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saturday 6/30/07


minnesotatuff

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put in at cove again around 1:00. its pretty shallow with lots of rocks. the last two times ive hit rocks with my prop when i had the motor tilted some (not enough apparently).

i searched and fished 5 spots...marked fish, but couldnt get them to bite. ive yet to try trolling cranks in deep water though. search from 15ft to 34, almost 35 ft... when i marked fish, they were below schools of baitfish or bug hatches.

finally in early evening the wind started to pick up from the east. there were even some rollers starting. i caught a 21" and missed another bite in 20ft not too far from spirit island. that was about 6 to 7. at 8 i packed up...right in prime time... ah well, its a good thing. there was a long line at the access and i was by myself.

the conditions played into it alot, but for me the bite has slowed way down in just a week. it could be the hatch too. there were lots of big mayflys floating.

probably wont get up there until next saturday again.

best of luck to all,

regards,

minnesotatuff

ps, coming back into cove bay thru the bouys i noticed an aluminum runabout on plane heading out into the lake way east of the green markers and the channel, about 1/4 to 1/3 the distance from mazzomonie point (spelling?). i hope nothing happened. maybe i wasnt a good individual for not stopping to make sure he made it thru. however, there were lots of boats around and a lot closer than i, so... please be careful everyone. not only is it costly, it could be dangerous...

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We fished from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Started out dragging leeches on the flats, later switched to pulling cranks in the open water. Two of us boated 8 fish, one was 20.5", the others were all 23"-26". Got 4 of them on leeches and 4 of them on cranks. The bite was very spotty, we'd go for a long time without getting a fish, then bang 2 quick ones, then go for a long time again without a bite. Beatiful day to be on the water though.

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We had similar 'spotty' results, but still a better bite and more fun that I'd get fishing for 'eyes on any metro area lake that I know of.

Friday evening between 7 and 10 pm we boated 5 fish, all on crawlers/spinners and all going about .8 to 1.0 mph. Leeches didn't work but only fished them for an hour or so. Missed about 6 other bites, with 2 that were 'on' for a hookset and at least a drag pull or a couple reel cranks, and the others just getting free bait. All of those bites came between 8 and 10 pm except 1 fish at 7 pm. I was thinking it was going to be a hot bite Saturday, considering how Friday was before dark. Tried bobber fishing with leeches for an hour+ between 10 and 11:30, then tried cranking between 11:30 and just after midnight. Not as much as a bite with either presentation. Must have been cause we forgot the beer on shore.

Rather than a hot bite I predicted for Saturday, it was fairly slow. Hit the same flat that had produced 10 bites in 2 hours the night before. Got a few bites but no fish boated. Slow enough that we thought we should try somewhere else. Ended up with nothing happening there, not even a bite on our spinner rigs, so we switched from crawlers/spinners to cranks in deeper water. Ended up with 2 nice fish on deep taildancers in a couple hours, went back to spinners/crawlers and switched flats. Got 3 more fish fairly quick, then nothing. Tried leeches/lindys to no avail.

To mix it up a bit we went to some shallow rocks and tried for smallies and skis. Ended up with 2 smallies and a few other misses. I've never fished for smallies before, but it sounded easy enough according to some stuff on this site -- 'toss in a jig and reel it in over shallow rocks'....that was what I did.

Total of 10 'eyes, varying size from 18.5 inches to 27.5 inches, for about 11-12 hours of walleye fishing (22 man hours I guess, there were 2 of us). Not the 'hot bite' fishing that one would have gotten a couple weeks ago, but definitely enough action to keep a guy satisfied.

On a side note -- Appledorn's resort is a pretty nice place. Paul set us up with a cabin on very late notice for Friday night. I'd have to say that if I'm going to stay on that side of the lake again, I'm going to have to learn to fish the SE structure -- the 9.5-12 mile commute to the mud flats I'm used to fishing wasn't too bad in the weather we had Friday/Saturday, but in real 'walleye chop' it might be less than fun.

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I took my daughter out on friday fished the mud from 1 pm until 8:30 and we caught around 20 to 25 walleyes. Was able to take a meal. She had the time of her life she caught about 13 which out fished her dad and I will never hear the end of that. On the same flat saw about 8 boats and maybe only 6 walleyes caught out of them 8 boats. I guess thats all we can ask for is to take home a meal and catch that many fish we will be going back up next weekend to try it again in the xame spot.

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Wow, awesome day on Friday for you! We hit some good ones Friday evening between 7 and 10 pm. Unfortunately Saturday didn't seem as good as Friday. Hard to complain really, the weather cooperated, the fish did a little, and there's really no such thing as a 'bad' day of fishing smile.gif

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Fished Sat from 5pm to 11pm out of Cove Bay. Dissapointing results. Started out on 4 Mile gravel, marking a lot of fish. But only picked up 1 24" and missed one bite. The wind really picked up around 7pm. Went over near Anderson's reef and trolled Raps in 12 to 18 ft. Tried for over an hour and picked up one 23". Then tried bobber fishing from dusk to 11pm and nothing. Not a single bite. Thought with the full moon we would have better success. Was bobber fishing in 12' to 16', was I too deep?

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I was out Saturday and Sunday. Things have certainly gotten tougher out there. We still caught fish, but at a rate much lower than previous weeks.

One note... I am always amazed at how much pressure some flats get compared to others. 7 Mile always looks like Excelsior Bay prior to the fourth of July fireworks while many of the northern flats (which are just as good) can be fished with 0, 1, or 2 other boats on them.

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6/30 - Fished 7am to 5pm.

Caught 21 walleye. Biggest was 28.5 incher. Over half beat the 26" mark. Smallest was 19.5 (still swimming). But the real highlight of the day was after being blanked tossing for muskie, we tried for some smallies and WOW! that was a blast! 2-4 FOW of water near shoreline rock. They mostly hit tubes, but got some real nice ones on topwater... with the biggest just over 18 in. Probably caught 18+ smallies. A great day to be on the water.

LT

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Fished the south end from 1:30pm to 6:00pm. We boated 10 (missed 4 others) all above the slot with 3 being +25. Fished the deep gravel. Most boats were on 5 mile gravel but we fished 4 mile all by ourselves. Marked a lot of fish. Used minnows on 15 foot 4lb snells, small circle hook. Oblong floater up 2 feet from hook.

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Fished Fri. with my Cousin. He guides up there. My wife gave myself and my dad this gift for father's Day, a day on the water with him. Seemed different not pulling a boat up there.

The three of us caught 30. With the biggest 26". We were able to keep ten. Fishing the mud with leeches. The "hot" color hook was Chart. with a chart bead. My dad caught 15. I caught 7 with the red hook & chart bead.

Missed probably another 8 hook sets also. A great day to be up there.

If anyone is looking for a good guide who will work "his tail off", and produce fish, let me know.

[Note from Admin: Please re-read forum policy before posting again]

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You may have to "read between the lines" on that one. The longest snell I've ever used up there is 11-12 ft. I use a 9ft steelhead rod for those long snells.

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I fished up there Saturday around shermans point. My friend and I caught 4 fron 22.5 to 27 inches on leechs with 7 ft snell.

I dont know if anyone else experienced this, but with an X112 we couldnt get a good reading to the bottom?!?!? Was that all mayflys about 15ft down on those flats that were actually thick enough to interfere with the sonar??? If it can read a thermocline i would think bugs that thick could really screw up the reading.....it did! shocked.gif Anyone else have that?

Anyway the fishing was poor... nice day though.

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Could be the mayflies. We saw quite a few huge clouds on the Lowrance when we were fishing the mud last Fri.

We were using snells ranging anywhere from 8 to 11 ft. Chart hooks , single chart bead. or a chart bead with a red hook. Leeches, nothing on crawlers, Nothing on spinners.

has anyone done anything with spinners yet.

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Slim I had the same problem on 5 mile gravel on Sat.. I didn't know if my depth finder was broken or what.. I eventually moved to sloppys and it was fine. but I did notice alot more mayflys on 5 mile then sloppys

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Me and the family are heading up this weekend (July 5th - 8th). How bad are the mayflies? Since my wife and kids hate them will I be fishing alone?

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dont want to start a rumor, but someone told me they thought the hatch was over??? ill find out saturday again.

regards,

minnesotatuff

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When talking Mayflies, its about the number of shells and or flys laying on the top of the water showing that the hatch is on. They are not flying. I've never run into a cloud of mayflies actually flying above the water except near shore. Maybe somebody else has but not me.

Someone asked me about my 15'snell length and how you get them in the boat at that length. Believe me, you see a 6 pounder on the line, YOU WILL GET IT IN THE BOAT. We use those plastic quick release clevises (made for spinner blades) to connect the slip sinker (northland wire top slip sinkers). We also modify the rod tips and put on larger rod guide on the end of the poles. If the fish is troublesome, we pull off the sinker and real the clevis through the larger rod guide. This shortens the snell. We also have used slip knots (instead of swivels) below the quick release clevis. Slip knot made from heavier line like the black braided 20 lb test. This goes through the smaller rod quides without any damage to the guide itself.

Call me Dr. Frankenstein but I like to experiment.

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Oh my, that sounds like entirely too much work to me! I'll stick to something more manageable. I'm guessing it must work better having that extra few feet of snell, or you wouldn't go to all the work, but you can call me lazy! smile.gif

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Actually all the work is done once. With the 20 lb slip knot instead of the swivel, you can vary the length of your snell without having to re-tie a shorter snell to your swivel.

good luck to all.

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Here is another thought on variable leaders. Since most stores sell 3'+/- leaders on their spinners and lindy's, you can put a swivel on your line and use a split shot further up as the weight stop. If you want a long leader, go long but it will slide down the line if you need to land the fish. The swivel at 3' from the hook doesn't seem to make any difference either as I have caught many fish in many lakes with this setup.

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I know people like to use what they think works and what has worked for them, but sometimes people on the big pond are just too picky. i was up earlier in the year and was fishing with a 7 foot leader with one red hook tipped with a leech just like all the other fisherman on the lake...i switched over to a jig and a minnow for a little and trolled around, my dad laughed at me for making him buy minnows but it paid off. in 20 mins i landed 3 fish over 25 and the two were 30 an the other was 30.5. people need to get out of the norm and use other tactics out there in might just pay off!

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snell length is not that important unless your lazy and dragging bottom all day. Will more than double your catch on the mud staying off the bottom. I turn up the sensitivity on the sonar use 2 ouncers and watch my bait on the sonar. Good luck

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thanks tonkapat, thats something im going to try. ive noticed the 1 ounce weight i use going down on the locator... what you do sounds perfect. you can dial in your presentation to the depth the fish are at...like a poor-mans downrigger! i also like the jig and minnow. that used to work on mille lacs when i was a kid and it works in most other lakes. thats the fun in fishing. there are so many different ways to go about it. a buddy was up last sunday. they got out around 8 or so and fished all day. the walleye bite was slow to non-existant so they tried trolling in isle and wahkon bays. he caught (3)4 to 5 pound northerns, a 26" muskie, an 18" walleye & 18" smallmouth, plus others. sounds like a pretty fun day to me, all because they decided to try something different. last summer in august, when the walleyes were tough, i could mark them lining the bottom in 35ft but i couldnt get 'em to bite. well, just for the hell of it, i took out my icefishing pole & jigging rap. i didnt have any minnows to bait it with, so i put a nightcrawler on it. as soon as it hit the bottom i had a strike. i was so suprised, i missed it. i checked the crawler and sent it down again. sure enough...a nice 24". i didnt even use the net on it...just like icefishing.

im planning on being up again on saturday and havent even checked the weather yet. this wednesday holiday week has made it seem like monday again today...

regards,

minnesotatuff

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