GOMH Oh Yeah!

Weather: Today was sunny and in the mid-'60s with a breeze out of the NE about from 3 to 10. As I fished the wind would come and go.

Tonight I arrived at the Grumpy Old Man Hole right about 5PM and I set up on the NE side. I started off throwing a clear smoke sparkle Berkley Havoc The Deuce double tail grub on a ball head jig and I was quickly rewarded with an 18 inch toothy bullhead.

I didn't bother to ask if anybody wanted it and threw it back. I started getting some small jumpin bullheads, several of which were jumpers. Next I tried a couple of swim jigs with no luck whatsoever.

I pulled out the River2Sea Wide Glide that I won in a contest and tried to work it. It didn't help that it was breezy and I couldn't work it right. I tried later when there was less wind and still couldn't get the hang of it. The lure is suppose to glide from side to side. It takes a different cadence than a normal walk the dog bait. I'm skeptical that I am going to like it, do to the difficulty in working it properly.

Eventually I put on a black/blue Strike King Pure Poison chatter jig with Berkley Havoc Craw Fatty black blue flake. It didn't take long and I got this 20" class fish.

I gave the toothy to a guy and girl that were fishing. The girl had just left to go to the South side and had been throwing a spinnerbait right where the fish hit. I proceeded to miss a couple of toothy's and then it got slow when the wind picked up.

I was hoping the Poison/Fatty off the bottom when I had a hit and it quickly was apparent this was no little fish. It took a couple of powerful runs pulling drag before I saw it was a toothy. I couldn't see the lure and the line was coming out the side of it mouth. I thought for sure it was going to break me off, but the 14lb Fireline held and I landed this 35 inch beast.

The guy who took the picture thought it was a good idea to take the picture with the truck as a backdrop. I wish he hadn't. This pike went back in the lake. I wish all people would throwback pike that size so they have a chance to get to 40". At 40" I don't care if somebody keeps it for the wall. This is my biggest GOMH toothy bullhead and biggest Platte/Sullivan Pike. However, Cyberfish caught one quite a bit bigger than this one a few years back in shallow slop in like July or August on a hollow body frog. I wish we had a pic of that fish.

After this one I might have gotten a couple of more toothy hits but nothing for sure. Of note, I did get this 18.75" pig jumpin bullhead on the Poison/Fatty.

I'll tell you what, that Berkley Havoc Lane's 4" Craw Fatty is a good bait.

As it got dark GOM Willard came over to see me. He actually had been fishing tonight. He ended up giving his bullheads (orange's and 1 silver) to GOM Lee Ander's grandson to take to Lee Ander. Willard didn't see the pike, so I showed him the picture on the camera.

Also of note, tonight Conservation Officer Kuske showed up for a few minutes. He didn't come over to talk to me, so I didn't get to show him the pike pictures. There were several boats tonight fishing the South GOMH.

I left about a quarter to 10 or so. Didn't even try for silvers.

Another Night at Eddy's with GOMH Stop.

The night ban goes into effect tonight at 10PM, so that leaves two and a half over nights to take advantage of the Eddy's Jetty night bite. Sunday was sunny and warmer with a good wind out of the East and that East wind should be good for fishing the Eddy's Jetty which is on the West shore, but if you read my last report Saturday night was inexplicably a bust.

I arrived at the Jetty around 9:30PM and it was pretty much slick with clear skies. I went to the North Jetty corner and threw out a leech with the lighted bobber. After about 10 minutes it got weird. With no hint of a bite my bobber started moving toward the Jetty and off to my right. I started reeling in and the movement to the right was more pronounced but there didn't seem to be a fish there and the bobber was up on the surface. The more I reeled the farther to the right it went. It seemed that I somehow my line got stuck in a rock that was well to the right of where I cast. As I got to were the "rock" was my bobber went under and I thought I was going to lose the bobber. But then the bobber came around and I was hung up, but not on a rock, but a very big fish. I had the fish on for about 40 seconds and then it came off. Could have been a muskie, pike, walleye, carp or smallie.

Here's my theory, my fishing line which was sinking got grabbed by a crayfish. A big fish then picked up the crayfish getting my line in it's mouth. As I reeled in the line passed through the fish's mouth until the fish got stuck by my hook. Man I wish I would have landed it or at least figured out what it was.

Anyway about 20 minutes later I caught this fellow on my line.

I had crayfish on my line 4 or 5 times throughout the night.

I tried Leeches and throwing raps but basically nothing happened until about 1AM when I put on an old clown Rapala Husky Jerk 14. I decided to give it a twitching action in the calm conditions and I got a hit but it got off. About 10 minutes later I landed one that was just over 18 inches and so in the protected slot.

After a little while I decided to change colors to a silver blue black Husky Jerk 14. I got a hit on that and landed my first keeper of the weekend at 16".

I went 15 minutes without a hit so then I tried a couple of smaller HJ12's without any luck. Because of the clear skies I thought maybe the glass white HJ14 might work. I had to the middle belly hook off so it wouldn't sink. This lure sort of turned out to be the deal. I missed a hit then on the next cast hooked up with a 17.25" keeper.


Shortly after that I caught a 18.5" that had to go back.

I then had 5 or 6 more hits a couple of which were ferocious, but couldn't hook up any of them. Then the action stopped. I tried switching baits but it went dead. This guy named Luke who I'd talked to a couple of times this weekend came out and got a bite on a leech, so I switched to a leech in the area where I had missed the most hits. After about 15 minutes the bobber went down and I got a 22". Here being held by Luke.

While it was still pretty dark but light on the horizon I got another bite but the fish let go right before I was going to set the hook. It took it down again for a couple of seconds, but then let go and that was it.

When it got pretty light out I caught 2 perch, one of which was nice which I gave to Luke. Luke put it on a stringer which he would later lose when he went to show a security guard the fish and he nearly fell in the harbor in the process. After that bigger perch Luke's bobber went down and he pulled in an eye that I think went 22".

I left just before 6AM.

I stopped at the Shakopee Lake bridge and I think I had a hit on my Strike King Pure Poison chatter-jig, but it got off right away. Wonder what it was?

I decided to go straight to the Grumpy Old Man Hole, where all I could catch was some jumpin bullheads, so I left.

Mille Lacs Gets Tough and GOMH Show

On Saturday the wind blew out of the East all day. Normally that makes Eddy's hot. It didn't. I arrived at 8PM and set up on the North Jetty Harbor Mouth. Much to my astonishment nothing happened. Finally at 10PM I went to chuck raps off the North jetty corner and that didn't work. The wind was about 5 mph less than last night. I went to the lighted bobber and a leech and got bit around 11PM. I lost the fish more than half the way in. It may have been a keeper. About 35 minutes later the bobber was gone and this time I landed it. The fish went 19" and had to go back.

At 12:30AM I went to the truck to take a nap. I got up at 3AM and tried off the South jetty. The wind had picked up some. No luck. A little after 4AM I went back to the North jetty. I did get a bite but I waited to long and it spit the leech. Once the sun got up I tried the harbor mouth, nothing! I left at 6:30AM

I made a quick stop at the bridge North of Shakopee lake. Nothing, but I talked to a guy who said he gets walleye and northern there and bass occasionally.

After getting home and changing some things out I headed to the Grumpy Old Man Hole. There were several trucks parked, but nobody on the NE side so I was happy. My first lure was the Chuck Fall Pike Spinnerbait. I got a 14.5" jumpin bullhead on my first cast and 17.75" on my second. About 20 casts later I got a 16" jumper and that was it. I tried a bunch of lures but got nothing more.

I went to the SE side on the bank and made long casts with an orange swim jig I just won on Ebay with a Havoc Devil Spear Green Pumpkin dipped in Chart. JJ's Magic Dye. I got a 20" toothy bullhead and two 14.5" jumpin bullheads on it and missed a couple of hits. That Devil Spear is the bee's knee's for a swim jig trailer.

Gold Rush!!! (Opener)

Lord Have Mercy!

That was my reaction when I saw the conditions off of Eddy's Jetty. 10-15mph E SE wind so I went to the corner of the North Jetty. I thought it was going to be a serious whack fest, turns out the fishing was just OK.

I started casting a couple of minutes past midnight throwing a purple perch Husky Jerk because I whacked them hard on that color in similar conditions in 2007 (and 2007 Part Deux). That didn't pan out so I switched to a gold husky jerk.

After about 10 minutes it was "fish on" and I landed it.

It went 23" and had to go back because it was in the protected 18-28slot.

About 10 minutes later it was fish on again.

This one went 19"

I went for about 15 minutes without a bite, so I switched to a glass perch color and I got two on that.


This one, both pictures, went 25" and was big fish of the night.

This one went 24.5

I then had a long lull and tried several baits before getting this 22" on a white Shallow Shad X-Rap.


I got this last fish around 2:15AM. Soon after that my upper back started to really bug me and by 3AM I had to give up the rap throwing.

I went on got my bobber rod and went up the center jetty and fished the North harbor mouth. There had been 3 guys fishing at the North harbor mouth from the North Jetty and they got a total of 4 Eye's. After about an hour I got a bite and missed it. I quickly put on another leech and cast back to the same spot. Sure enough it got picked up and I reeled the slack and set the hook. This one looked like and eater, but it got off. That was my last bite. I stayed till a little after 6:30am but the fish were just not going like I would think they should be.

I'll be back tonight.

Two Trips

Last Night I fished at the GOMH from 7:30-10PM. Weather was cool and cloudy with moderate wind out of the NW.

I started out fishing on the bridge with GOM Bud. Bucketman was there on the SW side as were a couple of other people I recognized. The SE side was filled with people I didn't know. The action was pretty steady. I used a plain lead-head panfish tube jig head with a minnow. I got silver bullhead and two jumpin bullheads while on the bridge.

Around 8:15PM everybody that was on the SW side left so I went down there. I was catching a few silvers and then I started missing a bunch when GOM Willard came down to talk. Eventually, Bud left with 9 silvers, 4 of which I gave him. John W. showed up and started nailing fish right away. I started giving him the ones that I caught. Eventually, Lantern Man and a friend of his showed up. Lantern Man was once again up in arms about the GOMH being on the Internet. The friend had bow fished some dogfish at the bridge North of Shakopee Lake. Interesting. When I left at 10PM I had caught a total of 10 silvers with 1 of them being a dink.

This morning I got to the GOMH a bit later than I should have at around 6AM. John W was there and said he had caught 10 but only 3 were keepers. He was on the SW side so I went to the SE side. I proceeded to go through my last 6 minnows without catching a thing. The fish were real finicky and would often take it down for a second let go and not come back. When the minnows were gone I switched to a beetle spin and got several jumpin bullheads including an 18" and another really fat one that I didn't measure that was in the 17" class.

I left at 8AM and stopped to get more minnows at Bear Traxx, they didn't have bigger leeches in yet/

Another Double Trip

Weather- A bit of fog in the morning with overcast and even a quick sprinkle. Light South Wind. Humid

Evening- 77°F was the days high, I think it was hazy with some sun.

Morning Trip:
I headed out the door for the Grumpy Old Man Hole a bit before day break and had to use the lighted bobber for about 20 minutes. I got 3 silver bullheads. After that it was nothing but jumping bullheads on both the South and North. Notable was this 18.5" jumper caught on a Panfish Chatterbait.


Evening Trip- I didn't get to the GOMH until a bit after 8:30PM, it wasn't as busy as last night, but the South side was well covered. GOM Willard arrived when I did. GOM Bud was there as was Bucket Man who was back to his bucket tonight. I was told the bullheads had been biting fairly good, so I got my rod and fished off the bridge. I was having zero luck. The guy next to me, John, said people were getting them on a plain hook. He started getting a few on a plain jig head. I tried a couple different colored tubes, then took the plastic off. Finally I got bit. Gave that one to John. Proceeded to lose my next 5-6 bites. It got dark and people started leaving. Joe from my bass fishing club the Baxter Bass Snatchers showed up with a buddy. A little later Lantern Man showed up. LM got to talking to Joe about how more people were fishing the GOMH because they heard about it on the Internet. Joe didn't tell him about my blog. It's hard for me to tell if the Grumpy Old Man Hole is busier now than it was previous to my blogging about it. People have always fished there and if the bite is on the word gets out. Lots of people fished it 2009, but the bite was really hot that year. It seems like it was less busy last year with the prolonged Spring and a bite that just wasn't as good. This year it has been moderately busy.
Anyway I got 3 nice silver bullheads and gave them to Joe and friend. I left at 10:30PM.

Double Trip

Weather: This morning started with a thunderstorm right when I wanted to go fishing at first light. I managed to make it out from 6:30am to 8:30am. There was a pretty good NE breeze blowing.

In the evening I arrived at the GOMH at about 8PM, there was thunder in the distance but it was dead calm and only sprinkled for a bit.

On the morning trip I fished the SW, SE, and NE side getting nothing but jumpin bullheads and one small tiger bullhead. I think the thunderstorm along with the NE wind blew the silvers right out.

When I arrived at the Grumpy Old Man Hole it was full up with people on all sides of the bridge. GOM Willard and Bud were there along with Bucket Man, Kyle and son John W. plus a bunch of others. Not much was going on at first and I decided to watch. Apparently CO Kuske was there earlier and pinched a guy who didn't have a fishing licence. At about 8:20pm some of the guys on the SW side started getting some. By 8:45pm they had turned on and I just watched. When Bucket Man, Kyle, and John left the SW side I went down there. All I caught was one bullhead bullhead fishing from about 9:30pm to 10:30pm.

Bullheads- No Kidding Around!

Weather: We had thunderstorms in the morning or I would have gone out. The rain quit about 8:30AM. The day was cloudy, breezy, and mild with a high of 63°F.

After a feast of silver bullhead for supper I headed out and arrived at the Grumpy Old Man Hole around 7:30PM. No surprise it was busy. The Bud the foul mouthed Grumpy Old Man was there, along with "Bucket Man" who now sits in a chair, a new guy this year who I'll call Turkey with his kid, and then there were several others fishing as well. I set up next to GOM Bud up on the bridge South side. Silver bullheads were coming in everywhere sporadically and after about 10 minutes I got my first and gave it to Bud.

I would give him a total of 3 and also get a 14" bullhead from the bridge. Around 7:50PM Grumpy Old Man Willard showed up. Round about 8:30PM Turkey and son left, so I went down on the SW side were they were. That turned out to be a bad move as I couldn't figure the fish out. Bucket Man filled his limit and I caught a little silver and missed one. Bud managed to fill out his limit up on the bridge. Some other young guys fished the South side of the bridge and got a couple of silvers and jumpers. The people on the SE side were getting fish, but by 9PM it was pretty much just me and Willard and those young guys who were now fishing the North side. Willard suggested I go to the SE side, so I went and tried that. Willard told me that GOM Lee Ander can't drive anymore because of his eye sight and it isn't very likely that he will fish at the GOMH anymore.

After about 5 minutes on the SE side I got a nice silver bullhead. Willard almost took it, but it went back in the lake. Willard left shortly after that. I started nailing a few silvers including this 12.25" fish.

Around 10PM the action slowed, but I did catch a bullhead. Yes a real live bullhead.

I had 3 more bites that I couldn't hook and I left around 10:30PM.

All in all I got
11 Silver Bullhead
1 Jumpin Bullhead
1 Yellow Bullhead

Morning GOMH Trip

Note- Date is correct even though this post was written and posted the next day.

After the slugfest that was Friday night, I figured it might be a good thing to hit the Grumpy Old Man Hole first thing in the morning and so I did. I left the house about 5:20AM and as I did I wished I had left about 10-15 minutes sooner because of how light out it already was. Wouldn't you know it but a car turned in front of me from 27 onto 8 and they headed straight to the GOMH. The guy was quick about unpacking his gear and went straight to the SW side where I was going to go. I decided to fish on the bridge to the SW, where the people were having lots of success yesterday. I popped 3 nice silver bullheads immediately on the pink Cubby with minnow. The other guy started catching some and a guy and lady showed up and took the SE side. Then after about 15minutes I got a 4th. A man with his son who fished last night showed up and started fishing next to me on the bridge. I got a bite from a nice bass and had to go down to the SW side to land it. I'm not sure what happened but my line broke and I almost lost my wing it bobber, but I did get it back.

I went back up on the bridge and re-tied. I decided to try a tube, but I picked a ball head jig that was just a little to big to get the jig head inside the tube. I did catch one small silver that I threw back on a smoke tube. I tried a lemon tube, then I decided to switch jig heads, to an elongated lead tube jighead. I went with a red sparkle/smoke tail color and snapped two nice silver bullheads right away and I thought I was on to something but unfortunately the silver bullheads almost totally shut off at that point. My next 7 fish were all jumpin bullheads caught on the SW side. I stayed until about 10:30am.

A Bit of Frustration

Weather: Nicest day in a while, high of 67 with sun and little wind.

Today was the day the fish made the big move into the Grumpy Old Man Hole. Unfortunately it was also the day other fishermen showed up to fish it. I headed out the door early today around 6PM and there were quite a few trucks parked as well as 2 boats. One of the boats was sitting right by shore on the SE side of the bridge. I got out of the car to do a little recon and the people were slamming the silver bullheads in one little spot just out from the bridge on the SW side. A couple of old guys could just drop there line down straight from the bridge and they were right in the spot. A guy on the SW side stairs was fishing out and to the west of the stairs and catching orange bullheads. I overheard the guys in the boat at the bridge say they only had two more to go to get their limit, so I quickly went to the car and got set up on the SE side where no one was. Within 15 minutes the boat left. I was able to cast in to where some fish should have been but it was mighty slow for me. I probably should have started experimenting with stuff, but I just stayed with the pink Cubby and a Minnow. I think one of the old guys on the bridge was using waxies and the other guy said he was just using a tube. A third old guy on the bridge had minnows and wasn't doing as well but he was like me and not quite on the spot. I eventually did pop a couple of nice silver bullheads. Two of the old guys up on the bridge got their limits and left. It had kind of slowed down at that point.

The last old guy remarked that it had gotten slow and I said well there were 4 limits just taken out of here and the guy fishing the SW side said there were 3 limits on top of that gotten by people who were there before I arrived. Sheesh!

I would say it was around 7PM when blog reader Mike B. showed up. He had been fishing Little Whitefish and dropped by to see if I was fishing. We talked for a while and I didn't fish. Eventually he went up to his boat to get a rod and I started throwing a beetle spin around. I started catching some small jumpin bullheads on that. Mike hooked into a dogfish but before he could get it on shore it broke his 4lb test line.

Eventually I switched back to the Cubby and Minnow and started getting some silver bullheads. Mike caught some jumpin bullheads and silver bullheads which he gave to me. The guy on the SW side left but was quickly replaced by 3 young guys. Eventually the old guy on the bridge left and kid took up that spot. I got a few silvers and missed some bites. The kid on the bridge started whacking them and the guys on the SW side got into them pretty good. As it got later it seemed like there were at least a few silvers spread out. I ended up throwing a couple of 10 inchers back, hoping for bigger.

Mike left about 9PM and so did the kid. The guys on the SW side kept catching them pretty steady while I just couldn't get anything to go with lighted bobber with the Glow Demon and a minnow. Once those guys left I went to the SW side and got 1 that I kept and that was it. I left around 10:15PM.

Seriously, I got smoked by the other fishermen. This was my haul:

Think I might hit it at first light tomorrow and see if I can't put on a whackfest.

GOMH Bullhead Slam!

Weather: Early this morning it was in the low 40's and rained/showered from 1AM to about 9AM; We got maybe a quarter inch. After that the day was partly cloudy giving way to sun occasionally and 60°F was the high.

I headed out of the house after 7PM and was fishing by 7:30PM. When I arrived Lantern Man and his brother in law were fishing one on the SE (LM) and the other on the SW. I moved my stuff by LM and went to fish to the East of him in the rough.
First bullhead of the night was this 16.25" jumper on the black/red Pit Boss. After about 15 more minutes I moved next to LM on the steps and tried the pink Cubby with a minnow. LM's BIL went to the North side, so I went over the SW side. I had the bobber pulled down twice in the same spot but couldn't hook up. I switched to the beetle spin and banged a toothy bullhead. Shortly after that GOM Bud aka the foul mouth GOM, showed up.
We had more visitors watching for a while, but they left as nothing was going on. Eventually I switched back to the Cubby and Minnow and was in the vicinity where I had gotten all the bites when my bobber went down and I pulled in an 11" silver bullhead.

As it was getting to be bullhead prime time I stuck with the Cubby until it was quite dark. I was just about to switch to the lighted bobber when I got a bite right next to the rocks. It put up a good fight and I knew it was no silver bullhead. I had to get my headlamp on while fighting the fish and once I did I was able to see a golden bullhead. That's right I got a Bullhead Slam!
The GB went 21" and because they are not open until the 14th, it went back in the lake.

I stayed until almost 10PM and on my very last cast I got a 10" silver bullhead that was sitting right where the golden bullhead was caught. This one was caught on a Glow Demon.

Slower GOMH (And GOM Willard Was There)

Weather: Sunny most of the day, but turning overcast by the time I fished. It got to 63 and was kind of breezy when I first arrived but it quieted down pretty quick.

I had to get minnows at Bear Traxx, so I was at the Grumpy Old Man Hole by 6:45PM. There was a truck parked, but I didn't see anybody so I set up on the SE side. I wasn't there long when Grumpy Old Man Willard showed up in his truck. As he was getting out of the truck I got the first jumpin bullhead of the night. Talked to Willard for a bit then he went to check and see if somebody was on the Northside. Sure enough, there was somebody there but he said he didn't catch anything. The guy never did come fish the Southside, so maybe he tried it earlier and didn't get anything.

While fishing for dogfish with the red/black Havoc Pit Boss I had a fish in the cattail stocks bite 6 times but never hook up. Bowfin maybe??? Anyway, I got a few jumpin bullheads on the Pit Boss and a beetle spin. By 7:45PM the action died.

I was fishing the pink Cubby and had a few very light nibbles that didn't take it. Finally, when it was quite dark the bobber went down but I missed it. I put the light on that rods bobber and had another bite, but missed it. Eventually, I switched up to the Lindy Lighted Bobber with the Custom Jigs and Spins Glow Demon. I managed to get two 12" silver bullheads on that. Here's the 1st one.


6 jumpin bullheads
2 silver bullheads

Bullhead Is Back (and a Dogfish too)

Weather: Today it got to 58°F and it was sunny with light winds. That was enough to bring the fish back in.

I didn't get to the Grumpy Old Man Hole until 7:45PM. I set up on the SE side and I got rid of the skunk on the first cast when a small jumpin bullhead bit. I proceeded to get a bunch of jumpin bullheads over the next hour.
This one was the biggest (18.25") and bit on a pink Cubby Mini-Mite with a minnow.

Once it got sufficiently dark I started getting into the silver bullheads. I caught 3 nice one's, and missed 2 more on the Cubby with a minnow. I then got a bite that was a little different, I set the hook and thought for a second I had hooked into a muskrat. It wasn't a muskrat, it was about a 19" dogfish. I fought it for about 45 seconds and then it got off. In the coarse of the battle I lost the split shot on my line, so I decided to go up and get my other lighted bobber rod that has a Custom Jigs and Spins Glow Demon on it. On that set up I got 1 silver bullhead on the SE side and 1 silver bullhead on the SW side. This was my total haul.

I stopped fishing at 11PM.

One Bullhead is Better Than None!

I didn't get out until 7:45PM. Today was cold and windy but the wind was more out of the West so the GOMH was protected a little better. I didn't get bite in the first hour fishing the SW,SE,and NE side. I decided to end the night on the SE side and that kept me from the skunk. I was fishing the pink Cubby Mini-Mite with a minnow close in to the end of the old cattail stocks when the bobber went down. It was the 12" silver bullhead in the picture. I had to go and get my stuff, which was on the SW side. I did have the bobber go down one more time about 10 minutes later but I missed that bite. It was cold, dark, and I figured my chances at a fish were pretty low, so I quit at 9:15PM.

Wind City

I arrived at the GOMH by 7:30PM and it looked a bit windy out of the South. I was surprised no one was there fishing. I got out of the truck walked around back and when I cleared the truck I found out it was "a bit windy" all right; Try 25-30mph sustained. I tried to fish the SE and SE side but the wind was pretty much blowing straight in and there were white caps hitting the shore. After giving it about 10 minutes I headed to the Northside. On my way, I discovered my Rapala Measuring Board laying up on the road under the car barrier. I figured it had blown out of my bag, but it turns out I had left it there on Thursday night and Lantern Man put it up there hoping I would find it.

Anyway, I got to the Northside which is a bit protected and started flinging and I was rewarded with a 15" jumpin bullhead. I was very glad there wasn't going to be a skunk tonight. The bite gave me hope. A little while later I got another bite on the beetle spin and brought in this 22.5" Pike.

(Yeah I know, lousy pic. This was the best of the 4 I took)

A little after getting that fish Lantern Man showed up. He said it was pretty windy last night too. Said he got a 21inch 6lb+ jumpin bullhead last night, but it was the only fish he got. After about 10 minutes LM caught a small toothy bullhead. He fished for about 10 more minutes then went to try the Southside in the wind. Just after he left I got a 26" toothy bullhead on the beetle spin. A little bit after that I had the beetle spin bit off and that was the end of the action. I think I left around 9PM.

Nothin' But Jumpin' Bullhead (For Me)

Weather: Today was warmer sun and almost 60 with little wind.

I arrived at the GOMH around 7:30PM and I fished the SW side and for about 5 fruitless minutes on the NE side. Here is the run down.
15.5" Jumpin Bullhead Red/Black Pit Boss
14.25" Jumpin Bullhead " "
14.50" Jumpin Bullhead Beetle Spin
14.25" Jumpin Bullhead " "
14.25" Jumpin Bullhead Pink Cubby Mini-Mite w/ Minnow
15"+ Jumpin Bullhead " " " " (long line release)

Lantern Man showed up around 8:15PM and fished the SE side. He caught more bullheads than me. When I started fishing with the Cubby I discovered I didn't have the light for the bobber. I did a 2nd long line release on a smaller jumpin bullhead when the hook on the Cubby broke. I went to switch to my lighted bobber rod only to discover there was no light in the bobber. AGGGGGHHHH!

I tied on another Cubby and fished with my headlamp on. I did get one bite while doing that but I didn't hook it. I fished to about 9:30PM, not much was happening by that point.

Sorta Slow GOMH!

Weather: Today was cool with intermittent snow throughout the day, overcast. Wind out of the North from 5-10.

I went and got minnows at Bear Traxx before they closed at 6:30PM and I was fishing by 6:45PM. I didn't get any bites in the first hour. Around 7:50PM I popped a 13.25" jumpin bullhead. About 15 minutes later I popped this 17.25" jumper.
That was all the minnows could get me, no silver bullheads tonight. I did miss a couple of bites.

Some Bullhead

I headed out of the house a bit after 7PM tonight. I started out the night playing with the new Think Tank Triggerfish topwater I got in the mail today from Tackle Warehouse. I was getting it to perform all it's little tricks, then I promptly lost it to the lake on a bad cast. Bummer Man!!!

So then I started fishing and got this 17" jumpin bullhead:
A little bit after that I got a 14.5 jumpin bullhead. I got both on a red/black Havoc Pit Boss. I threw the beetle spin with the Storm Wildeye Swim Shad for a while and didn't get anything. As it was starting to get dark I switched to the pink Mini-Mite Cubby below a bobber. I could just barely see the bobber about 12feet out when it tipped over on it's side and stayed there. I set the hook and got this 11" silver bullhead.

That was the last fish of the night. I stayed until 9:15PM.

A Little Bullhead!!!

I headed out tonight at about 6PM and my first stop was Rock Lake. Last year the ice was off area lakes before April 1st. The Rock Dock didn't go in until May 6th. This year the ice was off Rock Lake on Tuesday April 19th and the dock was in today. Go figure that one out.

The Rock Dock didn't bring me any luck, not even a bite. I left at about 7PM to head to the Grumpy Old Man Hole.

I parked on the NE side and started fishing on the NE side, Nothing. I then headed to the SW side. I was throwing the Vampire Orange(Red/Black) Berkley Havoc Pit Boss for dogfish and on about my 3rd cast I got a 13.5" blind in one eye jumpin bullhead. I switched up to a beetle spin and caught a little toothy bullhead. About 10 minutes later I got a 16.5 jumpin bullhead on the beetle spin. A couple of minutes later I had a small toothy bullhead swipe at the beetle spin but not get it. Then there was nothing for a long time. I decided to try to put a 2" Storm Wildeye Shad on a beetle spin, didn't get any hits on that. It was starting to get dark and so I decided it was time to break out bobber with the pink Cubby Mini-Mite. I was working it just a little ways out and the bobber started scooting off. I set the hook and the fight was on. I pretty sure it was a nice, but not huge, jumpin bullhead, don't know for sure because it got off. A couple of minutes later in almost the same exact spot the bobber tipped over, so I set the hook. Sure enough a silver bullhead had just inhaled the Cubby. I didn't have a bucket with me so back it went.
. It got dark enough that I had to put a light on the bobber. After about 5 minutes with the light on the bobber started moving to my left, so I set the hook and got another silver bullhead that just inhaled the pink cubby. I had the bobber move off one more time but I missed it. I left a little after 9:30PM.

Missed Doggy???

I started fishing at 6PM, nothing at Rock. Somebody put a bobber in a tree there today. Then I tried a few casts at Jenny's, nothing. So it was off to the GOMH. Nobody was there when I showed up at around 7:30PM. I decided to head to the NE side and fish into Platte. Pretty much nothing was going on and it was just about 8PM and I was throwing a Vampire Orange(red/black) Berkley Havoc Pit Boss trying for a dogfish. On one of my retrieves after I pulled the lure from the water there was a pretty good size boil that I thought was probably a fish, so I started pitching to the area. On about the 4th cast, something nailed it. I set the hook and the fish started moving up the current which was flowing into Sullivan. It felt like a good fish and just like that it came off. I inspected my line and it was frayed so I sat down and re-tied. I got back to pitching the area again and after about 10 casts something hit it. I set the hook and didn't get it. Once again my line was frayed so I had to retie. I pitched the area for about 5 minutes before I finally had another hit about in the middle of the channel. The fish was off before I could even set the hook. I kept working the area and had it hit really good. I rared back on the hookset, I felt the fish for a couple of seconds then it was off again. The Pit Boss was messed up on the hook and the Texas Rig Trailer Hitch I was using to keep the plastic in place was gone and once again the line was frayed. I retied and put on another Pit Boss, but I didn't get any more hits. The fact that it didn't break me off and I couldn't hook it, makes me think it was probably a dogfish. At about 8:30PM I switched to the SE side. Lantern Man and I think his daughter was fishing the SW side with minnows. They hadn't gotten any bites by the time I left when it was to dark to see my bobber. Easter today.

Bite Offs

Bite Offs

Tonight I fished at the GOMH from 8:10PM till dark. Had plastic bit off on the Sullivan side, had my whole bait bit off on the Platte side.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice. Hopefully, that will get the fish to move in.

Not Rockin!

Not Rockin!

Three consecutive days of Skunk. I think I missed a hit on both Tues. and Wed., but tonight I didn't even get a bite.

Off to a slow start, this year and the weather which has been sucky for a week plus isn't going to take a turn for the better until Easter Sunday. Hopefully, some bullheads will show up then. Maybe I'll do something about getting the boat ready next week if the weather shapes up.

Birds, No Bullheads

Birds, No Bullheads

Today I headed out to the Grumpy Old Man Hole early because I wanted to watch Survivor and I had to tape American Idol. It was in the low 50's with sun and about a 10mph breeze out of the North. I got out around 3PM and fished to about 6:30. No luck on the bullheads. However, I got multiple close up looks at Loons. A couple of times they came up right by my bobber. In addition to the loons were various ducks including hooded mergansers and some kind of tiny diving duck. The Loons seemed to be fishing as they didn't spend much time on the surface before diving again. Various Loons must have swum under water under the bridge about 8-10 times. I also saw a mature Bald Eagle, another large raptor, maybe an Osprey, some kind of hawk, and some seagulls. Remarkably enough no red wing blackbirds have set up shop in the GOMH area yet.

Here is a Loon on the Platte side:

This shot was a Loon close up that was just a little late:

Here you can get a pretty good idea of just how much open water is on the South end of Platte Lake. Open to the small Island and about 1/3 of Channel in Bay. I would say the area of open water doubled from yesterday.
(Click Pictures to Enlarge)
On the Sullivan side, the Platte River Outlet Bay is almost totally wide open.

Bullheads Baby!!!

Today was delightful. Sun and it was almost to 70°F. I decided it would be a good night to hit up the Grumpy Old Man Hole (GOMH) and see if anything might have showed up. I left the house at about 7:20PM so I arrived about 7:30PM. There was open water on the Sullivan side beyond where I could see going towards the Platte River Outlet, but the PRO itself still has ice well along the Southern shore. The Platte side maybe had 5-8 acres of open water. The water is as high as I've ever seen it at the GOMH, almost all the rocks are under water on the SW side.

I started on the SW corner throwing a 2" Storm Wildeye Swim Shad. After trying that for a while with no luck, I had a hunch that I should go and try the Platte side of the bridge, so I went over to the NE side. On my very first cast to a spot that held lots of fish last year, it was bullhead on!!!

It was about 13" or so, I didn't measure it. I didn't have any luck and after about 10 minutes a young beaver started swimming around in the area and smacking it's tail every once and a while. I tried a few different things without any luck. At about 8:10PM I switched back to the SW side. Right before I switched sides another bigger beaver showed up.

Once again first cast, BAM BULLHEAD!!!

This one I did measure and it went a bit over 18". It wasn't very fat, so it might have been a male. After a few more casts with nothing I switched up to a Cubby Mini Mite under a bobber. I got a hit on that but missed it. Eventually it got to dark to fish around 8:35PM.

Nice to see my first fish of the year.