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Cattin' the Chain


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Marc - Nope mostly deep ruts. I tried driving off the road west of the meth hole after meeting an on coming truck and it was slow going with the drifts, so i hit the road again. We should head out there this week and I still got your bucket as well.

Caught some small walleyes for the first hour, then they disappeared. I moved deeper where I had marked fish but couldn't get them to bite. No cats either, they weren't liking my fatheads.

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Anybody have any tips on what baits are working best right now? I've seen some posts about liver working good. Is that fresh liver, or artificial?

I was also wondering what presentation of cut bait everybody likes best. I've been using crappie minnows lately with the tail cut off and the head smashed just to try to get something to bite. Anybody have advice on a better cut bait option?

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Catfreak were you out there today? Silver mustang? I was out all day and chased them kittys from one end of the lake to the other. Saw lots and lots of fish with very few takers. Ended up in my perm for the last couple hours and the crappie bite was decent from 3pm to 5pm and then got slow.

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Catfreak, it has to be Golden Plump Chicken Livers from the supermarket.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. smile

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Catfreak, it has to be Golden Plump Chicken Livers from the supermarket.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. smile

Yep, it's gotta be the Golden Plump brand. Don't forget to pick up a sixpack of Cold Spring, too. Fish local, support local! smile

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Quote:
Don't forget to pick up a sixpack of Cold Spring, too.

No dumping it out either, you have to drink it! laugh

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Actually, I was using golden plump livers the other day. They worked fairly well, good action if nothing else but the fish that bit the liver seemed smaller than the fish that bit minnows.

For minnows, I cut off the head and a bit of the body. Seemed to catch plenty of fish this way but they seemed to bite ligher.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Catfreak, it has to be Golden Plump Chicken Livers from the supermarket.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. smile

By the time we finished up we pretty much finished up the container. Cut sucker or shiners have worked very well for me as well. But the other night chicken livers ruled for both little and bigger fish.

P.S.

Bring a towel to wipe off your hands. Fishing with liver is messy and stinky.

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Yeah, I'll use liver in the summer occasionally. Gotta love that smell. Especially after forgetting it in your trunk on a warm summer night.

And riverfishingmiss, yea that was me in the silver mustang. Got that thing stuck pretty good on the edge of the ditch tonight. Ended up needing 4 guys to help push me outta there. If you were one of the guys that pushed me out, thanks again. Did you drive by me or something?

I think I'm just gonna drive out there tomorrow and chance it. Can't be any harder getting up that hill at the access than it was getting off the side of that road.

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Catfreak we almost met. Ya that was me that helped give you a little push. I was in the black chevy coming off the lake when we seen you were stuck. There was a crown victoria out there a couple days ago so you should be able to make that hill. How deep of water were you set in over there?

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According to the DNR website, it looks like Cedar has the best Cat population, would you guys agree that Cedar has the best cattin? I'm thinkin of heading out there saturday and i'm just gonna be going off the DNR's lake map as to spots to go. Think i'll be able to run in to some fish?

I also don;t have a truck or sled... is driving out there in a car pretty easy?

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i think all the lakes in the chain offer decent cattin, my suggestion would be to see if you can find good access on cedar if that's where you want to fish and use long lake as your backup, since it is very easy access there for your car.

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Are there any dangerous places to drive in terms of ice thickness? Being on any sort of current makes me little weary about driving or even walking.

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Riverfishingmiss, I started in about 22 fow and the last hole I punched was just over 30. Theres a nice slope right there. Had some fish checkin me out at 22. Didn't see anything at 30 for about 10 or 15 minutes so I pulled my bait up for a quick change and the second I did a cat came through. I had my flasher set narrow so he was right under me. That sucked.

Are you gonna be out there today?

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Most of the lakes have visible roads, if it's safe and driveable, you'll be able to see that without a doubt before you venture onto the ice, haven't checked out cedar much but that's the case with Long and HS. I've got a rear wheel drive truck and can't really go anywhere someone else hasn't already been, check it out, you'll be fine.

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Catfreak sory I didnt see your post till now cause I got out there at about ten this morning. I hit the cats prety good right under the house in 26fow until 2:30 when I decided it was too nice to sit in the house and went looking for a school of crappies. Found them pretty thick over forty feet of water suspending as much as twenty feet off bottom. Hot bait for the crappies was 1/32oz gill pill with a white lindy tiny tail. Bait for the cats was smashed up suckers and shiners. I got a bunch of the dead ones from corkys. I think the front that is coming through made the fish very active today.

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That's ok. I was hoping to make it out today cuz of that front, but I was just too tired after class. I was about to go grab my ice fishin stuff at about 2 and I layed down for a couple seconds to relax and watch some tv for a few minutes, next thing I knew it was 6:30. lol. Guess I needed some sleep. I'm gonna try to get out this weekend some time. You should email me your phone number and I'll try to get in contact with you. Plus, that way you can help me get off the lake when I can't make that hill. haha.

My email is [email protected]. Thanks again for helping me off the edge of that ditch. That stupid car is so frustrating. I was about 2 minutes from calling a tow truck to drag me like 10 feet onto the road.

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CatFreak...

I am Staff @ SCSU...maybe we can meet up...I will supply the perrm house...you provide the guide service...also I have a 4 x 4.

I am in the 801 Building.

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There have been trailers parked there lately, if not you can park right on 22 a little farther south and ride out into the East basin

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Was on the water by six this morning. The fish were still there. In the almost three hours I was there I managed one catfish about 12in long. I had the camera down for a bit and the fish I saw were not at all intrested in my offerings. Catfreak I will be out there on sun all day if I see you out there I will stop and say hi. We got the road out there packed down pretty good the last few days and you shouldnt have much of a probalem geting over to the other side of the bay. I will be bringing another perm house out to set up a bit deeper than the other one.

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dtro, that looked fun! Thats about how much fun we had 2 weeks ago. Warm and the fish were active all day

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Thanks dtro for the link! Thats prety cool. I think I was out there when they were filming this. It was the first part of december. I was fishing across the lake watching them wondering what they were filming. Now I know. I was out today and the fish were slow again today. From noon to seven my buddie and my self got seven crappies three catfish and one small walleye. Saw lots of fish on the graph but not much action. The cats we got were on live crappie minnows.

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Do the cats turn on again in for late ice? It looks like the soonest I'll be in the area is feb. 28th, and with pike season being closed I'll probably have some shiners/chubs to get rid of.

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Thanks dtro for the link! Thats prety cool. I think I was out there when they were filming this. It was the first part of december.

Actually we filmed this about a week ago.

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Hey riverfishingmiss, I never made it out that day. Next time I go out I'll let you know. If it warms up a little this week I'll try to get out there.

Minnesotamuskie, do you teach in 801? I've never had a class in the 801 building. That's right between the education building and the science building right? By the way, I don't think I'd be a great guide, but I'd definitely give it a shot.

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Do the cats turn on again in for late ice? It looks like the soonest I'll be in the area is feb. 28th, and with pike season being closed I'll probably have some shiners/chubs to get rid of.

Isn't that the day of the GTG? You should just go to that.

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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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