Lake Phalen - Saturday, January 7

[WallyGator12000]

Sorry guys, but I am out for this one...got a family event I just "shouldn't" miss. I can't wait to hear how it goes though!

[Jughead]

Good morning guys,

I intend to be there about 11:00 as I need to be off about 4:30. Since I am hauling a grill and tables around I plan on setting up slightly SW of the boat launch (if space is available) or NW of the beach. I might hop holes but I will leave the house and the grill there.

I plan on bringing my standard tailgater pack-

folding tables

paper plates

utensils

mustard/ketchup

Napkins

Chairs

Cigars

12 pack Leinies

Crown Royal/coke.

See you out there.

[AQUAJOE]

I'm sorry guys I couldn't make it. My wife and I are sick. (not good)

[metrojoe]

Well it looked like we had the lake pretty well covered. Thanks Mr Pike for the brats. I think most everybody on the list showed up and then some. This really turned out to be a great get together. Looking forward to the next one.

[Mr. Pike1]

It was a gorgeous day to be on the water and great to meet many from the site. We covered a lot of water with less fishing success then hoped.

Early on Matt got into a few sunfish off the weedline on the SouthWest shore. We then decided to try some spots on the South corner that had produced for SmellyJelly on late ice. Good flat over there and channel but no fish. From there we broke up with some hitting the deep 55 foot hole looking for suspended fish and others to the East shore. On the east side one pike came to the hole and a few perch were caught. We did find some very good rock structure on the East side by some drainage were the perch were being caught. This location definatly has some great potential for walleye at dusk. This may be a spot I target if I get out after work one night. There also was parking on that side for quick easy access.

We then ventured as a group over to the beach area and fished. We got into a pretty consistance sunfish bite pre-dusk but no monster sunnies were caught. We stuck it out to about 6:00 hoping to get a few walleyes to come in. A few fish were marked post dusk but nothing landed.

There was a report that came in of a couple of pike from the East side but the FM team produced sunfish and perch only. I learned some good information about the lake and believe it has some good potential.

Jughead- Sorry for the confusion on the set up. We met up with you briefly and you had a great tailgate set up. Next time will exchange numbers and have a better game plan.

Anyway, hope to see some of you out at future events or on some metro waters in the future.

There is an upcoming Medicine event that should be fun and I would really like to get to the Chisago lakes area for panfish as this is one body of water I have heard good things about but never been on.

[Shawnny B]

Hey guys it was nice to meet the few of you that I did, Sorry i was so "clamed" up. I was the guy in the 2 man clam that had it shut most of the time. I had a family issue that happend this week and I just needed to get out there. Hopefully we will have better luck next time. I did manage to catch a 10inch walleye that went back down Hovermn's hole. Mr. Pike Thanks for everything you did today to get it situated, Maybe we can hit North Center for some sunnies, I have been out with Hovermn a few times near the hole right off 8 and have had some success, but mostly 6-8" walleyes.

Shawnny B

[rosspj59]

It was a fun day out fishing today. It was nice to put a face with some of the names from this site. Thanks again for the brats and condiments MrPike!

[weedcatcher]

I had a good time fishing with everyone. Sorry I won't remember everyone's names. Hope to see you all at another get together. Thanks Mr. Pike for the great brats.

[John Mickish]

Mr. Pike, thanks for the brats and ordering the nice weather. The sun was out for a little but which was nice but now can you order some sub zero temps for a week or so?? I had a great time and look forward to next weekend on Silver.

[Zaraspooks]

Mr. Pike - Thanks for setting up the event. Sorry I had to leave before the brats. I had a good time and it was nice meeting every one. Sounds like you guys got into the sunnies after I left. The story of my life, "You should have been here yesterday". Thanks again and hopefully I'll see everyone at the next event.

Jughead - Sorry we didn't hook up. I was looking forward to sharing a Crown with you.

[dieguy]

I can't believe I missed the brats I was out at 11:30, accessed the lake by the Beach area. There were quite a few guys but nobody seemed to be talking so I wasn't sure who was from FM. So I started walking and met up with 3 other FMers over on Sandy Point (sorry forgot your names, One was Metro something) we fished there until middle afternoon moving all over the point and didn't see anything on either the flasher or camera (which I just purchased the night before). Looked around a bit for the rest of the group but still wasn't sure who was who (and my usually keen Brat sensor was not apparently functioning) so by bro and I decided to move over to the saddle to try a weedline we had located on the flasher last week. At this point I walked back over to the beach access to move the truck over to the lot by the saddle and this is were I met Matt Johnson packing up his truck. I got to shake his hand a talk for a few moments. Heck of a nice guy! I then spent the evening fishing a weedline on the point of the saddle on the east side of the lake. We pulled up one decent northern about 4:00 on a tip up. I set up my camera (which again was the first time ive ever used one) about 4 feet in front of me pointing back at my jig with the weeds in the back. It was so cool I could see a huge school of sunnies come over the tops of the weeds and check out our jigs, we snagged a few but I was amazed how many came up and looked but one wrong move on my part and they were gone. The coolest thing I must have seen 10 northerns, It was so cool all of the sunnys would fly out of the picture and here comes Mr. Northern then he would leave and the sunnys would come back in. Sorry I am sure youve all seen this before but this is my first experience with a camera and I am pretty pumped up about it. So all in all it was a good day not many fish iced but it was a beautiful day and I got a ton of exercise dragging my Otter wilderness all over the lake. I wish i had met more of you, next time I will have to be less shy about talking to people. (just my nature I guess) thanks Mr.Pike for organizing this event hopefully your next I will actually get to meet you. Well gotta go, good luck guys,

[MetroEye]

Dieguy,

That was the Keller Golf Course crew you met out on the sandy point. Nice to meet you and your brother(?) Glad you caught a few fish and enjoyed your electronics. Sounds like most everyone had a slow fishing day. That doesn't surprise me. I would agree with your assessment of the gathering. I too wanted to meet many others but there was no central gathering point when we went out. This might sound like a corny idea but how about name tags to help put a name with a face???

We pulled out at mid-afternoon and went up to white bear. As we were leaving the phalen lot, I stopped to touch Matt Johnson's truck to steal some good "carma." Hey, by the way, nice to meet you Zaraspooks!

White Bear produced perch and one walleye (apparently Matt's truck was all out of "carma" or I just suck at fishing ). This was the first time I was able to use my new ifinder H2O C with the lakemaster chip. Man is that thing accurate

I hope to meet more of you at a future gathering. Good fishing!

[Matt Johnson]

Fun time out there yesterday everyone! I had to cruise around 3pm, but I still got in a solid 4 hours of fishing and chatting. Nice to finally meet many of you, and also nice to see a few familar faces that I've met in the past. Great weather to be on the ice!

Great job organizing this Mr.Pike!

I'm sure many of us will meet up again in the future!

[DaveyG]

Boy, my sister and I walked the entire length of the lake and back searching for fish. We had one pretty-good-sized-something on the line but it got away. And that was IT. We hardly even marked anything on the flasher all day. Tough day of fishing, but it was really nice to meet a lot of you. Especially had a good time hangin' out at Jughead's "pad" and talking with him for awhile. Looking forward to the next get-together.

[maj330]

Too bad that one got away. Maybe it was the elusive sock-full-of-rock bass that I finally managed to land after a mighty struggle in front of fellow FMers, while fishing in the middle of the group off the beach.

[Mr. Pike1]

Dieguy, sorry I missed you. Sounds like you had a great time with the new camera and were at least able to see that there were fish in the underwater world. We did a lot of searching on the lake to try to locate fish. When I do another event I will have more of a schedule of events and better communication on the water.

My thoughts for next time is to have a quick meet and great at set time/spot so we all kind of know who is who. From there break up in parties of 4-6 people to cover parts of the lakes and hand out hand held radio's so the groups can keep in touch and if hot bite get the group together on the fish. If we have brats or burgers decide on a set time and meet up at set location for a quick bite.

I enjoyed meeting everyone that I did and hope to see you many of you at future events or on the water someone in the future..

[Jughead]

Hey there-

Thanks Mr. Pike for organizing and hauling yourself all the way to the west side (aka Perch City) to chat (and you too, Ross). It was nice meeting you, and Davey G and the sis.

Whenever you choose another lake and get another event going, count me in and I will bring all the stuff again. I like that idea of meeting up THEN going out in groups. Also, posting cell #'s would be good too.

Jug