McGregor-Aitkin-Crosby-Deerwood Area fishing reports

[trappingaddiction]

Are you on Big Sandy?

[palisade1kid]

Are you on Big Sandy?

Aitkin area lakes have started.I was on 5 lakes this last 4 days.

I can no longer confirm or deny any lake that I'm fishing due to local rhetoric.

I'm also guiding now and I'm not going to give up hard earned intel. Too many have taken advantage of this info over the last 5 years.

I will give up general info that is current however.

I am sorry in that I'd love to tell you exactly the what,where,when and the how to's,but I have learned that there are too many greedy fishers that keep everything. I've watched guys keep every gill inlcuding those over 10-11 inches...I've seen guys keep those 13-15 inch slab crappies.

Oh hey CK...thanks for posting!

That's over now.Sorry...I do guide and these fish that would normally be CPR'd for others to catch is hurting my business and the lake.

I made all of those posts in years past to prove that I can find and pattern quality fish....I no longer need to prove anything to anyone.

Sorry...oh and if someone sees me on a lake and wants to publish it... that's on them not me to which lake some of these fish are being caught.

[trappingaddiction]

Thats pretty sad with people keeping all of the bigger fish. A few medium sized ones for the table and one for a mount I can understand, but you dont need a limit 13 inch crappies. Just look at Pelican lake down by Monticello/Buffalo. A few years ago there was lots of 10+ in Bluegills and 12+ Crappies, not a bigger one in the lake are 2 inches under that with lots of 6 in crappies and sunfish. Would you be able to give more specific info on the lakes in an email (I wont be harvesting the 14 inch crappies)?

[palisade1kid]

Sorry.... do it for 1 then I'll have to do it for everyone....how does a guy pick and choose.

Besides you may be great ,but what about your buddies or your buddies buddies.

.....you can email anyway and we will see what your looking for.

[Heartman]

Respect your opinion CK. Nothing wrong with what you say...thanks for the email, btw.

[trappingaddiction]

I completely understand, you cant trust many people in the world today. Send me an email at [email protected] with any additional info you didn't put, or want to put on here. I fully understand you not naming lakes, I would not name some of my good fishing lakes either.

[Feathers Rainin]

Yea there are a lot of people who like to ask about lakes but are tight lipped with sharing. Thanks for showing me a spot or two CK. Hope to see you on the water when I make it up that way.

[palisade1kid]

In the past I've noticed many guys showing other spots and patterns I've shown the original guy to there buds and there buds come with other buds and so on.

One day I made a post about an area.....went back the next day mid week and 30 guys welcome me that I've never met.

The thing that kills me is that I love to show others how to get deadly and the patterns that work well.

It's a love/hate thing.

If we all released fish it would be no big deal.I really don't mind catching crappies with a pre-exisisting hole in their upper lip,bluegills either for that matter.

These lakes I'm working will remain secret...unless I'm hired to guide.

You'll notice that all of the pics no longer have shorelines anymore.

It's either the bottom of the boat or the sky.To bad too because of the beautiful scenery.

Water temps are right at about 60 in the shallows on the north end of the lakes I've been on. The main bodies are running around 50.

I am seeing stacked school in 10-15 fow just adjacent to the shallows.

There are some males moving in and I anticipate them to start nest in the next 8-10 days.

Some females have been caught to in on the shallows.

Remember water temps will dictate exactly what is supposed to happen as to the spawn and when the slabs will be in shallow. Gills are being found now as well.I also anticipate them moving in in greater numbers withing 2 weeks.

I've been seeing some lilly pads extending off of the bottoms providing some structure for the pan fish to hold too.

I've been seeing some small bugs flying around too so the food sources are there.Minnows are surfacing as well.

Good luck out there guys.

[palisade1kid]

The bite is picking up better every day!

[palisade1kid]

It was a wet day....much needed and it may help the water warm a bit...we did manage many nice fish in several areas from 8-12 fow.

[Fly2day]

Those are some nice fish!! I was also in the area yesterday fishing out about 3 hrs in the rain and was not catching anything we decided to make one last stop on the way in and im glad we did i will have to have my buddy send me the pictures but we caught our limit of 8 to 10 inch sunnies in and hour plus 5 crappies biggest crappie was 11 inches but the record goes to a 11.5 inch pumpkinseed! There was three of us and we rarley keep fish but with the luck we were having we decided too and boy thats was not fun cleaning all those fish... All were caught in 4 to 5 FOW and would take anything put in front of them.

[palisade1kid]

That's a monster seed....bet it fought!

The weekend was a bit slower with this cooler weather but it played out about the same as it has with the same pattern of working 6-10 fow.

[palisade1kid]

The bite is growing stronger.....still out in deeper water than what I'd think ,but with 20-30 degree nights.....water temps today looked to be in the low 50's.

The guys I saw today were all using minnows and struggled....we downsized.

[bturck]

CK: A question comes to mind as you indicate your reluctance to share info. I understand totally. You should see the lake I have a cabin on in Central MN. It is nuts the amount of metro folks that drive 60 miles to line the banks and fill pail upon pail. Anyway my question: How do you protect these spots with people that you guide? I would think they would be braggin to everybody and giving up some hot spot info also.

[palisade1kid]

I'm more reluctant online than in person.

There are thousands of lurkers screening these forums looking for spots.

Plus patterns change and these fish move a lot so if you don't stay on them maintaining a pulse you can go back and struggle.

I do see guys going back on their own from time to time....as long as they learned to CPR...who cares. I really try to get them into the mode if they don't already CPR.

I do agree....getting a bunch of greedy keeping fishers can hurt a lake,

especially the smaller ones.

Oh and I tell these guys that what they do on their own is their busines but if I see them dragging in hordes of their buddies they will never glean another spot from me.

So far it's working.

[palisade1kid]

We lost lake warm...it was 46 degrees this morning with snow and 30 degree air temp.

We still had an average day appling finese tactics.

[palisade1kid]

It was a much warmer day...no wind.

The key to fishing today was to be on the move...as the schools moved we needed to as well...relocating would not take us long.

[palisade1kid]

It was a fun time seeing Boone again for our openers.

Lance...aka Mr. Clean also joined us for the day.

I'll admit the entire weekend was slow or at least slower than what I've been seeing for crappies.

The walleye bite was there ,but it also was a bit slow.

Here's Lance with the money fish for Sat.

We started on crappies...Boone caught his PB!

Lance and a nice one...

Thanks again guys for making the day fun!

[AFunk]

Did you stay on BSL or Round? We caught 4 nice eyes on Sat on BSL, wasn't great, but not near as bad as I was thinking it could be.

[Big R]

Farm Island was a slow go for walleyes once the sun was up.

[palisade1kid]

Did you stay on BSL or Round? We caught 4 nice eyes on Sat on BSL, wasn't great, but not near as bad as I was thinking it could be.

I had pm'd you to keep the names of the lakes off of the forums.

[fun_rated]

^^ Why?

[trappingaddiction]

^^ Why?

Because smaller/moderate sized lakes are vulnerable to overfishing/overharvest than larger lakes. He is nice enough to let certain people know, and then they tell everyone else and the next time he goes there, there is 5 times as many people as last time fishing there.

[fun_rated]

then maybe he shouldn't say in the first place....problem solved.

[trappingaddiction]

then maybe he shouldn't say in the first place....problem solved.

He was being nice enough to let someone know, so it is to late now, now he just knows its best to keep the names to himself.

[Feathers Rainin]

Thanks for the post. Whats that hen doin off her nest? Make some babies for me on opener.

[palisade1kid]

The bite is rockin boys...only they have moved with warmer waters now in place of those colder days.

[palisade1kid]

Water temps are in the mid 60's on most lakes or higher.

Gills and crappies are showing up shallow.

[Crappie2760]

nice pictures! I can't wait to get out and catch some Pike this weekend!

[Freddy1]

Anyone having any luck on Minnewawa for Walleye this year? I used to catch a few but the last few years they have been scarcer than hen's teeth. Any tips on technique for these shallow water walleye would be appreciated also.