Northbound!

Heading up to the northwoods in search of the grand slam for the first time in 2007.  When I say grand slam I mean catching insane amounts of trophy Bluegill, Crappie, Perch (BBJP's) and Walleye.  We have a couple of days worth of time to spend and hope to conquer each specie.  It is my absolute favorite to fish a handful of lakes in one day and catch a trophy of a different specie on each lake.  Living in the Bemidji area for the past four winters, my hopes are extremely high to get back up there and repeat my success.  Nothing is better than driving through the forest for several miles and coming up on a lake that has no houses on it and hasn't seen a soul all winter.  I will soon find out if my four years of schooling will be paying off for me.  I will be posting our results as soon as we return, so until then good luck in the bitter cold!  Catch some big ones, and let them go!

What's Shakin in the Metro

This winter has been one of those winters that just make a man wonder about about what the heck is going on with this ice.  I snapped these photos yesterday evening while on lake Waconia.  For January 15th it sure seems strange to be looking at open water.  This massive stretch of open water has been steadily gaining in size and is now at approximately 30 acres.  The really odd part about it is that it has been in the single digits to below zero for the last 5 days, yet it still is growing rapidly in size.  You can see in the pics that there are houses and vehicles just beyond the open water...that's right VEHICLES nearly 200 yards from the waves.  Normally I would be the risky person out there, but the current generated from the waves has caused severe ice loss in spots, and while drilling holes in the area yesterday, we found as little as 6" in spots.  The thing that makes me wonder the most is that as soon as one truck touched the ice 3 days ago, everybody and their brother thought the lake was safe to drive on.  There are people driving all around this water and they don't realize how much ice they are actually on.  At one point last night there was a truck and a van parked next to each other, and they weren't even 20 yards from the area that we found the 6" inches of ice.  The current caused by this open water has been eating the ice away right underneath people and they don't even know it.  In the past few days the open water has grown a couple of hundred yards, and people that once had their house on their favorite honey hole have moved it away only to see waves where they had been fishing.  Craziness for this late in the year with the temps being as cold as they are. 

I strongly encourage precaution on all lakes south of Brainerd at this point.  My buddy that flies up north regularly in his small plane said he could see open water on the majority of the lakes south of Brainerd.  This is scary when you think about driving out on the ice on a lake you haven't been on this year.  If it freezes over and gets a layer of snow on top of it, then everything looks the same and the stranger to the lake will have no idea.  I usually cannot be scared by the ice this late in the season, but my ventures that I will soon be taking in the next few weeks to my smaller lakes all over the state have really got me wondering just how risky I am going to be.  Not that I won't be out there, but I will just be using my 4 years of college to make a better decision.

Now back to the fishing report.   I have been out a couple of times on the lakes close to home doing some lazy man fishing and catching whatever wants to swim under the cozy shack.  My outings have taken place on Waconia, Parley and Minnetonka.  The object of my affection lately has been what is suppose to be the "easy to catch" panfish.  Each time out has had different results for us and it seems very difficult to find any consistency in the action.  We have tried several "go-to" spots on Waconia for crappies and the fish have been winning some of the battles.  We have managed some tasty meals a couple of times out, as well as a few bonus fish that we weren't targeting.  One of the best parts about fishing for panfish in the weeds is that you always seem to have a few unexpected fish grab the wigglers (worms) and jigs.  Not that I feel like keeping the slimy northerns or bass,  but they sure can be a great battle at times.  Once this goofy winter weather settles down some, I think the action will stabilize a little more.  

You'll never catch every fish in the lake, but it sure is fun trying.  Fish On!

It's Not Always Easy

Mike and I busted free early on Friday to head up to Mille Lacs yet again in hopes of landing more eye's.  We hit the ice around 2 in the afternoon for an evening bite, and again the following morning for a half day before returning to the cities.  Our two half days gave us some very interesting time on the water.  As I'm sure most of you know, the ice has been pretty sketchy in some areas, but here is a report from somebody who has actually been up there and fished pretty much the entire lake this winter.  There is a crack that runs around the majority of the lake.  It shifts around from time to time as the ice keeps growing, but there are places that it most definitely can be crossed.  This pressure ridge most likely will not close up this winter, so the only solution is to use the available bridges, or to bring your own.  This crack is roughly 1/4 mile out from shore and wraps around the entire lake from what I have seen.  There is solid ice right up to the crack on both sides, and is fine if you can get planks on both sides.  It is only open because the two sheets of ice keep pushing against each other as the ice thickens on the rest of the lake.  Once you get across this bad boy the ice is 12" or better.  We honestly found nothing under 14" in the several spots we fished this weekend.  I just thought I would tell exactly what I have found, because everybody I talk to seems to think that this big lake has open water and cracks running all over it.  I repeat....Once I crossed this crack, I found nothing but one big skating rink that stretches as far as the eye can see.  

As far as the fishing went, we didn't have the greatest of luck.  We fished two spots on Friday afternoon, and found some hungry fellas on our second honey hole.  We didn't slay them by any means, but Mike and I had a great time running from hole to hole to catch the 6 that we landed.  Saturday morning we were joined by Art who met us on the water to bring us the bad luck he usually carries with him on our fishing outings (heehee).  This man always seems to pick the days when the fishing is the toughest, and therefore I just tell him that he's obviously bad luck.  We drove out to the spot from the night before only to find two portables set up in our holes.  We immediately started fishing new spots with no luck until we boated 3 Walleyes and a BBJP around 10 in the morning.  We called it a day earlier than expected, and spent the next hour trying to cross the ever changing ice heave by shore.  This made for a few laughs and blunders during an otherwise cold, windy, and uneventful morning on the water.  Every time on the ice is an adventure, and as always I enjoyed this one to the fullest.  You can't always catch a ton, but it's still fun trying.  Fish On!!     

Ending 2006 In Style

Battling a fierce cold for the last couple of days, I decided to deal with my sickness on the ice rather than on the couch.  I figured that I'm sick either way, I may as well be sick and doing something I love instead of being a pile on the sofa.  So, Dingy and myself left early yesterday morning for the big pond (aka: Mille Lacs).  With a great trip the first time up there this year, my hopes were extremely high going into the morning.  After a broken rod, a few cuss words from Dingy, objects being thrown (Dingy again) , and crossing a major ice heave, we were to our first spot and fishing for the day.  We had minimal results from our first few spots for the day, but stumbled onto some late in the morning and decided to make that our campsite for the rest of the day.  Unlike last time we were out, the fish were not concentrated on the bottom ledge of the reefs, instead they were roaming around on the tops of the flats.  This required only about 75 - 100 holes from Dingy's what seemed like 200lb ice auger, and a sore back the next day.  By drilling all of these holes, we were able to move from hole to hole finding active fish instead of waiting for them to come to us.  This is my favorite technique for catching many walleyes and we probably tripled our catch for the day by doing this. 

When the day was all said and done, we had in the neighborhood of 20 eye's, one broken rod, a few classic misses from Dingy, and many good laughs.  While the giants weren't smacking for us on this day, we still had action and brought home a nice meal for the table.

On a side note, I want to give a "shout out" to my cousins Matt and Bobby and their buddies who were up on the lake as well.  They were fishing a different area and struck gold, limiting out on eaters for the four of them, and throwing many large fish back up to 28".  Well done boys! 

Happy New Years to all and Fish On in 2007!

Crazy Cats!

Unbelievable catfish action is taking place right now, and for the second time writing about it I have not been along on for the trip.  Just the pure excitement of seeing the pictures and hearing the stories makes me remember my past catfish outings and makes me want to write  a little something for all my buddies who made it out.  They boated somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 - 200 cats the last time they went out.  I guess it would be tough to keep track when they are biting that fast, but I'm 100% sure that everybody got in on the action.  These catfish are amazing smoked, and blackened over an open flame.  Not only that, but the fish can be huge at times and they fight like crazy.  The "keepers" are the smaller ones, and all the rest are usually too large ( sounds like a bad time huh?).    Check out how feminine Bails looks in this picture (hahaha), and how unusual this spotted catfish looks....very cool!

I have decided that I cannot handle telling other peoples stories any longer.  Now that the holidays and the hecticness is almost done for a while, I am going to start enjoying my graduation from college and spend some time on the water for myself.  Life will wait for me to get off the lake...right??? 

Have a safe and Happy New Year! Fish On!