Boating on Sat. 3/22

Holy cow…. someone had the boat out on the St. Croix today. Saw them just downstream of the I-94 bridge. Were they fishing? Any reports?

Maybe breaking in a new engine?

I saw them too! I was returning from SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS with Red Rock Eyes in Stillwater when I noticed the boat………….and while I didn’t look real intensively, I thought I saw fishing rods being used. Crappie getters? The funny of it is that there was still ice fishermen out between the North Hudson Ferry Landing and Bayport Marina! Ice’ n and boatin’ within a couple miles of each other!!

white bass is open… and is often the “reason” you see people out…. the deal is if your fishing for a non closed species like whites, using walleye tactics and catching walleyes… well the warden is very likely to write you… its a tough call but if its obvious your “nailed”…..
the most classic example Ive ever seen was fishing from shore on the Rum River below the dam in Anoka… theres a big push of walleyes up there every spring… mostly small fish.. but abundant.. also a good number of pike are present…. and there are crappies too….. I was down fishin crappies, had my ultra light with a tube jig and crappie minnows…… the guy next to me was using a full sized 4″ twister tipped with fatheads and the guy next to him was tossing a 6″ daredevil…… so the warden comes down asks me… “what ya fishing for”…. I respond “crappies”….. warden looks at my license says “have a nice day”…. goes to the next guy… “what ya fishing for”… he answers “walleyes”…. *ooops*!!!! WRONG ANSWER… Citation…… meanwhile Mr 6” spoon is trapped the Warden is between him and escape…. he tries to go up the bank to the street… but the Warden politley asks him to “wait a minute”….. he finishes the citation and addresses the next guy…. this guy has an advantage… he has heard MY answer… it was RIGHT… and he has heard the WRONG answer… and though he was fishing pike he KNOWS its closed….. sooooooooooo Warden asks “what ya fishing for?”….. he responds “Crappies”…. Warden looks long and hard at the 6” daredevil still dangling on his line and responds…. “I DONT THINK SOOOO!!”…… and writes him a nice little citation!!
moral of the story… **Wardens are NOT stupid!**… they know if your fishing for the wrong thing and they WILL write you….. Ive heard the rule of thumb is if your fishing whites.. use appropriate tackle… and if your catching lots of walleyes move to another spot….. because even if your using white bass tackle… sitting on top of walleyes and nailing them one after another with no effort to relocate can be legally construed as fishing for walleyes…..
soooooo basically there is no law against be out there fishing… but you better be fishing the right species….
all that being said… I feel there are still a few people out there fishing for walleyes….. Im SURE they are releasing them…. but its STILL against the LAW!…. so your taking your chances….

I caught a friend in Fleet Farm just this last Saturday…………….gearing up for muskies! I said, “Yeah, nothin’ like plannin’ ahead! I’ve been picking up some good clearance deals but can’t wait until June to try them out!” And he says, “Why wait? I know where they are right now, but I’m not going until next weekend.”

As I picked my chin up off the floor, he pushed my eyes back into my head and asked, “Was it something I said?” Well……………..YAHHHHH!!! I kindly explained that what he was about to do could be VERY costly but he questioned me!! Not that anybody shouldn’t………..it’s just………………I get most of my info from all of YOU! So, another buddy of his comes along and he asks if it’s illegal to target muskies if you know where they’re at, but for CPR. His buddy backed me up and said he’d better go for some panfish if he was going to go for anything!

Well, he pleaded innocence……………and I believed him. He’s a good guy! But I’m thinking an 10’6″ ultralight rod and some crappie jigs need to “get tested” this weekend!

Just kiddin’!!!!!

there was a guy fishing at silver lake in rochester today. i could see from the car he was casting some kind of rapala. he might have been fishing for carp, but i doubt it. i didn’t say anything because i didn’t figure there was much there for him to catch right now anyway.