River smallie data. Are there really any 6+pounds?
By
Mark Christianson
in Mississippi River North Fishing Reports
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Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)
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By SkunkedAgain · Posted
Sounds like it's time to start keeping the smaller smallies for lunch. -
By SkunkedAgain · Posted
With two muskies under my belt, my best advice is to fish for pike and bass and then let a giant muskie come chomp down on said pike/bass as you reel it in. 🙂 Unfortunately I have no other good advice. -
By gimruis · Posted
The guys in that tourney aren't permitted to use live bait though. That makes a substantial difference. Clear water and pressure with nothing but artificial lures makes for a difficult bite. I don't have a theory as to why the average size of smallmouth on Vermilion is declining. The common explanation would be too many smaller fish are gobbling up resources and there isn't enough for bigger ones, but that doesn't seem like a plausible answer in a big lake like Vermilion. Certainly people aren't keeping plus sized smallmouth either. That far north, it takes a bass about 10 years to reach 5 pounds/20 inches in size. -
By Rick G · Posted
St Cloud has a good access at Wilson park, Sartell has a nice access off NE River Rd, another access above Blanchard dam on East side off Hilton Rd and at Lindbergh state park...Little Falls has a access right above the dam. Water is pretty high and dirty. Crayfish colors have been good again this week. Smallies have been using anything available that breaks the current so finding them most days has been pretty easy -
By Brianf. · Posted
Interesting... You're doing better than most. The biggest bass weighed-in during the recent MN Bass Federation tourney was only 4.33lbs. The winning bag was less then 20lbs. To have several over 5lbs during your trip is pretty special. Congrats! -
By Jetsky · Posted
Question. I have guests coming who may want to fish for muskies. I've cast for them in August along shorelines and at rock piles. Do I fish for them that way in June? Should I troll shorelines or drop offs for them? Thanks. -
By partyonpine · Posted
Yeah was up for a week. As other alluded to the weather was brutal. Did catch some larger walleyes on slip bobbers on windy points in under 5 feet of water. As for minnows they were at Lucky seven in Virginia and Grubens has some nice minnows as well. Smallmouth fishing was terrific given the circumstances. -
By partyonpine · Posted
Brian That is funny and shows how things are anecdotal. Just got back from a week we caught as many fish as we wanted, however our average size was 16.5-17 inches. While no 6 pounders we did score several 5 pounders. We did not catch any or very few fish under 14 inches all week. I was just commenting that the average size has increased substantially. We were throwing larger artificial and live bait but again did not really catch any small smallmouth. Fished smallies for 5-6 hours each day and walleyes at night. Overall was slow but the weather was horrendous. Did go home with enough walleye to satisfy me. -
By Brianf. · Posted
I haven't been up to fish smallmouth in a couple weeks. My partner and I caught about 300 over the course of those two days. That sounds great - and it is if you like numbers. However, few of those fish were over 3 pounds and even fewer were over 4 pounds. Most of our catch comprised fish between one and a half to 2 1/2 pounds. I've been fishing the lake for 20+ years and feel that the size structure of the smallmouth in the lake has changed quite a bit during that time. When I first started targeting smallmouth 20 years ago, half our bag seemed to be comprised of four pounders - and five pounders were in the mix with an occasional six pounder here and there. I haven't caught a 5 pound smallmouth bass in five years on Lake Vermilion! They are a daily occurrence on places like Mille Lacs and in Door Co. What has changed on Lake Vermilion? I have some theories about why the size structure has changed, though curious what others are seeing. Anyone have thoughts about the state of the smallmouth fishery on Lake V? -
By SkunkedAgain · Posted
Don't forget about the times that they unwittingly fly into your fishing line. Normally I would say that ebbs and flows in food source would be a good sign. However, even with this bountiful mosquito population available there just really aren't enough bats around for the natural cycle to capitalize on it to any noticeable degree. The DNR says that roughly 90% of the bat population in the Soudan mine has died off. If that 90% is representative of the entire area, even a mosquito all-you-can-eat-buffet will not bring the bats back for many years. Hopefully the little guys can make a comeback.
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