Big Pine

[Chill62]

Fished big pine over the holiday.  Saturday we had some snowmobilers that hit the ice and were screwing around on the ice since it was so slick.  When they went to shore we heard a weird noise looked out and our round tip up bright yellow sitting on top of the ice was up.  Came up to it and the snowmobile who had just went by stopped maybe 75 yards from us looked back and took off screwing around on his way to shore.  We came up to the tip up and there was a ski mark across the center of the tip up.  Cracked it right down the middle.  We shoveled all the slush away from the hole, there wasn't any snow covering the edges of the tip up and heck I could see it perfect from inside my portable.  Guy had to know he hit the dange thing otherwise why'd he be looking back and stop.  He took off for shore and when he hit shore he high tailed it through the access to get out of there.  After that we marked each tip up with something to make sure it didn't happen again and we still had 6-8 guys get within 15' of the dang tip up.  Is there no common curtesy out there?

 

Caught one pike on a tip up 3# released him.  Fished the next day for crappies caught a ton BUT they were all 5".

[slammer]

Frustrating.  Always a bad apple seem like.

[busse3775]

Fished a lake close to Ottertail Lake on Friday and Saturday for crappies and gills. Friday morning was my first time every fishing the lake so I drilled a couple holes off from the group and didn't mark anything. There was an older guy right in the middle of the group of permanent houses who I could see was catching some pretty nice crappies and gills so I went over and talked to him. He said I could fish next to him, which was pretty nice of him, so I drilled a couple holes and instantly caught fish. Ended up getting my limit of crappies that were all between 11"-13" and 8 really nice bluegill and the fishing seemed to really slow down around noon. All were caught on a Clam tungsten drop jig and waxxies. Saturday morning my dad and I went out there again bright and early to try our luck. We fished in the same exact spot as the day before and again the crappies and gills were hammering the tungsten's. We didn't keep any fish but had a blast catching them and I landed my PB in a 10.5" bluegill!

[Chill62]

15 minutes ago, busse3775 said:

Fished a lake close to Ottertail Lake on Friday and Saturday for crappies and gills. Friday morning was my first time every fishing the lake so I drilled a couple holes off from the group and didn't mark anything. There was an older guy right in the middle of the group of permanent houses who I could see was catching some pretty nice crappies and gills so I went over and talked to him. He said I could fish next to him, which was pretty nice of him, so I drilled a couple holes and instantly caught fish. Ended up getting my limit of crappies that were all between 11"-13" and 8 really nice bluegill and the fishing seemed to really slow down around noon. All were caught on a Clam tungsten drop jig and waxxies. Saturday morning my dad and I went out there again bright and early to try our luck. We fished in the same exact spot as the day before and again the crappies and gills were hammering the tungsten's. We didn't keep any fish but had a blast catching them and I landed my PB in a 10.5" bluegill!

10.5" is a nice gill you release her?  How deep were you fishing?  We've been targetting deeper water and maybe it's time for us to start targeting things a little closer to shore.

[busse3775]

Just now, Chill62 said:

10.5" is a nice gill you release her?  How deep were you fishing?  We've been targetting deeper water and maybe it's time for us to start targeting things a little closer to shore.

Yep, took a quick picture and back down the hole she went. Like I said I had never fished the lake before so I just went next to the group of houses. We were in 20' of water which is pretty much the deeper part of the lake.

[Chill62]

I believe I saw the pic that's a great gill to land.  I have only gotten into the gills twice this year so far.  Can't wait for ice to get thicker so I can start driving onto a few lakes to get closer to the spots I want to try.  Little nervous this year so far. hopefully in a week or two I'll be able to get out more.  This weekend's forecast is looking a little nippy.

[otterman91105]

You would think people could stay away for houses a bit when on a four wheeler or snowmobile. I fish big pine a lot in the winter i think this next weekend it's going to get really busy with the cold temps and ice so close to if not ready for trucks.

[Chill62]

We saw 12-14" and there was a half ton regular cab that was out where we were.  Like you said it's close and I'm sure someone will be out there but if it was me I'd wait one more week. 

[Chill62]

On 1/4/2017 at 11:25 PM, otterman91105 said:

You would think people could stay away for houses a bit when on a four wheeler or snowmobile. I fish big pine a lot in the winter i think this next weekend it's going to get really busy with the cold temps and ice so close to if not ready for trucks.

 

Otterman do you happen to know how thick the ice is on the north side?  Going to possibly put the nephews fish house out on sunday for him and curious if our 3/4 ton can safely go 200 yards out from the north access or not.  I can understand if you aren't using that side of the lake.

Thanks!

[dankwalleye]

Anyone been having luck catching crappies during the day and Walleyes at night?

[Chill62]

We fished the Crappie village once this year.  Got set up mid morning and landed 3 decent crappies one was very nice then the rest of the day we caught 6" crappies.  Walleyes and me don't like each other on that lake during the winter

[dankwalleye]

Has the walleye bite picked up at all on Big Pine. it has been pretty slow for me the last few times out.

[Chill62]

Nephew has been fishing it almost every weekend and we are striking out.  Maybe this weekend we can turn something around...I'm not holding my breath

[otterman91105]

I have fished it a couple weekends and the walleye fishing has been pretty slow for me as well, maybe with the warm up things could change who knows.

[Bmann]

I think I've hit half the humps on the lake this year and it has been a complete 180 from last, just getting our butts kicked.  A week ago we were out smack dab in the middle of the lake in about 22 feet, marked fish nonstop, saw a few eyes on the camera, couldn't get a hit during 'primetime'.  7:30 rolled around and picked up a fat 24 on a flag, and that was it for the night. About the same on Little Pine for me this year.  Chill, you going to be on Big this weekend? 

[Chill62]

I will be staying on Big Pine at the cabin and we might hit the perm fish house that we have out for the nephew out.  He hasn't had good luck this year either but he's not the best of fishermen.  We plan on hitting Vergas up for Tuilibees up in the morning on Saturday and then possibly trying to fish a little lake around Big Pine up for panfish.  In the evening we might try the perm house and see if we can catch or see anything on the camera.  I'm more of a panfisherman and I have a huge group of prostaffers coming up in a few weeks so trying to scout lakes around the area to have them hit for that weekend.  We thought it'd be about 4-5 guys and it's turning into about 20 so the stress is on for producing good spots.

 

Bmann are you planning on being out?  I've heard both Big and Little Pine have tuilibees have you ever fished for them out there?

[otterman91105]

I have never fished them on big pine but caught a few when crappie fishing and little pine i think is more of a late season bite.

[Chill62]

Otterman, ya it's usually an end of season thing but we have only 2 weeks left of walleye fishing and we usually catch them the last weekend of walleye season.  Also I've heard reports of guys been fishing for them already for the past two weeks religiously.  State record was caught March 9 so the time frame is coming up soon.

[bbfenatic]

Finding crappies shallow in the DL/Perham area...deep basin bite has been a bust for the most part this year...the countdown is on for the major spring melt and then it's "lights out" for the crappie fishing!

[Bmann]

I'll be out on Big or Little tonight, haven't decided yet.  As far as the tulibees go, I fished Rose for the first time a couple of weeks ago and caught five or six (biggest maybe 13-14" and I have no idea if that's 'big' or not) while we were rip and jig rappin' for walleyes in 19'.  Aggressive little ba$tards, they'd go right past the lure by three feet, I'd get back above 'em, they'd drop down, and eventually just hammer it. First ones I've ever caught.  I hear people chase 'em on the east side of Little, but can't say I ever have.  

[Chill62]

Buddy was out today and got three biggest was 20"

[dankwalleye]

3 during the day on big pine is pretty decent.

[Chill62]

it wasn't big pine.

[dankwalleye]

ahh ic... i'm heading out to Sallie possibly Big Pine.

[Chill62]

Fished by vergas Saturday morning we got 27 tuilibees.  They were active once we found them.  

Fished sunday a new lake struck out badly.  Tried big pine in the afternoon for 2 hours. Wasn't looking good was shouting distance from some guys sitting on the ice and they weren't having luck.  Drilled some holes and instantly had fish down there.  Ended up keeping 4 crappies 3 were 12-13" one was 14" and thick.  Threw back a bunch of 6-9" crappies and two blue gills and a bunch of perch if you got too close to bottom.

[dankwalleye]

I was out there also. Fished crappie village for 30 min caught one decent crappie then moved to a walleye spot and caught 6 keepers. 

[Chill62]

Way to go Dank!  I've yet to catch a walleye this winter.  It's not looking good for me!

[Bmann]

I hit some new  humps on the east side on Sunday and picked up two nice 16-17 inchers.  They felt like 26s after catching bunches of those 10-13s on OT last weekend.  It was a slow bite for me on Sunday, both eyes on a bobber, two perch and a rock bass on a shiver minnow.  Dank, that's a heck of a night on Big this year, nice work!

[dankwalleye]

We caught 6 the night before also.  We missed a lot of bites, non of the fish were caught on a bobber. 

[Chill62]

Fished Big Pine Sunday afternoon.  Drove out Saturday and checked ice conditions and they looked great so decided Sunday was go.  Got there and set up for crappies and instantly had a nice fish and it wrapped up in the transducer and I lost him.  That was my highlight.  We set the house up to block the wind since the girlfriend was with and trying to make it fun for her.  When we tore down wow did the lake look different!  We found a hole that we could shove the hole of the ice scoop down  24" and it didn't hit anything.  It wasn't there when we started fishing!  Water was murky as heck and lots of floaters in the water.  Fish were LATHARGIC! saw them on camera and they barely moved through the water swimming around.  Usually we have our camera 4-5 feet away from the jig with perfect clarity not the case this weekend 4' away and we never found our spoon!  Coming off the ice the access was getting chewed up but was still passable.  People need to slow down!  We got passed by a pickup doing 30-35 twice!  We were taking it around 10 mph and was causing waves in the water.  Wont be driving back out until there is a good freeze for a while!