Ice Fishing Personal Best Pike Tonight

 Unfortunately, the bugger flopped out of the cradle and found the hole when I was reaching down to grab it for a selfie.

I Caught A New Personal Best Walleye, Last Night(10/29/25)

 

29"/9.12lbs Frenzy Diving Minnow (Brown Craw)

It is not the dirty 30',10lb fish that I have been after for more than 30 years now. But it's a half inch bigger than my previous PB, which was 28.5". I recall that I caught a few that size night trolling on Mille Lacs.I think the biggest one I ever got from shore at Eddy's was 27" something. It is possible that I have caught a low 9lb fish out of Mille Lacs, but back when I night trolled frequently, I didn't carry a scale and never believed one that I caught would go ten pounds. So this is my offical and documented walleye PB. 

Todd's PB Pike(10/26/25)

5.59lbs Northland, Indiana Blade/Goat

 Todd brought his pontoon back up today to put it in storage, and we pulled the pontoon lift up on shore. It was windy out of the SE. I decided to run West of Platte Lake Access. Todd got the personal best pikewhere the Melon patch Trough end. Pike were stacked in that spot today. I hadn't cleared my scale yet, so I'm not 100% possitive 5.59lbs is the correct weight.

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

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.

New Fishing Goals for 2021, Preview #3

 

Comes from the crappie category and I have already achieved it. Every crappie I catch from now until the end of 2021 will be a new personal best for the number of crappies caught in a year 

Personal Best LMB

 

6.26lbs/20.25"

I got it on the then forever-to-be-dubbed 6lb Flat. I caught it on a Big Sexy Mad Maxx.

Not The Morning I Expected, But It's All Good (PB SMB)

20.5" Whopper Plopper (Bone)

4:30-6:30AM GOMH NE SE
7:00-9:00AM Mille Lacs Eddy's Jetty N

After last night's trip to the Grumpy Old Man Hole, I was quite confident when I headed out this morning.  I was a little stunned when forty minutes into fishing the NE side I hadn't even had a sniff and a panfish fisherman showed up and took the SW side.  I switched to the SE side where I have to cast to my right/backhand to get under the bridge.  Also, the casting angles aren't nearly as good because of the way the vegetation and rocks are.  I had one toothy swipe at my Chigger Craw.  After about 20 minutes nothing was happening so I went back to the NE side.  I saw a 17" toothy and sub 10" jumper.  I threw a Spro Frog in the rice, not even a hit, and nothing under the bridge either.  I packed up to leave at 6:30 having not caught anything.

I pointed the KIA towards Mille Lacs, hoping that the rumors I'd been hearing about the smallies going on topwater would work out for me.  With smallmouth, I never know if they are going to be at my main shore fishing spot or not.  I found out on my first cast.

12.5" Whopper Plopper

Yeah, it was a small fish, but it hit topwater and got the skunk off.  About 15 minutes later I got another one.

14.5" Whopper Plopper

About 15 minutes later I got the big one.  I was really hoping it was gonna go 21 inches.  I couldn't decide what I wanted to do to land it as it was to the North of the harbor mouth.  I was unable to steer it into the harbor, so I ended up shimming down a large semi slippery slab where I was able to grab the fish.

 I couldn't see the screen to know I had taken a bad picture and the camera went on the fritz.  A lady and her husband were down front and offered to take a picture for me.  I got the camera to work right again and got the one good pic and one's better than none.  I had to hold the fish upright for about a minute before it swam off.

Clouds moved in and I think I got one hit on the loon colored Plopper that didn't hook up.  At 9AM it started thundering and threatening rain so I left.

Personal Best Crappie

 

14.25"

What A Day at the Grumpy Old Man Hole

(Click Picture to Enlarge to See the Heron on the 1st Dock)

I arrived at the Grumpy Old Man Hole at 5am just in time to see the Moon set and about 20 minutes later the sunrise.  It was a cold morning with temps close to freezing when I arrived.  The fishing was slow but I managed a few bullheads.  These two were the biggest and both were caught on the Powerbait Ripple Shad.

22"

16.75"

I also caught fish on a Frenzy crankbait and Pure Poison.  I left at 8:30AM

Evening Conditions:  Mostly clear and cool/cold with the wind blowing out of the NW

In the evening I arrived at 8:45PM.  There were a few boats fishing in close on the SW side apparently getting silver bullheads.  The South side had 4 guys fishing it.  I talked to the guy on the bridge fishing for golden bullheads.  All he got were a couple of jumpin' bullheads.  I took a few casts next to him then went to the NE side.  I got a jumpin bullhead fishing on the NE side right away on the swamp gas Grass Pig then it slowed down.  I went up on the bridge and captured the Moon rise.

The fish started hitting.  I got 4 more jumpin bullheads on the Grass Pig fishing off the bridge.  After the 4th one I decided to stay down on the NE side where I was landing them when I got hit by a big fish.  It came up and semi jumped so I saw it was a very good jumpin bullhead.  When I got my thumb on it's lip, I was like, "Dang, this IS A Good One! "

It went just over 21 inches on my Rapala ruler.  I had to go to the car to get my Rapala Spring scale which I am carrying with me this year.  It had her at just over 6.5lbs.  This may very well be my personal best MN bass.  I did catch a 21" out of Platte in 2003 or 2004 that was similar sized but had a gut full of food, not food and eggs.

While I was landing the fish another car with two guys showed up and they went down on the NW side and got a golden bullhead right away.  Not to be out done I got me a golden bullhead and then a toothy bullhead.

19"

23"

At 10pm I decided to call it a night.  Everything was caught on the swamp gas Grass Pig in the evening.