Skunked Tonight, Got Minnows Today

Sunny when the sun came up, then clouded up quickly. Cloudy when Dad and I went to Onamia. Sun came out again by 3PM. Nice night. 

I think Local Walleye Guy fished tonight on the NE side for a while. The weather was pleasant, but I forgot my headlamp. Got minnows today at Reed's. We then went to check Kathio Bridge for suckers, none. Had a turkey take out the driver-side mirror, and dad stopped too quick, spilling the minnows; what a mess. Didn't get a bite. Had a loon make me believe I would get something tonight the way it was bird-dogging on the SE side. There was open water off of the point at SPSI, but was only open 75% of the way there. 

 

Bulldog & Slow at the GOMH

18" Bulldog Toad

6:30-8:30PM Bulldog
8:45-10:30 PM GOMH
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy, 74-68 degrees, Calm

I got skunked at both places in the morning.  Local walleye guy showed up towing his boat.  He did well yesterday at Gull.  Also did well on big slabs at the Golf coarse channel on Mille Lacs when ice was still on the lake.

For the evening trip I checked GOMH first.  South side covered up.  Still no jumpers, but they did report a couple of toothy's.  I left and went to Bulldog which was open.  I got into the sunfish pretty quickly.

5" T.H.E. Jig w/maggie

8" T.H.E. Jig

I also got some largies on THE Jig.

14.25" THE Jig 

 There was some activity in the hay that I waited for prime time to throw the craw tube into hoping it might be a dogfish.  Turns out it was pike and the toad.

22.5" Craw Tube

I ended up with the 1 pike, 4 bass (18,14.25,11,10) and 14 Sunfish 6 of which were bigger than 6.5 inches.

At the GOMH the SW side was taken, so I took the SE side.  Lantern Man showed up as I was bringing my stuff down.  He and who was with him came down and fished with me.  The guys on the SW side had gotten a couple.  The Rowdy Bullhead fishermen from last year showed up.  Shortly after that LM buddy got one.  LM got one and I had a bite that got off and screwed up my line.  I had to cut it, but then it came out easy.  The guys on the SW side left while I was getting my gear straightened out. LM went to the SW side.  I caught one.  They got about 5 before I left.

10" Glow Demon w/minnow

Morning GOMH Trip

Christmas Lake Guy Gets a Nice Jumper

6:00-9:30AM
Conditions: Sporadic sprinkles, cloudy, wind out of the E SE, on the cool side with temps in the mid 40's.

I thought more rain was going to make this into just a quick morning trip but it just sprinkled for brief periods.  I got a couple jumpin' bullheads when Local Walleye Guy showed up.  Despite being out in his boat numerous times he hadn't caught a crappie yet. Sure enough he got two silvers and a jumper before he got cold and left.  While he was still there I got a small toothy on T.H.E. Jig w/ minnow on my long panfish rod.  I had a big jumper jump me off on THE Jig, about 10 minutes before Christmas Lake Guy and his daughter showed up.  They fished for about half an hour in which time he caught that 4lber in the picture and I got a 14" on THE Jig.  After they left I fished for about another half hour missing one bite.  I was cold now so I was getting my stuff ready to go two guys in T-shirts showed up to fish.  I thought they were nuts.  I got in the car and it wouldn't start.  I got confused if the noise it was making was from the battery being low or not.  I thought maybe the starter had gone out with the clicking noise it made.  I couldn't call my parents who were at Church.  As I was thinking what I should do the two guys were leaving after only being there for 15 minutes.  I asked them if they lived to the South, which they did and they took me home.  Turns out it was just a low battery, not sure if I left the lights on or what.  Nobody was fishing when we fetched it.  

Opener Round 2 at the GOMH

Conditions: Warm enough with sun and breezy out of SE turning cloudy with some sprinkles and the wind switching out of the North.

Fished from around 3PM to around 9PM

I was surprised when I arrived that the Grumpy Old Man Hole wasn't totally packed with people.  There were quite a few boats however but they were all farther out.  I originally went down on the SW side where another guy was fishing on the steps.  I didn't get a bite in about 10 minutes, so I went over the SE side which  was open.  I started catching toothy bullheads right away on the swamp gas Grass Pig.  Then much to my delight I got a golden bullhead.

20.5"

 Local Walleye guy showed up in his boat again and they were getting a few golden's in the area they fished in the morning.  I heard a couple other boats say that got goldens as well.  People came and went, not a lot of panfish being caught or jumpin bullheads other than the one a kid fishing with his mother caught over by me;  The fish got caught up in the bullrushes by shore and they needed my long net, which I fortunately didn't take out of the car from my trip to Mille Lacs.  I continued to get toothy bullheads and then I would get golden bullhead about every hour to hour and a half.  After the sprinkles came through and the wind switched the toothies shut off and I only got one more golden after that.  I didn't get a single jumpin bullhead.  I got 4 golden bullheads all between 19.5" and 21" and 10 toothy bullheads between 24" and 17" long.  A few silver bullheads started getting caught by the Dad and daughter as it got dark.  Local Walleye Guy took the boat in and came and fished off the bridge.  He said they got more goldens in the afternoon than in the morning.  It didn't seem that way to me, but I didn't keep my eye on them the whole time either.  At around 9PM I had enough and went home.

5 Walleye and 12 pike not a bad Opener.

The Cook photobombs my 4th GB of the day

Mille Lacs Bust, Opener Saved By Bullheads

Conditions: Clear and cold, but no wind so I was never chilled.

I didn't have my tackle organized enough to be at Mille Lacs at midnight because I overslept a couple of hours yesterday but I arrived at Eddy's at around 12:20 AM.  As I was driving I thought about my plan to stay until sun up and fish for smallies and decided with it getting so cold tonight that wasn't a good idea.  At Eddy's they put up a construction fence up around the whole place including the Marina but the Jetty wasn't blocked off in any way.  The lights were off and there was a lot of piled ice where I fish.    I could have fished off the center dock, but elected to put on my waders and head to Option #2 where I fished last year.  There  were a couple of cars there that I parked across the street from.   A couple of guys were going to their car while I was getting my stuff ready.  I said loudly enough for them to hear.  Did you get your limit already.  They didn't acknowledge me at all and got in their car and left.

It was right around 12:45 when I got down to the water.  I took my jerkbait rod and two rods with swimbaits, one of them being the Abu Garcia Rocket/St. Croix LTB with the Powerbait  4.5" Rib Shad.  I put my stuff down where I crossed the road.  I could see and hear the two guys were fishing closer to the inlet.  I picked up the jerkbait rod and waded pretty much straight out.  I tried 3 different jerkbaits to no avail.  I didn't see a single walleye which was a bad sign because I saw them last year.  At some point the two guys left, but I didn't see or hear them when they did. I got over closer to inlet and actually saw a walleye.  I then noticed a guy walking toward the area where my stuff was laying so I quickly walked back.  Turns out it was a creel survey guy.  He told me he hadn't talked to anyone who got a fish and said the eye's just got done spawning and he thought the eye's were going to be in a post spawn funk.  He took the water temp at shore and it was 42 degrees.  He wished me good luck and took off.

I picked up the Rocket and on my very first cast I put in the rocks.  Luckily I got it unstuck, but the hook was bent.  I thought no problem, I'll still be able to hook fish.  Wrong!  I had several hits but I couldn't get a hook into anything.  I suppose it could have been bumping suckers as well.  Eventually I went and got the other swimbait rod.  I had a few fish just grab the back of the swimbait.  Eventually my feet got to cold and I decided to head to the GOMH.  I took off my waders, tied a new hook on the Rocket rod and left right at 3AM.

I arrived at the GOMH at about 3:15 and there were two cars who's people were all fishing on the  SW side.  I went to ask if they caught anything;  They said they weren't getting much and didn't have any golden bullheads.  Liars, they did get one, which I found out later when more of their friends arrived.

I decided to go to the NE side and started throwing the Rib Shad, that didn't get anything so I switched to swamp gas Havoc Grass Pig and I got this golden bullhead on the first cast.

18.5"

It was beautiful clear night which I noticed after a brilliant shooting star went across the sky.  There were loon calls and an owl hooting in the distance.  Eventually I decided to go to the SE side before somebody else showed up.  I wasn't there long when a couple of the other guys left as another group was showing up.  It stated getting light out and not much was happening.  A guy on the other side landed a good sized golden bullhead.  Another couple of people arrived and one came over to fish by me.  He told me that golden was 4 to 5lbs.  It got light out and I landed a 20" toothy bullhead that hit the Grass Pig.  About 20 minutes later I missed a couple of hits then had a good toothy bullhead hit right by me and rocket 3 feet in the air.  I landed it.

27" or so

Good thing that other guy was there to take the picture, because a selfie of a fish that long doesn't look good in my opinion.  I also got this one on the grass pig.  I tried several different jerkbait only getting one bump that didn't hook up. I also missed several hits on the Grass Pig.  I noticed the Rib Shad didn't seem to be swimming very well and I didn't have any hits on it.  C.O. Kuske showed up but didn't come to check me.  The guy who fished next to Mike and I yesterday who I'm going to call Local Walleye Guy showed up in his boat and picked up 3 people from shore.  He went over and parked by the point on the SW side of the GOMH, they were throwing suckers or shiners and getting golden and jumpin bullheads occasionally.  Us shore fishers were not getting much.  I did get one small jumper on the Grass Pig.  I tried the NE side one more time but my upper  back was really barking at me and I had enough of that.  I left around 6:45.  Got home and called the Chiropractor.  Fortunately Dr. Grunst was willing to take me in early because he was all booked up.