Morning & Evening Trips Today

24.25" Storm WildEye Swim Shad

Morning
5:30-7:30AM GOMH SW, Bulldog
Evening
7:45-9:30PM GOMH SE

Conditions: Temps in the Low 50's, Cloudy, Heavy NE wind in the evening, Moderate NE wind in the morning.

I hit the GOMH early hoping I might get some more silvers.  They either weren't there or weren't hitting.  I did have a pike jump me off.  Missed one other bite.  The Cook and his brother showed up.  They didn't get anything in the 20 minutes I was there with them.  I bailed to go try Bulldog.

At Bulldog I got 5 sunfish on T.H.E. Jig with a maggot including a 7".  Also had what was probably a small bass get off after battling it 3/4th of the way in.  I got sick of the wind so I left.  I went to the chiropractor this morning for the first time in a year in a half.  My lower back is in a little bit of pain.

Evening Trip:
I got up after 5PM and didn't get to the GOMH until 7:45PM.  It was WIND DEE.  The Rowdy Bullhead fisherman and a buddy along with a guy and his young daughter were on the SW side.  They brought in two silvers right away.  Apparently they had gotten a jumper and a couple of toothy's. They had been there 2 plus hours.  I started out throwing the WildEye on the Muse Gold Rod and the golden bullhead smoked it.  After not getting anything more after 10 minutes I switched the Cubby and a minnow.  I was reeling it in when a toothy nailed it right before I was going to pull it out of the water.

22" Cubby Mini-Mite w/Minnow

   A guy came down to fish by me while I was taking the fish off.  I threw it back on the North side.  It was now dark enough that I put the Cubby Rod down and went to the Glow Demon rod.  The guy next to me got a silver.  I got a silver.

11" Glow Demon w/minnow

The guy and his daughter and the guy who was next to me left.  He gave me his fish.  Lantern Man showed up and set up on the SW side.  He got a small one right away.  I got 3 more silvers before I left.  With the wave action it was tough to tell when I was getting hit as they were biting light.  The last two had the minnow really deep.  The RBF came over with his pliers and got the hook out on my last fish.  I had enough and was getting cool so I hung it up at 9:30PM.  It supposed to rain tomorrow.  I say bring it.

I Consider This A Victory

20" Grass Pig

14.5 Stanley Phantom

5:00-8:15AM
Conditions- Mid 50's, mostly cloudy, calm turning into 7 MPH out of the East

The fact that I got any jumpin' bullheads is a victory I will take.  I had to launch casts way out with the Red Eye Shad, Stanley Phantom on the Mojo and the Grass Pig on the LTB.  They came on both lakes.  I got 3 jumpers on the Sullivan Side including the one on the Phantom and 1 in Platte.  Had a couple missed topwater strikes on both sides.  The Cook showed up.  He got a couple of oranges.  Some guys trying for silvers got a couple jumpers as well.

This Mornings GOMH Trip

18:5"

5:05-8:30AM
Conditions: Cool to start, but warming to the upper 50's by the time I left, pretty calm and clear

When I arrived this morning no was at the GOMH yet, which was a bit of a surprise.  There was one boat quite away out on the SW side.  I started on the NE side per usual and quickly landed the golden bullhead in the picture on a white Grass Pig.  That was it for the North side and I was on the SW side by 5:20AM.  Jumpin bullheads were active there.  This one was my biggest.

18" Grass Pig

I got one toothy on the SW side and one on the SE side.  The Cook showed up and the guy with the boat left and came back with a buddy.  They started out fishing for panfish, but when the first guy started wrecking some bigger bullheads they both switched to those.  After my 2nd toothy I switched gear and lost a couple bullheads including one nice jumper that threw my Red Eye Shad when it was still way out there.  I went back to the NE side and got this fish on the D & M Baits Piranha on my very first cast, which I clunked off the bridge..

17"

That was it.  I went back and tied a new Tyger Leader on my #1 swimbait rod, a St. Croix LTB 7'3" MH Carolina Rig rod with full cork grips.  I tested to make sure the swimbait swam right and left at around 8:30.

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

Morning with The Cook's Brother

Conditions: Cloudy with a bit of a breeze turning calm

I arrived at 6:15AM.  A little later than I should have after being awake for the thunderstorms that woke up the dogs at 4AM.  Another guy arrived just after me and came down to fish on the SW side with me.  Turns out it was Patrick's brother Jeff.  Quite a character.  He loves to eat himself some largemouth bass and told me all about it.  Anyway neither of us had a bite in 15 minutes so I went to give the SE side a quick try. Nothing and he started catching some jumpin bullheads, so I went back.  He started getting some silvers and I pulled a jumper, some silvers and two nice orange bullheads on the Cubby Jig head and a minnow, but Jeff was way out fishing me in terms of bites, so I decided to give THE Jig a try and the fish wanted that.  I didn't even have to put a minnow on for a while.  I hooked into something good that just stayed down, eventually I got it up and in and it was this quality jumper.  I could have sworn it was going to be 20" but it only went 19.33".

Shortly after that Lantern Man arrived.  He came out after Pat and I left yesterday and didn't get anything, but jumpers.  He took up the SE side with one of his relatives.  They started getting some silvers too.  Jeff was all excited about the jumpers he was catching this year.  He said he couldn't get any last year to save his life.  He filled up his limit of silvers with my help then switched to a waxie to get some orange bullheads.  He started getting them and got all excited about that to.  Here is one that had to be close to 10".

I took his picture only to find out he doesn't have a computer and doesn't find any need to be on the Internet.  At 10 to 9  I told him one more fish or 9 o'clock, which ever comes first and I'm done.  He decided he should leave at 9 as well.  I had my last cast in the water when he left. I got this silver on my last cast, the only fish I took home.

12.25"

Morning with Pat The Cook

11.5"

Conditions: Windy and Cool

This morning I was slow getting out of bed and it cost me.  I didn't get to the GOMH until about 10 after 6AM.  The Cook was there and had 6 or 7 fish.  I found out his name is Patrick.  He landed a couple of jumpin bullheads.  I hooked into a good one that took me into the reeds along shore and I ended up breaking off.  I was lucky to get my rocket bobber back.  I got 1 silver bullhead on the Cubby then things went completely dead.  I tied on a chart/white T.H.E. Jig and fired up a school of silver bullheads.  I got 3 and The Cook got his limit fish as fast as we could throw out, then they were done.  I think I got 1 jumper on THE jig.  Lantern Man showed up and left.  He now knows it is me who posts about the Grumpy Old Man Hole and he told me to stop doing it.  My compromise is to only post here at the Log Blog which hardly anyone reads until fishing season opens.  Pat left and I missed a couple bites on THE Jig.  Same thing as last night long casts and the wind.  I tried for some Dogfish with a Grass Pig for a while and got one jumper and one toothy who spit up a 3" shiner.  I left a 9AM.