minnetonka northerns

[goose89]

any advice on catching some northerns on minnetonka would be appreciated. gonna try it friday hopefully. thanks in advance. goose

[Tom Wilson]

Goose,

I have been killing them this week on tonka in 8-15ft using Rapala DT10's & DT16's in a Firetiger pattern.

[Dan Wood]

Try Grays bay for pike - work the weed edges with a weedless spoon or spinnerbait.. Or rip a crankbait through the sparse weeds.

[Trailblazin]

Any weedline will get you fish.

[Giant_Jackpot]

And since Tonka is basically one big weedline it's hard to go wrong. I agree on the Raps trolled along the weeds. Last weekend got 6 small pike (biggest was 26 inches). They did not start hitting hard until I sped up to 3 MPH.

[markkstanley]

I have had good success for big northerns jigging with fatheads outside the weedlines on sharp breaks. They have been anywhere from 18' to 24' deep. Look for bays with a big weed flat that drops quickly from 10' to 30+. Find the bait fish and start jigging. For some reason suckers haven't been drawing much action but slow trolling them on a spinner rig in the same areas usually produces some hefty fish.

[Norsky]

My wife and I went out in Crystal Bay last night and fished jigs and shiners around the weed edges, ended up boating a couple nice northerns, and losing a few jigs to the toothy critters also. I'll be out again Friday for some more, maybe I'll have to resort to using leaders.

[Tom Wilson]

Spent three hours on Tonka this morning, caught seven northerns all within a four iron of spirit island. Biggest about 8lbs--2 dinks. 4 would've been good eaters if you like to eat the slimy things. (Bass Rule)
Tried fishing a couple different colors and styles of cranks this morning, but eventually broke down and went back to the firetiger DT10, that's what caught em' all.
one very large Muskie follow today--Put a 49.5" back in the water on tuesday. Again with the firetiger DT10--10lb test too!

[92python]

I think it's hard not to catch pike on Tonka. Fish through the weeds in 12'to 15' and do everyone a favor and keep a few. Especially the smaller ones. I have been letting the bigger ones go in hopes that they would eat a few of the dink sunnies.

Pike do taste good. Rather than telling how or where to catch them, I think it would be more useful to share ways to prepare them. Your favorite pickling recipie, how to y-bone.....

[Havin' Fun]

What in the heck was I doing wrong last night than?? Cupper and I went out and did the jig and minnow thing, lindy and finally ended up trolling. Trolling is where we finally picked up some fish. Cupper got a nice 19" eye and we got a few bass but not one Pike. That was our main objective. Trolled the weedline in 12-14' of water and nothing!!! Sheesh. Guess we will have to hit more spots. Couldn't even get one on the jig/minnow.

[markkstanley]

Hey Tom, you longlineing the DT10?? Banging bottom or just 5ft down? I tried last night and got zip on the DTs.