On Rock Today

8" GLow Demon Spoon/maggies

4:15-6:30PM Rock Lake My Spot
26℉, Partly Cloudy to Cloudy, 4-8mph East

It had been a week since I had gotten out and we have a snow storm coming so I wanted to get out tonight.  I went to Rock Lake.  There were 3 different people out fishing; One of them had a small SUV on the lake.  Ice was about a foot thick.  I went to my spot.  I drilled four sets of holes but never moved.  The wind was cold. I started out with some sunfish on the Glow Demon Spoon.  I was just about to move and I started getting crappies on the VMC Fly and maggies.  Most of them were about 4-inches long.  I stayed until 6:30PM.  The wind was bothersome.

10 Crappies
3 Sunfish

I'm Starting To Figure Things Out at Mille Lacs

25.5" Small Sucker Minnow

20" Sucker Minnow

19" Sucker Minnow

3:30-8:00PM Mille Lacs in front of Eddy's
28-25℉, Clear, 2-4mph SE

I went and drilled holes 17' to 21' feet and set up in the 21' holes.  Put what I thought was my last sucker down and jigged in the hole with the camera.   Not much was going on just a couple of small perch swimming around.  At about 4:05PM I took the Rippin Rap and a spoon to check for activity in my other sets of holes.  Marked something in both sets, but couldn't get a bite.  The sun was about to set, so I went back to the Fish Trap.  I put down the Rippin Rap and a walleye came in immediately.  The sucker minnow went nuts and I watched the walleye swim up and engulf it.  Got a good hookset and soon the walleye was up the hole.  The sucker was still alive so I put it back down.  Had a similarly sized walleye come in and hit the Swedish Pimple I was jigging.  Didn't quite set the hook hard enough and it got off about halfway up.  It was getting too dark for the camera so I pulled it up.  I put down the blue/chrome Rippin Rap and missed a bite. The bobber went down shortly after that and I caught the 19-incher.  The sucker minnow came off and disappeared down the hole.  I was amazed to see there one really small sucker minnow left, so I put it down the hole.  The fish moved on.  I moved shallower twice briefly marking one fish.  I drilled a set of holes in 15.5" of water and set up in those holes. A fish came into the Rippin Rap and drilled the mini sucker minnow. Got a good hookset and brought the 25.5" through the hole.  I was feeling a whole lot better about myself after landing that fish.  There was no sign of the little sucker, so I put on a fathead.  Nothing was going on so I went and drilled another set of holes.  I came back and called something in on the Rippin Rap.  It took the fathead.  It looked like an 18"/19" and came off in the hole.  I marked one more small fish that briefly came up off the bottom.  I bailed out in time to hit Subway before they closed.

Not a bad trip considering how I have been catching them so poorly.

Morning on Mille Lacs

14" VMC Fly/Wax Worm

7:15AM-12:00PM Mille Lacs Casino Access
22-39℉, Mostly Sunny, 3-6mph SW

Got to a spot that looked good in 15' of water.  Put a sucker down and within 15 seconds the bobber was down.  Set the hook into a good fish.  Fought it for maybe 20 seconds and it came off.  Are you kidding me, GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!.  The sucker was still on the hook and swimming so I sent it back down.  About 5 minutes later bobber down again.  Set the hook.  Sucker gone, no fish.  Put another sucker on.  10 minutes later had a fish messing with the sucker.  Finally, the bobber went down.  Should have waited longer, sucker gone no fish.  Put the camera down and had one walleye swim through maybe one other one.  I drilled holes out at 19' feet.  Brought a small walleye in with the blue/chrome Rippin' Rap and converted it with the VMC Fly with a Wax Worm.  I swear I worked the fish for 5 minutes before it bit.  Watched the whole thing on the camera.  I think I scared off one more small walleye.  Had a few small perch swimming around.  Went and drilled a hole in 23' of water.  Nothing but small perch and one jumbo I couldn't get to bite out there.  I left at noon.

1 Eye

Two Eyes Long Trip On Mille Lacs

17" Heddon Sonar (Red/Silver)

12" Sucker Minnow

4:15PM-12:15AM Mille Lacs Casino Access
38-24℉, Clear, 0-3mph SW

Should have gotten out earlier, because the night fishing isn't working.  Everybody left by 7PM.  I got the last fish at about 6:30PM.  Worked my way shallow and had a few lookers.  Worked my way back out to 21' and didn't see anything.

Anyway, so I decided to go out of the Casino Access in Sha Bosh Kung.  There was a group of portables straight out on the 20' break line.  I went about 50 yards to the South of them in 21' of water.  Put the sucker down. Sent down the camera and there was a walleye.  I sent down the Heddon Sonar and the walleye went right to it and smacked it.  Saw the whole thing.  Pretty cool.  That was the only bite I got out there.  On the way out I dropped a waypoint on a 15' spot, so I went there next.  Got the 12-incher there.  That was the last bite of the night.  It was a really nice night out so I stayed out fishing until the propane ran out.  I'll be back at it after Bear Trax opens at 6:30AM.

2 Eyes

I Stunk It Up At Rock Tonight

8" Glow Demon/minnow

4:15-6:40PM Rock Lake My Spot
28-22℉, Mostly Sunny, 0-4mph SW

It didn't get as warm as forecast due to it being overcast most of the day.  I needed a break from Mille Lacs, so I headed to rock.  I was the only one there. It looked like somebody had been fishing around in my area since the last time I got there.  I drilled two sets of holes, the first by the two holes I fished last time. I sent down the Rippin Rap and immediately had fish come in look, then quickly depart.  I sent down the Glow Demon Spoon to nothing.  I then put the glow VMC Fly down.  A fish came up off the bottom and bit. It was fighting weird and pulled line a couple of times.  I was going to switch to back reeling when the line broke. I was not happy.  Something messed with the minnow, but I had the sucker bobber on.  Got that corrected.  Missed a couple of bites on the Glow Demon Spoon.  The I got my first crappie on the Glow Demon and minnow.  I tied on a pink VMC Fly.  I got one small crappie on the Fly and a couple on the Glow Demon Spoon.  I missed a bunch of bites that quickly came off. I switched to the second set of holes.  Tied on the glow VMC Fly with maggies and got 5 crappies on it (3 of which were 5-inchers).  Missed a bunch more bites.  I sucked again.

10 Crappies 

I Almost Totally Sucked

7:30AM-2:30PM Out Front of Eddy's
22-28℉, Cloudy Fog, 0-4SSE

I went to Bear Trax to pick up some small suckers and fatheads then back to Mille Lacs.  By the time I was walking out it was light enough out for me to see.  I went out to the area that guy was set up last night, then went a little deeper.  Put a fathead down, then went with the Do-Jigger Spoon with a minnow head.  Almost immediately fish on.  Halfway up it got off.  Sent it back down and a minute later fish on again came off again.  That may have happened a third time.  I was like what's up.  Then the bobber went down and I caught me an eye.  Thank goodness.  I put on a sucker this time.  About 10 minutes later the bobber went down.  I set the hook and it was a good one.  I didn't have the back reel button pressed.  As I was trying to do that the fish surged and broke the line up by the dropper.  My bad.  Was not happy.  That was the last quality bite.  I messed around with perch for a while.  Worked my way out as deep as I could go 19'.  Looked and played with perch the rest of the day.  When I went shallower than 15' feet, nothing was around.  Enjoyed the day, too bad more eyes didn't show up.

1 Eye
37 Perch

Spur of the Moment to Mille Lacs, Got Skunked

Fished Out Front of Eddy's

4:30PM-12:00PM Mille Lacs in front of Eddy's
28-22℉, Partly to mostly cloudy, 0-5mph SSE

It got warmer than forecast and wind was supposed to be on the light side, so I decided to go to Mille Lacs.  Unfortunately, all I had was crappie minnows.  When I arrived at Eddy's there was a guy set up just to the North where I wanted to go.  I decided to go about 100 yards to South of where he was.  I drilled holes from 10' to 14' feet.  I marked a fish pretty quickly, but it didn't hit the small Rippin Rap.  Might have been a perch.  I went to do some hole hopping with the Rippen Rap.  I put the transducer down but it didn't totally clear the hole; The Rippin Rap got caught on the ice and came off the No-Knot Clip and created a royal mess that I had to go back in the house to deal with.  What a clown show.  Finally, got things straightened out and it was dark.  Heard the guy in the other house whooping it up.  Sounded like he got a very big fish.  He left at about 6PM.  I started working that way fishing in 8' to 10' of water.  I went to drill a new hole and when I got back a fish was eyeing the Rippin Rap.  I shook it once and it spooked.  3 or 4 holes later I was just getting up to drill another hole when a fish moved in.  It took a good long look at the Rippin Rap then spooked.  I drilled another hole and put a crappie minnow down.  A fish came in again briefly.  About 5 minutes later the bobber went down, but I boogered the hookset.  That was at about 9:30PM. I stayed till midnight and didn't see another fish.  I didn't do much moving after I missed the fish hoping the fish would swim to me.  The wrong call obviously.

I was maybe a bit late on going to using minimal light.  I didn't do a good job of switching depths.  I didn't have a plan of attack. 

Little Fish On Rock Today

3:40-5:50 Rock Lake
30-25℉, Mostly Sunny, 6-0mph

When I arrived I was interested to see two fish trap fishing just to the SE of my area.  They just sat in one place until they left.  I started by drilling holes off the weed edge along the reeds and looking for an activity with the Aqua-Vu 5c. I didn't find anything there, so I moved to the spot where I got the nice sunfish a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't see anything there until I spotted a pike on the Aqua-Vu Micro 5c on the last hole in a little deeper water.  I then got my rods out of the case.  Pike didn't want the Rippin Rap and moved on.  I sent the camera back down and spied a sunfish, so I sent down the VMC Fly with a maggot and got a couple of small sunnies right away. It was getting too late to mess with setting up the old Aqua-Vu, so I fished for sunnies.  They got a little harder to catch, could have been perch.  I got the two perch and 12 sunnies total out of two holes.  At about 5:15 the guys in the Fish Traps left, so I went to check out what they were getting.  I got four small crappies and missed a few.  I bugged out at 5:50PM to get home for the Vikes Seahawks game on MNF. Vikes lost the plot on offense.  The refs sucked and the Seachickens blew it wide open late. Vikes lost 21-7.

12 Sunny
4 Crip
2 Perch
1 Pike

A Few Fish At Bulldog

9" VMC Fly/Maggot

4:30-7:00PM Bulldog Lake
27-22℉, Clear, Calm

When I got out there, three guys were fishing in the area I wanted to be. They packed up at about 4:40, so I moved over. I didn't get the first couple of marks to move through.  Not a whole lot of fish marked tonight.  Only 1 took the minnow and I missed it.  I ended up with 8 crappies caught half of which were 5-inchers.  I had an 11-incher come off in the hole.  I threw all the fish back tonight.

8 Crappies

Late Bulldog Trip

7" Glow Demon/Minnow

My new rechargeable light $14 on eBay

7:45-10:00PM Bulldog Lake
17-15℉, Clear, Calm

I decided to go out fishing tonight because there was no wind.  I forgot maggies and wax worms, Doh!  I drilled holes in the general area I was last time.  Nobody else was out and I didn't see any other houses.  The light I bought on eBay lights up the interior really well. There were fish down there, but funky.  I tried minnow heads unsuccessfully for the most part.  I got two bites on a minnow catching one.  And at the very end of the night, I got a 7-incher on the Glow Demon Spoon with a minnow head and Power Wax Worm.  I really suck at fishing this year.

2 Crip 

Bulldog Tonight

10.25" Tubby/Maggots

Same Fish As Above

4:30-7:10PM Bulldog Lake
23-20℉, Cloudy light snow, 8mph WNW

I decided to hit Bulldog tonight.  There were two houses out when I arrived. By the time I was headed out a guy with a wheeler was headed in.  The houses were to the South of my waypoint from the last trip.  I drilled two sets of holes not marking anything.  As I grabbed my rod bag I had a good mark a couple of feet of the bottom, but by the time I got my lure down it was long gone.  I marked one other fish.  Since I wasn't marking anything I went out and searched with the Vex.  Found something and drilled holes.  By the time I got over there it was gone, but as soon as I dropped down a fish was there, but I missed it.  About 10 after 5, the guy who was in a permanent to the NW of me was packing up, so I went over and talked to him.  He said he was marking them, but they weren't biting.  The scuttlebutt is Holy Family got sold. I got back to fishing and about 5 minutes later I got the first fish of the night (The one in the pictures).  Fish started moving in pretty regularly, but I struggled to catch them.  I missed two bites on the minnow.  It was colder than I like fishing in due to the wind.  I packed up a little after 7PM with 8 fish caught.  All on the Tubby.

8 Crappies (4 Kept)

The Struggle Continues

I didn't take any pictures, but I did bring the camera.

4:30-8:00PM Rock Lake
23℉, Cloudy, 3 NW

Had to run to the post office in Pierz to pick up the rods I won on eBay.  When I got home I loaded my gear in the car, then made the mistake of opening the packages.  The first box I opened was at the tip.  The rod wasn't Tatula black, but Tatula silver.  I thought that's a mistake I can live with except it wasn't a Tatula rod but an inexpensive Abu Vengence.  I opened the second package same thing.  I am pissed.  Don't know if it was a mix-up or what, don't care.  They screwed up.  I immediately went to the Chromebook to let them know my feelings.  I should have just gone fishing because by the time I was done screwing around it was approaching 4 PM by the time I got dressed and left the house.  I was going to try for sunfish, but with dark fast approaching that was out.  I also forgot to pack the Streamlight Lantern, grrr.

I decided to go where I fished on Saturday on Rock if no one was there.  Nobody was fishing Rock tonight.  There is a lot of bare ice which makes pulling the Fish Trap easy.  I should have been smarter about how I drilled holes to start.  I should have drilled more holes. By the time I figured that out it was dark out.  I ended up getting three small crappies out of the same holes I got the most fish out of on Saturday. I missed a number of bites and had a bunch of lookers. I think maybe I was dealing with perch. What a disappointing day. 

Rock Lake By The Sunken Island

10" Tubby Jig/maggots

4:00-9:00PM Rock Lake
30-28℉, Cloudy some light snow, 15-25mph NE

If I were to put more thought into what I'm going to do beforehand that would be smart.  Tonight I went off memory which isn't smart at all.  Fortunately, I caught some fish.

When I arrived at Rock Lake there was a wheeler with portable out by the sunken island.  My plan was to fish the deep water south of the sunken island and the southern point on the eastern shoreline.  I got out there drilled holes and marked nothing.  I started working my way toward the southern point.  I marked one fish.  But my line got caught up on the hook hanger on my rod and by the time I got it loose the fish was gone.  At about 4:30 the wheeler left.  I ended up catching my first fish in his hole that was closest to the point in 17' of water.  First fish was the biggest fish and the one in the picture.  I caught a few fish there and a few fish closer to the sunken island in 16'.  All my fish were caught on the Tubby Jig with maggots.  I think there were some sunfish down there as well.  I called in a few fish with the Rippin Rap then I would put the Tubby down for a shot at them.  Most of the fish came off the bottom. 

9 Crappies