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Cattin' the Chain


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  • Rick G

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depends on the lake. Cedar and the shoe are good, just follows all the roads. Koetter is a no. I have never seen anyone drive out there (this weekend about 5 - 12 inches).

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Don't even think about driving anywhere on the river sections, including on Koetter. Wiskers, the meth hole on Horseshoe has great ice for driving all the way from the winter access.

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How is the driving on long? Looks like I'll be taking my fiance there for valentine's day. Good for cats and crappies?

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You should be able to get almost anywhere on Long. It's usually not tough to find some crappies during the evening, after dark can be spotty. Anywhere from 16-30 feet, I usually move a couple times in an evening.

So far it seems like there's fewer cats from Long than HS but they've been bigger.

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The fish were realy hit and miss today. I started out my day looking for some gills and found plenty but couldnt get the bigger ones to bite. After twenty or so tiny gills I decided it was time to see if the kittys were hungry. The cats were a little more willing to eat .It seemed if I could get one to bite and get my bait back down quick enough I could usaly get another within a min. or two. I had holes from 17-30ft and most of the fish I got came from 20-22ft. Got some on half minnows and others on gobed up waxies on a frostee spoon. There realy was no one hot bait as I got 1or 2 off every thing I tryed. I didnt get any huge fish today and more than half the cats were small 12-14in.

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Cats were slow for us too but we got a couple on a jig tipped with waxies and a larger spoon/minnow head. The crappie bite was pretty decent for us right through 8:30 so I was going half and half. Couldn't resist taking a half day today to get back out there and fish this afternoon.

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Was out most of the day only got two cats two small walleyes and a handfull of crappies. I think I may have to head to clearwater tomorow and try something diffarent Maybe try for gills in the morning-afternoon and walleyes in the evening.

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How are the cats doing todays?.

My son wants me to take him to Horseshoe and Long tomorrow to chase some cats on his birthday tomorrow, and hopefully cats will cooperate.

Thanks.

Soft

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I tried horseshoe today and had never been there before but some fellow anglers steered me in the right direction, but I didn't catch any even though I marked fish all day on the electronics. I have a few questions for the guys that have been doing this for a while,I didn't mark any fish in water deeper than 30 ft is that common? I tried chicken liver and larva and pieces of fatheads any other baits I should have tried?Do cats prefer to be close to where the river moves through these lakes? I have to say after seeing the video on this site I will keep at it until I ice a few cats. ps do the cats get more aggressive as march rolls around? Thanks for any help.

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Has anyone ever tried using pickled herring for bait? The reason I ask is because I'll be fishing the chain next weekend while I'm staying at the in-laws. They always have at least 1 jar of that stuff in their fridge, so just curious.

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Made it up there yesterday and was very slow day for us. Tried a couple of river sections and also a main lake hole. We marked fish all day, but they were very negative. Seems like as the year goes on, the known spots produce less and less.

I plan on doing a little exploring the next time I'm up and try to find some less pressured fish that might be more willing to commit.

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Dtro- Nice talking with you again and also nice to meet aanderud. As you stated the cats are adapting to the pressure they are recieving makeing them tough at certain times.Sorry to hear you guys had a slow day. As far as scouting I think I know of a few spots I can show you, we talked about them yesterday. Let me no when your free again and we'll work something out! We may have to wear snow camo to hide though. HAHAHA

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Oh Icehawk is going stealth. Lots of spots out there.

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I dont think it is the fishing preasure thats making the kittys tough as I have a couple areas that no other person besides myself and my fishin buddies has tryed yet this winter and even the cats we find in theese top secret locations have become shy in recent weeks.

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My son and I were out there on Sunday from 10am to 6pm and we did not catch a cat, we fished very hard from meth hole on horseshoe and south basin on Long, we moved quite a bit.

Well, we could not beat the weather and the quality time I spent with my son, no whining from 9yrs old son even we did catch a fish.

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So it sounds like most of the fishing happens on horseshoe and long...doesn't anyone fish cedar island?

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There's plenty of cats on Cedar Island too. Sometimes the pods are a little harder to locate, but they are definitely there.

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I'm gonna be up there the next 3 of 4 weekends, so I intend to spend lot's hours on the chain. Having looked at maps of horseshoe and long I have a pretty good idea where I want to start...but cedar is a little more confusing. Do I want to fish around the 70 ft hole (in shallower water of course) infront of the access or go beyond that and find other holes/structure?

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jB, or anyone

if your coming up this weekend take caution around any of the major channels. cant be certain, but sure looks like open water by the knaus bridge. the bay in front of me had 5 inches of water on it the other day and the water must have filtered down through newly formed cracks. looks like good weather for refreezing but, again, would be leary of any bottle neck areas.

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Even if this warm up hadn't occured I'd probably still walk out. I'll be up there in the car instead of the truck. If it looks drive-able that'd be great because after the cold comes in it's gonna be a heckuva slippery walk.

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Most of the standing water has went away leaving some awful slippery ice. There looks to be a bit of open water by the 22 bridge. I moved my house again today over to becker this time til the end of the perm season. The access to becker is in rough shape lots of slush and water but lots of goood ice yet.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Check out the new HSO Show on Catfish Ice fishing at the top of the page. Pretty good day on the ice.

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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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