Pelican Lake Fishing Reports - Ashby

[wmw]

maybe he was mistaking.

[BTL]

maybe he was mistaking.

He's probably thinking of the other Pelican Lake.

[BoxMN]

We had a great time last weekend (weekend after opener). Windier than heck, but nice to have a sunburning weekend for a change

Started out getting some 17-22" eyes scattered in depth (4.8-6) and locations (Big Island, Philips, tin shack, grassy island was best) on Friday morning, and one decent pike. A few more walleyes in the afternoon, and one from "road fishing" sloughs that evening.

Then Saturday morning got a couple more with a few breakoffs that "fealt good" haha!, most on crawlers and leeches, but they were puking up shiners. Then Sat evening we went shallower and really started to get into them. Biggest was 24" but the 17"-19" inchers helped us create a nice fish fry Sat night with some of our Ashby friends.

Went back out Sunday morning to same spots and got 4 more to bring home, with some we threw back including a 27 that was the biggest of the weekend. Also had big bass that hit the crawlers and leeches (biggest 19.5"). Ran out of bait, and even got a couple eyes on gulp leeches. Only one nice sunnie and one nice crappie for panfish.

Then I had to come home and fly to AZ on Monday, where it was 108... yuck.

Hopefully you all have a great summer, from the healthy (and unexpectedly GOOD fighting walleyes) fish we caught, it looks great. Was actually one of the better action trips we have had, especially on average size. Just took us a while to find them

edit - oh yeah, orange or chartreuse was the color that was working, with the best action on orange/black go-glows and chart round floats with a firetiger spinner. I did best with crawlers, others guys best with leeches. Shiners didn't do much for us, and only few on fatheads.

[#fishhunt#]

Great report Box! Heading up today at noon. Hope to get some good action like you had. What is which way from bird island is grassy island? With all this water should be able to get all the crawlers we need just walking down the road at night.

[BoxMN]

grassy island is right between bird island and vodka pt., east of bird island. good luck!

best spot the sw corner of it.

[#fishhunt#]

Thanks Box. Got back last night. It was a rough one for us ended up with 3 walleye 1 northern, 4 crappie and 4 bluegills. I have never seen the weather change so much in a 3 day period between the wind directions and the temps. No consistency. O well got the hole dug for the new outhouse and only broke 1 shovel.

[#fishhunt#]

FYI - Swimmers itch came early this year to Pelican. The neighbors 2 kids and 2 of our group got it already.

[gillstreamer]

any fishing last weekend #fishhunt#? Tough wind?

[gillstreamer]

pan fried some sunnies on Sunday that I caught early last Saturday morning on lake by waconia-fly rod-top water-the males were sure protecting the beds. That was fun.

Great site to share info on fishing. Tight Lines!!!

[#fishhunt#]

Anyone get out fishing last weekend on Pelican?

[jjohnson5150]

We did some dock fishing this weekend. Our friends five year old daughter caught her first fish on fri evening. It was a 14" slab crappie that they plan to mount. It was a great moment. She got it on a golden shiner under a float on her Barbie pole. Otherwise, we got 3 small eyes, a handful of bass, a few sunfish and one really nice pike. We also mixed in plenty of water time. Even with the kids going in and out of the water, nobody got swimmers itch. Worth noting is that we lubed their legs with a good layer of high spf sunscreen before they got in. Id still take precautions to prevent for another few weeks though. If anyone knows a good source in the area for some large suckers, please post. The suckers in Ashby have been pretty small so far and Melby was closed when I tried to see what they had on Sat. I prefer 6-10" suckers.

[#fishhunt#]

Thanks for the update JJ. You could try Christophersons in Alex on the way to Pelican for suckers. There is also a bait store in Brandon. My wife has been up with her dad for four days and they have been catchin a lot of 8-10 inch walleye which is a good sign for the future. tehy also picked up a few keeper eyes a couple notherns (One 6 lbs that my wifw caught and released) and 4 crappies. I was up last weekend with my dad and we picked up 7 keepers(14-18 inches) and threw back a 20,21,24 and the rest were small 8-10 inchers. Been using everything from jig and minnows to spinners with a crawler. Did not try speed trolling raps yet. Still unable to find sunfish. I expect them to be under the docks like crazy in August though.

[ChuckN]

fishhunt, any tips on the depth of those eyes? I found small fish on structure. That's a successful bite compared to what I experienced on another lake all weekend. This lake is total opposite of what I am used to fishing.

Few bass, so sunfish. Hope they come into the shallows like you say, my kids would love to catch some fish.

[#fishhunt#]

ChuckN, Very rarely do we catch any walleyes in over 11 feet of water here. My wife claims they were reading 10.5 feet on her dads boat. I think his reads a foot deeper than mine. Sounds like they were getting most out that farther than normal. They were not fishing depth structure just flat areas with underwater weedlines I ususally stick closer to the edge of the weed line which is approx 7.5 to 9 feet in Pelican.She said they caught most on a 3/8 oz Purple /white jig with half crawler attached. They ended up with 9 keeper walleye and 7 crappies with a few northern mixed in that the released.

The sunfish on this lake head to the docks and pontoon lifts in July and August to get in the shade on sunny days.

[Craigums]

Can anyone share some good starting places if im targeting bass? got a friendly fishoff up there in 2 weeks and I've never been there. Im at a disadvatage because one of the guys has a cabin on the lake

any pointers welcome!

thanks,

craig

[ChuckN]

Thanks for the tip. I targeted that same depth at the bottom of a drop off and found fish, but it was awhile ago and the wind was crazy. I'm going to give the fish a little more attention this weekend.

[#fishhunt#]

It seems there is a bass tournament about every 2 weekend on this lake. I knwo the tournament basically go 7am-2ish. I could only help you if you were evening fishing. Bass are in every bay in the lake but pretty shallow and they tend t obite evenings best(cloverleaf, hidden, olsens, widows bird island)All these bays are about 3-5 ft with hidden beind a little deeper. I have not tried bassin yet this year but normally start the 4th when the qwalleys tend to slow down. Spinners, silver minnows if too many weeds. I normally fish topwater in evenings. There are pencil weeds all over the lake. This is where most of the tourney fishers go to tossing plastics. Also they pitch docks and pontoon lifts in the shade.

[basssmasher*]

Craigums, I belong to a bass club and they guys I fish with usually fish other tourneys as well, They did real well there a few wks ago, the guy Im partnered with this yr took 1st, and he fished a lot of jigs on an underwater hump if you can find one, otherwise he pitched jigs into pencils and under docks as well. I did well wackyworming shallower water though

[Craigums]

Sweet, i love fishing pencil reeds

[kt]

I haven't been out to Pelican yet this year but I have fished it a lot in years past. Just a couple things to consider. Pelican has a ton of Pencil reeds and no where near all of them are productive. In fact, I would tend to say most are unproductive. It's a shallow dark water lake which usually means the fish are pretty active during the day time, however in my experience this is not the case on Pelican, most of the time. Pelican is a feast or famine lake, it can be great but it can be down right maddening at times. Patience is the key out there, if you think you are in a good area but aren't getting bit, SLOW down, sometimes you've got to deadstick stuff to get them to bite. If you catch one, saturate the area, there are more than likely more around. I might head out there this weekend to give it a try if I do I'll let you know how I did.

[ChuckN]

Like kt says...patience is key...I'm out of it. lol

Yesterday I noticed the Christina Lake pumps were turned on. With the lack of rain the past few weeks and not much wind the water clarity improved a bit, but now that may change. The drought around here has finally allowed the pumps to be turned on which should be great for the future. Water levels sure dropped over the past month.

[jjohnson5150]

Pelican = dead sea right now. If anyone is actually finding fish right now, I tip my hat. I'll be fishing OT county lakes for the next month. Even big suckers soaking off the end of the dock are not producing. Yikes.

[#fishhunt#]

No reports? Fishing must not be too hot. Have not been up since July some time. Hoping something is biting this weekend.

[CASTnBLAST]

Check out bassbrawl.com for last weekends results...I'd say somethings biting.

[ChuckN]

I was curious which bass tourney was out there. Impressive!

[jjohnson5150]

Can anyone chime in who may know if Pelican is locked in ice yet? From what I can tell on the satellite image, Christina appears to be ice covered, but I couldn't tell on Pelican.

[nroff]

Don't know if it is locked, but i know they are fishing there.

[jjohnson5150]

How is our lake looking after the snow?

[ChuckN]

That warm spell opened up a couple large sections of the lake directly east and SE of the public access towards the center of the lake (that I could see). It appears those areas sealed up yesterday afternoon, because these areas were wide open yesterday morning.

There was about 4" of ice from my observations and others I talked to elsewhere. Not sure what the colder air did the last couple nights to the thickness, but there is a few inches of snow blanketing the lake.

Use caution out there! That warm spell and rain really hurt, but at least we didn't get 10" of snow that fell not far away. Got about 4-5" of snow.

[jjohnson5150]

Is anyone able to let me know the latest ice conditions on pelican? I'm curious on what our options will be shortly after Christmas. Is a wheel house looking unlikely?