Fishers of Men Fall Outing 2008

(Art Halverson with a 31.5 Town Line Pike)

September 25-27

Thursday Sept 25th
I did not fish on my way up to Lutherdell Bible Camp on Boy Lake. I did see Dave Lindmarks truck and the GEM Pontoon trailer at Mule Lake. I didn't see it, but Cyberfish's red car was there too. Dave got one 19inch smallie and they caught several small pike and medium sized largemouth and Mike had a nice walleye break him off. When I got to the camp, Pastor Mike Pilla and a group of Teen Challenge guys went out on Boy; They got several little pike and a bass or two. Lowell and Gary had been up North for a few days at Broadwater Lodge on Woman Lake; They fished Woman and Mule with a few fish caught but nothing spectacular to report. Gary Schensted and Doug Bartz had spent the past several days hunting Muskie at Mantrap Lake lake near Park Rapids; They had seen a few Ski's but had not caught any. This day I was surprised to learn that almost no one had any plans of hitting Leech, which I figured would be a big draw. Also as it turns out we had plenty of boats so I did not need to take my boat out at all.

Friday Sept 26th
In the morning I was paired with GEM Camp Director Dave Lindmark and Fishers of Men Club Member Art Halverson. We were going to fish out of the GEM Pontoon and decided to head to Mule Lake. The Tournament for this day was to be total inches of your biggest Pike, Muskie, Bass, and Walleye and Mule Lake has all four species. There was also a $5 per person side pot you could get in that would pay down 3 places. I said that today I was donating, but that tomorrow I would be a threat. When we arrived at the Lake a little after 10am it was slightly overcast with a 10mph SE wind. Several other Fishers of Men boats also went to Mule. We started out by heading South, to work the area where Dave caught his big smallie the day before. On the way South we saw Gary Ellis and Mike Thompson land a fish and John Cummins and Gordy Merck net a fish.

We started shallow and Dave was soon rewarded with a small bass on a tube. I started off throwing a Strike King Red eye shad and caught a couple of small pike on that. Art was throwing a spinnerbait and chatterbait and caught some small pike and maybe a small largemouth or two. I tried topwater with a Frenzy Popper and got a couple of small bass. The weeds we were working looked really good but just didn't seem to be holding quality fish, so we moved to the West side of the lake starting at the Public Access heading North.

I hauled in a couple of small pike on the Red Eye Shad and got a 14" largemouth on a black single Colorado blade spinnerbait while the bait was falling. As we moved North Dave started getting a few Larry's on the deep weedlines with a Ring-N Tube. I was not getting much action so I switched to a tube. Dave continued to catch fish while I and Art struggled. I did manage to get one small larry on the tube before we made it to the Mule Lake narrows. As you go East into the narrows the lake becomes one big weedy shallow flat on the North East end of the lake where there are two main bays.

Around the time we entered the narrows things started to look quite dark to the North and the wind seemed to die off. After we passed the narrows I started throwing the Red Eye Shad and I landed a good bass and a few small pike. Dave continued to have success on the tube although he started to break off on a few fish. At one point Dave broke off on something like 5 fish in a row. The skies continued to get darker. I saw a school of largemouth with one smallie among them between the old access and Smallmouth Point. As we approached Smallmouth Point I spotted a 17-18 inch smallie swimming along. I think Dave got a couple of largemouths on the tube off Smallmouth Point and Art had a tremendous blow up on a Popper and caught a medium sized largemouth.

Conditions were getting right for topwater with the approaching storm and lack of wind, so I put on a Bullfrog color Frenzy Popper. All the other boats got off the lake when it looked like it was going to storm and the thunder was rumbling. Topwater was a good choice as I started nailing some fish. As we made our way into the far NE bay I got a 16.5" Larry which was my big bass of the day. We worked our way from the West shore of the bay across to the East shore of the bay to some laydown trees. I was catching bass consistently right in the middle of the bay. The bass had definitely turned on. Dave was still getting a few on the tube and Art got a fish or two but I had the hot hand.

It really started to look like we were going to get stormed on and there was plenty of thunder, but all the lightening was to our North. We had about an hour left and we decided to motor back to Smallmouth point and work our way to the Narrows. As we got to Smallmouth Point the wind came up out of the NW and it started to sprinkle, but this didn't last long and soon it was clearing up a little and calm again but looking dark to the North and West. As we worked our way to the narrows the fish shut down a bit and the hot hand once again was Dave with the tubes. I did get a couple of fish on topwater and Art landed a nice one on a small Chatterbait. We worked our way around the North Narrows Point and then it was 5:30pm and time to go. As we loaded up it got quite windy and dark but it didn't rain until we got North of Longville and it was pouring out when we got to camp.

We did not get a single smallie; Lindmark's and my big bass were only 16.5" and we both had a pike just over 20 inches.

Fishers of Men Club President John Cummins won the days tournament because he caught a largemouth, pike, and walleye. His fish were not very big but having that walleye clinched it for him. He gave the rod he won to one of the Teen Challenge guys. Gary Ellis got 2nd with the biggest bass, a 19.5" smallie, and the biggest pike of the day all from Mule Lake. Lowell Borgen came in 3rd but I don't know the size of the fish; I think he fished on Mule. Although I was down the standings I was 3rd place in the money pot and got my $5 back plus a dollar. Mike "Cyberfish" Thompson got a 19" smallie.

Saturday September 27th
Saturday was the big tournament day, because the person who caught the most inches of 3 bass and 3 northerns would be 2008 Fally Walleye winner. Fally Walleye is annual trophy that the top 3 finishers at the Fall Outing get to write their names on and the top fisherman gets to take home. In years past the race to be on Fally Walleye has combined both fishing days of the Fall Outing, but Lowell Borgen who was in charge decided to do things differently this year, so only this one day would count. Once again this day there was an optional $5 money pot which I got into.

Some people changed partners but once again it was me, Dave Lindmark, and Art Halverson in the GEM pontoon. We elected to go to Town Line Lake because it has above average size northerns and some nice bass as well. Town Line is a shallow weedy lake with lots of cabbage, bullrushes, and some slop. The weather was clear to partly cloudy with winds from 5-15mph out of the NW, there was more wind early and in the middle of the day than at the end of the day. It was definitely post-frontal conditions so we were a little unsure of how good the bite might be.

We started off in a good sized bay on the North side of lake. It did not take long and Art had himself a 20+ inch pike on a white spinnerbait. Art ended up getting cut by the pikes teeth and bleeding quite a bit. Both Dave and I were throwing spinnerbaits as well. Dave missed a fish then caught his first fish of the day. I think Art caught another fish and I kind of came to the conclusion that the black single Colorado blade spinnerbait I was throwing was not what they wanted, so I switched to a white and red buzzbait. By this time we were drifting with the wind. Shortly after making the switch a 22 inch Pike attacked my buzzbait. I think I caught one more pike and then we moved to the South shore to work the Rope Swing area.

I continued to throw the buzzbait and was rewarded with a nice bass. There was a good sized tree branch in the water and I had Dave work us towards it. I missed what was probably a small bass on the branch, when Art tied into a 31.5 inch Pike. As we worked our way to the Rope Swing Point I missed a couple of blow ups on the buzzbait. I think Dave may have gotten another pike. As we rounded Rope Swing Point I thought there was something trailing the buzzbait so I paused it for a second and then pumped it and I was hit by a nice pike. I managed to land it and it was 30 inches. Shortly after this fish I think I landed another Pike. We decided to head back over the area we had just gone over. It had become kind of clear at this point that the fish were in the thicker area's of cabbage.

On our return trip we landed some good pike and some nice bass. I think I got a 17 inch bass on this pass and Dave and Art got good ones too. At some point we decided to make a third pass on the Rope Swing Point. Action was not fast but it was consistent especially for me and the buzzbait. I added a 26 inch Pike at some point. On this pass around the point we went further South/West by a dock with a pontoon. The buzzbait got creamed by a 15 inch bass and right after that from the exact same area I had another even bigger bass strike the buzzbait. As this fish was coming in it made a hard charge around the back of the pontoon. Instead of asking for Art to net it, I tried to lift the fish out of the water a little bit so Art could lip it. I could not really see the fish and what I was doing and the fish shook and got off. I was quite unhappy that I lost a 16 to 17 inch fish by being kind of careless. We kept working our way SW and soon Lowell was coming close from the West and Gary Ellis was following in behind us. We decided to give this area a rest and headed to the NE corner of the lake.

In the NE corner of Town Line Lake there is an old Beaver Dam that holds bass and so we went to give it a shot. I switched up to a jig and casted into a spot with a few lily pads where there was a beaver path so the water is slightly deeper. I jigged it once and felt a pick up, so I set the hook and it was fish on. It jumped and it was a good one. I was relieved when we got it in the net. Art thought it was a 20incher, I thought it was 19", but it was only 18.5" but had we had a scale to weigh it I am sure it would have been over 4lbs because it was a full bodied fish. I tried to coax another fish but the water level was a little to shallow and weed choked and nothing else was there.

We started working our way West and Dave got a small bass on a popper. We some good looking water but it was not holding fish in the mid-day sun. We were over a pretty bare area and I decided to go back to the buzzbait and was immediately rewarded with a 25.5 inch Pike. This water didn't look so great and that one fish was all we got so we decided to run to a point on the North end in the middle section of the lake. Art got a couple of pike and Dave got a small bass on the popper, but for the most part this area just didn't look fishy, so we headed back to work the Rope Swing Point.

As we were working our way down the shoreline I backlashed and my line broke at the spool. I could see my line so we were able to go and retrieve my buzzbait that was catching so many fish. I retied but something happened on my very next cast and the line broke about half way up the rod. This time there was no long tail of line and the buzzbait was lost. What a bummer. I borrowed a buzzbait from Dave and did get a few pike on it, but no more bass. We worked the South shore for the rest of the day getting a few more pike. We quit around 10 to 6pm.

As it turned out this was my day and I wrapped up Fally Walleye along with winning the day 2 money pot and a rod and reel. My prediction was right on that I would be a contender on Saturday. Lowell Borgan got 2nd and Pastor Dave Kruger got 3rd to fill out the Fally Walleye honorees. They were both fish Town Line as well. I think Dave Lindmark got 4th, Art got 5th, and Gary Ellis got 6th, so Town Line was definitely the place to be.

A number of the other boats went to Mule and some nice smallmouth were caught on minnows. I think Gary Schensted got one that was 19" or bigger.

Snatchers Serpent Lake

When I arrived at Serpent Lake just after 7AM my partner Mark already has his boat in the water. I loaded up my gear and then we waited for the 8am blast off. When I was at the dock Bill Ludenia told me bass were on the flats biting on jig and pigs. When I was in the boat with Mark he talked about throwing spinnerbaits on the flats. I asked him if he was considering throwing a buzzbait at all and he showed me that he had one tied on. On the West end of the lake by the public access, there was just a light breeze blowing and there was a slight haze, but not enough to call it overcast.

At blast off we were boat #11 out of 12 and when it was our turn we headed East down the lake as fast as the boat would go and that was pretty fast. We ended up stopping on the Eastern Edge of a weed flat on the North side of the lake where Mark had gotten a big bass once upon a time, as we were getting into position another Bass Snatcher boat came into the same general area.

I started off throwing a pumpkinseed swim jig with a Zoom Speed Craw trailer and I was quickly rewarded with a fish on. It turned out to be the first of many pikes that I would catch this day. Mark started out with a spinnerbait but quickly put that down for a buzzbait in the calm conditions we were in. It didn't take long until Mark was rewarded with a nice bass. I switched to a white single spin Colorado blade spinnerbait and caught a rock bass, then a pike, then a 11 inch bass. As we worked our way west on the flat Mark caught another nice bass on the buzzbait. That was enough to convince me to go to topwater and I put on a Purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. I think Mark got another nice bass and shortly after that, I caught my first keeper of the day which was a solid 16" fish. Conditions just seemed to be perfect for topwater and anticipation of a strike was high. Mark caught a couple of more fish on the buzzbait to my nothing, so I was thinking maybe they wanted a more active bait, so I switched to a white spook. The fish did seem to like the spook better than the popper. I had a pike launch itself after the spook and miss it. Then a couple of casts later something hit at the spook and missed, then hit at it again and missed, I paused the bait then started it up again and this time the fish got it and I was rewarded with another 16" bass. Mark caught a couple of more bass on the buzzbait and reached his 6 fish limit. I caught a couple of short basses which was a bit frustrating cause a spook is supposed to be a big fish bait. After much walking the dog I did get a 14" keeper.

The wind came up and the surface bite died. Mark started throwing a white spinnerbait and started getting a few bass and pike. I tried the swim jig and the white spinnerbait. I backlashed and broke my line at the spool sending the white spinnerbait into the distance. Easy come, easy Go! I tied on another white single Colorado blade spinnerbait and got back after it. That was not getting any hits so I decided to tie on a black spinnerbait with a much bigger Colorado blade. I caught a pike very quickly on that.

We headed back across the flat to our starting spot and I nailed a couple more pike on the black spinnerbait and also had a couple of hits that did not hook up. We were working the middle of the flat and I was throwing out to deeper water when I got a solid hook up which turned out to be a nice 16" bass. A little while later doing the same thing I nailed yet another nice 16" largemouth. Things seemed to shut down after that and I was not even getting bit by pike anymore. Still, the good fish I got on the black spinnerbait gave me a lot of confidence to keep throwing it and persistence paid off as I landed my limit fish sometime around 11am. My limit fish was just a 13 incher. It was really nice to have a limit since my partner Mark's expectations coming in were quite low.

Things stayed kind of slow on another pass across the flat. Mark switched up to a jig and pig and got a bass on that. I think I landed a pike or two and then switched up to a jig and pig to give my back a break from the relentless casting and retrieving. I had a solid pick up on the jig and landed a 14" inch fish so I culled up a little. Not long after catching that fish Mark suggested that we hit some docks in search of a kicker.

We started off on some of the docks on the flat that we had been fishing all morning. As we were moving along we came to a short wooden single dock that looked like nothing. Mark cast at the dock and got a strike but didn't hook up. I made a cast at the front of the dock and saw the bass that Mark missed swim away from the dock then start to circle back in the direction of my Super Fluke. While I couldn't tell completely it looked like the fish picked up the Fluke and so I set the hook and sure enough, the rod doubled up. I didn't realize it when I saw it swimming, but as soon as I hooked up it became apparent this was a bigger fish. It put up a good fight and didn't go into the net easy, but I did land the 4lb 2oz beauty which turned out to be the tournament big bass by an ounce. Sometimes you just get a bit lucky and things go your way. This success motivated us to run the lake and hit docks for a while.

We got a few keepers and several shorts on docks, but nothing that would help. Eventually, we moved to the South side of the lake and started hitting docks there. The Southside docks were pretty dead and we eventually headed out over a flat. I got a small pike, then tied into a good fish that I was hoping was a bass. It was a bass but not as big a fish as the fight it put up. The fish was 15.25 and I ended up throwing it back, which was a mistake because I still had a 14" fish in the well but I could not find it thanks to the fact that I got mixed up when a couple of my clip-on cull tags came off of the fish. Mark has a walleye boat with one main non-divided livewell, so with 11 fish in there it was easy for me to not come up with the 14 incher after a bit of a search. I figured I had just measured wrong but at the end of the day sorting it was pretty obvious I had a 14" fish.

We headed back to the flat we started on and I caught yet another 15" bass that would have helped, but once again I did not find that 14" fish and so I let a bigger fish go. We worked the flat and caught a few more pikes. With about 30 minutes left we headed back to the launch area and tried a weedy point but didn't get anything. We headed in about 10 minutes early.

Results:
Mark thought I had his bag beat by 2-4lbs, but it turned out that he beat me by 10ozs, so I ended up in 3rd place overall at 14lbs 6ozs. First place was 17lbs 6ozs. I got plaques for Lunker and 3rd Place. It's hard to say whether or not my culling screw up cost me the 2nd place or not, Mark figured it probably did. Oh well, one place is no big deal, I am just glad it was me that got the big one.

The other rookie in the club this year did not fish for his second tournament in a row, so I locked up rookie of the year honors by just showing up.

Our last tournament is Oct 4th on Upper and Lower Mission lakes in Crow Wing County. Mark says they are great bass fisheries.

Bass Snatchers North Long

Just a bit of frustration is starting to sink in.

It was still pretty dark when I arrived at the public access a little before 6AM. It was cloudy, cool but not cold, and quite windy, which had everyone a bit put off. I brought a raincoat but didn't have a bib. I was surprised that my partner Chuck's boat is one of the smaller tiller model Rangers. I had just assumed being the hardcore bass fisherman that this guy is that he would have a pretty good sized rocket ship. The boat has a non-divided main live well and a bait well, so it is actually more of a walleye rig. When we got out on the water we discovered his aerator pump wasn't working, so he kept his fish in the bait well and I had to continuously scoop fresh water into the main livewell where my fish were throughout the day. It worked out as all my fish were alive at weigh in. The tournament blast off was at 7AM and we headed for the big water in the middle basin of North Long. North Long runs pretty much East to West and has 3 pretty round bays and is not small with almost 6000 acres of water. The way the wind was blowing I thought it would be much rougher once we got into the middle basin but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

We started on a mid-lake hump where my partner had found a school of big fish. Neither of us got a bite. We then moved to another hump close by that already had a boat on it. We saw them land one fish as they were drifting their way slowly with the anchor down. We didn't get anything but weeds.

Next, we headed to a fairly protected shoreline to try some reeds. Almost right away I lost a small fish on a swim jig and that was all we got there. Next, we moved out to the weedline and on our second stop started getting some action with the noise of Brainerd International Raceway in the background. I got my first fish on a pumpkinseed Monsoor swim jig with Zoom Speed Craw Trailer. I think I next caught one or two shorts. My partner was landing keepers on a Texas rigged craw tube and I made the switch to a black/blue JigNpig. I caught two nice keepers on my first two casts. After that, the fish seemed to shut off. The wind seemed to increase while we were on that weedline. I would say it was gusting over 30.

We then hit a couple of weedline spots on the North End of the middle basin. My partner filled out his limit and I got two more keepers plus about 4 shorts on the swim jig.

Next, we headed out to the humps we started on. The clouds had started to break up and the wind came down to about 15mph instead of 20-30mph. My partner landed his best fish of the day on the first hump, but that was it. Eventually, I filled my limit and got my first cull. We then ran back to the weedline where we had caught the bulk of our fish but didn't get anything except one short for me. I don't remember where we went next, but we got nothing there. We then headed to a cabbage weed bed on the southern part of the middle basin. I caught a couple of shorts on the swim jig and Chuck got his craw tube bit off by a pike.

With about an hour left with the sun completely out and the wind died down we tried a nice looking steep break on the North end of the middle basin without any luck. Next, we headed into Merrifield Bay (the east basin) and went dock fishing. My partner was skipping a jigNpig under the docks with a baitcaster and he was sure good at it with extremely accurate casts. Meanwhile, I was struggling to get accustomed to my new St. Croix Avid Spinning rod rigged with a bass tube jig. Chuck managed to cull up slightly a couple of times and caught a couple of fish that would have helped me. On one of the docks, I made a bad cast got hung up and broke off. This allowed me to switch up to a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke which I am much more comfortable throwing around docks because the hook is not exposed. Chuck let me get the first crack at a likely looking spot and I caught yet another short. We kept moving around hitting docks. We came to a spot where there was a boat lift about 35 feet out from the end of a dock. Chuck had a fish pick up his bait and spit it, while I was casting into the shadow made by the lift. After a couple of jerks of the Fluke, I had on a 16.5" which was my big fish of the day. It was also the last fish of the day for us.

My partner weighed a respectable 13-7 which was only good enough for 7th. My partner had won the two previous club tournaments at North Long in 2006 and 2004 with weights in the 14's. The winning weight on this day was 15-11 with 2 other bags in the 15's and 2 bags in the high 14's.

Results:
I was pleasantly surprised to hear 11lbs 01oz with a big fish of 2lbs 9ozs. I thought I had somewhere just under 10lbs. From past history, I figured that 11lbs would get me a solid finish in the middle of the pack, instead on this day it was only good enough for 17th out of 24.

My Thoughts:
As I said before this is starting to get a little bit frustrating. I am catching fish from the back of the boat, but the size of fish I am catching just isn't cutting it compared to everyone else. This tournament I caught all but 1 fish on a bass jig which is known to be a bigger fish bait, but I caught my big fish of the day on a Super Fluke.

I now have a 15th, 16th, 17th, and 23rd place finishes. This tournament moved me ahead of the other club rookie, who didn't fish North Long. I am currently in 17th place and well back of 16th place and that is out of 22 people that have fished a minimum of 3 out of the 4 tournaments. (Place is figured out with the lowest score thrown out so only 3 tournaments at this point count for a person's points.)

Our 5th tournament is not until September 20th at Serpent Lake and the last tournament of the year is October 4 at Mission.

Fishing w/Pete Sullivan Lake

Saturday July 2, 2008

Today I was the putz holding things up. It was a bit on the warm side and I didn't want to head out in the heat. We ended up waiting till after dinner and we did not get on Sullivan Lake until after 8PM. Conditions were ideal. It was calm and overcast and things had cooled down into the high 70's.

I started us off on a reed bank that has been productive for Pike and Bass in the past. It was dead (Pete might have missed one hit and I had a weak surface strike on the black/yellow head Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog) although we really didn't get to fish some of the prime stuff because Pete was not really able to fish the heavier cover.

The sun was starting to get low so we headed over to the GOMH and I got a look at the bridge construction for the 1st time. It looked like they dammed up the channel and it also looked like there was a lot of work to be done. The rumor is that they are supposed to finish the project in late August. I have never seen so many lilly pads in the SW GOMH bay. I fished the frog and Pete fished a buzzbait and skitter pop. He was having major casting accuracy problems with the skitter pop. I managed to get a 14" Larry back in the slop and I missed one real good hit. Once again this was an area that used to be a consistant producer of more action than we saw. With the Sun basically down we headed to the PRO river mouth. The River doesn't seem to be flowing as strong as usual and the area has more vegitation than I remember it having in the past. My plan was to let Pete have things all to himself, but Pete's casting problems were keeping him from working the water so I decided to fish. I hit the prime stuff at the river mouth and didn't get any blow ups. I did get a 13.5" in some more marginal water. Pete decided to switch to a frog and we worked our way inside the river. I missed one blow up and that was it. Much to my astonishment the river mouth was a dud too.

We motored out of the river mouth and stopped at a good looking area about 50 yards out from the PRO river mouth. Pete had a blow up that didn't hook up while I was busy doing boat control as the wind had kicked up pretty good out of the SE. It was a wet ride back in.

Fishing w/ Pete Rock Lake

Tonight was the annual Immanuel Luthern Corn Boil. I went to that with Dad and we got home around 6pm. At the Corn Boil dad found out that Jenny had something wrong with her water flow at the house and so this was the plan: I would hook the Trophy up to the Explorer and go to Jenny's and drop off dad. I would then go and see whether Pete wanted to hook the boat up to his car or leave it on the Explorer and let dad take Pete's car home. By the time I got my gear squared away and everything in order it was after 9:30pm.

Pete was sound asleep when I got to the "Lake Place" and it took about half an hour for him to get up. Once he did, he decided that we would put the Trophy on his car and I would bring the Explorer to Dad and Pete also wanted to organize and put a bunch of stuff away in his car and the garage. As I drove to Jenny's Dad was walking back on the road and was almost to the Lake Place. I gave Dad the Explorer and walked back to the Lake Place. I grabbed my frog rod out of the boat and went down front to throw a few casts. No luck.

I headed back up and not to suprizingly Pete was not ready to go for about another half an hour. It was after 8PM when we arrived at the Rock Lake public access. Much to our surprize when we were getting the boat ready to go in the water another boat showed up wanting to put in. This made sure we got the boat off the trailer about 10 minutes quicker than we would have other wise.

Once we were on the water the plan was to use the trolling motor and fish starting at the access and go North. Unfortunatly the trolling motor didn't run. The battery meter in the trolling motor wasn't getting any juice. We tried to clean off the contacts but that didn't do any good. It was as if the battery had completely died. While Pete was working on the battery I fired up the gas motor and we decided to go out and fish without a trolling motor.

Near the access I caught a 14.5" Larry on a black/yellow head Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog. As the sun went down we hit several good looking area's North of the access. Pete missed a couple of hits on a Chart/red Skitter Pop. It got dark in a hurry and we headed in. We maybe got to fish for 25 minutes.

Smallies on the Mississippi

Monday July 28th.
Pete woke me up at about 3:30PM and asked me if I wanted to go fishing. I wasn't enthusiastic about it but I said OK. Then Pete informed me we would be going to fish Smallmouth on the Mississippi with his friend Greg Jones from Mid-West Outdoors. This perked me up quite a bit and we were out the door around 4PM.

We met Greg in St. Cloud around 5PM and headed North. Greg is a Salesmen, Editor, and TV guy with Mid-West outdoors and he is also a Mississippi River Rat. His command of the river was impressive as we ran the river at full speed even though the area we were to fish has a lot of shallow stretches. I saw a couple of eagles and a bi-plane.

I started out with a Frenzy Rattlebait, Pete tried a Strike King Rocket Shad, and Greg had on a small white buzzbait. Greg started getting some hits on the buzzbait and I switched to a swim jig. Greg kept showing us we were around fish and so I switched pretty quick to a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. It didn't take long and I was catching fish. I think my 3rd fish was a small pike. Basically we drifted down the river until it got to dark to fish. The fish were not suicidal but the action was pretty steady. I got the biggest smallie at just under 19 inches and that was the only one we got over 18." There was a good mix of fish between 10" and 17" plus Pete got a nice Pike. I think all but 1 fish were on topwater. I swear I casted that Popper straight into the big fishes mouth cause I didn't see it hit the water and there was no swirl but the fish was on immediately.

I had a lot of fun. Greg is a really good guy and even had an interesting story about seeing a UFO on the river that looked like a flying telephone pole. Someone was with him so he has a witness. Unfortunatly they didn't get close enough to find out what they were actually seeing but it was flying and it was big.

Fishing w/Pete ML Friday July 25th.

We didn't get to the lake till well after midnight. Pete got the boat started but once again it didn't run while in gear, so the gas wasn't the problem. Pete went about working on the motor and eventually I went to the car. Above the trees were filled with bugs as the sun came up. About 6 AM pete yelled for me to come as he had the motor running. The wind was blowing 10-15mph out of the SE so it was rolling pretty good out on the water. Pete was running us straight out into the lake from the access and I was growing concerned. The flats with a ruff ride and a motor we might not be able to count on seemed like a bad plan. Pete was just running us out so we wouldn't get blown into shore if the motor started acting up. We ended up going over to the North end of Sherman's Point and started trolling water with Shad Raps. We trolled for about a hour and a half with no luck so then we went into the protected water on the North Shore of Sherman's Point and tried for Smallies, Northern, and Muskie. I caught two 13-14" smallies on a white X-Rap and that was all we got. I believe we were off the water by 11am. On the way in Pete's motor started acting up again. It was a problem with some loose wires or something like that.

Fishing w/ Pete on ML

Pete finally came up on the Wed. 23rd and we hit Mille Lacs about midnight. The moon was out at least part of the time and there was very little wind. We trolled from the Casino Access around Sherman's Point all the way through Wig Wam bay and a little bit East of Wigwam. We were on the water until about noon, thanks to Pete's motor not wanting to run when he put it into gear. While it was dark Pete got a smallie that was almost 20 inches on his little clown minnow. Nothing seemed to be going shallow and so we put on shad raps and started running 10-15ft towards dawn. Pete caught another smallie 17inch and got a 24" walleye. I finally got a hit from a rock bass, then after the sun was up I caught a nice perch. Some fish were rolling out over open water on top and we tried for them but didn't have any luck. We trolled back to Sherman's Point where Pete got a perch. When we got on the Shabosh Kung side of Sherman's Pete tried to fire up the big motor. It would run in neutral but not in gear. Pete figured it was bad gas. We ended up drifting plus using the trolling motor to get in. We didn't get a single smallie off the South side of Sherman's Point.

Snatcher Pokegama Tournament

I had a close call with a deer on the North end of Mille Lacs lake on my way North to Grand Rapids, no harm no foul. I got to Grand Rapids a little quicker than I thought I would but that was OK as my partner Bill and some of the other guys were already out in the motel parking lot. I got my gear into Bill's boat and then spent probably an hour shooting the breeze before we left.

The access we went out of is on the NW end of the lake and we headquartered out of a public beach just North of there that is right by where the Mississippi flows into Pokegama lake. Our plan was to head up the river and try to catch some big fish, but if that wasn't working to go back down into the lake and fish cabbage.

We were boat #2 out of the gate and boat #2 heading into the river. By the time we got to the spot where you can run the river at full speed, we were the #1 boat. We ran all the way past the Hwy 6 bridge to a spot Bill calls "Dogfish Corner". We started out pitching jigs and I got messed with by a small pike. I also threw some slop frogs and Zoom Horny Toads having a small pike strike on the toad. We got nothing on this spot and so we headed up the river some more to another great looking area with rice, rushes, and wood, but we could not get anything. We then made our way back down the river. The story from all the river boats was slow fishing. A few guys had some small fish. We stopped at the Hwy 6 bridge and I caught a small pike there.

Bill got his first bass in some reeds on Jay Gould Lake (at least I think that is where we were). We then headed to the lake to fish weedline/weedbeds. Bill quickly landed two keepers before I got number 1 on a watermelon tube. I don't remember if I got another keeper bass on the tube before I had a pike break it off. I put on what turned out to be a grey tube, I thought these tubes were watermelon too, but it was just the green packaging. I may have got 1 more bass off of this first spot in the lake.

Next, we hit some reeds and I missed a couple of hits on topwater. We then went to another cabbage weedline spot and Bill filled out his limit while I got to fish #4. It started to sprinkle while we were on this spot and it continued to lightly rain until the last half hour of the tournament. We headed in to try some slop and I got #5 on a Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog. Next, we worked some rushes and reeds and I got my limit fish on the Bobby's Perfect Frog.

Now with two limits in the well, it was decision time and we decided that our best shot for kickers was in the river and so we made our way back there. We started working the Power Plant area and I missed a bite that I probably should have caught on the Horny Toad as that I saw the fish wake towards the bait before it hit. It could have been a dogfish though. We turned a corner and started working into the wind. After quite a while of fishing, Bill landed a nice dark mid 3lb fish. A little while later he got some pike. Bill was pitching a jig into the weed edge and I was casting out the front of the boat parallel with the weed edge. A fish showed itself and so I was careful to cover the spot and I was rewarded with a 17.5" largemouth. We worked our way down the stretch several hundred more yards, then we turned around to hit it again. Now with the wind at my back, I was really able to cover the water. I was distracted by a boat running the river and took my eye off the Horny Toad and I missed a hit. A little while later I got a solid strike and landed another 17.5" in largemouth. That was the last fish of the day. I think if we would have gotten another hour in the river I could have caught some more nice fish.

Results:
I ended up with my best weight of the year so far with 6 fish for 12lbs 8ozs. I tied with a guy for weight and big fish and lost the coin flip tiebreak, so I ended up in 15th out of 25 guys. My partner Bill was 13th with 13lbs 5 ozs. Winning weight was 20lbs 3ozs and he spent the whole day in the river and didn't catch his limit fish until the last 1/2 hour. The guy in 2nd also fished the river all day. Big fish was 5lbs 10oz and there was one other 5lber caught.

Overall I had a really enjoyable time. It was nice that the cool overcast and rain kept the horse and deer flies away because I hear they can get quite bad in the river.

7/2/2008 Eddy's Launch with Dad

Tonight Dad and I went out on a Launch on Mille Lacs out of Eddy's Resort. The night was windy and a bit cool. Dad and I got the back of the boat which was packed with about 17 people. We ran up by Indian Point and fished in area's where the wind maybe wasn't quite as bad. Dad spent much of the night talking to Karen, or maybe it was Carol, who was from Cambriage and comes up to the Casino to gamble and fish by herself cause her husband doesn't care for it. I helped her get set up and she did catch a small walleye. A few weeks ago she got a 28inch walleye on an Eddy's launch. The guy next to me in the back of the boat caught a 24.5" Northern and a 23.5" walleye both of which had to go back due to Mille Lacs size regulations.

Dad and I both missed bites a couple of times. Dad caught a cigar walleye and I caught the only keeper for the whole launch (14inches.) The boat caught about 8 fish total and I think we did better than the other launch that was out. All in all it was a good time with Dad.

Mille Lacs with Pete Tues/Wed

Yesterday was such a nice day that I agreed to go fishing with Pete one more night out on Mille Lacs. The plan was to be out there at 7:30pm to go fishing for smallmouth, but Pete didn't have the boat ready to leave until after 8:15pm. On the way we stopped to get pop and when we got to the access Pete realized he forgot his life vest and so we had to drive back down 169 to the Marathon gas station where amazingly enough they did have life jackets. By the time we finally got on the water it was getting pretty dark, so we just went right into trolling.

Right away Pete got an eater eye. A little while later Pete hooked up again, but as I was reeling in my line it somehow got caught up in Pete's. Pete managed to hand line it in. The fish was right at 18 inches so it had to go back. On the next trolling pass Pete and I both missed bites and then went a very long time without anything. Finally as we were back up on Sherman's point I got a 16" or so smallie. We trolled around to the North side of Sherman's where Pete hooked into a 24" eye. There was some weather coming in from the NW so we decided to troll our way back South. While still on the North side of Sherman's I popped a 15" smallmouth. Once we got to the South side of Sherman's Pete tied into a big fish. The wind was blowing pretty good and the boat turned funny and once again my line got caught in Pete's. I got the two lines separated quickly by cutting my line, but Pete was already trying to bring it in by hand and the fish got off. Pete was pretty frustrated and I felt bad.

The wind kicked up even more and it started to sprinkle, so Pete fired up the gas motor and we headed in sometime after 3am.

Snatchers Birch (Grey Eagle)

This tournament had a late start at 8am, but I still was up before 5am and out the door before a quarter after. I drove to Little Falls to meet up with Barry and his Son-in-law Joe to carpool to Big Birch. Conditions were sunny and warm enough with a NW breeze blowing about 7mph. It stayed sunny to partly cloudy throughout the day but the wind kicked up to 15-20mph at times.

We started in the West lake around an Island where Barry had found a bunch of bedding smallmouth a few days ago. I started with topwater and right away had a fish show behind the bait but it never committed. This happened twice in the first 5 minutes. The smallies had vacated the beds in this area and so we moved a little farther North on the Island. Barry caught a nice fish on a crank, but that was all we got. Next, we headed to the Upper East lake to Barry's "Honey Hole." It was a weed patch where Barry found a school of good fish pre-fishing. Barry managed to get two smaller fish on a tube.

Next, we worked a thickly weeded bullrush island. I went to use my telescoping 7'3" St. Criox Avid Flippen stick, but I had a hard time getting the rod to pull out. As I eventually got it to move a couple of maggots came up with the blank. Apparently, a fly got in there and laid some eggs making the two parts of the rod blank stick together. I did get the rod extended but didn't catch a thing.

We moved across the lake to a point with some reeds on the inside turn and I got a 13.25" and a pumpkin Monsoor swim jig with pumpkin Zoom Speed Craw trailer. From there we moved back to the West lake Island where we started and where Barry got his first fish. I got a 13.25" largemouth on a white X-Rap and jumped off a fish that was a bit bigger and also had a follow from a good fish (smallmouth???). We switched to the Island Barry's Son-in-law Joe was fishing and fished around it. We kind of wandered into the other boats hot area where Barry and I both caught a fish. The fish for me was yet another 13.25" on the white X-Rap.

Next, we fished the Eastern edge of the Island we started on. This spot featured bullrushes and reeds along a steep drop. Barry had seen lots of fish cruising this run while prefishing. I fished the area with the swim jig and started off by catching a dink and having a few small fish pull on the speed craw. As we were going along Barry got a couple of dinks and a couple of Rock Bass. I saw a largemouth that was at least two pounds pull the speed craw right off the jig, bummer.

Next, I think we went back to the East lake and didn't get a thing but one for me that was 11.75." We went back to the West Lake and fished around Joe's Island maybe catching a rock bass or two. We then headed to a weedline spot where Barry jerked up 2 keepers and then I got a 12.25" on a white Strike King Zero (Senko) fished on a mushroom head jig. We drifted the spot again with Barry getting another keeper and me landing one that was 14.25" on the Zero. We did another couple of passes but only got Rock Bass. From there we went to fish another similar weedline but another boat was on it. The days big bass, 4lbs 1oz, was caught by that boat on that spot.

Once again we headed to Joe's Island and tried to fish deep. I caught a rock bass. From there we went to the East side of our starting Island where the bullrushes and reeds were. We just about had fished the whole stretch when I got my limit fish, a 14.50" largie on the swim jig by reeds and rocks.

It was getting to be late in the day and we headed back to the East lake to try the "Honey Hole" one last time. We bounced around a couple of new spots then hit the reed patch by the Rock Tavern where we were going to have the weigh in. The reeds were a perfect match for a Horny Toad, so I started throwing it. I had a little fish hit it and managed to resist the urge to set the hook. I was working the toad through the reeds when I had a solid blow up from another 13.25" that culled out my 12 incher. I got one more good blow up on the Toad but failed to hook up and that was the end of our day. I was pleased to have gotten a limit, even if it was small.

Results:
I ended up with 7lbs 8ozs with a big fish of 1lb 9ozs which stuck me in 23rd out of 24 anglers. The only guy I beat was my Farm Island partner Herman who only brought in 3 fish. My partner Barry came in 20th, which shows me that our areas were holding below average fish this day.

The winner had a 15lb 6oz bag of smallmouth that he pretty much sight fished near shallow rocks. Our boat didn't land a single smallie all day, but Barry might have jumped one off near the end of the day. A couple of people reported catching dozens and dozens of 12-14 inch largemouth so the fish were schooled up in some places. Unfortunately, the schools that were on Barry's spots moved. Overall I had a fun day and the heat didn't get to be too bad.

After the tournament, we went to the Rock Tavern where I got to know Joe who grew up in Little Falls and sounds like he is a die-hard Mississippi smallmouth angler. He showed me a couple of his smallmouth tricks.

Pete came up on Tuesday 6/17 and we fished the night shift on 6/18 and 6/19. Pete brought up his new (used) Lund Boat and worked on it all day Wednesday. We did not get out of the door until well after 9PM. The plan was to troll or bobber fish but we forgot the leeches, so bobber fishing was out. And on the way to the ramp Pete informs me that he did not bring the power cord for his depth finder. I didn't know how in the world we were going to troll blind to the bottom, but Pete informed me that he has a GPS with the Lakemaster chip and that should do the job. I was quite skeptical and a little afraid for Pete's prop, but the thing worked great. On both nights we fished Sherman's Point till at least 7am. On Wed/Thur we fished all around the point, while on Thur/Fri we stayed on the South side. We caught fish in anywhere from 4 to 10 feet of water on little minnow crankbaits. We did not catch a single bigger walleye in the protected slot and we missed several bites both nights.
For the eye's it seemed like the inside line was better and for smallies the outside line was better.


On Wed/Thur I got 3 smallies including a 18.75" casting with a pink #10 husky jerk after sunrise. I also caught 3 eater eye's and 1 crappie. Pete got 1 eater eye, 2 cigars, 3 smallies, and 1 rock bass.

On Thur/Fri we got out later and didn't stay out as long. Pete had the hot hand catching 5 eyes, 3 rock bass, and 2 smallies, while I got 1 eye, 2 smallies, and 1 rock bass.

Eddy's Launch Tues. 6/17/08

For the 2nd year in a row Lakeview Community Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church got together for a launch trip on Mille Lacs out of Eddy's. Dad spearheaded the effort and it was a lot of fun. This year featured the 5 F's: Fellowship, Food, Fishing, Fun, and Film. We had burgers, turkey burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, bars, chips and pop. The food was a nice way to kill time until the prime time for getting bites.
Katie Hayes caught the 2nd Walleye of the day and it was a keeper. The protected slot on ML this year is 18" to 28".
We fished on Eddy's Flagship which is the biggest launch on Mille Lacs. I think we had 26 people total.

I had a bite right away when I was rigging up Dad's rod. Unluckly there was no slack in the line so when I picked up the rod it pulled the hook right away from the fish. We really didn't have anymore action until after 8PM. One of the lady's went to use the restroom and she got a bite when she was in the facilities. Another person ended up reeling in her fish, but she got to keep it. The youngest fisherperson, Katie Hayes, caught the 2nd fish. Dad caught 2 walleye's that were to small and Don Weinmeister caught 3 eye's. The boat got around 4 keepers, 6 that were to small, and 3 that were to big. I ended up with the skunk.

Even though we took this launch in the middle of June, we were fishing the exact same spot we fished the 1st launch Dad and I went on last year on May 16th.

Sullivan/Platte Tues. 6/10/08

I headed out to the East access on Sullivan around 5:20pm, when I got to the access there was a line up of boats. An 8 boat multi-species league out of Little Falls was fishing the lake. I let them launch first and they were quick about it, so I was on the water by 6PM.

Once again my plan tonight was docks, but this time in Sullivan. Now it had been sunny out for a good part of the day, but by the time I launched it was overcast. I started at the first dock South of the access heading South. I did not get a hit until I was around the point into "Old Cabin Bay" and I missed it. My first fish was a rock bass on the bubbleguy Super Fluke. I missed another bite and saw three small keepers swimming around one dock. I also learned that Strike King Zero's which have been in the water a while become lighter and on a small hook will float.

I managed to pick up 2 or 3 dinks between docks, before I got to the Prime-Time docks. A guy came out and started fishing off one of the prime docks. I got a couple of dinks off the prime docks on the Fluke. Towards the end of the prime run I got a 14" off of a boat lift on a Chart/Black Chart 3X Craw Terminator Jig.

From there I headed into Platte to fish the North and West sides of Channel Inn Bay where I knew there was some fish. I started out in the emerging reeds with a buzzbait in the wind but that wasn't happening. Once I got to the point where it was calmer I started throwing a pumpkin Horny Toad. It was not long and I lost a leg, but shortly after that I nailed a 14" bass. While I was waiting for the Super Glue to cure I had a miss on the River2Sea Bully Wa Frog black/chart nose. I threw back to the spot and was rewarded with a 15" bass. At the NW cut I got a 16.5" on the pumpkin Horny Toad. Working South on the West shore I got a hammer handle and a 15" on the Horny Toad. It was comming up on 9PM so I headed to the PRO.

I had a few weak hits at the PRO on the Frenzy Popper and Horny Toad but nothing hooked up. I headed out at 9:15pm to beat the Tourny guys in since the PRO was being a bust.

I ended up with 10 or so bass with about half being dinks and 1 Pike.

The Tourny guys all seemed to do alright and most beat what I caught for the night. The biggest bass was 18.5" with one other at 18" and about 3 that were 17+, lots of little pike, a few 8" sunfish, 1 small walleye, and a 26" and 27" dogfish. I talked to the guy who got the big bass and he got it on a spinnerbait. It was a good night to be throwing a spinnerbait with the breeze and overcast.

Platte Lake A Dogfish

I hit the water a little after 6PM. It looked like it was going to rain, but it didn't. There was a pretty stiff breeze out of the West when I first put in, but by the time I was done on the docks it had lightened considerably and the sun came out. Towards dark it got calm.

The plan was to catch some quality bass off the Big West Bay South shore docks primarily with a jigNpig with a possible Fluke thrown in here and there. I put in at the Platte Lake access and put the trolling motor down right away headed west. I missed a bass on the very first dock. I didn't have my reel dialed in and my pitching form was quite rusty from a lack of practice and I was undoing a backlash when the fish picked up the jig. I didn't get a good hookset, but I did see the fish as I pulled up and it was a solid 15" or so. I continued to move West without a whole lot going on except having the claws bit off the jigs craw probably by a pike. I eventually got down to my milk run and missed a pike on a bubblegum Super Fluke. On the very last dock I got 2 dink bass on a Blue/Black Monsoor Swim Jig with purple/wht grub. I worked into the weed flat with the swim jig and then drifted back with the wind throwing the purple Berkley Frenzy Popper in the sparce reeds and rice. I had what were probably a couple of small pike show at the Popper but they did not hook up. After a while of working the flat with nothing to show I decided to hit the North side of the Big West Bay where there is rice and pads.

I started by throwing a white Horny Toad, but had one of the legs get bit off. I got nothing in the emerging rice and pads and eventually drifted over to some fine looking green bullrushes. At the back end of the bullrushes I had a solid take on the swim jig by what felt like a good fish but it got off. I worked the North shore a little bit more without any action. The sun was getting low now and I headed to the docks on the point of the Big West Bay South shore. I didn't get anything from the docks but pulled a 16" from between the first and 2nd dock. There are now 3 docks off the tip of this point. I continued to work my way around the point into Channel Inn bay. I was throwing the wht. Horny Toad when I had a solid blow up that cut off the last leg. I fished the Toad with stumps and got a 15.5" at the NW cut.

I threw the purple Frenzy Popper at the cut and had something wake behind it. I slowly worked the popper and sure enough it bit and it was what I thought, a dogfish. I let him fight it out then I netted it. It went 24" and I released it back to get bigger. Soon after that I caught a 15.5" bass on a pumpkinseed Horny Toad. I was having trouble with the bait keeper on the Horny Toads so I switched to a Black/Chart Nose River2Sea BullWa Frog. I got a 13" bass on that and had a couple of other hits from small fish or pike. It was getting dark and the mosquito's where awful so I called it a night without heading to the PRO.

6 Bass, 1 Dogfish, 0 Pike

Mille Lacs 6/8/08 Sunday

Sunday was a nice day with light wind so I decided to head out to Mille Lacs. By the time I got there at 5pm it was overcast and getting ready to rain which was fine with me because there was a lot of Cottonwood cotten on the water. I fished out of Isle Bay and started out by hitting some docks that can be good at spawning time. I was in a pretty good groove casting to the docks but I wasn't getting any action. After hitting more than 10 docks I finally had a nice fish follow my bubblegum Super Fluke but it didn't hit it. It had stopped raining by now. I then tried a watermelon tube and came up empty. I switched to a white Strike King Zero (Senko) and the smallie took it, but I came up empty on the hookset except for getting caught up on the boat lift. Had I hooked the fish it could have wrapped me up pretty good in that boat lift.

The space between docks was getting wider so I decided to throw out a white with Chart. nose Rapala Subwalk between docks. Almost immediately I was rewarded with a solid 18.25" Sally Smallmouth. Not long after that I had another hit on the Subwalk but it got off pretty much right away. On the next dock I connected with a 16.25" on the Zero. Not long after that between docks I nailed another 16.25" on the Subwalk. I ran some more docks and worked in between with the subwalk and saw 2 fish that would not commit. The action slowed so I decided to head North to hit a reef that has been good to me in the past. I got out there and the buoys were not configured like they normally have been in the past. I swear the area covered by the 4 buoys was quadrupled. I drifted with the light wind and manuevered with the trolling motor while throwing topwater and made a pass on the reef without a sign of a fish. I then made a 2nd pass with a white X-Rap and was rewarded with a 17" Sally, but I could not get anything else to go. It was about 8:30 so I decided to hit Malone Island Reef on my way back in. The sun actually came out for a bit and it sprinkled again too. I started out working topwater, then switched to the subwalk, then went back to a purple Frenzy Popper which produced a 17.25" smallie. It was getting dark and I wanted to avoid the 10pm night ban rush so I made 1 last cast and something (I think a small pike or muskie) came out of the water missing the popper. That was it and I called it a night.

Snatchers Farm Island Tournament

Saturday, June 7, 2008

I met my partner Herman a little before 5:30PM in Pine Center. Pine Center is only about 10 miles straight North of the house and it was cool that Herman met me somewhere familiar. We loaded my gear into his 20.5" Ranger Dual Console and were off. I soon learned that Herman was about the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. This is his 27th year as a Bass Snatcher so he told me lots of things about the club. He used to be heavily involved in the Minnesota Federation before it was the Federation Nation and had lot of stories to tell from his involvement. He fishes the club for fun and fun is what we had.

I think we were boat #4 on take off and we were the first ones to head South on Farm Island Lake. We ended up starting on the SE shore of Farm Island. It was a sandy area with some weed growth towards shore. It was calm so I went with the Zoom Super Fluke. As we were working the shoreline Herman had a good fish take his spinnerbait but throw it half way to the boat. Just after that, I had a swirl on the Fluke but my hookset came up empty. This was my first time throwing the Fluke this year and I didn't use it much last summer when I hardly fished at all, so I was a bit rusty. Not long after this, the Fluke disappeared and I set into an 11inch fish. We have a 12inch minimum. I caught another 11" off the end of a dock. We worked the whole East shore of Farm Island but didn't have a keeper to show for it.

From Farm Island, we headed West a little way and went to a protected shoreline. I think Herman said there were normally reeds in this area but just like Sullivan Lake, the reeds in Farm Island are almost non-existent this year. The area was sandy bottom with some weeds. Something came to the surface and left some bubbles. Herman had me cast over there with the Fluke. I worked it slow and sure enough, my big bass of the day picked it up and I got her in. A little way down the line Herman got on the board. We eventually worked ourselves out of the weeds so we headed farther West. We were going to fish some emergent weeds at the mouth of a slop bay East to West. As we pulled in another Bass Snatcher boat pulled up to the West thus cutting us off from fishing the shoreline unless we wanted to fish used water. We worked the emergent vegetation which looked perfect for the Horny Toad. Herman got his 2nd keeper here but that was all we got on two passes.

We went somewhere to the North and I lost a Fluke to a Pike.

From there we went back to our starting spot and I started catching some dink bass on the Fluke. There was a 13"-14"keeper up on a bed but I could not get it to go. We then pulled out a little deeper and I got my 2nd keeper on a Blue/Black Monsoor Swim Jig with Junebug Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw trailer. I got the fish jigging the lure, not swimming it. We fished a cabbage bed without any luck. Before we were off to the North end of the lake Herman made me a sandwich.

We headed to the access bay and fished some emergent vegetation where I got my 3rd keeper. We moved off the emergent veg. and onto a flat with docks. I think I got 2 more keepers on this stretch and Herman got his final keeper of the day.

I am not sure where on the lake we went next but it was a good looking area where there were the remnants of a pencil reed bed. We had zero luck in the old reeds, but we really were fishing it wrong with horizontal presentations instead of pitching a jigNpig. We worked out way onto a weed flat and I broke a fish off at the knot so it may not have been a pike.

Next, we headed to the best looking water of the day. It is a bay where emergent vegetation lines water with some depth leading to a weed flat with rice and pads. We worked the sweet looking emergent vegetation but only drew fish in one spot. I got my limit fish on the Fluke and Herman caught two shorts. Eventually, we got to the flat which had the wind blowing in on it and I switched to the Blue swim jig. I got 2 fish to cull and missed one really good fish. We worked our way off the flat to where there was an old ugly orange runabout that had been half sunk in the previous day's heavy winds. The motor was fully submerged and the left front of the boat was up on the dock damaging both. The scene was quite a mess.

Time was running short so we ran into the access bay and worked more of the emergent vegetation off which I had got 1 keeper earlier. We got a few dinks on the stretch and I think Herman might have missed a keeper on a jigNpig. At the end of the emergent vegetation, there was a pretty good size chunk of wood in the water and I told Herman to try that. He didn't get anything but I noticed a smaller piece of wood quite a bit further in towards shore so I cast my swim jig at it. Sure enough, I got my last bass of the day, a fat 12.25" that didn't help me. We worked out way back a little on the emergent vegetation than called it a day.

Results:
I caught my 6 Fish limit for 9lbs 8ozs which put me in 16th out of 28 anglers. My big fish was 2lbs 7oz. The winner was our club President with 14lbs15oz and the big bass was only 3lbs 8ozs. Herman finished 27th. 20 limits were caught.

Easy Go! Again.

I headed out to Platte/Sullivan around 7AM. It was cloudy and threatening rain with a 5-10mph breeze out of the NE. The first order of business when I got on the lake was to see if I could find that white Rapala Subwalk that a pike bit off last week. I got into the general area where I thought it would be and there it was sitting on the bottom. I scooped it up with a rod on the very first try. The line was broken about 6 inches up from the line tie. I ended up using the Subwalk at the PRO river mouth and I caught a pike and several bass, nothing big and some of them were 10inchers. The Subwalk has to be a 4 inch bait and it is thick like a spook, but those little bass sure loved it. I did get some 12-15's on it as well. The Subwalk was working great over the emerging wild rice in the river, but I played my hand a little to long. I got about 150 yards into the river and I caught a small pike. He seemed to have frayed the line a little bit so I retied. On the very next cast I had one of those toothy lure poachers steal the white subwalk for the 2nd time. The water was deeper and there was significant grass so I was unable to relocate the lure this time. At least the lure was productive while I had it; I figure the lure cost me around 50 cents a fish which is many times less than the going rate of a Zoom Horny Toad.

Fishing Report: I fished the North Flat of the PRO first getting a 18.25" Larry on a Horny Toad with the buzzing legs bitten off. I also caught a 28.5" Pike on the North Flat, this fish put up quite a battle. I did catch a few more bass and pike on the Pro North Flat mostly on a black/blue Monsoor Swim Jig with either a purple/clear or purple/wht grub. I also got a couple on brown Horny Toads, but the little pike were really into stealing the legs and small bass were hitting it too, screwing things up. I tried to fish the purple Frenzy Popper on the North Flat but it just wasn't happening.

When I got to the PRO river mouth I did catch a 15" on the Frenzy Popper but that was it for that. To get the fish to go at the river mouth I used the white, clown, and wht/chart Subwalk. I probably got about 10-12 bass and a couple of pike as I fished from the mouth down the river to the damn. After losing the white Subwalk I got a couple of pike on the "lost jig" in the river.

From the river I went to work the W/S flat of the PRO where the breeze was blowing onto. I started with a bang landing a 18" Larry on the black/blue Monsoor jig, but that was it for the bass. I did catch about 3-4 pike on the W/S flat. I got done with my pass and was amazed to see it was 1:30pm, so I called it a day.

I caught 24 bass and 11 pike total.

Mille Lacs Shore Skunk

The weather looked threatening but I decided to head out anyway to give the Cemetary Jetty another try. The weather never got out of hand and the wind barely blew at all. The sun even made an appearance so I could see my lures a long ways away. I tried Frenzy Poppers, swim jigs, Subwalks, and X-Raps and I could not even get a sniff. I thought more fish would move in but apparently not. I saw another rainbow over Mille Lacs and enjoyed watching the birds.

As it got dark I made a last second stab at some action off the Eddy's Jetty, but two guys were fishing the center Jetty. I worked the corners and once again didn't even have a sniff.

Mille Lacs Shore Smallmouth

Before getting to the lake I hit up Reeds for some 14lb Fireline for the Fig Rig and ended up getting that plus 3 Strike King spinnerbaits 1/2oz 2x all white, 1x all Chart., some beads for walleye fishing, and a map of Farm Island Lake. From there I was off to Eddy's Jetty.

I worked my way around the South Jetty without any action until I was casting just off the rocks at the center Jetty. I had something come up at the shore minnow Frenzy Popper. I cast back and ended up tying into a 13." I made a few more casts off the rocks on the center Jetty and another fish showed itself but didn't hit the popper. I threw back in there with a 3/16oz Wht/Chart Strike King spinnerbait and on about the 4th cast I tied into a 16.5" smallie. I then headed to the middle Jetty where I caught a 16" smallie on the Frenzy Pop fished very close in to the Jetty rocks. I am amazed this fish struck where it did. I heard somebody on a launch say "look at that rock bass he just caught." I got a chuckle out of that. I then headed to the North Jetty where I have never caught a smallmouth from. I was working the Frenzy Pop out into the lake just beyond the corner when I had another 16.5" smallmouth attack. I was quite pleased to get 4 smallouth off the Eddy's Jetty in one day. This is the best I've ever done numbers wise for smallies off the Eddy's Jetty. I think I fished from about 4:30 to 6:30pm.

I then headed over to "Cemetary Jetty" and started throwing a wht/chart Outcast Swim Jig with wht/chart grub in the cove. Last year on Opener there were a bunch of largemouth in the cove, but no such luck this year. I didn't get a bite in the cove. I headed out to the tip of the point and on my first or second cast I had my grub tail bitten in half. A few casts later straight off the point with the swim jig and I tied into yet another 16.5" smallie. I worked the point over with the swim jig and didn't get any more takers. I then worked the point over with the Frenzy Pop and didn't get so much as a sniff. I put on the wht/chart nosed Rapala Subwalk and got a 16" or so smallie up to shore where it got off. I kept working the Subwalk for a while but could not get anything more to go. I then put on a white X-Rap and I think I missed a hit. A front moved through and kicked up the wind and it sprinkled a little. When the wind was going I switched to the swim jig and had a grub stolen straight off the point. I was hoping I could get this fish to go on topwater or a spinnerbait or on the swim jig again, but it didn't cooperate. Once the front blew past there was an awesome rainbow over the lake. As the sun set it calmed down again and I got my last 17.5 smallie on the wht/chart nosed Subwalk. I headed out after sunset but before it got very dark because I worked the area hard and was just not getting any fish to go.

I was quite pleased to get a total of 7 smallies from shore. 3 Frenzy Pop, 2 Subwalk, 1 swim jig, 1 spinnerbait.

Report 5-29-08

Today was cloudy for most of the day and it started to sprinkle in the afternoon into when I went out fishing at 6PM. I first hit the access at Bulldog, the brisk SE wind was pretty much blowing right in on it. I managed to get 1 pike on a wht/chart Subwalk. Next I headed to the Rock public access but there were people there fishing off the dock so next I headed for Jenny Olson's ramp. I caught a pike and 2 bass at Jenny's then I headed just down the road to our property on Platte Lake. We don't have the dock out yet and the wind was blowing in pretty good, but I did manage to land one small pike. From there I headed to the GOMH. The only fish I got there was a 12" Larry on a swim jig off the pallets on the SW side. I couldn't get a thing to go on the NE side and it started thundering and raining, so I took off around 8:30pm.

It would have been a good day/night for me to head to the Eddy's Jetti because of that SE wind and overcast. I thought about it, but I took the Crystal Fireline off the Fig Rig and my heart was not in it, so I didn't go.

Easy Come, Easy Go!!!

Tonight the white Rapala Subwalk that I caught the two bass on one cast with was bit off by a Pike at the GOMH. I suppose there is a shot it is laying on the bottom where the fish hit. I will not have the chance to get the boat out to look for it for several more days which means more weed growth and less chance I will be able to spot it.

The night could have been worse as I had a shore minnow color Frenzy Popper cut at the spool on a backlash. Fortunatly the cast was at a 30degree angle from shore and there was a lot of Crystal Fireline out for me to catch. I moved down the shore towards where the lure was and cast another Frenzy Popper out and reeled it in. It took a few try's but I did eventually catch the Fireline and was able to bring the lure in.

Fishing was less than spectacular. On the South side I caught one small slime rocket on a white OutKast Swim Jig and missed a pike on the "lost jig". On the North side I got 1 Pike on the "lost jig," 1 small bass on the white swim jig, 1 small bass on the "lost jig," 2 bass on a bullfrog Frenzy Popper, and 1 small bass on a clown colored Subwalk (very first cast). I missed 2-3 hits on the popper and had a grub tail bit off on the "lost jig". I fished just short of 2 hours for those 5 bass and 2 pike.

Mosquito's are starting to come out and there were a lot of gnats too. Quite a bit of panfish movement on the waters surface. GOM Lee Ander got 5 bass on the South side on worms, other than that the bass seem to have vacated the south side.

Platte/Sullivan Tues 5-27-08 Continued...

I am not going to have the tow vehicle available for the next several days so I figured I better get out while I can. I headed to Platte/Sullivan around 5pm and was on the water by 5:30pm. I started at the GOMH on the N/Platte side (Platte Platte River Outlet). Not long in and I nailed a fat 16.5" on a blue Monsoor Swim Jig with 3" purple Kalin Grub tail but that was all the GOMH PPRO held even though it looked awesome. Those Kalin grubs have great action but they are not durable at all. I elected not to run the flat heading East but to turn up around the bend into Channel Inn Bay. Once again this water looked marvelous with weeds just starting to emerge from the bottom and a light amount of "hay" from last years weeds. I worked my way all the way through the Channel in Bay from South to North, hitting the bank as well as trying 250yards from the bank in the middle. At first I was throwing a blue Monsoor Jig and I caught a few fish scattered about including a chunky 16.90," but the reel started to squeel on the cast so I put it down not wanting to wreck the bearings. I then started throwing the "lost jig" and got a pike and a bass. Conditions were calm to a very slight breeze so I decided to go with the purple Frenzy Popper. I caught mostly scattered smaller fish (12" to 14") out towards the middle. I had the Frenzy get bit off by a slime rocket, but I was able to get the bait back because it didn't hook up. In the Northern 1/3 of the bay I worked my way towards shore and had a follow from what I am pretty sure was a dogfish. It waked behind the popper but wouldn't take it. As I worked my way a little farther North, I found myself in a pod of bass and pike. I caught several of each on the Frenzy Popper with biggest being a thin 18.75". The action ended when I got to the NW cut but I did get 2 nice one's and jumped a fish off at the cut. I did work the North shore of the Channel in bay to the Point. I got a pike in the middle and a bass off of the point a little way out.

It was about 8:10pm and I decided to make a quick run to see if Loon Sex Bay was on fire. Conditions were perfect to smash them in LSB if the fish were in there and active. Unfortunatly nothing was going on in LSB except a few little northerns. I might have had a bass hit on a Horny Toad by the NE cut, but that fish got off. I fished to the cut then headed to the PRO which I have already reported on.

For the Night I think I caught 22-24 bass and 6-8 pike which is a little disappointing because the water looked so good and the water temps (60degrees) seemed right.

Platte/Sullivan Tues 5-27-08

I got a new baitcasting rod today from Reeds; Shimano Crucial 6'10" Med Hvy X-Fast. I want to use it primarily for swim jigs, but it will probably also serve duty as a pitchen and texas rig worm rod. I might even try working Flukes on it.

Also the X-Rap Subwalks I won on Ebay came in the mail today. I have them in four different colors: Clown, 37, 53, and 55. I gave the white one a few quick casts at the landing to see how it ran. I think learning to walk the dog with it is going to take practice as it seemed to get out of rhythm quite easily. I tried it for a short time out on a weed flat, but had no confidence in the bait or the area so I quickly put it down.

At about 8:45pm I headed to the PRO to give the river mouth a shot. As I approached I didn't get a hit on the "lost jig" or Berkley Frenzy Popper. I decided what the heck and put on the white Subwalk. I started banging fish immediately. The first fish was a small pike. A couple of casts later I was into a small school of bass, I think I caught 4 and lost 2. They were all 14" to 15.5" bass. After that bite subsided I headed into the river a little ways and missed a bite. On the next cast I hooked into a bass and as I was reeling it in it looked like a pike must of taken a shot at the bass and was holding on. What I was actually witnessing was a second bass hitting the Subwalk and getting hooked. I landed them both. This is the first time I have ever caught two fish on the same lure on one cast Here is a pic of the two bass. They were the last one's I caught.

Rest of report to come later...

Pike Night at Rock

I should of got up early and headed out before the cold front blew threw. I almost did get up, but I hit snooze a few to many times.

I think I headed out to Rock around 3PM and temps had dropped into the low 60's and were heading down with a 15mph North wind. The plan was to hit the RPRO with some Zoom Horny Toads. The day started out with both legs getting bit off a Toad and no hook up. Probably a pike. About 5 minutes later I landed this 24" Pike.

While I was fooling around trying to get the camera, the pike somehow spit my black Toad body into the lake. I worked my way East to West along the South windblown shore losing 1 Toad leg in the process. I got my first bass, 16.5", at the end of the pass by the beaver dam at the river mouth. That was a long stretch of fishless water, not a good sign. I started working my way back East along the North Shore and the next bass I scored, 16.25", came on the "lost jig." I then caught a couple of more bass on a bullfrog colored Berkley Frenzy Popper. When I got to the Eastern edge of the pass I caught a small pike. I decided to make a pass back to the West along the North shore again. On this pass I caught a few bass and pike on the popper and "lost jig". I would anchor when I would get a bass, but I don't think I ever got two fish from the same area. I also missed several hits on this pass. I did one last half past from the middle South shore West. I caught a 16.25" which I think was the same fish I caught on the "lost jig" earlier. I also caught a Pike on this pass. I left the RPRO with 10 Larry's to my credit and 5 Pike.

I then headed to the far north end of Rock where a little river runs into the lake. It would be an awesome spot except for the fact that it is a bit on the shallow side. I made a cast up to the left of where the water runs in with the popper and a bass just annihilated it. I thought I had a true pig, but it was only a fat 17.25." I continued to fish the flat in this little North bay and I caught 3 pike. One was 24" and one was 26."

From there I went to a windblown flat were pads are emerging but I didn't get a hit. With that it was about 8:15 and I called it quits. 11 bass and 8 pike.

I did hit the GOMH on the way home but didn't land a single bass.

Morning and Night at the GOMH

The plan was to get up at Sunrise (about 5:30am) and head to the GOMH for a little jumpin bullhead action. My get up time was more like 6:30am. After getting dressed and downing a Coke and a Suzy Q, I was off. I was off unprepared. I didn't bring a pliers, measuring board, or extra twister tails for the "lost jig." No pliers was a pain because I was throwing treble hooked topwater. I was fortunate that none of the fish I caught needed pliers to get the hook out.

I started fishing on the NE side with the wind at my back throwing a shore minnow color Berkley Frenzy Popper. I quickly put 4 jumpin bullheads and a toothy bullhead on the bank. After that the action died on the NE side so I switched to the SW side. The wind was now blowing in my face but not to bad. I managed to pick up a few right off the bat on the popper but I also missed a couple of hits. I then switched to the "lost jig" and got a couple on that, but then my tail got bit off and that was the end of that. I then switched to a white spook and caught one on that. Next I tried a couple of different X-raps but didn't get so much as a tap. I finished off fishing the SW side with the popper and got a couple of more to go. Before I left I got 1 more jumper on the NE side with the popper and had a toothy bullhead take a shot at the Spook.

For about an hours fishing I got 13 jumpin bullheads and 1 toothy.

Also the two guys in Kayaks were fishing the greater GOMH area and getting action on bass and pike. Since they were not shore fishing they weren't in bullhead territory.

Night: The rain that was West and North of here didn't materialize and I headed out the door at around 7:30pm. My first stop was going to be at the Bulldog Public Access but there was a car there with two people fishing. I didn't stop and went straight to the GOMH. When I arrived at the GOMH people were fishing the SE, SW, and NE sides. The guy on the SE side had just caught a walter on a leech fished on the bottom. The group on the SW side had a couple of orange bullheads and they said they also caught some jumpin bullheads. The guy on the NE side was fishing for orange bullheads and getting an occasional jumper as it got dark he started catching whiskered bullheads.

I was all set to take the NW side when two girls who were hanging out at the bridge went down there. It looked like there was a spot to fish 15 feet E of the SE side, so I headed down there and I'm glad I did. In the next hour and a half I landed 15 jumpin bullheads. 13 on a shore minnow colored Berkley Frenzy Popper and 2 on the "lost jig." All that topwater was a blast even though I always had to pick a bunch of weeds off the hook with every fish landed. The biggest I got was 16" with most being 12" or less.

I think I was standing almost right on top of a dogfish bed because there was a small dogfish giving me the eye and swimming around. I was going to try and catch it but a kid came down to talk and scared it off. After that I kind of decided it was to small to bother with. I don't know if it was even 20 inches.

As it got dark the topwater bite seemed to shut down and it was getting hard to see to work the lure. I took the "lost jig" and fished the SE side and managed to scrape up 1 more jumpin bullhead. So in a hour and a half I managed to outfish what I did on Rock yesterday in 3 hours, but the average size was quite a bit smaller, but the big fish were comparable.

MN Bass Opener 2008

This is my first bass of the 2008 season. It hit on a white Zoom Horny Toad and went about 15.5inches.

So I get up at 4:20am with the idea of being the first one on the lake. I got burned a couple of years ago when I didn't hit it at the crack of dawn on bass opener and several boats were ahead of me into the Platte River Outlet (PRO) river mouth. Not any surprize I was first one at the launch. Got the boat in the water, motor started and I was on my way. In the distance on the west side of the lake another boat was under way and heading north. When the boat reached the "intersection" it headed west and I was out of luck. This boat was heading right for the PRO river mouth. The PRO river mouth always seems to hold aggresive bass and some of them can be very nice sized. Get first crack at it and your sure to be in business, get there 2nd and it's scraps from the table.

I ended up setting down about 150 yards South of the other boat. I changed my change of plan back to the original plan. The water was reading 57degrees and the wind was minimal so I figured topwater might be the ticket. My first cast was indeed with the purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. A couple of casts with that and I was fouling in the "hay" (stubble left over from last years wild rice). I decided the Zoom Horny Toad would be the better option as I made my way North. A little more past half way to the river mouth I had a strike on the Toad. I was not exactly fishing on point and gave a poor hookset. I thought the fish got off, but all of a sudden there was tugging on the line and I landed #1 for the year. On my way North to the river mouth I had two more good strikes on the Horny Toad but once again was not fishing on point and I missed both. The other boat had made it's way into the Platte River and so I approached the mouth. I immediately caught a bass on a white spook. Then I caught another one and I anchored. On one of the next casts I had an awesome blow up on the spook by a bass, but it didn't hook up; It was a nice fish. I worked the river mouth with the Spook, Horny Toad, 3/16oz spinnerbait, and an X-rap catching fish on all of them, but the average size was around 14 inches.

I was anchored trying to milk the river mouth when two Kayak Fisherman approached and went right by me into the river. They did not have the decency to stop fishing until they were out of casting range. I had no problem with the Kayaks going past as that they are quiet and unlikely to spook the fish, but to fish through my anchored area was bush league. I think one of the guys caught a small bass while still in my cast zone.

About 5 minutes later another fishing boat with three people approached and fished right past me also. These people knew the guys in the boat that beat me to the PRO and the word from the people that beat me was that they caught quite a few fish. After milking the river mouth for all I thought it was worth I elected not to fish behind those 4 boats in the river. I headed out to take a look at the GOMH but there were two trucks parked and guys covering the South shore. I then decided to work the flat that makes up the North side of the PRO. Conditions were still right for topwater and so I was chucking a watermelon Zoom Horny Toad. While working my way West I had the legs bit of my Toad a couple of times. I got good action on the buzzing legless Toad and so I kept fishing it. There was a boil, but I missed the fish. I quickly cast back to the spot and this time the fish was on. A 16.5" and my best of the morning. As I worked west the wind started to increase and I started working in the Spook, a spinnerbait, and the "lost jig." With the wind blowing in the remnants of last years wild rice and this years pads coming up, the water looked great but was just not holding fish. By the time I got to the river mouth the wind was really picking up. I got one small one at the river mouth.

I then made a run down the middle of the PRO with the intention of drifting in the wind and throwing a rattlebait over water that was a little deeper. Tried that and didn't get a thing. As I was getting blown along the South shore it became shallower with "hay" and emerging pads. I went to the Strike King 3/16oz spinnerbait and started catching fish. I made it to the river mouth and then headed up for another drift pass. The wind was really howling by now and I was moving quite a bit faster than I wanted to because when I got a fish, I was immediately blown right past the area it was caught from. I made several drift passes and usually caught 1 or 2 fish per pass but nothing big. I tried the "lost jig" and a white swim jig, but the spinnerbait seemed to produce best.

At about 11:10 I elected to call it quits with 24 bass landed. It was starting to cloud up and I didn't remember the rain gear, so I was going to need to hit home before venturing to Rock. At the access I was checked by CO Kuske who had been out in a boat, but pulled out just after I did. A guy with a Stratos trailored up while I was getting myself organized. He said he got a couple of really nice fish including a 19.5" but he and his buddy had under 10 total. It looked like he spent part of his time in the general vicinity of the GOMH.

I plan to rest and then hit Rock lake a little later on. Hopefully that SE wind will simmer down some.

Rock Off: I headed off to Rock a little after 4:45pm and was surprized that there was only one rig in the lot. CO Kuske was there with his boat on the trailer and he was giving out two separate citations to people with ATV's. I took my sweet time getting ready and was on the water and fishing by 5:30pm. The wind was blowing strong from the SE but the Rock Platte River Outlet (RPRO) where I planned to fish is protected enough that you don't have heavy wave action. The RPRO is a fair sized shallow bay that fills up with pads and other weeds in the summer. In the Spring the bay can fill up with bass and that was what I was hoping for. Because of the heavy breeze I elected to drift with the wind from East to West. The RPRO runs more East/West than North/South. My first pass was made on the more protected South shore. One thing I noticed was that the water was very clear so expected the action to be on long casts and where the wind put some ripple on the water. I started off throwing a Zoom Horny Toad and I started things off with just an explosion for a hit by a big bass, but I did not hook up. What a pain! For me Horny Toads are high maintance baits. Most of the time I have to Super Glue the Toad to the bait keeper and Toad legs have a way of getting bitten off. I had two rods rigged to Toad. On the first pass I caught two 15+ inch bass and missed 4 stikes losing two Toad bodies. I did some fishing on the West end and along the North side going into the wind with little to show for it. I then went on a bunch of different drifts catching 1 to 2 fish a drift. Towards dark the wind was really shooting straight down the pipe and I quit using Horny Toad and switched to the "lost jig" which got me a few more fish. On average the fish were bigger than this morning but I didn't get anything bigger than 16.5". I also caught I scrawny pike. I think several pike had a hand in wrecking a few Horny Toads. I quit at about 8:45pm with a total of 13 bass landed which is a bit of a disappointment because I was hoping the RPRO would be packed with bass.

On the West end of the RPRO there is a beaver dam and I had a shot at a big fish there 3 separate times. Twice it didn't hook up and the third time it was on and felt like the best fish of the night, but it got off. Maybe it was a dogfish.

There was still a little light left when I was all done loading up the boat so I headed to the GOMH and caught 4 solid bass on the "lost jig." I tried a little topwater with a Spook but there weren't any takers.

So for the day I caught 41 bass with the biggest being 16.5" .

Tommorrow I am gonna get up early and hit the GOMH from shore to see if I can outfish what I did on Sullivan today.

Last Night at the GOMH???

Fishing Report Fri. 5-23-08: I arrived at the GOMH around 7PM and both of the South Ends were taken. About the time I arrived a car with three young guys got out and added to the S. side fishing brigade. Not long after I arrived the family with the two kids from last night showed up and they started fishing the SW side. I set up on the NE side and a brisk wind was blowing straight in from the NW. I caught a small jumpin bullhead on my very first cast with the "lost jig." After catching a couple of more jumpin bullheads I had a nice toothy bullhead follow the "lost jig" right to shore but it didn't strike and bolted when it saw me. I kept casting and caught a couple of more jumpin bullheads, one of which almost wrapped me on one of the markers they have in the water for the bridge work that is going to be done. Eventually, what am sure is that same toothy bullhead struck and fought me up to shore but it got off before I could land it. I threw many more casts on the NE shore and eventually some of the people on the South side started leaving. I got a total of 6 jumpin bullheads and that one toothy bullhead miss on the NE side. On the SE side I got several jumpin bullheads and a small toothy bullhead on the "lost jig." At about 8PM the family left opening up the SW side. A couple of boats had moved in and so long casting from either of the South sides was out the window. I switched to silver bullhead fishing. My first fish was a chunky orange bullhead that Willard wanted put in a bucket. On the glow Cubby and minnow I got 2 orange bullheads, 3 jumpin bullheads, and 4 silver bullheads. Willard took home the 6 bullheads. I quit fishing a little after 9:30pm so I could get home and get the boat set up to leave in the morning.

I think I caught a total of 14 jumpin bullheads.

Tommorrow: Minnesocold Bass Opener!!!

Kids Night at the GOMH Thur5-22-08

One of several silver bullheads caught by this boy and his dad on the SE side of the GOMH. They also caught 1 good orange and a few jumpin bullheads. The boy was quite excited for Saturday to get here, so he could keep himself some J. bullhead.
This family of four (Mom not in pic) fished the SW side and they managed to get one nice silver, a few oranges, and even a couple of jumpin bullheads. On the left is Willard on the pallets.
This jumper was a solid 19.25". Willard took the picture which uncropped was a great shot of the GOMH bridge. Willard said he was no photographer and I am inclined to agree.

Fishing Report: The day was warmer with a little bit of a NE breeze. I arrived at the GOMH sometime before 6:30pm and got right to trying to catch a few toothy bullheads on the "lost jig." All that I could get to bite were a bunch of pesky little jumpin bullheads, with the exception of the bullhead in the picture. I had 30 jumpin bullheads by the time the two family's with kids arrived around 7:15pm with probably 25 of the bullheads being smaller than 12 inches. Since the toothy bullheads were just not going, I gave my spot on the SE side to the red head kid and his Dad. What they caught is underneath the picture.

I stood over on the SW side of the bridge and watched the family with the two little boys do there fishing. It was semi-organized chaos. It is a miracle that they didn't end up with some day ending tangles. What they caught is underneath the picture. At about 8:15pm they packed up and left which I kind of figured would happen.

I took up position on the SW side to try for some silver bullheads on the glow Cubby and a minnow. The fish did not disappoint and I landed several silvers quickly and missed a few. I gave the fish to Willard who actually was fishing tonight. By this point Willard had a small collection of orange bullheads and one silver. It turned out to be a very nice evening as the wind died down and there was lots of fish activity on the water. Willard was his effusive self commenting on what a nice night to fish it was and on how good the fishing was. Willard went home with a limit of 10 silver bullheads and 9 or 10 fair sized orange bullheads. I donated 6 silvers to that cause. I ended the night ar 9:35pm with a total of 6 silver bullheads, 33 jumpin bullheads, 0 toothy bullheads, and 0 dogfish.

GOMH WED 5-21-08

Once again part of the afternoon was spent on various tackle chores. I put the sweet Lew's reel handle on a Team Daiwa X-100 which I hope works out, I changed blades on those Strike King Spinnerbaits I won on Ebay, and I did the last of my plastics in need of Mend-It.

I did not hit the GOMH till about 7PM. Today was sunny and almost warm so Lee Ander was there fishing the SW side. He got a couple of jumpin bullheads, but no oranges or silvers. There was a father and son fishing the SE side, getting jumpers on some kind of live bait. I started on the NE side and quickly landed 3 small jumping bullheads. About the time I caught the third a young guy and his girlfriend started fishing the NW side. They were nice people and they ended up catching at least as many fish as I did on the night. I switched to the SW side pallets and caught 6 small jumpin bullheads and I think I missed at least one toothy bullhead. Lee Ander left before 8pm per usual and Willard stayed till the bitter end of coarse. At 8:15pm I switched to the glow Cubby and minnow for silver bullheads and I ended up getting 4 of those which I gave to Willard. I missed one very nice silver bullhead. The father and son caught jumpers, oranges, and a couple of honest to goodness whiskered bullheads. The silver bullhead bite died as it got darker so I called it a night at around 9:35pm.