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Cattin the Chain 2015-2017


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I'm on my way up from the cities with my boy. He is super excited to catch a catfish through the ice. We will be in a black and grey Otter out by the meth hole. stop by and say hi if you see us.

Ed

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ETH. I'll be on the ice in roughly 3 hours. Black frabill 1-man and i'll have an otter sled in tow behind the 1-man.

If you see me, stop over. I'll be sure to help you get your son &you on some fish if i know where they are.

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Fishblood, I saw you out there, but didn't see your post till now. How'd you do? We struggled. They were biting so lightly, we couldn't feel them. We put on bobbers and they wouldn't hardly twitch. A guy fishing next to us gave us a spring bobber and then we finally got a few. Also got a few crappies, one on liver which was weird.

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Found a very active pod of cats tonight. I lost count in the high teens, but bet I touched 50 smile Some bit very light, while others about took my rod. Glow red with minnow heads worked very well, had to keep a fresh head and fresh glow otherwise the bait wasn't. Getting bit. full-26589-51947-1220141748a_burst01.jpg

full-26589-51948-1220141748i.jpg

Quite a few "trash" fish as well grinfull-26589-51949-1220141351_burst01.jpg

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

You got them fish dialed in Rick way to go!

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Found a very active pod of cats tonight. I lost count in the high teens, but bet I touched 50 smile Some bit very light, while others about took my rod. Glow red with minnow heads worked very well, had to keep a fresh head and fresh glow otherwise the bait wasn't. Getting bit. full-26589-51947-1220141748a_burst01.jpg

full-26589-51948-1220141748i.jpg

Quite a few "trash" fish as well grinfull-26589-51949-1220141351_burst01.jpg

Nice going Rick G smile

That crappie is sweet.

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wow. just wow! way to go, Rick!

we had our worst outing ever up there tonight (at least as far as fish count goes). drilled all along the break we were fishing, didn't mark much until dark but after that plenty of marks, very little biting.

no real tornado action, but fish on the vex almost all night, just not wanting to bite. We caught four (4) total. LOL.

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wow. just wow. way to go, rick,

we had our worst outing ever up there tonight. drilled all along the break we were fishing, didn't mark much until dark but after that plenty of marks, very little biting.

no real tornado action, but fish on the vex almost all night, just not wanting to bite. We caught four (4) total. LOL.

I remember a couple yrs back when you guys hammered them and I got skunked.

Fishing is funny like that sometimes.

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Of course they had to be biting on the other side of the bay. grin

First time skunkaroo for this guy. I was surprised to see 13-14" of ice yet disappointed to find out all of our Plan A spots still hadn't even iced over yet and plan B sketchy.

Adam found a few fish though.

full-105-51955-10857779_1015253763491429

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Was out a few days ago. Marked an absolute ton of fish. Probably caught close to 50 between a few guys. Had to leave before dark though. They were roaming pretty heavily and due to the slick and sketchy ice conditions hole popping was fairly tough. Decent size and a couple little eyes mixed in made for a good time though.

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Well saturday we did good on crappies so now we want to try catfishing. How do you guys know where to set up. Do you drill until you mark fish and then set the house up, are they suspended, is it only a night bite? Any info is appreciated!!

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How thick is the ice well my first post of the year had to make a new account just woundering how the ice is since ik.coming back home for Xmas miss ice fishing right now. Hope to ice some catfish.

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How thick is the ice well my first post of the year had to make a new account just woundering how the ice is since ik.coming back home for Xmas miss ice fishing right now. Hope to ice some catfish.
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Yea I know how the chain is been the cool cats a few times. Lived in cold spring my whole life. Yea all I have for a vehicle is a 04 powerstroke different not taking that out on the ice lol

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Fishblood, I saw you out there, but didn't see your post till now. How'd you do? We struggled. They were biting so lightly, we couldn't feel them. We put on bobbers and they wouldn't hardly twitch. A guy fishing next to us gave us a spring bobber and then we finally got a few. Also got a few crappies, one on liver which was weird.

I caught 29 Friday and 25 Saturday.

Pretty slow overall except Saturday morning when live fatheads and shiners were out fishing dead.

Bite died when Dtro showed up!

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Merry Christmas FM! Fished the cats a couple times 2 weeks ago - looking to bring my wife and boys out tomorrow and have a question. I want to bring my wheeler to make getting everything out there a bit easier - boys are 7 and 3 and my set up is a heavy pain in the a**! Anything I can do to make it easy for all of us the better - if you have young kids you know what I mean. smile Is there a place to park a truck and ATV trailer somewhere out there? Would it be safe to cross the channel from the dnr launch on the N end to get down to the meth hole? (Never gone that way) If not - any other places to park a truck/trailer? Thanks!

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It is not safe on the summer access. A wheeler went through the ice there a few days ago. You can park a truck/trailer on the road near the winter access(North of it).

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You can park along 22 close to winter access. I would not use the "done" summer access to get onto the lakes.

Fishing was pretty good again tonight. Got a bit of a late start, but was set up by 5PM. Bite started as soon as my Frosted spoon got to the fish. Was a Pretty short window, by 7pm the fish had shut down. Think I got 15-20, all were small. full-26589-52018-1226141746.jpg

full-26589-52019-1226141934a.jpg

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I'm heading out tomorrow for the first time chasing cats through the ice. Probably gonna hit horseshoe or long first in the afternoon. I'll have a black tent up, "the clam". Drop by and say hi!

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Looks like a lot of fun catching cats on the Ice never done it before but its one thing I want to try this year how deep do u fish them and I assume to just use a minnow head and some sort of glow spoon can u fish them during the day or do they bite better @ night? Thanks

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Really depends on the day. I've had days where they won't bite hardly at all during the day but once it starts to get dark they come alive. And vice versa. Overall I'd say evenings or low light hours tend to be better but it really depends on the fish. Depth is another guessing game. I'd say anywhere from 20 to 40 or so feet is where I catch most cats and yes in low light situations glow is usually quite helpful

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Went out today from 2-8:30. I didn't mark a single cat, let alone catch one. All I have to show for it are three crappie. It wouldn't sting so bad if I hadn't drove 4 hours round-trip. Pretty sure location had something to do with it... are there any decent spots aside form the meth-hole?

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Yes there are decent spots to fish throughout the system to catch cats. Don't get locked into just Horseshoe Lake for cats.If an area is getting a lot of pressure, or has been, try fishing away from the crowd. Can't believe the cat pro's haven't chimed in with a response yet.

Just curious what your setup was? Depth, locations tried, and presentations used.

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There are SO many great places to catch cats on the entire chain. Every lake is good. Not much else to say that hasn't already been said 10 times. Sorry but can't make a new post of tips every time someone asks. Read through this post, last year's post, and search YouTube videos. All the answers are there.

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Tom, I fished two rods. One was a 1/16 once red frostee spoon with a minnow head. The other had a 1/8 once VMC tear drop jig with chicken liver. I fished them from right off bottom to 5 feet off. I tried near the south end of long lake, and near the access of horseshoe lake. Dtro I have done quite a bit research, was just curious. Thanks for a reply.

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Was out last night with couple guys. Marked an absolute ridiculous amount of fish. Managed to catch a few but they were a finicky bunch and an overly light biting bunch at that. Glow blue seemed to do the best but it's tough to say for sure. This cold weather is really helping out the ice conditions.

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