Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

10th-12th Fishing Report............


FISHINGURU

Recommended Posts

like always i start my report thanking jon and kelly...always a good time in your sleeper shacks. we had the 6 man sleeper "the cadillac" of shacks...we had 3 guys and 3 girls.

well we rolled in monday afternoon and caught a few nice eyes right off the bat...all nicer size url eyes..we caught quite a few 20-22 inchers during the trip....alot in the 17-20 range and the a few in the normal keeper range...if eyes were open we would of all had our limits everyday. obviously we were fishing for crappies but they eyes were on fire....one of my buddies claims he had a true pig up to the hole but it got off...either the hook came out or it snapped off i don't really remember.

about half hour or so before dark the first night i was jiggin a power minnow with the vex...jon came and checked up on us to see how we were doing...he chatted with us for a lil bit and went on his way...as soon as i heard his truck door shut i had a red bar on my vex chase my power minnow 3ft off the bottom and smack it...finally what we were lookin for ...a nice 14 1/2 inch slab.

for the next hour or so i would read fish on the vex...i would say " theres a fish" then they would come check out my jig and disappear off my screen and within 30 seconds to a minute later someones bobber would go off...sometimes it was crappies and sometimes it was eyes....we had alot of misses but ended up with 5 or so nice slabs within that hour...we managed 2 more slabs through out the night and quite a few eyes...the rattle reels were pretty steady all night.

morning rolled around and i landed 5 more eyes and a decent perch before anyone else woke up...once people got up and movin we caught some more eyes and a couple that broke one of my buddies lines...pretty sure they were pike...the afternoon was pretty dead...maybe a couple eyes here and there.

we were all hoping the evening bite would bring us some more slabs...just like clock work they started biting again about half an hour before dark but this time they meant business!

one of my buddies hit the first one...then it was dead for about 10 minutes but after that every rattle reel and pole was getting hit for about 2 hours straight..the best part is they were all slabs.

they bit on anything and everything...people were missin as many if not more then we caught...i could blame it on the ladies but the guys were missin too lol...the 2 hour rampage left us with 13 slabs on the ice...then the eyes came rollin in and the crappies were gone.

we managed 2 more nice slabs through out the night...i caught a little pike about a foot long at midnight...that was kinda strange i thought.

2 people in my group had to get back so they left bright and early...the other 4 of us woke up to reels rattling..we caught a few eyes and a lower 30 inch pike...after that the other couple in my group left and me and my gf caught 5 more walleyes before we left at 11.

smallest crappie was 13 1/2 inches..few 14's..most in the 14 1/2 range and a couple that broke 15...thats with legit measuring with the mouth closed...with the mouth open they all gain another 1/2-3/4 of an inch or so lol.

my goal before the trip was to get 5 mounter slabs between me and my gf for a nice drift wood mount...it was our first actual ice fishing trip together and she's an ice fishing newb.

well me and her ended up with 6 and the 5 we are keeping for the mount are all 14 1/2 and over...2 of them are the 15+ and the 14 3/4 i doubled on during the rampage...that 15 incher took my bait when it was like 5 ft off the bottom...i was feeding line through my bobber and the line was just floating on the water like i was already on bottom but i still had like 5ft to go before the bobber stopper...so i reeled in to see what was goin on and had him on...he hit it on the drop....soon as i lipped him my other rattle reel was goin off so i handed that one to my gf quick and set into that 14 3/4 incher...that was fun.

the grand total for my group was 22 slabs, 60 eyes, 2 pike and a perch...mixed in with alot of misses during slab crunch time and a few line breakers during the trip...we were more then happy with the trip. one couple got 6 slabs and the other couple got 10...without the misses we would of got alot more but thats fishin and more for next time.

wish i was there right now...at this time yesterday and the day before it was crappie time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like a good time glad to hear that someone was getting some good action

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thats Awesome!

Folks think we're telling fish stories talking of URL crappies flying 3-6' off the bottom to hit your bait on the drop. You'll never believe it until you see it and you guys got to experience it! When you get on an aggressive school, its unbelievable. Those are the stories you'll be telling of URL for years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Impressive! Almost gets me in the mood to make one last trip before ice out... I know this is prime crappie time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Good to hear your group had a fun trip! We head out in just a couple more days. \:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Originally Posted By: hanson
Thats Awesome!

Folks think we're telling fish stories talking of URL crappies flying 3-6' off the bottom to hit your bait on the drop. You'll never believe it until you see it and you guys got to experience it! When you get on an aggressive school, its unbelievable. Those are the stories you'll be telling of URL for years.

When I was up Slab fest weekend I seen and cought eyes just under the ice. You could see them swim by. So catching fish off the botton is normal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah it sure is fun when the schools roll in...like always when i look back i wish i would of tried somethings different like we didn't even try jiggin when the school came through and all of us were 1-2 ft off bottom....i should of got a jig down there and turned my vex on...and since some were hitting on the drop we should of set a few lines 4-5ft off bottom to get some of the suspended fish...could of resulted in more slabs but when they come through all i want to do is get my bait back down as fast as i can...no time for thinking lol.

also i got my auger all tuned up and cutting like new and had the nice 40 degree weather i always dreamed about up there and never even got out to drill a hole...we only had my 1 vex for our group and had the women with...i almost went out solo but everytime i finally got the motivation to go search it was getting close to the evening bite so i just waited and hoped the night bite would happen again...and it did so i was content.

my buddy and his gf brought up a laptop so we could watch movies and about midnight on the last night he put in a movie called big fish and told me that was the secret....i passed out and he stayed up a little longer and ended up with 2 nice slabs during the movie so i'm sure thats his new favorite movie lol.

plain red and glow red hook like the gami's produced alot of the slabs...them red phelps jigs produced again...the white looking glow demon with the red dot pulled in a few...the bigger style frosties in glow white that you would normally fish for walleyes with did good at night....some came in on chartruse...people were catching them on things i would never even tie on for ice fishing too lol...every line was gettin bit and we had on a nice variety of lures, colors, and hooks....only consistant thing was every hook or lure had a fathead on it....good times

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always put in the movie diehard works everytime? I have not had much luck with big fish but will try it tonight with diehard on standby

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"we didn't even try jiggin when the school came through and all of us were 1-2 ft off bottom....i should of got a jig down there and turned my vex on."

"also i got my auger all tuned up and cutting like new and had the nice 40 degree weather i always dreamed about up there and never even got out to drill a hole..."

GEEZ!!! The rest of us are running all over the lake drilling holes trying to catch A crappie and you're sitting there with your feet up watching movies and catching crappies! grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

It is looking like the bite is starting to pickup. Some good crappie reports from Sat. night from the 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 mile area also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, I gotta get up there again.... Selling the house and closing in 10 days. Between packing and moving... every year I get up there for the last hurrah, but I don't know about this year. A few more reports and I just might have to make the 24 hour stunner again though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GURU - Very happy to hear you had a good time with good success. It is reports like that why I spend all the time in the shop, and frankly going up to URL fishing myself. I always have a blast when I am up there. Hopefully good memories for you and your gfriend. Thank you!

Matt Phelps

Phelps Tackle

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah it was real rough kelly....i was ready to go all out to get me some crappies but ended up not havin to work that hard for them..which is always nice...i would agree the bite is picking up...it was 100x's better then when i was up about 3-4 weeks ago.

hey how's it goin silverfox? them red glow phelps jigs are my favorite lures for upper red...they always produce...especially at night...i'm gonna try some around my local waters tomorrow for some jumbo perch.

definatly good memories!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guru, I think you may have started something. I left tonight and the anglers where watching the flashers, jigging and doing all the right things until I stopped by to check on them and the carnage began. Once they started listening to my old stories and not paying attention to the rods the crappies started hitting like mad. I was in the shack about fifteen minutes and seen seven crappies hit the the bucket before I continued on my rounds.

Next year you need to come up about Jan 1st, you don't need to fish just show up, maybe walk around our shacks a bit to get the mojo started. ;\)grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lol forsure....thats what the guru does....i'll even chant to the crappie gods if i have to.

i remember last year the reports weren't that good around beginning of january and i had a 2 day trip planned with you guys in the 4 man shack..it was right around the 10th of january or so...the reports weren't that good and we came in and ended up catching 60 of them which also started a rampage...i remember the next few groups after us comin back with good reports.

i'll come up anytime...just give me a holler if you need any guru magic lol! all i charge is a guided trip to put me on some of them monster pike through the ice....i need me one of them 40"+ pike i can CPR and get a replica mount...when i'm up there all the big pike bite on all my buddies rods and they all get their lines snapped.. i need to show my buddies how to seal the deal!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man sounds like we should have stayed another nite... Funny that they mentioned not having the flashers on. During the day we would catch walleye when the flashers were off, we would turn them on and not catch anything. Get bored turn them off and bam, they would start biting again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey by the way, thanks for leaving some slabs for us! We picked up where you left off. No perch at all though I'm afraid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've been finding that at certain times the lower wattage flashers do better and even using the watt suppressor, and sometimes you just gotta turn 'em off, and other times when they are nuts they like 'em on high... crazy.gif

Remember under the ice is only about 10- 12 feet to the bottom, you don't need a lot of power to see that close...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried it last night with the camera going, Flasher on fish where active and moving around, then turned it off for fifteen minutes with no change then turned it back on and cranked the gain up with zero effect. The fish didn't make even the slightest change in behavoir directly under the flasher.

Waht I did notice is when you are messing around with the flasher and camera fish try to steal your deadstick rod, dang near lost a custom built screwing around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget cooking or eating, that just makes them ravenous...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I swear these fish just know when you are not looking. Never fails, step outside the portable for a break and come back into missing bobbers and rods straining in the holders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

nice wanger....i told ya i was gonna be the one to get on the crappies lol...i even left ya a bunch just like i said i would....did you do pretty good?

yeah jonny....them fish always know when your messin around or not payin attention...every now n again i pretend like i'm not payin attention and use reverse psycology on them to trick a couple more into biting lol.

bite pickin up or just kinda here and there still?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, we did well! We found a last minute shack for Wed. night so got an extra night outta the deal. Dropped flashers and marked & caught fish instantly. Got 1st crappie 2 hours into trip. We did have lulls on Fri. & Sat. seemed like late morning til around 5 (about 2 fish per hour). That just gave us plenty of time to prepare for the night bite. It was tough to leave. We got a good share of crappies but couldn't get ahold of any perch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

glad you got on some crappies.....yeah the perch weren't movin through or not biting where we were...i caught 1 but that was about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GURU,

Just fyi, I will have a variety of Glow Red Phelps Floaters available at a variety of places this summer also. They eyes and crappies love those during the summer. Pink is also good, as Jonny P mentioned.

Matt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.