Fishing Report 4/29/07 (GOMH)

Got to the GOMH a little before 8 PM and was pleasantly surprised to find only Willard and one other guy fishing the SW side. Willard had one nice silver bullhead in the pail. I had a grand total of 2 live minnows and a bunch of dead ones to fish with my glow Cubby. I immediately caught fish on the two live minnows. I then started using the dead minnows and got fish on those as well. Someone left and gave their minnows to me, so I had live minnows again. I missed a couple before finally notching a couple more. I caught 7 keepers and 1 dink; I gave the keepers to Willard. As it got darker, the bite died off. I couldn't get my headlamp to light up, so I called it a night.

Morning Fishing Report: I got up at 5:30 and headed to the GOMH. Don W. was there already but he hadn't gotten anything. I managed to get skunked, though I missed a few bites and had a jumpin bullhead on. Don caught one silver and a bunch of little oranges on waxies. By 7am, I had enough and left. There were two guys that arrived the same time as me that fished the NE side and they were catching some kind of bullhead over there.

Evening Fishing Report: I headed to the GOMH at 6:30. The SE side was open so I took that. Once again Lee Ander was there with family and Willard was on sight too. Lewis made an appearce later on so all the Grumpy Old Men were accounted for. There was lots of coming and goings on this night and boats were fishing both sides (N&S) of the GOMH. I started out fishing with maggies and a glow Cubby Mini-mite. It was slow at first but as the night progressed the action got faster. My first fish was an orange bullhead, followed up by a small jumpin bullhead. I missed several bites but eventually got dialed in to a zone to the East of the current. Around 7:30 I got my first Silver which I gave to Lee Ander. About 20 min later I had another Crappie on then missed it at the bridge. I was sporadically hooking several orange's by now. I then caught a couple of more silvers, then switched to minnows and got hit immediately 3 times catching 2 nice fish. After another silver or two I had one on that collided with the weeds and my line broke. I switched to a glow ratso with a big hook and kept working minnows; I got my last two silvers on this. All in all I went home with 7 having released a couple of small ones and having given 1 to Lee Ander. It was a nice night to be out 75 degrees slight SW wind. I would say I did as well as anybody because the SW side was not fast and furious with the silvers.

Fishing Report 4/26/07: Got to the GOMH after 7PM. There were 6 guys on the SW side including Lee Ander and Don W. was fishing the SE side. Someone on the SW side caught a dogfish just as I arrived. Shortly after that Don nailed a silver bullhead. I took up a spot where the dogfish had been thrown at the W end of the SW side. I managed to catch a few orange bullheads including a nice keeper I gave to Lee Ander. I also got 1 small perch. Eventually the guys to the east of me started busting silvers. I was shut out until a couple of guys left. I stayed long into the darkness (10PM) and only managed 2 silvers and an actual bullhead. There was no bite after dark to speak of. Don went home with 10 and got 6 on the SE side. He said he missed quite a few fish. The guy immediately to my left for most of the night was catching orange bully's on waxies and a small jig. He missed a dogfish and eventually managed to catch 4-5 silvers. After everyone left I threw the still alive dogfish back in the water.

Fishing Report 4/25/07: I did an early trip to the GOMH starting around 3:30 to 5:30. GOM Lee Ander was there along with two other guys. 1 of those guys was in a boat fishing the SE side, and he caught several bullheads on a large twister tail. The guy to the west of me tangled with a couple of bullheads. I tangled with a couple of bullheads, catching a small one. Two bully's straightened my hook and got off. Lee Ander caught a 4lb plus bullhead on a waxie and jig. He also missed a orange bully. About 4:45 Willard arrived and started talking more "bacon." At 5:30 I went over to get Jenny for the fish fry.

After the fish fry dad and I hit the GOMH arriving around 7:15. It was 60 degrees and dead calm and the silver bullheads were just starting to hit. It was our good fortune that Willard had started fishing thus effectively saving the SW side for us to fish. The silver bullheads were hitting good tonight, nice and steady; I helped five different people fill out limits including GOM Lee Ander and Willard. I also threw several (4-5) silvers back. Dad's bobber was barely visible on the surface or was just beneath the surface. Dad missed several fish. Fish were hitting on waxies for Lee Ander and minnows for just about everyone else. I used both maggies and minnows, some of the minnows were dead ones. The later it got the more the fish seemed to prefer minnows. We quit fishing when everyone had their limit; it was dark but I could still see my bobber. All in all it was a lot of fun at the GOMH tonight.

Lee Ander told me that the channel by the golf coarse on Mille Lacs was giving up big crappies from 5-7pm. The main body of ML is still a sheet of ice.

Fishing Report 4/24: Headed to the GOMH at 6:20PM. There were three anglers fishing the SW side. Also at the GOMH was grumpy old man Willard. If he said bacon once, he said it a hundred times over the evening.

Since the SW side was covered with anglers I took the not nearly as nice to fish from SE side. In the first hour I fought two big bullheads but they both jumped me off by slightly bending the cubby hook out. The first hook up was at least a 4lber that jumped numerous times. A lady fishing the SW side said if I gave her the bass to keep, she would give me a couple of brewski's. I think she was half kidding, but then again maybe not.

I landed my first fish, which was a 2lb jumpin bullhead after I had been there about an hour. I was fishing a busted Cubby body with a minnow. I landed two more jumpin bullheads, a 2 and then a 3lber. About 8PM the people on the SW side started getting some action with orange bullheads then by 8:20 some silvers started showing up. I caught an unlucky break when a slimmer broke my line sending my Wing-It bobber into Sullivan Lake. However soon after that my luck changed because the guy and the girl fishing the SW side caught enough fish and packed it up. I immediately took there place.

For the next 20 minutes or so I proceeded to whack and stack silver bullheads on Dad's set up from last night (Chart flu flu and a minnow). Another guy showed up while the action was hot and he immediately started catching them too. As it was starting to get pretty dark the 1st guy left and the action slowed. I put on my lighted bobber and got about 4 more fish. The action slowed the darker it got. I got my last couple of fish on another set up with a Glow Demon. All in all I kept 9 (see pic) and released 3-5.

Word on the street is that Santa Claus Don woke up early and smacked em good in the morning around 6am. He said he also got a 5lb jumpin bullhead.

Fishing Report 4/23: It was a nice night of fishing with my dad at the Grumpy Old Man Hole. There were 2 Grumpy old men (Lee Ander and his brother). Dad had quite the time chatting with Lee Ander. The weather was a mild 60degrees with a slight breeze out of the west.

We arrived at the GOMH around 6 pm and there were several trucks parked. I thought we were gonna get shut out of the good spot, but as it turned out only Lee Ander was fishing and he wasn't catching anything. Dad and I headed down to the SW shore of the GOMH and set up shop. Dad had a yellow flu flu with a minnow and I was fishing a white Cubby Mini-mite. Things were pretty slow for the first hour or so with Dad missing a couple of bigger fish, probably bass. Eventually I gave in and tipped my jig with a minnow and after about 15 minutes I reeled in a jumpin bullhead of about 15 inches. Not long after that Dad tied into the Jumpin Bullhead in the first picture. I figure it was about 16 inches. I had a fish steal my minnow and Cubby tail.
About 7:45 dad landed the first silver bullhead. I was having a problem with my rod being tangled and before you knew it dad had landed three fat specs. About the time I got my rod situation straightened out Dad lost his bobber for the 2nd time. This time the bobber was out in current and went bye bye; we were able to retrieve the bobber the first time it came off. I let dad use my rod while I rigged his pole.

Round about the time I was getting dad's pole ready, our friend Don Weinmeister showed up. Don was using waxies and started catching Silver and Orange bullheads straight away. Dad and I were still catching them but not as fast as Don. I eventually switched to maggies and the bite for me picked up a little bit between the silver and orange bullheads. The bite was steady until it got to dark for me to see my bobber. All totalled we brought home 11 silvers and 1 orange with a couple of small silvers and oranges released. Don managed to get 9 silvers. A guy was showing up to fish just as we left, it was quite dark by then.

The Suckers: Stopped by the Rum River where it runs into Shakopee lake. The suckers are running thick and spawning like crazy. It was a cool site.