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Finally got out tonight with No Bait Nate. Spent an hour or so pitching for green carp(yes, I admit I did just fished for them).

Nate caught a a few nice LM things. As I was getting skunked, I finally hit a fish, she jumped just like a ba**...But no.

It hit on a gamgatzu (sp) 6/0 hook with a double paddle mr twister tail.

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13"er. Very black crappie. Aggressive lil bugger. smile

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I got a nice 21" eye on west jefferson friday. Nice lake, my First time fishing it. Figured they were in there.

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Very nice! I have always turned away from there cause of the weeds. Glad you got one outta there!

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Very nice! I have always turned away from there cause of the weeds. Glad you got one outta there!

I've fished West Jeff for a long time and I've never thought of weeds being a problem out there. Great little lake.

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Quote:
The weed line is quite shallow on WJeff.

I'm guessing but I think it may be the Eur, Millfoil that keeps some people from fishing the Jefferson/German chain of lakes. I know I fish fish them very little now. Just thinking that I may be part of the spread of it makes my guts crawl.

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Well you should feel better in a couple of years when all the lakes are infested.

Most weeds were in less than 3'-5'. I think i'll fish it more often as it also appears to be a lake less traveled! wink Lots of nice drop-offs and structure to focus on.

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Truth

Thats one of those lakes here in a couple of weeks where you can throw out 3or 4 colors and be pleasantly suprised with the results. If you know what I mean.

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Hit the lake today from 11-3. Trolled #4 hornets anywhere from 5-12' of water. Picked up a few walleyes, lots of crappies, some gills, and more than my share of sheepies. Conditions were great for mid day fishing with the cloud cover and slight winds across the lake. Was working mid lake structure with little weeds left. Blue/chrome was the color of the day until I got nipped off and the sheepies finally destroyed my second. Then the Orange/chrome worked well also. Ended up with a few walleyes in the 16" range and a handful of decent crappies to have the girlfriends parents over for a fish fry tonight. I hope to be on the lake again by 6 or so in the morning to try the same game plan.

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NBN-

FYI there is no such thing as a destroyed Salmo lure. They have a lifetime warranty. Send it in and get a new one back. Or I think you can got to Vexilar up in the metro and they can exchange them there for you. Gotta love companies that stand behind their products!

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Thanks for the tip on the Salmos, another friend told me the same thing so I have two with hooks removed tucked into an envelope to be mailed out tomorrow. I did stop and restock my blue/chrome color supply before I went fishing today though. I hear they are very quick on the turn-around on getting them back to you also. Got to love a company who truly stands behind their product, no matter the abuse a few fish may have caused.

I started my day at the access by finding a very nice, high dollar, digital camera in the case right on the turn around. No body was around still but I asked another fisherman if he'd seen who went on the lake after he came off. He said a ski boat, now which of the 25 ski boats on the lake today would it be. So I turned the camera on to find some pics of the Prior Lake little league team playing ball, so then I looked around to find a truck with a wet trailer that just happened to have a Prior Lake Lakers sticker on the window. Bingo, I tucked a business card in the window with a note and then took a look at the trailer. Matched the custom trailer to the CrownLine speed boat and found the family that had dropped it. Boy were they happy and even threw me a tip! I was soon to be rewarded by the fish gods...

I then had the rare chance to have my dad come join me on the lake for a few hours. We hit the water around 2:30 and fished in the heat and blazing sunshine until about 5:30. I fished a different area than yesterday since the wind changed and decided to fish a mid-lake point on the windy side.

Turned out to be a great option as we boated 11 walleyes, a handful of crappies, 1 pike and more sheepies than we cared for. The action was great, like clockwork almost every time a cloud would pass over the sunshine a fish was on!

We were pulling cranks again in depths from 5-12' with most fish coming out of about 7'. Trolling zig-zag patterns parallel to the bar was the ticket today and trolling speeds in between 1.8 and 2.3 mph was best. The variations were really keeping the fish going. Bright colors and chrome finishes excelled today over natural tones for sure.

Most would not chose to fish walleyes in the blazing sun, let alone in shallow water but it can be done and was very fun today. We kept a few in the 16" range and had one 17.5 and one 19.5, along with a couple crappies over the 10" mark. Looks like my parents are bringing over my grandparents some night this week for a walleye dinner! What a great day on the water.

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Great report Nate. I hope to duplicate your success some day I just keep plugging away hoping.

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Boy were they happy and even threw me a tip! I was soon to be rewarded by the fish gods...

Nice job nate!

Gotta love karma at the landing!

I helped a few guys find their keys on the st. croix last fall. They rowed their boat back to the landing...Not sure what they were thinking by leaving the island, but i gave them a ride to the island they were fishing and sure enough their keys fell out right as they jumped in the boat, inches from the water.

Zero visibility this trip took well oven an hour just to find their island, but well worth it. I turned down a tip and went fishing only to return to the dock 5 hours later out of bait. I had planned a whole weekend of fishing, but after 40 sturgeon, i was out of bait for the weekend!!! Including a 54" PB.

Helping someone out can go a long way!

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Truth

Thats one of those lakes here in a couple of weeks where you can throw out 3or 4 colors and be pleasantly suprised with the results. If you know what I mean.

Well i'll be sure to stop back out there. Here's the 21

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Got out for a few hours last night at sundown with No Bait Nate, and Mourneau. Absolutely beautiful evening! Lake was like glass, not too hot and the fish came to play! Nate put on a walleye clinic with 4 or 5 13" to 17" fish smacking his salmos. Mourneau and I could on catch Sumo Sheepies and 7 to 10" crappies until the last pass of the night and I crushed a fat 18.5 eye.

I don't remember what lake we were on...but it was 6 to 14 FOW. And very SMELLY green pea soup water.

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I don't remember what lake we were on...but it was 6 to 14 FOW. And very SMELLY green pea soup water.

I dont remember what lake I was on either but the water was clean and clear and fish where healthy and strong! grin

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Madison is pretty green & ripe now. I can smell it a few blocks away.floating dead weeds everywhere.

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Hit a local lake yesterday Morning with Fellow HSO'er Chris Barlage, we started out the morning working some mid lake structure and trolling cranks at 2.5-3 MPH the first few fish Chris hooked into where all about in the same spot holding on the bottom end of the structure. By 9:30 or so Chris was kicking my butt and had a few eyes as well as some sumo Sheepies in the boat while I had none. we decided to pitch cranks up onto the end of the structure that we found the fish on. After a few casts I got slammed beside the boat on a bite that had me thinking pike or ski. As soon as she ran to the bottom and started shaking her head I had a feeling it was something else.....another sumo sheepie! after another little break in fish we decided to check some other spots only to come back and fish where we started but pulling spinners this time. Ended up hooking into one more 15 or so inch eye before getting exhausted by the heat and heading in....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent a few hours shore fishing with my 8 year old daughter today at bully/wells in Faribault.

We hammered the gills (~50 in 2 hours). Biggest only going 8" and the majority in the 4 to 6" range. Also a few Bass, with the biggest around 17". Everything was tossed back as we were just out for a daddy daughter afternoon date.

Leeches under a slip bobber, and we couldn't keep them off! wink Crawlers worked well, but not produce the numbers that the leeches did. The water clarity around that bridge was surprisingly good for how all the other lakes in the area are.

A few HS kids were also in the area fishing, they all used plastics with not much success. I gave a leech to one of the kids and wham, he started getting into em.

I call it a success 'date' with my daughter. smile

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Went out from 12-4 today on Madison and the crappies and sunnies were snapping in 10-12 FOW. Almost all the crappies were 11"+ and numerous sunnies in the 8-9" range. Was a very fun day to say the least. Caught the crappies on a jig/minnow and the sunnies on a spinner/crawler. Water temp was still a steamy 81-83.

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My son has his best friend Timmy over tonight, and low an behold...it got quite in my house, no playstation, no loud music. My wife and I quietly sitting on the deck enjoying the view. The kids go running down the hill to fish off the shore. As kids argue over whose bait is best; music to my ears.

They caught dozens upon dozens of the little gills in Kelly Lake, and a few frogs to boot.

All of a sudden I hear a "Dad!" "Matt!" and they got the standard

"WHAT!" back from me "Timmy has a bass!" To myself I am thinking eh, great, yuck..but then again, the kids are enjoying my favorite past time... They come barreling up the hill, "Take a picture and send it to Timothy's mom and dad!"

So here is his 2.2 lb LM Bass he caught tonight. The smile and how proud he is is priceless! wink

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Not much beats watching kids enjoy catching fish!

(the green carp was released to live another day...however they really wanted to eat it tonight)

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Muddogs tip of the day.

When you are out fishing this summer when there is a light wind. On the up wind side of the lake where the water starts to drop off into deep water. Look for an area where the small ripples seam to disappear in a small area. This is an up welling of cool water from the deep. Fish an area 50-75 yr around this up welling.

Good luck!

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Decided to take a break from the heat the other night and instead of hitting the lakes with my boat, a friend and I decided to hit up the Straight River for a little wade fishing in the cool water. Turned out to be a great idea as the water was cool enough when in shorts and sandals that it kept the heat to a minimum. We caught many smallmouth bass with some average size around 12" and one pushing 16-17. I also caught a beautiful looking walleye out of about a foot of moving water that went about 15". It was a very fun night and was sure great to get out fishing but not get cooked out on the boat. Might have to start doing this more often. I was throwing small minnow style cranks and little hustler tubes on a 6' med-light combo, and it made for some great fun with the smallies.

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Try gulp minnows with light jig heads, use the 3 inch ones in the smelt or watermellonpearl. I do this all the time when the water temps get into the 80's, hit the small rivers. the other night I got a 8 & 2 lb cat and 2 eyes one was 19 and the other was 14 + a bonus smallie.

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Brought my kids fishing tonight on the Straight River near Faribault. Epic to say the least.

I started out tossing a #10 Husky Jerk in orange. A few casts in, I blasted a smallie. Man they are fun to catch.

I put my rod down for the most part after that to help my kids fish. My daughter (8) lost interest right away cause the water, mud, cray fish and tad poles kept her entertained.

While my son kept going, he put on a small mouth clinic using a beetle spin.

Here is his first ever smallmouth. I think the smile says it all! ;)))))

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Then another! smile

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And a rock bass even!

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Absolutely NOTHING beats watching your kid catch fish, and the smile they get. And gee, guess what my son wants to do tomorrow. Back at it again! smile

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Great report Matt! I bet your smile was even bigger thank your kiddos!

I took the boat out yesterday with a friend of mine that used to fish weekly with me when we were younger but now it's been over two years. Turns out we still make a decent fishing team. Got started around 6 am and thought maybe I'd see if he'd be interested in trolling for some eyes. After a nice 18" I boated he had to top me with a 27.5" only about 35 minutes into our morning. What a great way to start the day.

We proceeded to put a nice mix of different species in the net with most of the walleyes coming in on my line for some reason. I think the color difference was the big decider. We ended up with a few more in the 18-20" range and a few shorter fish around 15".

As the day got longer and the storm passed the sun came out and started to cook us and made us think of calling it a day. We were just waiting for his wife to give the final call and make us quit having such a good time. Low and behold I got lucky and pulled in a beautiful 26.75" with some old battle wounds on her just minutes before the buzzer. I only took second place to my buddy by a short measure but you'll never hear me complaining about that. I think he may be hooked on trolling for a while.

We were fishing small cranks around 1.5-2.0 mph and all fish came out of 4-6' of water. We kept a couple of the 18's for him and the wife to have dinner and all other fish were quickly CPR'd. What a great day on the water with an old buddy who still knows how to catch fish and run the net like a champ!

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26.75

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27.75

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Excellent Nate! Way to whack em buddy!

Fishing was slower for me today, but an epic day with my family. I missed 8 fish! Had one up with a very nice big white belly.

Everything hit on beetle spins and x-raps.

Dylan got this 10" walleye on a rapala. :)))

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fishing was kind of slow today for me with only a handfull of small crappie and a couple decent sunnies. lost one very nice bass at the boat.

gotta vent a little...... ok people, if there are no open parking spots at the landing DO NOT LAUNCH YOU BOAT!!!!! Mazaska was a joke this afternoon. there were even people stopped in the road blocking traffic waiting to get into the parking lot. if you can see there are no spots go to the next lake or learn to get there earlier!!!!!

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