Slower Evening on Erskine 2/19/26

 

High floating sunfish as it got dark

4:12-7:20 PM Erskine 6' and 7' Hole Sets

27-33℉, M Cloudy some sun and snow, 0-6mph N

Had to drill some holes out, others I just pushed through

I slept in late today because I crashed after I got home and ate last night. I didn't see anything, but perch in the 7' hole, so I went to the shallow set. I gave it a solid 45 minutes there and only saw some perch and a couple of small sunfish. I spent the rest of the night at the 7' Holes. Pretty quickly, a pike grabbed the sucker and broke me off because I didn't have the backreeling button pushed, doh! A then shook the Rippin Rap and had a pike come screaming in and stop. I tried a few bites, but couldn't get the fish to go. I put back down a Firetiger Rippin Rap and had a 1lb bass come in quickly, and decided to hit. I got it out of the hole, but then it came off, and back in the drink it went. I didn't even get to touch it. I had a small pod of crappie move in, and I got two of them to bite in quick succession, so I took a double picture. I had a couple more pike move through that didn't bite. I got a few perch and crappie as it got dark. Not a bad trip. A white truck was out on the ice again today in front of the outlet. They were there yesterday as well, and once again left about 45 minutes into my fishing. I forgot to turn at S Platte Lake Drive on my way home, so I had to pull into a driveway to pull a U-turn. And after I got home, I figured out that my Omnia App had my exact location shut off for some reason. I'm kind of an idiot for not figuring that out a few days ago.

1Bass 

5Crips 

1Pike 

2Sun 

17YP

Quick Afternoon On Erskine Lake

 

1:10-3:10 PM NW Flat 6' and 7'

44℉, PC, 2-4mph S

I just had a couple of hours to fish, so I redrilled my holes from yesterday. I started shallow. Perch had invaded the area. I brought up a few perch with the 3" Switch and had a pike send them scrambling to the bottom at Mach 6. The pike took two fast straffing runs. I put a minnow down, and it came in and looked. A pike or two kept the perch and a couple of small sunfish honest. I fished for about an hour and caught no bass, so I went to the deeper holes. Once again, mainly perch to start. I was just about to move back shallow after only perch, but then a pod of sunfish moved in, and a bass came on camera. I put down the Wonder Bread Switch, and it took it, but I had the drag set not quite tight enough, so the hook didn't penetrate. Bass 2 Me 0. I went back shallow for the final half hour and had a stalking pike. I caught perch at both spots. Many perch down there today. I played keep away and bitsies with them. As I came off the lake, King Charles was at the ramp with his owner.

1Bass 

42 Perch 

Valentine's Day On Erskine Lake

 

3:00-7:45 PM 6' 7' NW Weed Flat

31-47℉, PC, 0-4mph SW

Ice Depth 23-26"

I drove to the NW corner weed flat. There were no signs of anybody drilling holes in the immediate area. There were some tracks that went farther North. I should have taken a look, but I am an idiot. I parked and went NW toward the pad line, drilling the first holes a way out, and it was 6/7ish, with sunfish and green curly pond crap beginning to sprout. I wanted to find 9/10ish. I drilled and looked for an hour, as finding sunnies in the second-to-last set of holes 7/8ish. There were perch in most holes. I got tired of drilling, so I drilled a set in both sets where I saw sunfish. I started in the deeper set. I got the camera down and positioned it when I had a big school of crappies, sunnies, and a big bass move in.  I got a crappie on the Switch Wonder Bread and then saw the bass, so I put the Switch down immediately and got the bass to eat, but I didn't set the hook hard enough, and it spit it, doh. Sunfish stayed, and perch stayed, crappie and any bass left. I played with perch and sunfish for a good hour before trying the shallower holes. Had perch to start in the shallow holes. A good-sized pike moved in briefly. Some sunnies joined the perch. I got up to move back to the deeper set around sunset and turned the camera for one last look, and there was a bass right there. So I put a lure back down. Sunfish moved in, but I was intent on going back out. In hindsight, I should have stayed. Out deeper, I missed a couple of crappies, and there were sunnies and perch. I played with the camera angles, getting to the down view too late. When it gets dark, using the most extreme up view is the deal.  I did go back shallow after dark, and also jigged in the other holes as the Vex battery got low.

1Bass 

1Crip 

10Sun 

27YP 

Erskine Ice and Snow

  

1st trip with Little Buddy Heater

2:45-6:30 PM Erskine Lake 12'

5-18℉, Cloudy/Snow, 6-16mph WNW

There were a couple of trucks at the Access. One had a snowmobile trailer, the other was a pike hunter. The guys with the snowmobile trailer helped me load up in the snow. I went out toward the area where the guy this Spring said he got into a school of bass, which was beyond where the guy with the snowmobile set up. I drilled four holes over about a seventy-yard stretch, then went back and looked with the camera for signs of life. There was only 3 to 4 feet of visibility with the camera, quite a bit of suspended sediment. I saw one small perch in the second hole and a couple of sunfish in the 4th hole, so I set up shop. The Little Buddy fired right up. It wasn't as warm as I expected it to be. I caught a bunch of small perch and saw a crappie or two on the camera, possibly a walleye as well. As it got dark, I caught some small crappies and missed a few as well. It started snowing. Thankfully, the guys with the snowmobile didn't take off, so I had their truck lights to guide me back to the access. They helped me get the smitty up the hill. We talked about the area lakes. They were not really familiar with this area.

4Crip

19YP  

Erskine Bust in the Slop Slip

6:30-9:00PM Erskine NW Pads
70-75℉, PC to Cloudy rained for half and hour or so, 3-15mph

Launching the slop slip at Erskine is ideal, the fishery isn't. Apparently, the bass have abandoned the shallow weeds.  All I caught was 3 small bass.  There is barely any rice now, but the weeds looked healthy.  I fished outside of the pads on my way back in. Had a big pike follow the craw tube to the boat. Disappointing trip.

Two Lures Adrift & Bullheads Save Me From A Skunking

7:00PM-12:00AM
Conditions- Mostly cloudy, little wind, temps in the high 50's

I didn't have high expectations going into last night's fishing.  I started at Bulldog.  A small bass boat with an older couple came in to pull out.  He said they got there limit.  I asked him how big and he said the biggest was about 3lbs.  He made a remark them being good eating size.  That didn't strike me as strange at the time, but bass aren't in season yet.  Anyway, I decided to try Erskine.  A fish boiled 2 long cats to the North.  I didn't get a bite.  I did backlash breaking my black Stanley Phantom off at the knot.  It was out about 25 feet.  No problem, I'd just put a Phantom on the Mojo rod and get it back.  I managed to backlash and break off the white Phantom in the picture at the reel about 35 feet out.  I couldn't get the line out of the Fuego reel, which sits on my Mojo rod, so I ended up throwing the Grass Pig and on about my third try I landed the cast right on the white Phantom ad reeled it in.  I was feeling much better about my predicament now.  It took about 15 casts for me to get the black one.  I was having trouble getting the line on the Fuego straightened out.  It took me probably 10 minutes to dig out the tag end of the line and when I got it dug out I had issues with the line continuing to be wrapped under itself.  I didn't have the room I needed to get that straightened out, so I was outta there.

I stopped at Bulldog again because there was nobody there.  I got a few casts in when a Bow fishing Boat stopped to put in.  I was off to Rock Lake.  One trailer was at the landing and the boat was coming in.  I parked out of the way and got to work on the Fuego.  I would say it was a good 20 minutes before I had that situation in hand.  The boat had long since left.  It was beginning to get dark.  I didn't get anything.

11.5" Glow Demon w/minnow

I arrived at the GOMH at 9:20.  There was a group of rowdy foul mouthed bullhead bullhead fishermen fishing off the bridge. They hadn't gotten anything yet.  I went down on the SW side, before I had my line in the water they were bringing in a bullhead.  It didn't take long and I had a silver on and a good one at that.  I was glad to not have a skunk for the night.   The bullhead fishermen kept me entertained, especially when some walleye fishermen "citidiots" stopped bye.  I ended up keeping 7 silvers, throwing one back, giving one to the bullhead fishermen, as well a a small toothy.  I left at midnight.

19" Glow Demon

    

Evening on Erskine

I was going to fish Rock Lake but the Access was packed so I went to Erskine. I fished from 5PM-9PM.  Conditions were windy out of the SE, diminishing and starting to blow as I got off the water.  I basically fished across the North End of the lake from NW to East.  First hit was a pike that didn't hook up.  Next I got a almost 14" bass on the Pure Poison & Craw Fatty.  I got 5 bass on a white Grass Pig and the Pike.  I missed a quality 10lb class pike when it hit the Grass Pig coming towards me.  I didn't get a good hookset.  I caught one on a Fluke at the only dock I fished.  As it calmed down I went back to the NW corner and got 5 on a Horny Toad including my biggest at 16.75".  I didn't take bass pictures early because of the wind, then I forgot about it.  I missed a bunch of hits, mostly small fish, on the Horny Toad but I think I missed one big one.  Not sure what kind of fish it was.  It looked like I was going to get stormed on, so I left about 15 minutes before I should have.

Erskine, Bulldog, Jenny's Not Much

After getting skunked at the Grumpy Old Man Hole last night I figured I would change it up for this evenings shore fishing excursion, so I headed to Erskine. I arrived at about a quarter to 7PM and started out throwing a brown/orange Zoom Horny Toad. On about my third cast the Pike in the picture hit it. Well I wasn't going to be skunked two nights in a row. A few casts later I had a very small pike or bass hit the toad. When I set the hook the fish went skipping along the lilly pads and came off. That was it for Erskine.

I tried Bulldog, nothing.

Last stop was Jenny's. First I tried the Horny Toad, nothing. Next I threw a white Berkley Havoc Lane's Grass Pig. I did get a hit on that but when I set the hook it came up empty. As it was starting to get dark I went with the Mad Maxx Frog. I made a cast over by where I got the hit and sure enough a pike went airborne while missing the frog. That was the extent of the action.

Rooster, Turkey, Duck, Geese, Dogs

Got out before the sun rise this morning. First stop was the Bulldog PA. No Luck even though on a long cast I was able to get close to a spot where a fish came up. Next I went to Erskine. I started throwing a Zoom Horny Toad. There was a rooster crowing for a while, then I was joined by a turkey and ducks started quacking from the same direction as the rooster.. I had a couple of hits on a black/yellow River2Sea Bully Wa frog but I couldn't convert. A bunch of geese flew over me fairly low. I caught a pike on a white Berkley Havoc Lane's Grass Pig off the dock. Right after that I had a small bass on that got off. On the next cast to the exact same spot I got a bigger bass, but it came up and tailwalked and spit the hook. Soon after that a pug showed up and I could see a boxer over by the houses. The turkey followed me around. Didn't get anymore hits.

I went to Rock, nothing.

I went to Jenny's, nothing even though there was some fish activity.

Got home a little after 9AM.

Fishing with Turkey's

Pete was still around today, so we went fishing around 4PM. First we hit Bulldog at Holy Family and got nothing. Pete then suggested we try Erskine and so we went there. I didn't realize the Erskine public access is actually worth fishing. It has some nice pads right out from shore and there is quite a bit of area to fish. Anyway while we were fishing some domesticated turkeys came along and sat down right behind me. Pete was amused by this and took pictures. While the Turkeys were there I had a fish hit at my white Berkley Havoc Grass Pig twice. Somehow I didn't hook up either time. Eventually we left with the turkeys still wanting to follow us.

Next we went to Rock where Pete had 2 bites on his pink spinnerbait. The second fish got caught in the reeds and Pete's line broke. I think I had one hit on the Crawtube, but it dropped it before I could set. It started to rain.

Next we headed to Jenny's where we amazingly couldn't get hit.

Next we headed to our Lake Place where I got a 15"+ on the River2Sea Frog by a clump of pads up by shore. Didn't have the camera with. I had another fish show at the frog, but I couldn't get it to hit a second time. I think it might have been a dogfish.

Erskine Lake

My final night trip to Rock may have produced a couple of doggy strikes and follows, but all I caught was Bass. So the one pictured below is my entry.

Last night I fished Erskine in open water for the 1st and last time. I caught a few bass and I'm sure it has a Toad or two, but I'd much rather fish Rock, Platte/Sullivan, Bulldog, Long, or even Peavy. The one good thing was that I got to work on flipping and pitching to wood which should help me at Horseshoe Chain.