Cattin the Chain '11

[Rick G]

Well more new snow last night made conditions even more wet and miserable than they were on tue. The snow on top the ice is heavy and more than two ft deep on most of the lake. we havent made any new ice in the last week so my prediction about being able to drive out by today was off . At the rate we are going now sled will be the only option for a while.

The good news is the bite was back on today. Found the cats a bit more shallow than I have since first ice. 22-26ft was where the school was hanging out and I tryed my best to stay right over the top of them. Durring the day the fire tiger frostee with the gold back in 1/16 was working.After dark the pink frostee in 1/16 I also found a dime size piece of the gp liver was working far better than the minnow heads on this outing.

[Rick G]

Today was the last day I will be fishing the chain untill it gets cold enough to make things not so messy. I was fishing in 3-6 inches of a slush/water mix with a good foot and a half of snow on top of it all.

The bite was slow durring the day but picked up around 4 and was real good till 5:30ish then got real slow. I was picking up quite a few crappies mixed in with the cats and they were still goin good long after the cats slowed. I think I got around 12-15 cats and about twice that many crappies but having to deal with that much slush and snow makes me wonder if its all worth it .

[DTro]

Yeah it was horrible out there. I was going to buzz over and say hi, since I figured it was you over there, but once we found a high spot to park the sled, I wanted to keep it there.

Our first spot was plain messy and tough to fish, plus we weren't marking anything. After struggling for a while, Aanderud said, "I'm going over here to find some fish", and walked about a hundred yards. Sure enough he found some fish, and we smoked em all night. A lot of small fish, but we finished with 41 fish from 5-9.

I wouldn't even try going out there without a snowmobile and even then it was a chore.

[aanderud]

I'd say it's still worth it. Of course, I'm not the one who has to thaw out my snowmobile, house, etc. later. I just tag along like a slacker :-)

[Rick G]

I'd say it's still worth it. :-)

Ok ya you are right its still worth it Hello my name is rfm and I am a cat addict.

[Brad B]

the power of the cats will make anyone a addict if they fish them long enough. I love to cat fish but I don't like all this slope on the ice. I am having withdrawls because I can't get out on the ice like I want to. I hate to say it but I hope january brings us below zero temps so this stuff will freeze. atleast I can still fish when it is below zero but I would just need to run the heater on high to stay warm.

[rattleL]

Got out today ultimate mess, 4wheeler with chains on all 4 tires grunted through it. Three of us had our 15 cats in short order along with limits of crappies mixed in suspended anywhere from 5-10 feet off the bottom. The cats were sluggish to start but then picked up and bit well for about 45 minutes we iced 29 total with 14 going back in. White glow was our hot color and we fished in 20 fow. Some cats were high 4-6 feet off these were aggressive and smashed the jig some others were on bottom as usual. The conditions sucks but it beats sitting at home. See what happens after this front and then try to get back at it.

[kittycatcher16]

I am heading out to the meth hole tomorrow. This is probably a stupid question but is it safe to drive a pickup out there yet? If not, I am seeing a lot of talk about parking, Where can I park??

[Rick G]

Unless you have a riverpro or waders you are going to have trouble . I just got home from helping a good friend get his house off the lake. We had a plowed road out to his house and this had around a foot of standing water on it. Off the beaten path was much worse, Im talking 12-15in of water and wet heavy snow everywhere. It took two wheelers with chains and two good size guys pushing to get the house off .

I wouldnt even try to drive a truck out there yet but you can park on the ice right off 22 by the winter access. The winter access is about a mile south of the bridge on 22. There is another access north of the bridge on 22 do NOT use this one to get on the lake.

[Brad B]

I wouldnt even try to drive a truck out there yet but you can park on the ice right off 22 by the winter access. The winter access is about a mile south of the bridge on 22. There is another access north of the bridge on 22 do NOT use this one to get on the lake.

the access north of the bridge that he is talking about would be the summer access and is on the river where the ice is thin and there is current. like he said "DO NOT USE THE SUMMER ACCESS NORTH OF THE BRIDGE"

[Brad B]

riverfishingmiss,

That would be funny to see a riverpro out there but I could see someone try it if they could get it off the trialer. of course if you have the money for a RP then I think you might baby it and not run the risk of wrecking it.

[duckslayer27]

By sunday (with the cold snap) you should be able to travel with wheelers on top of the frozen stuff. I think it will be weeks before getting a truck on the ice again. Like RFM said the lakes have clear water on top of 10"+ of slush. It is a mess. St. cloud airport reported 0.82 inches of rain.

[kittycatcher16]

Got back about 11:30 last night from the meth hole. Well It wasnt as slushy and wet as everyone has said. It mostly froze up. We took a 3 wheeler out there and it stayed right up on top of the frozen slush. Terrible night for fishing. We didnt ice a single cat in about 5 hrs of fishing! One walleye and one rock bass. Tried everywhere from 18-32 FOW. Fish were not active last night at all. Drove about an hour and 15 mins. to get there only to not catch one cat and dig my truck out of the ditch for 2 1/2 hrs...but I guess thats why its called fishing and not catching..

[Rick G]

Kittycatcher16,Were you in a blue clam by a white permanent house? Did you see much on the graph?

[Borch]

Looking at the weather report for the next week it's looking like the conditions should improve by next weekend with highs in the single digits and the lows below zero all week.

[BSG]

Well, I'm thinking about heading up there tomorrow to give kitty fishing my first try. And plan on hitting the meth hole area.

I do have a few questions for you crafty veterans.

I would like to try the east bays on Cedar Island lake, how accessible is this area from hwy 22? fairly safe on a wheeler? or is there something to watch out for, other than the obvious fact that it is a river system with current?

If anything like I said, I'll be in the meth hole area punching some holes looking around to get a good feel of the lake with the lakemaster chip.

Hopefully someone ventured out tonight in the wind and can give a good heads up on the ice conditions and answer my question..... Wheeler or Snowmobile?

I'll be in a black Canvas craft. you can email me at bradst.george at hotmail dot com if you don't want to reveal any super secrets.

[trappingaddiction]

How long do you usually stay in the same spot without marking any fish, or do you just keep moving if you don't mark fish right away?

[trappingaddiction]

Does anyone have an updated ice report for the chain? Is truck travel safe know? Is the meth hole marked in any way, or is it open water?

[Rick G]

The conditions have improved greatly over the last couple days . I was out this afternoon/evening and there is almost no slush and very litttle snow left it has turned into crapy white ice. Travel on wheeler or foot hasnt been this easy since first ice. I measured 12-16in of ice with about 5-6 being soft white stuff and the rest being good hard clear ice. I would think a couple real cold nights like tonight and we should be able to start driving out.

The bite was a little off but still got 10-12 and a few other non target species. The fish were all over the water colom but most of the active ones were 20ft down over 35ft of water. The bite was very color dependent this evening as I threw every thing I had at them before finaly getting it right. Once the color thing was figured out I started to get pretty good action but I missed around 2/3 of my bites . Oh well there is always tomorrow I guess.

Bsg, if you make it to the meth hole area and dont find much look west and you will see a couple perm houses. Try around there thats where I should be

[catfreak]

Riverfishingmiss, I'm gonna try to get out there this week. I finally got a truck, so I'm hoping this freeze allows for driving soon. Let me know when you're gonna be out there and I'll try stoppin by. I'm sure I will need all the help I can get finding fish. lol

[aanderud]

You shouldn't have trouble hitting the east bays of cedar island lake. There are fish some fish over there on some of the steep breaks that you will see on the lakemaster chip. I've xplored that way a couple times. There's a 70 foot hole in the south section of the lake that I tried with no luck, but someday I'll go back and explore it more.

[kittycatcher16]

When I was out at the meth hole on Friday night the actual meth hole was NOT marked off and it was about a 5X5 wide open hole with bubbles shooting out. If I had some cones I would have marked it off seeing our 3 wheeler just about went down... Ice was about 10 inches of solid ice and 6 inches of frozen slush. Not too bad out there other than we didnt ice a single cat...

[Rick G]

BSG, It was good to meet you out there, I hope you and your girlfriend got in to some fish after I talked to you. Catfreak,How you been havent seen you around since before hunting season. My schedule is kinda funny for the next two weeks but I would like to get on the lake with you in the near future.

The bite was still a little off but a heck of a lot better than it was yesterday I ended the day getting somewhere around 20 with a 28.5in hog in around 5hrs of fishing. The condition of the ice out there is getting better each day but there are still some hidden slush pockets to navigate your way across. As long as we dont get any big snow storms in the next week or so the few slush pockets that are left should freeze up.

[DTro]

Had a fun night out there tonight. We moved around on a couple of lakes tonight and tried several spots. Could find much until dusk and then finally cashed in. Got 21 in about 3 hours with a couple of nice ones mixed in.

Measured about 15" of ice and the actual conditions are probably the best they have been all year regarding snow/slush.

Without a major event, vehicles will probably be buzzing around next weekend.

We found a couple of spots off the winter access that we broke through the crust on a sled and it was pretty slushy, but other than that it was smooth sailing.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that at first the hot bait was glow/red and minnow head, but then out of nowhere the bite died so Aanderud switched over to maggots and we were able to ice a few more. In fact, I think the last 5 fish were on maggots.

That 28.5 is a great fish RFM. Nice one!

[BSG]

RFM -Ya, nice meetin you too. Thanks for grabbing the vex for me on my very first ice kitty.

Ended with 4 cats and 2 crappies. 1 really nice one, didnt measure. The gf caught 1 and man did she enjoy it. But I know i missed some on lighter tackle. I definitely have some learning to do. Best presentation was this weird purple-ish glow w/ half minnow. That caught 3 fish, all under a cork. Very light bites.

Next time Ill do more exploring, definitely with a snowmobile, ran into some slush on the way in, in the exact spot I did on the way out and ended up getting a great workout of shoveling a wheeler+otter combo outta some nasty stuff.

Thanks again RFM for the quick tips. Hope to be up again soon, but we just got mandatory 55hr weeks at work, so we'll see.

[pushbutton]

great pic. BSG!..... have seen and answered questions from manly men about how to hold a catfish.....congrats on the fish and the girl!!!

[FishinVeteran]

Hello Gents!

I've been following this thread for awhile and tonight we made it out for the second time. It sounds like the bite has been kinda off recently, but we have caught several crappies each time out and have yet to catch a single cat. We have set up both times in about 20-25 fow and my guess is that may be too shallow? I believe I've marked them and even had a few on, but they don't really take the spoon. I'm used to walleyes that chase the bait up off the bottom, but these things don't chase! Do you just let it sit still to get the kittens to nibble? Any advice/thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[catchnothing]

Fishinveteran,

when you do find some cats they will be suspended just like crappies. the active fishes will rise to your bait. but the main thing is knowing when the catfish actually takes the bait. funny how just a slight twitch is game on.

Heading up there saturday

[DTro]

More times than not, keeping your bait motionless under a bobber works best for us. This is mostly after dark. I’ve had some great daytime jigging spoon bites in which they will raise to the bait and you just feel a small tap or weight on the line and it’s fish on.

The past 3 times we’ve been out we have had to punch of bunch of holes to locate the school. As soon as we mark 3 or 4 fish, we know we are close and usually set up near there for the night. Being mobile will help your success quite a bit. Yesterday we probably drilled 60-70 holes.

[FishinVeteran]

It seemed like the crappies would move up about 2 feet or so and then gently tap the bait, but the bigger marks on the flasher would just sit there, maybe moving an inch or two up or down to investigate. We tried many different presentations to get these fish to react, but it seems like they just nose up to it and stare at it. We also had set lines down under venom bobbers, thinking they'd take those if they wanted a motionless bait, but we didn't pick up any that way either.

Sneaky kitties...