Pete Came Up For A Few Days

Pete got here on Friday night.  We met at Mille Lacs lake.  The weather was really nice but Pete had a couple of leaks in his waders, so we didn't stay as long as I would have on my own.  We stopped at JR's for Pete to get a burger, then went to the bridge where Peter was fishing.  He got one good jumpin bullhead.  We didn't get anything.

I was staying up all night and I went back to Mille Lacs by myself.  I saw one good eye, but didn't catch anything.  I got back at around 7AM.  Pete and I went out and did the rounds.  I got this pike at Rock.

21" Pure Poison bluegill

Pete went and fished off of Don's dock on Sunday night and got a couple of bass including one good one and 4 pike.  I think he got all of those on a buzzbait.

From Friday Night at Rock Lake

Mille Lacs Lake

Kelly J Don's Dock

Pete is still here for one more night. We got out of the house at about a quarter to 8 and headed right to Don's. When we arrived Don was out on his dock per usual. He had been getting a few gills. I started out with a Crawtube, but quickly switched to a Repo Man. There was very little wind and a slight ripple on the water. Don got 2 more nice gills. I switched to a bluegill color Lucky Craft Kelly J and this bass blasted it.

I would say it was about 15.5". That was the only hit and about 5 minutes more fishing and we left cause of skeeters.

Fishing with Pete & Gordy at Camp Lebanon

Pete talked me into heading out to fish with Gordy today. I think we arrived at Cedar Lake in SW Morrison County a little after 4PM. The lake has pretty clear water, and it was sunny. We fished shallow in some reeds where I got this 13" largie on a big sexy color Mad Maxx frog. We then fished up shallow along the South shore in the shade of overhanging trees. I made a good cast and was distracted by something. I felt a tug immediately looked up saw my Mad Maxx frog was gone, so I set in this 14"+ fish. A little way down, we came to a dock where Gordy got 2 bass yesterday, and he pulled out this dude on a Senko. Gordy had a couple more bites but was unable to land the fish. I think I had a fish pick my Crawtube, but before I could set it dropped it. Gordy had to go in to head home at about 6PM. Pete and I went to the GOMH and got nothing, then to Jenny's and got nothing, then to Don's Dock where Pete got a nice 15"+ bass and small pike on his pink spinnerbait. I didn't get a hit on the Crawtube, and I really wished I would have brought my topwater stuff down as it was dead calm.

Pete & Don on Don's Dock

I had all my gear packed for tomorrows tournament, so I just brought a rod to throw some 2nd tier topwater stuff. Don got that 1 Crappie and Pete caught a pike and that bass and sunfish. I was skunked, there was more ripple on the water than I would have liked for the topwater.

Night on Don's Dock with Don & Pete

Went over to Don's after 7PM last night. I stuck first blood with a pike, that I thought we were giving to Don, so I put it up in his yard. Turns out Don, didn't want it, so Pete took it. Will it get cleaned or not? That is the question. Don caught a few gills and Pete got skunked. There was a nice sunset with rays coming through the clouds.

Eddy's Launch Mille Lacs w/Dad and Don

Dad, Don W. and I went out on an Eddy's Mille Lacs Launch on a cool and blustery night. Hard to believe it was almost 100 degrees just a day before. Temps during the launch were in the low to mid 60's. When we arrived at Eddy's just after 5:30PM the Flagship (Eddy's biggest boat) was already gone and there was a long line of people waiting to pay. Usually that early there is just a couple of people or no wait at all.

Anyway, we were among the 1st to be assigned to Boat #6 and we were able to get the back of the boat. I got Dad and I rigged up and we were off, just after 6PM. We headed North just SW of Indian Point in about 11 feet of water. First stop was dead so we moved closer to Indian Point within about an 1/8 of a mile West of Rainbow Island. Don had a fish on here and lost it. The anchor didn't hold in the wind and we soon moved back towards the general area we started in. That was dead so we moved again and then again. On the next stop Dad got a fish immediately before I had a chance to set his depth. I thought maybe he snagged in the rocks, but it was a fish. Unfortunately his line broke up by the rod.

In this spot a lady brought the first fish in, a keeper walleye. Then Don caught a keeper walleye. I had seen enough and switched to a yellow bead similar to what Don and Dad had. Dad missed a bite. A little later I got a keeper then missed two bites. A lady caught a smallie. I caught a cigar eye that I threw back and Dad caught a nice keeper eye and that was it. Once it got kind of dark the bite shut off.

It's always a good trip when you get fish. We gave ours to Don.

Also of note this trip was that there was a loud foul mouthed obnoxious woman who was putting down a few beers and almost never shut up.

Don's Dock Dogfish

Pete and I went to fish at Don W's after the days thunderstorms had moved through. My mission was simple. Try to catch a few fish on the Northland Tackle Jungle Jig Loc Jig. I had just bought these jigs at Reeds, to see how they would work with bass tubes.

The first fish of the night was this dogfish caught by Don


A little while later I felt a fish pick up the tube and set the hook into a 11 inch bass. About 15 minutes later I got another bite and caught a 13.5" bass. About 15 minutes after that I got another bite and caught this 14" bass.

I did get one more hit, but the fish jumped and threw the jig after I set the hook. 3 for 4 with fish on the jig made me happy.

Pete and Don did catch a few mostly small sunfish. Don was trying more for crappies or he might have caught more fish.

June Night Don's Dock

Went with Pete to Don W.'s to fish on a beautiful evening. When we got there around 7:45 Don was already on the dock. Right away I caught this little pike on a black with red fleck 4" bass tube.
Pete wasn't even down to the dock yet.

Pete bought a rod down with a buzzbait and was fishing it sub-surface and caught a little bass and this crappie.


Don started catching some pumpkinseeds and bluegills, so Pete switched to that and eventually I did as well cause the tube had to be fished kind of fast off bottom or it would get "green goop" on it.

Yes I did catch a few small bluegills on a Custom Jigs and Spins Glow Demon with white Berkley Powerbait Wiggler.


Pete and Don did get a few keeper sunfish for Don. Don also caught and kept this largie.


We were treated to a beautiful sunset and when it got dark the mosquito's came out in force. Overall it wasn't a bad outing as we all caught a few fish.

PS Pete and Don also got a couple of perch.

Eddy's Launch with Dad & Pete/ Don's Dock Evening

Yesterday Pete found out that Eddy's is offering a good deal 7 days a week on their morning fishing launch trips; Cost is just $20 per person, normal launch price is $35. Pete and I made reservations and Dad decided he wanted to come along as well. It turned out the 2 others that were supposed to go on the launch didn't show, so it was just us 3 and the captain.

We started out corking over towards Rocky Reef, but that was mostly done to give our Captain Tom the time to rig up rods for drift fishing. When Tom has only a few people on the launch and wind conditions are right he likes to take the customers drifting. While we were bobbered I did have a fish mouthing my leech but it never took the bobber down for more than a few seconds. After about a half hour of that it was time to drift and we headed towards Spirit Island.

On the very first drift I missed a bite and then caught this 15" keeper.
On the second drift I caught a 2nd keeper which Tom has with the first on the stringer and Dad got a 22".



On the next drift I caught a 26.25" that put up a fun battle and Dad got a 24.5" and even Captain Tom got in on the action with a 18.5" eye.


On our second to last drift Tom caught a big rock that we thought was a fish and Dad and I missed bites. Our last drift came up empty, but I might have had a bite. Pete got skunked.

Don's Dock
At about 8PM Pete and I headed to Don W. for some dock fishing. Pete likes to visit with Don and I don't have to deal with the boat, so it's a win/win. I had a pike jump me off on a swim jig and I got 3 crappies and lots of bites on a Panfish Chatterbait. Pete caught some small sunfish and Don got a couple crappies and sunfish.

Eddy's Launch with Dad and Don W.

Since the weather has been so nice this week Dad and I decided to go on a launch trip with Eddy's and we invited Don W. to come along with us, which he was plenty willing to do.

The Eddy's night launch goes out from 6 to 10PM. Our Captain was Tom, who we have gone with at least once before and I think we had 12 people on Boat 8 which is a smaller launch that can hold up to 20. Two other launches besides ours went out tonight. There was a little ripple on the water to start, but by 7:30 it was flat calm for the rest of the night.

The report when we got on the boat was that the fishing has been tough. Apparently Tom's launch last night did next to nothing fishing the usual early season shallow bite, so we headed off to a little deeper water down by Spirit Island. We parked in about 26 feet of water and withing 20 minutes there were 2 keeper walleye in the boat. About 35 minutes in to fishing my bobber went down and I brought in this 15" keeper.
Two protected slot fish were brought in within the next half hour and then it got slow.

We moved around 8PM and went in the direction of Indian Point. We set up in about 24 feet of water and fairly quickly a keeper was on board. Someone caught a protected fish and then there was a missed fish. I was not paying a whole lot of attention and when I went to look for my bobber it wasn't there. I reeled in some slack and set the hook into a better fish, which I took my time to bring in. It turned out to be this nice 24.5" protected slot walter.


A couple of more fish were caught and lost and then at about 9PM I'm not sure why but Tom moved us forward about 50yards and dropped anchor again. At this point 2 others Eddy's Launches were close by. Some fish came in right away again. I got a bite but missed it and my leech that had caught my first two fish was gone. I got a new leech cast out and after about 5 minutes my bobber went down again. This time it was fish on and I landed this 12" eye.
I threw the fish back. About 5 minutes later Don's bobber slowly went down and he brought in a nice 17+ inch keeper. The protected slot starts at 18" this year. About 5 minutes after that the guy next to me brought in a 16" eye and he gave it to us. I think maybe one more fish was caught on the boat after that. Dad was the only person not to get a bite. Don gave his fish to us, so we ended up with about a pound of walleye meat once cleaned.

I caught the most fish of anyone on the launch and I think all but about 3 people caught something.

Don's Dockage

(Don W. catches a sunfish)

Tonight Pete was over for the evening and we decided to go fishing at about 7PM. Originally I was going to take us to the Rock Dock and GOMH, but Pete suggested we check in with Don W. and see if we could fish off his dock.

Don was home and was generous enough to allow us to fish his dock. He has been catching lots of sunfish, perch, bass, and pike along with a few crappie so far this Spring. We got down to the dock and on my very first cast I had something hit my Panfish Chatterbait but it didn't hook up. On my first cast to the other side of the dock I also got a hit, but this one didn't hook up either. Pete missed a fish that he thought was a pike. Eventually I switched to a glow Cubby under a bobber. Around 8:15PM Don came out and joined us. He said the bite really doesn't rev up until right before dark and he was right.

I started getting a few hits but couldn't hook anything. Eventually I tipped the Cubby with a dead minnow, all my minnows were dead, and had a fish pull the bobber under. I set the hook and immediately the fish came up and jumped; I thought for sure I had a small bass, but lo and behold it was this nice crappie.
That was the last bite of the night for me. Don had a bass jump him off and caught a few small sunfish and 4 keeper sunfish and a couple of small perch. Meanwhile all Pete caught was a single tiny perch. Pete did miss quite a few bites. Don offered to let us keep to fish, but we let him have them.

All in all it was a nice calm night, but a bit cool for Pete who was lightly dressed.

Two In a Row!

(Pete working his hot hole.)

Yes it's true. I went out ice fishing for a 2nd day in a row and I actually caught a few fish today.Pete and I got out around 3:30PM today and we found our friend Don W. out in the sunfish spot. Don had been there since 1PM and had 4 sunnies in his bucket. We basically set up shop in the same general area as yesterday (at least Pete thought it was) and we didn't even need to auger holes. Pete broke a few open with the spud and there were several holes that had been opened today that were available.

Pete got a bite in his hot hole as soon as he put a jig down the hole, though it took him about 10 minutes to get the first fish. I had to move through several holes before I started calling in some fish. After about half an hour I got the skunk of the ice with a 7.5" sunfish. Not wanting to clean fish I threw it back. I ended up with 2 more fish out of that hole and that was it for me. Pete caught about 13 sunnies total and kept 8 and I did keep 1 of mine. The fish were not very aggressive but I did get 10-15 bites, a few times my Powerbait spike got pulled right off the hook.

Although it was nice out when we got out, it cooled down in a hurry once the sun got low in the sky and I think we called it quits about half and hour earlier than last night.