Jan 14-15

[401TE]

I'm not going to give details because I've seen too many times what happens, but I was up this past weekend and we hammered them. Nothing huge but a lot of solid eaters and the usual dose of dinks. Two slot walleyes at 20/21. Beautiful weekend to be on the water. 

[JbuZZo]

Thanks for (not) sharing 

[Vexilar]

Well I wish I had anything close to your experience, I had the worst fishing for two days since the tainted water year.  One difference is I brought my child and wanted to make it easy with roads and in our permanent house.  So I did not sled out or really move around.    We caught 8 total on Sunday, Sat was a little better.  A least my daughter caught her biggest fish of 18 inches and we still had a lot fun.   I am staying away from resorts for awhile and venturing out on sled the next few weekends.  I heard if you find them it is very active. 

[Big A]

Don't beat yourself up over it at all. I moved several times and you still caught more than I did. Looking forward to this weekend's weather, will not even need a shelter to check depths and move around..... Fingers crossed, I haven't found fish all year. Sure am amazed at the wheelhouses though, absolutely mind numbing the #'s...

[jerkbait]

I am having the same luck as you Big A. I figure that the fish gods are angry at me.

[Big A]

Is there a special dance or ritual I can do in an attempt at pleasing said fish gods? Cuz my moves and dance skills just are not up to par this year! Lol. 

[jerkbait]

When I discover it I will let you know. I have not figured it out yet.

[theiceman]

 I'd like to know what they're hammering is?    20-30 or 50-60 a day?

[Big A]

5 minutes ago, theiceman said:

 I'd like to know what they're hammering is?    20-30 or 50-60 a day?

Dude... 5-10 would be hammering them this year!! If I have a 20-30 day I'm probably going to do backflips coming off the lake and not sleep for a month!! 

 

I'd imagine anyone who says they are "hammering" them this year, doesn't know what hammering them actually is based on the usual pre destroyed LOTW standard.

 

So who knows.. maybe 5-10 is now hammering them!! In which case I am still struggling!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

[FishWhisper]

Can you share a depth that you were hammering them in

[Big A]

Well according to the post on sweets sleepers.. they are doing well in 30-33ft and 16-22ft. Soooooooooooooooo basically 70% of the basin.

...........................

 

HA! I'm thinking of a movie quote from super troopers that involves rainbow sherbert!

[401TE]

I caught 47 Saturday and 43 Sunday. That's hammering them in my world. 

[Big A]

Must have had a dozen people with you.... Congratulations. That's excellent fishing. Make sure you grab a couple lottery tickets too  

[Michael L]

Keep on preaching BA.

 

Just got back from a resort on the river, 3 days fishing.

22 feet of water, they sad they were catching fish. Shacks obviously haven't been moved so far. Obvious tell tale signs.

 

2 out of 3 afternoons never marked one fish. The other was just a couple.

Morning bite 8-8:07

 

They ran with the pedestrian anglers/corporate drinking groups  'good fishing' reports with their bucket of 1 limit of 10" saugers.

 

Signed,

Disappointed Schnook from Chicago

[401TE]

Ha. Nope. Those are just my numbers. The other guys got 25-35 each per day. 

 

The purpose of posting the info I did is to point out that the sky is not falling. There are still a ton of fish in the lake, just have to find them. 

[geliason]

Just got back from 2 days out of Walleye Retreat. Fishing wasn't on fire, but we ended up with a limit for 5 guys and a nice fish fry. Walleyes were 2:1 over saugers and most were in the 14-15" range. The keeper saugers were 14"-17". We fished in 29 FOW and had steady action throughout the day, with most of it being 10:00-3:00. Biggest walleyes 19 and 23 were 8' off the bottom. As others have posted, we had LOTS of lookers, who would not commit. Hottest bait was a plain red hook for deadstick and a small, gold "Slender Spoon". That caught 70% of the fish. I know others out of the resort struggled, so luck continues to be the variable.

[seifjr]

So now every time someone reports a good catch, Big A is going to chime in with his repeated remarks.  Dude, you made your point, we get it...enough.

[jigemup]

It's a big lake full of fish I think big a needs to take up another hobby if he is not  catching my wife and I were out deep by 16 yesterday and had constant action all day

[Vexilar]

Is there a good sled trail there from Peterson's road?

[jigemup]

Sled trail yes good I wouldn't say that but as I have said before you get out of it what you put into it I don't sit on a spot until I am marking active biters my arms are sore from drilling holes but we found em

[Michael L]

3 hours ago, geliason said:

  We fished in 29 FOW and had steady action throughout the day

That caught 70% of the fish. I know others out of the resort struggled, so luck continues to be the variable.

 

Lucky, wish I had 29 ft. 

 

Variable window tends to close when the shacks are moved to keep up with the fish. Whether pressure, full bookings for 3 weeks straight or fish moving out deeper.

 

Don't always think spending more money gets you better service or what you paid for. They've been booked up and not much time dealt with the shacks. I messed up.

 

The handful of fish we did see had a 70% closing rate.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Michael L

[Big A]

12 hours ago, seifjr said:

So now every time someone reports a good catch, Big A is going to chime in with his repeated remarks.  Dude, you made your point, we get it...enough.

Don't believe I've made one single point actually. I've just been honest. Very rare thing on the internet. I'm sure you understand that.

 

[Big A]

Fished today from 23ft-33ft. Moved 8 times. 3 guys. 2 fish. Thus far.... Case anyone else who prefers an honest report cares to hear one.

 

75+yrs experience with 40+ on this lake during winter. For whatever its worth.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2017 by Big A
Experience edit

[zero]

i like your style Big A, I like your style.

 

[JbuZZo]

On Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 9:15 AM, seifjr said:

So now every time someone reports a good catch, Big A is going to chime in with his repeated remarks.  Dude, you made your point, we get it...enough.

+1

[Big A]

2 hours ago, JbuZZo said:

+1

Honesty goes a long way. Karma.

[JbuZZo]

23 minutes ago, Big A said:

Honesty goes a long way. Karma.

Cryptic... 

[jigemup]

Big a  are these moves  all of the same roads my moves have been multiple areas different road systems structure no structure just saying fish are out their just need to be found

[Big A]

 

4 hours ago, jigemup said:

Big a  are these moves  all of the same roads my moves have been multiple areas different road systems structure no structure just saying fish are out their just need to be found

Excellent question. In the beginning of the day it was out away from everything and everyone. Visibility was low so I chose to stay within sight of others in case of problems, but certainly far away. Found a group of structure points that we were extremely happy about. Ranged from 16ft to 33ft on navionics. Morris point-cyrus area.

 

Fished that entire zone we had found, which is probably 1.5miles x 1.5miles give or take. Fished inside it with varying depths, fished the edges, fished the curves, then when it started to rain we set up the house and fished about 15yds off of everything in 30ft. Caught 5. Biggest was 10in.

 

The slush is making it difficult to manuever, I have tracks and am concerned of getting that stuck. 

 

Unsure what happened over night with the weather now. Today we may need to stick to the old resort trails and work the road areas, plenty of vacated real estate out there... 

 

Chains, tracks, or tires. With all this slushy mess... It's a hard choice and everything is a limitation.

 

Plan to try and work 18ft and out.... If you see a group of guys doing summersaults and bouncing around like they have welding sparks in their pants, you'll know that's me and we found some activity.

[401TE]

17 hours ago, Big A said:

Fished today from 23ft-33ft. Moved 8 times. 3 guys. 2 fish. Thus far.... Case anyone else who prefers an honest report cares to hear one.

 

75+yrs experience with 40+ on this lake during winter. For whatever its worth.

 

 

 

Are you saying people with better reports are being dishonest?