GOMH+ Fish Pics (2/23/26)

 

First Fish of 2026 (1/7/26)

 

I finally got out fishing in 2026. I decided to go to Rock instead of Peavy. Ice fishing is such a PITA, when I am in exploring mode. I was inefficient and rusty, wasting good daylight, when I should have just set up when I found a pile of sunfish. 

Erskine Ice and Snow

  

1st trip with Little Buddy Heater

2:45-6:30 PM Erskine Lake 12'

5-18℉, Cloudy/Snow, 6-16mph WNW

There were a couple of trucks at the Access. One had a snowmobile trailer, the other was a pike hunter. The guys with the snowmobile trailer helped me load up in the snow. I went out toward the area where the guy this Spring said he got into a school of bass, which was beyond where the guy with the snowmobile set up. I drilled four holes over about a seventy-yard stretch, then went back and looked with the camera for signs of life. There was only 3 to 4 feet of visibility with the camera, quite a bit of suspended sediment. I saw one small perch in the second hole and a couple of sunfish in the 4th hole, so I set up shop. The Little Buddy fired right up. It wasn't as warm as I expected it to be. I caught a bunch of small perch and saw a crappie or two on the camera, possibly a walleye as well. As it got dark, I caught some small crappies and missed a few as well. It started snowing. Thankfully, the guys with the snowmobile didn't take off, so I had their truck lights to guide me back to the access. They helped me get the smitty up the hill. We talked about the area lakes. They were not really familiar with this area.

4Crip

19YP  

First Ice Trip of 25/26, Rock Lake

 

 4:00-8:00PM Rock Lake 17' of water

12-25℉, Cloudy, 3-9mph NW

I wanted to be out of the house by 2pm, but I couldn't find some things, so I didn't leave until 2:35. I went to Bear Trax and got minnows. There were two trucks at the Rock Access. Then, when I got to the lake and had the car almost unloaded, I remembered I hadn't grabbed the Ion batteries. I thought about using the spud to make my holes, but no. So I drove back home. I stopped along the Rock Access Rd to talk to a couple of ladies with kids. Turns out it was one of J&D's cashiers from a couple of years ago. There was a big flock of turkeys I had to stop for both ways. So I didn't get back to the lake until 3:15 or so. The ice checked out. I drilled 3 sets of 3 holes in 17' of water. I didn't mark anything until the 3rd set. A guy came out in Fish Trap and set up to my NW. He stayed late and only drilled a few times. I wonder if he had ffs. I should have gone over and talked with him. I lost one small crappie at the hole, but wasn't marking much. I drilled 3 more sets of 3. I didn't mark anything in them, so I headed back to one set where I did mark fish and spent the rest of the night there. I got a few crappies and lost at least 2/3rds of my bites, even on the bobber rod. It was slow with fish down there occasionally. They seemed skittish for the most part. There may have been some sunfish and perch down there as well after dark. There were also a couple of bigger red marks that I didn't get to bite. I stayed way longer than I should have. Lots of Russian Gremlins, and I was stressed out because of it, and not in a flow. I would say I fished at level 3 out of 10, so not good. I was the last one off the lake. The other guy left at 7pm when I should have.

9 Crips 

Silver Season Has Started(4/10/25)

10.5" Demon/minnow

 

I Give You Jay Kumar

 From the latest Bass Blaster eMail.

Jay commented on the Texas DNR equivalent about how they don't view forward-facing sonar as a threat to crappie populations in their state. Of course, the threat that FFS poses depends on the individual fishery itself with smaller bodies of water being the most susceptible to overfishing. Larger bodies of water are extremely tough to impact crappie populations if they are somewhat fertile for panfish. For example, there will be way more fish than fishermen on Lake Minnetonka here in MN. Only X percent of fishermen are going to shell out the money for FFS. X percent of those guys are dedicated crappie meat fishermen who eat crappie a couple of times a week. The vast majority of fishermen are not X. Smaller bodies of water are susceptible to overharvest of crappie, the population crashes, and then the lake's reputation among fishermen crashes; People ignore it for a few years until the population builds back up and the boom-bust cycle repeats. It has happened in smaller MN fisheries for years, even pre-social media. Word got out on a hot bite.    

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.

1st Fish Of 2023

 

8" Cubby Mini-Mite (Glow)

Turns out I was wrong about no traffic on the lake. I guess it got pounded in December because the bite was on fire and then it really slowed down, probably due to the schools being atomized by Livescope.

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

Final Ice Trip of 21/22(4/8/22)

 

7+ Rippin Rap

8.5" Cubby

8" Rippin Rap

6:30-9:00PM Rock Lake 8' at the Cane

36-45℉, PC, 4-23mph NNW

I got on OK. Stepped in slush and soaked my right boot. I then walked straight out. Drilled a hole to the South, wasn't impressed with what I saw and headed to my cane holes, which I could not find. I ended up stepping in two of them later on. I drilled one hole out deep. Then moved in closer to the cane and set up there. It was pretty windy once I got past the hill. Also drilled a set to the South. When I got back, there was a school of sunnies off in the distance that I think had a big bass in with them, but it was too far away to tell. Had a few schools of sunnies and crappies swim through, but not very frequently. Saw one pike. I caught the one sunfish and one Crappie on the Rippin Rap. And I got a couple crappie on the Cubby Mini-mite  I packed up at 9 PM as nothing was going on. Checked the Sullivan access on my way home; it's trash. I will probably hit Rock again in the morning and call it a season.

I did not get up, so this was my final 21/22 Ice Fishing Season trip.

 

Goodbye, February!

 Coming into February I had such high hopes for the month with how good fishing was in January. But Old Man Winter had other ideas. The month was cold, windy, snowy, and at the end, we got clobbered with snow. I fished 10 fewer days this February than I did last year. The fishing was alright when I got out. So far the only species of fish I have landed in 2022 is crappie and the only lake I have fished is Bulldog. With all the snow and fish I am catching I don't see that changing any time soon.

Here are some January and February comparisons thanks to Fish Swami.

 

I am off to my best start to a year in terms of the number of fish caught. Last year I had fished more often, but only had caught 801 fish at this point.

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.

BP's Crappie Ice Fishing Strategy For The Lazy

Step 1: Find a lake loaded with crappies with minimal ice fishing pressure.

Step 2: Find out where a  school of crappies locates itself at dusk.

Step 3: Drill two holes. Set a five-gallon bucket upside down between the two holes and put your fish finder on top of the bucket.

Step 4: Put a bobbered minnow down on a line connected to a larger glow spoon with a dropper to a Glow Demon Jig.

Step 5: Jig whatever you want in the other hole. I recommend carrying a few rods and experimenting.

Step 6: Whack the crap out of them for as long as the bite lasts.

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 

2021 Year In Review (By The Numbers) And Report Card

 

In 2021, I set records for the number of fish caught in a year (3938), the number of days fished (242), the number of trips taken (330), and fish caught per hour (4.96). However, my bass numbers were down 113 fish from 2020. I had a record number of trips I rated as Great (74) and Good (190), and I only had (16) Trips rated as Poor, down from (33) poor trips last year. Not a lot of skunks were had this year (17). 

2021 was the Year of Ice Fishing Where Crappie Catches Were King
2021 started with me on the same old suck truck for ice fishing success. But then I got my new Fish Trap, Smitty Sled, and broke through on a school of fish on Rock Lake in January, and my fishing numbers were on fire for about a month. I ended the year on two fifty-fish nights on Bulldog. If not for the snow and my getting sick, I probably would have reached the milestones of 5 Fish Per Hour and 4,000 Fish in a year. I caught a record number of crappies in 2021 (834).
Ice Fishing Grade: B+

Crappie Fishing Grade: A

2021 Bass Fishing:

I would describe bass fishing in 2021 as solid but challenging. No matter how tough the fishing was, I always seemed to boat one or two, but man, did we have to work for bites. I fear that the bass population in Platte/Sullivan is decreasing. I never really whacked them once non-stop in 2021. If there are schools out there, they were not shallow in 2021. Hopefully, it is just a shallow water and baitfish issue that will work out if water levels and temps are more normal in 2022. We got a good number of 4's and 5's this year between the brothers and me.

Bass Fishing Grade: B-

Bass Size Grade: B+

Tournament Fishing in 2021:

Overall it was a tough tournament season for me, but I got lucky with Platte/Sullivan for the blind draw, doubly fortunate to get Darien Kiefer as a boater, and the rest is history.

Whitefish Lake: 13th Place (Saved by a rally in the final hour and a half)

North Long: 20th Place (Didn't fish well at all)

FishTrap Lake: 8th Place (Rallied in the final hour and a half)

Edward Lake: 15th Place (I sucked, Beau caught 'em fine)

Leech Lake: Skunked

Blind at Platte/Sullivan: 1st Place, Lunker, and Top Co-Angler

Serpent Lake Challenge Cup: (Snatchers came in last, my head wasn't in it)

Tournament Season Grade: A-

Tournament Performance Grade: C

Sure I sucked for the most part, but I got a W, so it's all good. 

2021 Walleye Fishing:

Ouch, this wasn't expected. Walleye fishing crashed back to historical norms after the last few boom years. Low water on Mille Lacs this Fall is the primary driver of the decline.
Walleye Fishing Grade: C

2021 Grumpy Old Man Hole (GOMH) Fishing:

Low water and lack of baitfish made fishing the GOMH the toughest in memory. Thank God for the Trophy.

GOMH Grade: C-

2021 Pike Fishing:

The great thing about the drought and early high water temps was that it threw the pike in Platte Lake for a loop. I only lost about 10 frogs this year. Last year, I lost at least two dozen. I also caught some tanks.
Pike Grade: A

2021 Bowfin Fishing:

I landed a 3 this year, including one tank on August 8th while fishing with Steve.
Bowfin Grade: B+

2021 Smallmouth & Tulibee Fishing:

Didn't catch either one in 2021. Straight up F's Homey!
Smallmouth Grade: F

Tullibee Grade: F

2021 Fishing Grade: B

Final Two Fish of 2021

 I ended 2021 with a double. The snow and a cold kept me off of the lake for the rest of the remaining days.

She Does Love To Fish

 

Ashley Rae putting on a clinic on how to catch crappies with a Garmin LiveScope up in Canada, eh!

Back On the Ice After 11 Days

 

 

Ice is 20+

8.5" Glow Demon/Minnow

4:30-6:30PM 16' 2021 Hole

-5 to 5℉, MS, 0-3mph S

It was cold out, but the sun was shining and there wasn't much wind so I went fishing. Drove out to my area. Hands got cold while I was drilling holes, had to get the choppers out. Ice was a good 8-inches deeper maybe more. Got set up and it was so warm in the house I eventually took my jacket off. Couldn't get the old Aqua-Vu to work. Wasted at least 20 minutes on that. I did eventually put the Aqua-Vu 5c down, but there were only about 15-minutes of good light for me. Saw a couple of crappies and a perch.  The first crappie took the minnow, but fish were way more active on THE Jig. Got one crip on the Glow Demon Spoon. The bite shut down at about a quarter of 6PM. I got a few stragglers after that. It was cold while packing up.

21 Crip

1 Perch