This weekend

[Eiger0304]

Want to bring 2 kids up this weekend. Are the roads good enough to drive on? Or would snowmobiles or wheelers be better? Enough snow for snowmobiles? Been 10 yrs since I have been up there. Always got an Adrian's road pass. Would like to go out the same way and across pine island.

 

Thanks,

[eyeguy 54]

call adrians good luck if you get up there

 

[Hoey]

You should be able to drive a truck anywhere.  There is enough crusty snow for traction, but not too deep either.  Sleds look like they'd be fine too along with wheelers.  Taking the kids out is a good character builder.  Good luck!!!  

[hookie]

just got back from LOW yesterday evening "Cyrus". There's an Ice heave from pine island past wheeler point. I believe both Wheelers and Cyrus are working on their respective bridges. Went out of Adrians  Friday morning was a little on the rougher side for wheel houses but not a bad as I thought it might be after the warmer weather. Can pretty much drive anywhere not much snow left on the lake. BTW fishing was darn good Saturday evening and all day Sunday. Watch your electronics as the most aggressive fish were 12-16 down.

[Eiger0304]

Thanks for the replies. I will call Adrian's to check on road conditions. Hookie, how deep were you fishing? And how far out past Pine did you have to go? Hoping to fish out of a  hub, Don't really want to drag a trailer. Kid is pumped to go. Heading up Sat AM. Hope the cold front doesn't slow down the bite. 

[jerkbait]

I would recommend ice cleats. With the cold and blow snow yesterday it is like a skating rink out there now. Shuffle when you walk kind of ice.

[RiverChuckNorris]

We're heading up Friday morning.  Just spoke with Ballards and Adrian's and both said there's not enough snow for sleds.  Ballards said they're having problems with their tracks on the bombers due to lack of snow.

Sooooo, we're going to leave the sled at home and just use the pickup.  We had been planning to run up to Garden but that's not happening now.

@Eiger0304 - If you want to PM me your number, I'll text you Friday evening with a report and help dial you in if we find fish.  I've got two little girls and I know how much work it is to make it a fun trip for everyone even when you know where to get the fish.

[RIPN LIPS]

PM Sent

[hookie]

PM sent

 

[RiverChuckNorris]

Fished 9.5 out in the mud yesterday during the day and put a 19 and 4 decent saugers in the bucket.  Went in shallow for the evening bite and only got a 18" and some dinks.  

Went to end of road on a hump this morning and haven't done anything.  Going to move to deep mud soon

[KSW]

Thanks for the update. Can't wait, heading up Friday. 

[Tony S]

Just got back.  Fished Sat. from 10:30 to 4:30 and today 9:30 to 1:30.  We were out from Babler's quite a ways in 33 feet in the mud.  Can't be more specific, it's not my spot.   I would say the fishing was good.  Good numbers (limits) of really nice sauger up to 17" and  nice eater walleye up to 19" about 50:50.  Lots of smaller stuff.  Lots of the sauger we threw back would have been good keepers most years but looked small this year.  Caught several nice tullibee each day.  The fish were pretty aggressive and were chasing the bait pretty good.  Caught a few as high as 12 feet off the bottom.  Gold was the best color.  Almost anything gold tipped with a head or sometimes whole minnow caught fish.  Also caught fish on white, green, perch pattern and pink, I think they would have hit just about anything really. Plain hook on deadstick and jigging were both producing. I caught about 35 fish total and my friend out-fished me so pretty steady action both days. 

[Eiger0304]

I did make it up Sat am about 9am. 13.5 miles out, not too far Knight. Caught a lot of fish. Small Sauger and lots of them. Kept only 2. About 2;00 packed up and moved back in towards Pine Island. Same thing, a lot of small ones. Kept 2 more fish. My intent was to fish all day Sat and head home Sat night. Decided to stay one more night. Found a place in town to stay. While I was watching the high hockey tournament, my kid went down to the pool. Over heard 2 guys talking about how their day went and where they fished. So guess where I ended up going the next day, yup, same area the guy described. headed out towards Garden Island, 17.5 miles, 33 feet of water. closet guy to me was about 3/4 of a mile away. Filled out the rest of our limit in about 2.5 hours and headed home. Kept Walleyes that were all 15-17.5 in. Saugers were 14-16. Majority caught on red rattling jig. Fish were very aggressive. Night and day compared to Sat. Best thing was, kid had a blast, he out fished 2 to 1 both days.

 

Thanks again for the input.

[RiverChuckNorris]

So we (3 of us) moved off the structure Saturday morning after my post and drove about a 1/4 mile to 34 FOW.  We were off the end of Adrian's road away from other folks.  We were set up by about 10:30 and proceeded to have the most prolific ice fishing day of my life.  We lost count but easily caught over 100 eyes + saugers.  We also landed 5 tulibees and 4 perch.  

The perch were the tallest/heaviest perch I've ever caught, ranging from 12-13.5".  I'd say two of them were over 2 lbs.  If a couple of them had better color, I think I would've made a mount.

The only box we didn't check was no bigger walleyes (although we did get several saugers over 16".  As it became apparent our limit wouldn't be an issue, we became more and more selective.  It was a spectacular way to end the season and reinforced how important it is to move when you aren't seeing fish.  What a difference a 1/4 mile can make!

 

[leech~~]

3 hours ago, RiverChuckNorris said:

So we (3 of us) moved off the structure Saturday morning after my post and drove about a 1/4 mile to 34 FOW.  We were off the end of Adrian's road away from other folks.  We were set up by about 10:30 and proceeded to have the most prolific ice fishing day of my life.  We lost count but easily caught over 100 eyes + saugers.  We also landed 5 tulibees and 4 perch.

The perch were the tallest/heaviest perch I've ever caught, ranging from 12-13.5".  I'd say two of them were over 2 lbs.  If a couple of them had better color, I think I would've made a mount.

The only box we didn't check was no bigger walleyes (although we did get several saugers over 16".  As it became apparent our limit wouldn't be an issue, we became more and more selective.  It was a spectacular way to end the season and reinforced how important it is to move when you aren't seeing fish.  What a difference a 1/4 mile can make!

 

 

 

 

 

But it didn't look like you were to happy about the best fishing day of your life!     Lol

[Eiger0304]

Nice catch. Sounds like our Sunday. We too got selective. I just want to get headed towards home. We also caught 4 huge tulibee.

[tipupsonly]

How's the ice doing? I will be up with atvs on the west side next weekend. I see it's gonna be warm all week. Curious if there are still any guys out in pickups anywhere? How much ice are guys seeing? 

[MNfan]

Tipups we are between Springsteel and Warroad right now. Still driving trucks and wheelhouses out about 24" of ice.

[tipupsonly]

Thanks MN Fan. That is encouraging. How's the bite? I assume you are pike fishing. Live or dead bait? 

 

[DLD24]

Bite has been non existent for us this weekend for pike...we fished out of springsteel yesterday one flag. We are out of warroad and no flags yet... We tried as shallow as 4ft, out in 11ft now.

[tipupsonly]

Wow that stinks. I see Springsteel put up a pic in fb of 27 lb pike caught out there yesterday somewhere. Are big suckers easy to find in town right now? 

Edited March 26, 2017 by tipupsonly

[DLD24]

We got ours from springsteel, they had some at the bait store in warroad. Couldn't find ciscos, warroad had smelt though.

[MNfan]

We got skunked on Saturday had one flag and lost him. Yesterday was better caught 3 nothing big, watching the other groups around us only one did better they got a few big ones. They were real shallow I struggle getting comfortable fishing in two feet of water under two feet of ice. Plenty of bait available in Warroad and on the way up. ice was good but landings are getting tough and a couple more days of warm and sun will make it tougher. Good luck!

[tipupsonly]

Thanks for the report MNfan.  Too bad fishing wasn't better for you. Good weather at least. Nice to get out this time of year.