Tuilibee

[Chill62]

We got out the weekend of the 11th and filmed a YouTube video from around the area.  My buddy Trapper was gracious enough to put a few clips of me within since I'm usually the cameraman for him.  We landed 27 this day and since we've caught a lot less but we've gotten a few big ones so far.  It was a blast out there catching them and hopefully you enjoy his video.

 

 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Chill62

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Wow those are some pigs!!! Nice job on the vid. 

[Chill62]

Thanks.  We sadly have caught bigger but didn't get them on video.  Average size this trip was around that 18.5-19" mark.  We got really excited because a few of them were 21" and the state record is only 20.5 or 20.75" but the state record had a girth of 6+ inches!  that fish had to be THICK!  Was a ton of fun and I can't wait to get them from the smoker on Friday!

[Fishman11]

what kind of reel you using on that pole? Nice catches.

[AlwaysFishing23]

Those are some hogs! Nice work.

[Chill62]

Sorry for the late response.  I was on the ice Friday-Monday fishing with our pro staff group.  We fished each morning for tuilibees and fished a few lakes and wow can you see a difference between lakes!  5 miles away and you go from average size of 19" to 13".  My buddy Scott who produced the video and the skinny guy is using I think a Wicked 13 Long stem reel which a spring broke in the bail this weekend.  I am using either a 13 FreeFall or a 13 Black Betty 6061 inline reel.  I like the in line reels better then the spinning reels and I wont be switching back for my ice fishing gear.  When its warmer out I like the FreeFall because I can drop the line with just one hand and not have to worry about hitting the button to drop it and then reel in some to get it to lock into place.  Scott I think is using a 32" St Croix rod, he switches between a light and a medium rod depending on his mood lol and I'm using a Yogi Custom Rod 32" Medium Light (Blue) and my other rod is a 32" medium rod (Black) I switch between them so its hard to keep them straight.  If your looking for a good rod he does 100% custom rods so you pick action tip eyelets colors string handles its pretty awesome and if your looking at the top end ones you get off the shelf you are paying about the same for a custom rod from him.  

 

Fish were very hit and miss this weekend.  We caught a few in a few different holes but nothing great but yesterday we tried a new hole and instantly started getting them on top of the ice.  Will be trying that spot this weekend if I can get out on the ice.  I hate fishing solo just in case something happens out there and my fishing partner is heading Devils Lake for a week.  We had a ton of guys come by and see what we were doing that were "Seasoned Tuilibee Fisherman" that were using the 3" daredevil and told us what we were using wasn't going to be working get frustrated and leave because we were putting fish topside and they were only getting sniffers.  Our rig that has worked great for us is a 1/8 oz Kastmaster (Gold, Silver, or Rainbow Trout) with about 14-16" of line drop to a 4 or 5 mm tungstun jig (White, Pink, or Silver) loaded with wax worms.

[BTL]

Really cool video. I've never fished for tulibees before, looks like fun!

[Chill62]

They are a blast.  Use 4-6 pound test on Crappie/Light Walleye rods and have your drag ready to go screaming out!  You need that light tip to detect light bites because 60 feet of line down you need to know if its on to set that hook.  We had about 15-20 guys out this weekend from all over the US and a bunch of them got into the Tuilibees and boy did they have fun when they were hooked up!  You get a 10-14" and it feels like a 20" walleye but you hook one of these big boys 18-21" and holy cows do you have a fight on your hands.  I'm hoping to get out this weekend and catch some more they are addicting.  You might only get 2-4/person/hour in a good hole but it takes you 10-15 minutes to get in a big one lol.  Worth it for me.

[BisoNation]

what lake?  Sybil or Dead?

[Chill62]

I never post which lake I fish for the main fact that too many people will only fish "Hot Lakes" that people talk about online instead of finding their own spots and scouting known lakes that have the populations of fish.  I do fish around vergas but I also have fished for tuilibees on 5 different lakes around vergas so far this year and have on my radar to fish 3 more lakes before ice melts.

[Bmann]

I had the half ton out on Monday on Big Pine, and everything I'm reading now seems to be saying no truck travel advised!? Anyone been out in the last few days? I can't imagine we lost much ice in the last week, and we were sitting on 20+ Monday. 

[Chill62]

I'm in the same boat, we were on 5 lakes last weekend and Star was the thinnest ice we found and that was 16-18" of ice but we were in 80 feet of water but it was CLEAR ice and we had almost 4" of snow on top of the ice.  I wouldn't think we lost any ice but on Monday when I drove by the Little Pine outlet you could see that the ice was getting chewed up from the current there.

[BisoNation]

I was at ottertail dam all week checking on fish .  saw a  few suckers, nothing big.

 

then wednesday i stopped, literally HUNDREDS of Tullibee's in there, it was incredible.

 

went back thursday... GONE.     They cant get up that dam, so do they go back to Deer lake? East Lost????

[Chill62]

That's interesting.  We went out of the DL area for a trip on the 26th and we ended up getting 84 tuilibees and 2 whitefish between 3 guys.  Average size was 2.25 pounds and an estimate for the time we fished was 1 fish every 10 minutes/person.  We brought a grill out and while letting it warm up I caught three and when cooking/eating we caught 5-6 more.  Was fun getting into them up there.  Tuilibees swim around so much it was fun watching the crowds around us because you could watch the schools coming with people catching/missing them.