Wednesday, March 31, 2010

1st Open Water Fish of 2010

Wide open is the description of all the lakes I looked at today except Mille Lacs. Shakopee open, Bulldog open, Rock open, and yes even Sullivan open.

My day started out with a trip to Onamia to pick up meds and check to see if the suckers were running in the Rum River just North of Shakopee Lake. Do you see any suckers in this picture:

If you do your eye sight is better than mine. The river was empty, therefore sucker fishing was out. I went to Subway for lunch and came back, still no sign of suckers. I hung out for about an hour and no suckers so I headed home.

I got out to the GOMH around 2PM and there was no bullhead action. So next I headed over to check out Bulldog then to the Rock Lake public access. No surprise the Rock Dock was not in the water yet, maybe tomorrow. The Rock access has been known to cough out fish even before the ice gets off the lake, so that is where I set up for the afternoon. Unfortunately for the fishing it was overcast and hazy for most of the afternoon keeping the shallows from heating up. The sky's started to clear a bit around 4:30 and sure enough my bobber went down and I caught my first open water fish of the year.
It went 17 inches.

A little bit later the sky's cleared up and a small school of little bass, a few sunfish, and a couple of crappies swam right up to me and then just as soon as they were there were gone. Didn't even get a bite. A little while later the bobber went down and my lure went bye bye. Stupid Pike!!! I fished until after 7 and occasionally there were sign's of fish swimming around, but I couldn't get any more bites.

I headed to the GOMH and Willard was sitting in his mini van and a guy, lady, and kid were fishing off the bridge and on the SW side. Willard informed me they had not caught anything and were fishing with minnows. I talked to Willard for about 15 minutes then headed over to the SE side which was open. While I was fishing CO Kuske and another CO showed up and did a fishing licence check. As the CO's were leaving I swear I got a bite on my drop shot power minnow but it got off right away. Felt like a silver bullhead. That was it for action at the GOMH tonight.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Two In a Row!

(Pete working his hot hole.)


Yes it's true. I went out ice fishing for a 2nd day in a row and I actually caught a few fish today.Pete and I got out around 3:30PM today and we found our friend Don W. out in the sunfish spot. Don had been there since 1PM and had 4 sunnies in his bucket. We basically set up shop in the same general area as yesterday (at least Pete thought it was) and we didn't even need to auger holes. Pete broke a few open with the spud and there were several holes that had been opened today that were available.

Pete got a bite in his hot hole as soon as he put a jig down the hole, though it took him about 10 minutes to get the first fish. I had to move through several holes before I started calling in some fish. After about half an hour I got the skunk of the ice with a 7.5" sunfish. Not wanting to clean fish I threw it back. I ended up with 2 more fish out of that hole and that was it for me. Pete caught about 13 sunnies total and kept 8 and I did keep 1 of mine. The fish were not very aggressive but I did get 10-15 bites, a few times my Powerbait spike got pulled right off the hook.

Although it was nice out when we got out, it cooled down in a hurry once the sun got low in the sky and I think we called it quits about half and hour earlier than last night.


Yes I Did!


This is the photographic proof I was out on the ice fishing today on Sullivan Lake. The guy closest to the camera is Pete. We got out about 5PM and fished until dark. Pete caught 1 Sunfish and I got skunked. I think I had a few bites, but after 3 years off I am a bit rusty, plus we didn't have live bait and the fish seemed to be kind of fussy. The one Pete caught he got with the help of a Spring bobber. I managed to tweek my lower back while lifting the Vexilar out of the hole. I am not in a all that much pain but I am going to definitely take a trip to the chiropractor.

There is a fair chance that Pete and I will get out and try again tomorrow.