Panfish Excursion- 3/15 Tetonka

[riverrat56]

For all who are interested, an informal gathering of FM'rs is happening on Saterday March 15th at Lake Tetonka, we will be meeting at 7:00 a.m. at the public access/boat landing.

This should be a great opportunity to put names to faces, catch some fish, and have a good time BSing with some other anglers.

For anyone who has never made to an Southern MN gathering they are a real good way to learn a new lake and pick up some new techniques. There is some guys around this area that really know how to catch fish, sadly, I am not one of them.

So who's coming?

[No_Net]

You know I'm in.

[ec30_06]

I might make this one. Should we plan on vehicles or wheelers as a mode of transportation?

[zappy]

I'll try to be there. Thanks for setting this up!

[blue_healer_guy]

Won't be able to make it, but I'm sure the Washington/Madison locals are glad to see another event on Tetonka.

[eyepatrol]

ec30 -

vehicles will be fine. 30" out there.

[Team Otter]

 Originally Posted By: mjgrose

Won't be able to make it, but I'm sure the Washington/Madison locals are glad to see another event on Tetonka.

I guess I'm not sure what your comment means but Washington and Madison both have their share of "events" throughout the year, it's just that most of them may not be sponsored through Fishing Minnesota. If you're thinking an FM event is all about getting over top some fish, whaling away on them for the better part of a day, not practicing catch and release and then following that activity up day after day until the pattern unfolds, you should come to one and find out what really goes on. I know I find myself hardly fishing at all and talking more than anything. These "events" are a great experience for men, women and children of all ages.

If you're concerned about fishing pressure, drive out and tell those 10 - 20 vehicles that have been in the same area for 3+ weeks to give 'em a break. That type of activity is more of an "event" than anything we could ever put together as a group.

[riverrat56]

Say TO, I read your reports in the michigan forum and I'm thinking we should be moving the get together to there. Those are some SLOB Perch, makes my pair of 11.5"s out of Diamond this afternoon look tiny, thanks for ruining my self esteem, I appreciate it.

[Team Otter]

There's nothing like UP perch.

Have fun on Friday and Saturday. I'd love to join you guys but I'm headed North. However, I am looking forward to hearing how you do because I have guide trips scheduled for Thursday and Friday of next week and Tetonka is definitely on my radar.

[harvey lee]

Riverrat

Maybe check out Mille Lacs as we have iced some very nice perch this past winter there. Some running in that 14"+ range.

[hawkeye43]

A 1#.18 won the perch pounder, nice fish. Whats the girth on them 14"+????

[Team Otter]

You smart mouth.

[harvey lee]

 Originally Posted By: hawkeye43

A 1#.18 won the perch pounder, nice fish. Whats the girth on them 14"+????

11".

[gunderson21]

How far is the wlak on tetonka for us with out 4wheel drive?? Also is there alot of holes out on the lake already??? I don't feel like hand augering 30 inches again. If you want nice perch hit up mille lacs right now. I fished mille lacs tuesday and my dad and I managed 25-30 perch from 10.5 up with 4 being 12 inches. We were in the sw corner.

[luckycrank]

there will be plenty of augers I am sure of it! you can use mine!!

[eyepatrol]

luckycrank - I've been meaning to mention that the local store here in town is sold out of the black marmooskas. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner!

[luckycrank]

no problemo I could have looked for my self any way but forgot as well

have you been out ?

[eyepatrol]

I'll be out tomorrow morning with a good friend of mine. We'll be on the same lake, but will be there before everyone who's attending the GTG gets there and will have to leave by 11:00a.m.

Will be trying out some new spots though. Other areas where I believe crappies & 'gills stage prior to the spawn.

[luckycrank]

kind of scepticle of driving my truck

I have not been on the lake since wednesday and things were looking rough then.

[eyepatrol]

I've got a positive outlook on using the truck tomorrow. I know it's warmed up a bit and the snow has melted away, but I'm optomistic that we can still acess the lake yet with trucks.

If not, we'll figure something else out. Hopefully riverrat will give us an update later today or this evening as I believe he's out there as we speak.

[Team Otter]

Enjoy the day gang!

[riverrat56]

I'm back from the lake guys, fishing was SLOW, caught fish at a ratio of 1 per 100 holes, and I'm not one to drill more than 100 holes in a morning so.....well anyways it wasn't very good.

The boat landing will still be useable for 4WD, acctually saw a car out there today to. Ice was getting a little soft, but I found no less than 28", if you have a four wheeler or sled to bring it might not be a bad choice if you aren't that fond of driving on ice in the first place. Only found a few slush pockets, small ones.

Hopefully we can put some more fish on ice tomorrow guys, I've found lots of unproductive water so far, there is only so many more spots they can be hiding. I did mark alot of fish in a few spots, but I was not on top of my game as far as catching goes.

Anyone that wants to use my auger is welcome to tomorrow, I'd really hate to see some hand crank through this ice.

See everyone tomorrow morning, bright and early.

[BK19]

have fun guys i wont make it, i will be north a bit

[ec30_06]

What general area of the lake are you guys planning on fishing, just in case I'm not at the landing at 7:00?

[hawkeye43]

May need to go fast, to jump up on it

[Matt C]

I may have to escape the kids in the morning. If I do, I'll look for the loud group drilling holes all over near...best point? or the beach? or near the public?

[riverrat56]

I've got no idea where we will be, but if tomorrow is anything like the Francis get together just look for a group of guys drill a whole bunch of holes.

[Team Otter]

We're professional at that. Lots of practice last year...

[Bigeye30"]

Any reports from this? I wanted to hit that but just couldn't get some things to line up, I'll be out somewhere tomorrow morning, and will post after that.

[riverrat56]

Well, the get together kinda fizzled out, we didn't have a huge crowd show up, I'm not the planner TO is. I do think more people showed up, it was just that no one ever really got together.

I did get to meet and fish with luckycrank and zappy and his daughter, who seemed to have some real skills with that flasher, I was impressed.

We started out fishing a flat that tapered from 24-28 ft, I connected with a fat 11" perch after about 45 mins of fishing and we found pretty steady action for the next hour or so, icing around a dozen perch and a few crappies, most were smaller fish.

The biggest excitment in the first few hours was Jeremy (No Net) putting a hook in his finger, being the nice guy I am, I made sure that there were no more fish on his flasher before I helped him out. He toughed it out and pushed the barb through and I did the honors of cutting it off.

No Net and I stayed in the same general area all day, and man did we drill some holes, I would guess around 100 maybe more. Through out the day we would get on top of a school or fish and pull up a few, that would fizzle out and the search began again.

Some school of perch seemed to be very active while others were very neutral. I had solid fish from the bottom up to 14' at one point, it was unreal, I couldn't get my jig back in the water fast enough. Small marmooska jigs/lindy Fat Boys, tipped with waxies were a consitent producer, I also had some luck on a forage minnow fry, which a lost to a real nice perch, somewhere in the +12" range.

The perch seemed to prefer waxies over spikes or euro larva, which I found odd since these fish were full of what I think were blood worms, and to me a red spike looks more like that than a waxie, but what do I know, I'm not a perch.

luckycrank needs to get some camo, the fish could see him and his pimple (swedish) and wanted nothing to do with him for the longest time.

I wish we had moved and tried to find some more consitent gill' action, but I couldn't bring myself to leave the perch bite, even though it was sporadic. And that whole "never leave fish to find fish" quote was ringing my ears after my lack of sucess on Tetonka in the past.

Even when we were on fish, they were not moving much, we were all constiently changing holes and if we did not mark a fish, we didn't even drop a jig down, they wouldn't move horizontally to get to a bait.

We ended up bringing home 18 perch between 9.5" and 11.5" and three bonus crappies for two people.

I had a good time and got to meet a few new people, I wish more people had showed up at the landing in the morning to get the morning started off with a bunch of augers spinning, but I think the day was still sucessful, I finally cracked a small part of the code on Tetonka and look to be returning once more before the ice leaves us for good.

I'm off all week on spring break, anyone want to go out one evening and try to find them again?

(luckycrank, my email is [email protected] if you could send me those two pictures when you get a chance, that would be great)