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.

They're biting!


Stick in Mud

Recommended Posts

Fished the SE side from 10:30-2pm caught one small eye...Went up to the north side and met up with my buddy in his castle...Fished from 330pm-10am today caught 5 eyes(25,24,23,16,15) all from 11pm-1am... We were marking a ton of fish, but nothing I put down would get them to bite....Very frustrating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rocky Reef was a tough bite today. I hear the overnight wheelhouse crowd did poorly, too. They caught some size, but numbers were way down. 

 

I ended up with 7- 17" walleyes and worked very hard to get them. Hole-hopped the entire time (8 hours) and drilled about 75 holes with one StrikeMaster Lithium Lazer battery, so I'm impressed with that. 

Edited by BassThumb.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Stick in Mud said:

Nice photo, BT.  How have you done on the walleyes with the new lure? 

Slab Raps are a lot of fun to fish, but you'll spook some fish with them, even with the most subtle jiggle. Still, lots of walleyes come take a look, so you'll get an idea of what's nearby.

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the responses, guys.  For whatever reason I don't spend much time trying the more aggressive presentations in the winter.  I might have to give them a try this weekend. 

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After not fishing last weekend (gotta see the wife once in a while, alas), it was nice to get back to the Pond early yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately, I got skunked. What makes matters worse, though...and much, much worse at that...is that my dad whacked them.  So not only did I catch zero fish, but my dad lost track somewhere near 12 or thereabouts.  Ouch.  :)

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone tried for pike on tip ups yet?  Hoping to give it a shot this coming weekend, but the reports I've heard are they have been far and few between for pike. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last few winters, I've caught more Walleyes on tipups, than Pike.  I fish the west side of the lake, and it has stunk.

 

I'm glad the DNR, using robust scientific data, figured out that the Pike were the culprit in the decline of the lake (sarcasm).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has the bite dropped off? My 11 year old Son has been asking to go catch some Eyes. Don't want to drive 2 hrs to get skunked and have a disappointed kid. Any reports would be appreciated!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, KadenBear said:

Has the bite dropped off? My 11 year old Son has been asking to go catch some Eyes. Don't want to drive 2 hrs to get skunked and have a disappointed kid. Any reports would be appreciated!!!

Don't get your hopes up. February is like the "dog-days" of winter. These last couple trips to Mille Lacs have been mediocre. Last trip I got skunked for the first time of the winter. Nothing like the wild early-ice trips before the brigades of Ice Castles hit the scene. Nonetheless, I'm headed out Friday morning at about 4am. The bar is set low. I just hope I can count the walleyes on one hand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About tip-ups:  Yep, I've tried them, and the walleye bite has been excellent early and late on BIG sucker minnows.  The pike bite has significantly declined in recent years. We have got a few nice ones this winter, but it's nothing like it was pre-spearing.  

 

Our houses have slowed down quite a bit, but we've also not moved them, so that's probably partially our fault.  We've also had enough good days/nights to keep us around, though on average we're getting significantly fewer fish than we were early on.  Overall, our experience mirrors what I've heard from others, but there are still the random reports of people really whacking them.  

 

I'll be up again this weekend, but there's no way I'll be chasing them at 4 a.m....unless you include rattle reels in that description. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a great trip this Thursday-Saturday on the pond.  Contrary to what we'd been hearing, we did not find the bite to have slowed down.  For us, the key was not being remotely close to anyone.  Also, for the first time in a while, we were able to find walleyes during the daytime hours (although sunset was best).

Overall, we caught around 40 between the 5 of us, with our biggest 3 being 25" (pics below).  We also set up my buddy's dad and his friend in their castle about a mile from us (also alone) and they caught quite a few with two @ 26".  About 75% of our fish came jigging.

The other key was being mobile during the day, which was far easier Friday and Saturday with the balmy temps.

We caught fish in mud, gravel and rocks, in depths ranging from 35 to 15'.  

Great times in what may be the last trip on ML for the year with the forecast being so warm.

58a209f04d161_Feb2017me.thumb.JPG.301f42268925ed0a76e5136188d2fd38.JPG58a20a0734153_Mikeerased.jpg.3d57918c0046bdd23224a91a08099d34.jpg58a20a220d769_Feb2017Blaze.thumb.JPG.c8f859cbd8248bf904a14b24c972e6d4.JPG

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, DLD24 said:

Blurring out the lure, that's a first haha...Good report hopefully we have the same luck this weekend.

 

Haha normally I wouldn't care, but I really want to know what it is now. Looks like some sort of 3" lipless crankbait in a glow green color. I don't recognize it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great report, RCN.  

 

Good to hear they're still biting.  We picked up maybe...I dunno....15 or 20 this weekend, most coming from the fishhouse I moved into a new and relatively isolated spot.  I also got sick of the rattle reels going off so I pulled up the lines.  I'm just not that mad at them. :)  So I think you're exactly right; getting away from the crowd certainly works. My buddies were out hitting the mud flats all by their lonesome and claimed to catch exactly 72 over the weekend.  Whether that's an accurate number or not, I don't know (it sounds awefully precise to me) but there are still certainly fish to be had.  

 

DLD, with big suckers we sometimes run quick-strike rigs, but we typically don't get as many bites on them.  We've had better luck with big single hooks and trimming the tails of the minnows so they don't swim up to the bottom of the ice.  We also miss quite a few, but I'd much rather miss a few than gut-hook/kill them. 

 

 

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/13/2017 at 10:57 PM, BassThumb. said:

 

Haha normally I wouldn't care, but I really want to know what it is now. Looks like some sort of 3" lipless crankbait in a glow green color. I don't recognize it. 

I'm going green blade bait haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/13/2017 at 2:48 PM, DLD24 said:

Blurring out the lure, that's a first haha...Good report hopefully we have the same luck this weekend.

On 2/13/2017 at 10:57 PM, BassThumb. said:

 

Haha normally I wouldn't care, but I really want to know what it is now. Looks like some sort of 3" lipless crankbait in a glow green color. I don't recognize it. 

 

I'm still working on locking up sponsorship's so I can quit my day job.  Don't want to limit my pool of potential vendors by endorsing one for free! ;)

  • Thumbs Up 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • 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
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
×
×
  • 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.