Cattin the Chain 2013

[Rick G]

Winter access is off Hwy 22 about 1/2 mi. south of the DNR summer access. You can go to either Horseshoe or Cedar Island lake from there. I drove out a mini van yesterday had around 12 inces of ice where we fished. Only a few cats.

Welcome to HSO Naturboy! I think you will like this forum

[Sergio M]

Thanks for the info Rick I got my first cat of the year thru the ice. Boy do those cats put up a fight on a ultra light with 2 pound test.

[mncountryboy92]

how much ice is back in the bay is it safe to drive back there with a car

[Sergio M]

I drilled 6 holes and measured 15" in with a tape tonight.

[PFUNK]

Finally made it out to horseshoe after a few year hiatus from fishing cats through the ice. It was a great day out there! Big thanks to Rick for a bunch of very good advice. Finally got to see what a cat "tornado" looks like. Pretty cool having the vexilar light up all over the water column. There weren't too many times I didn't have at least 2 or 3 cats on the flasher after the sun went down. A lot of times the bottom 6 or 7 feet was solid fish with more fish scattered higher up in the water column. 33 feet is where we ended up finding them. Discovered kind of late that they liked a minnow head on a green glow demon jig underneath an ice buster bobber. Had been fishing with small frostee jigging spoons and doing ok, but they liked it dead still under the bobber too. Didn't keep an exact count, but the three of us probably ended up catching around 35-40 cats as well as a bonus walleye and a few rock bass. We had a great time on the chain! Can't wait to come back again sometime!

[aanderud]

Glad to hear you had a ball, pfunk! I tell ya, IMHO, there's no better fishing in the state (at least in the winter), than cattin the chain. My nephew said "it's like a HURRICANE down there", a few years back -- on one of those 50+ fish nights like you saw tonight. Tornado sounded more appropriate than hurricane, so I've been calling it a tornado ever since.

The key is to move around as much as you can that hour or two before dusk, until you either find a tornado or at a minimum a consistent fish or two on the vex. Then settle in and figure out what they want to bite on. Some days it's a green jig under a bobber. Other days (more rare), it's a jigged spoon of some type. Other days it's liver on a plain hook. You just never know.

Again, nice report!

Speaking of rock bass -- Rick, you get into any of those guys this year yet? I thought you jinxed yourself earlier this year. Maybe not.

[Rick G]

Speaking of rock bass -- Rick, you get into any of those guys this year yet? I thought you jinxed yourself earlier this year. Maybe not.

Funny you should ask this, got my first one last night while grabbing my buddies tip up. I knew I should have told him his flag was up . First one in a looong time.

[aanderud]

Funny you should ask this, got my first one last night while grabbing my buddies tip up. I knew I should have told him his flag was up . First one in a looong time.

If you're out grabbing tip ups, your back must be feeling better!

I am hoping to get up that way tomorrow afternoon. Good to hear that the bite is back on. I will be bringing liver along with my minnows, though. Jan is the month they start wanting variety, it seems. I brought some a couple weeks ago but never really noticed a better bite on it.

By Feb I've usually given up altogether and started targeting things like tullies on Mille Lacs -- so basically another 3 weeks or so to go.

[Rick G]

If you're out grabbing tip ups, your back must be feeling better!

I can move pretty well again, just some nasty pain For fishing it's worth it

[JBMasterAngler]

Well I was clearly in the wrong spot today Was on the west side of the island out infront of the winter access, had holes in 12 to 34 ft and every depth inbetween. Marked a fish here and there tight to the bottom. Only got a couple lookers at around 5 o'clock. Tried glow green and red...jb lures, frostee spoons, and forage minnows. 2nd year in a row I've been skunked Has anyone tried crawlers in the winter? We brought them to try, but forgot them in the truck.

[FlyRodAddiction]

Hey Rick, glad to hear you guys nailed em' yesterday. It was good finally putting a face to a name. We ended up doing pretty well on the opposite break of the bay. Those of us that were jigging with minnows had a pretty good mix of cats and "lesser bottom feeders" with no crappies and of coarse we didn't end up with any of your favorite, rock bass!

[DTro]

Liver was the ticket tonight. Started out super slow with minnows, then 2 hours of mayhem and 43 total after switching to liver..

[DTro]

Once again, the little guy caught the biggest one of the night.

[Rick G]

Liver was the ticket tonight. /quote]

I too figured this out some days it pays off big bringing a tub with.

Glow green out did red 4or5:1 for me.

Daytime bite was off and on all afternoon, it was one here and two there for the most part Had trouble keeping on the motherload for a good hour or two just before sunset. I think one or two people from here might have witnessed me in a mad frantic search for this school that kept on trying to hide from me . Ended cornering them had 30ft of water below me and most of the time the bottom 5-6ft was covered and a few times I had 15ft of fish below me. Ended up using just one rod all through prime time

[Rick G]

Once again, the little guy caught the biggest one of the night.

Good job Adam!!!

[NELS-BELLS]

Liver was the ticket tonight. Started out super slow with minnows, then 2 hours of mayhem and 43 total after switching to liver..

It was nice to meet you guys today. My son and I didn't do nearly as good as you guys, but we caught enough to keep us busy and we kept some for a meal. We didn't catch anything as big as the one that the little guy is holding in the photo. He is quite the fisherman!

We also caught more fish on liver then minnows. It was our first outing on the ice for this season and we were both very happy to catch some fish.

Thanks for the tips. Maybe we'll bump into you guys again sometime.

Nels

[DTro]

Likewise NELS, glad to hear you had some liver, I was thinking to myself, we should pop over and give you some.

I think the bite has moved a bit later. We basically had 6 fish from 3-5pm and then a triple at 7 when we packed up to leave.

We've all been using 1 line each as well, I can't imagine the chaos with 6 lines down.

[gooseroller]

Was out on the meth hole tonight, caught fish from 16 ft to 35 ft all cats except for several rock bass. The bite seemed better with minnow tails vs heads.

[aanderud]

Nells, good to meet you out there, and good to hear that you guys got into some fish. Man what a blast.

The bite is definitely later lately. No tornado for us, though we went looking for it several times. Actually marked very few fish on the sonar at all until about 5 or 5:30. Before that it was one here and one there (though the ones we'd see would bite). After 5:30, at least we had consistent sonar action for the rest of the night (a fish or two on the flasher most of the time, though no tornados like Rick got into).

That first 6 fish tonight in almost 2 hours was sort of slow for the 5 year old. Slow enough that even though the bite picked up and we were catching fish finally, by 6 he was like "I want to go home". I said "no way dude we're hammering them -- you want to quit, that's fine, but Darren and I are fishing a bit more since we drove 1.5 hours to get here". He took a 20-30 minute break, had a couple snacks, pouted a bit, then decided to put his line down again for the last 1/2 hour, caught 5 more fish, and was happy again.

[Tmax4]

This was my 2nd time out and first time at it solo. I searched for fish and found nothing. I ended up settling for the same spot we caught 5 cats at last time i went out. It was no tornado but would mark 1 or2 consistently. I ended up with 16 outa the hole and biting on both green or red jigs with minnow head on equally well. I also missed plenty good bites to say the least. I fished from 330-630 and id say the best time was 530-630 for me. 22" was the biggest i caught.

Tryin to figure it out! Havnt quite learned how to target the schools yet though.

[Horseshoe_Don]

The eyes were slow all weekend so on Sunday afternoon I decided to go to the meth hole for a few kitties at 2pm. Its usually slow then, but what the heck. I set up again at 32 ft and before I got a line down I saw 3 down there. I got my line down and I see my first tornado of the season followed by 5 or 6 more tornados over the next hour. Always had atleast 3 kitties on the markum. Caught as many as I could reel up until 3pm. The last being 4.6 pound and it took 10 minutes to ice, it was a fighter. Just after 3 pm it went dead, but i had my fun and went back to the cabin to pack up and head home. Got a new lure a flying rattling spoon and the cats loved it. It caught them all while my glow spoon was quiet the whole time. Caught them all at about 22 feet down in 32 feet of water.

Don

[Tracker16]

Good morning… I am a new home owner on Horseshoe Lake and I am looking for as much information on the lake/s as I can get. Does anyone have the GPS coordinates for the meth hole on Horseshoe Lake? I am also looking for any spring locations on Horseshoe or the other lakes on the chain that I would need to be aware of while one ice fishing.

FYI – I caught a 4 pound cat on the west side of Horseshoe using a shiner in 20 fow. Thanks for your support.

[silverbulletguy]

Welcome and congrats on your new home!! On page 1 of this thread is a pic of the river flowage in the chain and check out the Cool Cats thread for a pic of where the meth hole is at. Hope that helps.

[Horseshoe_Don]

As a homeowner on Horseshoe, Welcome. The meth hole's exact location can not be mapped since it moves, but the cool cats map will give you it approx. location. Areas to avoid on Horseshoe:

Under the Bridge under the outlet to long.

The point between the cabin on the island on the far western side.

Under hwy 22 or anywhere in the river current dependin on the time of the year.

West side of sunset point during thin ice.

Don

[Tracker16]

Thanks... Have a great day!

[Tracker16]

Thanks Don....

[Horseshoe_Don]

Rick,

Was that you I talked to at the meth hole at about 3pm. Never met you but it kinda looked like your picture? I was in a blue clam from 2 to 4? If it was you sorry about my puppy jumping on you.

Don

[Rick G]

Rick,

Was that you I talked to at the meth hole at about 3pm. Never met you but it kinda looked like your picture? I was in a blue clam from 2 to 4? If it was you sorry about my puppy jumping on you.

Don

Wasn't me, I was on the other side of the basin.

[NELS-BELLS]

That first 6 fish tonight in almost 2 hours was sort of slow for the 5 year old. Slow enough that even though the bite picked up and we were catching fish finally, by 6 he was like "I want to go home". I said "no way dude we're hammering them -- you want to quit, that's fine, but Darren and I are fishing a bit more since we drove 1.5 hours to get here". He took a 20-30 minute break, had a couple snacks, pouted a bit, then decided to put his line down again for the last 1/2 hour, caught 5 more fish, and was happy again.

I remember those days. My kids liked to go but they could only last for a couple of hours. They would spend more time playing with the minnows and eating snacks then fishing. Now I'm the one that says its time to go and he is the one that wants to stay longer.

Are there any good tricks or recipes for frying up catfish? This is the first time we have saved cats for a meal. My son wanted to try em.

Nels

[Tracker16]

Don,

Where is sunset beach located? Is it in Kron's bay?

Thanks

Wendell