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Park Rapids area is very tight lipped!


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PR Woody, if my guess about who are is correct, I think you do a some business with my brother-in-law Craig R., father-in-law Louie R. and our family - Martens.

Looking forward to getting back up there fishing this spring sneaking my guide Craig away from his wife and kids.

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Greetings JM,

Talked to Craig before he left on vacation? It was

raining inside the gas station. When are you going to

join us on a northern expedition out to the farm in ND?

Hopefully, you won't take Mark's place in the drinking

contests. Snowing to beat the band up here!

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prwoody:

hey. how do you think this snow will effect the fish tomorrow and sunday? are you going out?

my bro just on his way home from mille lacs. said he marked fish on vex, but none would bite. 1 1/2 days out, and not one fish.

do you live in town? i'm out in the smoky hills.

-matt.

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was born and raised in PR, I dont think that you should treat anyone as if they don,t live in PR as if you own the rights to the natural resourses. Look ariund town during the summer and see how many are locals and how much they give to the area! grin.gif

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Avid Angler:

If you want to move to PR, I hope you got money, because if you want a job, it will be peeling potatoes at the french fry plant.

I had a dream about moving to PR, and put everything on the line and moved there in 1999.

It turned into a nightmare.

The first time the merchants see you, you are a good person, after that a MOVE-IN.

I had good fishing on Fishhook and winter fishing on Big Mantrap.

Good luck, but check everything out. mad.gifconfused.giffrown.gif

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Hey Woody...

did you manage to get out to Potato and check ice conditons for me? we will be coming up on Thurs eve.

are you planning on stopping by this weekend for a beer?

Andy

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PR Woody,

I didn't hear about the water from CR. I hope he'd enjoying his "convention" and getting away from the cold. Tough living for the poor guy. I grew up in ND and go out west pheasant or grouse hunting every year. Had CR out there two years ago with some decent luck and had even better luck out there last year w/out him!

Yeah I'd love to get there (near Jamestown?) and pull some toothy critters! Glad your getting some snow up there so the water rises some. We went from Little Sand to Big Sand through the channels last year - it was interesting to say the least.

- JM

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Sami - just curious as to how your outing on Potato went this weekend. If you get a minute and can provide an update I would sure like to hear about it. Thanks.

Fishook

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we mainly focused on pike. set out tip ups with "lite pike" minnows in about 22 feet of water. about 3 feet up off the bottom. we were fishing a submerged point that drops quickly from 3ft to 24ft. we managed 8 pike in 2 days. most bites came from about 3 pm to 5 pm. (too busy recovering in the morning to try the a.m. bite)

Andy

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  • 1 month later...

Nels,

Kukie, I'm over on Potato Last 17 years Family cabin for the past 40.Crappies on Potato still puzzle me. Crappies on Eagle are nice if you can find them look to the North East deep drop offs close to shore.

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  • 3 weeks later...

To second PRWoody, we frankly don't care very much. If I had a nickel for everytime I got asked by tourists where to find and catch fish, I would have at least 37cents a day in the summer, double that in the winter.

I'm from PRaps and I've fished darn near any lake you can think of in the area. And patterned fish is an understatement. I used to get paid to put fish on customers lines, loved guiding until I saw clients come in and ruin fisheries. Haven't guided since.

The Park Rapids Area is one of a kind, but our fisheries are getting hammered, plain and simple. The local bait stores are there to provide supplies and service, but they know that the local boys don't want the word out to the masses. The Delaney's staff has never asked me where and how to catch fish, they know better. I provide them with information that people can use. But that information never involves exact depths, times of day, color, baits, etc...

We know you tourists are here to have a good time. We intend to provide that, I used to work at a local resort, and we did what we could to put people on fish.

This is my first day on this forum, I didn't even know this kind of thing existed, and I'm in the Internet era age group. To be perfectly honest, we locals are too busy catching fish to worry about posting on here.

Send me some questions if you would like. I can give you generals, but that will be the extent of it.

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isn't the economy of Park Rapids dependent on tourists? it would seem that sharing information with your "customers" would be a benefit to the survival of the community.

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All I know is that it is very frustrating when you know of a spot on a lake that you found (granted others obviously have found it or know of it too) and then you see your exact spot posted on this forum for others to pillage.

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Chugger,

I'm with you 100%.

Gotta remember, on the internet millions can see your post...lots of lurkers out there looking for a freebee.

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I posted on this thread awhile back and it has since mysteriously disappered. What's the deal?

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Woody, Just wanted to know what year (Winter) you think 10K in crappie were caught? I moved up here in 82. My guess is it was before that. Been a tough walleye bite out there the

last couple summers.

Hook

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Greetings thehook,

It was spring of '91. I have only seen crappies like that

one other season, that was on Big Mantrap,when no one else

knew/or cared about crappies on Mantrap. I found them

in the 1st hole off from the landing to the right. I know

for a fact that over a 1000 crappies where taken that

weekend alone. I wish panfish would be a closed season

similar to bass, let them have a chance to spawn. But,

that will never happen, the tourism industry would call

"foul".

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Woody, You hit the nail on the head when you said that they have to close panfishing during the spawn. I can remember when our DNR was not so lazy they would mark the spawning bed and you had to stay out of them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I live near Nevis and fish both for smallies and largemouth.....Love Potatoe for smallies ,and , a number of other lakes for largemouth....CPR for bass......Anyone wanting to bass fish, let me know,glad to help if I can or I'll take you out..Sorry to say tho, I am 60 , bald , and fat....LOL [email protected]

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  • 1 month later...

I was think of heading to Big Sand for the opener and i was wondering if there is any good finshing. If there is do you have any advice.

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Big Sand is a great walleye and smallie lake, however, many of the eyes are slot fish .

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JP-Thanks for the reminder on the slot on Big Sand. Here is the direct copy/paste from the regulations. The slot on Big Sand has changed: Walleyes~All from 20"through 28"must be immediately returned to the water.Only 1 over 28"allowed in possession.

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Of course I was looking for a nice tasty 24 inch eye for the frying pan....LOL

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smile.gif I hear ya there. I am somewhat reluctant to keep anything even over 18 inches myself. I do believe in slot limits, but I still think that the 18-26 inch slot they did have on Big Sand would have been just fine to keep. I'm sure the DNR numbers would have indicated that the new 20-26 inch slot should be safe, otherwise they wouldn't have changed it. Good luck to all this weekend and the rest of the open water season!

MJ

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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.
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    • SkunkedAgain
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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    • 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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