GOMH Today (1/25/26)

 

Totally Iced Up

My P/S Juice in 2025

 2025 was a bounce back after tougher fishing in 2024. Platte Lake is on the road to recovery after the winterkill in 2023. Here is where I caught my fish in 2025. Primarily bass and pike. The number in the circle is the number of fish caught there.

First up is for the trips I fished in both lakes during the trip.

My Platte map shows I caught a bunch of fish off the dock, which is on the East side of the lake. That the fishing on F Flat has gone to crap, and that Big West Bay was more than just a flash in the pan. Big West was alive with life. And that I caught a fair number of fish on docks, which hardly happened in 20204.

And lastly, there is Sullivan, which doesn't get many trips all by itself: 

Aqua Vu Search On Sully Comes Up Almost Empty

 

9:00-10:40 AM Sullivan Lake

24-36℉, Cloudy, 8-25mph

I went to the NW Access in Sullivan. It was about 36 degrees out. I had plenty of water in the Fish Trap, but no way to get it out. I wasted some time trying. I then went over to Jaimen's Corner and drilled holes from deeper to shallower.  I then started in the deepest hole with the Aqua-Vu. I didn't see any life, so I jigged the camera a couple of times on the bottom and that called in a decent-sized walleye. I then scoped the rest of the holes with Aqua Vu. I didn't have any confidence in a single walleye sighting, so I kept covering ground and checking holes with Aqua-Vu. I did that until I started getting cold and the wind came up. With the cold front and heavy winds moving in, I called it a day.  I never did open the rod case to fish. I'm amazed, I only saw one fish. I worked the break and weedline, also the break with rubble.

3/29 Platte/Sullivan, GOMH, and Rock

Ice Jam at the GOMH Platte

Platte Lake Access

Rock Looking North

Rock Looking South, still plenty of ice

NW Access Sullivan

Sullivan Inlet

Sully Inlet Dirt Access

5:10-5:20pm Rock Access

5:50-6:25PM GOMH SW

33℉, Cloudy some sprinkles, 10-20mph NE

I checked out Bulldog first still 80% locked up. Then I went to Rock. Saw an Eagle. I fished for about 15 minutes. I'd say maybe 50% of Rock still has ice. I drove North Platte Lake Drive. Don's Bay is completely ice-free. Our bay was over 50% ice-free. The North Bay 80% still covered. Not much ice left in Big West, and I think that ice flow down by the GOMH is what is left on the southern end of the lake. I was not feeling it tonight, so I only fished until 6:30. I drove down the West side of Sullivan, which I would say was 50 to 60%  ice-free. 

Tomorrow or Monday at the latest for ice out.

BP"s 2024 Bass Lure of The Year

 

With Platte Lake in its second year of recovery from the 22/23 Winter Kill and me struggling to stay on the bass in Sullivan, it made for the most challenging bass fishing I've experienced in years.  There was a period from the MN Fishing Opener to when the rice came up in early June when the Houdini-colored Z-Man Turbo FattyZ was 🔥. Then the bite just collapsed when the shiner minnows moved deep. I caught the vast majority of 153 bass on the FattyZ in that window. It was the only lure I caught a hundred bass on for the year. I did catch 258 bass on frogs and toads, but that was spread out over about 20 different lures. Here is to hoping that bass fishing in 2025 improves.

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.

GOMH & P/S(3/28/24)

 

Cool sunny day. Platte is ice-covered. Just a little open water at the GOMH. I'd say they got 13/14" at the lakes. Will be interesting to see how much the lake levels rise next week.

GOMH & Platte Iced Up Again(3/27/24)

 

We got about a foot of snow from Sunday to Tuesday and much to my amazement, that combined with the cold on the back half of the storm was enough to refreeze the GOMH area and all of Platte Lake. Sullivan and Long still had open water. I didn't check Bulldog or Rock.  I'm thinking the lake will be open by Easter Sunday. 

Super Bowl Sunday @ GOMH

 

I dropped by the Lake Place for a quick visit with Bella and Bean stopping at the Grumpy Old Man Hole on my way home. Current has expanded the amount of open water despite the cold temps last night. There were three trucks at Bulldog, nobody at Rock, and a couple fish houses back out on Sully. It looks like it's going to be a cool, not cold, and dry rest of the month. With no snow, the ground will thaw and soon begin to retain heat which leads to ice melting from underneath. I doubt I've got a month left of ice fishing before the shoreline is trash.

Giving Up My Platte/Sullivan Juice For 2023

I just discovered that the Fish Swami App offers me yearly, monthly, and hourly maps of the general location of the fish I caught in the time frame of my choosing. There is no breakdown for fish species, but this year I was pretty much a 50/50 split between pike and bass this year. So here is where I caught them in 2023. 

This map was my Platte/Sullivan trips in which I fished both lakes.

Just my Platte Lake trip fish numbers

My Only Sullivan Lake trip fish numbers

In the coming days, I will do a post contrasting where I caught fish in 2023 vs. 2022, when I mainly was still fishing in Platte Lake.

Platte/Sullivan Trips: 922 fish caught

Platte Lake Trips: 345 fish caught (Probably 80/20 split pike to bass)

Sullivan Lake Trips: 404 fish caught.

 

Some Frogging Success And Then I Sucked

 

7:45-9:30PM Sullivan

74-80℉, PC, 0-4mph ENE

I started late due to not taking my meds when I originally went to bed instead of 4 AM. I got out of bed in the afternoon but was at turtle speed through the time I headed to the lake. I decided to fish the NE INT in Sullivan. I didn't get a bite for the first 15 minutes. Then I had two fish boil and not get the frog. Put the next three bites in the boat. I then had my next 4 bury me in the reeds. They shut down at the NE INT. I tried the SW INT, but too much wind. I quickly ran to the N SPRO, which was almost entirely dead. I finished at the River Mouth, where I missed a boil. The motor got bogged down as I headed out. Then it didn't run right until I got to Platte, where I got her up to speed. Dad suggested new spark plugs.

3Bass 

1Pike 

Ice Off Platte, Sullivan, Rock, and The Dog

Slush and Candles at Platte Lake Access tonight

What it looked like this morning

Slush and Candles East of GOMH

With the way the wind blew today, I think Sully went first. The ice all got pushed to the South and East overnight and was about to get beat up once the wind picked up. 

Rock this morning was slush

Rock Open tonight

The Dog this morning

The Dog Tonight

GOMH Yesterday and Today (Minnow Struggle)

 

Yesterday

The Sullivan Sign was back up. Didn't even notice it as I took a quick pick, then was on my way to Brainerd for the Snatchers Banquet.

Slightly more open today

A little bit of bare ground on the hillside

Dead fish & fish struggling to breathe at the surface.
Something I've never witnessed here and an ominous sign.

It's gonna be a while before the North side of the bridge is snow free.

Hopefully, open water here by April 1st

2022 MN Fishing Opener With Todd In the Evening

 

 Skunked (Some natives were fishing at the North Jetty when I arrived at 11:30PM and not getting anything. One small eye was swimming around and a boat was out bobber fishing and I think getting fish. I quickly bailed on the North Jetty for the South as some guys with a boat set up on Center Jetty. A little bit of activity on South, but nothing close in so I could track with the fish. I texted Brett and he told me they hammered 'em at the GOMH. I bailed at 2:15 am. I stopped at Kathio Bridge and listened to loons calling.) 

GOMH:

Skunked (Nobody was there when I arrived just after 4AM. Put on the rubbers and headed down on the NE side. WHG showed up as I was getting settled. There was a lot of baitfish activity, but I couldn't buy a bite. Made the executive decision to head to the Trophy at 4:30 AM)

First Legal Bass of 2022 Mini-Max (Fire Craw)

Big Bass of the Day at the GOMH

(Skies looked dark but I sent it anyway. Hit something as I was steaming toward the small Island. The motor sputtered but didn't lose much speed. Got to the River Mouth; first and only boat. Got a 10" on the Mini-Max. Started getting some fish on the SBKO. As the front approached I missed 7 or 8 bites. The front passed only raining for a couple of minutes. Got fish on jerks, chatters, craw tubes, paddletails. Seems like I would get a couple of fish then need to switch up. Wasn't real efficient with my business. The sun came out and wind came up out of the South. I made my way across the SPRO, but it was really blowing so I called it a morning.)

20Bass 3Pike 

 (Stopped at the GOMH on my way home. Nobody was there so I headed down with 3 rods. Craw tube got bit off before I could catch anything on it. Had multiple hits on the the craw, Grass Pig, and a couple of Chatters. Fish just not getting it good today. Had a lot of misses in the boat. Got my biggest of the morning in the Pirahana 2, but left the scale at the lake. Mother nature called so I bounced.)

3 Jump

(4 Rods with me, 5 casts per rod on the SW side with a few bonus casts resulted in 7 jumpers before I headed to the lake place as Todd was finishing up with the dock decking.)

7Jump 

Todd's first bass of 2022, 1st fish was a pike

 (Todd started off on fire at the River Mouth. I talked to Chuck Steinbauer who is coming down to fish P/S tomorrow. We worked our way East into Platte. Nothing was going on in CIB other than at the dock just beyond the Abrahamson's where Todd got a 3lber. So I jumped us back to the river mouth after nothing at the juice. We got a few more bass. Good trip. Todd was headed home before I was done loading the boat.)

Todd: 15Bass 1Pike, Me:12 Bass

Todd: 15Bass 1Pike

Me: 42 Bass 3 Pike

Total Fish: 57 Bass 4 Pike