Rush Lake Fransen Park 5-4-08 & ML

After the Spring Outing GEM Director Dave Lindmark, Cyberfish, and I headed down to Fransen Park at West Rush Lake to do a little shore fishing. We arrived about 10:30 and by then the place was hopping. We elected to fish the little cut that opens into the main lake. Dave started out catching little crappies right away and once Mike got his gear together he did too. I was getting bites on a white Cubby but was having a hard time hooking anything. I finally got on the board with a half way descent sunfish. I did start catching fish but Mike and Dave schooled me. Eventually this kid started fishing in between me and Mike and I decided I would try the main North Bay. I almost took Lindmark's jacket and keys with me. Mike and Dave left shortly after I went exploring. On the main bay I got 1 good bite from what felt like a very solid fish, but it came off half way in. I did not get another bite. I fished the main bay about 45 minutes and decided to call it a day. Fransen Park was a zoo by now on such a nice Sunday.

On my way back home I did some exploring on Mille Lacs. No one was fishing at McQuoids or the "Dogfish Nirvana" State Park fishing Pier. Some people were shore fishing in the RV parks channels, but I did not stay long enough to watch. I then headed to Izaty's channel. There were several people fishing off the docks and 1 boat out. I think I saw two little fish get caught for about 1/2hour of watching. I headed up the West side and the lake appeared to be mostly open with a few small areas where there was some sheet ice. There were a few significant sized ice piles including one super tall one about 300yards south of Eddy's. Much to my relief the Eddy's Jetty did not have a pile up of ice. It appeared that the North side of the Jetti had been worked on this winter. It looked like some of the larger boulders had been removed from the lake face and that the whole thing had added mid-sized rocks put in. Apparentlty the water level is up about 8 inches from last Spring and a foot or more from it's low point last fall.