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"The Lodge" fishhouse.. How's mobility on area lakes??


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Thinking of heading out towards Hutch area lakes "next" weekend.. Bringing the "Lodge" fishhouse, and portables.. How has the mobility, travel, been on the area lakes?? How has the walleye bites been?? No need to name a lake, just how the bite has been??

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You should be fine as far as travel goes, depending on what happens with this snow that's coming tonight/tomorrow.

Ditto on the flow fishing.

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Try Minnie Belle in the morning for eye's.

Howard Lake for crappies in the evening and eye's during the night.

Ripley and try Stella for dink eye's.

Travel in not a problem but bring a shovel, there are some 1-2' drifts out there! Ice is anywhere from 12-20+".

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Pelican Lake for Crappies, Ripley only has HUGE eyes, everyone that is out there is catching good eating crappies

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Status of the fishery as of 2005:

(Ripley)

Moderate numbers of walleye were gill netted, for this type of lake, ranging in length from 10.0-25.9 inches. Walleye averaged 20.0 inches. The 2005 walleye catch rate (4.0/net) was almost identical to the all time high catch rate from 1995 (4.1/net). Walleye were last stocked in 1981, indicating that natural reproduction is sustaining the fishery.

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Last time stocked in 1981. It would be safe to assume that yes there are hogs in ripley. Average of 20" Them are not hogs, but having an average like that sure does sound pretty dang good. Thanks LIMITOUT

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Info from MNDNR LakeFinder on MinneBelle,

A total of 51 walleye were sampled by gill nets for a catch rate of 5.7/net. This catch rate was slightly down from the last gill netting in 2003 (6.7/net). Of the 51 fish netted, 75% were 15 inches or larger and 16% were 20 inches or larger. The average length of fish captured in 2006 (16.9") remained about the same compared to 2003 (16.7"). Fish age determined from fish scale samples revealed walleye of 11 separate ages. Fish that were 3, 5, 6, and 7 years old were most common. Walleye fingerlings are stocked every other year at Minnibelle to supplement natural reproduction.

So comparing Ripley and MinneBelle, if you were to catch bigger walleyes, Ripley sure does give MinniBelle a run for the money

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walleyes disappeared and the travel i good, been to alot of lakes north of hutch but wolf lake i got northern and crappies other then that i could be mowing the lawn.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Wanderer
      I haven’t been as far north as the chair yet so I have no idea what condition leech has left in in!  I think he should take it home and restore it.   Big Rice has was a b*ch to paddle.  I didn’t miss it this weekend and won’t miss it any other weekend I don’t make it there.
    • Wanderer
      IKR!   I’m hopefully gonna be in Ely in a couple weeks but I’ll be chasing ducks more than grouse.  Not the best place to go for ducks but I love it up there in October.
    • Kettle
      Still biting lindy rigs. Had to get some fish before I head out to chase birds 
    • smurfy
      roughfish!!!!!!!!!!👍🤣🤣   dandy fish sir!!!!!!!!!!!👍
    • Kettle
      Put a few on the metal meat leash today 
    • monstermoose78
      As long as the birds don’t fly I am good. I can catch fish through the ice fairly well. 
    • MarkB
      My cousin and I just returned from beautiful Lake Vermilion after 4.5 days of the most spectacular walleye fishing you could ever hope for. Usually our mutual friend joins us but his father passed away and he had to opt out. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and packed things up after our morning outing Wednesday. We stopped at Cabelas on the way up and found them to be sold out of pike suckers. While they had them, they were charging 99 cents each! We then stopped at Harris bait shop and found a help yourself situation that was also out of pike suckers. They sold them while available for 6 for $6! We eventually found them locally for the same price as last year. During our stay, we used pike suckers, rainbow mix, and crawlers. The walleyes hit them all but, I believe, the rainbow mix caught the most, the crawlers were almost as productive, and the pike suckers produced the biggest fish.  We caught them in depths ranging from 13' to 27'. They were in the rocks and in the mud depending on the time of day. We caught walleyes all day every day with 5 o'clock PM to ~7 o'clock PM being optimum for quantity. The weather was absolutely HORRIBLE with high winds and non-stop rain early in the trip. Boat control was very difficult and I struggled to keep our speed around that .4mph to .6mph. Hits were fast and furious but the hit to catch ratio was at best 5 or more hits to one catch . We stuck with the 1oz bottom bouncers, 3 red beads, and a size 2 hook for the big suckers. I found a shorter 3' leader to be most effective. We caught 153 walleyes on our trip and I would bet we had at least 5 times that many hits!. Now, with all that said, we don't feed line to walleyes to help avoid gut hooks and that certainly gives rise to a poor hook-up ratio. We ate fish twice and brought home our limits. Everything else went back. The walleyes ranged in size from ~13" to 26". We caught lots of slot fish and fair numbers of 15"-19" fish. In addition, we caught 10 smallmouth and only one jumbo. Our really big fish were never landed. My cousin had a true giant walleye laying on top of the water right beside the boat and grabbed her by the base of the tail in an attempt to scoop her into the boat. She was having none of that and with a major flop, snapped the leader. We didn't use a net because I forgot it at the dock. Getting old is a bitch. I had two different walleyes(I'm sure) hooked on Tuesday that came off directly below the boat. Both fish I thought were snags when they hit. Anyone who thinks walleyes don't fight have never caught a truly big one. Both fish ran off several yards of line while fighting to get free. Eventually they both succeeded. I would hesitate to say how big I think my cousins fish was that he had beside the boat, but, my wife and I have caught some really big walleyes in Lake Vermilion and I know what a big walleye looks like. That walleye was absolutely enormous.  We've decided to bring my cousin's two sons back up for a short trip a little later on. Hopefully, the walleyes will still be in a feeding frenzy. Lastly, I usually like to include pictures with my posts. I have a big problem this time, I got a new phone and I know nothing about transferring the pictures. That will be remedied when we come back up. In the meantime....... Good Fishing, MarkB🙂
    • leech~~
      I don't think Moose needs my help, he seems to do pretty well with the ice fishing and grouse hunting by the pictures! 👌
    • smurfy
      looks to me like your gonna need to be on the ice ALOT to get them all checked out!!!!!!!👍🙄 mayhaps Leech could help ya out!!!!   at least he wouldnt be "accidently" locking any more threads!!!!!!🤗🤣🥴
    • monstermoose78
      I got some cool jigs this year this a picture from Slab Bait Shop. The 2nd to last photo is one of my jig boxes with them in it. The last photo has some Macula jigs and if your eyes are getting old these are awesome to tie!! I won the auction for the last photo so I got all of the plastics and jigs.
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