GOMH, River, SPRO

Full Trip Details

Devin's Birthday Bullhead & More

Devin's 12th Birthday Bullhead is a toothy

5:00-7:00AM GOMH SW NE SW
Conditions: 35-42℉, Partly Cloudy, Calm or slight NE wind

When I arrived this morning to get Devin her birthday bullhead no other than Sneaky C was there fishing.  He said he had just gotten there and had gotten a couple of toothys. I talked with him for a while and found out about the very good Opener he had out on the Big Pond.  Eventually, I went down on the SW side.  I think heard Sneaky catch a couple of fish and then he left.  I went over to the NE side and didn't get a thing, so I went back to the SW side and thankfully got Devin's Birthday Bullhead.  I got one small jumper as well.  Because it wasn't happening I went home and posted about my morning on Facebook and switched cars.
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4.10lbs/18.5" Poison/Swim Fluke Jr.

9:00-2:00PM Inlet Bay, Dennis Flat, Center North Bay
Conditions:50-67℉, Mostly Sunny, Wind ENE

So the plan was to fish them shallow on the North side of the lake, but a trip from The Tree to the Starting Spot only produced one or two pike, so I headed out onto Dennis Flat and quickly caught a couple of pike and a 15.5" on the Poison.  I worked the Flat back to the East.  After I quickly caught a couple of nice ones I anchored.  To heck with fighting the wind.  It was a good spot and I caught several nice fish there including my biggest of the day (Pictured above).

16.5" Hooked by the Parasite Clip

After sitting there for a good hour and a half things got kind of slow so I moved into the reeds and had a big dogfish follow, but not hit doggone it.  Not much was going on in the reeds so I drifted back across the Flat catching pike and bass as I went.  I went shallow again as I passed Double Caine Point.  I got a couple there as I made my way into North Center Bay.  I got a couple of decent basses there but it was mostly pike and small ones.  Nothing on the West side of the bay up to Big Bass Point.

Best 6 for the Trip

For the trip:
18 Bass
17 Pike
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2.08"/15.75"

 
8:00-9:30PM F Flat with Devin and Steve, then the Reeds Across the Way with Steve
Conditions: Perfect but it didn't matter

So I took out Devin and Steve on a quest to get Devin a birthday bass on the Trait Crist Fishing Rod Combo that I bought for her birthday.  I thought I would head to the dock area of F Flat, but as I was heading that direction a boat was pulling into the area.  No problem we should be able to get some fish over by the North reed corner.  Wrong call.  The choice to work our way to the dock, wrong call.  Sure Steve and I missed a few bites, but Devin wasn't getting bit.  We got over to the dock and nothing was there and Devin wanted to head in, so I took her in and went back out to the reeds across the way with Steve. 

Not much was going on in the reeds.  I should have done what I should have done with Devin, which was head to North Center Bay.  Steve did get the one decent one and a dink and I missed a couple on the Sprinker.  We did have a great view though.

My Morning With Delroy

3.70lbs/22.5" X-Rap Shallow Shad (White)

5:00-9:30AM GOMH NE SW
Conditions: 50's, Cloudy with some light rain, Windy NW

When I arrived it appeared that Sneaky C was driving off and there was The Wheel House Guy fishing the SW side.  He got a golden just as I was pulling up.  We talked for a just a second then I went down on the NE side.  The NW wind was whipping pretty good but the North side of the GOMH is protected pretty well from a wind in that direction.  I ended up getting three golden's on the Shad Shallow which I gave to The Wheel House Guy.  He was very appreciative.  I was also catching some toothy's and jumpers.

The Wheel House Guy left so I took that opportunity to switch sides as the action was pretty slow on the NE side this morning.  I caught a couple of jumpers on the Poison.  I put on the Hack Attack Jig and hooked a hog bullhead just as Wheel House Guy was making his arrival.

4.38lbs/19" Hack Attack Jig/Craw Fatty

  That is Wheel House Guy in the background.  He gave me a Pepsi to drink and we talked and fished until I left at 9AM when some of his friends showed up.  I found out his name is Delroy, but he will be Wheel House Guy to for blogging purposes.

6 Best Bass with Big Walley Lower Right

Best 6 Bass of the morning

11 Jumpers
3 Golden
3 Toothys

MN Opener Day 2

25" Jerk Shad

4:45-8:00AM GOMH NE SW
Conditions: 38-46℉, Partly Cloudy, Calm

I arrived a little later than I needed to and lost out on some fish because Sneaky C was there when I arrived.  Hearing him catching bullheads spun me out a little bit, while I was catching nothing.  He was on his way by 5:15 and I quickly moved to the NE side.  Fortunately, there was still some gold around and I capitalized.  It was a beautiful sunrise.  Something happened and most of the pictures I took got semi-erased.  I was able to recover them on mom's computer, but doing it was a convoluted process that ate up more than an hour of time.  The two pictures above are the only ones I recovered to blog.

It was a good morning with me getting 5 jumpers on the Jerk Shad, 5 jumpers on the Poison, 5 jumpers on a junebug craw tube, and 6 jumpers on a brown/grn pumpkin craw tube.  Surprisingly, nobody showed up to fish until right before I left.

21 Jumpers (2x17, 2x16.5,2x16)
1 Gold
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Devin's first bullhead 17.5" Grass Pig

  9:00-10:30PM GOMH SW
Conditions: 60's, Partly Cloudy, Calm

I was dog dead tired when I woke up at 5PM.  I didn't go with to mother's day dinner at Happy's.  Instead, I slowly woke up then started putting tackle together for Steve.  Mom and Dad got back as I was just finishing up.  When I arrived at the GOMH I was surprised that it was only Lantern Man's family, so I called Steve to come over.  I caught one jumper on a craw tube while I was waiting for him and Devin to show up.  I had Steve fish on the SW side and Dev and I went up on the bridge.  As I was lifting the Grass Pig out of the water a fish swirled on it.  I dropped it back down and the fish hit it.  I gave Devin the rod and she fought it for a little bit then walked it down the side.  Steve came up on the bridge and missed a hit.  They left just before 10PM.   I fished for a little bit then decided that I was going to check and see if the ice was gone at Eddy's'.  It was and that trip is its own blog.

MN Opener (GOMH All-Nighter/Back Sat Night)

15.5" Jerk Shad (Crackle)

12:00AM-8:30AM GOMH SW
Conditions:  36-42℉, Clear to Cloudy, Light N wind to calm
Water level to normal high

11" Shiner Minnow

I was hyped up to cash in some gold on the shiner minnows I caught last week. It didn't work out that way. Eddy's Jetty was iced in, so the GOMH it was. I got my first bite around 12:30 am, but it was silver. Some guys on the other side got some gold right away. Lantern Man's son got one, and Lantern Man got one. Shorty after LM got his golden, he told me to throw into the current, which I did, and got a jumper.

14" Shiner Minnow

It then got real slow, and everybody left by 2:30 am. I went fishing on the NE side and got a 15" jumper on the Grass Pig. Peter W. showed up at about 3 am. He got a bullhead right away. I tried the NE side briefly again before someone else showed up to check what was up. At 4 am, the Wheel House Guy showed up and started fishing right next to me. Pretty soon, his brother and other relatives/friends showed up and took up the SE side. WHG got one golden on the NE side. It was dead until about 5:40 am, when I quickly got three nice jumpers on the Poison (2x18", 17.75").

18" Poison/Razor Shad

17.75"/4.12lbs Poison/Razor Shad

It then got slow again for about an hour. I got into a good run of 16" jumpers on a brown/grn pumpkin crawtube, dropping the two big ones. I missed a bunch of bites as well.

18.25'"/3.81lbs Crawtube

I got one good 17" on the Grass Pig and that last pig on the crawtube. I also got one toothy on the craw tube. WHG gave me a banana and some banana bread to eat before leaving. His brother, who fished next to me the whole morning, got a few jumpers and silvers. The people across the way got more of the same. For the most part, fishing was more difficult than expected. I should have fished on the NE side in the wind rather than camping on the SW side like I did. Still, 19 jumpers for the trip isn't exactly terrible. I was disappointed to not get at least one golden, though. My feet were fried from standing in my Bugaboots all night.

For the morning trip
19 Jumpers (18.25,18,18,17.75,17,16) for my 6 best (Stupidly, I only weighed two fish)
1 Toothy
1 Silver
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Dad got me up just before 5 pm to go and put the dock in at the lake place, which we did.

8:45–11:00 pm GOMH NE
Conditions: 62-50℉, partly cloudy, calm

9.5" X-Rap Shallow Shad

Nobody was on the NE side when I got there, so I quickly got my stuff and headed down. Lantern Man arrived as I was getting my stuff laid out. I got a jumper on the first cast and thought it might be on. LM's son came and down on the NW side. He had been fishing the Southside, getting silvers and jumpers. After he left the GOMH last night, his bridge hopping was a resounding failure. His first cast under the bridge resulted in some gold. His friend Kyle came and netted it, and Kyle got a golden on his first cast as well. They got another one, and I got the one I did casting out on the crackle Jerk Shad. I also got a 24.5" toothy casting out on the jerk shad. Two bow fishing boats came through.   LM son and Kyle left. I got the Rock bullhead. Other than that, it was pretty dead. Sneaky C showed up. He was a pretty good day on the gravel lizards wherever he was fishing. I left shortly after Sneaky arrived. I was still worn out from last night and didn't feel like flogging the water anymore.

So that is my 2018 Opener Day 1

Quick Morning Trip, Quick Evening Trip

17.75" Minnow on the Cubby Rod

5:55-7:30AM GOMH NE SE
Conditions: 44℉, Cloudy then Mostly Sunny by the time I left, Light N Wind, water level still rising

I left later than I wanted by about an hour.  I started out on the NE side and got the jumper on my very first cast with a minnow on a hook.  About 5 minutes later a truck stopped, so I went to the SE side.  Turns out it was Sneaky C. with his puppy.  He met Lantern Man last night. I think a toothy bit him off and that was it for him this morning; He didn't stay very long.  While he was there I missed two hits on the minnow and had a toothy cut me off.  I did catch a toothy. The sun came out, a loon moved into the area, and the bites stopped so I left at 7:30.

I will probably get out again later today.

Evening Trip:

18.5" Wildeye Swim Shad

5:45-7:15PM GOMH NE SW SE
Conditions: 52-46℉, Cloudy with sprinkles turning into light rain, Windy NNE, the water level is still rising

17.25" Minnow on the Cubby Rod

With the cold weather forecast for basically the next week I figured I better get out tonight before the rain moved in.  It's not supposed to get out of the 30's the next couple of days and we could get a couple of inches of snow tonight.  There was no one at the GOMH when I arrived.  I elected to try the NE side first same as this morning.  I got a couple of 17 inch jumpin' bullheads and a toothy over there.

Next I headed to the SW side. That is where I got the 18.5" at.  No silvers or dogfish.  The sprinkles turned to light rain.  I fished for maybe 15 minutes on the SE side.  Didn't get a bite.  It was looking dark to the South and I was worried about a downpour at the house, so I left at 7:15PM

Turns out the heavier rain just missed our place.  I got to watch Sano crush a baseball and Santana pitched a good game giving up just a solo home run.  Twins beat the Rangers 8-1.  It's now after 10:30 and the air temp is down to 36 degrees and it will continue to rain until it snows. I will not be out after silvers tonight.

I'll give it a shot tomorrow night maybe.

Nothing But Jumpers Pretty Much (2 Trips) Met Sneaky C

17.5" Terminator Jig w/UJ Pork Frog(Black/Bluefrog)

6:00-9:00AM GOMH NE SW

Conditions: Overcast, Windy out of the NE

I got out to a later start than I wanted.  No one was there.  I started out on the NE side getting my Swim Shad bit off.  I then got a couple of jumpers on a minnow on the Cubby Rod.  The wind got to be to much so I switched to the SW side.  I met who I will refer to now on as Sneaky C this morning.  He is a guy that fishes the GOMH often when he is up in the area staying with his grandparents.  He likes to keep a low profile.  I'm sure we've probably met up there before, but never really talked.  He's a pretty hardcore fisherman that used to do walleye tournaments and some bass.  He wants the water level to come up at least another foot.  A couple people stopped by to see if the fish were in yet.  They weren't.  Sneaky left to go to church and I gave up at 9AM when it started to rain.

17.5" Wildeye Swim Shad

7:30-9:30PM GOMH SE

Conditions: High 30's, Cloudy with some sleet, Windy as heck out of the NE

I was amazed to see Sneaky at the GOMH when I arrived. I figured there wouldn't be anybody there in the sucky conditions.  He hadn't gotten anything but a couple of toothy's.  I got the one jumper on the Swim Shad and that was it.  I think I missed one hit on the lighted bobber. I gave up at the 9:30.