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My quest for the big one!!


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I'm going to be journaling my fishing in here so that I can look back and see what kind of fishing I've been doing and what has been biting. Because honestly, I sit a work all day and just dream of fishing, and think of where I can go next.

I've been doing some fishing this year in odd spots, trying new things and new locations, as well as new presentations. HSO and its members have contributed to my growth and love for getting on the water or ice and catching fish. My goal for the year is to catch an 11" sunfish and a crappie that's over 16".

I've gotten away from walleye/northern fishing for the most part, although on occasion I do get out with friends and try my luck for the bigger predator fish but my love for panfish always takes over so that's what I'm chasing 90% of the time.

Here are some of my pics from previous years, and I hope to keep adding to the collection in this thread! Stay tuned smile

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  • Jim Panfish Uran

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Thanks!!

Well tonight we had decent weather, slow breeze from the south for the last couple days. Nice steady weather pattern. I got off work a half an hour early so I could catch the prime time bite. Made it home and out to the lake by 5:00. Found out somebody pushed my fishhouse off the blocks, they pushed it about 50 yards and flopped it over on its side....... I hope I catch them someday. I know it wasn't the wind because I was just out there yesterday to check on it.

Anyways after fumbling around trying to get into place and a trip back home to get some new blocks I finally got a line wet at 7:00. Marked two fish right away and pulled them up on the ol #14 red diamond jig and some Impulse. A few minutes later I pulled up 2 gills in the 8" range.

I fished for another hour and a half and managed to work 5 more finnicky crappies off the bottom to bite. Not a bad night of fishing considering how it started.

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Im on a simular "quest" I"m trying to find a couple 11 inch gills to add to a bass mount i have. I thought I did it twice yesterday first with a 10 1/2 then with a 10 1/4 but i juat cant seem to find that extra 1/2 inch.

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Go get 'em, Leechy! I hope you accomplish both of your goals!!!

My goal for the ice fishing season-- make up for lots of time away from home during the archery season and take my kids fishing a few times. That's about it. I think my goals are a little less lofty than yours...

Leechy, if you get on a good, kid-friendly panny bite sometime in the next month give me a shout- I'd love to get my son out and I might even take my daughter for her first ice fishing excursion. I don't really expect it to be an ice fishing trip so much as an adventure with the kids!

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Thanks Scoot, I plan on getting out plenty so I'm sure I'll run in to an awesome kid friendly bite. I might take my kids out tomorrow and test a lake that I know holds a on of pannies, nothing huge, but it will keep them busy and it's an easy walk from shore. I've fished it in the past and clobbered the 8 inch crappies all afternoon. Problem is, they don't get any bigger out there but it sure is fun for the young ones!

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Well me and junior got out to the lake at 6:45, I was out at 6:15 and got the holes opened up and the heater on for him. I rigged him up with a red glow Lindy Frostee and a couple waxies and I had on the usual small diamond jig with a chunk of plastic. He put on a clinic and caught the first 5 fish all big sunnies, over 7" with the biggest being 9.5 and we ended the day with a total of 14 mixed size bluegills. The perch moved in at 8:30 so we packed it up and went home.

I plan on going out a little later and finding some fish somewhere with my brother and our kids.

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So, after our morning trip we went in for breakfast and some rest. I decided we would load up the fourwheeler and and the team wild 3 so that I could keep us warm and comfortable. I have been eye balling this lake on the dnr website that had a decent survey in 05, its hard to get it but you can see it from the highway and I've only seen 1 fishhouse out there every year.

We got to the lake and we pulled the house out on the lake. I checked the depth through the ice with the marcum ice troller and we were in 16 fow. I drilled a couple holes, set up the portable and got junior situated.

Now it was time for me to get to work, I drilled a line of holes out to the 27 foot hole and a line back towards the shoreline, and basically everywhere in between. I love my strikemaster.

I haven't even dropped a jig down the hole when I hear, "Dad" I turn around and look and junior is standing there with a 14" crappie, wow is all I could say, he caught it on a red lindy frostee and a minnow. This could be the lake I've been dreaming about. So we give our high fives and he gets his line back down and I get to fishing.

I peg off a couple dink greensunfish and a snake or two before junior does it again,a nice 13" crappie. He sat in the lucky house and I fished all the holes I drilled and caught a couple crappies in the 10" range.

We finished the day with two awesome crappies and some smaller ones that were ok, and one 15" walleye caught by junior of course lol.

To be continued

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Well I hit my perm last night in hopes of hammering the big one, but no luck, biggest gil I caught was 8.5" and the biggest crappie was probably 9".

Bad weather pattern, cold front moved in on saturday night and it's still here two days later. Fish were definitely feeling it.

I'm going to keep trying, the lake that I'm on is putting out some nice bluegills, some honest 10"ers at times. SO there has to be something 11" or bigger out there smile

As far as crappies go though, My Son came close with his 14"er this weekend but it wasn't me that caught it lol

I'm going to have to move around in order to find that 16" crappie though smile

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Looks like a great day to be out in the lake! Too bad I'm stuck at work for the day, I have some plans on getting out there this evening though. We used to fish a lake near Naytahwaush all of the time. We would go out in front of the landing and get set up and about a half hour after sunset the crappies would start biting throughout the night in spurts.

Now it's been about 9 years since we have tried that spot, it, like many other crappie holes got over fished and needed time to recover. There hasn't been much pressure, if any, on that spot for the last 5 years so I imaging the "gettin is good".

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Hey leech have u fished Roy lake in the winter much? I've fished there in the summer a few times and caught some pretty nice crappies. Have never tried it in the winter.

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Ive never fished Roy much at all, but if you've caught them in the summer i'm sure we could find them in the winter!!

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Ok took a break from the lake, thanks to a flu bug! Started feeling better towards the end of last week but not quite good enough to fish. There was a fishing derby out on South Twin, not much of a trophy destination but it sure makes for a good time every year!

Friday night we did some pre-fishing for the derby trying to locate a decent spot and we sat on the south end of the big bar out in front of the landing but only managed 2 15" eyes after dark and no crappies to speak of. We did catch a few pike and a couple bass before dark but nothing worth getting excited over. The winds switched from the west to the North about 6:30-07:00 that night and it just turned brutal for a couple hours. We left the lake thinking uh oh, what are we going to do tomorrow for the derby?

Derby Day- We made it to the lake at 11:30 or so to start doing some drilling on some new structure. We switched to the north end of the bar and found a nice little saddle, it came up and went back down into the depths so we set up there. We had the kids out so we strung out a decent line of tip ups from shallow to deep.

We caught quite a few small northerns and a couple of bass, then at 2:30 my brother pulls up a nice 2.38 pound walleye that he won the derby with grin It was my birthday the next day so we decided we would have a few celebratory beverages and fish until 7 or 8.

I was marking fish with my Marcum, and i just couldn't get them to bite. I figured they were crappies or bluegills. It was just me and my brother left out in the house. We had our jigging rods down inside, and a tip up on each side of the house. I shined the light out of my window and we had a flag, I ran out to grab it and it ended up being a 7" sunfish that choked down a pretty sizeable rainbow! I laughed, threw him back and went back in the house. Two minutes later I finally got one of those sniffers I was watching on the Marcum to bite!! Too bad it ended up being a 6 inch rock bass lol!!

We didn't end up with anything after dark, but my friend pulled in a 22" Walleye after dark, about 50 yards away from us so that was pretty cool!

It was a fun day to say the least! I saw fellow HSO'er Dairyman out on the lake which was a good surprise! Didn't get to fish with him much though.

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I've got to say the rod and gun club did a bang up job with the tourney. Not many tournaments provide free bait and hot cocoa with added benefit of a free shot of schnapps. My hats off to those guys and gals!!!

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we have chubs at the county 6 tesoro I work at in DL. Or at least we did the last day I worked which was a couple days ago.

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Browns bait, right near Pinehurst resort in Naytahwaush does... As well as some nice golden shiners, suckers, crappies, and fatheads.

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The Quest is still on! But unfortunately I haven't been able to hit the lake. I spent a great weekend with my kids, just horsing around and having fun all weeken but we didn't do any fishing. Should be getting back to normal here soon wink

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The quest continues! We fished the tail end of an arctic cold front, the temps were finally above zero.My brother and I hit the lake yesterday and decided we would move the old fishhouse to where we were last mid winter. As with any move, nothing is guarenteed but we were willing to give it a shot. We were running out of day light so we didn't get to drill too many holes but we found a nice little drop that leads out to the main basin. We flopped the house down over 17 fow.

I was able to play with my new flasher, a Humminbird Ice 45. I was very impressed with the performance and even more so with the huge screen on it.

I dropped down a Lindy Frostee tipped with a minnow and bam, I ended up pulling in a 32 inch northern, and the next drop produced a 27 inch northern. Both fun fish to reel in. We then pulled up a few beastly rock bass lol.

I caught a nice large mouth and we figured, well we probably won't catch any crappies and as soon as we said that I pulled up a foot longer and a few minutes later my brother pulls in a fat 13 incher. Both solid fish. We caught 2 more and they shut down.

I'm figuring we need to move over a little bit or out over the basin and find them roaming around after dark, that's always a fun bite.

Oh btw, we shot some video of last nights action, I plan on shooting some more this weekend and putting it together next week.

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So far so good bak2MN, I am really liking this Humminbird Ice 45.

***Temps in the low 20's wind blowing steady out of the south at around 20 mph.

Saturday I woke up to some ugly weather, it was windy windy windy and I didn't really feel like exploring and hole hopping so I did some stuff around the house and decided to take my 3 year old daughter out to the fishhouse at about 4 or so.

She was having fun scooping minnows out of the bucket and watching them squirm around but when she was done with that she wanted to go home smile

About a minute later I marked the first fish and it was sure givinig my jig a close look. I reeled up a foot or so and it screamed up and took the jig, I handed over the reel to Jewel and she took her time reeling up a nice 8 inch bluegill. Ok, now she wasn't ready to go yet smile

We ended up catching 6 more gils, 2 rockbass and 2 crappies. All in all a good trip.

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Yeah it does, I really like that feature.. I previously owned a Vex FL-8 and always wanted that feature. I've only fished with is so far in under 20 feet of water, and only needed it on the bottom, but in deeper water being able to zoom in on any part of the water column is pretty sweet smile

In my limited use of my Ice-45 I have grown to love that zoom feature, as well as the huge screen on the unit. Easy to read, easy to navigate. I've got a video uploading now, and at the end of it I go over a few features on the unit. Just a brief once over, but honestly I really like this unit over my vex.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   The big basin, otherwise known as Big Traverse Bay, is ice free.  Zippel Bay and Four Mile Bay are ice free as well.  Everything is shaping up nicely for the MN Fishing Opener on May 11th. With the walleye / sauger season currently closed, most anglers are targeting sturgeon and pike.  Some sturgeon anglers are fishing at the mouth of the Rainy River, but most sturgeon are targeted in Four Mile Bay or the Rainy River.  Hence, pike are the targeted species on the south shore and various bays currently.   Pike fishing this time of year is a unique opportunity, as LOW is border water with Canada, the pike season is open year round. The limit is 3 pike per day with one being able to be more than 40 inches. All fish 30 - 40 inches must be released. Back bays hold pike as they go through the various stages of the spawn.  Deadbait under a bobber, spinners, spoons and shallow diving crankbaits are all viable options.   Four Mile Bay, Bostic Bay and Zippel Bay are all small water and boats of various sizes work well. On the Rainy River...  Great news this week as we learned sturgeon will not be placed on the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.     The organization had to make a decision by June 30 and listing sturgeon could have ended sturgeon fishing.  Thankfully, after looking at the many success stories across the nation, including LOW and the Rainy River, sturgeon fishing and successful sturgeon management continues.   A good week sturgeon fishing on the Rainy River.  Speaking to some sturgeon aficionados, fishing will actually get even better as water temps rise.     Four Mile Bay at the mouth of the Rainy River near the Wheeler's Point Boat Ramp is still producing good numbers of fish, as are various holes along the 42 miles of navigable Rainy River from the mouth to Birchdale.   The sturgeon season continues through May 15th and resumes again July 1st.   Oct 1 - April 23, Catch and Release April 24 - May 7, Harvest Season May 8 - May 15, Catch and Release May 16 - June 30, Sturgeon Fishing Closed July 1 - Sep 30, Harvest Season If you fish during the sturgeon harvest season and you want to keep a sturgeon, you must purchase a sturgeon tag for $5 prior to fishing.    One sturgeon per calendar year (45 - 50" inclusive, or over 75"). Most sturgeon anglers are either a glob of crawlers or a combo of crawlers and frozen emerald shiners on a sturgeon rig, which is an 18" leader with a 4/0 circle hook combined with a no roll sinker.  Local bait shops have all of the gear and bait. Up at the NW Angle...  A few spots with rotten ice, but as a rule, most of the Angle is showing off open water.  In these parts, most are looking ahead to the MN Fishing Opener.  Based on late ice fishing success, it should be a good one.  
    • leech~~
      Nice fish. I moved to the Sartell area last summer and just thought it was windy like this everyday up here? 🤭
    • Rick G
      Crazy windy again today.... This is has been the norm this spring. Between the wind and the cold fronts, fishing has been more challenging for me than most years.  Panfish have been moving in and out of the shallows quite a bit. One day they are up in the slop, the next they are out relating to cabbage or the newly sprouting lilly pads.  Today eye guy and I found them in 4-5 ft of water, hanging close to any tree branches that happened to be laying in the water.  Bigger fish were liking a 1/32 head and a Bobby Garland baby shad.   Highlight of the day way this healthy 15incher
    • monstermoose78
    • monstermoose78
      As I typed that here came a hen.  IMG_7032.mov   IMG_7032.mov
    • monstermoose78
      So far this morning nothing but non turkeys. 
    • monstermoose78
      Well yesterday I got a little excited and let a turkey get to close and I hit the blind!!
    • smurfy
      good......you?? living the dream..in my basement playing internet thug right now!!!!!! 🤣 working on getting the boat ready.......bought a new cheatmaster locator for the boat so working on that.   waiting for warmer weather to start my garden!!!
    • monstermoose78
      How is everyone doing? Holy moly it’s chilly this morning I stayed in bed and will hunt later today when it warms up.
    • monstermoose78
      Guys slim creek on burntside is the place to load up on smelt
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