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Report 1-16-04 1-18-04


erikwells

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Went out of Dickies Southwest corner Friday at 2:30. House was in 20 ft and we managed 1 perch in 14 hours. We did a lot of jigging but it didn't matter. We asked Dickies to move out house or us on Saturday and they did move us to a new house about another mile out across the pressure ridge. This house was in 19 feet and we caught all of the 3-5 inch perch that you could stand to feed. We did catch one about 8 inches. We jigged towards evening, weasels, gem eye, pimples, angel eyes and doo jiggers until 8:30 without a bite. We packed it in that night and drove back home. The wind was really something else while we packed up. It was blowing so hard that our trailor was drifted in with about 2 feet of snow. It was tough fishing and I can't say that it will be a trip that I will be making again real soon. Good luck.

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Nobody caught fish this weekend, that big front that moved in shut everything off, even the fishing at LOW sucked. I caught nothing on mille lacs and my friend and his dad, in 3 days at LOW caught only 32 walleyes and saugers but only 10 were keepers. There biggest fish was 16 inches and they were keeping anything over 12. A huge front like that always shuts the fish off.

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This past weekend, my brother-in-law caught 3 nice walleyes (brought 2 home)...and 3 jumbo perch (out of 10 caught). He was up Friday night until Sunday morning...he said all the walleye came after midnight on rattle reels.

He's caught 9 (nice) walleyes over the last 3 weekends and 8 of them were after midnight (on rattle reels)...only one came while actively jigging. It sounds as though they are very tentative this year..."Patience is a virtue"

------------------
"Don't forget your carbon monoxide detector!"

[This message has been edited by ackotz (edited 01-20-2004).]

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Not Red lake, but I did meet some people up at LOTW last year. I rented a sleeper with a couple buddies and 3 guys came walking up to our house around 6 pm with a case of beer and we just got drunk, it was a great time.

Ole

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Ole- lake of the woods can suck. My friends uncle goes up there every weekend so he knows where to fish and what to use, only 32 fish in 3 days with the biggest only 16 inches is preaty poor fishing.

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LOW is like any other lake and the fishing can be really great or it can suck. I have experienced both. I was up there a couple weeks ago right as a cold front moved in and it shut down the fishing just like anywhere else.

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Well sure you can have a poor outing on LOW; but I'd like to hear anyone argue that your odds of a poor outing are the same on LOW as Mille Lacs.

mm

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I havnt caught 32 fish on Mille Lacs yet this winter and thats counting perch and pout.But I will be headed up in an hour to give it another try.Ive had better days than that on Mille Lacs but it been awhile.

[This message has been edited by rmh2o (edited 01-22-2004).]

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I would have to agree, I personally would rather fish LOW than Mille Lacs any day. You can get slow days on both but usually a slow day on LOW is alot better than a good day on Mille Lacs.

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Mille Lacs sucks the last 3 years for perch! I could care less about walleye on Mille Lacs. I go up for the jumbos. Haven't had a single good outing up there in 3 years. Between the tribe screwing up the ecology of the lake with spearing and netting and the DNR trying to correct it by micro-managing to the last fish, this lake is all messed up. The lake is full of cigar sized perch. Fishing may be okay for perch in 3-4 years if these cigars aren't quickly snapped up by all of the over managed stocks of smallies, pike, muskie, and walleye. Sorry, just wanted to vent my frustration with the "folks" who have messed up what was once one of the premier lakes in the world. I know some of you have done great fishing for all species at times, but the overall success rate has dropped drastically over the past few years (especially perch). I feel sorry for the sportsman, bait dealers, resorts, restaurants, guides, etc. This could be fixed with some common sense regulation. By protecting all of the large bass, walleye, pike, and muskie only, the "prey" species are getting snapped up as fast as they are produced. If the lake is loaded with a disapropriate number of large predator fish due to overregulation, something has to give. They won't only eat the perch, but also small walleye, pike, bass, etc. fry. I'm not a biologist, but this just seems to be common ense to me. Sorry again for venting.

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Dave- "prey fish being snapped up as fast as they are being produced"? We have more baitfish then we know what to do with, in fact we have a walleye pound stacked wall to wall with them. LOL. The schools of big jumbos are still there Dave. I just think they are schooled up a little tighter then years ago. I have found them the last 2 season, I just have not found them yet this year, but I will. Perch bite tends to pick up in the next few weeks. Good luck.

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There are some limits of Jumbo's coming in. Bigeyes hit the nail on the head. So many little perch.

You perch fans will see some of the best perch fishing in years, 2 years from now. That I will guarentee. I don't make many guarentees when it comes to fishing but unless they all die off from disease, it will be excellent for JUMBO's in 2 years.

------------------
Mille Lacs Guide Service
(320)293-3287
www.millelacsguideservice.com

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Personally, I don't understand Perch Fisherman. If I want a panfish to catch through the ice, crappies and bluegills are the way to go. Perch don't fight and they don't taste as good either.

As for Mille Lacs, the crying and whining of some people seems ridiculous to me. Mille Lacs is a lake of cycles where the fishing is boom or bust. From what I understand it has always been this way. One or two years the bite on something will be increadible and then it will be tough for several years.

So be patient the bite will get better.

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Just my opinion but a poor day of fishing is better than a good day at work so why complain. 2 of us fished lotw last weekend through the cold spell and managed to catch 76 eye/sauger mix largest being 21 1/2". we brought home 20 total with some reel nice perch too.

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Basspaster, i know you are just trying to stir the pot. I never understood why people fish for green carp either. For those that enjoy the table fair of fresh fish you will understand why perch is so sot after.

How true on the lake cycles. i suppose thats why they created these chat rooms for the down cycles.

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Never mind I just reread your post and saw you were at LOW. (I'll go in my dreams!)

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I understand lakes go through cycles. But the entire makeup of the lake is messed up due to netting, spearing, and micro-management policies of the DNR. That's my gripe, not a normal, natural lake cycle.

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Fishface:

You been smoking too many whitefish lately. Man, you must be on no sleep...If you would have gone into LOW, we would have had to take a sleeping bag to the icehouse with us so you could nap. Course you would have still caught the most fish.

Whatever people catch/eat, that is their business. We caught 3 sumu jumbo's up at LOW this week. They fought great and I am sure they will taste real good. Some people like pike, some bass. Whatever is at the end of my line tastes great to my parents, as long as it's not an eelpout-and those go to walleyellbe. And of course, it has to be in season.

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Walleyehawk,howd ya do on Lake o the Woods? I am thinking about makin the trip up there in march for the ICE event , Mill-lacks was the dead sea for us again, too many little perch, they are everywhere! the flats are just swarming with them. Tried snap jigging a jigging rap to see if I could at least trigger a reflex strike out of one of those well few eyes, I kept snagging little perch.
oh well, we had good weather , fun, and of course, lots of good food! wink.gif

------------------
simul iustus et peccator

><}}}("< ---><!>

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If you can swing it, go. We hit the extreme cold and wind of last week and Upper Red was a whiteout when we arrived, so we just went to LOW and waited out the cold that eve in the comfort of the pool.

The three of us had 3 walleyes, 9 saugers and 8 whitefish the first day and it was as slow as I have experienced on LOW. Walrus got one 20" or so eelpout and Neilpout nailed a 26" monster. Uglier than the walrus smile.gif Could not get a pattern on the eyes.

The second day we went out of Arnesons and between 8:30 and 11:30, we had two fish. They were going to come back in an hour to move us when the bite started. We had maybe 10 when they came back in an hour. The rest of the day was good until maybe 3:30 when it just died. I had a fat 26" walleye and we had about 27 walleye/saugers and 3 sumo perch. Huge perch. WOW!! The walleyes/saugers were small but overall it was a real good trip. We are planning to go next year.

Definately fish out of a resorts day house if the weather is cold. Makes the day alot easier when windchills are below zero.

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