Out On The Dog

 

5:15-7:45PM The Dog 8'  

30-35℉, PC,  0-3mph NE

Dropped off Dev, then went to Brainerd with Mom. Got back by 2 pm and felt like going fishing. Headed to Matt's Spot at The Dog. Sunfish and Pike were in the first hole. Ice is 23" thick, making drilling holes a PIA. I set up there. Unfortunately, visibility wasn't great, and I had a weed in the way I couldn't get rid of. Caught 3 nice sunfish. I saw LMB, bullheads, and even a dogfish swam through. Stayed after dark, hoping to get crappie, but no luck.

3 Sun

Caught some sunfish while fishing off the dock this morning

5 Sunfish

Not the Way I Planned It: Didn't Get Off The Water Until 1AM

22.5" X-Rap Shad Shallow (Perch)

2.75lbs/17" Craw Tube (GP/R fleck)

9.5" Evergreen Shower Blows (Chrome)

Bad casts at the GOMH lead to broken baits

Sunsetting over the Platte River

Only got to fish largies for a couple of hours, so not terrible

7:00-11:00PM Platte/Sullivan: NW Juice, River Mouth, NSPRO, GOMH N
70-60℉, Hazy Sun, 0-3mph NE Water High Falling
WT: 64℉

I got a late start due to some intestinal issues.  Forgot to put some rods and garbage for the lake place in the car.  My plan was to play the wind on the North end of the lake.  Avoiding it for topwater.  I started on the NW Juice area.  First fish was that big pumpkinseed right on the inside reed edge.  I landed my first bass right next to shore and then missed one.  Then the wind which had been almost non-existent put a ripple on the water.  That looked to be the case and I couldn't count on it to diminish, so I made the call to head south to the River Mouth and SPRO.  Kind of a risky play after a busy weekend.  When I got nothing on the south path into the river mouth I was thinking not good.  But then I had a blowup and miss and a 16-incher on consecutive casts with the Shower Blows.  I thought it might get real in a hurry.  But the fish shut down. I did manage to get 3 more and miss a couple on a craw tube including the 17-incher.  I went to the NSPRO and got a couple of dinks on the Shower Blows and a 13.5" on the Terminator Frog.   They stopped hitting so I headed home, but nobody was at the GOMH so I thought I would take a look.  Sure enough, there were some glow balls in the tube so I anchored and fished.  I got the first two goldens (18.5,16.5) on the Swamp Gas Grass Pig.  I was fishing an X-Rap Shad Shallow and about to give up making my last cast.  Then my phone rang which was the front of the boat, I was standing at the back. I kept the spool open an answered it on the speaker then engaged the reel.  Mom said about 6 words and it was fish on.  I got balled out for not taking the garbage with me.  We ended the conversation and I landed the 22.5-incher.  It was now 11PM.  I threw a couple more casts then got ready to leave.  Went to start the motor, but it wouldn't fire.  Called mom back and let her know my situation and that if I couldn't get it started I would use the trolling motor to get back.  At about 11:20PM I was almost out of ideas when I thought to give my mechanic buddy Pete a call. He is up late a lot of the time and sure enough, he was up.  We tried to figure it out for at least a good 40 minutes before I finally gave up and headed in on the trolling motor.  I got to the Lake Place just after 1AM.  Hopefully, it's an easy fix.  It has something to do with the fact that the throttle is stuck before the starting spot. 

Rock Lake Sunfish & A Couple Crip's As Well

Forgot the Camera, so no pictures.

4:00-7:30PM Rock Lake
27℉, Cloudy light snow, 0-3 MPH S

Kaylee snuck out while I was putting stuff in the car, Doh.  So I went down to fill the front tire and the parents came home.  Kaylee went in with them.  I talked with mom for a couple of minutes got dressed and headed out. A young guy was just getting off the Rock Lake when I pulled up to the access.  He said he only got a few perch.  Said he got some nice Crappies off the Rock Dock this summer.  I headed North past my spot to a weed point I marked fishing out of the Trophy a few years ago.  I drilled about 10 holes, then went looking with the Aqua-Vu.  There were sunfish in the second hole I checked. I quickly got the the Tubby Rod rigged up with some maggots.  Missed the first bite, but got the 2nd.  It was a 8-inch gill. Next fish was 9.5" pumpkinseed.  I then missed a couple of bites.  Got three 7-inchers and one more 8-inchers before they shut off.  I got two 7-inch crappies as I worked my way back to my spot.  Had one solid red mark about 6 feet of the bottom in 16 feet of water.  Couldn't get it to bite.  Bullhead maybe???

With Jeff Sullivan 6/24/2007

Jeff's first fish, a Larry.
Finally a pike.
Last fish of the day, a foul hooked Pumpkinseed.

The Story: Jeff arrived a little after 3PM and we were on the water right around 4PM. We headed to the South end of Sullivan to try for some Pike. We started out fishing in the wind and weeds and had no luck. Finally as we got out of the wind I brought in a little Pike. A lot of the water on the SE side was barren of weeds. When we finally hit a patch of good green weeds Jeff brought in a 13" bass on a spinnerbait. We fished this area for a while but didn't get anymore bites. I missed a bass off of the last dock we went bye.

At a quarter to 6PM we headed to the North end of Sullivan to try some reeds in the wind. We did one drift through and Jeff caught a small pike and the pumpkin seed. We called it a day right about 6:20PM. Not a great trip but not a skunking either. Where have all the Pike gone?