Wind City

I arrived at the GOMH by 7:30PM and it looked a bit windy out of the South. I was surprised no one was there fishing. I got out of the truck walked around back and when I cleared the truck I found out it was "a bit windy" all right; Try 25-30mph sustained. I tried to fish the SE and SE side but the wind was pretty much blowing straight in and there were white caps hitting the shore. After giving it about 10 minutes I headed to the Northside. On my way, I discovered my Rapala Measuring Board laying up on the road under the car barrier. I figured it had blown out of my bag, but it turns out I had left it there on Thursday night and Lantern Man put it up there hoping I would find it.

Anyway, I got to the Northside which is a bit protected and started flinging and I was rewarded with a 15" jumpin bullhead. I was very glad there wasn't going to be a skunk tonight. The bite gave me hope. A little while later I got another bite on the beetle spin and brought in this 22.5" Pike.

(Yeah I know, lousy pic. This was the best of the 4 I took)

A little after getting that fish Lantern Man showed up. He said it was pretty windy last night too. Said he got a 21inch 6lb+ jumpin bullhead last night, but it was the only fish he got. After about 10 minutes LM caught a small toothy bullhead. He fished for about 10 more minutes then went to try the Southside in the wind. Just after he left I got a 26" toothy bullhead on the beetle spin. A little bit after that I had the beetle spin bit off and that was the end of the action. I think I left around 9PM.

Nothin' But Jumpin' Bullhead (For Me)

Weather: Today was warmer sun and almost 60 with little wind.

I arrived at the GOMH around 7:30PM and I fished the SW side and for about 5 fruitless minutes on the NE side. Here is the run down.
15.5" Jumpin Bullhead Red/Black Pit Boss
14.25" Jumpin Bullhead " "
14.50" Jumpin Bullhead Beetle Spin
14.25" Jumpin Bullhead " "
14.25" Jumpin Bullhead Pink Cubby Mini-Mite w/ Minnow
15"+ Jumpin Bullhead " " " " (long line release)

Lantern Man showed up around 8:15PM and fished the SE side. He caught more bullheads than me. When I started fishing with the Cubby I discovered I didn't have the light for the bobber. I did a 2nd long line release on a smaller jumpin bullhead when the hook on the Cubby broke. I went to switch to my lighted bobber rod only to discover there was no light in the bobber. AGGGGGHHHH!

I tied on another Cubby and fished with my headlamp on. I did get one bite while doing that but I didn't hook it. I fished to about 9:30PM, not much was happening by that point.

Sorta Slow GOMH!

Weather: Today was cool with intermittent snow throughout the day, overcast. Wind out of the North from 5-10.

I went and got minnows at Bear Traxx before they closed at 6:30PM and I was fishing by 6:45PM. I didn't get any bites in the first hour. Around 7:50PM I popped a 13.25" jumpin bullhead. About 15 minutes later I popped this 17.25" jumper.
That was all the minnows could get me, no silver bullheads tonight. I did miss a couple of bites.

Some Bullhead

I headed out of the house a bit after 7PM tonight. I started out the night playing with the new Think Tank Triggerfish topwater I got in the mail today from Tackle Warehouse. I was getting it to perform all it's little tricks, then I promptly lost it to the lake on a bad cast. Bummer Man!!!

So then I started fishing and got this 17" jumpin bullhead:
A little bit after that I got a 14.5 jumpin bullhead. I got both on a red/black Havoc Pit Boss. I threw the beetle spin with the Storm Wildeye Swim Shad for a while and didn't get anything. As it was starting to get dark I switched to the pink Mini-Mite Cubby below a bobber. I could just barely see the bobber about 12feet out when it tipped over on it's side and stayed there. I set the hook and got this 11" silver bullhead.

That was the last fish of the night. I stayed until 9:15PM.

A Little Bullhead!!!

I headed out tonight at about 6PM and my first stop was Rock Lake. Last year the ice was off area lakes before April 1st. The Rock Dock didn't go in until May 6th. This year the ice was off Rock Lake on Tuesday April 19th and the dock was in today. Go figure that one out.

The Rock Dock didn't bring me any luck, not even a bite. I left at about 7PM to head to the Grumpy Old Man Hole.

I parked on the NE side and started fishing on the NE side, Nothing. I then headed to the SW side. I was throwing the Vampire Orange(Red/Black) Berkley Havoc Pit Boss for dogfish and on about my 3rd cast I got a 13.5" blind in one eye jumpin bullhead. I switched up to a beetle spin and caught a little toothy bullhead. About 10 minutes later I got a 16.5 jumpin bullhead on the beetle spin. A couple of minutes later I had a small toothy bullhead swipe at the beetle spin but not get it. Then there was nothing for a long time. I decided to try to put a 2" Storm Wildeye Shad on a beetle spin, didn't get any hits on that. It was starting to get dark and so I decided it was time to break out bobber with the pink Cubby Mini-Mite. I was working it just a little ways out and the bobber started scooting off. I set the hook and the fight was on. I pretty sure it was a nice, but not huge, jumpin bullhead, don't know for sure because it got off. A couple of minutes later in almost the same exact spot the bobber tipped over, so I set the hook. Sure enough a silver bullhead had just inhaled the Cubby. I didn't have a bucket with me so back it went.
. It got dark enough that I had to put a light on the bobber. After about 5 minutes with the light on the bobber started moving to my left, so I set the hook and got another silver bullhead that just inhaled the pink cubby. I had the bobber move off one more time but I missed it. I left a little after 9:30PM.

MIssed Doggy???

I started fishing at 6PM, nothing at Rock. Somebody put a bobber in a tree there today. Then I tried a few casts at Jenny's, nothing. So it was off to the GOMH. Nobody was there when I showed up at around 7:30PM. I decided to head to the NE side and fish into Platte. Pretty much nothing was going on and it was just about 8PM and I was throwing a Vampire Orange(red/black) Berkley Havoc Pit Boss trying for a dogfish. On one of my retrieves after I pulled the lure from the water there was a pretty good size boil that I thought was probably a fish, so I started pitching to the area. On about the 4th cast, something nailed it. I set the hook and the fish started moving up the current which was flowing into Sullivan. It felt like a good fish and just like that it came off. I inspected my line and it was frayed so I sat down and re-tied. I got back to pitching the area again and after about 10 casts something hit it. I set the hook and didn't get it. Once again my line was frayed so I had to retie. I pitched the area for about 5 minutes before I finally had another hit about in the middle of the channel. The fish was off before I could even set the hook. I kept working the area and had it hit really good. I rared back on the hookset, I felt the fish for a couple of seconds then it was off again. The Pit Boss was messed up on the hook and the Texas Rig Trailer Hitch I was using to keep the plastic in place was gone and once again the line was frayed. I retied and put on another Pit Boss, but I didn't get any more hits. The fact that it didn't break me off and I couldn't hook it, makes me think it was probably a dogfish. At about 8:30PM I switched to the SE side. Lantern Man and I think his daughter was fishing the SW side with minnows. They hadn't gotten any bites by the time I left when it was to dark to see my bobber. Easter today.

Bite Offs

Bite Offs

Tonight I fished at the GOMH from 8:10PM till dark. Had plastic bit off on the Sullivan side, had my whole bait bit off on the Platte side.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice. Hopefully, that will get the fish to move in.

Not Rockin!

Not Rockin!

Three consecutive days of Skunk. I think I missed a hit on both Tues. and Wed., but tonight I didn't even get a bite.

Off to a slow start, this year and the weather which has been sucky for a week plus isn't going to take a turn for the better until Easter Sunday. Hopefully, some bullheads will show up then. Maybe I'll do something about getting the boat ready next week if the weather shapes up.

Birds, No Bullheads

Birds, No Bullheads

Today I headed out to the Grumpy Old Man Hole early because I wanted to watch Survivor and I had to tape American Idol. It was in the low 50's with sun and about a 10mph breeze out of the North. I got out around 3PM and fished to about 6:30. No luck on the bullheads. However, I got multiple close up looks at Loons. A couple of times they came up right by my bobber. In addition to the loons were various ducks including hooded mergansers and some kind of tiny diving duck. The Loons seemed to be fishing as they didn't spend much time on the surface before diving again. Various Loons must have swum under water under the bridge about 8-10 times. I also saw a mature Bald Eagle, another large raptor, maybe an Osprey, some kind of hawk, and some seagulls. Remarkably enough no red wing blackbirds have set up shop in the GOMH area yet.

Here is a Loon on the Platte side:

This shot was a Loon close up that was just a little late:

Here you can get a pretty good idea of just how much open water is on the South end of Platte Lake. Open to the small Island and about 1/3 of Channel in Bay. I would say the area of open water doubled from yesterday.
(Click Pictures to Enlarge)
On the Sullivan side, the Platte River Outlet Bay is almost totally wide open.

Bullheads Baby!!!

Today was delightful. Sun and it was almost to 70°F. I decided it would be a good night to hit up the Grumpy Old Man Hole (GOMH) and see if anything might have showed up. I left the house at about 7:20PM so I arrived about 7:30PM. There was open water on the Sullivan side beyond where I could see going towards the Platte River Outlet, but the PRO itself still has ice well along the Southern shore. The Platte side maybe had 5-8 acres of open water. The water is as high as I've ever seen it at the GOMH, almost all the rocks are under water on the SW side.

I started on the SW corner throwing a 2" Storm Wildeye Swim Shad. After trying that for a while with no luck, I had a hunch that I should go and try the Platte side of the bridge, so I went over to the NE side. On my very first cast to a spot that held lots of fish last year, it was bullhead on!!!

It was about 13" or so, I didn't measure it. I didn't have any luck and after about 10 minutes a young beaver started swimming around in the area and smacking it's tail every once and a while. I tried a few different things without any luck. At about 8:10PM I switched back to the SW side. Right before I switched sides another bigger beaver showed up.

Once again first cast, BAM BULLHEAD!!!

This one I did measure and it went a bit over 18". It wasn't very fat, so it might have been a male. After a few more casts with nothing I switched up to a Cubby Mini Mite under a bobber. I got a hit on that but missed it. Eventually it got to dark to fish around 8:35PM.

Nice to see my first fish of the year.