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[b]Prior Lake Shutdown[/b]


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The last few weeks ive been practically living on Prior and all i have to show for it are two bluegills. I have tried blue gills and crappies in the brown bridge cove and all i get are lookers. Ive tried bass and northerns but just sniffer. And last but not least i have trying to catch some eyes. They dont seem to like minnows and im not willing to stay out till 1 o'clock chaseing them either because i only have a portable. It seems like nothing is biting. What is the current report out their. Is anyone having luck?

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Out 2x-same general area around sportsman access - from 17' to over 25' and only 1 crappie. 3:00pm to 9.30pm. I bet that I have taken over 25 readings each night with my vex thru the ice and can't seem to find any fish. Usually a pretty good area when we get away from the crowds. Time to try something different.

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I was out on prior today, caught limits of sunfish and crappies. 10am to 5pm. most sunnies were 8". a couple near 10". Crappies were slow up until tonite. I was on the north end. #10 and #12 red or green glow jigs. I had seveal half pound crappies, one near 3/4. Crappies were caught before dark, started biting around 3. I even caught a couple of BIG sunnies on the minnows. Sunfish bite has been good but you need to work for them. 22ft. of water, 3' off bottom. Pounding the jig worked for the gills. The bite has been very subtle. Use some flurocarbon line and a near zero bouancy bobber. Guess I need to fish in gale force winds and freezing rain for the crappies more often. grin.gif I was holding the flap of the fish trap with my foot and holding the roof down between bites. Just under a foot of ice, full size suv's and trucks on ice...... Not mine. Just waiting for someone to go through.

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I was out yesterday (Sunday) near sand point and caught a lot of Sunnies...and a couple crappie. Most were pretty small, but there were a TON of decent size on camera, but they weren't biting. Those that did bite bit very lightly, so use a small bobber. I have never seen so many in one place on my aqua-vu before, so the fish are there, but the bigger ones showed no interest. They ignored my crappie minnows completely, but wax worms brought in the ones I did catch. All in all I caught about 15 sunnies, only a few of which were worth cleaning. So my story isn't quite the 'fish tale' that LIAR posted above, but they are out there. And to be more specific, I was in 32 feet of water first near the holes by the island for 2 days, and didn't mark a single fish on the vexilar or see a single fish on the camera. I moved to 13 feet of water away from all of the commotion and crowds and saw more fish than I can count. Hope that helps!

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snax, I am a smartalec by nature, that is the reason for my screen name. I did catch those fish,(not saying you didn't believe me), just want to be sure people don't think I was b.s.ing them. I won't do that. I was away from the crowd. I was farther north than where you are talking about. I was in 25' of water. I don't have a camera, so I don't know the size of the fish down there. I threw smaller ones back. I fish 3-4' up and jig the crap out of them. That day the big ones were more aggressive. I also switch from spikes to waxies every so often, seems to trigger the fish when the bait changes. Most of the bites from the bigger ones barely moved the bobber. That leads to a lot of misses when setting the hook, but it also lead to alot of the bigger ones. Just wanted to clear that up.

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Liar's story is right on the money according to what I have seen - You have to get on the deeper side of the group, where ever that may be, and there are really nice crappies and sunnies to be had - I caught some giant bluegills out there inside of the island earlier in the year.

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No worries...I didn't doubt your fish, but it's not the kind of action that most of us can expect to get...especially me since I am just learning the lake. I wish I could hit them that hard! The majority of what I saw was sunnies, only a few crappies, so I would guess the Crappies are deeper for sure. Any hot spots you'd be wiling to share to find them would be great!

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I wasn't bashing you snax. I haven't posted much and didn't wan't people to think I am giving false info. I have been out on Prior 5-6 times this winter. The sunnies in general are good sized. The front made them turn on a bit more. Use flurocarbon line and #10-#12 hook. They are sneaky biters sometimes. I was surprised that the crappies started at 3. Usually it has been from 4 or so and they seem to dissapear shortly after dark. Go to the Island and get away from the crowds. "getting that action", comes from going out frequently and fishing when the weather is changing. Good luck

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There are no fish in Prior. I think everyone should just pack it up and go to other lakes.

By the way, if you see me out there catching my limit again.......just ignore it.

I believe ya Liar on the catching you limit thing, but would sure like to see pictures of those 10" sunnies!

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Quote:

Golfing was invented by people who cannot back a boat trailer down a launch ramp.


I LOVE THIS QUOTE!!!!!

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Those are a couple of nice ones. Too bad they DID NOT come out of Prior. I won't believe ya till you provide me with some gps coordinates and I confirm it myself. All that's in Prior is the little 4 and 5 inchers. Those had to come from that one lake in the middle of Iowa. You know the one. I believe the name of the town it's in is Bum Fudge or something like that.

In all honesty though, the kids and I have been catching plenty of sunnies out there and a lot of nice ones to boot. When are we having the Metro gathering on Prior??

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ya metro gathering on prior - count me in. hey wwg. i have buddies out on spring moving our houses around today trying some new spots. hopefully i have a beter report for you next time. think i may be able to break away from work a bit wednesday so i may go sit in your shack for a bit. i will call you if i do

hey kornfish - her you got a nice shack this year. whereabouts you at? from what i here you may be the only person out more than me. we got one on upper prior and the other two houses out on spring. email me matt treno at hotmail dot com - we should hook up sometime and share someinfo.

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Snax, Nice Gills! Might have to try and find some down there myself. Thanks for the pics.

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mtreno - Just sent you an email explaining my whereabouts. I will be out there Wednesday (today) for sure. Just depends on when I can sneak out of work smile.gif

I'm giving it until Monday to pick up again or else I'll be moving my house again early next week.

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I'm in the same ugly green homemade shack that I was in last year. That thing seems to take the abuse pretty well. I can't believe it has made it through two seasons for the $40 I put into it.

I will be out either tonight or tomorrow looking for crappies. I gave up on the eyes last year. I have caught a few out there, but you got to work for them.

How many of the regulars on Prior would be interested in a gathering on Saturday??

Short notice, but most of us die-hards will probably be out anyway. Maybe an informal beer-drinking-type gathering. We could all share ideas and explore some of the non-frequented parts of the lake. Ice is good enough we can drive around and see if we can all learn something new.

Let me know what you think.

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I would love to, but I don't think I can do a full day this weekend. Have squirt hockey games to go to smile.gif

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Hey John

Was gonna try to get out today but my kitchen pass was denied...

probably cuz I am going to Winnie for 4 days next weekend... oh well...

I'll have to look for ya next time I am out.... would be good to get a chance to talk to someone in between bites...

Barry

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Has anyone tried fishing candy cove yet this Year? Ive been out twice this year off of sand point, between the two trips i've caughten 10 sunnies.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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