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Almost a week in to the fishing season and this place is quiet as a morgue.  Most recent posts were from back in March?!?  What the heck happened??? 

Edited by zelek
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I agree.  Opener was good, not great.  Weather was great.  Have not been out since Sunday so I can't add much.  Hope to get out tomorrow before the rain.

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Well...maybe after this cold rainy weekend we can get this forum fired up a little.  It used to be kind of fun to come on here way back when fisherdog was moderating as there was good participation from a number of folks with lots of topics being discussed.  I'm on vacation the week after next so I should have a few reports to offer then.  The site looks a lot different now so I might have to relearn a few things.  :) 

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Sorry...been posting a few pics in the Panfish section...I've been out a lot chasing crappies, started 10 days after ice out. I did the eye opener and we did good real shallow 4-6ft with jig and shiner but that one eye outing is it for me unless I go out late fall for them again.  Crappies bite has been real good...just not in normal spots...not many spawned in the shallow reeds but beds we deeper 5-7 ft in many lakes. I've been as far North as Little Bemidji to as far South as S. Lida and many lakes in between. Went out Saturday morning early and found them in 12.5ft suspended real high; used the smallest rap they make and just fan casted all around the boat and they were aggressive.  Cabbage is coming up and healthy in most lakes and they will be moving into the cabbage when it warms up. Water clarity has been unbelievable in every lake I've been on so far. Another yo-yo weather pattern makes it more challenging for sure....but search and you will find.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made it out a few times this past weekend. Been super busy with end of school activities, dance recitals, graduations.. Even though the weather was not the best, the crappies were pretty aggressive. Limits of nice eaters came fairly easy with simple jigs/plastics along the emerging weed beds. 6-10'. have heard good reports of walleyes being caught on area lakes on both shiners and leeches. Will concentrate on eyes my next outing. Hopefully very soon.....

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Made it out last Thursday with my son Crappie fishing. It a little bit to find them but when we did it was fast and furious catching. Pretty much every cast into 10-12 feet produced a nice slab. Friday Morning I took my BIL walleye fishing. He is a newbie so I took a simple approach of pulling spinners and minnows along shoreline weeds. Doing that usually produces good multi species action and this proved to be the case. We caught just about everything in that lake. Very nice walleyes, bass, crappies, sunnies, numerous pike and a bullhead. Very fun!

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I've been out crappie fishing quite a bit....only got them shallow twice this year...males fanning beds....but now getting them in 8-10ft in cabbage and found them deeper in one lake in 14ft in clean water about 5yds outside the cabbage edge and that was fun...they were bigger 11-14 inchers.  Overall it has been steady, windy days put a damper on things but always can find some decent spot out of the wind.  Now I will move to the Big Water and strictly fish deeper cabbage for the rest of the summer/fall...plenty of big Water in the area that have good crappie populations.

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Only made it out last Friday morning for a quick trip before work. Watching the sunrise on the lake is always a special treat. Caught a nice 20" eye right away but could not find another one. Marked a few fish in 20', caught a few sunnies but it was surprisingly slow on this well known walleye lake. Hoping to get out somewhere this evening....

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Hit Lida late yesterday (Sunday)....found crappies in deep cabbage13-15ft...caught them on 3" Gulp Minnow shad color and I always split the tail more than it comes out of the package to give it a little more tail movement; 1/16 oz VMC jig/orange...I love the VMC jigs cuz their hooks are so stout and I use plastics and VMC has the Wire Keeper plus the jig eylelets are always clean so no need to use another hook to clean them out.  Lake was packed with boats but so spread out, such a big lake, no one crowding another...beautiful evening to be on the water.

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Made it out to a smaller lake last night. Usually do really well this time of year on eyes there. Struggled, could only manage 2 nice eaters. 16,17". Caught on spinner, leech. Did catch a bunch of sunnies, bass, northerns and a 12" crappie. Pretty sure that was the first time I ever caught a crappie on a spinner, leech combo. Good thing I got that dumb thing out of the lake. With the fairly strong NE wind it was almost chilly out after sunset...

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Finally managed to get out yesterday for the first time since opener and of course it's when a big cold front is rolling through. Still managed to find some walleyes but it was less than ideal conditions. Ended up with 6 for 2 guys. They were split between leeches and crawlers. The crawlers caught more sunfish and perch and the leeches caught more bass and northerns. Most were caught in 17-20 feet. Water temp is right around 70. 

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Went Crappie fishing Friday...first time I've ever seen this.  Horse was tied up in the woods not far away....did not see him on the lake so he must have rowed back into a reed area.  Homemade trailer with pipe and wood spoke wheels with metal rims like the carriage.  We caught plenty of nice crappies pic of a couple down below Amish pic.

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I was out super early Saturday Morning. Did really well on eyes. Lindy,crawlers in 20'. Later in the afternoon took my son and neighbor boy out for crappies. They were not super aggressive but they had a blast catching a couple limits. Had an amazing fish fry with the neighbors that night. Catch and release right into the grease!

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I was kind of restless last night so since it was a bit windy I decided to go for a quick trip to a nearby small lake that I rarely go to. Tried lindy rigging leeches but the sunfish were on the chomp! I eventually went to a shallow weed point and marked a bunch of fish. Started pitching small jigs/plastics and absolutely pounded the crappies. I have never in my life caught so many small ones. Lots of 5-7" with the occasional big one 13-14" mixed in... I did not feel like cleaning fish so tossed all back. Should be a phenomenal crappie lake in a couple years...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Made it out for a short venture Saturday Morning. Took a church buddy that rarely gets out. The crappies are still hungry. Limited out in about an hour.... Only ones on the water until a few guys were just going out as we were loading up..

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made it out last night. Beautiful night. Caught a bunch of Crappies, sunnies, a norsky and a few walleyes. All CR. Amazing how quiet the lake was. I was the only boat out for the most part. First boat in parking lot at 5:30 and no AI inspector this time. Have not seen them for quite awhile now.... Water temp was 78. Panfish were caught on simple Jig/plastic in about 12 feet along shoreline weeds. Walleyes on spinner/crawlers in 17-20 on midlake structure.

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  • 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      
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