Anyone headed up to fish the “big” water this week? Full moon is Thursday. Unless the weather turns bad I hope to be out starting Wednesday evening. I will be working my usual east side spots within a few miles of Big Point If anyone will be in the area maybe we could meet at Ozzies for breakfast?
Dino
Oh ya it’s ( Fall ) FULL MOON time….. Dino, I think I won’t get out till friday nite? Been really busy with work and stuff….Do you have a marine radio in your boat?
Hook and I both run channel 82 if you do……
What do ya think the crank bite will be like?
perch and crayfish colors might be hot this fall?
The crayfish are still thick in the rocks along shore.
And perch might be really hot?
I do not have a radio so I can’t reach you that way. I hope this rain ends today and we do not get any heavy winds that usually push a front out of the state.
I would expect that the colors and styles you mention will be in my “go to” container this evening. I will probably start with the Smithwick Rogue that was my most productive last year. It is a 5″ model that is not produced anymore and I only have 1 of this particular color. But being the tackle collector I am I have plenty of other choices. I have a feeling that the bite will be good based on past experiences. Just need to put in boat time. If you are out for a drive swing by and check to see if I am around. I have plenty of shore work to do also.
Dino
Deb and I are coming up Friday or Saturday. Got an open seat Bob?
Tuck
Ya let’s get together this friday and talk…..have you heard from James this week? I stopped back to see them, but they were on the water…..I think.
Hey Dino, did you ever get your new GMC pickup. If you did how do you like it? Is the water up to your door yet? I figure with all this rain your probably lake shore frontage by now. I hope all is well your way. Steve Greene
Dustin and I just hauled back in from Mille Lacs. Love that lake! Ooooodles of big, healthy fish from all over the lake. Whatever food shortage plagued the lake early in the season seems to be in hand for the moment with huge schools of YOY perch always evident on our sonars as well as bug hatches in the water column thick enough to cause us problems with fouling out our plugs as the bug-bodies collected on our cranks.
We stuck to piggies hanging tight to the edges of the mud flats and had 15 (?), we lost count, from 26″ – 30″ in 3 – half days on the water…. plus a smattering of 24″ – 26″ stuff to keep thing interesting. Rumor was that a guy could put bigger numbers in the boat but rarely see a fish over 23″ by switching locations. We elected to stick with the big girls and had a blast.
Brett King, Salmo Pro-Staff’er, loaned us some Salmo cranks for the trip. Actually, I shouldn’t short-change this guy’s generosity. He sent us up there with a steamer trunk sized B&B box FULL, on the honor system. The deal was we got to play, bring back whatever we don’t lose. Thank gosh we didn’t lose any!! Anyway, the perch model deep diver in Gold-Orange-Mettalic (GOM) put the 30″er in the boat on a long line, about 24′ of water, and we had good success with a smaller Perch model in firetiger. These cranks put Raps to absolute SHAME as far as durability and their ability to run “dead true” at high speeds. Like Dustin said, they make cost a bit more…. but they ALL work!! He’s got a pile of permanently out-of-tune raps on his dash and they get pretty spendy when a percentage of them are duds right out of the box.
Salmo also makes a killer stickbait called the Sting. We caught several 27″ – 28″ fish on this bait, run on lead core. We’d mark the fish and kick the boat out of gear, let the baits settle down on the lead core and then throw the kicker back into gear and proceed on down wind. Watching those baits scoot off must have been too much I guess.
I plan on doing an in-depth report in the AM. We did some night trolling and put good fish in the boat, including a 42″ muskie. We didn’t get to spend the time on the water after dark we wanted to due to the storms but the late day bite was good to us. From what I can see, this fall’s bite will be nothing short of remarkable!
Here’s a few pics!
A Perch Model Salmo… on brighter days anything gold got clobbered!
EFN Pro-Staff’er, Dustin Stewart, with a mongo Mille Lacs ‘eye caught on a Firetiger Perch Model Deep Diver in 18’ of water
A 27″ Mille Lacs ‘eye about to get herself netted…. hooked on a Sting stickbait, 4.5″ length… in Silver Mettalic Bleak (SMB).
This bait will run similar to a Husky Jerk with a much more pronounced wobble and a stronger vibration. We did well with this bait at night during the limited time we had to pull shallow and since this bait comes in several of my favorite patterns, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get Brett or someone at Salmo to get me a small supply for the night bite coming up in just a few weeks.
By the way, for those of you that worry more about water temp than anything else when it comes to predicting the start of the fall trolling bite in earnest…. water temps ranged from 70′ in the bays to 68′ out on the lake. Last year the bite was out of this world by the time the temps hit 62’….!!
More on all this tomorrow.
By the way, can you guys tell EFN got itself a new digi camera… finally!!! What a treat to work with.
Anyhoo, good fishin’,
Beautiful looking fish James. Wish I could get back up there and play with the big gals some more. Thanksl
Absolutly Beautiful fish guys !! I sure hope that the nite ban and the Base Ball strike have the same thing in common NOT GONNA BE ONE !!
Nice job behind the camera too. Don’t these digital cameras me life a hole lot easier ?
ec
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