Eddy's Launch with Dad and Don W.

Since the weather has been so nice this week Dad and I decided to go on a launch trip with Eddy's and we invited Don W. to come along with us, which he was plenty willing to do.

The Eddy's night launch goes out from 6 to 10PM. Our Captain was Tom, who we have gone with at least once before and I think we had 12 people on Boat 8 which is a smaller launch that can hold up to 20. Two other launches besides ours went out tonight. There was a little ripple on the water to start, but by 7:30 it was flat calm for the rest of the night.

The report when we got on the boat was that the fishing has been tough. Apparently Tom's launch last night did next to nothing fishing the usual early season shallow bite, so we headed off to a little deeper water down by Spirit Island. We parked in about 26 feet of water and withing 20 minutes there were 2 keeper walleye in the boat. About 35 minutes in to fishing my bobber went down and I brought in this 15" keeper.
Two protected slot fish were brought in within the next half hour and then it got slow.

We moved around 8PM and went in the direction of Indian Point. We set up in about 24 feet of water and fairly quickly a keeper was on board. Someone caught a protected fish and then there was a missed fish. I was not paying a whole lot of attention and when I went to look for my bobber it wasn't there. I reeled in some slack and set the hook into a better fish, which I took my time to bring in. It turned out to be this nice 24.5" protected slot walter.


A couple of more fish were caught and lost and then at about 9PM I'm not sure why but Tom moved us forward about 50yards and dropped anchor again. At this point 2 others Eddy's Launches were close by. Some fish came in right away again. I got a bite but missed it and my leech that had caught my first two fish was gone. I got a new leech cast out and after about 5 minutes my bobber went down again. This time it was fish on and I landed this 12" eye.
I threw the fish back. About 5 minutes later Don's bobber slowly went down and he brought in a nice 17+ inch keeper. The protected slot starts at 18" this year. About 5 minutes after that the guy next to me brought in a 16" eye and he gave it to us. I think maybe one more fish was caught on the boat after that. Dad was the only person not to get a bite. Don gave his fish to us, so we ended up with about a pound of walleye meat once cleaned.

I caught the most fish of anyone on the launch and I think all but about 3 people caught something.

Another Short GOMH Trip

I must have been wore out from yesterday's travels cause I slept in until 5PM after going to bed at midnight last night. I didn't get out the door until right around 8PM and my first stop was at Jenny's to drop off the walleye fillet. Next I went to the lake place to get a Norman Speed Clip and pick up some swim jig rods. I discovered I had the Norman Speed Clips with me the whole time, but I did want those rods. I threw a few casts off the shoreline with a swim jig, forgot which one, and had one strike that didn't hook up. Next I decided to hit Jenny's and missed a pike that got off more than half way in on a blk/red Monsoor Swim Jig with blk/red fleck Zoom Speed Craw. I was going to try Bulldog but that was covered up, so I headed to the GOMH.

There was a car parked on the SW side and no one on the NE side so that is where I went. No sign of Grumpy Old Man Willard once again tonight. I started off throwing a Smokey Shad Strike King Tour Grade Swimming Jig with a "Bluegill" color Action Plastics 5' Mag Grub and quickly landed this small jumpin bullhead.

A few casts later I had a toothy bullhead on but it got off. I think I caught 1 more small jumpin bullhead on the Strike King jig.

I switched to a blk/blue Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig and hooked into a 23" toothy bullhead. I was so intent on giving the fish away to someone, that I forgot to take a picture. Neither of the two groups of people fishing wanted to take the fish. When I went to the SW side to ask if those guys wanted to take the toothy bullhead they were in the process of taking the picture of a nice jumpin bullhead. The guy holding the fish was the same kid who was fishing with a Scum Frog last night. He said they got a couple of other jumpin bullheads and a couple of silver bullheads as well.

When I got back to the NE side I noticed Bass Pundit reader Mike B. fishing in his Tuffy Fishing boat down the shoreline a little bit. We got to talking and he had been out on Mille Lacs to start the day. Apparently he just hammered pike on Mille Lacs with Yum Money Hounds. I think he said he went through 9 of them. Yum Money Hounds are a spook like soft plastic that cost about a buck a body. He also saw lots of spawning largemouth and smallies including the biggest smallie he has ever seen in his life.

After Mike left I landed 2 more jumpin bullheads and lost a toothy bullhead.

This was my last jumper and biggest. It hit on the blk/red Monsoor Swim Jig the second the jig touched the water.

Mike B. stopped by again on his way home with the boat on the trailer. He told me some more about what he saw on Mille Lacs. I forgot to ask if he saw any dogfish, but I'm guessing he would have told me if he saw any big ones. It was getting dark and Mike left. I decided to take a shot on the SE side but didn't get any hits.

Fishing Hype Wins at Kentucky Lake

Brian "Fishing Hype" Brown has blogged about a couple of tournaments down at Kentucky Lake...

Short GOMH Trip

Today I went to Northern Minnesocold to pick up another 25hp Johnson motor. We left at 8AM and didn't get back until 6:30PM but we stopped in Mizpah, Bemidji, Walker, and Baxter.

It was about 8PM when I headed to the GOMH and to my surprise on such a nice night Willard was not there. There were a couple of guys fishing the SW side and another truck with 3 guys pulled in just as I got there. I went to the SE side and started throwing a gold bladed chart/white Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig. NO luck on that and the other guys had not gotten any bites. I switched to a black/red Monsoor Swim Jig with blk/red fleck Zoom Speed Craw. I had a little toothy bullhead strike at it about 3 times. That was that so I went to fish the North side with those 3 guys. The NE side was open and as I was getting in place a guy with bobber and leech brought in a jumpin bullhead. I quickly got hit and landed this jumpin bullhead.
I then proceeded to get hit or hook up with a number of jumpin bullheads and toothy bullheads but nothing made it to shore. Once particular toothy bullhead stuck at me about 8 times stealing the claws off of two Speed Craws. I tried throwing the Pure Poison and a variety of lipless cranks and got a few hits but nothing hooked up. A guy fishing with a Scum Frog over the junk missed about 3 blow ups. He was using what looked to be medium spinning tackle. All the other guys ended up leaving and I took an unproductive stroll down the NE side shoreline. I got back to the bridge SE side and on what was going to be my very last cast had a toothy bullhead steal my Monsoor Swim Jig (Grrrr)

The Opener Closer

Minnesota Fishing Opener weekend was coming to a close and I had to make 1 last trip to Mille Lacs before the night ban sets in tonight at 10PM. I arrived at Eddy's at a quarter to midnight. There was a guy and his daughter fishing at the North Jetty harbor mouth, which is where I had planned to go. I ended up taking the center Jetty and fishing where I did last night.

About 15 minutes in the girl got a fish and it was a good walleye. Not having a net and rushing the fish, the Dad broke the fish off losing the bobber in the process. It turns out they were staying at Eddy's and using Eddy's equipment. There was an Eddy's staff still around and he fixed them up with another bobber, hooks, and a sinker and also pulled a net for them off of a launch. Turns out they would need the net about 15 minutes later when they brought in a 24" walleye.

Later I found out they got a 16" keeper around 10:30PM that they gave away to someone who was coming off the lake.

Anyway I didn't get a bite. At quarter to 2AM I started throwing the clown X-Rap and made a little tour around the Jetty. Right when I started doing that a boat came trolling by on it's second pass and for a second time brought in a fish from right out front of the Jetty about a long cast and a half out. By the time I got to the North Jetty the Dad and girl where headed back to the hotel.

On my very last stop at the North Jetty harbor mouth I caught an edible golden sock. I say sock, cause that is how it fought.
At 14" it went in the pail and will go to Jenny.


Updated: PS forgot to mention that after I caught the walleye an absolute giant of a muskie swam by. I couldn't really tell it's girth, but it's length had to be at least 50 inches. I have never seen a muskie even close to that long ever. They are out of season and I had no interest in casting to it, even if though there is the possiblility it was a giant pike.

Nice Night on the Lake

I can't remember if I was on the water by 5PM or 6PM. I think it was a bit before 6PM. Tonight I put the trolling motor down and went in the other direction. Right off the bat I had a pike follow the all white Strike King Spinnerbait to the boat. About 2 docks down I got hit by a pike a couple of times but it didn't hook up. As I was going around the bend I picked up my first pike on the all chartreuse Strike King Spinnerbait by a dock.
Ok not a very big fish, but it was a start. On the other side of the same dock I got hit again and reeled in another hammer handle.

There was a pretty good lull before I caught my next pike on a sexy shad Strike King Red Eye Shad. This particular Pike went 22inches and would be the biggest I would get. Around the South Platte Lake Drive Peninsula Point I got another little pike on the Red Eye Shad.

I was fishing along the South side of the SPLD Peninsula Point when I missed another pike. As I got further into Loon Sex Bay I tried a swim jig and lost a bass. Next I started throwing the purple Berkley Frenzy Popper and I caught a small bass. I saw some movement and cast to it, and came out with this sunfish.
There was a fair amount of fish activity going on in the bay so I headed towards the middle of the bay and got a fat 15inch bass and had what I'm guessing was a pike wake to the Frenzy Popper but not hit it. There was quite a bit of activity in closer to shore so I headed in. Complicating matters was the closer I got to shore there was a combination of last years weeds and new rice to foul up the Frenzy Popper hooks. If it was just the new rice or just the old weeds I would have been ok cause I would have been able to see the old weeds which where the problem; The popper came through the new not so thick rice just fine. Anyway I landed another chunky 15 inch bass. Then missed a bite and then had what I'm guessing was a big dogfish annihilate the popper, but all I got was weeds. Basically the next 20 minutes I put on a clinic on how not to fish in moderate cover and I didn't catch a thing. I just wasn't equipped lure wise to fish in that junk where the fish were. I did miss a pike hit by Loon Sex Point and then it was time to go.

No Wind, No Problem!!! No Skunk!!!

I didn't get out of the house until after midnight last night and when I arrived at Eddy's on Mille Lacs there was no one fishing and it was dead calm. I headed out on the middle Jetty and started out by throwing Raps but that didn't last long. Next I put a leech on a Custom Jigs and Spins Glow Demon. After I lost 2 leeches with no apparent bites, I switched rods to a pink glow hook. Wouldn't you know it but the light in this bobber stopped glowing while it was out on a cast. I could still see the bobber thanks to marina lights, so I just let it sit until I pulled in for another cast. Lo and behold the bobber disappeared and I set the hook into a real cigar.
Still a walleye is a walleye and I wasn't going to be skunked tonight.

About 15 minutes later my bobber went under like it got hit with a locomotive. I thought for sure it was going to be a pike or muskie, but much to my delight it was this 24.75" eye.


About 20 minutes later a fish hit something on top kind of close by me and then it did it again, so I quickly reeled in and cast to the spot. Sure enough my bobber went down but then it popped back up. After about 5 seconds the bobber went down and I set into a little bigger cigar (12").
That would be all the action I had even though I stayed until 5AM.

I don't know what it says about yesterday's bite, but Eddy's Marina was dead when I left and almost no boats headed out early.

On my way home I got to watch a black bear running through a farm field. Can't say I've ever seen a bear like that ever. It was aways off the road and running away from me so I didn't get the greatest view, but cool none the less.

Not Skunked Tonight!

All night walleye fishing on ML must have tired me out cause I slept in till 5PM. I didn't get out onto Platte until right around 7PM. It was a beautiful mild calm night after a day that had been sunny and in the 70's with light wind. Because it was so late I elected to fish out front on the trolling motor from our place towards Jenny's.

Within my first couple of casts I had a hit on an all white Strike King Spinnerbait right in front of our jerk neighbor Sherman's dock.
Sure it wasn't a walleye or pike, but I didn't care; It was a fish and I was no longer skunked. A few minutes later I was burning in a all chartreuse Strike King Spinnerbait that got slashed at and finally hit by a pike. I got the fish to the boat, but it got off. I got over towards the big reed bed and missed a hit on the spinnerbait because the fish hit just as I was pausing the lure. I moved closer to shore and got this 15.5" bass around a small lily pad cluster on a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper.
The next fish was also a bass caught on a char/white white grub Monsoor Swim Jig.

I cast the Frenzy Popper into an area with a bunch of old reed stalks and had a small pike take a run at it but it didn't hook up. A little farther down the line I caught a couple more bass and missed a couple on the Frenzy Popper.

I made a cast up by some standing reeds near shore with the Frenzy Popper and this 23" pike took it out.
The fish put up a good fight.

I think I missed one more bite and that was it.

Conditions being what they were, I would have expected more fish but for some reason the pike just didn't seem to be around.

No Wind, No Good!!!

Just like 2 years ago there was no wind at Eddy's Jetty on Mille Lacs and once again just like then, I got skunked. 3 or 4 eyes were caught by a group of 3 guys who were flinging clown Rapala Husky Jerks. Around 4AM a light breeze came up out of the SE, but it was to little to late for me. I had a minnow or leech on a lot of the time thinking that cranks just wouldn't go.

Grumpy Old Man Hole:
Not even a hit.

Bulldog:
The skunk here was to be expected, but it only takes 5 minutes to fish the spot, so I gave it a shot.

Rock Dock:
Not a very good start to the Opener. I literally did not get a bite fishing from midnight to 7AM.

Hopefully I'll lock into a few pike on Platte later in the afternoon.

Minnesota Fishing Opener Eve

Checklist:
Rods rigged and organized- Check
Tackle organized- Check
Gas for the boat- Check
Boat launched and moored at lake place- Check
Minnows and leeches- Check
Car loaded-Check

The plan:
Hit up Eddy's Jetty at midnight and from there it is all an audible. If the fishing is OK I will probably stay all night until sunrise. If the fish are not going will probably be back earlier. If I'm back earlier, take a nap and when I wake up head to Platte/Sullivan for some Pike fishing in the boat, most likely fish until sunset. Head back home to get something to eat, then back out to Eddy's Jetty for more shore fishing.

A Fond MN Fishing Opener Memory

(5.5lbs Walleye Caught MN Fishing Opener 1985.)

Pic from Little Jim's Bait Shop Annandale MN

Certainly one of my most memorable MN Fishing Openers was in 1985, when I was 15 years old. Just like pretty much every year the 85' Opener was spent up at the family cabin on Sylvia/Twin Lake, now called East and West Sylvia, in Wright County Minnesota. Keep in mind growing up I was much more into bass, then panfish, and then pike; We were not a family of walleye fishermen. However, this particular Opener we would try our hand at walleye fishing. Dad had just purchased a Hummingbird LCD Fish Finder, which was pretty much the cutting edge technology at that time and so we were prepared to strike out onto Lake Sylvia after walter (Note-The family cabin was actually on Twin).

It was a sunny and fairly warm day with moderate winds. I went out in the old family Alumacraft Fishing Boat with my brother Todd (At least I think it was Todd) and we were accompanied by a boat of my Dad's co-workers. I don't believe Dad went out on this mid morning trip. We drove all the way out to the big sunken island in Sylvia and started fishing in about 30 feet of water with Lindy Rigs and a Leech. At this point I could probably count on one hand the number of times I had fished with a Lindy Rig. I was fishing the Lindy Rig on my prized baitcasting outfit, a Shimano Bantum 250 on a 5'6" Berkley Stinger 100% graphite rod.

I believe we were just doing a controlled drift or maybe back trolling with the trolling motor when my brother had a problem. I put my rod down and went to the front of the boat to help fix whatever was wrong and quickly solved the issue. On my way to the back of the boat I noticed the tip of my rod was bending indicating something was up. I grabbed the rod, felt that there was indeed a fish and set the hook. I knew right away that it was a good fish and I backed my drag off. The fight was on and this fish didn't disappoint.

Those Sylvia lakes are extremely clear and I spotted this monster well below the boat. Much to my delight it actually was a walleye. I got a little nervous, but I was determined not to lose this fish and so I played her as carefully as I could. After what seemed like a long time I got the fish up next to the boat and my brother netted it.

As far as I knew the fish weighed 10lbs. I don't know if I had even caught 10 walleyes total in my life up to this point and all of those that I had caught were 2lbs or under. When all was said and done, I'm pretty sure I was shaking.

We fished for a couple more hours but this was to be the only walleye we caught, which isn't a very big surprise because I had almost no clue about what we were doing. The fish was a total gift from God.

When we got back to the cabin everyone was very excited and we drove into Annandale so I could get my picture taken at Little Jim's and enter the fish in a contest they held. I didn't win the contest, but I was a huge winner anyway. We ate the fish.

Great Memory!!!

Art Simms On Fishing Instinct

Have you ever had one of those tournament days where every decision you made was the right one? On the other hand, have you ever struggled just to try to fill your limit and every decision was the wrong one? I have experienced both kinds of days several times in the past and spent a lot of time thinking about why the bad days were bad, but never coming up with anything except excuses.
About two years ago I found a big piece of the puzzle...

Go to Art Simms Blog to read the rest...

Networked Blogs

So I added a new friend on Facebook and I was looking through his profile as I do with all my new Facebook friends and I notice he has a tab that says Blog, so naturally I clicked it to find out if he had a blog. The tab is actually a portal to connect with Networked Blogs which is kind of a blog directory/feedreader/publishing tool/Google Friend Connect service to help with promotion of one's blog.

I signed up Bass Pundit and The Minnesota Bowfin Club and if I am understanding things correctly, anytime I publish a post on those blogs their blog Facebook Pages will have the post automatically done as a status update.

Through Networked Blogs I learned about a few bass fishing blogs I didn't know existed.
Spokane Bass Fishing (WA)
www.reeltimeanglers.com (NJ)
OleBucketmouth (TN)
Fish Whisperer 916 (CA)
Randy Blaukat's World of Megabass
Lunker Bass Fishing (Canada)
Florida Bass Adventures

Anyway, I recommend you bass fishing bloggers out there on Facebook take advantage of Networked Blogs.

I have added the Networked Blogs Followers widget on my sidebar under my Bass Pundit Facebook Page Badge.

Drats

Last year I bought what I thought probably was tie-able wire leader, AFW Surfstrand, at Mills Fleet Farm; They didn't have Cortland Toothy Critter which is the stuff I wanted. I had read a tip about using tie-able wire leader with swim jigs so pike can't break you off. Finally just tonight I tried tying the wire that I had bought, but I couldn't do a very good job of making the recommend knots out of the stuff. I am thinking now I must have gotten the wrong stuff altogether because it definitely wasn't happening.

I'll have to call tomorrow to see if Reeds or Thorne Brothers Outpost carries Toothy Critter.

I lost far to many swim jigs to pike last year.

Bob's Fishing Blog- Arkansas Tech Invitational

Bob has blogged about the first day of this college bass fishing tournament on Dardanelle in which they brought in a 20lb, 5 fish bag and were in 1st Place by 4lbs.

1 Sunfish Rock, Morning GOMH skunk

This morning I was up early so I went to the GOMH and got skunked, not even a bite.

Tonight I got out after 8PM just as it started to sprinkle and I went to Rock Lake. I missed a few bites, but was eventually able to catch a 6" sunfish. No pic, cause I forgot the camera. The wind came up a little bit and I was getting cold and wet, so I was gone by 9PM.

With rain in the forecast for tomorrow, I doubt I will get out. Will probably put the boat in the water sometime on Friday and then do a little fishing when I do.

Spent some time in the Tackle Warehouse this morning, getting things organized for Opener.

Boat Landing Stories

A popular subject on the fishing message boards right now is stories about what people have witnessed at the boat access.

Here are a few of my stories:

For myself:

Was putting in at the Platte Lake (Crow Wing County) access in the middle of the week so there was nobody around and I think it was early June. For some reason I put the rope line inside my topper instead of tying it to the trailer. I back the boat in kind of fast so the boat will clear the bunks as it comes off the trailer.

You guessed it. The rope went out to sea with the boat. Fortunately there was almost no wind and I quickly stripped down to my underwear and swam out to retrieve it. The boat was out about 120 feet by the time I got to it. Got in the boat, went back to the dock. Put my clothes back on and went out fishing.

Another time I was launching out of the NE access on Sullivan on a summer weekday morning. Either I forgot to secure the rope again or I didn't tie the boat to the dock well. Either way the boat wandered off aways. The water is fairly shallow and sandy there, so I had to wade out about 50 feet and up to my waist to get it.

Another time I was at Tonka Maxwell Bay access during the Holiday Crappie Contest and it was windy. Tied the boat to the dock and went to the car only to see the boat came untied and was heading out onto the lake. Of coarse being a busy landing on a busy day someone saw what was happening and immediately retrieved the boat and brought it back to the dock. Boy did I feel stupid.

Not involving me:
I was at the Casino access at Mille Lacs at about 11PM getting my boat ready to do some October night trolling. My boat was beached right next to the ramp. A boat was coming in to drop a guy off so he could get the truck. While I'm watching a guy steps on to the end of the corner of the dock with his left foot. Everything is OK until he goes to take a step on his right foot which he put down right onto nothing; he went straight down into the water all the way over his head. He shot right up and got on the dock. His buddies and myself got a pretty good laugh.

I was at the Maxwell Access on Tonka and a group was down on the ramp trying to launch their fishing boat when the trailer hitch detached from the ball and the front of the trailer went pretty much straight up about a foot into the air before the saftey chains caught. So there the trailer sat nose in the air with the only the saftey chains keepings it from rolling down the ramp into the water. It was wierd.

The Weather

This isn't news to anyone living in Central MN, but it seems this year we had May weather in April and now we are getting April weather in May. This is kind of like the flip flop we had last summer with August and September. Today our high temp was only 43°F (avg high now is 66°F). Tomorrow and Thursday are both suppose to be below 50°F with overcast and a chance of rain. Friday is supposed to be cloudy, but in the mid 60's. Saturday's Minnesocold Fishing Opener (walleye, pike) is suppose to be in the mid 60's with sun.

Today I was exhausted and slept all day after manning sump pumps all night in the rain to make sure our basement stayed dry. In addition to being cool, It has been on the wet side for the last couple of weeks and the ground is saturated with moisture. I don't know how much rain we got last night but there was a steady rain from about 7PM to 4AM and then lighter rain until I went to sleep at 9AM. I am sure this cold with cold rain, has been dragging down lake water temps. There has been a lot of talk about our early Spring and how far ahead of the game we are suppose to be, but my guess is that Fishing Opener water temps are gonna be pretty close to normal here in Central Minnesocold.

So what does this mean for fishing?

For one, I didn't get out today.

For two, it is highly doubtful we will have the dock at our lake place in the water by the weekend. I will still probably put the boat in at Platte on Friday and just keep the boat on shore. At this point I plan to be in the boat for some of the time on Fishing Opener.

Because it is suppose to be warmer Opener will definitely be a more pleasant experience for the fishermen, but my guess is that the fish are a bit screwed up right now because of falling water temps and the fishing won't be as good as I have heard predicted it would be.

Baron Von Crappie Strikes

That's right MT of MT Bucket Blog aka Cyberfish, aka Baron Von Crappie placed 2nd with 2nd Big Fish at the 20th Annual BJ's Bait & Tackle Crappie Contest on Clearwater Lake.

BVC has a full write up at his blog...

GOMH & Rock Dock

Rain was in the forecast and so I headed out earlier than normal tonight, a little after 4:30PM. My first stop was at the GOMH. Nobody was there when I arrived.
I caught this toothy bullhead on my very first cast.


Check out the smile:
I managed to catch a couple of jumpin bullheads and had what were probably orange or tiger bullheads pull the bobber down. I got these fish on the SW side (TB,JB) and SE side (JB). I also tried the NE side but didn't get any bites. It got slow so after about and hour I left and headed to Bulldog but didn't get anything there.

Next stop was the Rock dock. I had a few nibbles on the glow Cubby but kept coming up empty. Finally I stuck this largie:
I also caught a small hammer handle. It was winding and started to rain and I wasn't getting bites so I left about 6:45PM.

Skeet Reese

ON FIRE!!!

This season started out with KVD as the best in the world, right now without a doubt it's Skeet, like it or not. I have mixed feelings about Skeet because at times he seems really cool and at other times he seems like kind of a jerk. Love him or hate him, he is on an amazing roll.

Don's Dockage

(Don W. catches a sunfish)

Tonight Pete was over for the evening and we decided to go fishing at about 7PM. Originally I was going to take us to the Rock Dock and GOMH, but Pete suggested we check in with Don W. and see if we could fish off his dock.

Don was home and was generous enough to allow us to fish his dock. He has been catching lots of sunfish, perch, bass, and pike along with a few crappie so far this Spring. We got down to the dock and on my very first cast I had something hit my Panfish Chatterbait but it didn't hook up. On my first cast to the other side of the dock I also got a hit, but this one didn't hook up either. Pete missed a fish that he thought was a pike. Eventually I switched to a glow Cubby under a bobber. Around 8:15PM Don came out and joined us. He said the bite really doesn't rev up until right before dark and he was right.

I started getting a few hits but couldn't hook anything. Eventually I tipped the Cubby with a dead minnow, all my minnows were dead, and had a fish pull the bobber under. I set the hook and immediately the fish came up and jumped; I thought for sure I had a small bass, but lo and behold it was this nice crappie.
That was the last bite of the night for me. Don had a bass jump him off and caught a few small sunfish and 4 keeper sunfish and a couple of small perch. Meanwhile all Pete caught was a single tiny perch. Pete did miss quite a few bites. Don offered to let us keep to fish, but we let him have them.

All in all it was a nice calm night, but a bit cool for Pete who was lightly dressed.

Minnesota Closed Bass Season, More Thoughts

As happens at this time every year there is a lot of chatter on Minnesocold fishing forums about our closed season for bass. Guys are upset that they see people out fishing for bass when they shouldn't be. And guys like me are upset that catch and release bass fishing is against the law to begin with. And yet other guys are quite happy with the way things are and don't want to see any change at all.

Fishingminnesota.com/hotspotoutdoors.com has an interesting thread this year discussing the closed season entitled "Bare with me" The guy who started the thread tends to favor keeping the status quo.

The question is asked:

Do you feel that there is a connection between our great fishing and having a closed season.. or is it more a matter of us having more water and less pressure than other states..


Personally I don't see a connection between great fishing and a closed season or even great fishing and less pressure. In Minnesota we are blessed with lots of water that features ideal habitat for bass and thus we have a robust bass fishery. If you look around a little you see that bodies of water like Kentucky Lake or Gunterville that have absolutely phenomenal bass fishing that is arguably far better than anything Minnesota can offer and they are bodies of water that have no closed season and have tremendous fishing pressure applied to them. What do Kentucky Lake and Guntersville have that allows those fisheries to be so good? The simple answer is good habitat for bass. If you have the good habitat, and we do, than nothing else matters because bass are a prolific species. I think this conclusion is pretty clear cut.

Towards what is currently the end of the thread someone floats the idea that Minnesocold should have a special early season bass catch and release stamp that people can buy that would allow them to pursue bass pretty much any time they want. I am 100% for the idea and would be willing to pay a significant amount of money for such a stamp. As it stands right now, I could care less if someone is fishing for bass in the closed season because I think it is a lousy law and I don't think any real harm is done. Put a price on it and allow catch and release fishing, then I would care about people fishing bass if they didn't pay for the privilege. I'm funny like that.

Quite a Story!

I recommend all Bass Pundit readers check out Fishing Hype blog's write ups of his last two bass tournaments on Kentucky Lake.

Rock Dockage

After last night's snow the day turned out to be cool but sunny and I don't think it was as windy as forecast, but then again I didn't get out until after 6PM. My first stop was the Rock Dock. I talked to a guy who was coming off the water with his boat and he had gotten 8 crappies in a spot and then they turned off and he couldn't find anymore. The guys Grampa used to have a cabin on the lake and so he has been fishing Rock his whole life and he knows several places that hold crappies, but he only got them in that one spot.

After he left I got down to fishing and my first fish was this hammer handle caught on a glow Cubby and a minnow.


About half an hour later I got this little bass on just glow Cubby without a minnow
About 15 minutes later I got another bass about the same size and when I lifted it out of the water the line broke sending the little bass flopping on the dock. I quickly tried to grab it so I wouldn't lose my Cubby Jig. While I was trying to grab it, the bass flopped around knocking the Cubby out of it's mouth and right off the end of the dock into about 3 feet of water. I grabbed the fish and let it go and I could see the Cubby standing up on it's head at the bottom. I got a small X-Rap and reeled it up to the rod tip and stuck the rod in the water in an attempt to snag the jig. By some stroke of luck I caught the hook and brought my Cubby jig to the surface.

I retied the glow Cubby and decided to forgo minnows. I got a few more bites, but kept missing the fish. Eventually I landed this sunfish which was close to the dock.

Actually this is some trick photography, it was just a little guy.

Around 8:40PM I decided to make a run to Bulldog and then the GOMH. I got nothing at Bulldog and in a bad sign there wasn't a soul fishing the GOMH. I didn't get a bite there either but I only fished it for about 15 minutes.

This Could Have Been Fishing Opener

Now that today is here, I'm glad the MN Fishing Opener was not today. Lousy weather and I'm not ready like I will be by next Saturday.

Found: Another Minnesocold BassN Blog

The Lodge This one looks to be the Red Green or Prairie Home Companion of Minnesocold Bassin' blogs. The author is Bobby Bass and so it's got to be a Bass Blog, right?

TBrinksFishing.com On the Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm

Tyler Brinks is a Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm fisherman and he has a post up about how to fish them. I just bought a couple of packs and plan on giving them a try this year. It's a lure that I think would work great here in Minnesota, but I can't say I've ever heard of anyone up here using them.

Try This If Your In the Twin Cities

In The Water, On The Water with '93 Johnson

The weather is about to turn nasty for a couple of days so I figured I better get the boat with the new/used motor in the lake today when it was going to be reasonably decent outside. I had everything ready to roll around 6PM. Much to my amazement as I pulled in to the Rock Lake Public Access, the Rock Dock was in.
The motor started right up and so I took her out for a spin to see how fast the 25 horse would go. I had loaded in a bunch of gear to weigh down the boat just like when I will be using it in the summer, plus I had the trolling motor battery in front because I planned on doing some fishing. I was a bit disappointed that out of the gate the motor only just barely made 21mph. However I had the manual trim at it's lowest setting and so I started putting the motor up one notch at a time. Each notch gained me about .5 miles per hour and I settled in at the hole that pushed the boat right at about 24mph. Still a little disappointing as I was hoping this motor would put me in the 26 to 27mph range. It will be interesting to see how fast I can go with a passenger.

Once I was satisfied that I had gotten the best performance I was going to get. I ran into the Platte River Outlet (PRO) to do some fishing. The PRO is basically a fair sized shallow bay that gets weed choked in the summer and it is where the water flows out from Rock down a small navigable stream (best if by canoe, but I did make it from Rock to Platte with a motor boat once) into Platte Lake. I was surprised to see that the lily pads had already come up big time in the PRO.

I ran all the way back to where it narrows down to the stream and there is a beaver lodge. I cast out my glow Cubby below a bobber and on about the 5th cast a fish made a V wake right at my bobber and the fish nailed the bobber taking it under. The bobber came out of the fishes mouth when I set the bobber and I reeled in real fast and quickly changed up to a blk/red Monsoor Swim Jig with blk/red Zoom Speed Craw and threw back in hopes it was a big dogfish. On about my third cast the fish waked right behind the jig and took a nip at the speed craw and turned away before I had a chance to see it. It was calm but cloudy and so seeing down into the water away from the boat wasn't the best, thus I had to blind cast and couldn't sight fish. I am pretty sure it was either a big dogfish or a fair sized pike. I had a couple more wakes that didn't hook up down by the beaver lodge and then I slowly made my way East working the Northern area of the bay. I had a couple of fish bump my lures and one fish stole a tail on a white Zoom Super Speed Craw. Basically it was starting to get dark and I had worked my way back to where the PRO bay narrows before it opens up to Rock Lake and I thought I was going to get skunked, when this little bass hit the Monsoor Swim Jig over some dead rice.
. A couple minutes later I got another bass that was just a bit bigger. A couple minutes later I made a long cast to an irregular feature that is something akin to an old beaver lodge, but I am not certain if that is what it actually is and I got hit by this 17.25" bass.
I accidentally changed some adjustment on the camera and so this pic for some reason looks lighter even though it was taken 10 minutes later and it was darker out than the first fish picture. Also this was the only pic of about 5 I took that was reasonably in focus.

As I made my way into Rock Lake I had a hit and brought in a 24" pike and that was it.

Not Much to Report

(Click to Enlarge-Pic doesn't do justice to this rainbow out of Platte Lake)

Tonight I headed out about 6:15PM and my first stop was Rock. Rock Dock not out yet, no fish. Went to Bulldog, no fish.

Went to GOMH saw rainbow fished on the SE side got two jumpin bullheads (13",16") and that was it. I also did try the SW side as it got towards dark. Left about 9PM.

Hilarious!

Casey of Casey's Catch of the Day blog went float tube fishing with MT of MT Bucket blog and Casey got this great shot of ole Cyberfish.

Mayday Mayday Bait Monkey on the Loose

Yesterday I took a trip down to the cities and hit up a few tackle shops. First stop was at Capra's where I snapped up a few more used lures (KVD Susp Rogue, Rapala Skitter Prop, Husky Jerk, wht/chart Spinnerbait) and I also picked up a couple of black/red Monsoor Swim Jigs and 2 bags of Zoom Speed Worms for $2 a pack

2nd Stop was at the new Thorne Brothers store in Blaine. There I picked up "The Trailer Hitch" and "The Bait Hitch" which are terminal tackle designed to keep plastics from slipping down on jigs and hooks.

And my last stop was at Mills Fleet Farm to pick up a starting battery for the boat along with a couple of Storm Kicken' Stick's hard swimbaits that were on sale for $6.99. I was kind of lucky to get the Kicken' Stick's as they were down to their last 3 and the one's they had left were in back off the retail floor. I also bought a couple of jig/spinnerbait skirts.

Kingfisher@GOMH

(Click to Enlarge)

This guy came for a visit to see if I was catching any fish last night. I am pretty sure it was some type of Kingfisher due to raised feathers on the back of it's neck, although you can't see that in picture.

Bass Fishing Blog News

Mike Folkestad is now with Blogger thanks to Tami Curtis.

Not Much!

Tonight I headed out a little after 6PM because I needed to get minnows at Bear Traxx. My first stop was at Bulldog and I didn't get a bite.

Next I went to Rock where I caught this one sunfish, I missed a few bites.


I didn't get to the GOMH until close to 8PM and nobody was there. I managed to get this one toothy bullhead and a small jumpin bullhead and that was it.

I am really wishing the MN Fishing Opener (walleye/pike) was the 2nd Saturday of May like it normally is, but for some stupid reason the Opener is slotted two weeks before Memorial Day Weekend so Opener is the 3rd Saturday in May this year. The bite at the Grumpy Old Man Hole seems to be dying and I don't know if it will bounce back. Maybe by the end of the week I'll have the boat in the water and I'll have more options.

Hall of Fame Hardbaits

On the Tackle Tour Hardbait Forums poster TW asked this question:

Let's say we call a hardbait that has caught over 100 bass a Hall of Famer. What are your HOF lures?

Here are pictures of a couple of mine:

(Click to Enlarge)

Actually the gold Rogue wouldn't be a Hall of Famer because I don't think it caught anywhere near 100 fish before the lip broke, but it was a productive bait.

Here is what I wrote in the thread:
Interesting topic

For a single hardbait lure here in the North county I would say it's pretty rare to get 100 or more fish on the same lure because a pike or muskie will steal it before you seriously rack up the numbers.

Here's my hardbait HOF

Berkley Frenzy Popper
Rapala Husky Jerk
Rapala X-Rap
Bomber 7A
Cotton Cordell Spot
Mann's Minus One's (all 3 sizes combined I should be well over 100 fish)

So what are your Hall of Fame Hardbaits?

DNF

Did Not Fish Today

Here are the Elite Series AOY Standings
Angler of the Year Standings

1 Skeet Reese -- Calif. -- 1170
2 Greg Hackney -- La. -- 1017
3 Edwin Evers -- Okla. -- 990
4 Dean Rojas -- Ariz. -- 984
5 Dave Wolak -- N.C. -- 963
6 Brian Snowden -- Mo. -- 947
7 Michael Iaconelli -- N.J. -- 938
8 Greg Vinson -- Ala. -- 918
8 Aaron Martens -- Ala. -- 918
10 Jeff Kriet -- Okla. -- 912
11 Cliff Pace -- Miss. -- 902
12 Bill Lowen -- Ohio -- 881
13 Steve Kennedy -- Ala. -- 877
14 Derek Remitz -- Ala. -- 863
15 Todd Faircloth -- Texas -- 860
16 Gary Klein -- Texas -- 854
17 Shaw Grigsby -- Fla. -- 850
18 James Niggemeyer -- Texas -- 841
19 Zell Rowland -- Texas -- 833
20 John Crews -- Va. -- 828
21 Terry Butcher -- Okla. -- 823
22 Stephen Browning -- Ark. -- 821
23 Guy Eaker -- N.C. -- 817
24 Scott Rook -- Ark. -- 812
25 Mark Tucker -- Mo. -- 810
26 Mark Davis -- Ark. -- 802
27 Bobby Lane -- Fla. -- 801
27 Jared Lintner -- Calif. -- 801
27 Tommy Biffle -- Okla. -- 801
30 Kevin Wirth -- Ky. -- 798
31 Denny Brauer -- Mo. -- 795
32 Clark Reehm -- Ark. -- 788
33 Mike McClelland -- Ark. -- 776
34 Kelly Jordon -- Texas -- 774
34 Kevin Short -- Ark. -- 774
36 Bradley Roy -- Ky. -- 769
37 Ish Monroe -- Calif. -- 768
38 Kevin VanDam -- Mich. -- 766
39 Matt Herren -- Ala. -- 757
40 Billy McCaghren -- Ark. -- 752
41 Morizo Shimizu -- Japan -- 744
42 Dustin Wilks -- N.C. -- 743
43 Russ Lane -- Ala. -- 742
44 Gerald Swindle -- Ala. -- 741
45 Randy Howell -- Ala. -- 738
45 Terry Scroggins -- Fla. -- 738
47 Boyd Duckett -- Ala. -- 737
48 Jason Quinn -- S.C. -- 736
49 Alton Jones -- Texas -- 735
49 Brent Chapman -- Kan. -- 735
51 Takahiro Omori -- Texas -- 734
52 Jason Williamson -- S.C. -- 728
53 Byron Velvick -- Texas -- 719
54 Kotaro Kiriyama -- Ala. -- 718
55 Pat Golden -- N.C. -- 712
55 Jeff Connella -- La. -- 712
55 Casey Ashley -- S.C. -- 712
58 Paul Elias -- Miss. -- 708
59 Marty Robinson -- S.C. -- 701
60 Peter Thliveros -- Fla. -- 692
60 Bradley Hallman -- Okla. -- 692
62 Mark Menendez -- Ky. -- 674
63 Matt Reed -- Texas -- 673
64 Rick Morris -- Va. -- 662
65 Grant Goldbeck -- Md. -- 658
66 Cliff Crochet -- La. -- 656
67 Pete Ponds -- Miss. -- 638
68 Wade Grooms -- S.C. -- 632
69 J Todd Tucker -- Ga. -- 628
69 Matt Greenblatt -- Fla. -- 628
71 Dennis Tietje -- La. -- 624
71 Mark Tyler -- Okla. -- 624
73 Davy Hite -- S.C. -- 622
74 Marty Stone -- N.C. -- 620
74 Fred Roumbanis -- Okla. -- 620
76 Charlie Hartley -- Ohio -- 592
77 Vince Fulks -- Okla. -- 590
77 Timmy Horton -- Ala. -- 590
79 Rick Clunn -- Mo. -- 589
80 Jami Fralick -- S.D. -- 586
81 Kenyon Hill -- Okla. -- 580
82 Bernie Schultz -- Fla. -- 560
83 Keith Poche -- Ala. -- 555
84 Chad Griffin -- Texas -- 546
85 Mark Burgess -- Mass. -- 544
86 John Murray -- Ariz. -- 538
87 David Smith -- Okla. -- 502
87 Byron Haseotes -- Mass. -- 502
89 Chris Lane -- Ala. -- 498
90 Britt Myers -- S.C. -- 480
91 Yusuke Miyazaki -- Texas -- 478
92 Jeremy Starks -- W.Va. -- 474
93 Scott Ashmore -- Okla. -- 432

It's good to see The Wolverine is having a good year, so far. Bass Fishing Bloggers Boyd Duckett and Brent Chapman need to pick up the pace.

Trophy Potential

Today I got the new/used 25hp Johnson (1993) mounted on the Trophy and the boat got a good vacuum which it really needed. There is a pretty good chance I will put the boat in the water sometime next week. The motor is electric start and I don't have a battery for it yet.

Tonight I caught 1 jumpin bullhead at the GOMH. I got there after 8PM and nobody was there. After about 20 minutes with 1 missed bite a front with rain and big wind blew through. I sought refuge in the car and got the jb after things had calmed down some. No pic, cause camera was in car and I didn't want to get it.

This Just In...

Cheeseheads can fish for bass, I've got to wait 27 more days.

OK OK but from my posts, it's pretty clear I am catching some bass. The rub is that I am not intentionally fishing for them, they just happen to jump on my line totally by freak accident. I really want crappies and dogfish, not bass.

Bassin' Newbie Starts Bass Fishing Blog

Intro to Bass Fishing- This is a blog out of Peoria, IL by a guy named Mark who is pretty much new to bass fishing, but has caught the bug bad apparently. He just caught the biggest bass of his life and he guessed it weighed 3lbs something. First time he had ever used a buzzbait and he didn't have the rod spooled through the rod tip.

Anyway check his blog out, become a follower, and encourage him with some comments.