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Posted

Anyone else kinda excited to see what hidden treasures show up when they drop the lake levels? I know there are a few lower units laying around but it will be interesting to see what else is under the water

Farm land, farm machinery probably more than a few decoys have sank on Pelican over the years.

Hey Jim stay classy!

You must be a real pleasure to pay to share a boat with.

Pelican needs to be drained. Allowing the lake to become what it has is an absolute tragedy.

When a tip up tournament with 72 people results in one 5 pound Pike I would say that is an awesome Pike fishery.

Drain Baby Drain.

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Posted

I'd have to agree with river rat, I went and gave this awesome lake a try and all I can say is WOW! 2 days and multiple spots with 16 tip ups at each spot and we got 1, and it wasn't big by any means. Both days had people driving in the tips ups for no reason, we were set up away from everyone and even made our own trail to get there and had people follow us out and drive all over in our set up. This is the first and las time I will ever be on the ice there.

Posted

Ok I wanted to stop, but seriously, have you ever fished the lake? 2 days with one fish? My worst day so far on pelican was about 10 fish in 8 hours. That's with 2 people and 4 tip ups. One day we had 2 guys, 4 tip ups, and got nearly 40. Unless you were doing something really wrong I'm throwing down the B S card on all of you. I went to Clearwater today, drilled 70 holes. I got about a dozen 5" sunfish, lots of baby perch, a bass, and a 5 pound pike. 1 pike for 6 hours, yep better than pelican. Post those 25 lakes better than pelican for pike, even if its not true. I can flood this forum with 5+ lb pike from pelican, and that's just this year.

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
Posted

LOL, don't let them get yer goat 20lb... 2 days, 16 tip ups and people driving on them... LOL let me repeat... LOL !

Posted

A 5 pound pike is nothing to brag about.

The best part is no matter how much whining and teeth gnashing takes place Pelican Lake will be drained and the fish will die.

In the end what should happen will happen and then and only then will the whining about ruining this mediocre fishery end.

I cannot wait for the day that Pelican is returned to its former glory as a shallow swamp unmolested by fisherman.

That day will be of the charts in Epicness.

Posted

I hope they pump water into it from the crow river and flood the entire county...

Posted

I have caught alot of nice Pike in the Misissippi.None over 40" but quite a few very close.Plus Id much rather fish the river then Pelican.To each his own tho.The river is a whole lot different then a oversized swamp so I dont expect all to duplicate the success Ive had.I have also caught quite a few pike between 30"-40" out walleye fishing on a couple different Wright county lakes this winter and Im not targeting them.Might want to think a bit deeper for the big boys because they are there...

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
Posted

my best day on P was 7 under tip ups. 6 between 28 and 33. That was a fun day. If they drain it they drain it. Life will go on.

Posted

Yep, no point arguing. I'll probably be out of the area and fishing far north of here in a few years anyway.

Posted
tiredtiredtiredsleep
Posted

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
Posted

lol...

Posted

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

I assume you are kidding, but you can be arrested for harassing a person who is legally hunting or fishing.

Posted

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

Stay Classy!

Posted

I haven't been on Clearwater in a couple years but it WAS a better pike fishery than Pelican, unless things have changed my vote is still clearwater than pelican, I have fished the river hard for years and have a couple decent pike to show for it but honestly I don't fish for snotrockets in the river so it is possible there are bigger ones in it.

All the whining about Pelican be drained is wasting your energy though, it is going to happen, so it really doesn't matter what fisherman think.

Posted

All the whining about Pelican be drained is wasting your energy though, it is going to happen, so it really doesn't matter what fisherman think.

+1

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
Posted

yer just a bass junkie... what do you know?? winkwink

Posted

Stupid question but how can they drain infested water? Where is the water being drained too and how did it "get so high." Is there a dam somewhere? Sorry if I should already know this or of it has been discussed.

Posted

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

gringrin Was that you in the fishing boat that almost hit my decoys last fall......

Posted

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

Yeah, good luck with that:

HUNTER/TRAPPER HARASSMENT PROHIBITED

A person may not prevent or disrupt another person from taking or

preparing to take a wild animal. A person may not disturb wild animals with the intent to prevent or disrupt another person from hunting.

Posted

Oh my god, that is a beastly bluegill. If it did come from pelican, it is a fluke and could have come from any lake. Pelican has a good amount of sunfish, but they are on average small. It has a good population of crappie, but over fishing has basically killed any really big ones. Pelican is all about numbers of big, chunky pike.

Posted

It didn't come from Pelican. I've seen that pic before. It's from some lake out of state further South.

Posted

Yeah, that's not from MN. It was caught a couple years ago. I believe it was a new state record hybrid sunfish from one of the southern states.

Posted

Clearly a fish from a farm pond down south.

Posted

Just looked it up. It's the world record redear sunfish. 5.5 pounds! Lake Havasu, AZ.

Posted

Oh man, I just finished puting spring bobbers and tear drops on all my heavy rods!

Posted

Oh man, I just finished puting spring bobbers and tear drops on all my heavy rods!

FUNNY MUCH laughlaughlaugh

Posted

Stupid question but how can they drain infested water? Where is the water being drained too and how did it "get so high." Is there a dam somewhere? Sorry if I should already know this or of it has been discussed.

It is being drained through Regal creek (basically a ditch) which goes to the Crow river then the Mississippi, that later two are already infested.

No, there is not a dam, if there was it would be much easier to drain. Once of the reasons it got high was years of farm tiling allowed a lot of runoff into the lake. Also, much of the natural drainage buffers didn't exist any more. Thankfully the amount of land the USFWS and MN DNR have bought around the lake should substantially improve that.

It seems like most opponents like to say that the hunting will not be that good because of all the people or the encroaching urban areas but what seems to be forgotten is this isn't being done "for" the hunters. This is being done for the ducks and some of its biggest impacts will be in the spring as a resting area after a long migration and to be used for nesting. Right now it doesn't get its ultimate usefulness of these because of the degraded water quality. After the drawdown, water quality will be immense and natural food will return which will be huge for migrating ducks in the spring and will have a significant impact in waterfowl numbers.

Posted

It seems like most opponents like to say that the hunting will not be that good because of all the people or the encroaching urban areas but what seems to be forgotten is this isn't being done "for" the hunters. This is being done for the ducks and some of its biggest impacts will be in the spring as a resting area after a long migration and to be used for nesting. Right now it doesn't get its ultimate usefulness of these because of the degraded water quality. After the drawdown, water quality will be immense and natural food will return which will be huge for migrating ducks in the spring and will have a significant impact in waterfowl numbers.

smartest thing iv read so far wink

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • JerkinLips
      Yes, eagle swoops are awesome.  Had one happen when I was duck hunting one year in Stuntz Bay.  Stole the only duck I got that day.   Vermilion got very wet over the weekend.  Tower Cafe posted a video of a SxS driving into McKinley Park landing going through water that went over their floor board.  Burntside Lake was frozen nice and solid Tuesday morning when I was there.
    • Wanderer
      Or the other book that said: The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a low price…   Dang, what a mess to have to deal with.
    • leech~~
      When it said. "The foolish man, builds his house upon the sand"? 🫣   Just got back from 10days on the golf of America.  By Panama city Florida.   
    • smurfy
      Venny backstrap and the fixins!
    • SkunkedAgain
      Running on empty at dark on a sled is definitely stress-inducing. Been there, done that. Glad that you made it out.
    • SkunkedAgain
      Eagle swoops are always a hoot to watch.   The snow is mostly gone on the lake. Ice melt made things pretty wet but the ice is obviously still very thick. 
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the South Shore...  The big question:  "How is the ice up at Lake of the Woods?"  That is for each individual resort or outfitter who operates an ice road or trail to answer, but overall, ice conditions are still very good and ice fishing is going strong!  As always, stay on the marked ice  roads and trails for safety.     Being up on the Canadian border, the colder temps Lake of the Woods enjoys vs much of the region combined with three feet of ice makes a big difference.  Fish houses are allowed unattended overnight through March 31st and it sounds like a good number of resorts will be fishing through the month, but ultimately, Mother Nature will determine that.     Regarding the fishing, overall, very good reports for walleyes, saugers and perch.  There is a strong population of smaller walleyes and saugers in the lake which bodes well for the future, but in the meantime, anglers are sorting through them to catch their keepers.   The one-two punch of jigging and deadsticking remains the most effective technique. Jigging spoons with rattles tipped with a minnow head or a lipless crankbait on the jigging line is the ticket.  On the deadstick, a live minnow a foot off the bottom on a plain red hook or medium sized ice fishing jig is catching a lot of fish.   Using electronics is super helpful.  Many nice walleyes are swimming through suspended, keep an eye out.   Anglers tip-up fishing for pike have had a great week and it should continue to get even better.  Suckers, frozen alewife and smelt are working well. Putting baits 1 foot under the ice or right off bottom seems to be effective this week.  Most common depths, 9 - 15 feet. On the Rainy River...  The Rain River is still frozen with no signs of open water yet.  Every year can be different, but on average, the Rainy River will start opening up around the third week of March.  The first boat ramp suitable for larger boats is Nelson Park in Birchdale.  We will keep you posted.    As of March 1st, walleyes and saugers are catch and release only on Four Mile Bay and the Rainy River.     Make plans now for sturgeon season.  Once the open water appears, the fish are super active.  Here are the seasons...   -Catch and Release Season: May 8th – May 15th and October 1 – April 23rd. -Harvest Season: April 24th – May 7th and July 1 – September 30. -Closed Season: May 16th – June 30th.  Up at the Northwest Angle...  Fishing remains very good up at the Angle and the ice is in good shape as well.  As on the south end, resorts monitor ice roads and trails daily and there are still some great ice fishing opportunities available.     Walleyes, saugers, perch, and pike are showing up in good numbers.  Those targeting crappies are reporting good numbers of fish.  Work through a NW Angle resort for ice fishing opportunities on this part of the lake. The walleye and sauger season is open through April 14th. Pike fishing never closes, and perch and crappie remain open year-round as well. Whether booking a day house rental, sleeper fish house, or resort stay, there is still plenty of time to plan a late-season ice fishing adventure. 
    • Wanderer
      Looks like a shallow lake with some potential.  Keepable crappies, decent bluegills and some nice perch according to the last survey (2015). Susan Lake   With a max depth of 10 feet, I’d want to know a little more about it before I’d start drilling holes.  Could be a nice little adventure though.  
    • Brianf.
      Jeff and I fished Saturday and half day Sunday, targeting whitefish, ciscos, crappies, and perch.  The bite was tough for us.  We ecked out a few, but nothing special.  Highlight of the weekend was the sled ride into Wolf Lake and having an eagle swoop in and eat a rock bass we had on the ice.  All in all, not a bad way to waste time.    
    • monstermoose78
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