Not Much Opportunity, But I Capitalized.

100% Bite to land ratio on frogs today

5:15-7:30AM GOMH NE SW Lake Place Dock
7:45-9:15AM Peavy Dock
Conditions: 64-58 degrees, Cloudy some light rain, Calm and light wind out of the NW going back to calm

I started fishing on the NW side of the Grumpy Old Man Hole.  A fish gave it's position away over by the closet buoy along the rice. It took me a couple minutes to pick up the frog.  Then it took about 10 minutes of throwing for it, but it sucked down the frog eventually and I put the hooks in him.  My reeling him in through the rice wasn't exactly a work of art, but I got it in.

15.5" Spro Bronze Eye black/red

I did also get a couple hits on the Chigger Craw on the SW side, but didn't hook up.

I went to the Lake Place Dock and didn't get a hit.

I then went to Peavy Lake's Dock.  I took out the Loon Plopper and it wasn't hardly Plopping, mostly just rolling the whole lure.  Don't know what the deal is.  I think I'm going to send it back to River2Sea.  I couldn't get a hit on topwater so I tried the Poison and a Chigger Craw.  I didn't get any hits on those.  It calmed back down and a fish showed itself.  In that same general area I caught this fish about 15 minutes later.

13" Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg

That was the only hit I got at Peavy.  4 hours for 2 fish may seem like pretty sucky fishing, but I was the only one out and it was quite peaceful. I have no complaints.

Frog Game Still Stinks, But At Least I Got 1 Today

I almost gave up on this particular frog

13" Snagproof Ish's Poppin Phattie

8:00-8:35 GOMH SW SE NE
8:40-9:10 HFA Access
9:15-9:40 Lake Place Dock
Conditions: 77-70 degrees, Mostly sunny, calm, the water level is low low and much of the rice is up to the point of being unfishable.

It was a frogs only night for me.

The 4th of July weekend may have started early as there was a family of young women fishing with Mom and Pop at the Grumpy Old Man Hole.  They were fishing off the bridge on the N and S sides.  I talked to the dad briefly as I went from the SW to SE side.  They had a couple small oranges in the pail.  He asked me if I was fishing for bass and if I'd had any success fishing there with big one's.  I told him the truth.  Yes I catch some nice sized fish, but this year with the low water there are fewer of them around.  There were no fish around at the GOMH for me tonight, not even a hit.  Nice old man George was there talking with the Dad when I came up from the NE side and left.

I then went to Bulldog and got nothing at Holy Family.  I decided to stop at the access as well.  A fish revealed it's location to me.  Not sure if it was the one I caught or not.  I cast over the area a couple of times and it hit outside of the pads and rice 10 feet from where the fish gave up it's location. I was glad not to be skunked.

At the Lake Place I had a good hookset on a fish to the West, but it didn't hook up.  I also had something pop the frog in front of Sherman's.  33% on fish striking the frogs is an improvement over 0%, but still not good at all.

GOMH, Mille Lacs, & Rock With Mal & Todd

5:15-6:45 GOMH SW
7:00-8:30 Mille Lacs
Conditions: Temps Low 60-high 50's, Calm or very light breeze, Partly to mostly cloudy

14" Chigger Craw

Not the the best sunrise ever, but solid pink/purple in the clouds.  I got the one jumper and an orange bullhead on a Cubby.

(Click on picture to see larger)

Came across this pheasant with about 6 chicks on the way over to Mille Lacs.  They didn't jump into the ditch right away, so I grabbed the camera to take their picture.  Of coarse the chicks jumped in the ditch then. I can still see a couple of them just to the right of the rooster (They are grey).

I didn't even have a sniff at Mille Lacs.

Rock with Todd and Mallory
10-11:30Am or so
Conditions:  Temps in the 60's, Clouds and warm sun, calm or a very light S wind

I figured my best shot at getting Mallory some fish was to take her out in the Trophy at Rock Lake. Todd got the first fish, a Platte/Sullivan Special on a spinnerbait.

Then Mallory got a sunfish thanks to a little help from me.

Todd got another small pike and Mallory got 3 more sunfish.

Well fishing wasn't great, but we got some

After I took them back in.  I missed yet another fish on the white Poppin' Phattie.  It hit about 5 feet out from the rice.  It was at least a 17" bass.  I got a descent hook set.  That was the only hit I had.  Then I went out and ran the motor.  Not working correctly, but it it runs.  Dad and I got it back on the trailer.

I then stopped by the cabin.  Mallory was out with Kristen on the paddle board.  I should have taken a picture of them, but didn't think of it.  I missed a couple more hits on the Phattie.

Frog Game Still Stinks

Only jumper today 10.5" Chigger Craw

5:15-7:15AM GOMH NE SW
7:30-8:00AM Rock Dock
Conditions: Around 60 degrees, Windy out of the NW, Sunny to start than clouds moving in

I started on the NE side.  Didn't get anything so I went to the SW side.  Got a couple toothy's on the Poison Swim Fluke Jr. and the one jumper on the Chigger Craw.  I had something hit the Poppin Phattie, but I missed it.  A guy showed up and I went back to the NE side.  There I missed a fish that hit the Poppin Phattie a couple of times.  Second time I got a good hookset, but it came off.  It was a good fish.  Doggy maybe???

I went to Rock and had a pike rocket 3 feet out of the water from the rice after the Spro.

Todd, Kristen, Flash and Mallory came up to the cabin today.  I should have gotten over there sooner.  They were still eating when I arrived.  I went over and tried the Rock dock and got a crappie.

7" Cubby Mini-Mite

I think I missed a couple others.  I went back to the lake place, which was unfishable for Mal due to the wind.  I got a small pike on the Spro from in front of Sherman's.  Mal told me about her week at camp and we had smores.  Mal forgot her socks.  Mal went to get in her sleeping bag.

I went to the GOMH and missed a good hit on the SW side on the Spro.  A lily pad messed with my hookset.  Didn't get any bites on the NE side.

Should have gone up to the road on the NE side

Catch & Release Works

17" Whopper Plopper
I swear it's the same fish I caught yesterday morning

8:00-9:35PM GOMH NE
Conditions: 75-70 degrees, Windy WNW, Mostly sunny, water level up a bit, but not much

First I went to the Culvert, nothing there.  So then I went to the GOMH where Nice Old Man George was fishing a Scum Frog.  I told him about my luck over the rice so far this year.  We talked for about 15 minutes then I went down on the SW side.  Didn't get anything there.  Went to the NE side.  I got the 17"er just as I was coming by the near corner.  Same fish as yesterday, I'm sure of it.

I got this plate along the near wall on the Chigger Craw.

8.5" Chigger Craw

A fish hit something in the rice across the channel.  Eventually I got to throwing the Ish's Popper for it.  Something got hit just out from the rice right in line with my cast at the time.  I worked it off of the rice and got hit, but missed the hook set, doh.  So I went and practiced my hook sets for a little while.  I had a small jumper hit at the frog as I was bringing it back in.  I paused the frog and it came back and got it.  I set the hook and pulled the little out of the water on the hookset, but I didn't stick him.  I missed another fish farther to the East in the rice (Maybe I'll get this fish tomorrow).  I came back to the NE GOMH and had a very dogfish like fish nip at the frog a couple times but not get it.  I tried for it with the Poison but was unsuccessful;  I did however, pull this skinny bullhead from under the bridge on it..

17.25" Pure Poison w/Swim Fluke Jr

A noisy girl and her boy friend came over from the South side and started fishing on the NW side.  It was about time for the skeeters to come out, so I left.
 

GOMH & Peavy

17" Chigger Craw

5:15-8:45AM GOMH, Rock, Peavy
Conditions: 74-69 degrees, Windy to Very Windy out of the S, Sun and clouds

The guy who was there last weekend, was there when I arrived this morning.  I didn't go down and talk.  Just went straight to fishing.  They didn't want topwater.  I had a 15-16" throw the Chigger Craw back at me on the first cast with it.  I got the 17" along the near wall and a 9" dink on the Chigger out in the channel.  I was hung up for quite a while, but I got my tungsten sinker back, which I immediately replaced with a steel one.  I noticed the reel handle was loose on my Fuego on the Swimbait Rod.  The cap had come off of the reel handle.

I didn't get anything at Rock and only fished for maybe 20 minutes in the wind.  I decided to hit Peavy.  I had something hit the Plopper but not hook up.  I got 2 dink bass and a small pike.  I fished at Peavy for at least and hour.

Came home and got the reel fixed and got the boat motor to work, fingers crossed.

 

Hittin' the Plopper at the GOMH Tonight

14.25" Whopper Plopper

8:15-9:00PM GOMH NE
9:10-9:40 PM Lake Place Dock

There was a family fishing on the South side of the bridge when I arrived at the GOMH tonight.  I went down on the NE side.  I put a different Fuego Reel Reel on my new 7'4" TD Zillion Heavy Swimbait Rod after the mistake yesterday.  I was able to cast out the Piranha a few times out into the lake without a backlash, so I put on the Whopper Plopper.  First cast to the opposite side of the bridge and the 14.25" jumped on it.  A few casts later into the tunnel and I had another one.

16.25" Whopper Plopper

   It was a beat up fish, but it fought well.  I had a toothy bite off the white Poison out over the channel and I missed a bite in the tube on the Chigger Craw.  The family left, but I didn't fish the S side. Mistake!

I went to the Lake Place and the only bites I got there was most likely a pike in the open water out from Sherman's dock.

It Wasn't A Sunfish

17" Chigger Craw pumpkin grn flk

7:00-8:15AM GOMH SW NE
Conditions: 58 degrees, N wind, mostly sunny

After yesterday's trip I was in no big hurry to get out.  It was cloudy in the East with no color in the sunrise. I started on the SW side. Nothing on topwater.  Got the first bullhead of the morning on the Poison.

14.33" Pure Poison/Swim Fluke Jr. White

It was a really good fighter.  I thought it was going to be 15" at least.  Then I got a 12" under the bridge on the Chigger Craw.  I went over to the SE side. No hits.  Then I went to the NE side with just the Chigger Craw.  I was about to go back when I had what I thought was a sunfish picking at it.  After about 7 seconds of that it got picked up and I set the hook into the 17 incher.  That was the last bite of the morning.

8:40-9:05PM Rock Lake
9:15-9:45PM Lake Place Platte
Conditions: 60's, Calm, partly cloudy, perfect topwater conditions

Tonight was to be the inaugural trip for my new 7'4" Heavy TD Zillion Swimbait Rod I won on Ebay this week.  Unfortunately I spooled the line on the wrong Fuego Reel, one with absolutely no brakes.  First cast off Rock Dock was a birds nest, which I had to reel in and untangle in the parking lot because a boat was coming into get trailered up.  Once they were out of the way I did a couple more casts with the Piranha and back in the car the Zillion went.  The reel is unworkable.  Fish were on the surface but I couldn't figure out what they were. They weren't really getting hit and I couldn't get a strike on any of the topwater lures I tried.  I left shortly after 9PM and went to the Lake Place because dad told me about fish activity in the rice.

20" Spro Frog

I missed the first hit because the fish silently took the black/red Spro Frog off the surface and it was far enough out I couldn't tell my frog went missing.  The rod got pulled down and by the time I collected myself for the hookset it was to late.  I missed a good hit over in front of Jim's Dock and a smaller fish hit as well.  I got the pike out beyond the rice out front of Sherman's. The skeeters showed up and I left.

Nice Sunrise Plus One Pound Fish

5:15-6:30AM GOMH SW
Conditions: 63 degrees, mostly cloudy, calm until 6am then E wind

Nothing was going on the NE side.  I got this one bullhead on the SW side.

12.5" 3" Chigger Craw

 The wind came up, so I decided against going to Mille Lacs.  I did try Rock for a bit, but didn't get anything.

Dock Put In, Got A Couple Bullheads at the GOMH in the Afternoon

Todd and Ben working on the dock

After not fishing yesterday the plan for today was for me to hit the GOMH before through past sunrise catching what I could.  Then go home eat breakfast and relax.  Then go help put in the dock at 9AM.  Didn't happen because I couldn't get myself up for going fishing or to get the dock in at 9AM.  I finally woke up at about 10am and was over at the Lake Place by 10:45 or so.  I was surprised they had the dock in the water already.  Apparently Todd came up with a solid plan for putting the log back on the concrete base.  The log came off of the concrete base due to wave action when we had high water in 2011 or 2012.   I'm not going to explain how all that fits together to allow us to get the dock in the water because I'm not even sure how it works.  It involves a pulley that is anchored to the log.  Anyway the dock is in.  The wind kept me from effectively being able to fish.  I helped out a little bit as well.

3:30-4:45PM GOMH SW
Conditions: Low 80's, mostly sunny, windy out of the SW so I didn't really notice it.

17" H2O XPress CRM Bluegill

14.75" Chigger Craw GP

  The heat started getting to me so I left.

In the evening dad looked into the Trophy to try and figure out my motor's problem.  Right now he suspects it's the fitting that hooks to the fuel line

B.B.S. South Long w/ GOMH Sunrise

5:15-5:45AM GOMH NE
Conditions: 68 degrees, S wind, Partly cloudy

With the 8AM start I had time to stop by the Grumpy Old Man Hole before heading off to South Long.  I caught 3 small jumpin' bullheads on a white Strike King Spinnerbait.

10" Strike King Double Colorado Blades

12.5"

7:45AM-3:45PM South Long Lake
Conditions: 70-88 degrees, Windy to Extremely Windy out of the SSW, Mostly Sunny turning cloudy in the last hour or so.

The Day:  Our first stop was the points on the South side of the Channel into the South bay.  We worked our way NE than North after we went around the second point.  We didn't get anything on the points and were heading North to the docks.  I was throwing the Whopper Plopper across the channel towards the lake side of the other point.  The Plopper was almost back to the boat when a 14.25" hit it.  First keeper of the morning.

We worked our way North into the reeds and rice.  My boater Tony got a couple of squeakers and I got one (13") as well on a Horny Toad.  I missed a hit in the rice along the back edge of the reed. We working the shallow side of another reed bed when a fish missed the Horny Toad.  I cast back and got a 14" fish.  Tony saw a descent size fish jump and worked himself into position to get it.  It took some casting, but eventually he got it to hit.  It was a solid fish.

We worked the reed beds and Tony got his limit.  I wasn't getting any hits on the Horny Toad or a frog, so I started throwing a white Grass Pig on a weighted swimbait hook.  I got a 14.25", then I lost a fish at least that size when it got hung up on the very last reed before it was in the clear.  I then got a 13.95" bass and then lost the next one that hit me in the reeds.  We went and fished a dock.  I threw my fluke to a clump of rice and good fish jumped all over it, but I botched the hook set.  I couldn't get the fish to hit again.  We went back into the reeds. I think I missed two more hits in the reeds before I finally got my limit fish, a 12.5" squeaker.  We were a little over 2 hours into the tournament at this point and the wind was really starting to come up.

I think the next fish in the boat was Tony's big bass, a solid 3lber.  We decided to go back and start all over in the reeds.  As we were coming to another reed bed I made a fairly long cast with my craw tube and 15 incher picked it up.  That was my big bass of the day and the only one I would get on the craw tube.  I did also get a rock bass and a green sunfish on the craw tube that I thought for sure was going to be a bass by the way it hit.

Took a picture of the little guy.

      We went for a long stretch without getting anything.  Eventually we started getting fish again.  I culled out my second fish with a 13.5".  Don't remember what I caught it on, the swimbait maybe.  I started throwing the double Colorado blade Strike King Spinnerbait and I caught a pike, then a rock bass, then a 12", then my final cull of the day with a 14" on it.

With a little more than an hour left it seemed like the wind was quieting down, so we ran up the lake to the other spot we got fish while pre-fishing.  That was a mistake as it was still whipping around up there.  We tried it for about half an hour then headed for the SE shoreline which was still in the wind.  I looked in the well and one of Tony's fish had expired.  After getting nothing there for 10 minutes we called it quits.  I don't remember exactly when, but shortly after Tony pointed the boat towards weigh-in we hit something, spun the hub, and bent up the prop pretty bad.  We waved down Guy who towed us to weigh in.

Results:  My limit weighed 8lbs 10ozs, which put me in 16th Place out of 21 anglers.  Tony's fish weighed 13-14, but the 2oz penalty cost him 3rd Place because Guy with whom he was now tied had the Lunker for the day at 4-7.  Chuck Steinbauer was the tournament winner with 16-2.

My Thoughts:  Tony's boat control in that nasty wind was excellent.  With a little better luck in landing the fish that bit I may have had a shot at being in the Top 10.  Lost fish are part of the deal in the reeds.  I did beat my weight by 14ozs from the tournament we had on South Long on 6/21/09, but my place of finish is one place worse this time.

In AOY I'm 4 points ahead of where I was at this point last year.  I finished in front of the two guys that were behind me at Birch. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish in front of anyone who was in front of me either, other than two guys who did not fish this tournament.  I am going to have to fish better if I'm going to make my goal of finishing in the Top 10 for the year.

Getting towed to the landing by Bailey

Next Tournament: Fishhook Lake at Park Rapids on July 16th.

OK Morning At the GOMH & Mille Lacs

18.5" Whopper Plopper Bone/Red

5:15-6:15AM GOMH NE
6:30-8:00AM Mille Lacs
Conditions: Mid to to low 60's, Partly Cloudy to mostly, Calm with a NNE light wind coming up after I got the chunk smallie after 7AM.

When I arrived this morning

The experience with mosquito's on Thurs. morning didn't have me rushing out the door this morning.  I arrived at about 5:15 and a truck was there.  Same guy who was there last weekend and I think he had the guy who got the bullheads this week with him.  They hadn't gotten anything yet.

I went down on the NE side and couldn't get anything to take the LiveTarget Popper.  I then grabbed the Poison and quickly caught a 15" and then a 16" jumpin' bullhead.

15" Poison w/Swim Fluke Jr. White

16" same Poison

I might have had one more hit in the tube.  By 6, it was clear I had caught what I could.  I did briefly try a frog on the SE side.

Glass calm when I arrived

 Since no one was on the Jetty I took the North Jetty.  I started out with the Whopper Plopper.  Nothing in front of Center Jetty.  The big one hit in the same area as I got the 20.5".  The Mojo Crankster really handles those Smallmouth well.  I landed it in the same place I landed the 20.5".

1st picture I took

 The camera ran out of juice after I took the second shot.  I thought I had clipped the tail in that one and I did.

I slowly worked my way North, should have gone quicker, because by the time I got back to the N harbor mouth the wind had started up.  I picked up the LiveTarget and managed to get a small smallie to hit it even though I had a cross wind.  The fish ran toward me full speed and I couldn't really keep up.  When I did catch up to it, it jumped and got off.  It was 12" class fish.

I went through a few lures and got a pike on the Crackle Jerk Shad.  I tried a couple more lures than called it a morning.

Didn't Get Skunked

15.75" LiveTarget Popper

8-9:30PM
Conditions: 65 degrees, Post-storms, cloudiness all over the place, same with light winds.

Didn't get out in the morning because I went to bed.  Didn't get out tonight in the Trophy because we had thunderstorms move through and I procrastinated to much in getting ready after they passed.  I decided that my best shot to avoid a skunk tonight was to hit the GOMH first.  Fortunately no one was there fishing.  I went down the SW side.  I threw the LiveTarget Popper under the bridge and had a 13" class fish take it, but it jumped and got off.  On the very next cast the fish in the cast silently slurped the Popper, the fish was just on and put up a good fight.  I thought I had a pike miss the Crackle Jerk Shad.

On the NE side I think I had a hit in the tube on the white POison and something took a shot at the Spro as I was bringing it over the rice.  That was it.