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Wanderer,

Justin's story is not quite the way he stated it.

Two people in town wanted a trout, I gave the 4 pounder away to one person, and the other's husband brought an unsolicited bottle of home made wine to the store when he picked up the other.

It is true that he caught both of the larger trout ( 8+ and 12)

However, he fails to mention that I took him to one of my secret spots & showed him where to fish.

Therefore, I claim rights to all three of them:)

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  • Steve Foss

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Yeah, G.O., that's typical. Show the guy a spot that's no better than the spots he already knows, watch him outfish you and then claim guiding rights.

Sheesh. Well, come to think of it, I've done that myself a time or two on Burntside, right Surface Tension? grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

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Cmon Steve,

I took him to the spot, described the bottom contour, did everything but bait his hook, I mean, what's left to do??? \:\)

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Oh, boy....It seems I have now opened a can of worms here. We have nowhere to go but down from here I'm afraid!!!

Hey nice fish pictures there Wanderer!!! Nice fish too!!!

Going back to the question about line selection, I decided to spool my levelwind reel with 12 Lb. P-Line Floroclear this year. Very nice line and delivers a nice presentation with no coiling while jigging smaller lures I put a small swivel about 5 feet above my lure. Has worked extremely well and I am very happy with this line so far. On my lake trout spinning reel, I put 10 Lb. Gamma ESP Ice line on there. I am really into the Gamma lines and this one works extremely well for lakers.

G.O., I will swing by if I get some Rainbows tomorrow.

Later,

Justin

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Great shots, Tracy. We'll have to have a dueling hats contest. Surface Tension's got a muskrat hat he's quite fond of, but it's not as fancy as your and my longer fur hats. He calls them Ivana Humpalot hats, if you can believe it. grin.gif

Chris, c'mon now. You've just bought one of the best laker rods out there. Surely you can drop a little jing and pick up a 5500 for the perfectly balanced laker combo. Anyway, end the suspense. What line?

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Justin,

I'm going out in the morning for a few hours if the temp isn't too bad (-10 or less) and little to no wind.

I'm going to try another method, slight variation of what we used the other day.

I'll let you know the results.

Coffee should be on by 1, see you then.

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Well we got back from the Gunflint late last night, and like always it was a great trip. My buddy Matt, his golden retriever Tikk, and myself left Duluth at about 5:30 tuesday AM and were fishing by 10. Within 15 minutes of being set up, Matt's flag went up and 10 minutes later we had our first trout on the ice a nice 28 incher. Things were slow but consistant. We marked a lot of fish, landed 3 and hooked and lost a few more.

A few fish from the first day

l_31c95459394e6e3eefdfcdbd978cddf8.jpg

We stayed at the Hungry Jack Lodge, and I want to thank Forrest for the hospitality and and great service we received. We went to bed to dream of the fish that would await us the next day. We went to a couple different lakes on Wed after hearing a few promising reports. We fished a lake with rainbows, splake, and lakers at sun up but came up empty. I set up in six ft of water and had a lot of nice fish come in, but only one nice rainbow was fooled by my gypsy jig and came off shortly after. Matt set up deep and also hooked and lost a nice Laker. We then moved to a different lake near by and got a few more eater sized lakers. I. talked to a few guys and it sounds like the incoming front shut the fishing down pretty good on Wed. Oh well, still a great day to be on the trail.

All in all things went very smoothly. The sled ran great, and the items we forgot were minor. Although Tikk did cut his paw quite badly and was forced to ride like this on the way out.

l_a592c4304484ffcca191f58b0cb406ac.jpg

Myself cooking up some trout at the Hungry Jack Lodge

l_350d5957a6b23bb4a088644ae6e5b932.jpg

40 to 50 ft of water seemed to be the ticket and most of my fish came on Jigging Raps. I also had some luck on Cicaddas and slender spoons. Shiners on tip ups also took a few fish. This trip did the trick and I'm pumped for the bash. See you guys next weekend!

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Great report QS. I'm leaving for Hungry Jack Friday morning for 5 nights. I can't wait to chase em on Gunflint and some other area lakes. I hope I don't freeze solid.

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Oh, man I am tired out now. Lots of fresh air today.

Got back a little while ago from chasing Rainbows today. Caught 4 nice ones and one really nice Splake for my limit. My wife is going to be happy when she gets home because she has been hungry for some troutskis on the grill. Saw alot of fish today and most of them wouldn't bite. It still is fun to watch them down by your lure. Now that I got that out of my system, Its back to chasing lakers again if the weather cooperates.

Nice fish Quickstrike!!!

Later,

Justin

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Cool fish and pics, Kent! grin.gif

While Justin was out landing streamers, I was staring at a whole lot of nothing this morning in the -15 cold on Burntside. Went to the spot I did well at on opener but, of course, that was a whole different day, wasn't it? Not a single fish came through until 12:30, then I played cat and mouse with no less than six lakers between 12:30 and 3:45.

I couldn't get any but one to go. Had to downsize from my Raps and Slender spoons, tying on an Angel Eye Jr. and a glow/blue 1/4 oz Go Devil. Both are designed for walleyes and crappies but make great downsized laker lures on Bside and other lakes. You can get them, as well as the Slender spoons, in the HSO/FM online store, by the way.

The Angel Eye and Go Devil got them more interested, but I still could only get one to hit. I got it in sight before it pulled off, and that was it for the day. Looked like about a 3 pounder.

Not even a single flag on the tip-up. Alternated between golden shiners and rainbows all over the water column, but nada. On days when they charge in like gangbusters at your jigging lures but won't hit, the tip-up 20 feet away with that wiggling minnow generally does pretty well, but not this time.

That's trout fishing! New day, new fun and new frustration. Now we'll see if I feel like venturing out on the sled during the weekend's icebox. I'll tell you, it sure feels strange that I fished all day and tomorrow's only Friday. After quitting the newspaper and going to work for myself, every time I go fishing during the week it feels like the next day has to be Sunday. grin.gif

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I hear ya Steve, I think I'll be found in-doors this week. I'll probably wait til the bash to get out again. This will be a great weekend to watch some football!

But I'm sure a few of you guys are a bit more hardcore than I am! crazy.gif

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Kent, when you live right next to a laker fishery this good and are a laker addict, well, cold temps just don't matter much. I must say it WAS a cold ride this morning before sunrise, though. grin.gif

A few years back, Chunkytrout and I opened on Bside and when the sun broke over the trees along the shore of Van Vac Bay, it was -38 with 15 mph of wind.

We had our limits in an hour and a half, but we weren't STUPID or anything. As soon as we limited, we got our butts off the ice and indoors. grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

I'm sure I'll spend at least one day this weekend on Bside, even if all I do is throw the portable in the vehicle and drive down to Van Vac and tow it by hand out to 50 FOW. That whole south shore along Van Vac holds trout. That's where Chunky and I limited, and that's where some folks (not all) have had luck with trout during past Bashes if they couldn't travel far from HQ.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Nice fish guys.

"Sheesh. Well, come to think of it, I've done that myself a time or two on Burntside, right Surface Tension? "

Yeah ya know, despite that I managed to finesse a 12 laker in. grin.gif

My wife bought me that hat in Finland(M-I-L is from there).

Even though that trapper had to sneak into Norway to get the into the worlds best prime pelts of Muskrat for the hat ;\) . He did bring it back to Finland and had it made. \:o I can't tell the M-I-L that or it'll break her heart. Its bad enough that the best reindeer herders are from Norway ya now.

I won't mention to her that Nokia is now made in Japan either.

Steve, its not that the hat of yours made from Jackal in the hight of mange season is all bad and for Gosh sakes how could you beat the $4.99 price at the truckload sale. \:\)

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Frank, be very, very careful. You're about to start a Finnlander/Norwegian war. \:o\:o

I gotta admit your hat is nice and warm and compact. One hint: If you don't tie up the earflaps you look a little bit like Elmer Fudd (see your avatar.) grin.gifgrin.gif

My hat, on the other hand, while being quite warm, is a bit longer in the hair department. And I paid $14.99 for it, not $4.99. It's the same hat you buy at Cabela's (exact same hat and brand) for $150, but Mrs. Catfish and I lucked into a bin of them at the Grand Forks, N.D., Sam's Club 10 years ago.

Heck, if it isn't -20 there's no reason to even take my hat out of the closet. grin.gifgrin.gif

And Frank, I'm about to show Harvey Lee that spot where I've gotten two 12-lbers and you got your own 12-lber last year. I've had two five-fish days there and have never been skunked. I figure if I show one out-of-towner per year where that spot is, it'll take at least another couple of years before the word gets out and there's someone parked there every time I want to fish it. But that's cool. Tons of spots on Bside just as good, and that just makes me explore a little more each time out. grin.gifgrin.gif

Oh, and I haven't told anyone about your trick of dumping the minnows out of the minnow bucket as you're getting ready to leave for the day and following the bait cloud down with your lure. It'll just be our little secret. grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

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Don't get me wrong, I've fished through plenty of cold days. It's just that after a two day trip this week, I've got plenty of things to get done before the bash and the cold temps don't make me feel quite as bad about not getting out.

Oh by the way, thanks for the help Frank, it was very appreciatted!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Normally the ear don't flop but it was verwy windy, anyway funny why the photographer didn't mention the floppy ears at that time?

Kent your welcome.

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HI new to the sight all you guy are having to much fun. i fished burntside 10 years ago first fish 10 lb been meaning to get back, never forget the hit. Are ther any guides there would be three of us have 4 wheeler 1 portable looking. to catch some lakers and hear some good stories.thanks carl

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Jigman, welcome to FM. Great to have you here! There are no professional guides working Burntside in winter for lakers. I can direct you to a couple people who do it informally if you shoot me an e-mail. My e-mail addy is in my signature below all my posts.

Frank, I just assumed you liked the floppy-eared look. grin.gif

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Hey Carl, welcome ot the site. Thanks for signing up. You sure picked a doosy of a thread to make your first post in. I hope you've got waders cause its getting deep in here.

If you're talking about coming to the Bash next weekend then there will be plenty of people to point you in the right direction.

One thing you will learn about Fishing MN guys is that when we have a get-together we are all there to catch fish so sometimes all it takes is one phone call and everyone starts moving to find the hot bite.

If you come there will be lots of folks trying to get you another 10lb'r. Hope to see you there.

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Nice fish Kent and cool pic for your avatar!

Steve, if your hat does have the mange, please keep it on a leash! It would be a shame to infect a pure blood immigrant muskrat and I'd rather shed naturally. ;\)

Powerstroke, I think there's a sled auction this weekend. I'll check in the morning - call me in the afternoon.

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stfcatfish,

Steve, went out on Burntside this morning from 7:30-11.

Had quite a few follow ups, a few bumps, but no serious diners.:(

I was at ground zero for smelt, couldn't believe how many were there. They stayed almost the full time I fished, and the school was almost 20 feet thick.

Fishing in about 35 FOW and managed to land a beautiful 7 inch smelt on a 1/4 oz Kastmaster tipped with 2 small Berkley Power Smelt.

Dang cannibals!!!!!

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G.O., sounds like you were on a good spot. I've caught lots of lakers on Bside when there wasn't a smelt anywhere near my electronics, but I'm always a more confident angler when there are smelt moving through. There are often lakers where there aren't smelt, but there pretty much ALWAYS are lakers where there ARE smelt. grin.gifgrin.gif

You must have got the biggest smelt in the lake. My usual incidental catch on laker lures is about 4 inches.

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Steve/Frank,

Thanks for the info on the reel, I think that I'll be investing in a mitchell rod/ambassadeur combo this winter. I'll have to stop by Gander and check out the 4600 and the 5500 to see which feels best.

Are you both going to be fishing friday?

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stfcatfish,

Biggest smelt in the lake, I think so!

Haven't seen one this large since the late 60's.

Forgot to mention earlier that I didn't snag him, but hooked him on the lip after he went after one of the 2 inch power smelt.

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Chris, I'll be doing some fishing Friday morning after we send folks out on spots for the pre-Bash fishing. That is, if all the stuff to organize the Bash allows me to fish. Friday afternoon will probably be spent doing setup for the next day.

G.O., I've caught quite a few smelt on laker jigging lures after they've gone for the lure. They look pretty funny when they have the whole treble in their mouths. Like a pike jaw spreader in miniature. grin.gifgrin.gif

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Fished north of Grand Rapids last weekend. Quite a few people on the small lakes over there. 1 hookup, no success. Sunday iced a 16.5 brooky on small pond north of Buhl. Fishing overall seemed slow, same report came from others. Will be out again this weekend, hoping for a change of luck

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