Crankbaits,Plastics,Livebait

[primetime49]

A few people are questioning fishing on Green Lake,several persons I know have stated they are simply pulling crankbaits around and around Hultgrens bar and others.multi species catches,sunburst colors ,they say the reason they are doing this is something is hitting almost once per lap and they are really just wanting to fish but cant make up minds on what{bored]was their answer ,but fishing.On a couple larger waterways I have been on for sunfish and crappies the past 3 days I have been using smeltminnow two inchplastics on orange Gypsy jigs,getting very nice fish and good numbers of them.However in two different trips out Thursday and Friday boats next to me,talking distance could not keep bullheads and bass off when they used live bait.If its any help we are fishing reeds in 4 to 6 feet in middle of lakes.Extremely nice fish,last night felt like putting some on dinner menu so kept last 9 crappies 1.4 pound 12 to 13.5 inchers andlast two sunfish pounders,today it started the same but after 3 fish weather went to bump so quit.Any one else chasing any good fishing, walleye for example?You dont have to tell me where ,just wondering if its going on.Also very little shots heard today,goose,dove.Seeing lots of geese,loads of ducks looking like they are ready to leave here ,but very few doves migrating ,again any luck?

[jigginjim]

Walleyes on green lakehave been taking jig-minnows in deeper areas. If you don't mind a 2 plus hour drive the St. croix and mississippi rivers are starting to go.

[Walli1]

Fish were bitting really good today on the river but couldn't seeem to find big ones, but it better than work

[jigginjim]

Walli1 which river you fishing criox or missi? I was watching herbk's outdoors he and the griz fishing on river. I know the exact spot where they fished. Always caught nice fish there.

[Walli1]

I fish the St Croix every weekend and catch alot of fish, my brother has came down and went out and did real well. Its a great fishery.

[primetime49]

Guess I still wonder whats hot.Panfish are hot and good sized,just try the same places you would go for your ice fishing and use your ice tackle to.Short pitches into rushes from a rods length away as are cain pole fishing.Try Sachariason,Middle,Sunburg Sloughs Glesne etc for some outstanding fishlimits and fish sizes.Also some private propertys will be freezing out this winter so go after the walleye stocking ponds withlandowner permission and clean these fish out.2 to 3 years of carryover are going to be left unnatended only to freeze out so fingerling stock can be tended to easier.There are lots of fish in these slough lakes ,go get them.

[jigginjim]

49, I have seen the panfish from some of these ponds. Don't lay the fillet meat side down on a table it will crawl away. Those ponds are best left to those of us who kill ducks. Some knucklehead puts some fish on a pond, then goes back late, claims I caught the biggest panfish of my life. You maybe could have it mounted, if the buggs don't eat it first. Prime just where are all these walleye rearing pond you talk about? If its on private land, you can bet money it has already been cleaned out. The ponds on public land are not worth the time. Golden pond walleyes will turn your guts, when you try and cook them. Most of the ponds have already dead off due to summer heat. 80 plus degree water will do that to fish.

[primetime49]

Jiggin,we havent noticed any kind of parasites or heat stress in any fish caught last 3 weeks.Havent tried the golden pond but if other lakes stop producing just might.Their are 18 state stocking ponds for walleye on private property leases and several more privatly leased ponds in Kandiyohi County,for private companies.The amount of carryover from 3 mild winters and high water levels have created many fish from fry and fingerling survival 1,2,3, years.Part of the fun of fishing is to go out and find the fish where only a few have tried recently.Kandiyohi tourism says we have 258 lakes here.I used to balk at this and say maybe 15.After good tips from people I now would say at least 35 with a good fish population.Some of the good news lately is another boat landing proposed for Lake Kasota.The sad news is that if we dont see Monsoon type rain this fall we will see a significant winter kill.Just a hint,the last lead I got on great fishing I met about 25 new people from Olivia,Benson Wayzata,Iowa etc.,yet this was a secret place and the large gathering got to be a hush until the bite was over.You can tell who these persons are when you see them because they have a great big smile molded on their faces that will probaly take a couple of months to dissapear.

[jigginjim]

49, so which lakes or ponds have you been fishing. E-mail these spots [email protected]. I have found out that someone out there has not been on a lake in months. Yet says, he has caught fish on this lake and that lake. Rather hard to prove he has or has not but I got my info from some good sources. I have been fishing green lake and done fair with several small walleyes. One sunday afternoon I kept a 14" only cause it had my jig stuck in its throat. But I had a 19"er to go along with it. My wife aand I had nice little dinner with them. I have talked with DNR guys about these ponds. They told me, "most do not have enough fish in them to really make it worth fishing. Most will die out this winter."

[primetime49]

Jiggin just listed them in this column the other day.As far as stocking ponds was on one yesterday and on one today,blue 16 foot kayak,they were good.Other lakes continue to be good.I did unfortunatly cook some really dirty tasting fish for supper last nite.They did not appear to be looking that way but tasted like crap.They were caught less than 1.5 miles from Golden Pond,so you may have something right about the dirt based suddenly flooded waters.Gonna try to stay on gravel and sand based shallow waters after that.As far as what DNR and private stockers have told me we have a conflict between what they told you and what they told me .I am checking out two more stockings tommorrow.Gotta fish bass the rest of the week,tournament on Minnetonka and couple days prefish there and Calhoun metro.Only fished down there about half dozen times last 2 months so better see what its like in weather transition.Did good on Superior last week,some up there say its better than ever so dont know what to compare it to.October we start to fish Norway Games and Green again,hope its good,makes up for travel rest of summer.October also brings Grand Rapids Mann. and Toban Sas.. Luckily our axle shop for fish houses is near Sakakawea i ND and can fish there and past to Toban during work scheduleGot Robinsons dealer show first part oct in Wisc so willtry to fish Escanaba area and maybe stalk some deer.Gotta go out in back yard and talk to does and fawns and see why they cant draw bucks in from woods line cant sneak into.Good luck,fish alot

[jigginjim]

I fished a guided bass tournement on tonka 2 weeks ago. 1guide and 2anglers, the guide only takes the anglers to the areas to fish and supplies the equipment. Guide can only show anglers how to fish jigs, worms or what ever the bait of choice is. I have helped on this bass tourny for 4yrs and have had a great time. Many of the people have little to no fishing skills. So the guide needs to teach them what to do. I had 2 guys that only fish 1or2 times a yr, Out of 56 teams my guys finished 7th. Most of the guides are tournement anglers with bass rigs and large blasters on the back. I kept things simple for the guys and they caught fish. For a cold and rainy morning after a front they did really well the average bass was 2.5 lbs. I think we did very well with my 17ft ranger and 60hp tiller. Maybe we should compare notes.

[primetime49]

JIGGIN,you might have the perfect boat for minnetonka or 95percent of any lakes.The 40 mile per hour speed limit there tkes this tournament thing down to reality.It was actually comforting not having your lips streched back around your nose and ears doing 75 yo 80 some miles per hour.On Friday afternoon in pretty rotten weather got 2 bass over 4 pounds off docks,Than at 3;30 nailed a 45 inch musky on wigglewart,that i found three of left in stock at St. Cloud Gander.Caught few smaller bass and couple 7 to 9 pound northerns.On Saturday we started tourney with 4 fish in livewell in two hours.Than the nortern and yes another muskie took everything i was throwing.Tugging weed and rock bar in Mound dragging a dark blue jig on opposite end of lake I took muskie on Friday nailed another 45 incher.Than seconds later 8 pound nortern.Hour later 7 pound nortern.Hour after that nice bass.minutes later a bass to small to weigh,than partner did another 8 pound northern.Had one muskie on that was really a fighter and when he was closer to boat on only run at it he veered to left and got off.saw him coming in the whole time,didnt jump or anything ,looked like a terrorist was gonna plow us.With a few feet left still draging in jig slowly a nice 8 pound nortern came up from right and nailed jig just 30 feet from boat.we finished lower middle of tourney,same as year points.Last month at Mille Acs bass tourney,Dean Capra caught a 25 pound muskie and a 9 pound walleye when I fished with him,we did pretty good in that event which is not one of his better lakes.I have switched to fireline and other softer fabric lines for fall as i am finding anything made of plastic has such a memory that its worthless when left on a spool overnite.Our fish on Minnetonka as everyones came 60 percent docks.30 percent deep bars edges,10 percent around bridges and channels.Going over to Green ,Spicer today try for some monster Northern .Was there couple times this week and seems all species fish are very active.Just a thought,but do you want to consider fishing the Make A Wish Muskie Bass tourney together in October o Tonka,I dont know yet if I can but lets think about it.Need to Search your brain on some ideas and lakes info.Thanks Prime.

[jigginjim]

PRIMETIME, I have used mono lines very much of at all any more. I like that i can feel 1/16 jigs in 30ft of water. 4lb fireline with 3/32oz jigs has been working well on Green. Jiging eyes in water from 18 to 33 ft. I have been using the flame green for jigging on the river casting to wing dams. It has also been great for worming bass. The next I work at Cabela's I'm to pick-up some of crystal fireline. Looks like it could be even better for vertical jigging. I use the 14/6 for pulling cranks, and the snap weights don't slide down the some guys they would. I can fish #4 shad raps down to 35ft. This has been my best presentation for walleyes on pulaski which is as clear as Green.

later

[catchin'whopper]

Hey Jiggin and Prime, it's interesting to see the conversations that you both have been having regarding Green-Lake in Spicer. Clearly you got the time on the water that I would wish to have!

Reason I am wondering is that I have a 4 boat club bass tourney this weekend on Green-Lake and the last time fishing this was 10+ years ago. With that in mind, and the years that have changed the lake, I was wondering if there would be room for a separate email of some spots (or areas) out on the lake to check out for smallies at this time of year. I have been scouring the lake map and marking all the humps to check out, but man, what a vast system!

I can offer up my own help or tips with some spots when fishing closer to the cities or up north. Feel free to do a search on my name "catchin'whopper" for my posts here at Fishing Minnesota and rest assured I can potentially provide some detailed spots or results from some of my other lakes that I do bass fishing that may assist you in the future.

Any help's appreciated, we are fishing both saturday and sunday and curious about patterns this time of year, popular lure choices for Green-Lake, smallie tendencies here, etc. The usual. Anyway, my email is [email protected]. Thanks in advance and best of luck fishing the rest of the year to both of you.

-Catchin'Whopper

[primetime49]

catchinwhopper,tryed pushing thru some sunday monday info to you today but after typing it all in it doesnt leave my mailboz when sending it.sorry it says no match on your e mail adrress.just to let you know fish are active and starting to place themselves in groups.Its getting pretty good.Got another way to get ahold of you?

[catchin'whopper]

JigginJim and Primetime, thanks for the email and help, much appreciated. You both got extended emails from me on what seemed to be going over the weekend...

In a gist, smallies seemed to be scattered over the flats... any flats. Fish werent caught really deeper than 13' FOW.

Friday was overcast and fish came on smoke/blue or brown tubes or DT6's. Saturday saw that the crankbaits were preferable in landing them smallies such as craw colored rattle traps and DT6's (black/gold/red) retrieved slower than normal getting the bites. Sunday was more tougher and sunny again, guys I was fishing with found top water action near the flats and inside edges in front of Melvins and that shoreline from 8-10am. Fish were caught all along the western shoreline coering water and cranking too, saturating areas where fish were caught to get a couple more.

Both days after 1:00 action slowed considerably with the sun being out. I imagine today was pretty sweet though after the consistent warmth.

Beautiful lake and the smallies averaged 18"s, wow. The ones we brought up were spitting out craws and baitfish and the craw we managed to pull out of a throat of one was greenish, brown, with orange tipped pinchers, about 3" long.

For the record, I would like it be known that this bass fisherman enjoyed the fishery so much that I enjoyed supporting the local Spicer economy. So much so, that it was too easy to dropped $55 on lures at Mikes by the lake, sweet bait store! Thanks to the helpful register attendant for providing some added info too!

-Catchin'