Aitkin County lakes are ice free and giving up crappies

[palisade1kid]

Well it's been a great 3 days of fishing which is about dat day 4,5& 6 after ice out.

Fri...was the best with over 100 fish caught...60 crappies,30 gills and around a dozen bass.

[meats00]

i am heading up there this net weekend to get the boat in the water. have you heard anything about the pan fish on round lake? yet this year, if not where are the hot lakes

[palisade1kid]

I can't say ...which Round?If it's the one by Horseshoe then that access ramp is not fixed yet.

Most of the areas I'm fishing are very small areas ...so I'm not naming them.

If the lake has pannies ,then they are just starting to move in.

Get small and move a lot until you find them.

That's what we are doing.

Bigger lakes will take a bit longer to warm up.

If anyone knows the backgrounds please keep it too yourselves.

These pics came from 3 different lakes.

I have had to cover major water to locate these fish.

They were caught in 5-8 fow.

[meats00]

thanks fr the info. i understand.

[PierBridge]

No Cork for Mallard?

And that Blue Jig looks mighty tasty to say the least!

[palisade1kid]

Sweet avatar PB!

When did you get that turkey?

[PierBridge]

I got lucky the last morning "4/20" of my 5 day Hunt. 22# 8 1/2" Bird!

[UdeLakeTom]

Nice one....I don't have the patience for turkey hunting!!

[palisade1kid]

I got lucky the last morning "4/20" of my 5 day Hunt. 22# 8 1/2" Bird!

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!

With a bird like that I'd be happy to be lucky....what a thrill!

We've been having some cold weather and if you plan on fishing slabs this weekend...make sure you downsize.

I saw 3 boat fulls of guys with nothing using minnows.

There were 4 of us in 2 boats that caught our limits plus using small baits.

[wahoohendoo]

ck, that loon and its background is obviuos to me,can i spill the beans? nice fish, I tried your 1st pics spot on tues morning, with mixed results. would like to hit it in afternoon when the water temps rise a bit but work interfered again.

[palisade1kid]

If you want everyone in your lap...go ahead make my day.LOL

Sorry ...your day.

Either way it goes I'm sure boats will be crusing that area.

I'll be searching a gill lake this weekend and if they are not there then back to that area I'll be.

If that's full then I'll go to my plan C.

If that's full then plan D after that I'll just start singin...that should clear a few boats.

[palisade1kid]

Another great weekend fishing crappies.We managed around 150 per day.

[tb7108]

how is the channel getting to the smaller lake were your fishing?

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[CrappieBart]

Good Luck everyone this weekend, be safe and dont forget your new license and bring life jackets! If you see 3 guys in a 20 warrior, wave.

Catch ya on the water, bart.

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[palisade1kid]

TB...I'm not where I think you think I'm thinking we are at...

We tossed many slabs back bigger than 12" and many that were 10" that looked like fatter females.

95% of our fish were in that 10" range that we kept.

I will say that in a few short years there's gonna be a bumper crop of 12" slabs as there was a very good 10" and slightly under class represented by what we caught.They are very health and have wide shoulders already, which with ultralight rods provided some excellents fighters.

It's still very early and by the way it looks there are several more weeks of prespawn activity.

CrappieBart...it took a bit but I'm learning that there are many who just surf these forums for fishing spots and really could care about the fishery itself.

I do bring many from out of the area to our waters to catch nicer fish then what they could at home ,however I lay out the release slot sizes that I've self imposed to try to make sure these quality fish will be there for others to catch later,unfortunately there are many double dippers that live in the area that hurt these fisheries.Sure your gonna get the weekender out there and they will take some fish,but it's the locals that hit a pattern and beat it out every day that do more damage.

I used to be one of them until I saw these smaller lakes fisheries not put out what it used to.

So now CPR rules although if one of my guys wants to take a limit...I see no reason to say no.

Many trips I'm out releasing everything.

As to pictures showing backround posted on these big forums...I've learned.

Too bad that these areas get raped.It would be a lot more fun showing you all of the action on the videos.

[MOBY RICHARD*]

I hear you and agree with what you are saying...I am enjoying your posts more now...

It's not the Olden Days anymore, with only a mix of Rowers and 5HP and 10HP pull start motors....

[palisade1kid]

Now that I have laid out what we caught I will say that finese fishing was responsible for these fish being caught.

The guys with minnows went skunked over 2 days of fishing.

Downsizing was nessesary to get the bite to occur.

You can tell that we are many weeks away from the spawn as the males were really light in color.

Releasing these nicer fish over 12" will save the fishery.

For those that keep all of those big ones...your killing our fishery for a short lived feeling of victory.

[CrappieBart]

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[herbie20]

We used minnows and waxies this last weekend and caught a lot of fish. It seems the bigger females hit the minnow on a tube jig. I also notice a boat that was releasing smaller crappies out of the livewell and replacing them with much larger fish. They were fishing the same spot both days this weekend. I believe they are "Killing the population instead of killing their limit". Well good luck to everyone this weekend!

[tb7108]

herbie20 you can always call tip, its my understanding culling is illegal in Minnesota.

I'am glad to know there are people who relize the delicate balance of our resources, Regardless of hunting or fishing there seems to be a alarming trend of so called sportsman feeling some sort of entitlement for raping the resource.

Good luck to everyone this openor!!!!

[UdeLakeTom]

TB and Herbie....Welcome to the site!