Cattin the Chain 2012

[Rick G]

Same here. We thought about it really hard, but Mother Nature won. I don't like to hear about people being skunked, but thanks RFM you made my day.

What's the snow cover up there lookin like? Enough left for a guy to buzz around the lake with a sled?

As good as I have been doing this year I truely needed a good skunking to bring me back to reality .

The snow we pulled through on Fri turned to a hard crust. There were a few sleds on the lake buzzing around without to much problem. Wheeler is still best bet imo.

[Jari Razskazoff]

We've been out here in 40 ft by the meth hole, and only got 3 crappies, marking plenty of big fish, but what the poor word usage are we doing wrong?!

[gixxer01]

It seems that subtlety is the key right now. Deadsticks have been outproducing spoons 4:1. Seems to be the case on just about every species out there. Even the walleyes and crappies seem active but haven't been hitting the spoons like they did 2 weeks ago.

[Jari Razskazoff]

We've been out here in 40 ft by make that 3 crappies, one cat, and a party crappie.

[T.O.W]

Managed to find some in that area in 35 FOW. Some whiskers a few bonus fish. Thanks Andy for drilling. My auger needs some love.

[trappingaddiction]

Tough day out there, but caught a few. Caught most fish in 34-35 feet of water. Ended up with close to 15 cats, 3 eyes, and a slab. Almost all the catfish were 15-18 inches, but a couple larger ones were caught with the biggest around a 22-23 incher. Half a minnow/minnow heads worked best for the cats with only a couple eyes and 1 catfish coming off a live minnow. Ice was around 10-11 inches in all holes drilled today. Watch your flasher closely, as a couple were caught several feet off the bottom. Good luck out there!

[Stick in Mud]

Yeah, and from the pics I saw, I'd have to agree with you, Fish!

[Rick G]

Good job Trappingaddiction, most days that spot will produce when the rest of the lake is dead I just wish I could have made it over there yesterday, I knew there would be fish in that hole. That wind was just too darn crazy to hit that spot .

[jnorm1984]

Had a great bite last night! 4 crappies, and 30 cats caught between 5 & 8p. They were still going at 8 but I had to head out. Biggest was 22" smallest was 15". 30 fow, anything that would glow they would bite on. By far the best I have done on cats.

[pundsack88]

Im thinking about heading out there friday with a couple buddies to try to catch some cats and whatever else bites.....will the meth hole area be my best bet?

[aanderud]

Im thinking about heading out there friday with a couple buddies to try to catch some cats and whatever else bites.....will the meth hole area be my best bet?

Any deeper holes will work. Fish the breaks. Use glowing hooks. Read this post, last year's post, etc. for all the detail you could ever want or need on how to catch these fish.

[Rick G]

Fished over on Cedar on one of my spots that seldom sees much for fisherman. Glow red spoons tiped with a crushed crappie minnow head was working best for us. I was using the 1/16 forage minnow and my buddie had the 1/8 buckshot and both seemed to work better than anything else we tryed. We got in the low 30's for numbers and nothing over 20in 22-28ft held the most fish, saw huge schools of cats on the vex but most fish didnt want any thing to do with our offerings. Bite was real light, I missed way more than I caught and over half the ones we did hook were in the whiskers.

[bobbymalone]

Oh man, I can't wait to get up there again. Iced my first cat last year up there at the community hole )

I was wondering.... so that place gets pounded, but is there a lot, like a lot, of fried fish that comes out of there? I know the winter crappie world is pretty much a bucket brigade that can destroy a lake in a few years when the word gets out.

So do you guys more familiar with it think a lot of fish are taken from there? I'm not talking about a few eaters -- the limit on cats is pretty liberal and on a good day, you might just fill it EDIT: I guess the limit is far less liberal than I thought... 5 cats, only 1 over 24.

Do you think it's sustainable at least for the foreseeable future or it's just destined to get destroyed so catch em while you can?

BTW I'm not harping on those keeping fish, just wondering about the fishery. Which should be of interest to those that like frying up some cats and those like watching them swim back down the hole.

[gixxer01]

I'd be willing to bet that 90% of eater cats caught are released. Not as much of a delicacy in MN as it is in the south. Tasty...somewhat, but I don't keep em.

[DTro]

You can never say never, but I just don't think there is enough pressure to put a dent in the population.....yet.

The DNR has pulled PILES of cats out of there to stock other lakes, I'm pretty sure they took a lot more than us fishermen would have ever kept, and it hasn't seemed to hurt anything.

I'm not saying come one come all and take everything you catch, but it sure doesn't bother me to see a bucket of em go home with people from time to time. Especially the smaller ones. I'd hate to see a 20lber cut up.

[JBMasterAngler]

But what if the muskies eat them all?

[Rick G]

I'm not saying come one come all and take everything you catch, but it sure doesn't bother me to see a bucket of em go home with people from time to time. Especially the smaller ones.

Most of the locals like to see them go home with people . I too would like too see more of the smaller ones in buckets, less smaller ones = more food for the bigger ones to grow

[hoppe56307]

But what if the muskies eat them all?

Come on now we all know muskies only eat walleyes....

[JBMasterAngler]

I hear that it's a long walk for parking from the winter access...where exactly do you park? On the shoulder, where allowed? I wasn't too interested in fishing for cats this winter, but continuing to read this thread is getting me excited!

[brian6715]

Yeah I parked on 22 right on the shoulder. It is about exactly a mile, I am not sure I would do it now if there is snow on the ice! Maybe someone can chime in on that.

It's to bad there isn't an easier way, but I think this keeps the numbers down out there too!

[Stick in Mud]

Walked out today....the snow isn't a problem at all. It actually helps, as it's no longer a skating rink out there.

I had a weird night out there....only saw about 15 fish on the flasher, and had about 12 of them bite. They were pretty agressive--more aggressive than I've seen this year. Some of them would have the bobber down under the ice before I grabbed the rod, and when I set the hook, more often than not there was nothing there; the two that hit the jigging spoon just inhaled it. Problem was, I missed all but four of the buggers. The best bites on the bobber (which had a glow jig on it) were the ones where the bobber would lift up an inch, not where it would go down. And the four I did catch were all between 20 and 25'', so average size was real nice. Red glow was the ticket for me tonight....only got one on the white/green glow...but I'll definitely be trying somewhere else tomorrow night. It's not nearly as much fun when you only see one fish every 15 minutes...if that's what I was looking for, I'd go walleye fishing!

[soft]

Yeah I parked on 22 right on the shoulder. It is about exactly a mile, I am not sure I would do it now if there is snow on the ice! Maybe someone can chime in on that.

It's to bad there isn't an easier way, but I think this keeps the numbers down out there too!

So cops did not bothered you, did you parked at the winter access?.

Did you see any sled out there?, i am thinking bring my sled up there this weekend first time this year, but parking might be the problem, i might have to park at the Long lake boat launch and sled from there to the Meth hole. ANY SUSGUESSTIONS!!!!!!!

Thanks.

Soft..

[DTro]

Parking has never been an issue at that southside winter access on 22.

[silverbulletguy]

There were no parking signs close to the winter access a few weeks ago but you should be able to park a bit(75 yards) north of the spot where people usually drive on the lake.

[Fishman11]

Help out with a newby to ice catting. What do you mean by "the breaks"? Also, what size glow jigs work best for cats? This thread has gotten me excited. Thanks.

[fishuhalik]

the breaks are any drop offs in the 25-35' range. glow red seems to be the most consistent producer

[Fishman11]

Thanks, Fish.

[Rick G]

Lake is a skating rink again . We didnt loose any ice inthe last few days but we sure didnt make ane either. I measured 9.5-11 on most of the bay. Bite was pretty slow this evening with a couple of short flurrys of activity. Glow red was the only thing we could get anything to bite. I ended up with 9 and my buddie got 5, most were on the small side but I did get two around the 25in mark so it wasnt all bad.

I think I will head to a diff. lake tomorrow and try for something easy like walleyes I will be back out there Sun, I sure hope the bite picks up by then.

[HossFisher]

Was out on Cedar Island a few days ago. Started out on a nice shoreline break and only marked a few fish with no bites. Moved to an inside turn that dropped from 10-26 and didn't even mark a fish. Ice was 9" and the crowds have disappeared. The thing that really disappointed me was seeing two catfish rotting next to each other on the ice My friends who fish the lake told me that this is a common occurance for anglers on the chain.

[Stick in Mud]

I ended up getting twelve last night, with one nice walleye mixed in. I got sick of fighting the wind (anyone selling a portable fishhouse? and left a bit early. I got them on both red glow and green glow, though red glow seemed a bit better.