Pelican Lake Fishing Reports - Ashby

[river runt]

The narrows must be a good spot or on the way to a good spot People seem to frequent the bottom of the lake there.

no disrespect to those who didnt make it out. RR

[jjohnson5150]

Has anyone been out recently that would be willing to provide a report on the bite? How much snow is on the surface? Is it causing slush like last year?

[jjohnson5150]

I answered my own questions this weekend. It's always nice to be up at the cabin for a long winter weekend. I ventured out via snowmobile a few times. I spent an evening in my usual 9' spot, but got nothing. The next evening I sat in 14'. Right around sunset I got a nice 18" walleye & a 13" crappie shortly after. There were fish that passed through every 20 minutes, but not all of them bit for some reason. There is a consistant 15" of ice & at least 12" of snow cover on the lake, which is causing a great deal of flooding. If you are on a sled, be cautious of where you are going. One could get stuck. Indian Mounds has a great road access. It's $5 per day / $50 per season, which is well worth the price to know you have a clear & safe (as far as ice goes) access. There is a network of roads that connect to theirs that will take you just about anywhere on the lake.

[river runt]

thanks for the report RR

[jjohnson5150]

Has anyone been out lately? I'll be venturing out this weekend & would like to know what the bite has been like, slush conditions, etc. Thanks.

[river runt]

I wish I knew. let us know what you find good luck RR

[fisherking01]

Bite is nearly non existent for me. fished 6 hours and caught 3 small perch. Four houses on Phillips point, six in the bay, a few off the access and a bunch still by the narrows. pretty desolate looking to me yesterday. Found 2 areas with slush, and saw one other person fishing. Travel is marginal off the roads.

[jjohnson5150]

Yeah, it was pretty slow. I fished off phillips point & in the nw corner of our bay. Depths ranged from 10' - 18'. All I got was one 9" Crappie for 7 hours of fishing. Good thing I had some beer along & was able to get in 92.3 to listen to flashback hour I think I'll try 2 other spots before hanging up this years Walleye efforts on Pelican. It looked like the majority of the houses over near Indian Mounds were just staged in the plowed out area. Some were not even dropped down & drilled out. Slush must have been a big issue a few weeks ago.

[BoxMN]

FYI - I don't know if any of you know Mike and Diane at Ashby Resort, but Mike's Dad just passed away last week. ...man, too many of our Dad's are passing, but I guess that is how it works.

I know some use their access, and some folks stay there. They are great people. Just thought I would spread the word a bit to those who hang out on Pelican, but aren't up there much, like me.

Looking forward to our May trip up there already

[fisherking01]

I've often thought of what treasures of the past Pelican holds. I know of many "Tweeter Built" ice chisels that met their last "chop" and ended up buried in the depths of the lake for ever! I know there are hundreds, lets immagine thousands of fishing lures lining the lake bottom, and can you count the pairs of glasses??

I can count how many I've lost in 2 categories. Eye glasses, 2 one cheapie pair, and one Okley prescrip. Two chisels, one being a "Tweeter Built" (Evansville blacksmith Richard Tweeter built hundreds of the best chisels and spears ever to grace pelican lake) and another being of undetermined origin. Only thing I can't get a count on is lures. I know I lost a couple that I'd love to have back (man the fish were really biting on those). I remember a lazy ike in particular, it was red and white and pulled kinda hard behind the old 4 horse lightwin. I was fishing it on the south end of the lake by Ole Barsness' cabin when a huge, musta been, well I don't know but it was huge, northern ripped it clean off my rig next to the boat. That's the moment I realized I couldn't hold the line solid on a big fish!

When I think back on particular events, I can't help but laugh, and even smile a bit on the learning experiences I had on Pelican. I learned to tie the rope on the chisel to my wrist(though it took two times to learn). I know the 4 horse lightwin on a 16 foot lady of the lakes fiberglass isn't enough to get you from Bird Island to the Southeast bay with a 40 mph south wind! Fact is you gotta really hope for some luck getting around the island and through the rocks on the West end of the island to follow the shore back. Oh yeah, the motor runs out of gas by "Bengston's beach". It takes about one hour to walk the shoreline past Perrin's farm, around the bay to Gordy Rohloff's place. Ten minutes to get chewed out for going so far when it was windy, and another two hours to talk someone into taking you back with gas to retrieve the boat. I just lost my Okleys this year, I'm still working on learning some things.

I remember camping on the lake. Bengston's beach, Dean Elmar's Point, Rohloff's Bay, Even in the old hunting shack on Bird Island(before it fell down all the way). Oh, then there was the time we camped on Johnson's land next to Wyman Schaefer's place. There was a little point there we duck hunted. My Dad rented the pasture for the summer, and we camped there.

Oh, and by the way, I still enjoy playing on that puddle we call Pelican lake.

[fisherking01]

Ha ha, I learned you can't shorten Richard or you get a poor word usage thing!

[GRA]

Every once in awhile something does resurface from the depths. Couple years ago I was fishing southwest of the island with every fish eatin' bird in the world on it. Hooked something, reeled it in and I had a fishing line. Pulled the line in and up came somebody's rod and reel. Been nice if it would have been one of those high priced outfits but it wasn't.

Ever been watching your depth finder and go over something and say to yourself--What the heck was that sticking up off the bottom?

[fisherking01]

Yep, I say that all the time, unfortunately the lake is too cloudy most of the time to see what it is. I've often thought about using a magnetic locator to find chisels. With the bottom being as mucky as it is, they are probably pretty deep.

[BoxMN]

Just west of the narrows you might find a 20 year old Lightning Rod with a Shimano spinning reel on it My Dad chucked that into the drink (20 years ago) when a wave knocked him off a pedastal seat when he was trying to retrieve a buddy's beetle spin, ha!

I have lost at least three pair of sunglasses, and there are some Rapalas in the trees over by the old beach on the south shore. Our buddy wasn't too good at casting... Yep, I will always blame someone else, ha

[101winchester]

Just an update on the ice, drove around Pelican yesterday. the only open water is by the arch, its about 1/2 way to the resort. Ice isn't pulling away from the north shore yet so its going to be a couple weeks yet before open water, unless we get a nice warm rain. They are still working on the county line and its closed south of Big Island Drive. If you are looking for adventure take CR 82 North from Evansville to Ashby, seatbelts on and your food trays in the upright and locked position.

[jjohnson5150]

It's going to be a nail biter on whether or not the dock can go in on Apr 24th. As of now, that's still the plan. Good thing I left the following weekend open also. That ride on 82 is a wild one. Thanks for the update.

[jjohnson5150]

I was up this weekend working on the yard before we put the boats in next weekend. The ice was really getting close to going for good. A big crack stretched North to South across the Indian Mounds bay by yesterday. All the back bays are completely open. From the Ashby resort to the Arches & into the back bay by the goose refuge is all open now. Same with Widows bay. I think it will be open by the middle of the week for sure. There is some strong wind & warm temps on the way, which should take care of it for good.

[GRA]

Good to hear. Wind is supposed to blow pretty strong today. Haven't been up there yet this spring. Will probably get up there towards the end of the week. Gotta haul boat to Alex. and pick up new motor-40 horse Yamaha 4 stroke. (The wife made me do it.)

[101winchester]

Its ice free, hard NW winds yesterday, ice went off to the south. I couldn't see Indian Mounds bay but everything else was whitecaps. Come on warm weather.

[jjohnson5150]

Woot! Crappie time this weekend! It's been a long wait. Thanks for the update. See everyone this weekend, the next, the following, the one after that, etc

[river runt]

If the lakes not frozen its summer time. thanks for keeping us updated.

[BoxMN]

JJ or 101, it would be cool to meet you guys, maybe out on the lake, if you are up there the weekend after opener. We will be there then, as usual for the past 30 years

[jjohnson5150]

Dock & boats are now in the water. We did not have the chance to wet a line, but did take a nice long pontoon ride on Sat afternoon. Bird Island was going crazy, the resident eagle was back & the loons were chasing some tails around. I appreciate the new ownership of Indian Mounds even more after this weekend. We used their launch & ended up having a minor issue with our motor. They let us tie up for a few hours & even helped us figure out the issue to get us on our way. Thumbs up to Ted & co on a well run operation. It's nice to know our neighbors are top notch! I had 50 degrees for the water temp Sat?!?!?!?

[GRA]

Yup, got our dock and lift in too. Waters really high. Along those lines, I've got 3 extra pair of waders in good shape that I don't use. There's going to be a consignment sale In Brandon this Sat. and am going to try and get them there. So if you're in need of some good waders check out the sale. Two pair size 11 and one size 13.

[jjohnson5150]

My wife stopped by the lake on Thu. The water level is still rising! I'll be putting in some longer supports & jacking the dock out of the water on Thu. It has to be close to 2ft higher than last year if we have run out of length on our dock support.

[BoxMN]

So how did any of you do on opener? We are going up this weekend, and just curious. Plan to try for walleye Friday morning, then maybe try to find some crapps Friday afternoon. Depending on weather might hit Ten Mile or Ottertail for change of scenery Friday morning before hitting Pelican for a few days.

Hope your opener was good.

[jjohnson5150]

Opener was a blast. 2 of us went out for 5 hours on Sat and got 2 Walleye (18" & 18.5") 4 Pike (22"-27") & 2 accidental Bass (14" & 18"). We fished a spot I found last summer. It has produced fish every time since. We got many more Pike right off the dock. Whether it was off the dock or out in the boat, the fish seemed to all come from 5-8 ft of water. Our neighbors had more time to be on the water and ended up getting rewarding for it. I saw a few of their hauls when they came back each day. They had to have come close to bringing home limits of Walleye after 2 days of fishing. Their bonus fish were a slab Crappie & a 20.5" accidental Bass. If you like to catch Pike, now seems to be the time. When this wind finally settles down, I'd be willing to bet the bite will be crazy. The water is still really high. Typical locations off the reeds are tough to locate since the high water is hiding the old / dead reeds. Good luck.

[BoxMN]

Copied from my post to Spitn about Stalker...

Hit Ottertail on Friday morning, but got nothing but windburn... pretty bouncy out there. There was a tourney out there, and we saw lots of boats but only one pike caught. I hope it picked up for them after we left, as we left by 11 am.

Then we hit Long by Evansville and only got a few bass and pike, but my brother did catch a carp, ha!

Then we went to our normal water Pelican and didn't set any records, but we caught some nice walleye. Biggest was 26.5" but most were right around the 20" mark, so had to measure accurately. Water temp was about 55-57. We caught them from 4.5' to 15', on every color, and on crawlers or shiners or fatheads or leeches... so we had it narrowed down, ha!

Most came from the point in front of the access, but the bigger ones (26.5" 24" and couple 23") came from Phillips point.

My brother did get a 14.5" crappie so that was cool - this was doing a little night fishing by the arches, from shore. Also had a 24"-class walleye up to the grass on shore but our buddy didn't want to get his shoes wet to get it, and it snapped off, ha! We tried for more crapps out in the lake, but that was the only one we got.

Oh yeah, the night bullhead bite off the docks is still good as ever

[jjohnson5150]

That wind must have been difficult to dodge out there this weekend. It's been blowing hard for a week now. Did you get into any Pike?

[BoxMN]

Nope, not really anything to brag about. Maybe about half a dozen in the low 20ish inch range. We kept one to make sure we had fish for fish fry but then we got some walleyes to keep. A buddy caught a nice few of them off phillips point.

It was bouncy, but we were able to find some fish out of the wind. Wish we could have gotten to that south shore, but that was a bit more than I wanted to sit in when it was that cold. I can deal with waves, but the wind and cold was tough.