Bucket Back Weekend Report: 2/16-2/19 (pics included)

[Tyler Holm]

Nick (HeavyFish) and I kicked off the weekend with an evening at Chester Woods. We caught 25-30 smaller crappies and lost one nice one at the hole. We also managed a few gills in the 7.5” range. We never caught a large fish, but had a good time with the small ones. Waxies and spikes worked best on small, yet heavy ice jigs. We fished 2 spots and the depth was 26-28FOW.

On Sat am, we found ourselves at Lake Pepin (trailer park point) looking for some eye/crappie action. We were setup about an hour before sunup which proved worthless. By 9:00 I had 3 dink saugers and picked up 1 nice crappie (11”), but we decided to make a move to an area trout reservoir. Nick picked up 1 14” bow, and we caught prob 40 small gills, pumpkinseeds, and warmouths. We tried a few more spots, but couldn’t mustard up much of anything worth mentioning.

Sunday am took us over to Albert Lea where we fished Fountain Lake. We fished and area with 9.5FOW and found a couple active fish. We maybe caught 10 gills that were decent sized (7.5-8”), 1 dink walleye, 2 largies, and 1 crappie (10”). The gills wanted the waxies and everything else took minnows or minnow heads. One of the largies is quite possibly my largest through the ice at 15.25”

I’d classify this as a tough/mediocre weekend. We caught fish, but the size was down. Man, when am I ever going to get past this "lul"? We got a few decent fish for the camera, but that's about it. Put 25 hours into fishing this weekend. Whofta!

[HeavyFish]

Yep Tyler summed up this weekend pretty well, a lot of time spent on the ICE and not a whole lot to show but it is always worth the time. Boy I didn't realize what that trout took out of me until I saw what I looked like in that photo. That was a wild hook up, all we were catching were small gills that wanted some small jigs and Tyler handed me his rod after I asked to use it quick and boom what do you know I tied into this nice bow and she took me for a ride. So SOME positives this weekend, but we are dooooo.

[Tyler Holm]

I should mention a little about what we were using. The top most picture of the crappie, I was using an Optic Stealth jig from Little Atom. I don't recall the size, but it was a firetiger/perch color pattern.

Nick's rainbow was taken on a Northland Jiggle Bug that I won during last years Trout Day.

The largie was taken on a JB Lures 1/16 Gem'n eye (chart/white) with a minnow head.

Nick's crappie took a micro weasel from JB Lures with a whole minnow.

[lookincalifornia]

thanks for the pics ty, i'm useing them to teach my little girl to identify different speices. she does ok. after awhile, everything is 'crappie' to her.

[Tyler Holm]

I'm hoping to turn things around tomorrow am. This nice weather should get the fish activated a bit.

[hogsucker]

Did you take any photos of the Warmouth? They are a pretty rare catch in these parts and I really want to get one for the life-list. I'd love to see a photo to confirm that it was indeed a Warmouth. Thanks a lot, and keep posting the panfish pics. ~hogsucker

[Tyler Holm]

I'll take a photo next time. I'm no expert my any means, but I've caught several dozen "warmouths" this ice season so far. I certainly could be wrong thogh. I'll photo one next time for proper identification. Foster Arends and the sippi backwaters are typically where these fish have been taken.

[hogsucker]

Thanks, Tyler. The part of the state that you are fishing is one of the very few places in Minnesota where these buggers live. They are actually a pretty unique catch and something to be proud of. I look forward to seeing some photos! ~hogsucker