On Thursday, May 18th, the Fishers of Men Club Twin Cities had our first 3rd Thursday Night Outing, held on the third Thursday night of the month duh!, on Lake Minnetonka. Unfortunately, my boat was the only one to turn out. I arrived at the Maxwell bay access around 3:45 and was out fishing by 4:15PM. It was getting more overcast and threatening rain.
I headed up to a weedline in Stubbs Bay and started off by fishing a Bomber Fat A for Pike. I fished my way down to the channel back into Maxwell with only one hit, and that fish didn't hook up. I then moved into the NW bay of Maxwell, which is a big milfoil weed flat. It was calm there, so I started fishing with a Spook-type topwater. I got a small pike and missed a small bass. It started to sprinkle about 5 O'clock. At about 5:15, I had a big swirl that missed the Spook. I let it sit then started walking it again. WHAM! Either a big Pike or Muskie engulfed the Spook, and I set into an instant break-off.
Fortunately, the lure didn't hook up and was left sitting on the surface where the swirl had just been. I retrieved my lure and headed in to pick up Gordy.
Gordy was waiting at the dock, and we stayed at the ramp until 6PM to see if anyone else would show. From the Maxwell Access, we headed to Crystal Bay. In the channel between bays, Gordy spotted what we thought was a life jacket; it turned out to be a halfway decent rain jacket with a quarter in a pocket which I hauled aboard. Having another rain jacket is always good for GEM kids. We then headed into a little bay inside Crystal, where I had caught crappies and sunfish before. On our way in, I had a swim jig get bit off; Shortly after that, Gordy pulled in a 16" bass. Shortly after that, I got a 14" bass on the Spook topwater.
Gordy and I fished all around in that little bay. I missed a couple of topwater strikes and also caught a decent-sized bass. Gordy broke out the ultra-lite tackle and caught a couple of small sunnies. Eventually, things died off, and we headed back into Maxwell.
The area of Maxwell we ran into was teaming with carp and panfish. While I missed a pike and jumped off a bass, Gordy caught several sunfish and crappie. Sometime when we were in Crystal Bay, it stopped raining, and by the end of the night, it had cleared out nicely. At 8:30, we headed back to the ramp to beat out a league that was weighing in at 9PM. The rest of the Fishers of Men club missed out on a good time.
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.
