My Morning With Delroy

3.70lbs/22.5" X-Rap Shallow Shad (White)

5:00-9:30AM GOMH NE SW
Conditions: 50's, Cloudy with some light rain, Windy NW

When I arrived it appeared that Sneaky C was driving off and there was The Wheel House Guy fishing the SW side.  He got a golden just as I was pulling up.  We talked for a just a second then I went down on the NE side.  The NW wind was whipping pretty good but the North side of the GOMH is protected pretty well from a wind in that direction.  I ended up getting three golden's on the Shad Shallow which I gave to The Wheel House Guy.  He was very appreciative.  I was also catching some toothy's and jumpers.

The Wheel House Guy left so I took that opportunity to switch sides as the action was pretty slow on the NE side this morning.  I caught a couple of jumpers on the Poison.  I put on the Hack Attack Jig and hooked a hog bullhead just as Wheel House Guy was making his arrival.

4.38lbs/19" Hack Attack Jig/Craw Fatty

  That is Wheel House Guy in the background.  He gave me a Pepsi to drink and we talked and fished until I left at 9AM when some of his friends showed up.  I found out his name is Delroy, but he will be Wheel House Guy to for blogging purposes.

6 Best Bass with Big Walley Lower Right

Best 6 Bass of the morning

11 Jumpers
3 Golden
3 Toothys

Gold Morning at GOMH/Mille Lacs With Steve Evening

6.50lbs Rippin Rap (Chrome/Blue)

4:45-8:20AM GOMH NE SW NE
Conditions: 50-67℉, Partly to Mostly Cloudy, ESE Wind, water level normal falling

It was a little warmer this morning to start and the wind tended to blow more SE than ESE.  Basically, nothing was going on for the first half hour except a few baitfish getting busted in the tube, so I knew fish were there.  I got my first golden of the morning on the Crackle Jerk Shad.

17" Jerk Shad (Crackle)

After a few more casts and no more bites.  I decided to go to the Rippin' Rap for the second time in the morning.  I caught 3 (21.25, 18.5, 18) and missed 2 more in the span of about 9 casts.  Then there was about a five-minute lull and I caught the big one and the gold rush was over.

21.25" Rippin' Rap

I had a good jumper hit the Rippin Rap and jump me off in the tube. I then went to catching them on a craw tube getting 4 jumpers and missing about as many or more bites.  They would pick it up then quickly let it go.

16" Craw Tube (Brown/Grn Pumkn)

When the action slowed I finally got over to the SW side where it was like pulling teeth to get bit.  I did get this chubby 15.5" which was the heaviest of the morning over there.

2.27lbs/15.5" Craw Tube (Brown/GP)

I went back to the NE side and got a couple of dinks on the Jerk Shad and Rippin' Rap.  Then I got a 24" toothy on the Rippin' Rap and a 20" toothy on the Craw Tube (watermelon red).  I got some pickups on the watermelon red craw tube, but they would spit pretty much immediately; I caught one dink on the w/r before switching back to the b/gp.  I got two more dinks on the b/gp and it was time to go.

Best 6 Jumpers and the Big Gold Bullhead

Best 6 Jumpers

11 Jumpers

5 Gold

2 Toothy

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4.78lbs/25.5" Jerk Shad (Crackle)

8:30-10:00PM Eddy's Jetty
Conditions: Hot day, dark sky's no rain, Wind out of the South, unfortunately.

Conditions were such that I thought the bullheads would really be going at the GOMH.  Steve met me there, but the fish weren't going.  Lantern Man's son was there fishing and they had gotten some bullheads.  I quickly made the call to bag it and head to Mille Lacs to try and get Steve his first ever walleye.

When we arrived at the Jetty there was a family fishing off the North Jetty's North Corner and a native couple fishing off Center Jetty in the North Harbor Mouth.  We took the North Jetty at the harbor mouth.  The family left expanding our casting area.  Steve thought he missed a hit on the Rippin Rap.  It was after 9PM and getting dark.  I put on a Crackle Jerk Shad and got the first eye of the evening around 9:20 or so.  I immediately put a Jerk Shad on Steve's rod as well.

18? Jerk Shad (Crackle)

 It was probably around 9:35 when I saw a pair of eyes swimming toward me in really shallow water.  I brought my cast in right above its head and the doggone fish actually snatched at it.  I never had one that I could see do that before.  It was a 24-25" class fish and came off as I was bringing it up onto the rocks, so no picture.  At about 9:45PM Steve got his first ever walldog.

18" Jerk Shad (Crackle)

As I released the fish into the Jetty I saw another eye scoot away.  The native lady said she was looking at a bunch of them right now as she was fishing off the dock into the Jetty.

Steve got the last fish, first picture, right at the 10PM deadline.

So I achieved my goal of getting Steve his first ever MN State Fish.

My best 6 bass and Steve's big walleye

Not My Day

17.25" Grass Pig

5:10-6:00AM GOMH NE
Conditions: High 40's, Mostly sunny, Windy ENE, water level normal falling

I thought conditions were such that I might mine a little gold this morning.  Maybe I got out a little to late.  First bite was the first and only jumper I got.  Next bite was a 25.5" toothy bullhead on the X-Rap Shad Shallow.  Missed a couple of hits on the SW side.  Decided against going to Mille Lacs and trying my luck there.  The cold wind and sun sapped the desire right out of me.  I planned to hit up Mille Lacs in the evening when conditions would be more favorable.  I went home, sent some time working on tackle then went to bed and couldn't get out of it.  Slept right through until early Friday morning.  Oh well.

GOMH Morning/Trophy In Sullivan Evening Trip

The Trophy Is In

5:00-8:00AM GOMH NE SW NE
Conditions: 55-65℉, Mostly Sunny, South Wind, water normal falling

18" X-Rap Shad Shallow 

I went through my usual golden bullhead baits (Grass Pig, Jerk Shad, Rippin Rap, Shallow Shad, Spro 25) and came up empty for about 25 minutes.  Then I figured out what they wanted with the X-Rap Shad Shallow and caught 3 (18, 19.5, 19) golden bullheads real quick.  They wanted it jerked in place as it drifted across the far end of the tube from the far side to the near side in the current with little forward movement in the bait.  Can't say I've ever seen that one before.  I caught a 20" toothy casting across to the riprap and an 18.5" toothy on the Poison/RaZor Shad.  I tried to make the Cover Pop go, but the fish didn't want that.  Same with the Horny Toad.

I went over and gave the SW side a shot.  I caught a 15" jumper immediately on the Jerk Shad, but that was it.  I got a 14.25" on the Craw Tube and had a toothy miss the Cover Pop.  Kind of pathetic on the SW side this morning.  I went back to the NE side where it was calm and had a fish give it's position away on the Sprinker Frog.  I caught an 11.75" and 15" on the spot on the craw tube.  I got a 20" toothy on the Craw Tube.  I missed a couple of blow-ups on the Sprinker East of GOMH and caught a 20" toothy on it at the GOMH.  That was it for the morning

15" Craw Tube (Brown/GP)

4 Jumpers
3 Gold
5 Toothy
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I spent the morning and afternoon slowly getting the Trophy ready to go then headed off to the Chiropractor and Subway at 4PM.  We left for the NE Sullivan landing a little after 7PM.  I chose the NE access because I wanted to fish the SPRO and river mouth

8:00-9:30PM Sullivan Platte River Outlet
Conditions: 82-74℉, Partly Cloudy, Calm

15.75" 1st ever Sprinker Frog Bass

The motor started right up and ran just fine, whew.  Something it did when I took it out of the water last year had me a little concerned.  It probably took me a good 15 to 20 minutes to get the boat set up and ready to fish.  There was more straw and hay in the water than I would have liked.  No running treble hook topwaters in most of the SPRO this year.  I started out throwing the Sprinker as it's kind of a perfect bait for fishing these conditions.  I was just about to put it down when I got my first blow up and caught the fish.  I had a couple of pike miss it thankfully and missed all the rest of my blow-ups (about 6 or 7).  I also threw Mad Maxx and was equally inept at hooking up getting a 12" in the hay and 16.75" at the river mouth, which I arrived at as it was getting dark.  I also caught a 16" in the river mouth on a red shad craw tube after it was clear they didn't want topwater.  It got dark and thankfully the bugs that were hitting my legs weren't biting mosquitos.  A little north wind started as I went through the GOMH, surprisingly no one was there fishing.  I arrived at the lake place to see Steve had turned on the inside of the boathouse light on, but not the outside one like I wanted him to do.  I parked the Trophy just fine.  Right after that the wind really came picked it up a couple of notches.

Best 6 Bass for the day

For the Day
8 Bass
7 Pike
3 Eyes 

Morning At The GOMH

A pretty lackluster sunrise this morning

5:00-8:00AM GOMH NE SW NE
Conditions: 48-58℉, Sunny, NNW Wind, water level falling.

17" Spro 25 (Baby Bass)

Grass Pig nothing, Jerk Shad nothing.  I thought what the heck I'll give the Spro 25 a shot.  Sure enough it caught me a golden bullhead.  I also got a jumper (16.25) and missed a few hits on a clown X-Rap; plus one jumper (15.75) on the black/blue Piranha. It was now after the sun had risen so I switched to the SW side.  They didn't want anything to do with a moving bait and somehow I got the black/blue Piranha snagged in the channel and couldn't get it free and ended up having to break it off, which was depressing.  I ended up getting and missing some jumpers on either a brown/grn pumpkin or junebug craw tube.  I missed close to as many as I caught.  I went back to the NE side and got a jumper on the junebug craw tube and a white Poison/RaZor Shad.

17" Craw Tube (Brown/Grn Pumpkin)

6 Best Jumpers of the Morning

 10 Jumpers
1 Gold

Morning Crushfest at the GOMH/ Evening Trip as Well

17.75" Bubble Walker

5:00-10:00AM GOMH NE SW NE
Conditions: 50-64, Partly to mostly cloudy, Calm with a south wind after 9, water level normal high

19.25" Grass Pig

I was glad to see no one beat me to the GOMH this morning.  On my second cast, I was rewarded with some gold.  Then it got slow for about half an hour.  Finally, I picked up a jumper on the Bubble Walker, first topwater fish of the year.

14.75" Bubble Walker

I got one other small jumper on the Poison, before bailing to the SW side.  I started stroking them pretty good on the Crackle color Jerk Shad. This 18.25 was the biggest.

18.25" Jerk Shad (Crackle

I ended up with 15 jumpers and two toothy's on the Jerk Shad for the morning. After they were done for the most part on the Jerk Shad it was craw tube time;  I got 12 jumpers on that for the morning.  Here was the biggest craw tube jumper.

18.25" Craw Tube (Brown/Grn Pumpkin)

I got a couple of smaller jumpers on the Bubble Walker on the SW side.  When the action slowed at about 8:45 I went back to the NE side and it was AWWWWWWWWWWN topwater.  I got a 16.5, 18.25, 2x 17, and 17.75 before a boat came through and shut it down for a while.  The boat is in that first picture.

18.25" Bubble Walker

I did manage to get a couple more jumpers on the Bubble Walker and craw tube, including the 18.25" pictured above this last one.  I also got one toothy on the Bubble Walker.  So it was 12 bullheads total on the Bubble Walker.  The wind came up and it started to sprinkle as I was packing up.  A very good trip I would say.

The 4.93 was the 24.5" Walleye I got at Mille Lacs that I couldn' get to scrub.
So 21.65 for my best 6 jumpers this morning

41 Jumpers
5 Toothy
1 Gold
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23" Poison/RaZor Shad (Bulldog)

8:00-8:20PM GOMH NE
8:30-9:30 Bulldog
9:30-10:00 GOMH NE
Conditions: 60's Partly Cloudy, SW wind turning calm

15.75" Craw Tube (Brown/Grn Pumpkin)

I decided at the last second to go to the GOMH first.  There were people on all sides.  I decided to throw a few casts with the Horny Toad on the NE side.  I then threw a few with the Poison and was rewarded with a 20" or so toothy that I gave to a nice old lady that was fishing on the NE side.  I went down on the SW side briefly.  I lost the tail of the RaZor Shad.  At that point, I bailed for Bulldog.  Thankfully no was there.  I caught 4 bass and the 1 pike.  I missed several bites on the craw tube as well.  I wouldn't say it was a clown show, but I had to retie 3 different times due to freaky occurrences and I couldn't get that walleye off the Rapala Scale.  I wasted a good 5 minutes of fishing time messing with the scale.  It looked like a beautiful sunset but my view of it was obscured at Bulldog.

I went back to the GOMH and no one was there, neither were any bullheads.  Somebody else showed up at about 9:50 and as I was packing up the car Lantern Man's son showed up.