Rocky Solstice Action

 

23.75" Demon/Minnow

11" Demon/Minnow

6" EBay Blade Bait (Gold)

Famous Rock Lake Bullhead to end  the night

3:00-8:00 PM Rock Lake My Spot 12-16'

37-38℉, MC, 0-5 MPH SE
Visibility was about 5' to start, but by 4PM reduced considerably with the overcast and sediment in the water.

I took Mack out and visited with Belle and Bean. Nobody was out so I just parked where the dock normally sits. I waddled my way out and drilled four sets of holes starting at 12' by the Cane. I immediately had perch down the 12' hole. I caught a couple on a small gold-blade bait. The Perch scattered sure enough I had a pike come through and hit the bait, but it came off quickly. I saw a couple more pike come through. I put a minnow down and had a pike hit it. Unfortunately, the line got caught on the blade bait when I was trying to reel it up. As I was trying to get the line off of the blade bait, the 3lb test down by the Glow Demon broke. Who knows if I would have been able to land the fish if it didn't get caught On the blade bait. It got slow. I left the minnow down and checked my other holes for life, 2 out of 3 did. I got back and my bobber was down. I set the hook and landed the pike which was hooked on the outside of the beak, fortunately.  I saw one or two more pike and caught a few perch on the minnow. It was getting dark and the action shallow stopped, so I worked my way deeper, stopping briefly at the 2nd set and then set up shop at the 3rd set where I was marking something on the bottom. I switched to a glow Tubby Jig and finally got a bite, small crappie. That fired up the school. I got a nice crappie out of the hole that engulfed the Demon/Minnow, but the line broke before I lipped it. I took pics, got the Demon out of the back of its throat, threw it back, then got retied. Put the minnow back down and got hit quickly.  Once again I broke the 3lb test before I lipped the fish. Then I knocked my forceps down a hole when I went to reach for it. I didn't put it back where it belongs. To make it even more of a cluster of a situation I needed to cut myself a fresh leader of 3lb test off of one of my jigging rods to get the minnow back in action. By the time I was back in the action, the fish had gone inactive and it was like pulling teeth the rest of the time. The final fish was a bullhead. I think the crappies started hitting a little before 6PM when I was contemplating giving up for the night.

8Crip 

7YP 

1Pike 

1Bullhead

 

Not Efficient At Rock Lake

 

8.5" Glow Demon/Minnow

6" Glow Demon/Minnow

4" Not Skunked

3:40-6:15PM Rock Lake 15' My Spot

30-36℉, PC, 0-4mph SW

3-4' visibility

I went to my spot and drilled 6 holes in a circle. I then put the camera down in the first hole and there were sunfish swimming around. I then drilled three more holes got the rods out and started fishing. I wish I would have hole-hopped with the Vex instead. I ended up just staying put. There were sunfish, perch, and at least one pike down there. Visibility wasn't great due to sediment in the water. I caught two sunnies and two crappies after I had pulled the camera up. I missed a bunch of opportunities because I wasn't patient. After dark when things slowed down I drilled two more holes at each of the other hole locations then scouted with the Vex and glow Cubby. Didn't mark a thing. I fished about a half hour longer in the Trap marking a couple of fish, probably sunnies. I really should have gone fishing yesterday, but I overslept in the afternoon. Not sure when I'll be able to get out again.

2Crip 

2Sun 

Saw:

1 or 2 Pike, some small perch, and mostly small sunfish but there were a couple nice ones that came through.

The Dog Again

 

5:00-7:00PM The Dog 8' 

30-33℉, Cloudy, 3-6mph SE

Not as many fish around as yesterday. Visibility was slightly better. Got that pesky weed out of the way with a jigging rap. Had a big bass come through. Saw one other little guy. Only caught one 9" pumpkinseed. I was a hot mess packing up and getting the car loaded. Two other guys arrived as I was unloading the car. They went to the Holy Family Hole. I almost bounced to go there at 6 PM when it wasn't happening but decided that would be too much work. I got the smallest minnows ever at Beat Trax.

1 Sun

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

Got Out On The Dog

 5:00-8:00PM 31' The Dog

24-26℉, Cloudy, 0-3mph SE

Getting the KIA loaded was PIA, but not in the back. There was one truck and three houses out fishing when I arrived.  Lake conditions kind of suck. Shoveled out a spot in the slush. Had fish down there most of the time, but they were small. Missed a few bites on the minnow and several on jigs. Disappoi ting to only catch nine fish. The water level rose as I wasn't reading bottom at 30'. Going ba k in the dark was even more difficult than going out. This was my last trip with the KIA, as dad traded it in for an Equinox.

9 Crips 

A Little Better, But Not by Much

First fish on the Demon

After the Pike swam out of view.

 5:00-7:30PM Bulldog about 25' to the SE of where I had been fishing. 28.5' of water 

14-19℉, PC, 3-15mph WSW

I was the only person on the lake tonight. Caught the first crappie right away about 15' down. He showed up from above. I adjusted the camera higher and watched a pike swim off. Got the second fish on a Rippin Rap. Had a few pods move through, but nothing stayed around for very long. Fish were on the small side tonight and most were caught 10-feet or under. I forgot the maggies and waxies, oops. It pretty much died by 7PM. The ice seems to be melting from below. Forgot to check thickness, but I am no longer almost bottoming the auger out.

4 Demon/Minnow

3 Rippin Rap

3 Cubby

3 THE Jig

1st Ice Trip 1st Fish of 21/22 Ice Fishing Season

10.5" VMC Fly//Wax (Pink)

 4:40-6:15PM Out Front 10' of water 5" of Ice 

32-37℉, PC, 0-6mph WNW

Bear Trax had minnows, so I stopped in to get bait. Tim told me the word was 5" in the bays on Platte. That meant I didn't have to waste time checking ice thickness before bringing my stuff down to the lake, saving me the time I needed because I got to the lake so late. I drilled three sets of holes about 75 yards out front. Marked something in the second set. I wasn't really prepared and missed a couple of bites. The crappie came through about 4' up, and I caught it. Skunk out of the Fish Trap. I put a minnow down. Had a couple possible bites on the minnow and had a couple more lookers on the VMC Fly and THE Jig. Not skunked on the 1st trip for the first time since 2017.

GOMH Morning, Beautiful Evening in the Trophy

 

Only 1Jump and 1 Orange in the morning. Missed a couple of bites.

Evening in the NW Corner whacking gills, pike, and bass. Lots of activity on the surface. This may have been the day of the terns, not sure. Ended up mapping Platte Lake until midnight.

Catching Another Bag Potato Chips To the North, No Dogs

Just Little Guys Again Tonight

1st Cast and Only Fish at the GOMH Tonight

 5:00-5:30PM GOMH NE 

6:00-8:30PM Double Cane to NW Juice

50-54℉, PC, 3-10mph NNE

I went to the GOMH first. A couple trucks were just leaving as I got there. I called mom for Mothers Day but mostly talked to Dad. I started on the NE side and got a jumper on the first cast with the Panfish Chatter. Didn't get another bite and left quickly after fishing both sides.

I headed North where in theory I should have been protected, but the wind was everywhere. I caught a bunch of small sunfish between Double Cane and Big Bass Point. No sign of dogfish, but there was plenty of pike. After sunset, I went to NW Juice and got a few more small sunnies, pike, and some bass. No dogfish here either.

I mapped from 8:45-10:15PM.

Catching Fish On the NW Juice Tonight

Caught a Full Bag Of Potato Chips

4.76lbs, not quite 19-inches

6:15-8:30PM NW Juice Platte Lake

40-53℉, PC, 0-5mph NW

I wasn't in a giant hurry to get out tonight because the wind was blowing 10-15mph out of the NW for most of the late afternoon. It finally started to settle down around 6PM when I headed out. I did some mapping on my way to the NW Juice. There was loon activity, baitfish activity, and fish activity. Between 6:30-8:00PM, it was pretty much bite after bite with small sunfish, pike, and bass. Whenever it slicked off I could see baitfish activity all around me on the surface. For whatever reason, the bite basically quit at 8PM. I went to mapping by 8:40 and did that until about 10:30 or so. The water level is really starting to get low. I missed the boat lane a bit to the left on my first try. I had to push it out and do it again.

Good Night Out Front In the Trophy

7.5" Pumpkinseed

7" Bluegill Out front

Hogtied

Loon checking things out

 4:30-5:00PM GOMH NE SE 

5:45-8:30PM Out front in the Trophy

8:40-10:30PM Mapping 

I decided to hit the GOMH first. One guy was there on the SW side. I got a 14-inch jumper on the NE side and missed a couple of bites. I then went down on the SE side. The guy got a jumper. I didn't get any bites and quickly left.

I noticed a sunfish skitter off as I was pulling out, so I shut it down and threw out a cast. The pike attacked the bobber and hogtied itself. Not even close to hooking it. I then started catching and seeing sunfish activity.  I caught a 14-inch bass and promptly got my line stuck in the stroller when I went to adjust the boat. It wasn't wrapped too bad, but I did need to pull the prop. I anchored and got that done. I then got a bunch of sunfish while anchored. Eventually, that settled down. I went to West point, but nothing was going on, so I started back to our place. Caught several fish out of the reed bed between us and Sherman's, then worked my way down to Jenny's reeds. Nothing was going on there except for a visit by a couple of loons. I decided to do so mapping and wound up doing that until after 10:30PM. Found something interesting in our bay and marked it.

I stopped at the GOMH. No one was there. I saw a couple bass on the Northside, possibly a small pike as well.

47 Sunnies

1 Jump

4 Bass

1 Pike 

GOMH, Lake Dock, Trophy SPRO to GOMH

9.5" THE Jig

17" THE Jig

17.75" The Jig

9" THE Jig

 Fished the GOMH in the morning only Jumpers there. 

Caught a pike out front fishing from shore.

Took an evening trip to the SPRO. Was windy started at the River Mouth when it got calmer toward sunset went to the sunfish spot and cleaned up on gills.

Steve and family got back from Florida today.

Morning Jumpers/With Lowell B. On Whitefish/Evening In the Trophy

Fishing with Lowell On Whitefish (Mille Lacs)

 

18.5" Swim Shad

18.5" Swim Shad

9" THE Jig/Wax worm

Morning GOMH/ Rock, Bulldog, GOMH in the Evening

18" THE Jig/Minnow (Glow/Pink)

23.5" Storm Swim Shad (Purple)

 5:45-7:15AM GOMH NE SW 

48℉, PC, Calm

Warm and calm morning. Thought I might get some silver. Nope just a few jumpers and a toothy. Beautiful moon when I arrived. Don't remember much about the trip as I am writing this almost a week later.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6" THE Jig/wax (Ch/Org)

Went fishing between 3:00 and 4:00 presumably at Rock Dock. Think I caught a pike, but didn't record it. Fished Rock, Bulldog, and GOMH in the evening. Got a couple sunfish at Bulldog and lost two or three fish while bringing them in. Didn't record a fish elsewhere so that is what I am going with. Think Lanter Man was at the GOMH, but not positive about that.