Medicine Lake

[PERCHJR]

Hey moby, I am fishing in the tournament this weekend with a buddy from Monticello and was wondering if you could give us some info on where to fish Medicine??? THANKS!!!

[MedicineMan]

Sorry PERCHJR, Moby will be out of state untill this weekend.

[fishtank]

Can't wait to see all you folks on Saturday. It should be a great event. Joe, are you prepared for a busy morning? I understand you are opening around 6 or 6:30.

Does anybody know if we are going to be able to drive out there? Or, are they limiting it to ATV's and sleds? Is there going to be a certain area marked off like the WBL tourney? Or, is it a go where you want type of set up. This will be my first I.C.E. event, and from what I've read on FM, it should be an enjoyable one.

[climbmda]

I have the day off from work. Planning on getting to the lake by about 1:00 and trying for some pike, and then moving to a crappie hole toward sunset. If any FMers are planning to be out, let me know. I’ll go on at Harty’s in a green Cherokee. I’ll be in a QFII.

Later.

[Tonka Boy]

fishtank,

The ice is good for vehicle traffic. Not sure how much of the lake is open for the contest, but I'd assume all. It's not a very big lake after all. I'll be out with Ebass, Mr. Special and company...I hope to see you out there!

[tater]

Good morning guys!

This is my first note on FM. Can't tell you how great I think the site is. Fish tank recommended I get on so here I am. I plan on coming out this saturday to fish with the Tank. We were out there on 1/14/5 and caught some crappies and a few blue gills. Crappies from 6 - 10 inches. They stopped biting at dark. Caught them all on waxies. Good luck this weekend!

[Matt Johnson]

Welcome to Fishing Minnesota tater!!

Yep, you can drive out on Medicine Lake in cars and trucks and the whole lake is fair game. If there are any restrictions you will be notified at the start of the event. I'm really looking forward to Saturday! Should be a great turn out and a lot of fun!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[fishtank]

Thanks for the info M.J. See you out there on Saturday. Can we be in our permanants? or, do they need to be portable?

Tater - welcome my friend. Had some fun out there on Saturday, sorry I had to bust out early, but it's not often the wife goes out of town and the old boys want to party it up like old times.

I just hope the shack doesn't go anywhere else this winter, the taurtus can't take the abuse, but my brother and highly recommended where we are at now, so only time will tell.

[Matt Johnson]

Yes, you can fish out of your permanent, you just have to be present at the headquarters at the start of the event to check in. No one is allowed to fish before 8am if they are registered in the contest. We will give a short pre-event speech right before 8am and then everyone will be free to head out on the ice. You will have to be present at the headquarters (weigh-in) no later than 2pm to weigh-in your fish. You may also weigh-in your fish throughout the day if you want as well.

See you on Saturday!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[fishtank]

Thanks M.J. That clears everything up for me....

Good Luck to everyone, and see you out there.

[MntkaFishin]

Just a FYI, there will be a cub scout group having a little tournament near the public park access on the east side of the lake on Saturday. I found this out last night out on Medicine while speaking to a couple cub scout fathers. So there should be a nice size group of people out there.

[Mr Special]

Just wondering on ideas and ways to get a fish weighed but will not hurt it or kill it. I'll keep some norts now and then nothing bigger then 5lbs and hoping to catch them bigguns "which will never happen, but just in case", and not hurt them.

Good Luck

[Tonka Boy]

Dig some of those beers out of your cooler and use it for a livewell. Just kidding ya Special!

Anyone know what kind of prizes are on the table for this one?

[Matt Johnson]

You can weigh-in fish whenever you want throughout the day.

Here are some of the great companies that will be sponsoring ICE Series.

Marcum

Otter Outdoors

Nils Master

Thorne Bros

Custom Jigs and Spins

Islander Lures

JR's Tackle

Stone Legacy

Today's Tackle

Scenic Tackle

Beaver Dam Tip Ups

Lazy Jigger

Air Plugs

Road King

FishFever

Plus more to come!!!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Lee the bonehead]

How about a mobile official with a cell phone and an 'official' scale? This worked well in a summer contest.

The mobile official doesn't get to fish much (at all) but it's a lot of fun! Just put up a tote board at the weigh- in station (like a golf tournament) for extra fun!

[MedicineMan]

Thats a great idea Lee!!!!

[Lee the bonehead]

My brothers and I won the Northern Pike division of a contest up north (summer) a few years running and never killed a fish thanks to that mobile official. Catch and release the big ones or you'll never catch big ones.

[Lee the bonehead]

Did you ever meet up with Yogi? I met him at Joe's on the way out (after 6:00).

[irvingdog]

Med man:

Nice finally meeting up with you. Next time, lets spend some time together and fish it a bit harder. But like I said, it was great to meet you. Good luck this weekend. Wish I could be there. I'd like to have a chance to meet W.W.G., Lee, Matt, etc, etc, etc.

Be safe.

P.S. to everyone, patronize Joe often. Great resource on a very nice, convenient lake.

[metrojoe]

So anyone going to be out there today?

I'll be stopping in to see Joe around 8am, or shortly there after.

Hey MedicineMan look me up if your out there.

[EBass]

I'm going to go out there tomorrow!! Anyone else going to be out there? Purple Otter Cottage! Green Mazda pickup! I haven't been on the ice yet on Medicine this year.

[MT Net]

I finally got out on Medicine last night with Feetdown and Slick814. I got to meet Joe at the Bait Station. Good to meet you, Joe, thanks for the tips! We'll see you again tonight around 4 for more tips and a dinner entree of Pearson's Nut Rolls.

We had fun with the crappies. Feetdown proved his skills at catching crappies. The crappies toyed with me with nothing more than action on the rod tip. Seems everytime I lifted the rod while feeling their weight, they would peel off.

Slick and i will give it another whirl, maybe walleyes tonight. Hopefully bluegills and pike in the near future.

See you tonight!

[tisch008]

Lakeman,

good to meet you last night. Thanks for the advice on lures and bait. I'll get to try them out tonight.

I'll be there on Saturday so I'll see on the ice!

tisch

[Mr Special]

If your having troubles with light bites, you might wanna give those Spring bobbers a try. I've never used them until this year and man can those things detect the slighest of bites. Plus if you like to chase the fish up/down the flasher, you don't have to mess around with a bobber stop. I like to set rod down and watch the minnow bounce the tip, which let's me know it's doing it's job. Something I've learned is to let them load down on the spring bobber before you set the hook. You'll also notice that the spring bobber will be loaded down and your rod tip may not even have a bend in it yet. I've also had better luck using horizontal jigs versus vertical ones too.

Good luck hope this helps

[climbmda]

Was out yesterday from about 1:00 till 7:00 or so. Tried for northerns on the south end for a bit, but no luck. Moved to the edge of shantytown about 3:30 to set up for the crappie bite. Set a tip up in about 20ft and had several flags in an hour and a half. Two smallish northerns, and one decent one.

Thanks to the guy who loaned me a lighter. I lost mine down the hole and had no way to light the heater.

Crappies moved in a little before sunset. Flaher was full of them. First bite was a solid hit and iced a 10.5" crappie. After that it was all very light bites. Managed to get 6 eaters, though. Kept 2 other smaller ones 'cause they wouldn't go back down the hole (fishing in 35 ft.) That's a bummer about deep water.

Anyway, seemed like they aggresive ones were taking the minnow rig, and to get any steady action on the others, I switched to a very small horizontal grug, with one or two euro larvae on it. Pounded to draw them in, and then let it sit motionless for the bite. Did not detect a single hit while actively jigging.

Most I caught were 6-8 inchers.

Thanks again to Joe for the current tips when I stopped in. I should be there Sat. if the schedule works out OK.

[MedicineMan]

irvingdog, great meeting you as well! I diffenetly agree that we need to hit up Medicine again.

Lee, I didn't meet up with Yogi. I had to be off the lake by 5:30.

I'll be going out on Med in about an hour. Ole the Guide and I are going to hit up some Crappies. I'll be out there untill 5.

[moby1]

Hey climbda

Try picking the crop up by the tail and drop it face first into the hole. It may take 3 or 4 times but they always end up swimming away. No they dont just glide down to the side and get stuck under the ice (at least I havent seen that happen). I hate to say always but it works 99.99999% of the time. All of a sudden they revive and swim away quickly.

[Wayne Sieber]

Moby1,

Your Quote "No they dont just glide down to the side and get stuck under the ice (at least I havent seen that happen)"

No offense because ANY advice to revive ANY fish is appreciated and should be taken into consideration, but how could you possibly see to one side or the other of your hole? I tried last night both your method and also "tailing" the fish but nothing was working. I even tried to "slow reel" the fish up to the top and that didn't work either. So rather than potentially wasting a fish, I ended up with a couple of smaller fish in the bucket than I normally would have ever kept. It stinks but fishing in that deep stuff, it's just going to happen. Good news is that those smaller fish will taste just as good tonight as their larger buddies! FD

[Lee the bonehead]

The slow reel thing worked great for me in the summer catching Walleye/Northerns in 40+' of water(no bladders out the mouth, and fish seem healthy when released). We stopped reeling about halfway up for half a minute or so, and if the fish got off - he was going back anyway. But the extreme pressure change that fast can't be good for any living thing. Who knows if the fish that do swim away live? I would assume a pretty high stress at the least.

[tisch008]

Didn't get out tonight 'til about 5:00 PM. Fished for about an hour in about 35 FOW. Before the sun went down, larva got the bite. After the sun went down, minnows.

Iced two 6-8 inchers and one 8-10 incher in an hour. Not too bad for an hour of my time.

I'll be back (on saturday).

The best part was the two older gentlemen that didn't speak english. Really friendly guys. Seemed real interested in looking at my Vex.

Good time!