Cool Nights at the GOMH

Fishing Report Tues. 5-20-08 This morning I went to Reeds and ordered what will be my best swim jig rod. It is a Shimano Crucial CRC-X610MH which means it is 6'10" Medium Heavy with a extra fast taper at the tip. It is rated for lures 3/8-1/2oz, but my hope is that the extra fast taper will throw 1/4oz swim jigs without a problem. I do not know how much weight a 3",4", or 5" grub tail adds but I would imagine 4" and 5" grubs put the combo close to 3/8oz. I also bought some 30lb Power Pro, 8lb Trilene Florocarbon, Fishing Glue, watermelon jig skirt, and a #12 Purple Perch Husky Jerk. I spent part of the afternoon spooling line, switching reels onto rods, and putting Mend-It to Zoom Horny Toads most of which do not have 2 functional kicking legs.

I headed to the GOMH at about 6:15 and stopped at Bear Trax to get my last scoop of crappie minnows for the year. My "bait card" was full so the minnows were free. Now I am entered into a drawing to win free stuff. When I got to the GOMH around 6:35pm no one was there but Willard. I was kind of surprised because it was sunny and half way decent out at this point; It did get quite cool as the sun went down. I started on the NE side and immediately noticed pink stakes that were driven into the lake. Maybe the Platte/Sullivan channel bridge replacement is going to happen this year. I didn't catch anything on the NE side. I switched to the SE side and caught a few small jumpin bullheads. It was slow so I switched over to the SW side to the pallets and stayed over there the rest of the night. Action was slower than it's been and I did not catch a single toothy bullhead. The "foul mouthed dad" did almost catch one on a minnow. I ended up with 15 jumpin bullheads before I put the "lost jig" down. Most of the jumpers were small with the exception of a chunky 19.25". At 8:15 I switched to a glow Cubby and a minnow, but all I caught on that was two small orange bullheads. I don't think I even had a hit from a silver bullhead. The "foul mouthed dad" managed one nice silver. By 9:10 the current had stopped flowing into Sullivan and by 9:20 it was slowly moving into Platte. I called it a night around 9:35pm.

It's supposed to be quite a bit warmer tomorrow so hopefully that will bring the silvers in for one more go round.

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Fishing Report Mon. 5-19-08: I arrived at the GOMH at about a quarter to 7pm and it was cloudy cool/cold and windy out of the NE. I started fishing into the wind on the NE side and right away I got a nice toothy bullhead on the "lost jig." The fish bit on pretty much the exact place where I caught my first Pike yesterday and it was about the same size, so it could have been the same fish. Willard was more than willing to take it and so the days of that Pike attempting to steal lures is over. That was all the action I got on the NE side so I switched to the SE and SW shores where it was more wind protected. The wind really died down about 8pm and it even seemed to get a little warmer. On the south side I went through 33 jumpin bullheads before I landed another nice 23" toothy bullhead which Willard was glad to have. I caught 9 more jumpin bullheads before I tried for silver bullheads for about 10 minutes than called it a night around 9:30pm.

I caught most of the fish on the "lost jig", with about 10 jumpers coming on a white Booyah Spinnerbait, and maybe 2 jumpers coming on the white OutKast swim jig.

Cyberfish shows at the GOMH

Before I get into the report I had a surprise visit at the GOMH tonight when Mike "Cyberfish" "Shake" "MT Bucket" Thompson showed up in his little red car. Man was I surprised to see him. He was on his way back from his annual family outing at Woman Lake and decided to drop on by the "Grumpy Old Man Hole" to see what all the fuss is about.

Cyb arrived a little after 8:30 and decided to join me for a little bullhead or dogfish action on the pallets (SW side). He met GOM Willard and was talking smack about "sewer trout" and how great dogfish are because they are so much harder to catch than a bass. Cyb put on a Cabela's AquaGlow™ Hoochie Koochie Swim™ Shad on a plain jig head and was trying for toothy bullheads, doggies, and walters. He ended up catching quite a few of the famous GOMH jumpin bullheads and he missed quite a few strikes.
While we were fishing together I nailed the Toad in the pictures. Obviously a very ripe 19.5" jumpin bullhead. While we were fishing together I also missed either a nice toothy bullhead or a dogfish (I think it was a toothy) and also caught a few small jumpers. It got dark and Cyb and I called it quits. One downer was that Cyb and I had to listen to this foul mouthed and bigoted dad who was fishing with his son, that baitcaster kid, and making an ass of himself while catching some nice silver bullheads.

As for how the night progressed, I decided I liked fishing the GOMH in my waders and decided to give that another go. When I put the waders on I noticed that the feet were wet from before and there were a couple of obvious cracks in both of the boots. Before heading out I put a new skirt on the "lost jig". I left around 6:40 and when I arrived there was a group of young adults fishing the SE, SW, and NE sides, but by the time I got geared up the NE side was open so I headed down there with a white Booyah Spinnerbait. I had zero luck on the spinnerbait and went up and switched to the "lost jig." I missed a couple of bites, then I tied into a solid 23" toothy bullhead. Willard was no where to be found and another guy there fishing didn't want it, so back it went. I think I might have then caught a couple of small jumpers than I switched to the SE side. While fishing the SE side I got hung up on a limb of the Beaver Dam and things were not looking good for the "lost jig". GOM Bud suggested I walk up on the road and try and get it from the other side. That did not work but I could see the jig was on a single branch up off the water. I played around with it and by some stroke of luck, the jig popped loose and the "lost jig" was not lost again. I got some jumpers on the SE side. Bud commented that I better not have the lost jig on if CO Kuske shows up, but Willard set him straight that the "lost jig" is an effective pike lure. Things slowed down so I went back to the truck and got out a white Outkast swim jig with white grub. I started out on the NE side, and missed a couple of hits than nothing. I went to the SE side and got one jumper. I moved to the SW side and started getting jumpers with a slower retrieve and I was also missing quite a few hits. I had the grub tail completely stolen once. While I was fishing the white jig, the foul mouthed dad and his son "the baitcaster kid" showed up. The Dad started fishing behind me in the bullhead sweet spot and he started getting into the silver and jumpin bullheads right away. The white jig dropped off and so I went to get the "lost jig" again. I hit the NE then the SW side on the pallets getting a few jumpers. I missed a toothy that struck right up close and shortly after that is when Cyberfish showed up.

So on the day 1 Toothy (a couple of missed toothy's) and 19 jumpin bullheads. The foul mouthed dad had 10 nice silver bullheads when we left. Lantern Man was just getting there as me and Cyb left.

Good Times at the GOMH

I did not get out tonight until about 7PM. The day was very windy and there were showers on and off. When I got to the Grumpy Old Man Hole it was threatening rain and nobody else was fishing, Willard was there sitting in his car. I got my silver bullhead stuff set up on the SW side and went to casting with the "lost" Monsoor Swim Jig. For the next hour and 15 minutes I switched off between the SW, SE, and NE sides. It seemed like I would get 2 or 3 then I would have to switch spots. I ended up with 16 jumpin bullheads, mostly small, and 1 toothy bullhead which I gave to a old guy who was visiting with Willard. I went through about 4 grubs and I think there are 3 strands left on the swim jig skirt. I almost lost the "lost" jig again when it got hung up in the cattails. Fortunatly, there were knee high rubber boots in the truck and the jig was stuck close enough that the boots were all I needed.

At about 8:20PM, I switched to silver bullhead fishing with the glow cubby and a minnow. I was down to my last 7 minnows. Some of the Johnsons showed up at this point, Lantern Man came a bit later. No sooner had my bobber hit the water and it went down. It ended up being a small toothy bullhead which I also gave to the friend of Willard. That guy ended up with a limit of Pike when one of the Johnson's caught a nice toother on a spinnerbait. I ended up getting 1 small silver, 1 small orange and missing two silvers and a couple of other bites. I went through all my minnows. It was getting cold in that wind and so I gave up about 9:30pm.

GOMH Fri 5-16-08

I got my lost swim jig back!!! I wore my chest waders to the GOMH and waded a little ways into the cattails and there it was, so I grabbed it. I was one happy camper in the smoke from the burning cattails from the NW side of the GOMH. I have no clue what the point of them burning that stuff out is; They burned it last year too. Lantern Man and his girl were fishing the SW side, they offered for me to join them there but I wanted to fish the swim jig on the SE and NE sides. It was maybe a little after 7pm at this point.

I got the swim jig tied on and went about casting on the NE side but didn't have a luck. It turned out a teenager was fishing one of his departed grandfathers lures and got it stuck in the Cattails. I didn't think I would be able to get it because it was out at the edge, but it turned out to be a hard bottom and I was able to retrieve it. It was some type of jointed lure with a propeller in the middle. The kid was quite greatful. At that point I started fishing the SW side and I got a solid jumpin bullhead right away. I then pulled a 19+" jumpin bullhead and thanks to having my waders on was easy to land. Soon after that I hooked up on what I thought was another toad, but it turned out to only be 17.5".

The rest of the night I switched off between the SE and NE side catching 11 jumpin bullheads and 5 toothy bullheads on the "lost" grn/brn/chart Tom Monsoor swim jig. I got GOM Willard his limit of pike and he was happy about that. One of the teenagers fishing there tonight was the same noisy kid from a couple of days ago. He was using a Daiwa Procaster baitcast reel that he had bought and was quite proud about it. Just like the other day he complemented me on my Team Daiwa reel. He was fishing a white single colorado spinnerbait and I think he caught 4 pike and 12 or 13 bass.

At one point I helped LM by wading out to get a small toothy bullhead that had swam into the Cattails. The waders definitely came in handy. LM and his girl caught a few silver bullheads but they were mostly to small to keep.

GOMH Thurs 5-15-08

You've got mail. Today I got a Team Daiwa X-100HVA, Shimano Symetre 2500, and 6 Strike King Spinnerbaits that I won on Ebay. I spent part of the afternoon putting line on reels and matching reels to rods. It sprinkled a little while I was messin with the reels, but the sky's looked much worse than the precipitation we actually got. At about 6:30pm I headed to the GOMH. It was mostly cloudy but clearing to the west, but it also looked to be threating to rain. Nobody was at the GOMH but two boats were on the Sullivan Side.

I started out by testing the Team Daiwa X-100 with an all white Booyah spinnerbait. It did not take long and I hooked up with a nice jumpin bullhead. After about another 10 minutes I hooked up with a fiesty 24" toothy bullhead. I think I caught 1 more nice jumper on the spinnerbait. I tried the spinnerbait on the NE side but didn't have any luck. I switched to the green/brown/Chart Swim Jig with green grub and I started catching little jumpers. After the action slowed, I went to the NE side and caught some jumpin bullheads and missed a few strikes. Willard showed up as I was switching to the NE side. He said he tried for toothy bullheads earlier in the day but didn't catch a thing.

Around 8PM I switched back to the SW side and got a jumper on the swim jig, then I switched up to the glow Cubby and a minnow. I quickly had a toother bite me off and I switched to an orange Flu Flu. After about 5 minutes I got a bite from that lure stealing toothy bullhead. I got my Cubby back and gave the fish to Willard. I then proceeded to catch jumpin bullheads numbers 14 and 15 on the Cubby and a minnow. I switched to the swim jig and caught two more jumpers and then I ended up breaking off the jig in the Cattails. I went back to the glow Cubby and a minnow and caught two silvers for Willard. He joined me for a while fishing with waxies, but he didn't get anything and I missed a good bite. Eventually Willard went back to the car and it got dark and I didn't catch any more fish, no bites even. At about 9:35 I packed up and left.

GOMH with Dad Wed 5-14-08

Today was mild and sunny and Dad decided that he wanted to come along fishing at the GOMH due to my success last night. We didn't get out tell about 6:30 and when we arrived there were quite a few people fishing. Lee Ander was there with his brother Harvey, along with Willard who wasn't fishing. An older couple took up the SE side and a family had the NW and NE side covered. Dad and I started out by kibbitzing and waiting to see who was going to leave. The family on the N side moved down the shoreline to the East openning up the whole N side. I ended up fishing the N side twice with different color swim jigs and didn't get a hit. The family down the shoreline did get a few small orange bullheads in the weeds.

Lee Ander had one orange bullhead and his brother hadn't gotten anything. The old couple on the SE side caught one silver bullhead. Apparently the jumpin bullheads had vacated the current because I could not get any either. I got into some jumpin bullheads when I casted West into the weeds from down on the shore on the SW side with the brown/chart/white spinnerbait. I backlashed and sent the spinnerbait to the depths when my line broke again at the knot. That is it for the line on that reel. I thought it was 30lb Power Pro but whatever it is it needs replaced. I caught a few more small jumpin bullheads on a all white swim jig. Once again no pike or dogfish.

At about 8pm I got out the Cubby rod and moved in right below Lee Ander. My first two fish were jumpin bullheads. At about 8:50 Lee Ander and his brother packed up and left and I waved for Dad to come and join me from the car. We fished until it was fairly dark. Dad caught a small silver bullhead, and I caught 4 silver bullheads (3 small 1 keeper) and right at the end I nailed a big orange bullhead that I kept for the widow Jenny Olson. It turned out Lantern Man's, from last night, dad was fishing the SE side and he caught three decent silvers which he gave to me. Making my take home tally at 4 silvers and 1 orange bullhead. I caught 9 incidental jumpin bullheads.

I wonder if Bassfishingdem is jealous of the shore fishing that I have a the GOMH?

After I got done cleaning the fish tonight, I fryed some up.

YUM YUM!!!

GOMH again. Tuesday 5-13-07

Today was cool (mid to low 50's) and cloudy with a bit of wind out of the West. I hit the GOMH today about 4:30 PM and things proved to be much slower than yesterday. I lost a white Booyah Spinerbait when I backlashed and the line broke at the knot; Man did that lure sail. Today I got out my rattlebait box but did not have a whole lot of success with them. Jumpin bullheads took the rattlebaits on a straight retrieve rather than a ripping retieve. Lures I used today that were productive were rattlebaits, white spinnerbait, brown/char/white spinnerbait, green/brown/chart swim jig with green grub, #8 White X-Rap, #10 Orange/Chart X-Rap. I caught 27 or so jumpin bullheads but not a single pike or dogfish. I fished on both the SW and NE sides. I did get a 19.25 jumpin bullhead on the b/c/w spinnerbait.

At about 8pm I switched up to a glow Cubby and minnow in the bullhead sweet spot and caught a jumpin bullhead right away. It was then a half an hour before I landed my first silver. The silver bite was slow but steady. Lantern Man was fishing on the pallets and it seemed like we would get bit almost simaltaneously and then there would be 10 minutes of nothing before we would both get bit again. I ended up taking home 7 silver bullheads to clean and I think I threw 1 small one back and LM had pretty much the same when I left.

I got two Ebay reels in the mail today (Shimano Symetre & Team Daiwa X-103HVA) which was nice. I did some work puting line on the TD X-103PI and put it on the 5'8" St. Croix Pro Glass and I put the TD X-103 on a BPS Crankin Stick with a white Booyah Spinnerbait. I also elected to put a scruffy looking Ebay won TD-S-103HVA on my -7' BPS Extreme rod to see if this might make a good swim jig set up. I headed to the GOMH at 6:30 to put the new gear through it's paces. The jumpers and toothy bullheads were more than willing to test my new equipment. I fished both the SW side and the NE side. I caught the pike in the picture, close to 30 inches and thick, on a green/brown/Chart Monsoor Swim Jig with green grub on the NE (Platte) side. I got another 21" Pike on the NE side on the very next cast, unfortunately this pike ripped up that grub, which was the only one with me and so my hot pike bait went belly up. I had missed a pike on the SW side earlier on the swim jig. The Booyah spinnerbait produced jumping bullheads on the NE and SW sides. I also caught quite a few jumpers on a #8 white X-Rap and #10 Orange/Chart X-Rap.

After 8pm I tried for some silver bullheads. I had a couple of bites on the SE side but didn't connect except with Pike #3 about 20". I went back to the SW side as it was getting dark but there was a guy taking up the bullhead sweet spot. The wind was blowing really bad making it so you could only bobber fish in a small area. The wind was cold and the action was slow so I gave up before it got to dark.

I ended up with 34jumpers, 3 Toothy, 0 silvers and 0 dogfish.

GOMH for 2.5 Hours

Dad and I headed to the GOMH at about 6:30pm and since it was such a nice night, sunny 55 degrees, I was not surprised to see all four corner of the GOMH covered up. Dad and I got out of the car and hung out for a bit. Willard was there of course along with a family with 2 or 3 kids and a group of 3 guys and 2 girls, but only 1 person in this group was fishing when we got there. After a short time the SE side opened up and I went to casting a spinnerbait. I didn't get anything on about a dozen casts, so back to the truck, I went to get the X-Raps. I put on the #8 White X-Rap and quickly caught a 14inch jumpin bullhead, but that was all I got on the various X-Raps I tried. I then went and got the Cubby Rod and minnows. My first fish was a solid silver bullhead. I then caught another nice Silver and it was shaping up to be a good night. Pallet Man showed up and started fishing from the pallets along with Waterboy. The people on the SW side were starting to catch silvers but many of them were small. Dad was content to stay on the bridge and watch.

My bobber went down and I missed a small toothy bullhead. Then I hooked into a jumper who swam straight for the weeds. Willard suggested I move to the SW side of the bridge because that would give me a better angle for pulling the fish free of or through the weeds. That worked and I didn't have to break my line, but the hook broke when I took it out of the bullheads mouth. I am now down to my last glow Cubby Jig; I think I had seven, to begin with. I then caught a 19" toother and then a couple of small silvers. I got one more Silver than missed 3-4 fish. It was getting to the point where I needed to light the bobber up or go home. I chose to go home. The people on the SW side did have a fair amount of action but lots of small ones. I gave my 3 silvers away.

Dad had a good time jawing with people including GOM Bud and Willard.

The CO Kuske also came by for a bit. He looked into pails and chatted. He didn't check for licenses this time either.

Minnesocold Fishing Opener 2008

No wind No Good

I arrived at the Eddy's Jetty at 5 to midnight and much to my dismay I found a flat lake. There were quite a few people fishing off the Jetty. I got my stuff together and headed to the South Jetty which was open. At midnight I threw my first cast and promptly donated the Rapala Husky Jerk Purple Perch that I had so much success on last year to Mille Lacs Lake. I did not have the reel adjusted properly and when it backlashed the line cut at the spool and sent the Husky Jerk hurling into the darkness. I don't care much for the precedent this set with that Crystal Fireline I put on last fall. At about 2 minutes after midnight while I was trying to pick out the backlash someone sent up two volley's of fireworks that ended with loud booms. My guess is that in the calm conditions it probably could be heard over the whole southern end of the lake.

I got the backlash picked out tied on a Glass Perch Husky Jerk 12 adjusted the reel and threw out my 2nd cast, no lost lure this time. After several casts I got a feel for the area and I was hitting rocks almost right away. That is not a good sign if you want to keep your Rapala's. I probably would have headed to the North Jetty but a couple of guys were fishing that corner, so I elected to go to plan B.

I went back to the truck and retieved my bobber set up and minnows. I got the first cast out just fine but on the next 3 or 4 casts I ripped the minnow off the hook. I did finally get my casting down. Even though there was no wind to speak of and the lake was glass, the bobber always slowly made it's way toward the Jetty. I really didn't need to have my bobber lighted as the light from Eddy's Marina was plenty good to illuminate my big bobber. At one point a guy fishing the Center Jetty saw 3 walleyes swimming along. More excitement was a 3.5 foot muskie cruising along in the shallows next to the Jetty. I did not catch a fish, nor did I see a single fish caught. No wind No Good. I quit around 2AM.

Maybe the daylight will bring better fortunes.

After Skunk: After dealing with the Patti meets skunk fiasco at 3AM, I was still up at 6am, so I decided to hit the GOMH. The intended target was toothy bullheads and Dogfish on a double colorado chart/white/brown spinnerbait. From shore you take what the lake will give you and all I could catch was jumpin bullheads, practically one on every cast. The biggest was 18.75" followed by a 18.5" with numerous 14"-16" and a couple of 17"'s. All told I landed 33 in the two hours I fished on the spinnerbait, a glow Cubby and minnow, and a #8 White X-Rap. There were two other guys fishing and they probably landed a dozen jumpers in the time I was there. I can only hope bass opener is so kind. I also caught 3 silver bullheads on the glow Cubby.

Night Shift: The rain moved in during the day and it wasn't much warmer than 50 but I decided to head out about quarter to 7pm. I started with the spinnerbait and caught a few jumpin bullheads, I switched up to a #10 Chart/Orange X-Rap and promptly caught my first toothy bullhead of the open season. I threw this 22inch hammer handle back. Eventually I tried a glow Cubby and minnow and caught a couple of jumpers along with 2 silvers. All told I got 8jumpers, 1 Toothy, and 2 silver bullheads. Willard was spectating from the warmth of his car. As it got dark the silvers just were not happening so I made the decision to try Mille Lacs.

Eddy's Shift 2: It was cold wet and windy when I arrived at about 9:30PM. One of the Launches had just come in, no fish that I saw. I headed to the South Jetty because I thought the wind was out of the NE and that makes the South Jetti the best place to cast from. I wasn't able to angle into the lake like I wanted but I could throw a good cast angled towards shore. I gave a Firetiger Husky Jerk about a dozen casts then decided my luck might be better off the North Jetty corner because the wind seemed like I might be able to cast. When I got to the North Jetty I found out I was wrong. If I didn't backlash, the wind blew my Husky Jerk back without any kind of distance on the cast. After a few attempts I had seen enough and called it a night. 3 more launches came in and I saw a grand total of 1 fish and I also talked to a couple of guys who came in on a boat and they didn't get anything.

So I didn't catch any walleyes this opener, but at least I had some action.

Opener Eve at the GOMH

Fishing Report: Before heading to the GOMH I went to Rock Lake to make sure my Husky Jerks were tuned in and didn't sink. There were less sinkers then I thought but at least half the lures needed to be tuned. No wonder I caught nothing on most of them last fall. At about 5:30PM I was done and headed to Bear Trax for some minnows. The lady who did the minnows took my minnow scooper out and forgot to put it back, agggggh. I then headed to the GOMH.

When I arrived there were 3 guys fishing the SE side and 3 guys fishing the SW side, but no one was standing in the upper area of the SW side so I set up camp. Almost right away I hooked into a nice silver but lost it as I tried to pull it up to me. That set the tone for the way things went. I missed a bunch of bites, had fish come off, and lots of times the bobber would go under for a second but would come right back up. There were a number of boats fishing the Sullivan side GOMH bay. I could see them catching bass, crappies, and sunfish. Fishing on shore at the GOMH was mostly slow with a flew flurries of jumpin bullheads.

As it was a ways into primetime and I wasn't getting hit Willard suggested that I switch up my jig. I did that and caught a keeper silver and two little bullheads then a jumper, but then the action died. I found out that Grumpy Old Man #4's name is Bud. At some point Jenny Olson's niece Pam showed up and she and this guy started fishing from the bridge. The guy got a silver, then Pam had a nice one on that she lost when she tried to pull it up and then she had a jumper get her caught in the weeds on the SE side and it ended up with a broken line.

The fish just never went for me. A guy and his son were fishing off the pallets and they ended up with about a dozen or more silvers and one orange. The Dad also caught 2 Dogfish or maybe the same Dogfish twice. As it started getting pretty dark I got fed up and left. I got 5-8 jumpin bullheads and 4 small silver bullheads. My next cast will be at midnight with a purple perch Husky Jerk 12

GOMH 5-8-2008

Due to a couple of Ebay auctions which I won (2 more reels:Team Daiwa X-103 and Shimano Symetre) I did not get out to the GOMH until about 7:30. Willard was there when I got there along with a guy, a lady, and two kids (a girl about 6 and a boy about 13). They were fishing the SW side but the upper area was clear so I headed there. I got silver bullheads on my first 4 casts with a orange jig and glow twister tail. I gave all the fish to the family. The little girl was so cute about wondering why I didn't want to keep the fish and so thankful that she was going to get to eat them. The little girl was catching an occasional silver and more than the rest of the family. With the action starting out so hot Willard was mad that he didn't bring a bucket so he could get some too. After catching about 8 crappies the jig hook broke when I tied into a jumpin bullhead (it was nice but not that big a fish). I could not duplicate the jig because of the twister tails and stopped catching silvers.

I switched up to the glow Cubby under a bobber and started getting more silvers and jumpers. The family left a little after 8PM and I had given them about 10 fish. As it started to get dark the action was consistant but I was catching quite a few small fish and I missed quite a few. I caught my first orange bullhead of the season and it was a keeper. I half wonder if some of those misses weren't orange bullheads messin with me. I fished to about 10PM with 6 silvers and 1 orange kept. All told I caught at least 18 silvers on the night and 8 jumpers, so it was a productive 2.5 hours.

GOMH 5-7-2008

Although you really can't see him, behind Lee Ander is Lewis aka Grumpy Old Man #3.


The day started out with a trip into Onamia to check out the new Reeds Sporting Goods store. They did not have the Shimano Crucial rod I wanted, but I did pick up a Pokegama map, X-Rap, and sinkers.

I headed to the GOMH about 5PM and when I got there both Willard and Lewis were in their trucks watching the day go by. I started out by putting a couple of reels I won on Ebay through some paces (Team Daiwa X-103HVA & Team Daiwa S-103HVA). I was satisfied they worked as advertised after getting a few bullheads on each. I then started fishing with a small jig and glow twister tail and caught a couple of more bullheads. I had something stike and and peel some drag then get into the weeds and get off. Could have been a dogfish, jumpin bullhead, toothy bullhead, or even a carp, I didn't get to see it. After a while I switched to the glow Cubby under a bobber with a minnow and things got slow. I did catch the occasional bullhead including one TOAD. I got the TOAD up to shore but still in the water and started fiddling with the camera because I wanted a pic. The Toad eventually started flopping and went right into a clump of weeds and got hung up. As I tried to free him my line broke and the fish ended up swimming away with my glow Cubby in full view. I was not happy.

Action was slow but steady on jumpers until a little after 8PM when "Pallet Man" scored the first silver. It took quite a while before I scored my first. I ended up catching 10 silver bullheads but 5 of them were not all that big. I kept 7. Pallet Man and Waterboy caught just short of two limits before we all left just short of 10PM. In total I got 10 silvers, 13 jumpers, and 1 toothy bullhead.

Also a rare appearance was made by Mr. Foulmouth Grumpy Old Man #4. He and Willard shot the breeze for a little while. The GOM were high entertainment as usual.

Grumpy Old Men

Lee Ander takes some casts...

Willard does not want to be photographed...

5-6-2008- I headed to the GOMH around 5PM and when I arrived there was a truck with a guy in it sitting on the SW side shoulder. I parked on the NE side and got my gear together and headed over to the SW side. Lo and Behold the guy in the truck was Lee Ander aka Grumpy Old Man #2. Before I started fishing I filled him in on the details of how the fishing has been. He told me that he just had eye surgery and how he had flu and pneumonia earlier this Spring and was in the hospital for a few days. After catching up I started to fish while Lee Ander stayed in the truck. I was throwing a small jig and twister tail and eventually hooked into a small jumpin bullhead. With that Lee Ander got out of the truck and came out to fish. He didn't have minnows and didn't try any when I offered him mine.
I started fishing with a glow Cubby and a Minnow and started catching a few jumpin bullheads including a 19.75". The action was slow but steady. A number of vehicles stopped and left and then it happened; Willard, aka Grumpy Old Man #1, made his first appearance of the year. Willard didn't come to fish but to fling the BS. Willard was his usual comical self and he actually bore some good info regarding the planned rebuilding of the GOMH bridge. At one point a Conservation Officer Kuske stopped by and chatted with Willard and he had info about the planned rebuilding as well.

One of the guys who fished last night showed up with a teenager and started fishing. I caught a few small jumpers and he wasn't getting anything. Sometime after 8PM I got my first silver bullhead of the night and it was a keeper. I put it in the bucket and it proceeded to bleed out for some reason. I caught 2 more silvers before the other guy caught his first. We then had slow but steady action until I left around 9:45PM. I ended up with 6 keepers and no dinks. The other guy and the teen had 5 keepers and 3 lost fish when I left. I didn't get any fish when I went to the lighted bobber.

GOMH 5-4&5-08

5/4:After winning a Team Daiwa S-103HVA on Ebay for a very good price. I headed out to fish a little after 7PM. While putting on the black fleese pull over I set my maggies on the hood of the car and forgot that I did it. Bye Bye maggies, hope the Gulp maggies work as well.

When I arrived at the GOMH there was a truck, but it wasn't a Grumpy Old Man truck. There was 1 guy fishing the NW side and one guy fishing the SW side. I took up the SE side. Current was moving into Sullivan at a pretty good clip with a fairly strong South wind blowing in. The guy on the SW side said he had caught some "bass". He was a jig and a minnow. I tried a jig and a minnow for a while then went to a twister tail jig fished without a bobber. I got 2 jumpin bullheads on the twister tail. After the guy at the SW side caught a nice bullhead, I switched back to the jig and a minnow and caught a jumpin bullhead. At some point the guy from the NW side joined his buddy on the SW side. He had not caught a thing fishing the NW side. The wind started to die down and one guy than the other gave up around 8:30. I headed over to the SW side but did not get any action until well after dark when I caught 1 little silver bullhead. Eventually I had enough and pulled out around 9:40PM.

I am quite concerned that there were no Grumpy Old Men around on such a nice night.

5/5: Got out around a quarter to 6PM. There were some teens fishing off the North side of the bridge. I started off on the SE side then moved to the SW side. For the night I caught 15 jumpin bullheads and 8 silver bullheads 4 of which were small 8 inchers. The first silver was about 11" and it just inhaled the Cubby and minnow. I was visited by a guy who caught around 4 bass on a jig and minnow and also by a lady and a guy; the lady ended up casting over the powerlines and then the guy brought out a baitcaster with a spinnerbait and proceeded to nail about 6 jumpers. The silver bullheads bit from about 7:20 till after dark. I threw all the bullheads back. It is supposed to be quite warm again tomorrow so maybe things will break wide open tommorrow night.

Rush Lake Fransen Park 5-4-08 & ML

After the Spring Outing GEM Director Dave Lindmark, Cyberfish, and I headed down to Fransen Park at West Rush Lake to do a little shore fishing. We arrived about 10:30 and by then the place was hopping. We elected to fish the little cut that opens into the main lake. Dave started out catching little crappies right away and once Mike got his gear together he did too. I was getting bites on a white Cubby but was having a hard time hooking anything. I finally got on the board with a half way descent sunfish. I did start catching fish but Mike and Dave schooled me. Eventually this kid started fishing in between me and Mike and I decided I would try the main North Bay. I almost took Lindmark's jacket and keys with me. Mike and Dave left shortly after I went exploring. On the main bay I got 1 good bite from what felt like a very solid fish, but it came off half way in. I did not get another bite. I fished the main bay about 45 minutes and decided to call it a day. Fransen Park was a zoo by now on such a nice Sunday.

On my way back home I did some exploring on Mille Lacs. No one was fishing at McQuoids or the "Dogfish Nirvana" State Park fishing Pier. Some people were shore fishing in the RV parks channels, but I did not stay long enough to watch. I then headed to Izaty's channel. There were several people fishing off the docks and 1 boat out. I think I saw two little fish get caught for about 1/2hour of watching. I headed up the West side and the lake appeared to be mostly open with a few small areas where there was some sheet ice. There were a few significant sized ice piles including one super tall one about 300yards south of Eddy's. Much to my relief the Eddy's Jetty did not have a pile up of ice. It appeared that the North side of the Jetti had been worked on this winter. It looked like some of the larger boulders had been removed from the lake face and that the whole thing had added mid-sized rocks put in. Apparentlty the water level is up about 8 inches from last Spring and a foot or more from it's low point last fall.

Fishers of Men Spring Outing-Big Sandy

Things went about as expected. On Friday it was cold and it rained so water temps could not go up. On Saturday it was windy, but sunny. I fished with John Cummins and Gordy. We braved the waves and headed to the Islands in the middle of the lake. We found a great looking protected bay, but there were not any fish in it yet. The warmest water we found was 42 degrees, the main lake was 38. We headed back for lunch and I got drenched. I wore my rain bib but did not have my rain jacket with. When we got back to camp, the dock had been pulled half way up on shore and so John had to beach the boat. The wind was blowing in at this shoreline so waves were coming over the back of the boat. John has a bilge, but still it made a royal mess.

At lunch we learned from Marshall and Jeff Dad that there was a lagoon on the camp property. We elected not to go back out and try the lagoon. I ended up losing a glow Cubby in a tree on my first cast. After a little shore fishing, John Cummins was able to get a plank so we could get onto the two long floating docks. Several of us fished off these docks but caught nothing. As the afternoon wore on, Gary Ellis and Bobber showed up fishless, and Lindmark and Cyberfish had caught 1 perch and missed a small pike; these were the only one's with any fish. Later on Lowell and Art showed up and that was the last of the fishing. No one fished Big Sandy on Sunday even though it was a nice day.

The GOMH 4-30-08

Can you tell what kind of fish this is?

It was this jumpin bullhead.

A hard fought hammer handle bullhead

Got a little bullhead.

I doubled my best silver bullhead haul of the year


Got to the GOMH about a quarter after 7PM. No Grumpy Old Men, I am starting to be concerned. The wind was whipping out of the NE and water was flowing into Platte at a slow but steady rate. The wind really blew my bobber around, so I could only keep it in a limited amount of the bullhead sweet spot. It did not take long and I had my first taker, a jumpin bullhead (pictures 1&2).

After a while of getting my bobber blown around I decided to try the SE side. After a little bit of effort my bobber went under and the fight was on. A small toothy bullhead ran himself straight into the shoreline bullrushes. I got him up but he was really hauling the weeds and I was not sure if I would be able to pull it out with the 8lb Fireline or not. While I was slowly trying to pull him in, the fish started squirming around and a good chunk of the weeds that were holding him back fell off. I was then able to pull him in, Cubby saved!!!

I tried the SE side for about 15minutes then went back to the SW side. As it was starting to get dark the bobber went under and I fought a 15.5" jumpin bullhead. Then I caught a 13" jumpin bullhead. And a little while later I had another decent but not huge jumpin bullhead pulling on my line. I fought him for a little bit and then my hook came out when he was at the surface. Little Bass Lake Rules, it counted as a catch.

It was getting so dark I could hardly see my bobber when the first silver bullhead struck. It was a small one about 8inches. About 10 minutes later I nabbed another bullhead, this one was about 9.75inches. I didn't fish to much longer as that it had gotten quite dark.

Rock and GOMH 4/29/08

Boat in the water, motor started right up. I got up to 19.8MPH on the GPS which is about right.

Fishing Report: After I got the boat broke in I did some fishing for a few hours at Rock Lake. I caught a pike and two 14" bass. I did try for panfish a little bit without even getting a hit, but my main quarry was dogfish and I didn't get any of those. I fished the whole Rock Platte River Outlet(RPRO) which is a text book shallow dark bottomed bay on the NW side of the lake. I found water temps as warm as 47 but there was zero activity in the bay, I didn't see a single fish. At about 7PM I pulled out and headed to the GOMH.

GOMH Report: No Grumpy Old Men, I was the only one there. The water was flowing steadily into Sullivan. I didn't get any action until it was getting fairly dark. I was in the bullhead sweet spot and the bobber went down and it was no small bullhead. Unfortunatly this bullhead decided to go into the shoreline weeds a couple of times. Eventually it did swim out but then my hook came out. About 15 minutes later my bobber jumped then went under slowly and I landed a nice 10" silver bullhead. Unfortunatly that was the extent of the action. I stayed a while after dark and tried with a lighted bobber and glow Demon, nothing. Both fish bit on a glow Cubby and Crappie Minnow.

At least I caught something.

Fishing Report 4-28-08: Since the ice went off 5 days ago the weather has been cold the last 3 days. Today it only got into the low 40's and by the time I quit fishing I had problems with my guides icing up.

My fishing trip started out with a visit to Bear Trax to get my 2008 fishing licence and some minnows. On the fishing licence in big letters it says Expires: February 28,2009. This part of the licence is incorrect. A little lower on the licence in much smaller print it indicates the licence is good from 3-1-2008 through 4-30-2009 which is the correct information.

I like the fact that Minnesocold went to a 14 month licence that expires at the end of April instead of at the end of February. I had always thought it stupid that you had to buy a new licence before the ice fishing season is finished. The DNR would pinch people who would simply forget. The way they have it now makes much more sense because by the end of April ice fishing is done and May is the month of the "Fishing Opener."

Anyway headed to Rock first and the ramp was fixed and the dock was out. Unfortunately no fish were around. I tried for probably an hour and a half. I left for the GOMH with about 30 minutes to sunset. As I arrived a truck with a guy and 2 teenagers was leaving so I don't know how they did, but my guess is they got nothing to be leaving before the prime time bite really begins.

I got set up on the SW side of the GOMH and started fishing with a glow Cubby and a minnow. The water was at least a inch higher than yesterday and the water was slowly flowing into Platte. After about 20 minutes with no action I occupied my time by casting an X-rap to catch some floating weeds that could easily end up being a nuisance. After clearing those weeds to my satisfaction I went back to the Cubby and in short order when I got into the bullhead sweet spot my bobber jumped and quickly went under. I had hooked into a 2lb toothy bullhead. 3 Fish so far at the GOMH this Spring and 3 different species. I went through a long lull, during which time a pesky Beaver who is building a house 30 yards East of the bridge was swimming around and being annoying. During this time the water switched directions and started running slowly into Platte.

As it was getting quite dark my bobber went down and I landed a 16.25" jumpin' bullhead. A short time after that I land a small 1lb toothy bullhead that stole my glow Cubby body. Both of these bullheads also came out of the bullhead sweet spot. I tried for about 15 more minutes without a hit and left.

Double Whammy 4-27-08

Fishing Report: I got my first "silver bullhead" of the year at the GOMH. The water was flowing in the right direction but not exceedingly fast. I also caught two 17.5" bass at Rock Lake. No Grumpy Old Man sightings.

The water level in Platte/Sullivan rose another 2 to 3 inches with the snow storm we had on Saturday.

Rock On!

Fishing Report: Despite the nasty weather (cold and wet) I decided to go out fishing to see if just maybe I could catch anything. I started at the Rock Lake Public Access. The ice was off the lake but the dock was not in the water. Last year the dock went in the same day the ice went out.

Sure enough I was able to luck into 3 Larry bass (17",14",14"). No crappies, sunnies, dogfish, or pike.

As it started getting dark I headed to the GOMH in the off chance that maybe the crappies moved in in this awful weather. The water was flowing into Platte lake despite the fact of high water and a slight wind out of the North, What is with that? I don't think I have ever caught a fish at the GOMH when the water was flowing into Platte. You need the water to be flowing the other way, the swifter the better. I didn't give it long and left.

Skunk the GOMH

Fishing Report: I headed to check the lakes and go fish the GOMH around 7PM. It had stopped sprinkling by the time I started fishing and it must have been over 60 degrees. I tried the Pink Panzer and White Panzer without success. I tried a glow Cubby Mini-Mite with a pink gulp maggot and did not get any bites. I did take some time out from fishing to "clear some brush" from the lake shore so that more area of the shore was fishable. Despite knocking down most of the tall weeds, there are significant sized weed mats in the water lining the shore which will make landing fish, especially bigger one's, difficult. I made the SE shore much more fishable than it has been in the past couple of years. When it got to dark to see my bobber I left.

Cranker In 2008

BAM- Due to a late-day trip to Brainerd (see "Bummer"), I did not get out fishing at the GOMH until slightly after 8PM. I believe the sun had set by then, and it was just starting to get dark when I arrived. The current was running into Sullivan at a good clip. There was open water as far as the eye could see on the Platte Lake side. At first, I ran the Pink Panther and got nothing. I then switched to a glow Cubby Mini-Mite under a small Wing-It Bobber. The bobber is small and kind of hard to see. I may decide to upgrade the bobber size at some point. I was giving it the old "Thompson Shake" on the second or third cast, and I thought I saw the bobber go under, so I set the hook, but nothing was there. I fished the glow Cubby for probably another 15 minutes without any action. Then one time, when I was bringing it through the bullhead sweet spot, the bobber went down, and I hooked into a hawg. It started pulling drag, and I knew it was no silver bullhead. It didn't take long before it showed itself to be a famous GOMH "Jumpin' Bullhead." It put up a solid fight and even swam under the bridge for a time. Once it got back on the Sullivan side, I was able to keep it out of the shoreline cattails and land it. It was between 18.5 and 19.25 inches and fat; I'll call it a 19". I unhooked the Cubby, which was firmly stuck in the upper lip, and released her ASAP. Unfortunately, no camera for pic's again tonight. I tried the Cubby again for a while, then I tried a new bait which I will call The Pink Panzer; it is a close relative of the Pink Panther. After a few casts with that, I thought I had a fish on for a moment, but then the lure came free. I am not sure if it was a fish, or maybe I just snagged the bottom, but my guess is that it was a fish. I tried the Panzer for about 15 minutes, then returned to the Cubby. It was getting dark by now, and I had difficulty spotting that little Wing-It. I didn't get any more action.

Mille Lacs Skunk

Well I finally got the boat hooked up and headed to Mille Lacs. I arrived at the access around 5:30PM and barely had enough daylight to accomplish my mission. My mission was to head out to Indian Point and log the same waypoints in the new GPS that were in the old GPS. Normally you would not have to go on the lake to do this, but my old GPS has lines in the Liquid Crystal Display missing and so you can't see what the coordinates of a given way point are; So for me to have the same waypoints I would have to physically run over the same spots and mark them in the new GPS. There was no wind and so it was easy to just use the electric trolling motor. There were 8-10 bobber fisherman on Indian Point but they were all far enough to the south that I was able to log in all my points. By the time I was done it was dark. Since there was no wind and still quite a few of the bobber brigade around I decided not to fish Indian Point.

I headed into Casino Bay (Sha bosh Kung) and made a full pass out to Sherman's point and back. I didn't even have a strike. Finding my way back in to the access was a little hairy, but I got it done without to much trouble. I got in around 9PM.

I talked to two boats at the access. One had gotten a couple and the other was skunked.

So that's it for my first Fall 07 walleye trip, Skunked.

Eddy's launch with Dad 7/25/07

The only fish of the trip for us.

Dad on the way off of Sherman's Point.

The Story: The weather was sunny mid 90's with a slight wind. We elected to fish out of the back of the launch again and where fishing out of the Flagship which is Eddy's Biggest Boat. The Bait Boy said the Flagship was the biggest launch on Mille Lacs and probably the world.

We headed out from Eddy's on a long haul north to Sherman's Pt. We set down in 8ft of water and before you could say fish on some lady caught a keeper walleye and then a 2lb smallmouth. Sherman's point turned out to be more of a smallie than walleye or perch spot. Dad had the first bite and it was a nice smallie that jumped and broke dad's line. More than an hour later dad got another bite but didn't convert. Right after Dad's miss my bobber went down and I landed a walter. This was to be my one and only bite. At Sherman's the launch got 6-8 smallies about 4 walleyes (3 Keepers) a few misses and 1 perch. At about 8:30PM we headed out deeper to try and nab some deeper water eyes. In this spot Dad maybe had a bite but I'm skeptical. Out in the deep water 2 walters came in and 1 was lost by the lady right next to Dad.

We were in right at 10PM. The other 2 launches were nowhere to be seen. All in all a nice night but I could have used some water to drink, the two pop's didn't keep me adequately hydrated.

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?

Platte Lake 6/22/07

The Story: I put in at the E Sullivan access around 7PM and headed into Platte to fish Loon Sex Point. I only managed a single 12" fish on the Spro Bronze Eye. The wind was out of the SE, so I decided to fish the S shore of the big Western bay in Platte. I decided to hit a few docks before getting into the slop. This paid off with a 18.25" and 13" both on Bubblegum Zoom Super Flukes. Once I got to the slop I started throwing a black Zoom Horny Toad. I lost the legs off of 2 different toads, probably to small pike. I fished with a toad with stump legs and caught a nice 17.5". I also missed a bite from a smaller bass on this frog.

To end the night I elected to go to the North end of Platte rather than the Sullivan PRO. I managed a single 13" on the North End. I called it a night around 9:35PM.

6-15-07 Mille Lacs

1st fish of the day...

My second smallie of the day and largest.

The Story: I woke up at 4am and was out the door by 4:30. I headed to the Isle public access and was on the water by 5:10. First spot I hit was Malone Island Point Reef. The wind was blowing 5mph out of the SW and I worked my way accross the point as the sun came up. I was throwing a Purple Frenzy Popper. I had one very light take that I pulled away from the fish. After trying for 45 minutes I decided to head to Hawkbill Hump.

At Hawkbill Hump I made my first pass with the Frenzy Popper and got nothing. I switched to a pink X-Rap and caught a 25" walleye (pictured). Soon after that I caught a 15-16" smallie. My reel started giving me trouble and I switched to a white twister tail on a 1/2oz gold jig head but got nothing on this.

I got tired of fighting the wind and waves and headed into Twin Bay to hit some docks. On the 2nd dock I got the 18.5" smallie on a bubblegum Super Fluke. I just wasn't feeling to much like doing boat control and precision casting so I decided to call it a day at about 7:20am. I was satisfied with what I caught.

Fishing with Todd 6/13/07

I forgot to bring the camera, sorry no pics.
The Story:

My youngest brother Todd arrived at the house just before 6PM and we headed out to The Brothers Porky Pine for dinner. We arrived at the lake about 7PM and were under way by 7:20PM. We ran from the East access in Sullivan to Loon Sex Bay. We had a double Grumpy Old Men sighting at the GOMH. Willard and Lee Ander weren't catchin nothing. In Loon Sex Bay we got to watch two Loons chasing each other all over the place like mad dogs.

We started fishing the base of the point into Loon Sex for northerns, I caught a couple of real small one's and Todd had one flash at his spinnerbait. As we worked down the point I changed to Spro Bronze Eye Frog and connected with a 17" just off the end of the point. Todd started throwing the Bronze Eye and caught a 15". We then drifted through the middle of the bay with buzzbaits around the isolated weed clumps. I caught a pike and missed a good swirl on a spinnerbait. Todd missed a good blow up on a buzzbait. We then worked the N/NE rice bed with frogs, but that didn't get us much. At 8:40 I pulled the plug to head to the PRO.

On the way we saw a deer in the water. We arrived at the PRO river mouth right around 9PM. I tried to let Todd have first shot at the good stuff. He had a few minor blow ups but came up short. We then started into the river where I caught 4 fish on the Bronze Eye including the nights big fish at 17.5". Todd caught a 14-15" and missed several hits.

We called it quits around 9:40PM. The tally Me 5 bass and 4 Pike, Todd 2 bass with a few misses between us.

Platte/Sullivan 6/10/07

Not the biggest guy in the world but I decided to take his picture anyway.
Once again my big fish of the day is a 17incher

The Story: I got up at 4:40am and was on the water by 5:20. I forgot to tie the rope off on the trailer, so I sent the boat off into the lake. I ended up wading in to get it, thankfully the area around this access is shallow and sandy. If it would have come to it there was a boat putting in after me. It was a sunny and clear morning with a light SE breeze, but mostly it was perfectly calm.

I first hit the Crossroads reed point, didn't get a bite. Next stop was the PRO river mouth. I got a 16", 15", and 12" (picture 1) on the Spro Bronze Eye Frog. Instead of following the river in, I decided to run to Platte. My first stop was just North of the GOMH fishing the Western shore. I managed to pick up a 15" there, then headed on to the North shore of Platte. The North end of Platte looked extremely fishy but all I caught were the 17" and a 11". Around 8am I headed back to the launch.

Had the GPS out in the boat today and the trophy did manage to hit 20mph, but mostly top end was 19mph.

Rock Lake (PRO) 6/9/07

This was the first fish of the night. He gave his position away by hitting something. I moved in and capitalized. This was the only fish I got by that method tonight, though I had several tries at others.

This was my last fish on the night and the biggest by an inch.

The Story: I was up and fishing by about 6:40PM and stayed out till about 9:20PM. There was a slight SW breeze when I started which dwindled to calm. Temps in the mid 70's and the skies were mostly sunny/clear. I worked my way from East to West staying more to the North.

The action was far from fast and furious. I only caught 4 bass and these were the only serious blow ups I had. Maybe 2 other times fished swatted at the frog. Most of the time I was throwing the Bronze Eye Frog pictured; I threw the white swim jig too. All fish were caught on Kermit. The first fish was 16.5" and the last fish was the biggest at 17.5". All in all I don't think the Rock Lake PRO is holding the quality fish anymore, they have moved back into the lake.

Rock Lake 6/7/2007

The main lure of the night a swim jig either white on white or white gold w/rootbeer. This particular swim jig was soon lost to a pike or dogfish.
Big fish of the night 17.25" caught on white/white swim jig in the pads.

The Story: After a warm and thundery afternoon a cool front swept through. I got tricked into thinking the winds were going to let up, but by the time I was in the Rock Lake Pro it was gusting 15-20mph out of the SW. It was partly cloudy when I started and overcast with light sprinkles when I left with the temp falling from near 70 to the lower 60's. I fished from about 7:30pm to 9:30PM.

Things started off quickly with a first five cast 13" bass. I then missed a couple of hits by the Beaver Lodge. I slowly made my way against the wind back into the river. I missed a couple of small fish in the river then turned around and headed out. I decided to drift with the wind as I left the river. I missed a strike on the Zoom Horny Toad but I was mainly throwing a white gold swim jig with rootbeer grub. On my first drift I got a few strikes and probably caught 1 bass. I had the tail of the grub bitten off a couple of times.

I decided I would use an all white swim jig on my second drift. I quickly got hit by a 14" bass by the Beaver Lodge. I then caught a dink. As I drifted out I got a solid hit and then my line broke. I retied with another white/white swim jig. I missed a few bites, had a tail bit off and caught 2 bass including the 17" (pictured) on my second pass.

I tried a third pass but don't think I got anymore fish, though I missed a strike or two. It was getting dark and the wind was a bear so I called it quits. On my way out of the PRO I stopped to fish the South side mouth along the bullrushes and weeds I managed to get a 16" on a Spro Bronze Eye Frog.

So I got about 6-7 fish total with the 17.25" being the biggest.

Sullivan Lake 4/6/07

My alarm went off at 4:40am. I turned it off and tried to go back to sleep, but when that didn't work I got my sorry but out of bed, ate breakfast, and went fishing. I was on the water and heading to the Platte River Outlet (PRO) on Sullivan Lake. My first few casts were to the North Shore rice with a white Spro Bronze Eye Frog and they produced nothing. I made a couple of casts to the West shore rice and got nothing. I then cast to the PRO mouth just off the West side and missed a fish. On the next cast I hauled in a 17incher that had a nasty scar in the middle of it's body. I think it must have encoutered a pike as a young fish. A few casts later and I landed a 16.5incher just a little farther in the river on the West/South side. I got a 13" and a 14" off the North side, one of those fish was on the Horny Toad. I missed a couple of strikes on the Frenzy Popper as well at the PRO mouth. I headed into the river where a Beaver was swimming around and occasionally slapping it's tale. I missed a couple of hits and finally got a 15" about 300-400 yards into the river. It was starting to warm up and get pretty windy so at 7:30am I called it quits thinking that fishing would be tough.

The Trophy is ready!!!

We finished the transom repairs yesterday and so today was the inagural voyage of the Trophy for 2007. The motor didn't start on the first pull but it did start and soon I was off for a couple of hours fishing at Rock lake.

16incher takes on Kermit.

Fishing Report 6/5/2007: I arrived at the landing sometime after 7PM and put the motor through it's paces. Had a little issue with the fuel line becoming unbuttoned at the motor, but eventually got that fixed. Once I was satisfied with the condition of the motor I headed to the Rock lake Platte River Outlet (PRO). The entrence to the bay was already significantly weeded up with Rice and other weeds so the motor got bogged down pretty quick. I started at the Eastern edge of the pads and worked my way west. I was set to throw a Spro Bronze Eye, a Zoom Horny Toad, and a swim jig; I never did get around to throwing the swim jig. I fished from about 7:30 to 9:30 getting about 8-10 bass from 13" to 16". All but 1 of the bass came on the Bronze Eye (pictured), the other one came on the White Horny Toad.

During a cast, I had the reel handle come off the reel I was throwing the Bronze Eye with. Fortunatly the handle landed in the boat, but I could not find the nut
I decided to do a rod and reel switch and kept right on fishing, although my distance was significantly cut back on the replacement reel.

The action on the fish was spread out with the action improving as it got darker out. I fished a fair distance West, but about 120 yards short of the beaver dam. There was a big beaver swiming around.