FOSTER ARENDS TODAY...

[captainshane]

I VENTURED OUT TO FOSTERS TODAY FOR ABOUT 2HRS. HAD A GOOD DAY AND A BAD DAY OUT THERE. CAUGHT 3 L. BASS, 3 CRAPPIES, 1 BLUEGILL, AND A VERY LARGE RAINBOW. IT WAS ABOUT 19.5" LONG! THAT'S THE GOOD DAY, THE BAD DAY WHILE I WAS WRESTLING THE TROUT MY ROD HOLDER WENT DOWN THE HOLE, I STEPPED ON MY CLIPPERS AND BROKE THEM , AND TO TOP IT OFF I BURNT A SMALL HOLE IN MY SHACK, ! IT LOOKED LIKE BILL DANCE'S BLOOPERS IN THE ICE HOUSE.

I TOOK A PICTURE OF THE FISH AND WOULD LIKE TO POST IT BUT DON'T KNOW HOW TO. SO CAN SOMEONE HELP?

SHANE

[Dan Thiem]

Shane-

Very funny, Bill Dance bloopers! Great job on the fishing report and way to go on the trout!

Just chalk up the rod holder to a "learning experience". And the burn hole, well, just call that "character".

[icephyshrman1]

Hey CS...Nice post. I have had some luck ripping swede pimples on Arends for trout. Pulled some nice ones out of there a couple weeks ago....Hey, question for you & DT (my buddy from the old viking/domaille days..."check one")....Whose silver tarp & plywood shack is that out in front of the swimming area? Can you leave shacks on there overnight like that?? I probably wouldn't suggest that unless you was in it and all..Someone might think about fetchin' your gear out of there or the whole shack for that matter....Keep blowin' them holes & you'll find 'em sooner or later............

[Dan Thiem]

I guess I don't know about legallity of leaving a shack out on Foster's, but I would think as long as it's got a pemit tag and has all the legal markings and reflectors it should be o.k. I really don't think that anybody would leave their gear in there. Probably leaves it unlocked.

You never know, maybe someday the guy will come back to fish out of it and find it on the other side of the lake being fished out of.

[CrappieJohn]

All in-land rules apply. Amazingly the shacks I've seen there before are not bothered much by vandals. Personally I'd think long and hard about leaving anything on the ice over night out there.

19.5 would be a darned nice walleye! The dnr does sink some brood fish in there each year and they provide for some eye opening on occasion....apparently you just found that out. Most of the biggies are rainbows, but be assured that the browns and brookies are well represented by large fish there as well. The rainbows are the dork fish and are easier to catch. The browns and brookies will test your mettle as far as locating them and when to fish them. Your browns will be structure oriented and the brookies are literally guided by the light. The brookies are related to the lake trout and have definite preferences to how light it is. And the brookies will move quite a distance to feed each time the hungry button gets pushed. Bottom line is that the browns and brookies are just very hard to pattern well and target. Your rainbows are cruisers, will feed heavily on bugs as well as minnows,and readily strike flashy baits without any add ons.

That 19.5 is one dandy fish, even if the rainbows tend to be easier to find. I have seen big bows up to 11 pounds come from there, a brown to 9, and a brookie of about 6. And last year a 10+ wlado came from there.

If you fish Foster hard enough, you can do very well. All anyone needs to do, as you have done, is to unravel a few of the secrets. NIce fish!

[MURPHFISHER]

Nice fish! In order to put a pic on here you must first "host" in on another website. imageshack dot us is what I use. Then you need to copy and paste the link to your photo here with IMG/ tags... Or, if you want to just e-mail it to me and I will post it for you.

[Jumbolaya]

Crappie Tom,

Your comments about the trout. I always operated under the assumption (for Fosters)the reason for the "dork" rainbows coming up more was simply that, more rainbows. Not the case of easier or harder to catch?? Stocker rainbows typically are easier to catch both there and in streams. Definitely interesting though.

I'll have to give the DNR boys a call and see what the ratio really is for my own sake and curiosity.

Jumbo

[CrappieJohn]

Jum....You are corerect in assuming that the dnr plants far more of the rainbows. The others are tossed in as a treat when the dept of fisheries is weeding out less productive brood fish. Or if they need to reduce the number of fish on hand.

The browns are meat eaters and get yanked pretty darned quick when planted. The ones that you see caught occasionally are those that got smart real fast or ones that got hooked, got released or broke off.

Brook trout will not stay in the general area where they are planted simply becausse the water found their is way outside of their preferences. They will however return to the shallower waters, bars and humps to feed during low light. And the brookies are the least tolerant of commotion on the ice.

At first ice this year I was there jigging when a brookie came along....you could see it as plain as day thru the ice. It, too, could see me. It hung around for about twenty seconds looking at the jig....charge up to it even....stop and back off. It was seeing me movingand it did finally sink down between two weed beds and disappear. Not long afterward I had a bow come in and do the same thing except it wasn't the least bit shy. After two passes, bang. And this fish was easily a four-four and a half pounder.

I was trying to show the difference in character that these fish display. As for ratios, I'd bet that on the over-all it would approach 200 bows to three or four of the others mixed. The beauty of the rainbows that do get released is that they learn quickly. These are the brutes you see in there.

I have been on the ice an hour after stocking the rainbows and caught them three inches under the ice on small cast masters with no bait. They'll simply mill around that general area for sometimes three days before moving off in search of chow. And are prone to hitting about anything.

[MURPHFISHER]

captainshane's fish... (released)

[CrappieJohn]

I may be wrong, but I think it has been said that the Kamloops stocked on the northshore of Superior are raised either in Lanesboro or Peterson. This fish has the heavy freckling of black spots much like those Kamloops have. Not the first I've seen from Foster either. I wonder if they get some of them mixed in with the rainbows more commonly stocked in this area. Awful nice catch regardless! Nice going!

[captainshane]

HEY THANKS MURPHY FOR POSTING THAT PICTURE FOR ME. FROM WHAT CRAPPIE TOM HAS SAID THERE ARE BIGGER ONES THEN THIS ONE. IT WAS A FUN LITTLE FIGHT. HE WAS SWIMMING UNDER MY SHACK BACK AND FORTH FOR ABOUT TEN MINUTES JUST BELOW THE BOTTOM OF THE ICE. I BET HE BUMPPED INTO MY MINNOW 8 TIMES BEFORE HE FINALLY TOOK IT.

SHANE

[Sgt. Rock]

Well they called off school yesterday so was a good excuse to drag the kids butt out of the sack and hit the pond. Well it was after 10 before we got there. He just turned 13. Are they always that hard to get up? LOL

Left about 2:30 and the tally sheet showed 2 rainbows (9" & 13"), 6 crappies (the usual tiny ones) and one really nice bluegill 8.5". Couple other unknown bites on tipups. Mixture of minnows and waxies in 8-23 fow. We kept one trout and the bluegill. The kid also scored about a 1/3 of a pail of garbage. Some people have too much money to waste. He found a couple partial pkgs of cheese (cheddar and colby) as well as summer sausage and jerky. And the usual empty cans and bottles. All ended up in the parking lot garbage cans. Walking out he found a full can of Bud Lite. It tasted great. Just another wonderful day with my son.

[NutsAboutFishing]

Hey Sarge, It's amazing what people throw away and/or leave behind. Sounds like the fishing was half way descent. Where abouts on the pond were you? I always like to fish the NW corner back by the rocks or just out in front of the swimming beach. Tell me about it, kids these days seem very difficult to awaken from their slumbers. I am planning to head out this weekend, probably hit the CC Manor pits and blast some holes and see what I can pull out of the frigid water below. Later and Good fishing to ya'!!

[Sgt. Rock]

We were on the north end in about 18 fow about central part of the shoreline. A good time was had.

[Rebeleye]

We got out there about 7:30 Wednsday night. Stayed until 10:30 because it was in fact "fast fishing." Very good time. Anyone see the guys with the pop up tent last night? Hope they got a good heater..

later all..

[wheres the fish?]

hey could u guys tell me where foster is..I'm from albert lea and I love to trout fish so be fun I think if I only knew where it was...and where is a alright spot to fish out there..

[knucklehead]

I am presuming you will come over on I-90. Take highway 63 north all the way through town to 37th street. Its on the northen edge of town.

TURN LEFT ON 37TH STREET then

TAKE YOUR FIRST RIGHT at East River Road (about 3 blocks) Go two blocks and Foster's is on your right hand side.

good luck

knucky

[wheres the fish?]

thanks for the info..hope to see u guys out there one of these comein weekends..good luck!

[smoley]

Went out to Fosters last night. Fished from 5:15 to about 7:15. Caught about 25 small crappies. Boy was it fun though. Also it was nice to watch the fish chase the bait up. Had a lot of lookers that would not bite. And I also found a can of Bud Lite that was picked up and desposed of in the garbage can. Fished the NW side in about 20 feet of water. All fish were caught about 10 to 12 feet. Used minnows and fake grubs/wax worms. The fake stuff didn't work as good as the minnows but did manage a few. Have a good week all.... :