My mother (who’s 70 and is visiting from New Mexico) wanted to go fishing yesterday before flying home today. She likes to troll for northern pike so we headed to Lake Francis which is east of Mankato. Got on the water about 1:00 and fished until 5:00.
Our 1st pass we tried shad raps in 14 fow… nothing doing. I changed to Firetiger on the 2nd pass and picked-up a small bass. Then we moved in to 12 fow… nothing doing. We moved in shallower to finds weeds. I finally found weeds in 10’ to 8’ fow. We switched over to #12 Firetiger Husky Jerks. That’s when the fun began, as we ended up catching 20+ northerns and 3 bass. Trolling speeds were 2.1 – 2.3 mph, water temperature was 57.5 – 58 degrees and there was a slight East wind.
While most of the northerns were small, we did catch two nice ones. The biggest of the day was 38.5” long (my 2nd biggest northern pike). I apologize for the poor pictures as they were taken with my cell phone. The fish was released after the pictures were taken. Obviously I need to invest in a good digital camera for future fish memories.
I’m happy to report that Mom and I had one of those “priceless” days together on the water! Not only did we have fun fishing, we also had a blast reminiscing about family, friends and past fishing trips with her parents. Ah yes, I forgot to mention that the weather was absolutely perfect too.
