Crookston & Thief River Fall fishing reports

[Maplebay]

been busy fishing

hit the inlet over by the floating dock been doing very well.

[Maplebay]

Going to hit Maple today stop by and say hi if you want

[TyGuy02]

I just want to know if anyone else feels the way I do on this topic. I know everyone and their mother, aunt, wife, son, daughter (I think you know where I'm going) loves to catch Eyes. But it just seems like it's hit or miss so many days of the year with walleyes. I understand that's what makes catching walleyes so exciting once a person catches a few on a small lake in this area (excluding LOW, Bemidj, URL, ect). In between LOW trips I hit an area lake that is notorious for BIG walleyes and good numbers, not to mention northerns. Went out on xmas day just for a quick afternoon trip with the dad and caught 20 northerns. 15 were only about 1/2 a pound, but the other 5 were 2-4 pounds. I haven't had a more fun afternoon fishing in a long time! So my question is, why don't more people in the area specifically target these small northerns. I'm guessing this lake is quite the anomally since it's been heavily stocked with fish in the past decade, and it's so small, but it's a blast!

I've changed my strategy for the small lakes in the area. I'm going to target northerns and maybe catch an eye every once in a while, instead of targeting eyes and getting skunked!

[CANOPY SAM]

Why don't people target small northerns?

Well, it might just be me, but they're kind of a pain. Slimers, stinky hammer-handles, line-clipping machines. TONS of little needle-like bones.

One can make a nice batch of pickled pike, which is good, but just like pickled herring, or pickled eggs, you can only eat so much of it, then it gets old pretty fast. In my mind (and stomach) walleye never gets old.

Little pike are a lot of fun for kids, and I do take my children out and just let them catch small pike on tip-ups. I like to take about a 5 lb. pike outta the ice, fillet it boneless and have a nice meal. Anything smaller seems like a lot of work for little meat - once the bones are removed.

[Matt Breuer]

People need to keep a pile of those little pike for pickling or to get the backstraps from. They're eating up the biomass of so many lakes in NW MN that it's insane. Keep the little ones, toss back anything over 30". It'll take time, but the bigger fish will show... I'm so sick of small pike in the Bemidji area that I could puke.

[Steve Foss]

We're getting back into pickled pike. Got a great recipe from my 102-year-old grandma that makes 10 lbs at a time, and almost all of us have family and/or friends who would love a pint or two of pickled pike. We did a batch for Christmas and couldn't keep up with the demand.

Gotta do our part to improve the age structure of pike in MN, right?

[CANOPY SAM]

There was a great article about pike in the MN Conservation Volunteer this month. Talked a lot about what Matt says above. Too many little ones and a lake can't even produce any big ones. Continually harvest a chunk of the little pike in a lake and in a few years the fish will start to grow bigger. Problem is, what to do with ALL the little pike!

I just don't like messing with all those little bones, all the slime, and the smell. Ever notice how wonderful a fresh caught walleye smells? Compare that to a small pike. Eeewwww!!!

Seems like, as a pike grows larger, they have less slime, and less smell. Wonder if this has anything to do with feeding in deeper, colder water?

[CANOPY SAM]

What was really interesting about the article I mentioned above was the overall biomass of small pike found in the average MN lake. I can't recall the exact numbers, but I seem to think it was like hundreds per acre! Bet those little suckers snarf up nearly every moving critter around!

[Rip-n-lips]

Great post Matt!! I could not agree more! Northerns were taking over the

Maple Lake down south, just west of the cities and they have a fishing contest

every winter to specifically target these northerns. Now that they have been doing this for a good number of years now, the lake has never been in better shape! In fact, I just caught a nice limit of panfish there 2 weeks ago! You would be amazed how fast the crappies are coming back in that lake! The point is to keep all the Northerns except for the trophies, and if you dont like to eat them, find someone that does!

[TyGuy02]

Taste-wise if you prepare them right you really can't tell much of a difference. We just emptied the freezer and had a family fish-fry last night. My mother-in-law frys walleye every week at the lengby VFW and the key is to soak the fillets in salt water for a while, then a quick ice-water bath before they're battered. Takes away all the fishy northern taste. I don't mind the bones if you know they're there and just take your time. We couldn't tell the difference between my northerns and LOW walleyes for taste.

[Korynta]

Anyone catchin any fish anywhere on maple? The last 5 times at the outlet weve caught 1 fish. Any info would be great!

[CoorsCaptain]

Hows the ice/slush on Maple? I'm going this weekend, any reports?

[TyGuy02]

spent a couple hours this afternoon (as the rain went around us) casting cranks into the weeds, got 1-17" eye, small northern and a 5 lb northern. Not to mention the plus of 2 MONSTER bass, each around 4 lbs or so. We caught the eye before the bass, in the same spot, so no, we were not targeting them. But holy smokes, I've caught alot of bass before but these were HOGS! Probably would've had more luck if we had moved around more, but we chose to stay close to a wind sheltered island today.

I've never casted cranks much, but I'm liking that strategy right now with a lack of thick weeds. We were using rapalas xraps 4-8' divers. There were so many followers to the boat I felt like a musky fisherman doing figure-8's.

[CANOPY SAM]

Last report 5/22/11!?!?

Last Thursday evening my 9 yr. old son and I went down to the river behind our place with nothing but a bucket of crawlers. He caught 5 catfish in 45 minutes. Very aggressive bites.

Put him to bed, went out and picked a couple dozen more crawlers, and went back down again by myself. Proceeded to catch roughly 30 cats on nothing but crawlers. Interestingly, caught nothing but Catfish!

Friday night my wife and I sat down by the river. I'd prepped everything for a riverside fresh catfish fry. Built the fire, dusted the fillets, and deep fried fish. Fresh homemade tartar sauce and Louisiana Hot Sauce. Delicious!

Fishing was markedly slower, but we still managed numerous fish between 1-5 lbs. Of all fish caught between Thurs-Fri, we filleted only 4, and all others were returned to the water for another day.

The cats are "on" big time, and feeding aggressively on crawlers. Tried cutbaits and large shiners, but crawlers were clearly the bait of preference. So many nice eater sized (1 - 2 1/2 lb.) cats right now. Terrific eating fresh, or brined and smoked.

Walleyes are also feeding well, scattered out in the river, and numerous. Have heard terrific reports from up river, with reports of a few giant walleyes caught in the last week. Smallmouth don't seem to have showed up yet, but I would expect to see them rolling in over the next few weeks.

Water level is still quite high, despite almost no rain in our area, but water clarity appears to be decreased, and shoreline mud is much worse than last year. I suspect this is due to all the water released late last fall and early winter from Lower Red. Looks to be shaping up to be a good year of fishing on the Red Lake River!

[Matt Breuer]

Great seeing you and hanging out for a bit on Sun., Matthew! We sure had a fun day on the river. Love the multi-species fishing, and miss it often!

[CANOPY SAM]

Yea Matt. It was great to see you again too! I really enjoyed watching the kids catch fish on Sunday. Your little guy, Tate (?), is a great kid! Is he still carrying around the big shiner minnow he asked for?

Hope you can make it back for a few more river trips this summer. I know it's tough with a young family, work, and so many other responsibilities. Been going down that road for 22 years myself, but I wouldn't change a thing. The time goes by really quickly, and before you know it....well, you know. Keep those kids with you fishing and hunting!

Youngest daughter Abbey and I went down to the back forty Monday night with the rest of our crawlers. Same results as last Thursday! Cat after Cat after Cat. She caught 9 nice eaters in no more than 45 minutes! We put em' all back, but she had a blast practicing with feeling the weight of the fish loading up the rod, and getting a good hook set!

It's just so rewarding to have my kids asking to go down fishing now. Once school is out, next week, they'll start going down on their own. Digging up bait, baiting hooks, and landing and unhooking fish all by themselves. All those years of patient preparation are paying off.

I've more than fed my family fish, I've taught them how to fish. A lesson they'll carry with them for a lifetime!

I again casted for walleye, pike, and bass while Abbey caught catfish. Had a large fish roll on a topwater plug. Not sure what it was, but it's good to know they're starting to eye topwater baits. Can't wait for the big smallies to start chomping!

[CANOPY SAM]

6-2-2012

Interesting fishing last night. Again had some friends down to the river behind our place last night. Cooked dogs and smore's on the campfire, and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous evening.

Last night the bite was much more subtle. Lots of nibblers and bait stealers. We caught a few rough fish, and around 5-6 catfish, but interestingly the catfish we caught were absolute cookie-cutter fish.

Every one of em' was 1 to 1 1/4 lbs. each. Nothing bigger. With no larger fish caught, and a very soft bite going on, I'm wondering if our river cats are already prepping for spawn?

Seems a little early, but we did have a very early spring, and I suppose they could be staging up already. We'll see over the next week or so...if they shut off and disappear we'll know the answer. Spawn may have already begun with the total absence of larger fish, but of course I can't gauge that by our fishing results alone.

Anyone else out there have anything to report???

[CANOPY SAM]

6-4-2012

Another interesting evening on the Red Lake River south of TRF.

Last night, had several friends come out, along with their offspring, for a night of catfishing.

These two gentlemen, having been richly blessed with numerous female children, brought no less than 5 of their lovely daughters out to fish. Along with my youngest daughter, and youngest son Jacob (9), we had quite the little group bank fishing behind our house.

Jacob, being the token little boy in the group, was of course wrestling for the center of attention with this bevy of estrogen based life forms. I was extremely impressed with these girls as they readily baited hooks, removed fish, and put up with the pestering from my son.

We fished thru a fairly heavy rain shower, and managed a number of catfish, and one very nice walleye, with a smattering of rough fish as usual.

After a time, the girls began to break down with Jacob's incessant taunting, and at one point I heard one of the girls say to the others, "Let's throw him on the ant pile!" This only served to underline my belief that in fact NO woman can be trusted, even on a pleasant fishing trip!

Fellow fishermen, beware! A group of girls, ages 12 to 18, no matter how friendly, and bubbly, is a GANG....and they'll tear you to shreds given the opportunity!

Fishing was steady, but again nothing larger than perhaps 2 lbs.. I sense this is a reflection of either catfish preparing to spawn, or already in the process of spawning.

Eventually, we'll begin to see a consistent bite that includes cats of varying sizes from 2-10 lbs. with lots of fish in the 5-6 lb. category. That's when it really gets fun to have the kids down fishing on the river.

Just make sure to keep the young ladies happy! The repercussions can be painful!

[CANOPY SAM]

Friday, June 8th, 2012,

Spent another evening on the river with yet another good family friend and his two young boys. I'd picked around 2 lbs. of fat and sassy crawlers the night before, so we were armed to the gills with bait.

First line out didn't settle to the bottom and we had our first cat on! This happened several times over a couple hours, and we literally had almost no time to sit and relax with two lines in the water.

Again, with nothing but a bucket full of crawlers we caught somewhere around 25 catfish, and one chunky redhorse in a mere two hours of fishing.

All fish were released back to the water in good health. Interestingly, we did seem to catch a little better average sized fish last night, with a couple in the 6-9 lb. category, but most averaging between 1 1/2 and 3 pounds.

The eight of us enjoyed hotdogs and polishes on the campfire, chocolate cake (compliments of my daughter), koolaid, and a few smore's, and after the wind died down a bit it was a very nice evening on the river.

Really can't pinpoint where the cats are in terms of spawning, but the fishing has been nothing short of fantastic this spring, and the two little boys that came with our friend had an absolute blast reeling in cat after cat.

[Lynnette]

Hey Canopy Sam! I'm wondering what part of the river you are fishing. I have a hard time finding hot spots being I usually only fish it in the winter when I want to stay close to home.

Any suggestions are welcome!

[CANOPY SAM]

Howdy Lynnette. Welcome to Fishing Minnesota.

We're enormously blessed to own a little section of shoreline on the river about two miles south of town.

Some easy access, good shoreline spots can be found below the dam (both sides), right in town, at Hartz Park (behind the Dairy Queen), and Oakland Park, just to name a few.

Get a bucket of bait and do a little exploring. There are almost limitless opportunities on our little river.

Good luck!

[CANOPY SAM]

Kids did a little fishing Friday evening. Wife and I were putting in last planting of sweet corn, and picking buckets of strawberries, so I can't say I fished.

Interestingly, the kids didn't pick up a single catfish. They did catch a fiesty white sucker, and a small northern pike, but not a single cat.

The sun was bright and hot all day Friday, which may have pushed the cats to a later, after-dark bite, but I suspect that they've begun spawning, and it will be quiet and fairly catfish free for a week or two now.

We went from very dry (our grass was going dormant in early June), to ample moisture in a mere couple of days. Praise the Lord! This influx of rain water into the river has raised the water level slightly down river from town, and reduced clarity a bit, but not markedly.

I'm releived to see rain, and so are my gardens! The river level was dropping rapidly, and I tend to think this pushes fish farther down river for deeper cooler holes to hide in during hot summer days. If she can stay up where she is we should sustain good fishing thru much of the summer.

[Matt Breuer]

Sorry to hear the kitties have slowed, Matthew! An hour away from TRF, they sure are popping... http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...rts#Post2861121

[CANOPY SAM]

Great pics Matt! Interesting color on that first fish. Kinda pink!

That last one is a dandy!!! You just had to rub it in, didn't you!

Is that the Drayton dam in the pic behind you? I don't recognize that area in Grand Forks, but it's been a very long time since I fished in GF.

You were fortunate to find a window of opportunity between the rain storms. Those cats are a blast when they're really goin', huh?

Couple weeks and we'll start seeing lots of those bigger cats in the backyard! Look forward to a fun summer of fishing!

[CANOPY SAM]

Well, I wish I had something meaningful to report, but I can't honestly say I've done much fishing in the past few weeks.

Have gone down to the river for a few casts a few times. Always with a top water bait just to see that always amazing top water smash of a big smallmouth bass. Have had a few fish nose the bait, or minimally take a half-hearted swing at it, but no connection made yet. Could be goldeye swiping at it. They are remarkably aggressive fish.

If the goldeye are up river now the bigger cats should be here with them. Have to float a little chunk of worm a foot or two under a bobber and see if I can pull in a couple chunky freshwater "tarpon" for catfish cut bait. The cats seem to love cut goldeye.

Water levels have dropped rapidly in the last week. With this heat wave I'd imagine our best bite locally is now well after dark. Hope to spend an evening down at the river this week, and have something to report in a few days.

The dry weather has kept the mosquito numbers down, but we've seen a little spike with the extreme heat. Some of these recently hatched monsters are nearly moisture starved and come at you so hard they'll knock you over if your not ready for em'!

Recently spoke to someone from Red Lake Falls who said an angler in that area had just gotten in a little trouble for flaunting catching what they thought was a 42 inch pike, that turned out to be a musky!!! That's certainly interesting news.

This heat has our corn and tomatoes growing like crazy. We've picked 25-30 gallons of plump, juicy, super-sweet strawberries, and now the raspberries are kicking into high gear. The heat is pushing the garden veggies hard, and I'm a little tired of watering so often.

Anyone else out there have anything to report on the fishing scene? I'll report on the catfish bite in a day or two.

Any of you out there interested in picking raspberries we're open for "you pick" sales. They're easy access, quick pickin', and reasonably priced. Just let me know if you need directions to the place.

[lovebigbluegills]

Hey Canopy, thanks for the fishing report.

I should be back around the TRF area for a couple days, and just might have to come and buy some strawberries from you. Sounds like the fishing is a little slow, but I'll probably give it a whirl a couple times.

[CANOPY SAM]

lbb, sorry if my last post wasn't clear on the berry report. This has been our first year of strawberry production with 3 yr. old plants. We've been extremely pleased with production, but it is now beginning to slow, and our strawberries are nearly done. Wife and I picked another 1 1/2 gallons last night, which is the least we've harvested in the last month. We've had several evenings where we've picked more than 5 one-gallon buckets filled with big delicious berries.

Now our raspberries are getting started. This extreme heat is pushing them to mature too fast, so many are not completely filled with juicy lobes, but are rather small yet. When the raspberries really get going we'll be picking 8-10 quarts per day for the remainder of the summer. These are for sale, for much less than the grocery stores, and we encourage folks to come out and pick their own this year!

There are still some strawberries coming, and you are more than welcome to come out and pick, but they're on the smaller side now....but I'll make you a deal, if you want em', and you pick em', you can have em'!!

Perhaps by the time you arrive our raspberries will be going full tilt, and you can bring some of them home as well? Next year we plan to open a few rows of strawberries for sale - "you pick". By then we should see much more consistent, big berry production.

Our little hobby farm, Riverside Acres, has become quite a labor of love for our family. If you are interested, we have tons of fresh organic garden vegetables for sale as they mature. We no longer bring produce to the local farmer's market, but rather sell directly to local schools, and open the gardens to the public in the fall. We only plant the highest quality vegetable seed, so our produce is amazing, sun ripened, organic garden grown fresh.

Mix this stuff in with a little venison, perhaps a few walleye and/or catfish fillets, a goose or grouse, (like we do every year) and you are Livin' off the Land! Praise our Heavenly Father for His bountiful blessings!

Give me a call when you're in town! 686-7064. Sam.

[CANOPY SAM]

Well, as promised, here is a short fishing report for the Red Lake River south of TRF, MN.

Went after a Goldeye for cut bait yesterday afternoon. With the tried and true technique of a chunk of crawler on small jig under a bobber floated down the main channel....I caught catfish. Tried small spinner baits, in-line spinners, small crank-baits, even small top-water baits...no Goldeye, just catfish.

Around 8:00 p.m. a good friend and I ambled down to the river bank again to try our luck at some "serious" catfishing. I brought more crawlers, and he brought a bag of chicken livers!

Much to our surprise and amazement, we immediately caught a small catfish! Then, Lo and Behold, the next fish caught on catfishing gear...a Goldeye! Sometimes the good Lord has funny lessons for us in very simple things...

After cutting up perfect, delectable morsels of fresh Goldeye cutbait, I now had to test my theory that when the Goldeye are up river, the bigger cats are right behind them.

Sure enough, the first fresh bait wasn't in the water more than a few minutes and we had our first 5 lb. cat doubling over a rod. Over the next 1 1/2 hours we caught fish after fish on fresh cut Goldeye. Every one like they were stamped from a cookie cutter...5-6 lb. fish.

These fish fight hard, pull hard, and you'd swear they were much bigger fish until you get them to net. In my experience, we will enjoy catching primarily fish of this size for the rest of the summer, with a smattering of cats in the 10-15 lb. range, and a rare giant pushing 20!

Catch yourself a Goldeye. They are brightly silver, very slender fish, with a somewhat hooked lower jaw, and a mouthfull of sharp teeth - and of course they have Gold Eyes. Fillet one of these as you would any other fish, then cut the fillets into 1/2 inch wide strips. Thread the cutbait onto an over-sized Lindy Rig and toss it into a deep hole in the river toward evening....then HANG ON!

Have a great Independence Day, everyone!

[CANOPY SAM]

On a side note, we could really use some rain. Our grass is again going into dormancy, and grass in areas that see direct sun, and little air movement has all but burned up by now.

This intense heat has pushed the best fishing activity to very low light times of day, and well into the night. Our fish will "hole up" in the deepest, darkest, coolest parts of the river, until the sun dips below the horizon, then they come out to play.

Don't bother sweating out the middle of the day for a couple over-heated fish. Wait till after supper, take a lazy stroll down to the river bank, and soak a chunk of meat in the river - not your feet! The fish are now in a classic mid-summer pattern, and a great bite can be enjoyed all night long!

Please preserve our great fishery. Keep a couple 2-4 lb. cats for a nice meal, and let all the big ones go. Thanks.

I think it's once again time to do a little rain dance, say a little prayer, and sacrifice our first born to the rain God's. I'm tired of watering the gardens, but everything IS growing extremely well!

May the 4th be with you!

[CANOPY SAM]

Well, he said a little prayer, did a little dance, and the rain came only a few hours later! I'd guess we got 3/10ths to a 1/2 inch just south of town, while folks in town and north got from 1-3 inches!

We also had flower pots knocked over, branches strewn all over the yard, and half of a very large Oak Tree break off and land in the yard!

Doggone these gully washer storms! Whatever happened to the 2-3 days of gentle rain soaking the ground, and feeding the deep rooted trees much needed water? Anyone else notice the tops on all the old Oaks are dying? Suspect they're not getting enough water to the deep roots. We get these stupid fast heavy rains, everything runs off into the creeks and rivers, and an hour after heavy rain it's all gone!

When we got home last night I went out to inspect the damage from the storm. After the reasonably heavy rain we received at out place, there wasn't a single crawler up at 11:30 p.m.! I rest my case...