Jon’s a good friend of mine, and has always put us on fish when we head north. So, as an annual excursion, my dad and I head up to do some walleye and crappie fishing in some of their rentals. We tend not to search/destroy in portables, as much as kick back and let the fish come to us when I’m fishing with the old man. Turns out, this tactic worked out fairly well for us.
Friday afternoon was hot from 2-5PM, with walleyes in a variety of sizes falling to jigging spoons tipped with a chub head. Green glow perch JB Lures Rattlin’ Varmints in 1/8oz seemed to edge out the rest, though free-swimming shiners on rattle reels and bobber-rods came in at a close second. Many fish in the 17-19″ range, even a 20″; with our fair share of eaters to keep dad happy. Sad part was that I missed the hot bite while hole-hopping around the rental looking for the elusive crappies. I found them, but only put one on the ice. Lost two at the hole/bottom-of-ice, and marked several more of what I thought were crappies that I just couldn’t seem to coax. They were there, I just failed to do my part well enough.
Saturday the mid-day bite was hot with schools of perch coming through to make it interesting, the largest taped at 11 1/4″. Walleyes came through off and on, with no afternoon bite to speak of. Shiners on bobber rods and rattle reels really shined, as we found piles of golden shiner bodies in the walleyes we did fillet that night. When the bite got tough, shiners were the premium bait for sure.
Both nights saw flurries of activity from 11PM-2AM as well, but we were too tired to keep up with them, and the pike that kept snipping our baits. Speaking of, another of Jon and Kelly’s rentals caught a 43″ pike with an unreal girth on Sat. night. Ironically, it must’ve swam right by our tip-up with a massive sucker on it; which is what I’d think a pike would prefer? Instead he chose someones flu-flu tipped with a minnow. Go figure.
All in all, we ended up catching plenty of fish, both for fun, and to eat, and Jon took care of us as always. A word of caution; with snow as deep as it is, think carefully before heading down snake-trails and tiny plow paths, especially with drop-down shacks. At least have a backup plan, as those banks get set-up so hard you’d need a v-plow to break through them just to get you out.
For anyone interested in a guide, Jon will put you on fish – Outdoors with JonnyP. The rentals are with his dad Kelly, at Waskish Minnow Station.
Pics to follow!
Joel
