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Me, Dan , Crappie Tom and Muskiefreak131 went to the back waters. The first spot we tried Dan caught a crappie on the first cast. He was using a Crappie Tom stub grub. I caught a dogfish and a 20 in. northern. Crappie Tom caught a couple of sunnies. The next spot we tried we caught alot of sunnies, crappies, and sheephead. Toward the end of our journey we figured out the bass. We each caught at least 5. They were pretty good size too.

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You have the bass thing dead on Alex. More were caught sfter you guys left.

We were fishing a long trough in the back waters and Alex came across a flat full of fish. In less than an hour three of us took no less than twenty bass, including a great smallie, from a line of weeds. The amazing thing is the fish all came from about a 100 foot line along the weeds. If your cast hit within a foot of the weeds you almost always had a hook-up, pass, or nudge. Move your cast out to three feet and it was just practice.

Of all of these bass, only one came to a spinner bait. The others all fell to a blue rapala (#13) or a rattling rap, blue over orange. The bite was incredible.

Many of these fish seemed to hit at the lure's landing, on others a whole second had to be waited out for the hit.

At the second spot we fished, the Shepard (aka Dan)entertained the sheepies while MuskieFreak and I entertained some crappies and nice sunfish. Plastics were the key on the pannies. Everything is back in the water for another day. I guess one could say the day was a success.

Great to be fishing with all of you guys at once!

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As Young gun said we figured out the bass. Blue and white floating Rapalas were the most sucsessful and a Hula popper did well also.

Here's some photos.

pic0326qg.jpg

pic0309eu.jpg

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pic0355os.jpg

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I see Tommy left the razor at home grin.gif

Looks like you guys had a fun day out there!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

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The cap Matt....focus on the cap. That says it all! You'll notice that Sir daniel is sans the shirt....there were about twenty 70+ year old women doing jazzersize in the parking lot and he wanted to impress them.

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LOL grin.gif We probably could have turned that into quite the Hot Bite video...

I can see it now... "FM's Very Own Dan Thiem Draws a Crowd at the Mississippi River Backwaters"...

"jazzersize" ... gotta love it! lol

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

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There was a lot of horn honking at times and I have to assume that it was coming from his following from the "sconi" side of the creek....they weren't wearing shirts either. Yes, Dan does draw a crowd. It must be his "inner beauty", ya think?

You know we love ya, but being the sheepmeister today makes it imperative that we give you grief. lol

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Looks like you guys had a pretty good day shorefishing. It will probably be a bit yet before I can make it over to the backwaters. I did make it up to fish some muskies with fellow FM'er Mark Stanley up on Lake Minnetonka this week. Things were hot and pretty slow. I think this weather has really gotten the fish turned off a bit. I managed 1 small one and together we probably boated a handful of pike as well. Soon as I get my trolling motor fixed I'll probably make some evening trips out to Chesterwoods.

Andy

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Saturday on the backwaters with Young Gun, Dan and Crappie Tom was both fun and a honor to fish right along them. It was also great to finally meet the people behind the forums. Like Y.G. and Crappie Tom said the bass bite definitely was a rush. Plus yes Dan just has to learn how to control magnetic personality and "inner beauty". Dan we'll have to hook up again soon to see if I can be sheepherder also. Young Gun I thought that you were gonna the rest of us guys a chance to catch some fish too. You were on fire. Thanx again Tom for taking me along. Once again it was a blast to meet ya three fishing gentlemen.

EJ

Work is the time wasted between fishing

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Musky....

Saturday was a fun day indeed and it is always a pleasure to meet and fish with someone I share the site with. Dan and his son are a very dynamic fishing duo. The level of intensity that YG shows for his age and the amount of knowlege he shows is simply uncanny. He will go far with this sport. Alex (YG) impresses me every time I have the honor of fishing with him. He is just flat out a good kid.

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Nice pictures.... of the fish of course. Young Gun, shoot me an email sometime. I'd like to share some pictures from my website with you. I think you might enjoy them. [email protected]

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I slipped back down to this spot again this morning and found things a bit different. The pannies and crappies have taken a sobatical somewhere else. I caught three crappies in the usual spot on a Stub Grub but they were not very large. The bass now, well.....

Along the same run of weeds today I took six bass. All largemouths. Spinnerbaits were a moot issue. Rattletraps were unproductive. Out came the stick baits and boom. Until the sun got high on the water the black over orange pattern Thunderstick was doing very good, picking up two of the fish and drawing several swirl/short-hits. As the morning brightened up a tad the hit shifted to the blue over white thunderstick. It was this color that simply cleaned house again.

The orange/black gave up smaller fish with the larger of the two being about three pounds. The blue accounted for one of about five pounds and the other three coming in around 3 to four pounds.

Everything either hit or charged the bait as soon as it hit the drink. I had one hit that absolutely nailed me and broke off one of the orange/black baits I had. Just judging by the size of the commotion in the water I think it had large teeth. Like I said, it nailed the bait when it hit the water, took off in a fury and snapped the line....all in about 1.5 seconds and left me with a welt across forehead from the rod whipping back.

I'll see about getting some pics up here later on.

I couldn't get over all the snakes down there today. They were swimming as well as crawling in the rocks behind me. I saw a ton of bull snakes and a couple fox snakes and one in the water almost looked like one of those nasty a$$ed river rattlesnakes (massassagua?). They aren't big, but they have attitude and I have dealt with them before. Thankfully it was headed elsewhere.

Over all it was a great couple hours. As the sun got higher, so did the bug count per square inch of skin so it was good that I didn't have all that much time to spend.

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Uftda, Sounds like a truly outdoors adventure. Bugs, snakes, and fish. Also sounds about like every summer day of my adolencent childhood.

Nice sized fish makes the trip worth it.. How far from Roch is this place. I guess I have never been to any back waters of the Big Mighty M, but hearing all this, I'd be interesting in changing that. Good fishing & I always love the posts.

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Tyler... Drop me an e-mail so I can bank your addy. I had it but I think it got shuffled out with the old mail before I could put it in the book. I can give you the heads up on this spot off site.

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Wow, very interesting about the snakes. I was a snake fanatic growing up. I always kept snakes in the garage/house. I once had a pet Fox snake I rescued from a hawk that I kept in a huge home made terrarium for like 6 years before it escaped. Are you sure the "river rattlesnakes" could not have been just the Northern water snake. They look very similar to Massasauga. All of our local snakes will rattle their tails in an effort to fool you into thinking they are more dangerous. Interesting that they are coming out after the temps have dropped. That goes against their cold blooded nature. Maybe the underground hideouts are getting flooded with all the rain.

I would like to make it out there with you guys sometime. I am currently (happily) unemployed and have nothing but time on my hands to fish. Except driving the Mrs. to work and pretending to be a rock star most weekends.

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Murph....The snake that "looked" like a rattler was in the water about thirty yards from me. And while I could not make out distict rattles I have had the occasion to see those rattlesnakes up close and personal and this ones markings were all too familiar. I think the water temps may have been warmer than the air this morning and maybe why so many were actually in it. When we were down on Saturday we had a dead bullsnake right next to our vehicles and one on shore behind me today made that one look pretty small.

Honestly if I had my 'druthers', there wouldn't be a snake within a mile of my sorry bones. Spiders either. I'd have more faith in a blind proctolgist.

Drop me an e-mail, murph.

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I've got to agree with Murph on the snakes.I've kept several species as pets in my day and even though they can all swim,Fox and Bull snakes would just as soon avoid the water if they can.It does sound like a Northern water snake that you saw swimming.Bull snakes are a threatened species in Minnesota and if you did indeed see that many Bull snakes,consider youself lucky.I have only seen two live ones near my home in the 22 years I've liveed there and I'm not that far from you.If they were indeed Bull snakes,I'd love to hike around the area you were at to have a look myself as,I still find them fascinating creatures.Snakes are one of the most maligned creatures on earth.Fox and Bull snakes are mouse eating machines...it's practically all they eat.There is not a cat alive that can hold a candlestick to their mouse-catching ability.I once had to release a Bull snake my boys had caught and kept for a pet because we could not catch enough mice to keep the thing satisfied.

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A couple bass that Tom caught the other day...

CTbass.jpg

CTbass2.jpg

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

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I made it back down to the hot hole this morning and took my 17 year old grandson, Josh, along. This kid likes to fish....any time, any where, any thing. He just loves the sport.

We had a wild start with a double on largemouths! Josh conitued with a catfish about 30", a 12" perch, and a half dozen more bass....all on a rattle trap. I kept pace with him with the toothies made their appearance. The firth northern was about 7-8 pouinds and right at my feet when he cut off my trap. I tied on a thunderstick of blue/ silver and cast out only to have another northern....a pig at that....come completely out of the water porpoise-style with said bait in mouth and then commence to cut me off again. Aside from a $8 yozuri I was out of blue and I was a bit gun shy of just throwing that bait away on a mouthful of teeth. I tied on another thunderstick of another color and managed to catch a few more bass with two of them not being very large at all.

We didn't have all that much time to spend at the water today, but the time we shared was eventful and a success. Yes, the snakes were out again in the rocks but not bothersome. The breeze kept the bugs at bay and the fish hit good. What more is there when a guy has good company on a morning like this?

I'll try to get some pics up a bit later on.

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CrappieTom's pictures from the back waters...

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backwater2.jpg

backwater3.jpg

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

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