Fall Bonanza!

[Team Otter]

I spent a full day on the water today with an absolutely wonderful guy from the Fairbault area. To sum up our outing, after a lot of hard work and patience, we were rewarded with a nice basket of fish that covered the "species spectrum". We had nice 'eyes, crappies, 'gills and perch all come to the boat today. Now, onto the report I suppose.

Being that my client was looking to learn and get more comfortable with Tetonka, I put together a game plan that would include a "milk route" of spots that could be fished with multiple presentations. We started on the W end of the lake and by day's end we found ourself on the E end of lake. Covering water never hurts, does it? Our first spot found us riggin' with crawlers and pitching jigs and minnows to the inside and outside edge of weedlines that were still surprisingly healthy. The first 15 minutes told me we were going to have a pretty good day because we had already boated a healthy 14" 'eye and 2 decent northerns by then. But, the northerns continued to rule the roost so we moved on to a couple of areas adjacent to the main basin of the lake. Both of these spots were "empty" so we headed to main lake points and continued riggin' and pitchin' only to be bothered by small perch and 'eyes. My client did have one really nice fish on we didn't get to see but I wish we would have. For the remainder of the day, we concentrated on "first breaks" adjacent to rock and/or sand that also included weed stubble. Let me tell you, dragging jigs tipped with minnows and riggin' with leeches completely took over on the top and bottom side of the "first break" in 8 - 12' of water! We had perch, 'eyes, crappies and 'gills all coming out of the same area. In the late morning, the quality fish were relating to rocks and by day's end those same fish had found their way to the sand. Also, just so you know, I briefly tried pitchin' cranks in a few spots while my client was riggin' but I was only able to boat 1 pike. Bummer.

Some things to note that I think made a difference today were boat speed, boat control, presentation color, and mobility. All day, we back-trolled ~1.0 mph which is faster than most would think of going and I also did not let the boat waver from that 8 - 12' range. The fish were very "spot specific" today so when you went through some fish you had to have your A-game on. We also switched colors a lot today and finally settled on red jigs for draggin' and plain chartuese hooks for riggin'. Lastly, mobility played a big part in our success today. Most of the spots were similar to a "fish here, fish there" but occassionally we would find a nice school of fish holding tight. When we found that type of situation, I would mark it on my GPS and then travel both on the inside and outside of that spot by ~25' because the fish were scattering just a touch.

Well, it's time to gear up for the North Country as I will be traveling north to Mille Lacs for the better part of 4 nights of trolling starting this Friday. But, I'll be back in the area for the remainder of the month next week. I look forward to seeing you at the Fall Get-Together on Madison Lake on Saturday, October 14 and maybe somewhere else!

Good luck and we'll see you on the water!

[zepman]

Jamison,

Sounds like a great day on the water. Heading north tomorrow night myself until Sunday. Will be spending time on the Brainerd area lakes. Gotta love this time of year! Good luck to you on the big pond.

[harvey lee]

I spent a few hours chasing eyes this morning and except for 1 small one that was it.I then decided to try some of those skills and tricks Matt J taught me and boy did that work.I ended up keeping a limit of gills and a few crappies.The crappies that I caught today were the nicest ones I have ever had the luck of catching.Many fish over 12 and yes,one crappie that topped the tape at 15.7 inches.I thought just maybe that I had a 16 inchers but it fell a little short. All fish caught were between 10-15 fow with the majority of them being caught in the 12-13foot range.All fish were caught on plastic.Size 8 Ratso with white plastic.Tried red but that did not do anything.

I left at 1 and the crappie bite was still going pretty good.

I have not fish the local lakes hardly at all this summer due to those great catfish.

After today its time to get back to what I like the best.Huge gills and slab crappies.

Shortly we will also have that great time of year when fishing is just as good as now,first ice.I cannot wait.

[Matt Johnson]

Sounds like some great outings by a lot of people! I like the sound of big pannies

Just make sure there's some left when I come down in a couple weeks

[harvey lee]

Matt

there will be as 90% of what I caught went back as usuall.Maybe we can hook up in the next week or so and hit the spot I was at today.

[Team Otter]

The bite is ON MJ. Well, you saw the pics.

For those of you interested in taking a look at a few photos from the most recent outing to Tetonka, I have updated my website with some great shots from the day. Enjoy!

[hawkeye43]

hl, good man

[Team Otter]

Yeah, he's alright isn't he?

[harvey lee]

Hopefully the weather is better than the forecast for Wednesday as I want to hit Tetonka again.It looks to be pretty windy.

Ken,will you be home on Wednesday as I might stop by you mansion.

[hawkeye43]

I wont be home unless it rains 3 or 4 inches. Just got home now, had a bit to eat and set to leave at 5:30 am. You be good out there, thats the winter stock you are tapping into now.I got a few surprizes for you and Matt this winter.

[Matt Johnson]

I like surprises... especially if it has to do with big panfish How's the fish house coming? Did you get it fixed yet?

[harvey lee]

Ken,if you tell Matt and I some of the big secrets we promise that most all the fish will get returned to the lake.Except for the 4# crappie and 2# gill.

[hawkeye43]

[Team Otter]

Great, I missed out on another secret.