Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Bass, Ida, Mink ?????


Recommended Posts

Anyone recommend these lakes for bassin' action. Was reading the DNR survey's and they seemed pretty decent on paper.

Planning on getting out Sunday (6/26) for the afternoon/evening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can only speak with any authority this year about Bass Lake. Was out there last weekend (after 10-days on Kabetogama) and got the usual array of northerns and bass. Meaning a half dozen or so of each in about 2-hours. I normally only fish mornings and evenings, but also elected to try this past Friday from noon to 2:30. Water is high (again) and the sun was brutal, but I caught (6) bass and (5) northerns. Smaller than usual, but the bass are hyper and plan on some serious tail-walkin', belly-floppin' action right now. I've fished Bass Lk this year about 30 times -- probably more in previous years -- and normally find a couple of portly bass in the 19-inch class, but everything was 16-inches, except one 18-incher. The pike were clones at 20-inches. Normally I can find a plethora of 24-inch or better pike.

If you go in the morning, don't overlook the obvious. I'd suggest casting immediately after you launch. Typically the area in front of the loon nest, around the point, and the two reed beds and extending flats from those beds produce fish in the morning. Then go straight to the (northwest) corner and work the line-up of docks. Some of the bigger bass lately have come while sitting on the weed break at about 17-feet, or approximately 150-yards out and parallel to these docks.

Also, try the northeast corner and that edge. It's tricky, because the weed beds are dense and cove in and out a lot, but if you can stay on the break, you can do well sitting in 20-feet and casting back into 6-8 feet of water/weeds.

I only toss spinnerbaits in Bass Lake, so I can't speak to the live bait, except a couple of guys with their little boys were backtrolling (minnows?) along this same break today (I was out again for a couple of hours) and were catching northerns. Fun to hear the squeals.

4 jet skis today. New phenom on Bass. A few tubers and a couple of pontoons, but pretty quiet for such a gorgeous day.

The wife joined me today for the first time (ever) and with any luck, may be in the boat again tomorrow. You can't miss me, I have the Go Devil (paramilitary duck boat) with the Go Devil motor removed this year. I have about 4-inches of freeboard and the 25hp motor is on a transom jackplate. It's a site for sore eyes, but bulletproof and a great platform for fishing and cooking and appeases the hillbilly in me tongue.gif!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the information Windfalljohn! So when you are fishing the weedline (10-15ft you say), you are letting that spinnerbait just sink and then pulling it in OR are you pulling it in on a fast retrevial as soon as the lure hits the water?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I'm sitting on the weeds and casting over the break, I'll let it drop for a second, but not much. Usually though, I try to sit in the deeper water and cast back into the weeds and then I get it moving ASAP. Have not had much luck on speed-retrieves, but just a good steady clip. The bigger bass seem to hit almost before you can tighten the line. Either they react and move to the lure at uncanny speeds or I get darned lucky and drop the thing right on their snouts!

I use a selection of Vibratrons (Lunker Lures dot com) that have proved in other venues to out-perform everything spinnerbait-wise. In fact, when I'm on Bass Lk I don't have anything else in the boat, except scissors & pliers. I normally toss the biggest stuff they offer (3/4), so they drop pretty fast.

For the record, I have never been skunked on Bass Lake in 6-years. Heck, one of my fishing regulars picked up the only bullhead I've seen out of that lake on a Vibratron spinnerbait! shocked.gif

He hadta' take a 2-point penalty, though. grin.gif

Cap'n (I also have the Captain title normally attached to my name, just not on this forum), did you get out this morning? I ended up working on the yard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

windfalljon - those go-devils are quite the ATV of boats, don't see many up here. I love their mud-flats video on their website. I'm surprised you don't see more surface drives here with as many rivers around.

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a big boat that I keep on the Mississippi River down in the Cities and when my son was young, he and his sister would take the dinghy, a 9-foot Zodiac yacht tender and manage to puncture holes in it every week while exploring the backwaters of the Mississippi and Minnesota. Finally I decided I needed something bulletproof and seaworthy. I replaced the dinghy with a Go Devil I found at Winona Gun & Pawn. I have the 16-footer with the 44-inch bottom (beam). The boat was built especially for use with the GD motor. I have the Vanguard 20 hp. Top end is only about 20 mph with two adults, but do that in 4-inches of water about 6-inches from shore and you feel like you're on the NASCAR circuit. laugh.gif I never pushed the boat to its limits until my son took me for a ride through the Pike Island bike trails during some flooding down around Fort Snelling/Watergate Marina one year. HOLY SMOKES! He just ricocheted from one tree to the next. Then ran it through 8-foot tall reeds, watery mud, you name it. No slowing down, no clogged prop, no obstacle to stop us, short of dry land. (We hit that, too.)

I've had it on Rainy, Kabetogama and other big water and garner a lot of looks. But, we get to places even the fine canoe folks can't get to without portaging. My favorite is flying over a beaver dam while folks are hauling out their kayaks to get around it.

I took the motor off last year, since it is difficult to steer (wide turning radius unless at full throttle) and no reverse. On small lakes, I rarely even used it, unless someone wanted to see how much muck I could drive through.

Did a little calculating and bought a long shaft 25 Johnson, lifted it about 6-inches with an offset jackplate which essentially put the motor in shallow-drive status and completely out of the boat. I put a platform across the back for casting and cooking. The rig is set up as the cook boat for our fishing team of seven. We do the northern reaches of the state regularly for a week or more at a time and the bear proof lockers and general layout of the GD works great for this.

I still have the mud motor and have not decided what to do with it. May just hang it back on the boat some day and move on to a RiverPro.

Wife insists I'm only missing my straw hat, gig, and banjo. Oh well, some day we'll snag that RiverPro, but it's a tad big to rationalize as the "dinghy" for the other boat right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Windfalljon- Took your advice and stopped into Bass Lake this afternoon. Fished frmom 3:00pm-5:00pm and boated at least 15 or more BASSARINO's grin.gif

Sad thing is, all the fish were caught on the almighty YAma senko and what's even worse is I went through a bag of those senko's in a heartbeat!

Tried the jig n pig along the NE weedline. Got one fish. That's it. Still not a lot of confidence in that rig.

Tried spinnerbaits along the inside weedline and within the weeds. Caught a smaller pike and a bass.

I need to get out of my rut of fishing senko's weightless and start trying something else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cap'n, good for you! Probably bumped into a bunch of those 14- to 16-inchers. They're pretty aggressive. You tie-up any of those 18- to 19-inchers by any chance?

Hey, at least you were fishing with a renewable resource. grin.gif Whatever works. I'm in as big a rut using these danged Vibratrons. Never heard of 'em until one year in Canada we couldn't BUY a fish. My brother pulled out a Vibratron and we caught everything; smallies, pike, walleyes, even had a muskie follow. With seven of us dying to catch a fish, we took 20-minute rotations casting that lure. Now we should own stock in Lunker Lure, we go through so many. (Cabela's, too. Those guys are gonna' break me, building that danged superstore in Rodgers. I hafta' commute past it twice a day. At least it will be closed on the front end of each trip.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cap'n... meant to ask, were you using smoke or chartreuse in 4-inch by any chance? Just curious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually 5" senko's and watermelon w/red fleck, black w/blue lamanent and plain green was the ticket today.

14-15" bass around the docks but no bigger ones. Must have to fish out on the weedline to get into some of those bigger bucketmouths.

Thanks again for the help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have not been on Ida for awhile but have done good there in the past.

Mink is bad right now. The curly leaf needs to die off. It was the worst I have seen it since they killed the lake off a few years ago.

You probably made the right choice going to bass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was out on Ida on fri,are there any fish in this lake caught 1 crappie and 1 small bass in 6hrs may they are still recoupin from the storms.tought lake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bass Lake is a little tougher to fish right now; plenty of action, just smaller than I'm accustomed to seeing out there. Been out 4 or 5 times over the past 8-days. DNR have been doing a lake survey this summer, so they're moving their nets around. I was fishing deep (25+ feet) this afternoon and drifting and lost track of two bouys about 30-yards apart and got my lure fouled up in the net. I was able to pull the weighted line up and was not actually snagged in the net, just the leaded tightline. Felt stupid, because I saw them drop it there. Just lost track of it over my shoulder. Sure am anxious to see their survey results, though.

I'm continually amazed by the number of folks who approach the launch from the wrong direction with their vehicles and trailers, forcing them to launch at a 90-degree angle or try to drive over a 6-inch curb. Even when there are other trucks/trailers parked the opposite direction to give a clue! But worse, they foul up the launch if anyone happens to show up and has to find a way to hover until the traffic flow is corrected. Of course, we're talking about all 5 of us most of the time. grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was out on Mink today and it is still a mess. We fished for 6 hours and caught 8 Bass. A thick green scum cover most of the lake. frown.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tough bite out on Ida this last week (Wednesday Night). Lots of boat traffic really stirred up the middle part of the lake. Managed to catch fish, but all were around 11-12".

I had heard from several people that Ida was a strong bass lake, but I'm not so confident after being on their twice with the same success ooo.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BRK,

What boat were you in on Wed. I was out there too with about the same results as you, one of the bass I caught went 15".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17' white crestliner. We were working mainly the North and South shores up into the reeds.

I was the guy wearing a yellow shirt if that helps ya?!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

O.K., I was in a 16' foot Lund fishing by myself. I had a black shirt on. I was just wondering if I talked with you, but I don't think I did. I was working the big hump in the middle of the lake. What were the league results for the night? At least it was a beautiful night on the water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SH - man, pass on the thanks to whomever else for surveying the Clearwater river system, too! Woo hoo! smile.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

THANKS!

Just when I thought I'd found and read everything on the internet, you drop this one in my lap. tongue.gif

I see I've done a better job finding the bigger bass than they have. Or maybe their largest bass really IS the same one we're all catching out there! grin.gif

Mmmmm... still some walleyes in Bass Lake. I've been in some of the local cabins around the lake and have seen some (old) mounts of wallies pulled outta' there, but have not seen anything in recent years.

Thanks, again for the link, sir.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for link....real good info. and up to date stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I made a few shore fisherman mad on bass Sat. The winds on Sat were from the south moving along at a pretty good clip. Had the trailor in the water pointed out into the main body, but with the winds and a motor not working at peak performance, I think I managed to even scare their sunnys away. As soon as I pushed the boat off the rollers it instantly pushed me back into the channel. I had some real issues real quick, the trailor was just below the water so I had to keep from running over that, and then trying to turn a 17 foot boat around in the narrow channel. Let just say I got a few ugly looks from the people trying to fish on the landing.

We ended up fishing the East side of the lake near the docks. From about noon till three the pike were hitting just real far and inbetween. After 3 it picked up significantly, the only sad part about it was the girlfriend gave me a good schooling...beginners luck. We ended up with a good catch for the day. The biggest pike was just over 26 inches. We kept 2 small snakes for dinner, boy they were good. The only bad thing about the day was it was such a nice day out the jetski and tubbers were out so all day we were rocking back and forth from the waves. All in all we had a fun day fishing and had an excellent shore lunch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it makes you feel any better, the folks fishing in the launch have to yield to you. The way I handle this situation (often with their cars parked right in the flow of the launch), is to walk up, ask how the fishing is going, blah, blah, blah. I usually keep extra Pepsi in the cooler and offer the shore fishermen a couple of cold ones. While I've been fortunate enough not to have encountered any launching/loading problems at Bass Lake, I think my new "friends" would be pretty forgiving and are quick to move their cars (if necessary). Just remember, if these folks had a boat, they'd be on the lake with you, too. Mixed emotions on that one; leave 'em on the shore so you have more elbow room on the lake or feel badly that you can't take 'em all with you to enjoy some better fishing. As for being pushed up the channel, you ain't the first -- it happens with regularity out there.

Musta' felt like a blast furnace on Saturday. I opted to wrench a little on the bro-in-law's pontoon before he sinks it in the Mississippi. grin.gif

And being schooled by your girlfriend only means two things:

One - You HAVE a girlfriend.

Two - You got her to spend a day fishing from your boat.

You da' MAN, dude! I've been married longer than I haven't been and just this year got my wife to fish with me. We have a sportfisherman that she will lounge on and watch me fish for whatever crap will feed on leftovers in the river, but she's always been reluctant to hit the local lakes with me in the duck/mud boat. She finally found out what she was missing.

(Now I gotta' dance around not inviting her some times.... confused.gif)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seams like everytime I go to Bass there is always people fishing the launch, I really agree with you when you say you have mixed feeling on them. In just the time it took me to land the boat I seen these people keep a pike no bigger than the suckers I was using that day. They also had a 5 gal bucket full of sunnies that true fisherman would of been embarrased to even catch let alone keep. I'm not trying to start a contarvesy just a question of ethics. However, I did feel bad when I had my problems launching the boat. I thought forsure when I came in from fishing I would have a nice key mark along my brand new F150. I'll have to try your idea's with the cold pop. I've been going to Bass for about the last 10 years and I've never had a problem with vehicles parked infort of the landing. I have however seen people try and launch from the wrong direction. I swear if a guy wanted to have some good laughs, just bring a lawn chair and sit next to any heavily used boat launch on a saturday, I guarentee you'll see some pretty funny things.

Saturday was a furnace out on the lake, even hotter on shore. Luckily we had a pretty good brezze which helped quite a bit. Sunday we fished Cedar, it seemed to be even hotter than the day before. Cedar produced a few bass and and handfull of pike until the suckers were gone. Wasn't after the bass but for some reason couldn't keep them off.

Usually I have a rule when girlfriends asks me "why don't you ever take me fishing and hunting". I always take them out, but I wait for the perfect conditions. I end up taking them out on days it's so misrable out that I can bearly stand it. I usually only get asked once and they never want to go again. I did break my own rule this weekend. Before I met my current girlfriend she has hunted and fished, so she know that there is days when the fish don't bite or the deer don't move, and she's ok with just being out in the beatifull outdoors. Never the less, we had a good day fishing and she won't let it go how the teacher became the student that day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mmmmmmm.... the 5-gallon bucket, mess of panfish and snakie northerns sound a lot like the elderly couple who sit in lawn chairs there pretty often. Some times that bucket looks like it's filled with some kind of flemmy, seafood stew. Nasty. But, part of me wonders if this ends up being an inexpensive treat for dinner or something. I guess they really can't put a dent in the panfish/small northern population at Bass.

About post #14 on this same thread I made your exact observation about people who try to launch back-asswards out there. It IS a hoot (if not just plain annoying). It's more fun to watch from the water than to be trying to position to launch and have some guy flying upside down in front of you.

My wife grew up with a bunch of hunting and fishing brothers (so I have a lot of bro-in-law partners available) and I think that is probably the reason she HASN'T accompanied me until recently. She knows how slow it can be. If you've been hitting Bass Lake for a decade, you already know it's a pretty safe bet for SOME kind of action. Won't be hanging much on your walls outta' there (but, my wall space is pretty much consumed anyway).

So... you gonna' entice your lady friend back onto the water again in order to set the record straight? grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • 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
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.