St Cloud Area Get Together 2/24/18 - Fishing Reports? Updated 2/21/18

[eyeguy 54]

Nice ! 

[Rick G]

Andrea and myself would like to donate this for the big fish contest

[eyeguy 54]

Nice!  

[Tom Sawyer]

Thanks RickG and Andrea for your donation. I'm getting jealous staff is ineligible to win...

[Borch]

Thanks.  We'll have a big cat prize.  Everything else will be a raffle drawing.  I will post some more prizes early next week.  Will do drawing after lunch and big cat prize at 2 pm.

[IceHawk]

Thanks Rick G and Andrea for you donation going to make some catter a happy camper!

[Wanderer]

1 hour ago, Tom Sawyer said:

Thanks RickG and Andrea for your donation. I'm getting jealous staff is ineligible to win...

Making me jealous since I have other plans! 

I think you guys are gonna have an awesome time - nice work.

By the way, those Venom floats are the cats behind and just the ticket, I would think, for those light biting cats.  Completely adjustable.  

[DonkeyHodey]

Newbie here, just joined forum.  I have 2 kids (9 and 11) that really want to try ice fishing, but daddy is a bit deficient…--frankly I have no auger, no experience with area lakes in winter...  (but come summer, I can catch 4 in. sunnies with the best of 'em!...)

1.)  Can someone offer to drill me a few holes?, pretty please...

2.) I drive a small front wheel car…  Would it be foolish to try and drive this out there? (Presumably other cars should have flattened out the snow a little and it should be somewhat packed snow if I follow the trail on the map to the meth hole, right?…)----(granted, we can’t yet be knowing the weather on the actual day and fresh snow or inches of slush could change plans, but the current forecast is looking nice!)

3.) I have a few jiggle sticks and lures and a few options for bait but my 9 yo daughter will absolutely love it if someone has a “secret magic bait” or advice to get a kitty on her line…

[eyeguy 54]

welcome to the site!  join the fun!  rickg loves to drill drill drill!  for sure there will be help on the ice. driving should be fine unless snow hits hard before the event. 

[Borch]

I usually drill a bunch of holes too so people can get on fish.

It would be great to have you there.  Hopefully we can get you an some fish.

[IceHawk]

Welcome to the site hope you can make it. There will be plenty of holes. trust me I plan on doing some pre-fishing next week out there so hopefully Ill have some active schools dialed in. Don't worry about help I'm sure there will be a bunch of members who would be more than willing to help and give some tips etc. 

[eyeguy 54]

Looks like a nice warm up coming on thursday. oh boy oh boy! 

[DonkeyHodey]

Awesome!  Can't wait.

So perhaps I’m revealing my “un-rugged” approach to ice fishing here, but in thinking pot-luck, are people bringing generators? 

(if someone is (or has some other option for a standard plug-in) and has an open outlet, I’ll bring a crockpot with something hot…)

[Borch]

The folks bringing wheelhouses usually do.  But at this point I'm not sure who will be bringing one.

[The Chemist]

The warmer weather has brought alot of people out to the area. We are waiting for the later bite. Most are setup in shallowet water. Haven't marked fish yet but tendto see them at sunset. 

 

Be careful with all the holes being drilled! I found one that was covered back in, got my shin, luckily not my ankle.

[Borch]

Keep checking in here for any updates.  There's a very good chance that the location may change a bit as there have not been a lot of catfish at the methhole area.  Prefishing in the next day or so will help us pin down a location.  I will post any changes here.

[IceHawk]

See you tomorrow Jeff we'll dial them in 

[Borch]

Looking forward to it. 

Here are some more prizes.

[IceHawk]

Nice Job Jeff. Love the secret potion you know how scent can play a key role in the bite.    Wow some good prizes for this years event. People come on out and join the fun. We all will do are best to help you ice a few cats, maybe even your first. 

[Tom Sawyer]

Thanks Jeff!

[mrpike1973]

Hi all hope to make it this Saturday. Depending on the snow coming we should be able to drive on correct?

[Borch]

Just got off the ice and there were several cars driving around.  We ended up with 1-2 inches. We found a few willing cats today.   Enough to get a head start for the fish fry.  Keep posted as we did not find much for cats in the methhole area.

[IceHawk]

Definitely a grind out prefishing cats today for the gathering.  Weather made it to tough but I Jeff  and his brother pushed through the elements to try and find a few active schools .   Locating the schools were tough took a pile of holes and the augers got a workout for sure,  but fortunately  we did find a couple active schools. Jeff and his brother found a few on one lake and I found a decent school on another lake. The good news was that both schools were cruising shallow flats in both locations and about the same depths. Great news as this is a good indication they are feeding on these flats.   Amazeingly both schools were found on a inside corner. Bingo looks like we have a pattern formed. We iced and marked  a fair number of cats in both locations so things are looking good for Saturday. Plus is we added a few for the fish fry already  Jeff I'll keep plugging away out there hopefully I can dial them in even more I have a hunch there are a few more close by where we ended. 

[Tom Sawyer]

Thanks for your work guys! You were showin' some serious team spirit being out there today. I would have helped but I had a few appointments today I couldn't reschedule. I know I'm available Friday to do any last day scouting/fine tuning....

[Borch]

A plus is that the forecast is for a much nicer day Saturday.

[nytelyter]

So l@@king to saturday. i will be sporting the new otter lodge xt pro modded out and way ready to go will have my 8" lazer on the new 40v strikemaster and may bring the 3hp power head as well. my girlfriend will be coming and she is stoked for the fun time. thanks everyone for the awesome prizes and also the pre-fishing. will be checking the forum before saturday for updated info. has anyone volunteered to bring a garbage can or two along with some bags yet?? if not i can handle that

i will bring some chips and a pan of mounds bars for lunch oh some "pie"  this event always has to have "pie"

Born to Fish. Forced to Work

 

[nytelyter]

how is the ice should i bring four wheeler or is half ton truck good to go??

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Half ton will be fine, stay tuned for a location change, map is soon to be posted....

[Big Dave2]

On 2/19/2018 at 7:47 PM, Borch said:

A plus is that the forecast is for a much nicer day Saturday.

Looks like a little bit of snow.

[Borch]

8 hours ago, nytelyter said:

how is the ice should i bring four wheeler or is half ton truck good to go??

 

We've drilled a lot of holes over the past couple of days.  Found 24-27" of solid ice.  Best ice conditions that we've had in years.