Pelican Lake Fishing Reports - Ashby

[fisherking01]

I'm sure your neighbors can help you out on who can plow for you. Pickups on the ice all week. Haven't ventured on pelican due to exceptional fishing elsewhere. from 8-14 inches of ice where I have checked. some slush. flooding almost everywhere you drill a hole. Brent

[mxzfire]

The nieces and nephews are coming up for next weekend and for New Years. I'm trying to think of some things to do outside once they are tired of fishing. Does anyone know of a hill near Ashby were people take kids to go sledding?

[fisherking01]

If the weather permits, there are areas on the Christina "mountain" that I sledded as a youngster. There are fences to watch for. Not sure of any that are sledded a lot. I'd bet the hill by the ballfield in Ashby might get sledded by the town kids. Ask at the short stop station in Ashby, whoever is there will know more. Brent

[BoxMN]

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If the weather permits, there are areas on the Christina "mountain" that I sledded as a youngster. There are fences to watch for. Not sure of any that are sledded a lot. I'd bet the hill by the ballfield in Ashby might get sledded by the town kids. Ask at the short stop station in Ashby, whoever is there will know more. Brent

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Not sure when I will be up there again. If you stop at the Short Stop, tell Jason "Box" says hi!

Merry Christmas Pelican folks!

[jjohnson5150]

Has anyone been out fishing lately? We are headed up for a long weekend to do some fishing. I was wondering if a certain time of day was best.

[101winchester]

Haven't heard of anything spectacular but there is a pile of houses in the narrows as usual. No other groups anywhere on the lake. There is only 1 on the south side that I could see. Good luck.

[fisherking01]

101, has Jake been fishing?? Getting worried he isn't fishing as much as he should. Brent

[101winchester]

We were out in David's house tonight along with Jordan Things have slowed down, who was in yours? Maroon van.? We were out chasing Roosters this morning and over lunch before we headed out. We really need to hit Grandpas old 80 on New years eve. I'm off night shifts finally and not back to work until 2nd.

[fisherking01]

Steve was out. Only managed a couple 9 inch sunnies he released. Thinking about moving to another lake after the 1st. 40 birds in my backyard this morning, only 13 roosters. Fun to see em. Looking forward to huntin on the eve. give me a call.

[jjohnson5150]

How has Pelican been as of late? When we were up over New Years, I did okay. Nothing spectacular, but enough to keep me happy.

[fisherking01]

Only reports I have from reliable sources tell me still a few walleyes, with few in the keeper range. Mostly too big or small. Only a couple sunfish reports, sketchy at best. No crappie reports, immagine that! Hope they come back strong, they really are a staple for Pelican.

[jjohnson5150]

On my "to do" list is to submit a request to the DNR & Lake Association to look into restocking the Crappies. I think a formal request + the backing of the Pelican Lake Assoication would be good. Perhaps they have programs that subsidize lakes that are effected by summer kill of specific species. Who knows, if there are low numbers of Crappies, perhaps that will throw off the Walleye management. It has been nice to see some decent Walleyes this winter. Especially after a really tough summer fishing for them. I'll do what I can to get this done by the annual Memorial weekend meeting.

[fisherking01]

Any response from the DNR on crappies? The stage is set for a big boom if they get the stocking done this spring. The forage base will be great and a quick recovery could easily happen.

[jjohnson5150]

I called the DNR office this morning to get some details surrounding the Crappie kill. They have figured the cause was the Hot > Cold > Sudden Hot again weather pattern we had last summer & the bacteria issue. The combination was enough to turn the fish over. The fall survey conducted by the DNR still showed a population of Crappies. There is no doubt the summer kill was significant, but they feel strongly that the lake will recover on it's own in a matter of a few years. There will be a noticeable lack of the larger fish until the lake rebounds. When I asked if stocking would ever be needed, he immediately answered no.

Also, I had to ask about the birds. Since the Cormorants (sp) are federally protected, we would have to prove they were having a negative effect on the lake / fish population to get a permit for removal. He mentioned proving the negative effect is a tough thing to do. I guess the bird population goes through cycles of high numbers. Perhaps this is where we are now & have some over due lows coming our way.

One of the interesting things that came out of our conversation was regarding the Perch population. I asked if he thought the lake could ever see harvest size Perch again. He said the lake was capable, but Perch are the primary bait fish for predatory fish. This has even caused the Perch to spawn at a much younger age, which in turn may be why there are so many little Perch.

Wouldn't that be something if the Crappie kill resulted in the eventual boom in Jumbo Perch. I wish

[fisherking01]

There hasn't been jumbo perch in Pelican since my grandfathers younger years. In the 40's and 50's following the great drought (pelican only had a couple of puddles in it) there were great numbers of large perch, huge pike, and all others. There were times when the folks form around the state would land their planes on Pelican to fish for the perch. The lake was 2 feet shallower then, due to them not having placed the 2 foot concrete overflow in the outlet to keep the water level up. There are many factors to keep in mind when it comes to a specific species. Actually lake Christina produces quite good numbbers of large perch, it being a 4000 acre nursery (per say). Unfortunately the oxygen in christina is low enough now to support bullheads and carp. I hope it gets to 00.00000 dissolved oxygen this year, as to kill as many rough fish as possible. the gamefish are already dead. I have to think that the water is dead all the way to the narrows in Pelican. I guess time will tell.

As for the crappies, they can come back with incredible numbers with a great spawn. I would think a stocking couldn't hurt though. Brent

[GRA]

Did the DNR. say anything more about the fall survey results as to walleyes, etc. I don't suppose the results of the survey are available yet. As slow as they seem to be on getting those survey results out, might be a year or two. Gary

[GRA]

I thought the stocking would have been a good idea, but didn't have much hope for it after what the dnr said about the crappie die-off. I didn't see it myself but a neighbor said that after the die-off one of the local tv stations did an interview with someone from the DNR. This was when everyone was trying to figure out what had happened. According to the neighbor the DNR guy said the die-off was a good thing because it would create more food for the walleye population. MAYBE-if you had a good walleye population to start with.

[fisherking01]

The walleye population is (what I believe to be) on the low side, however there is a fair number of 12 inch fish. Lots of 20 -26 inchers taken out this winter. I heard of buckets with tails hanging out. One fellow told my cousin they caught ten walleyes one evening. four 12 inchers, all others were from 20-26 and all went home, "cause we couldn't catch any others". Oh well. You will see it wherever fish are being caught.

On a positive note many of the carp swam into Christina this summer and are hopefully dieing of oxygen deprevation! The more I think about the crappies, I believe they will rebound quickly and in 5 years we should see good numbers again. Hope so anyway.

[jjohnson5150]

Has anyone been out for panfish lately?

We are heading up this weekend to take a stab at it. I was thinking of hitting the deep water first. Trying to find any sort of green weeds might be difficult considering the thick ice & snow cover. I got all day Sat to mess around on Pelican. Looking forward to it.

[101winchester]

Haven't heard of anything going on Pelican right now but with the warmer weather and fresh water going in, it could turn on. Hopefully the summer kill wasn't too severe.. Good luck and let us know.

[jjohnson5150]

Man, did I ever have a bad weekend up there. The left ski on my sled broke off from the steel shaft attached to the steering rod. The belly of the engine casing was on the floor of the ice. Fortunately, this happened in our bay in the middle of the fork in the ice road. My truck got stuck going back up the access incline after we finally loaded the sled on the trailer with a come along. We did manage to go fishing for a few hours mid day within hiking distance. It was slow. I caught a shiner, which was a bit of a shock. Otherwise, there were just a bunch of small Perch willing to bite. I have to see if the shop thinks my 91 Artic Cat can be welded or if it belongs in the scrap yard. It's been a good sled, but it might not be worth fixing.

[jjohnson5150]

Is there any hope of the lake being open by next weekend? Is the ice getting dark at least? I'm itching to get the dock & boats in. This winter seemed to be WAY too long this year.

[101winchester]

I'll run past it today on my way to Dalton and will let you know what I find out.

[101winchester]

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, working night shifts. From the Arch to the resort is open as usual. Ice is starting to pull away from the shore line and it is honeycombed and looking terrible. There wasn't any major open areas by Bird Island that I could see. Problem is it 36 degrees right now, all the rain has missed us, not much coming into the lake compared to past years. Its supposed to get up to 60 today with some wind, I think when it goes it isn't going to take long thats for sure. I go on days off on Thursday and will be in that area, if anything changes I'll let you know.

[jjohnson5150]

Thanks winchester. I appreciate the updates. We'll be up there anyway this weekend. I'd just rather put the boats instead of doing yard work.

[101winchester]

I would too but hopefully we get some rain, all the lakes are low but the good thing is the eyes are running HEAVY. At least you'll get some yard work done.

[101winchester]

Just came from there, it is wide open. Looks like the ice went off to the north side, there is still ice pushed up on the shore but hopefully it doesn't ice over this weekend. Water is still low and the rain keeps missing us to the west, all we have gotten it just a trace. Hope this helps with your plans. Tim

[jjohnson5150]

Unfortunatly, the expected snowfall has pushed our plans to next weekend. As always, thanks for the update. I'd love to get the dock & boats in this weekend, but I don't feel like kicking around a bunch of snow.

[fisherking01]

You missed out on 15.5 inches of white work. Interstate closed from Osakis to Fargo for much of the morning. 40 mph winds and just not a pleasant day. Snowmobiles on the trail today!! Its melting fast this afternoon, but there will be some drifts awaiting your arrival next weekend!! Keep warm and dry in St Boni! Brent

[BoxMN]

Hey - did anyone fish Pelican for opener? Hope it is better year for us all than last year. We will be going up this coming Friday through Sunday, staying at Ashby Resort. Hopefully fishing Pelican all days, if we can eek out a bite or two...

Will have a green and tan alumacraft with 150merc on one boat, and an old tan alumacraft 16' with 50merc on other. If you fell like yappin, stop on by.

This will be the first year without our hunting and fishing buddy Jim, who died in January. He brought our Dad to the area about 40 or so years ago, and we have been going up there now for about 30. There'll be a few Pelican and Jim stories going around that's for sure