnow.  I got 3 more out hole hoping with T.H.E. Jig.  Fortunately pulling the Trap wasn't nearly as difficult today.  It was much easier coming back when the wind was at my back.

5 Crappies.

New Unnamed Area Lake

10.75" T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:00-7:00PM
34 degrees some sleet and snow mild North wind
30' or so feet down over 50' or so feet of water

When I arrived there was a guy leaving who was fishing with his kids right by the access.  He was only there for maybe 20 minutes and the kids wanted to go.  He didn't really have any info for me.  He usually fishes on Platte for pike.  He was the only person on the lake and I don't think there was a permanent house on the whole lake.  I went and fished in his holes and a couple of H.S. kids showed up.  They had been getting crappie and they headed north.  I worked the area around the point to the north of the access.  I didn't find any life.  After an hour of that I took the Vexilar and went trolling over the deep water.  I marked a fish, so I went and got my stuff.  When I got there the fish was gone.  I trolled around and marked another fish, so I started drilling holes.  It was about 3:30PM or so before I was fishing.  I put T.H.E. Jig down and had two fish move in immediately.  I caught a 9" which I released.  Then I got the 10.75" which I decided to keep.  That was the biggest fish I got.  I caught 10 fish total, 3 went back.  I think 3 of them went 10" at least.  I got the last three on the Glow Demon and a minnow.  I'll be back.

My last fish of the night:

10" on Glow Demon and a minnow

10 Crappies

Same Lake Different Results

8.5" on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:30-6:30PM
Colder today 21 degrees, Windy out of the North, cloudy, it snowed for a bit

I drilled 4 sets of holes on a line from East to West and started approximately where I ended last night at the eastern most holes.  I couldn't see where any of yesterday's holes were.  I got 4 quick fish on the Demon and a minnow.  The fish were smaller than what I got yesterday.  After the first 4 the crappies got fussy.  I finally got T.H.E. Jig and a Waxie down and got 3 on that.  I wish I had drilled more holes when I first started because when I went to drill again I couldn't get the throttle to work, so I couldn't drill any more holes.  I ended up getting two more after dark on the Demon and a minnow.  The fish just weren't as aggressive as yesterday and I marked far less of them.

9 Crappies 7-9.25"

Unnamed Area Lake

11.25" on T.H.E. Jig and Waxies

2:45-5:45PM
33 degrees Light rain and sleet Windy out of the N NW
20-25' over 31' of water

A little better size than Bulldog.  Got several in the 9.5" range and the 11.25" which was the biggest.  The rain and wind made hole hopping difficult.  I caught my first 14 on T.H.E. Jig's with waxies and the last 7 on a Glow Demon with a minnow.   I plan to go back.

21 Crappies

4 Species at Rock Lake

1:30-6:30PM
32 degrees Cloudy wind 5-10mph out of the SW

Got the auger working today.  The issue was that I didn't have enough gas in the tank yesterday.  I planned to drill holes and then look with the Aqua View.  After about the 5th hole it ran out of power.  I didn't see any fish.  The first fish I got into were perch.  They were in almost every hole, so they wasted my time.  At about 4:15 I got to what was going to be my last hole, before I headed to Bulldog.  Low and behold I found some sunfish, so I drilled more holes.

It was getting dark and I forgot I had my sunglasses on.  I wondered why the LED's didn't seem to be putting out the amount of light they did last night .  My bobber with the Glow Demon and Minnow went down and I got a 22" pike on that.

Finally I realized I had my sunglasses on.  I caught one dink crappie.

That was my last fish of the night.

6 Perch
5 Sunfish
1 Pike
1 Crappie

Sullivan Sucked

9.5" on a Glow Demon with Minnow

3:45-7:30pm
30 degrees cloudy 5mph wind out of the SW

I made several wrong calls today.  I went straight out from the West Public Access to where there was only 1 house.  There were 4 or 5 houses about 250 yards to the South.  I started out going to the houses, but decided to go back to the one house area.  I left the hand augers in the car and didn't put more gas in the auger.  It's a pretty good hike out to the spots so I wasn't going to go back and get that stuff.  I had trouble keeping the auger running and it took probably 10 minutes to get a hole drilled.  I was in 40' of water.  I fished with a Grass Pig first.  I didn't see anything so I switched up to a Glow Demon.  I got my only fish on that.  I went to drill another hole to the NE of where I was.  I got it about a 1/3 of the way drilled.  When the guy in the fish house came out and offered to drill holes for me.  I only had him drill 3 holes and only knew the depth at the one where my Trap was sitting in 40'.  Turns out the other holes were in 37' feet.  I got 1 more bite out of the original spot but lost it while taking the transducer out of the hole.  I ended up drilling 2 more holes at around 6:30pm, but they were dead.  I finally left at 7:30pm

I think I'm gonna try Rock tomorrow.

Grumpy Old Men & Crappies

Tonight I had my first grumpy old man sightings. I arrived at the GOMH around 3PM, it was calm and sunny, and some guy switched to the North side when I arrived, so I took up the S.W. side. I saw two minnows swimming along the rocks, but that was it as far as action. Grumpy Old Man Willard showed up around 3:30.

Willard doesn't like to have his picture taken.

Willard told me stories I'd never heard before, and he told me about the C.O. before Kuske, who apparently was a hard ass. Willard said he was taken off his duty because he had many death threats against him. True??? Who knows. Eventually, the foul-mouthed Grumpy Old Man Bud showed up.

A couple of boats came and fished, and a family fished on the S.E. side. Nobody caught anything. I saw a couple of boats coming from the river. The clouds moved in around 5PM. When I left at 5:20, a couple of young guys fishing on the North side with bass sized Rapala's came and took my spot.

I went to Sue's Drive-In with my mom for dinner. I got out to a lake that shall remain nameless around 8PM. I was fishing with my pink Cubby Mini-Mite and got a bite. It was a crappie that really wanted it.

It went 9.75," and I put it in the bucket in case I got a few more. I started tipping the Cubby with a minnow, and  I  got another 9.75 incher about 5 minutes later. I missed a bite then I got an 8" which I threw back. It was getting dark, so I went to get might light for the bobber. When I did, the light fell through a hole in the bottom of the pouch it was in and dropped into the lake. Fortunately, I had another light that was still in its package. Eventually, I switched to Custom Jig and Spins Glow Demon. While I was trying to spot the bobber light on the bottom of the lake, a crappie took down my bobber. I was lucky to catch another 8". That was the last bite I got, so I threw back the two I had in the pail. It was dead calm tonight, and I saw many fish out on the lake that were up by the surface spooking while it was still light out. A beaver was chewing on a tree to my North, about 80 yards that I could see and hear. A small beaver swam around me a few times, occasionally slapping the water with its tail. After dark, the loons were calling, and I heard an owl or two. It was a really lovely night to be out. I left around 10:20PM.

Things Slow at the GOMH Today

I took a trip this morning

and here is my report from tonight

Dad and John W. who got the bullhead

"The juice" only gave up 2 jumpin' bullheads tonight.  One on a purple Frenzy Popper and one on the "Huckleberry"  That was all I got from 8 to 10PM.  Dad managed that one golden bullhead and a silver bullhead on T.H.E. Jig.  I also had a toothy bite off the Grass Pig Jr.  That was it.

GOMH Gold, Mille Lacs Gamble and Back to the GOMH Twice More

15"

This morning I got out to the GOMH around a quarter to 5AM.  It was windy and drizzling out of the NE.  The water has come up near last years high water mark with all the rain fall we have had.  I got a jumpin bullhead, then I got this little golden bullhead on the North side.  I got a couple jumpin bullheads on the South side all on the swamp gas Grass Pig.

I made the decision when I left this morning to try hitting up Eddy's Jetty on Mille Lacs.  I thought with the East winds we've been having that things might pay off.  I got to Mille Lacs a little after 6AM.  I fished to 7:30AM without a bite so I took off.

I stopped back at the GOMH and only got a couple of more bullheads before I quit.

In the evening Dad and I hit the GOMH up again.  I set Dad up with a bobber rig and a Grass Pig rod up on the South side of the bridge.  I kept throwing the Grass Pig. I had a small jumper destroy the swamp gas Grass Pig so I put on a refurbished with Mend-It white one.  I missed several hits before connecting with a 22" toothy bullhead that just choked it.  I got a couple jumpers then I moved to the North side.  All I got there were jumpin bullheads and a bunch more missed hits.

I went up on the bridge to check on Dad and he had gotten a big bass on the swamp gas Grass Pig and missed a few fish with T.H.E. Jig and a minnow.  I took the Jig and got bit off by a toother.  That is when we called it a night around 9:30 or so.

Tomorrow I plan to get the boat out, so I may or may not hit the GOMH in the morning.

No Gold, But Hawgs and a Slabber

This morning I got to the GOMH just after 5AM.  The water was up even higher and the wind was blowing in hard on the North side.  My first fish of the morning was this chunky 19" jumper on the swamp gas Grass Pig.

Later on in the morning I got 20" slob of a jumpin bullhead.

She was probably over 5lbs as that she was full of eggs.

I fished some of the morning for silver bullheads with T.H.E. Jig and a minnow.  I got this minnow of a bullhead.

On the very next cast I got this slabber bullhead.

13"

That was the only decent one I caught.

I went back to the North side and got a toothy bullhead.

22"

I quit fishing at a quarter to 8AM.