Bowstring reports

[zman1329]

Anyone have any reports on bowstring?

[PYROPAL]

Ditto! Hey chig-chig, got ice? Flounder season starts soon. Hear that they're hitting on anything at Forest Lake.

[Sealegs]

We were up over Christmas week lots of perch and small walleyes. crappies in thirty+ feet of water.

Sealegs

[zman1329]

Thanks for the update, how thick was the ice? what was the preferred method of travel?

[Tim O]

13" on the north end. some trucks out but mostly wheelers. no snow for sleds.

[mountaindew]

Planning on going up to Bowstring trip with my family on the weekend of 27th and 28th. Was wondering how's the bite? Crappies? 'Eyes? Depth?

Planning on bringing 4 wheeler, was wondering how's the ice up there? Any reports/tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[merc]

I was out Friday, the crappie bite was the lightest I have ever seen. You had to keep lifting your rod tip to feel if they were on, they would not move the tip at all when they bit. Didn't try for eyes at all. There was about 13" of ice, saw one truck on the lake. We used a four wheeler. There is a breaker out a half mile from the west access running north and south so if your in that area be careful. Good luck!!!

[Blake]

anybody been out on Bowstring recently?? thinkin about makin a trip up next weekend on the 26th. any info would be appreciated. Are the perch biting and any size to them? Thanks

[zman1329]

Heading up there in a couple of hours,will be fishing out there on Saturday,I will post a report on Sunday night,hopefully a good one!

[Blake]

Thanks zman, I would appreciate that!!

[mountaindew]

I posted earlier about going up on the weekend of 27th and 28th. Was wondering what's the update now? Are there snow on the ice? Ice thickness now?

What time of day is best for crappies? Where can we go for eyes? What presentations?

Any tips, addvice would be GREATLY apprecieated!

Thanks!

[zman1329]

Got a little busy Sunday night, so here's my report.Had a good 18 inches or so of ice in the spots we fished saturday, not a lot of snow on the lake, some drifts here and there. People are driving all over in trucks out there, was up in the northeast corner, tried 4 different spots from 20 fow to 30 fow, marked a few fish, they seemed to have lockjaw!!3 guys, 9 hours,4 small perch and a snake northern, pretty poor day! Talked to other guys out there, no one seemed to be having any luck. Hope this helps

[mountaindew]

Thanks zman1329 for the report.

Were you fishing for 'eyes? Was trying to figure out where can I go for panfish, crappies, sunnies? What about Jesse Lake? Anything happening there? Ice?

Thanks again!

[Woollman99]

MD, this past weekend, myself and two others were up fishing the area lakes. Fished Jessie Lake Saturday day. Approx 18" of ice. We caught some perch, most of them were of decent size. We caught around 10 walleye, however they were all small...about 8-9 inchers. No keepers. We then packed up and went over to Bowstring. As we pulled up on the north end, we talked to a few trucks driving off the lake. Neither of the three had anything good to say. So, to try somewhere different, we decided to head over to Cut Foot for crappies late Sat afternoon. Surprisingly, there was only one other person fishing out there. Found out why, didn't catch a crappie.

On Sunday it was cloudy and snowing, but very nice, so we ventured out on Deer Lake for walleyes. Caught perch all day long, no eyes. Hind sight being 20/20, I think this lake is better served by fishing prior to dusk. Went to a crappie lake Sunday late afternoon and caught some fish to close out the day.

All in all, a poor weekend of fishing for us. Be careful walking around the lakes, with little to no snow, they are very slippery. I picked myself up off the ice a couple of times on Sat.

[bmc]

Wool,

How much ice did you find on Deer? It had an open spot in the middle there for a long time. Did you guys stick close to shore or fish some main lake spots? I agree with you, low light bite out there!

Brian

[zman1329]

MD, we tried 2 spots for crappies and 2 spots for wallys and perch, spots that produced before, but not this time. don't have any info on jessie, but I see someone else posted some info on it, have fished it in open water before, but not on the ice.

[mountaindew]

Woollman, bmc, and zman1329,

Thanks for the report guys! Looks like I'm in for a tough fishing weekend. Not only that..there's a cold front coming in...Friday being in the 25's and the weekend in the 10's. Wonder if that'll make it even worst to fish? Like a dead stop biting?

Thanks again guys!

[Woollman99]

Brian, we fished on the west end straight out from the access. We fished close to the main lake area, right off of some deep water. We set up in 24', 28' and 31'. There was about 15-16" of good ice. Your earlier posts indicated open water the end of December, so I assuming the ice happened over the last three weeks. We took a four wheeler out. At least I now can say I fished this lake in the winter...next time it will be late afternoon/early eve.

[Woollman99]

MD, all I can say is be mobile, move around if the fishing is slow and try to find some aggressive spots. We tried this last Sat, but the wicked wind and lack of snow cover made it a pain to relocate (we moved only once). If you're mainly interested in fishing for panfish (sunnies and crappies), stop at a couple of bait shops and ask for any current info (River Rat-Cohasset or Bens in GR). There was a couple other lakes on our to "check it out list", but we chose other locations. You may inquire about Little Cut Foot, Ball Club and Graves Lake (special limit on sunnies). Good Luck this weekend. Let us know how you did next week.

[mountaindew]

Woolman -

Thanks! I'll report how I'll do over the weekend. I'm mostly going to be aiming for panfish, sunnies and crappies. One more question..what (bait) were you using when you fished for panfish? Wanted to be more prepared on what to bring. Rapala jigs? color? Plastics? Or a good ol' crappie minnows?

Thanks again!

[Woollman99]

For sunnies, I would target small colorful jigs (experiment with colors) and use spikes or colored euros. For crappies, we caught half of our crappies on jigs with small crappie minnows and half on jigs with colored euros. I have good luck using rat finkies and shrimpos jigs. Also, plain colored hooks with a colored bead was good. Once again, experiment with color choice. Good luck.

[mountaindew]

Thanks for the info! Just woke up 10 minutes ago...I'll be heading up to bowstring in about 15 minutes! Will post results Monday night.

Thanks again guys!

[Blake]

let me know mountaindew.....I was planning a trip up there this weekend, but with the cold fronts as of late, decided instead on maybe late march. I will probably kick myself after I hear you killed them this weekend.

[bigw]

How was the weekend any luck? We will be over the 18th staying at Trails End. Thanks

[glenn57]

bmc, seen you are from deer river. go thrw there on our wayto spring lake. would be nice to meet you and bs a little. love that neck of the woods.

[mountaindew]

Hey Guys!

Here's the report...The first 2 days were cold and slow, only 2 fish. Small perch about 4 inches long. We were at the west end straight out of the access, very windy and COLD!!

So Sunday morning we decided to get out of the wind and fish in cow bay area near the river, away from the wind, but we didn't know it'd be sunny and warmer that day. We did alot better there, caught northerns, bass, and decent sized perchs. We fished there most of the day until we decide to go one of the spot we went during summer that we knew where the crappies were, which is right by the long breaker there that runs all across the lake. In 30 feet of water, we found fish on the vexilar and boy did we get them there!

There were 8 of us guys in 4 portables and we got our limit in 2 hours. Only problem was that we left cow bay area around 2 pm and set up there (where the crappies are) at 3 pm and stayed out there till dark. We didn't want to stay out too late in the dark because we felt uncomfortable driving all across the lake from the west end access. We nailed them crappies. Sad part was that Sunday was our last day of fishing, we were kicking ourselves for not fishing on that crappie spot earlier Friday or Sat..it was so windy and miserable cold..we didn't think anything was biting on those 2 days. But Sunday was a much better day! Here are the pics...

these were caught at the Cow Bay area...

Crappies!

Cleaning fish!

Lots of decent sized perch..

So Sunday made up the lousy 2 days of fishing in the cold. It was fun reeling up on those crappies in 2 hours. I couldn't believe how good it was. 8 guys with our limit in 2 hours. I still can't believe it.

Thanks guys for your info! It was a very memoral weekend for all of us!

[Woollman99]

MD, nice looking Crappie-sicles. Good job!! Hind sight is always 20/20....I've said many times we should have done this, we should have done that while fishing. Anyway, excellent way to close out your weekend. Glad you found some active buggers.

[Tim O]

Those are some nice looking crappies,but I like the wood trim on the cabin windows better. Its gonna be even colder this weekend so will have some more of those flash frozen fish. That huge bass makes that perch look tiny.

Thanks for staying with us.

Tim

[bmc]

glenn57,

Give me a shout out here before you come up and maybe we could hook up for some fishing? I very, very, rarely fish weekends as I'm either working or my kids are here. They like to fish once in a while, but not alot. I try to get out during the week as there's alot less people around. Let me know.

Brian

[Tim O]

Brian

I would be up for chasing some lakers or rainbows with you sometime. During the week is the best time for me is also during the week. Next week would work for me.