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Cattin the Chain 2013


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It has healed enough to fish but the conditions were horrible yesterday. It got so sloppy the snowmobiles has a tough time not getting stuck. I am done for the year now. Just needed one more day. The entire lake is dirty now. Camera useless.

Next surgery April 5 on the other knee.

Don

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  • Rick G

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Good to heat that you got out again before the season ended, Don.

Good luck out there today Rick. After all the rain we got yesterday I just had to cancel the fishing plans. Stick a fork in me, I'm done for the year. I will be back in early Dec smile

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Was on the river by 9am, had holes drilled and the first fish on by 9:30. Had a pretty decent school located, got fish almost steady for the first hour, then the fish vanished. We drilled in vain for the next half hour never to find the school again frown. I don't know what happened, it was pretty crazy to have fish the nothhing not even loan roamers come in. It was hard to get around by truck and by foot. The river had some pretty wicked current under the ice now too now, it felt as though the ice was vibrating eek So instead of staying in the river we header over to Horseshoe.

The ice on Horsesoe was in far beter shape than the river. There was a decent road all the way back to my favorite area grin Thank you to whoever was there yesterday, I used some of your holes. Found mixed bag of cats and crappies in the 24-30ft range, most were pretty tight lipped though. Realy had to work for the bites we got. I think we ended the day catching 15-18 cats between the two spots and a hand full of crappies.

I think I'm done with the cats for the winter, likley will get a few while fishing for crappies. But not going to target them anymore till after ice out.

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

I realize alot of you guys to the south have excellent catfishing down in your neck of the woods. But a heads up to the others in different parts of the state the catfish in the chain bite real good through the open water season. In fact sometimes they can become a nuisance to us walleye fisherman. So if your looking for a good time and piles of action feel free to come on over and enjoy the bite once the ice is gone.

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In fact sometimes they can become a nuisance to us walleye fisherman. .

Those darn walleyes become a nuisance to us cat fisherman too from time to time grin

All kidding aside, Icehawk is right on the money. The Chain puts out great numbers of cats through out the open water season. Imo, they are almost too easy to catch in the summer.

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Rick I got a good plan you take your boat in front of me and take all the cats and Ill follow behind in my boat with a jig and minnow and clean up on those nice marble eyes a win win situation for both of us grin

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Headed to horseshoe this afternoon to chase some "whiskers" (Got the kitty itch for the first time while trying to learn from Rick how to catch those nuisance wallys) Lost one kitty at the bottom of the hole. NO other kitty bites all afternoon. Did manage to accidentally catch a limit of 11-12.5" crappies though! Fished in 32' and caught fish anywhere from 2 ft below the ice to 1 ft off the bottom.

Definitely was interesting gettin out though. I know I made lots of noise crashing through half frozen puddles on the road to the spot 4x4 is a must!

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Great report Cable_Guy, those crappies have saved the day for me more than once wink Were you in the same area as last time? And wasn't that road to the spot fun grin

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I was in the general same area. I had found the crappies had moved further down the shoreline to the west. I forgot to mention that unlike that day I met you out there, I didn't seem to have issues catching eyes either! Four of em in 3 hrs. Biggest being 21".

And yes, that road was a blast. About half way out I was wondering what in h-e-double hockey sticks i was thinking/doing. But it was well worth it!

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Well I think this thread has run it's course for the year.

Just wanted to say Thank You to all thE great HSO members who contributed info and reports to this topic... smile

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One year ago yesterday I put my dock in on Horseshoe and caught my first cat off the dock in open water.

Don

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I don't think Don will be putting the dock in any time real soon, unless he wants to chop almost 3ft of ice away crazy

It's 7 degrees out this morning... Happy first day of spring grin

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Any way to get out on the chain with a pick up or is there too much snow? Was hoping to get one last cat trip in.

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Yep, you can get out with 4wd and good tires. Cats have been tough to find in any good numbers as of late.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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