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If at first you don't succeed...


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Try...Try again.

Spent the weekend running around Winni trying to find fish. Finally in the eleventh hour we found them. Had a very nice walleye bite with a few nice perch mixed in and really good action until about 6:00, and then things shut down. But the 2-3 hours before then was pretty good, plenty of marks. Spottails, Fatheads, it didn't seem to matter. Setlines and bobbers setups seemed to work the best, one guy had a hot streak with a buckshot spoon.

3 of us released about 4 protected slot fish and lost one really nice something (walleye or pout?), also hit a daytime spot and nabbed 3 pike, with 2 of them for the dinner table.

We stayed on the move all weekend and put in our time. We were the last to leave the parking lot both days. With some cold in the forecast and 6-12" of snowcover, I expect there will be some roads out of the resorts soon. I saw a few places had gotten plowed by Sunday by someone. Until then, there shouldn't be a problem running snowmobiles or 4 wheelers.

Just stay on the move. If you aren't getting fish, try another spot. We hits bars, humps, flats, transitions, everything we could. Used a full tank of gas for a sled and an ATV by the end of the Sunday, and we found the fish just in time.

Good luck, and watch out for huge suckers. We pulled out two big ones in the middle of the walleye bites!

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Da Chise31 Did you pickup the spottails locally up there.I may be coming up in the next couple of weeks and was interested in picking some up.Also does anyone around there sell wigglers.Good to hear you rallied in the ninth grin.gif

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Yeah, Fred's in Deer River had them. They also have wigglers I believe, although I bought a few of them for a different lake on Friday night...Bought those on the little gas station on the west end of Rapids....

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Wiggelers are like a small nymph that you have to hook in the collar/neck and they can be dynamite! Mainly a Wisconsin bait. Have never seen'em in Minnesota since moving here.

Work great for perch, and are a tad spendy in my opinion.

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Wigglers are a mayfly larva that live in muddy or silty areas of lakes. Look during a hatch in the summer and you will see the skins floating on the surface.

Jar Jar

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One thing Ive learned using wigglers is to use them where they live.By this I mean the larva hatch out of the mud and that is where the perch ive caught were biting on them.Others may have had different results but Ive fished with them on sand bottoms and not had near the success as fishing a muddy basin.They are a very fragile bait to use and a little pricey but from time to time may be the best option going..Good Luck Out There.........

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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