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.  

Big Bass & Breaking In My New 7' Avid Heavy

20" Mad Maxx Frog

All it takes is one bite to turn an extremely mediocre morning into a great one.  Today I got that bite.  She hit the "Big Sexy" and fortunately didn't take me into the pads like it could have.  She was barely hooked.

To that point in the morning, a good hour and a half into fishing, I missed a jumper and a toothy on the Stanley Phantom and got one 14.5" jumper on a watermelon/red Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.

In the picture you can see my new and vastly improved St. Croix Avid 7' Heavy.  It's lighter than the previous rod and actually loads a little bit when I cast, which the previous rod that was a total broomstick did not really do.  Casting distance is improved and I can now  use it for pitching, which the previous rod didn't do well at all.  It's not quite as powerful as the previous rod, but I'll take that trade off as it still has plenty of power.  I also think it's gonna be quite a bit more sensitive, but I really didn't get enough bites to gauge that very well.  Overall I'm very impressed.

Note- My previous Avid 7' Heavy was a pre-IPC technology rod.

That was all I got at the Grumpy Old Man Hole this morning.  I got a couple of nice fish (16",15") on the Horny Toad at the Culvert and got a total dink at the Inlet on Sullivan on a black/blue Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.  That was it.  I fished from 5:45 to 9AM.  Quite a change from the past two morning where I caught a bunch of small fish.

Broke The Heavy Rod

Well looks like I'm replacing all 3 rods.  I broke the 7' Heavy St. Croix rod fighting a little northern that got down in the weeds.  The rod cracked and broke in two.

Here is the window the cat tried to climb out on resulting on the widow shutting on the 3 rods.

Unfortunately I caught the cat instead of the window. I was really hoping the Heavy St. Croix would make it.  I'm glad I found out now, so I can have the rod back by my next tournament.

Fishing sucked. I didn't get anything at the culvert, and the "new new juice" had two guys fishing it.  They were keeping some jumpin bullheads and letting some go. They were also getting some orange bullheads.  I got 2 jumpers on the SW side and that toothy that I broke the rod on.  I fished from 10AM to 11:45AM.

Broke A Rod This Morning But Fishing Was Good

Kind of had a feeling this might happen thanks to my cat climbing were it shouldn't have been. He shut the Explorers rear window on it and 2 others. I'm hoping the heavy rod makes it through the season at least. The good thing is they were all St. Croix Avid's, so I can replace them with a new rod at more than 50% off what a new one costs. I'll have this rods replacement before my next tournament.

17.5"

I had caught this jumpin' bullhead, my best of the morning, and 10 others on it between this morning and my last two outings before the rod cracked and broke in two. 

 It was a good morning of fishing.  I hit the GOMH, the PRO Culvert, and the inlet getting fish at each and missing a bunch as well. I arrived at the GOMH at 5:50AM.  I started off getting them on topwater on a Lucky Craft Kelly J (12.5"), a Frenzy Popper (2x14", 15") and the Stanley Phantom (2x13", 3x14", 15", 16" and two little toothy bullheads).  Then I got them on the Fluke until the rod broke (2x14", 17.5",11.75" and a small toothy bullhead).  I got 1 (14") and yet another small toothy on a Chigger Craw.  I left to go to the culvert around 9AM.

There I missed my first several hits on a Horny Toad before finally getting a 13", I also got 1 (14") on a Chigger Craw and 1 (14") on a Subwart in the culvert.

I then headed to the Inlet and missed two good fish on the Grass Pig before connecting with a 15.5".  That was my last fish of the morning.  I quit at 11AM.

Best 6 Fish
17.5", 16", 15.5", 15", 15" and 14.25"
20 bass Total and 4 Pike