Shore Fishing Report

[Surface Tension]

Wind was out of the NE, so much for the reprted of SW winds. How many times has that happened? Lot of areas locked in ice but the French was fishable. Ice chunks blowing along the shore made open areas tough to fish and others impossible.

[matthothand]

The wind seems to be coming around a bit and I'm seeing more from the west every hour. It's gonna have to get blowing though to get rid of that crap along the shore. Today's gonna be fairly warm so a little west wind and above freezing temps might (watch this come back in my face) do the trick. I'll be out in the morning and we'll see how she goes.

[matthothand]

It was an interesting morning as I had invited a friend to tag along. Not much of a fisherman, but good for a laugh. I had two takes but zero landed fish. Somebody did a nicely improvised landing job across the ice though. That was the only fish I saw that made it to shore. Good day to be out though at any rate. If I can get up tomorrow morning (to go fishing? no prob) I can hopefully get my revenge on the two fish that schooled me this morning.

[matthothand]

Somebody else caught the two fish I was after. Most comfortable day of fishing thus far.

Haven't been a lot of posts as of lately. You guys not making it out as much anymore?

[Northlander]

Should be a great day to be out today!

[BD110]

Hey Matt,

It was nice to meet you and your crew down at the Lester. I didn't have any better luck going further around the corner. It sure was a nice day at that. There's always tomorrow.

Take care,

Tom (BD110)

[Quickstrike]

i'm gonna start getting out again this week. i had a few last ice fishing itches i had to take care of but i think i finally have that out of my system. it is also a lot more enjoyable when worrying about floating ice is not a factor.

[matthothand]

Tom,

It was good to meet you as well. I think it's a neat thing when FMers can view each others posts and reports and then have a common ground for a shore conversation in person. Did you say it's gonna be an FM trip to LOTW, Rainy, and URL or did you just say that you were gonna head up? I'm not sure of my schedule for now but I'd love to get up and hit some of those waters. Any chance you could e-mail me with more details if it is an FM get together?

[email protected]

[BD110]

Matt,

I'll try and get an e-mail out to you later tonight. I also have room in my truck.

Take care,

Tom (BD110)

Matt it's just after 10:00pm You've got mail

[Quickstrike]

heading down to the french right now, hope they're hungry for crawlers since i let all of my spawn go bad i just realized well anyways if anyone gets out today come say hi.

[BD110]

Hey Quick,

Give a report when you get home. The weather did not look the best so I'm staying home to work on taxes. I might try and get out this afternoon if I hear some good reports. Hopefully the high winds last night didn't fill the shore with ice again.

Take care,

Tom (BD110)

[Quickstrike]

i stepped outside and backed out, but from my house it looked as if the shore was free of ice. i've had my yearly share of fishing while it's cold, i'll wait for another day with temps like we had this past weekend.

[MrSenarighi]

Well, I did finally make it up to the Gunflint on Saturday to hunt for splake. It was a beautiful day, the lake was crystal clear, surrounded by mountains, and I couldn't of asked for anything more. It was my first time splake fishing, and I had a blast. We caught a lot of fish but nothing over 15". One of the guys I was with had a camera and he said he saw what appeared to be about a 4.5 to 6lb brookie cruise by him and he said he just about sh*t his pants. I stopped by the lester on the way back and shorecasted for about 45 minutes with no luck. There were no fish on or landed while I was there that I could see. I decided not to trust the weather gods and met up with a friend and headed down to the French on Sun. about 8:30am. Was a gorgeous day, not much for wind and bright as could be. I wasn't overly confident we could coerse anything, but we managed to get one nice 26" female which came at a good time because we were getting to that stage where you start to sing parts of really bad songs out loud. Thanks for the advice on lure selection and technique for splake and I hope to meet up with some of you down on the shore. Andy

[Quickstrike]

got out today for a few hours and had 5 hits, hooked two, landed a big fat O, it's not that they weren't biting today, it just seems that i either have dull hooks or i need to take a few lessons on setting the hook. anyways i wanted to thank the nice guy that jumped my jeep for me if he visits this site, i really appeciated it.

Hey Loma, how did you guys end up doing?

Anyone gonna be out tommorrow AM?

[matthothand]

I PLAN on being out in the morning, but that isn't for sure. Better bundle up though, it's gonna be a bit chilly compared to this past week. I'll be around the Lester if I do in fact make it out. Good luck Quick...don't know where you'll be but say hi if you're down at Lester. I'll be in the usual camo bibs and black jacket.

[Quickstrike]

i'll make a stop down there if i get out, with my luck lately i'll be the guy either locking his keys in his car or leaving his lights on.

[matthothand]

I made it out...maybe that was my first mistake. It just turned out to be too frustrating to keep fishing. It just takes away from it if you're hands are numb and your equipment doesn't function properly in the bitter cold. A few frozen eyes on the rod and a knot at the end of a cast did it for me. I wussed out and went home where I'm garuanteed warmth. I saw two fish barely surface but left before I afforded them the privilege of being caught. Hopefully somebody salvalged the morning.

Quick, was that you showing up as I was leaving?

[Quickstrike]

nope, i stepped outside this morning and said no thanks, i might head down around two and try to hit the evening bite but it was just too cold for this guy this am.

[Quickstrike]

well it looks like it's warmed up a bit so i'm out the door right now heading to the french i'll let you know how it goes when i get back.

[MNBIGBEAR]

Im heading to the shore for some fishing on Friday. Which rivers would be my best bet to hit? Also, What kind of bait is working best now? spawn? crawlers?

[Northlander]

Quick how did ya do? I didnt see ya but there was a ton of guys there. I saw Coho and Loopers being caught. BD110 lost a PIG at the shore, I couldnt quite get to it with the net. The Cohos saved his day though. E-mail me what you found. [email protected]

[Quickstrike]

i did pretty good today, i saw bd110's truck but must have missed you guys, i was on the north side just shy of where you can start fishing two rods. all in all i had 5 or 6 hits and managed to land a fat hen looper and a nice coho. both on the crawler mallow combo i am falling in love with. i tied up about 200 spawn bags and have some untied spawn if anyone is running low. if you plan on going out tommorrow morning don't even bother, porter is going with me and i'm sure by now most of you have heard about his curse when it comes to shore fishing. jk, it seems like the fishings picking up as well as the fishing pressure; NL and BD110, could you believe how many guys were down by the mouth, talk about wed night elbow rubbing. well if anyone manages to get out tommorrow me and porter will be on the north side of the french again so come and witness the curse of porter first hand!

[Northlander]

Ya maybe FM is putting a lot more guys out there than usual? Lots of voyuers ( spelling?) out there.

[deepdiver]

Quck let me know how you guys did... If it gets a little better later today I think Ill head down there for a bit. Need to get my stuff from you though.

[Quickstrike]

got out twice today and didn't have much luck, incoming front must of moved them out or turned them off. deepdiver got a coho and that was it. oh well maybe tommorrow.

[Quickstrike]

do any of you guys shore fish off the bottom using a release? i took one of my yellow bird releases and put it on my line clip just above my reel and tested it out in the living room, my roommates walked in and wondered what the heck i was doing but now i'm kinda pumped to try it on the shore. i figure it will help me get a few of those cohos that feel the tension of the rod and spit it out. well anyways i'll try it tommorrow and let you all know how it goes.

[Northlander]

Quick its going to be COLD in the AM. Those releases do work good on the Coho. BD110 has them on his rods. What time are you going? Maybe I will meet ya. Either post here or cakll me on the cell in the next 25 minutes.

[matthothand]

One small fish was hooked and lost at the Lester this AM and it sounded like there was more action up at the French...both fishermen and fish. I'll be up there this afternoon. Maybe I can get something to happen up there. Gotta love the weather too...I'm ready for a heat wave.

[Quickstrike]

i didn't make it out this AM, the forcast of 30mph winds scared me off, i might fish the afternoon bite but i'll probally stick around here trying to round up all my fly tying equip

[wippersnpr]

well I had one heck of a day out there to say the least. After fishing from 7 AM to about 2PM so far the stats for this year are;

Hours--- 126

Fish---- 0

I am still skunked, not to mention I casted my tackle off into the big drink never to return again and the to top that off I go and cast half of my rod into the big drink (thanks BD110 and anyone else that helped me get it back). What a day!