Get Me To The Juice

17.25" Horny Toad

5:30-6:45AM
Conditions- Sunny with a light to moderate wind out of the South.  Storms on the Western Horizon

I was the second person to arrive at the GOMH, and the NE was taken.  I tried the NW and SW sides, nothing.  I then went to the Culvert with my mind set on going to "the juice" first thing with a Horny Toad.  I got a 14.25" on my first cast.  A 17.25" on my second cast. And a 15.5" on about my 6th cast.  That was it.  I fished the Inlet, no current no fish.  And that was my morning.

Don't Remember If I Caught Any Fish

Blogged 1-1-2015

But I was at the GOMH at Sunrise this morning.

Updated June 25th 2015.  This is what I caught that morning.

Morning Trip 3 Spots

16" Craw Tube at the Inlet

Conditions- Cloudy, cool, windy out of the NE, but not as bad as last night by 5mph some mist from the lake.

I fished all 3 stops.  Missed the first hit of the morning on a Spro Poppin Frog.  Got first fish on a Pure Poison 13" jb, broke off a 15" jb on a b/b craw tube, and got a 10.5 on a b/b Yabbie.

At the Culvert I landed a 13" jb on the Spro Frog and at the Inlet I got the 16" and a 21" pike on a green pumpkin craw tube.  I also missed a couple of bites at the Inlet.

I fished from 5:35-7:45am

A Good Night And Dogfish

16.75" Choked It!

I really need to get my act together, I have been fishing the past 2 weeks but not blogging anything.

Today I had my ICD check down in the cities.  By the time I got back North the temps dropped from the low 80's to around 70 degrees.  By the time I got out around 8PM it was mostly cloudy and the wind was whipping out of the N NE.  I went to the Sullivan Inlet first and there was almost no current and I didn't get a bite.

Next I headed to the culvert where I got a 16.75" and a 16.25" on a white Horny Toad.  I also missed a couple of hits.  When I arrived at the GOMH there were 2 cars there with nobody fishing on the N side, so I headed to the NE side and as I was on my way a guy came across and told me he and the kids he brought had gotten some little jumpers and he claimed he had a big golden bullhead break him off while fishing a surface frog.  Needless to say, I took that report with a grain of salt.  I got a 12.75" jumper right away on the Pure Poison.  I switched up to a green pumpkin craw tube and got nailed by this critter.

I figured it was 23" but didn't measure it real close.  She frayed my line and broke my tube.  So I switched to b/b craw tube on another rod and I got a 15" and a 14" jumper on that.  I left around 9:45PM

Bass Snatcher Serpent Lake Tournament

My Boater Dave Branum from the Morning We Pre-fished

Conditions: Cloudy in the morning turning sunny then partly cloudy.  Wind from almost calm to about 10mph out of the S SE.  It did sprinkle for a little while.  I could have used less wind.

My Plan- I was really hoping the wind would stay low enough to allow me to fish topwater all day.  After the pre-fish I figured it was a plan that had a chance of winning the tournament.  Honestly, I usually don't fish thinking I am going to win a tournament, but that was my mind set on this one.

The Day- I believe we blasted off around 6:40AM and we got our starting spot.  Well one caveat to that statement.  We got our starting spot, which was a fairly big area, but there was a non-competitors boat fishing right in the middle of it.  We did get to start on the spot where we got the double and I got 2 smallies.  It took about 10 to 15 minutes, but I got a 15" largie on a Paycheck Baits Repo Man.  I think I missed a hit and noticed on a couple of casts I had fish following but not hitting.  So I took the Repo Man off and went to the KVD Dawg.  I got a 14.25" and a 15.25" on that.  Dave got 1 or two fish.  The other boat landed a few as well.  Eventually we moved on the other side of the other boat.  I had a nice pike blow up on the KVD.  Then it got calm for a little while.  I started throwing a gold Frenzy Popper and I got 13.75" and a 12.5" on that.  The other boat left and the wind came up.  We weren't getting bites so we left.

Our next spot was a weedline where we got a few pre-fishing including 1 nice smallie.  The wind was blowing here pretty good.  I started out throwing the KVD Dawg, then a Kelly J, then a Strike King Spinnerbait.  I got a hit right away on the spinnerbait, but it was a slimmer.  I did get a 10 bass and 13.25" bass on the Kelly J.

We moved to a sunken island with weeds and rocks.  I culled out my 2 smallest with a 15.25" and a 14" on the Repo Man.  Dave got himself a nice smallie (2-10) and lost a another better largemouth as he was bring it to the boat.  I decided to throw a Lake Fork Craw Tube for a little bit and was quickly rewarded with a 16.25" largie (1-15).  I started catching a bunch of rock bass as well.

Next we headed to our starting area.  The wind was blowing pretty good there.  I started experimenting with lipless cranks.  I was on my 4th one, a 3/4oz chart/red Red Eye Shad, when  I had a 15 to 16 inch largemouth hit it. It only had one hook and got off.  I then caught a hammer handle.  Then I got the fish I was looking for, a good smallmouth.  It hit on the end of a long cast and shot up out of the water trying to throw my bait.  It then swam towards the boat.  Reeling as fast as I could I was able to keep up with it.  I had it about 4 feet from the net when it tail walked and came off.  I would say it was 17" inch 3lb class fish.  I ended up catching a rock bass and a perch on the Red Eye as well.

We moved to a weedline that was protected from the wind.  I started throwing the Repo Man.  A 17" or so smallie jumped on it about 12 feet out from the boat.  It missed the bait and must have seen me because it didn't come back for it.  Dave got a largemouth, which helped him and then he dropped one that had to be at least 3 1/2 lbs, probably a bit more.

We went back to the island where Dave got the smallmouth. I don't remember if he caught anything but rock bass.  I got a couple of rock bass on the Red Eye.  We finished up on our starting spot.  I got a couple of rock bass on the craw tube.

Results-   My 6 fish weighed 9lbs 8ozs which put me in 24th Place with 26 anglers fishing. Dave's fish went 10lbs 15ozs and put him in 11th Place.  The winner was Darren Kiefer with 14lbs 5ozs and Lunker went to Bill Ludenia with a 4-1 largemouth, at least I think it was a largemouth.  Bill came in 2nd with 13-14.  Everyone got a limit.  Fishing was tougher than expected.

Thoughts-  Like I said in quick report  I had the bites to do well, Top 10 for sure, and my boater had the fish on to contend for the win, but our execution left something to be desired.  Part of my execution problem stems from the rod I was throwing the Red Eye Shad on.  The rod is a Lamiglas Excel 735.  Great for throwing a long cast, but not forgiving enough for playing the fish.  It's great a rod for frogs and dipper style swimbaits, but treble hook lures not so much..  On a softer rod I may have gotten both of the one's I lost.

I can't really do anything about a fish that misses my topwater lure.  I played that fish perfect, letting the topwater sit before starting it up again and then throwing a follow up lure.  That fish saw me and was gone.  The wind was such that I didn't get to throw topwater as much as I wanted too.

Next Tournament Leech Lake July 19th.

Foggy Morning

Sun breaking through at the Sullivan Inlet

Blogged 12-31-14

I believe this was the day before the Serpent Lake Tournament.  I think I got a couple of fish at the GOMH, but a couple of guys came and fished inside of me on the NE side.  I bailed and went to the Culvert. There I struck gold with these fish.   I also fished at the Sullivan Inlet.  It was a short trip to the best of my recollection.

20" Horny Toad

16" Horny Toad

A Good Night w/ Thunderstorm

16.75" Horny Toad at the Inlet

Blogged 12-31-14

I believe this was the same night M.T. got some cool pics of the Thunderstorm from Onamia.  I don't think I had gotten out yet this week.  I started at the Inlet and there was a good bite there on Horny Toad's and Craw Tube's until the thunderstorm hit.  I then drove to the Culvert until the Thunderstorm passed and the fish were on fire there.  I also hit up the GOMH and got at least one good bullhead there as well.

17" Horny Toad 

17.25" Horny Toad 

18.25" on the Horny Toad, obviously.

18.75" Craw Tube

Pete Was Up For A Few (6-14-16)

6-14-14

Blogged 1-1-15

...After his Church retreat at Whitefish got rained out.  We didn't have a whole lot of success.  I think we got beat out by a group to fish at the Culvert.  

6-14-14

16" at Sullivan Inlet 6-14-14

Blue Flag Iris

Serpent Lake Pre-Fish

A double to start the morning

Conditions: Calm to a light wind, basically perfect topwater conditions.  Sunny with clouds moving in.

My boater Dave Branum and I were on the water and fishing by 7AM.  I had a fish hit my KVD Sexy Dawg on the 2nd cast, but it got off.  On my next cast, I had a fish hit it and not hook up.  I let the lure sit then started retrieving again and the fish either came back or another one hit it, but this time it stayed buttoned.  Dave brought in a largemouth at the same time.

My fish was a 15.5" smallie.  A couple of casts later I got a 17.5" smallie.  Next I got 15.5" and 16" largemouths and I switched to a Stanley Phantom.  I got a couple of small largies and a 14" on that, then I switched up to a KVD Dawg Jr.  I got  15.25, 10", and 14.25" largies on that.  Dave was catching fish in the same general size range as me as well, but he was fishing subsurface.  I got a 15.5 largie on a MegaBass Popmax.  We then switched locations and I got an 18.33 smallie on the same KVD Dawg as earlier.

 She either hadn't spawned yet or had a full belly.  I got two more 15" largemouth's on the Dawg, then I put it away.   The wind came up a little bit and  I got a couple of largies on a Lucky Craft Kelly J. I got a 17.75 smallie on a Rapala X-Rap Prop, along with a couple of small keeper largies.  I did throw a craw tube eventually and got a couple of pike on that and one bite off, along with a 14.75 largie.  Dave got the biggest bass of the day, a 19" plus largemouth.  I also had at least half a dozen other  fish that missed my topwater baits or got off.

Needless to say we were both feeling good about things.

Bass Snatcher Lake Alexander Tournament

My Boater Chuck Johansen, 1991 MN B.A.S.S. Nation T.O.C. Winner 

The Weather- Calm, cool/cold and overcast in the morning, turning sunny with some wind out of the NW in the afternoon.

The Day- Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we blasted off around 6:45AM because we made a long run up to the NE corner of the lake to fish some reed beds, floating bogs, and docks.  The reeds hadn't started coming out of the water yet.  As we worked our way East I started out throwing a Pure Poison, but in the calm conditions quickly switched to the chart/firetiger Stanley Phantom.  I had what I'm 90% sure was a muskie come up and wake behind that.  Eventually I switched to a gold Frenzy Popper.  I made a long cast out to some reeds.  I'm not sure if I had a little over run that I started taking out or what, but a fish hit the Popper.  I quickly, set the hook but I couldn't reel in because the line was caught on my reel.  It felt like a good fish, but by the time I got my line out of the reel handle it had come off.   I managed to catch a 9" dink on the Popper and missed another one that swirled on it.  We went into some docks and passed by a decent smallmouth that was on a bed.  Next I got a rock bass on a Yabbie and another 9" dink on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke.  Then Chuck got  the first keepers along the dock. We had to be at least an hour into the tournament when Chuck got the first keeper.  I finally got a 12" squeaker and we both got some that didn't measure and more rock bass as we worked our way along the bogs and docks on Flukes and the Yabbies.  Chuck got a couple of small keepers and  I got a 13.5" and a 13" off the docks, then we ran back to approximately where we started.  When we got close to the area where we had seen the smallmouth bed I threw my Fluke into the general vicinity and the fish crushed it.

15"

  That was pretty much all we got on our 2nd pass except for a few dinks and rock bass.  We ended up hopscotching with a couple of boats on the docks on the East side of the lake.  We got down to the SE corner and there was a prime looking area of an old reed bed.  I took a 14.5" on the Fluke and then I missed a good fish that may or may not have been a bass up by shore.  Chuck thought maybe it was a dogfish.  We ended up pulling a double much to the dismay of Chuck Steinbauer who was fishing towards us.  Mine was a 15.75" largie.  Steinbauer left and we worked the water he had been fishing.  Then we made the call to go back over the area again.  I tied on a Zoom Horny Toad with a purple head and chart. legs.  I caught a 24 or so inch pike on that.  The wind came up more than it had been and the sun came out.  Chuck thought we should move, but I suggested we fish down to a pontoon boat.  My suggestion paid off for Chuck when he landed a quality fish just on the other side of the pontoon.  We decided to keep going and I think Chuck got another good fish off of a bog point that had the wind blowing on it and I missed what felt like a good fish on a green pumpkin Lake Fork Craw Tube.  I got a couple of rock bass and missed a couple of bites on the Craw Tube before connecting with a 14" fish that culled out my 12".  I think Chuck got another keeper as well.

Next we went a little to the West of the area we started in and headed West.  I culled a 13" for a 13" and caught some that didn't help as we worked our way through the reed stubble.  We started working some docks and we both got some that didn't help and some rock bass.  I had a good smallmouth follow my Fluke out from a dock.  I let the fluke drop when I saw her. It turned to swim away. I jigged the Fluke again, the fish whipped around, eyed it for a couple of seconds than took it.  I set the hook and landed my biggest fish of the day 16"/ 2lbs 3ozs and final keeper bite.  Got several more that didn't help including one on a Gambler Ninja Spin as well as several rock bass on the Craw Tube.  I think I missed 1 that would have helped at least a little bit on a Craw Tube.  Chuck got one last quality cull off of a dock.

The Results- My 6 fish weighed in at 10lbs 1ozs and put me in 19th Place out of 26 fishing.  Chuck's fish went 12lbs 4ozs and put him in 8th place.  Jim Smith won easily with 16lbs 5ozs, more than 2lbs over Guy who got 2nd Place.  Big Bass only weighed 3-8 and was caught by Dave Branum; I think it was a largemouth.  Only 1 guy failed to catch a limit and weights were up an average of around 2lbs per person over the last two tournaments on Alexander (6-25-06, 9-22-12)

My Thoughts-   Other than the first hour which was fairly slow, it was a fun day on the water with a lot of setting the hook.  Had I got all my bites I guess I would have had around 12lbs as well.  For neither of us getting to pre-fish I thought the day went pretty well.  Chuck was a great guy to fish with, very considerate, and asking for my input from time to time.

Next Tournament- Serpent Lake June 22nd

Two Trips Today

15.5" Yabbie on the Legened Xtreme

6-8AM and 5-7:30PM
Conditions- Foggy, cool but warming up fast
Conditions- Front approaching windy out of the NW.  It did rain a little, but mostly that stupid wind

The morning trip was mostly about my new St. Croix Legend Xtreme rod.  The fish just weren't there to get me to put the reel with Fireline on it.  The 15.5" and a snag were the rods first real tests and it passed.  I also 3 more small jumpers on the Yabbie, a dink on the Kelly J, and a small jumper and toothy on the Pure Poison.  I decided while putting my gear together for tomorrows tournament to keep the reel with the Gamma Line on it for tournament day.

Normally, I don't fish the day before a tournament let alone go out twice, but the evening conditions set up for a possible repeat of The Great GOMH Whackfest of 2009.   If there was any chance of that happening when the front blew through tonight I wasn't going to miss it.  I got out about 30 minutes later than I should have.  Peter and some of his buddies were fishing on the S side.  I took the NE side.  I got a small jumper right away on the "Black Phantom", but immediately after I got it in a boat came through and shut them down for a while.  I did pick up a couple of jumpers on the Yabbie, then got a couple of small one's to go on Frenzy Popper, but the wind picked up out of the NW and I couldn't cast where I needed to.  I sprinkled a little bit, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would. I ended up getting one descent jumper on the "White Phantom" and small one's on Ish's Phat Frog, and Luck-E-Strike RC Squarebill.  I also got a toothy on the RC and 1 on a KVD squarebill as well. I stopping fishing at 7:30PM, had a conversation with the "old timer" then left.

15.25" White Phantom after the Front had passed

Good Afternoon Poor Evening at the GOMH

Rainbow from the evening trip

12:30-2:30PM 8:00-9:20PM
Conditions- Windy with light to moderate rain
Conditions- Storm just passed, sun came out wind much lower but still out of the South

I took Jenny to the hospital in the morning and went to the Grumpy Old Man Hole after.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera because I got a 22" bowfin on the b/b Yabbie.  Other than that I pounded the small jumpin' bullheads on the Yabbie and Tonka Tackle gp Craw Tube;  I also got 3 toothy bullheads on those same baits.  I couldn't get the jumpers to come up for topwaters for anything.  I left because the rain was getting heavier.  Due to the wind I only fished on the Platte side.

When I arrived home I discovered that the new rod tip for the 6'8" St. Croix Legend Xtreme I recently won on Ebay had come as well as a box of Yabbies I won on Ebay as well.  I got the rod for a steal because it was listed with a very cheap Buy It Now price because of the rod tip issue and I happened to see the auction before anybody had a chance to bid on it.  Naturally I had to get out and give the new rod a try.  I didn't get out until 8PM because of thunderstorms.  My plan was to try 2 different reels on the rod; one with Gamma Co-Poly and one with Fireline.  I ended up only getting to use the Gamma line, because I chose the wrong side of the bridge.  When I arrived a thunderstorm had just passed and I was surprised to see a guy fishing on the S side.  No problem, I planned to fish on the N side anyway.  I quickly learned the fish weren't there for the most part.  Unfortunately by the time I discovered they weren't there the S side was covered up by other fishermen.  I managed to get 3 small jumpers on a Yabbie, Lucky Craft Kelly J, and the X-Rap Prop.  I missed two really good hits on the X-Rap.   They may have both been toothy's.  One was a fish that showed itself under the bridge and the other was a fish I'm all but certain was a toothy East of "the juice".  I'm not sure how I missed the one under the bridge, I was ready for the hit and the lure was gone when the fish swirled on it.  I set the hook and the lure came flying back at me.  The other one I didn't really set the hook because I'm 95% sure it was a toothy.  Here is my first fish on the new rod.

12.5" on da Yabbie

 When I left, some of the people fishing the South side had gotten a couple of golden bullheads and several small jumper.

Morning And Evening at the GOMH

17.25" Tonka Tackle Craw Tube

6:10-7:50AM
Conditions- Mostly Sunny, warm enough
I don't remember why I didn't get out until 6:10AM.  Fishing was not as good as I hoped it would be after last night but I didn't do badly either.  The 17.25 was big fish of the morning in came off of "the juice."  I also got another 16" on the Craw Tube and 2x 16"'s and a 15.5 on the Pure Poison with Grass Pig trailer.  I got several 13" jumpers on the Tonka Tackle green pumpkin craw tube as well. Not a single toothy this trip. I got fish on Platte and Sullivan

8:20-9:20PM
This trip was a bit of a disappointment.  Only got fish on the Sullivan side, didn't really get to fish the North side due to people fishing there.  I got 4 small jumpers on the Yabbie and Poison and 1 small toothy on the craw tube.

Why I Haven't Gotten the Trophy Out Yet

18.5" Pure Poison

7:45-9:45pm
I caught a bunch of jumpin bullheads tonight and even "The Juice" gave up a couple on Topwater.  All told I got 20 jumpers and not a single toothy.  I did have one toothy jump over the "White Phantom" though.  I caught them on a mix of the Pure Poison, Stanley Phantom, Yabbie, Fight'n Bug, and Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.  I will say this about the Berkley Powerbait Fight'n Bug, I sure hope the problem with the bait is the rusty crawfish color not working on Platte/Sullivan.  I had been catching fish on the Yabbie and then I lost the body to a fish.  I put the Fight'n Bug on and only managed 2 small ones.  I switched to a green pumpkin Tonka Tackle Craw tube and smacked 3 good fish in the exact spot I had been fishing the Fight'n Bug without any luck.  Peter, Willard, and the Old Timer were all there tonight.  Willard gained himself a hook remover that somebody left. The mosquito's are getting terrible.

My best 6 went 18.5, 2x16", 3x15.25"

Toothy Bullhead Morning

1st Toothy of the Morning caught on Swamp Gas Grass Pig

25" That crushed the KVD 1.5, put up a good fight too.

4:50am to 9:15am
This morning started off with 3 toothy bullheads to start, for the morning I would catch 7 total on the Grass Pig, Pure Poison w/ Grass Pig, Stanley Phantom, Yabbie, and Strike King KVD 1.5.  As for jumpin' bullheads.

16.75 Likes the Yabbie

13" takes the "Black Phantom"

I only got 4 but 3 of them were nice 16"+ fish that all fell for the Yabbie.

I also briefly hit up Bulldog this morning and got a small bass on the Berkley Powerbait Fight'n Bug and a small pike on the Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.

Short Trip Tonight GOMH

15.9" Pure Poison with Grass Pig Trailer

8:15-9:30PM
Conditions- Cloudy with light wind out of the SE with thunderstorms to the South

When I arrived the only person there was just leaving.  Said he didn't have a bite.  I took the NE side and started by throwing the Stanley Phantom on the 6'8" Avid.  I had one quality jumpin bullhead get on it on the end of a long cast while I was letting it sit.  It came off 1/3 of the way in after jumping a couple of times.  I would say it was a 16"-18" fish.  The one in the picture was just short of 16" and hit the black/blue Pure Poison.  I also got a couple of fish on a b/b  Yabbie then a toothy frayed the line and I didn't want to take the time to retie.  I put the Phantom on the rod I had the Poison on 7'3" Lamiglas and put the Poison on the Avid and went to the SE side.  I had a fish miss the Phantom, then get it on a second try but it didn't hook up.  I went to the SW side after a boat went back through to Platte.  I got my last fish on the Poison as I was swinging it up it came off and got my line tangled around one of the guides.  It was now to dark to see and the mosquito's were getting bad and it looked like it could rain at any time so I called it a night.  As I zipped up the tackle bag I got the line from the Lamiglas caught in the zipper.  Couldn't get that out, so I put everything in the truck.  I got all my messes worked out at the pumps at J & D's because the bugs weren't bad and I was out of the rain that started.