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Did you have any problems getting around on the ice? I've heard of some slush issues on the smaller waters. Heading back up to our place Wed or Thur of next week & hoping to get out a few times. Sounds like you had a great weekend. Which was best  for you the basin type areas or more up on the flats?

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We were on foot, but it was pretty easy getting around, we didn't find a whole lot of slush....all the fish were in the basins....Red tungsten jig with waxies was the best bait...

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Congrats , Those are some very nice fish !!!!! How was the bite , aggressive or lite ?

Thanks Mike

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The crappies were very finnicky we had at least 5 fish on the Marcum the whole time Sunday and only got 8 to go...the gills on the other lake were super aggressive...The gfs strategy, drop it to the bottom turn the handle twice, fish on lol...

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Glad you had a good trip. It's a beautiful area that I've been lucky enough to fish since i was 8 or 9 years old. When we were up, most of my fish came on a deadstick & usually within 2-3 ft of bottom. When the crappies were real finicky sometimes I would drop it to the bottom & slowly lift it just off bottom, fish on. Pink/glow pink, Orange/glow orange, & firetiger with waxie seemed to work best for us last trip.

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Ya it's definitely a great area, its crazy how many lakes are in the area...Awesome area for finding them unfished hidden gem lakes, my favorite...

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
On 2/23/2016 at 7:32 AM, DLD24 said:

The crappies were very finnicky we had at least 5 fish on the Marcum the whole time Sunday and only got 8 to go...the gills on the other lake were super aggressive...The gfs strategy, drop it to the bottom turn the handle twice, fish on lol...

Tell her thanks for the tip! I had a heck of a time last weekend trying to bring them up to the lure. This weekend I will try the bottom-up two twice technic!  :)

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That's the reason why they advertise the county as " the county of a thousand lakes" sometimes. The recently opened bait shop in Cohassett goes by Thousand Lakes as well. The area from Talmoon to Big Fork & then over to Squaw Lake is full of those off the beaten track / unfished hidden gems your talking about.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
52 minutes ago, gunner55 said:

That's the reason why they advertise the county as " the county of a thousand lakes" sometimes. The recently opened bait shop in Cohassett goes by Thousand Lakes as well. The area from Talmoon to Big Fork & then over to Squaw Lake is full of those off the beaten track / unfished hidden gems your talking about.

The sad thing is I use to snowmobile the craap out of the Big Fork-Squaw Lake area and never thought about bring a GPS to mark some of them!  :(

Edited by leech~~
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Recently looked at a map of the groomed trails in the area & was surprised there were so many. leech, the lakes are still there, it's just that the last 2-3 maybe 4 years there hasn't been a lot of snow. Been up there a lot more the last couple of winters & it seems that over around Hwy 6 ( Big Jessie/Talmoon/ Big Fork) then over to Squaw lake sees more sleds IMO.

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On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 10:04 AM, leech~~ said:

The sad thing is I use to snowmobile the craap out of the Big Fork-Squaw Lake area and never thought about bring a GPS to mark some of them!  :(

ewe..................... we may have crossed paths on more then one occasion!!!!!!!!!!!:P suppose you frequented the hill in squaw lake, or hayslips in talmoon or richies in marcel then.........just to name  a few!!!!!!!! maybe even Riley's!!!!!!:D

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1 hour ago, smurfy said:

ewe..................... we may have crossed paths on more then one occasion!!!!!!!!!!!:P suppose you frequented the hill in squaw lake, or hayslips in talmoon or richies in marcel then.........just to name  a few!!!!!!!! maybe even Riley's!!!!!!:D

Bahahaha you know it. Everyone of them!  Miss Richies Caribou burgers! :)

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My cabin is a mile from Marcell so I have spent many days in Richies, Hayslips and the Timber Wolf. Still do in fact. Those burgers were a pound of beef with fries. The younger guys would order them but I never did it. Did tons of snowmobiling up there, now all my buddies got old and sold there sleds so I have no one left to go with. I loved the circle L and circle T the most. And through the park also. The Suomi was to many curves for my liking. The good old days. Now it's just fishing and hunting. Heading up two more trips before the ice is out. Have to be in the next two weeks for sure as there isn't a whole lot of ice on some of my favorite smaller lakes.

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1 hour ago, merc said:

My cabin is a mile from Marcell so I have spent many days in Richies, Hayslips and the Timber Wolf. Still do in fact. Those burgers were a pound of beef with fries. The younger guys would order them but I never did it. Did tons of snowmobiling up there, now all my buddies got old and sold there sleds so I have no one left to go with. I loved the circle L and circle T the most. And through the park also. The Suomi was to many curves for my liking. The good old days. Now it's just fishing and hunting. Heading up two more trips before the ice is out. Have to be in the next two weeks for sure as there isn't a whole lot of ice on some of my favorite smaller lakes.

Well the season is over for the year and I just covered mine up today. Keep me in mind next winter and PM me f you want to ride around up there. I don't mind chugging through the woods to see some wild life as much as Bar A to Bar B riding of my past. My buddy has a cabin up by Dora Lake not on it but near and his Dad who has now passed away had a very nice place, the old school house on School House lake that has now burned down to the ground. :( Good luck fishing.

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No Hayslips or Timberwolf for me ....... so far. It's hard to tell if/when the Timberwolf is even open.Tim S. at Bowstring Store told us,when we were up in January, that the owner of Riley's had passed away recently. Plenty of Riley's, The Hill, even Richies back when some of my buddies would come up. Not so much anymore.

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2 hours ago, leech~~ said:

Well the season is over for the year and I just covered mine up today. Keep me in mind next winter and PM me f you want to ride around up there. I don't mind chugging through the woods to see some wild life as much as Bar A to Bar B riding of my past. My buddy has a cabin up by Dora Lake not on it but near and his Dad who has now passed away had a very nice place, the old school house on School House lake that has now burned down to the ground. :( Good luck fishing.

You are getting close Dora lake is about 15-18 miles north of us on county road 29.

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The Island lake Resort was a good stop for a bloody once in a while as well.

On a long weekend we would hit Squaw Lake, Marcell, Talmoon, Big Fork, Effei, and maybe out to Togo and back.

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1 hour ago, gunner55 said:

No Hayslips or Timberwolf for me ....... so far. It's hard to tell if/when the Timberwolf is even open.Tim S. at Bowstring Store told us,when we were up in January, that the owner of Riley's had passed away recently. Plenty of Riley's, The Hill, even Richies back when some of my buddies would come up. Not so much anymore.

Yea me either not enough time up there to spend in bars.

On 2/24/2016 at 9:12 AM, gunner55 said:

That's the reason why they advertise the county as " the county of a thousand lakes" sometimes. The recently opened bait shop in Cohassett goes by Thousand Lakes as well. The area from Talmoon to Big Fork & then over to Squaw Lake is full of those off the beaten track / unfished hidden gems your talking about.

And I thought there motto was Itasca county..... Come on vacation.... Leave on probation!!!!:D

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3 minutes ago, smurfy said:

Yea me either not enough time up there to spend in bars.

Not a big bar guy as well. We would hit maybe one each day for lunch on a two day weekend ride. Would rather sit at the cabin by the fire with a totty and BS at night then bar hopping.

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Smurfy, you know I get to spend a lot more time at the lake these days than you do. Now there's a lot of other things I'd rather be doing like leech says

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yea not driving 3 1/2 hours to sit in a bar. occasionally if its raining. if the wifey is along I may take her out to eat! 

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I still stop for a beer most of my trips up just to show my face. Nice to keep in touch with the locals. They have helped me out over the years and it's nice to keep the connection going. Very nice people in that area so I have to have a brew and visit. I have to say the trails up there are great for just sight seeing with all the lakes and wildlife. I never was a speed demon on trails as I enjoy looking around and when I find a lake I have to make a mental note of how to access it for future fishing. I have fished a bunch of those lakes with no public drive in access and never hit the big bonanza but it's fun just to think what might be in there. One of these days it's going to pay off I hope. Heading up Monday for a few days of warm weather fishing.

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Went out yesterday & caught enough for a meal. A bit cool when the sun went under & the wind came up as we never put the tent up. We found ~ 2' of ice but the top 8" didn't look very good. Quite a few others out as well & most were on the move/drilling the majority of the time. With the 10 day forcast the ice could be disappearing fast, especially if we get some rain

Edited by gunner55
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Went out yesterday from ~ 9 - 4 found a few more willin to bite. A lot of water on top when we came in. Did a quick check & found that we'd lost 4" or so since Saturday.

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Got out today & found ~ 18" of ice with the top 2-3 or so honeycoombed. No snow left out there along with no cleats made for a lot of small steps. Had a few interested, even fewer bit, only caught 1 keeper but was still a good day. Supposed to get even colder overnight tonight but we are most likely done for this season. Mid to upper 50's forcasted for Friday thru Tuesday here

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      is 3 weeks away............who's going and where???? i skip the first week and i'll head up to the cabin the 2nd week.  ussually fish smaller lakes. 
    • jparrucci
      Very low, probably 2 feet lower than last year at ice out.
    • mbeyer
      what do they look like this spring?
    • SkunkedAgain
      I might have missed a guess, but here are the ones that I noted:   JerkinLips – March 27th, then April 7th Brianf. – March 28th Bobberwatcher – April…. MikeG3Boat – April 10th SkunkedAgain – early April, then April 21st   Definitely a tough year for guesses, as it seemed to be a no-brainer early ice out. Then it got cold and snowed again.
    • mbeyer
      MN DNR posted April 13 as Ice out date for Vermilion
    • Brianf.
      ^^^45 in the morning and 47 in the evening
    • CigarGuy
      👍. What was the water temp in Black Bay? Thanks....
    • Brianf.
      No, that wasn't me.  I drive a 621 Ranger. 
    • CigarGuy
      So, that was you in the camo lund? I'm bummed, I have to head back to the cities tomorrow for a few days, then back up for at least a few weeks. Got the dock in and fired up to get out chasing some crappies till opener!
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Lots of ice on the main basin, but it is definitely deteriorating.  Some anglers have been fishing the open water at the mouth of the Rainy River in front of the Lighthouse Gap.  The rest of the basin is still iced over. Pike enthusiasts caught some big pike earlier last week tip up fishing in pre-spawn areas adjacent to traditional spawning areas.  8 - 14' of water using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring has been the ticket.  Ice fishing for all practical purposes is done for the year. The focus for the basin moving forward will be pike transitioning into back bays to spawn,  This is open water fishing and an opportunity available as the pike season is open year round on Lake of the Woods. The limit is 3 pike per day with one being able to be more than 40 inches. All fish 30 - 40 inches must be released. With both the ice fishing and spring fishing on the Rainy River being so good, many are looking forward to the MN Fishing Opener on Saturday, May 11th.  It should be epic. On the Rainy River...  An absolutely incredible week of walleye and sturgeon fishing on the Rain Rainy River.     Walleye anglers, as a rule, caught good numbers of fish and lots of big fish.  This spring was one for the books.   To follow that up, the sturgeon season is currently underway and although every day can be different, many boats have caught 30 - 40 sturgeon in a day!  We have heard of fish measuring into the low 70 inch range.  Lots in the 60 - 70 inch range as well.   The sturgeon season continues through May 15th and resumes again July 1st.   Oct 1 - April 23, Catch and Release April 24 - May 7, Harvest Season May 8 - May 15, Catch and Release May 16 - June 30, Sturgeon Fishing Closed July 1 - Sep 30, Harvest Season If you fish during the sturgeon harvest season and you want to keep a sturgeon, you must purchase a sturgeon tag for $5 prior to fishing.    One sturgeon per calendar year (45 - 50" inclusive, or over 75"). Most sturgeon anglers are either a glob of crawlers or a combo of crawlers and frozen emerald shiners on a sturgeon rig, which is an 18" leader with a 4/0 circle hook combined with a no roll sinker.  Local bait shops have all of the gear and bait. Up at the NW Angle...  Open water is continuing to expand in areas with current.  The sight of open water simply is wetting the pallet of those eager for the MN Fishing Opener on May 11th.   A few locals were on the ice this week, targeting pike.  Some big slimers were iced along with some muskies as well.  If you like fishing for predators, LOW is healthy!  
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