I think my open water season has come to a end.

Got out on open water last night for what I think will be my final open water outing of the year. There was ice forming along the edges of several small backwater bays on the Horseshoe chain. After a nice day tomorrow, Lots of Mid Teen night time temps in the forecast. It was rather chilly out there yesterday. Temp around 32 with 8 Mph winds. Once the fingers got wet it was hard to keep the fingers warm. Lots of ice forming in the rod eyes as well. On a positive note. We did manage 5 Nice walleyes and several bass and Pike. Not a bad last outing ( If it was the last ) Overall it was just a so so year. Bass fishing was one of the worst years in a long time ( For Big fish anyway ) Spring panfish was way off as well. Did have 2 great trips to Canada and the Fall Walleye bite was really good. Already looking forward to open water next spring. Until then I’ll just have to get my fix out on the ice.

Yep, I’m putting my Nitro in her winter home Sunday morning….Hopefully ice comes soon because the shore bite at my river walleye spots wasn’t too good this morning.

You made it 8 days longer than me. I finally had some fall fishing this year mixed in with hunting. Ended up with 3 slot walleyes on Mille Lacs over a couple trips, some smaller walleye, some pike, and a nice big smallie. Felt great with that warm weather we had to be in the boat until the end of October.

Made it about 2.5 weeks longer than me. I hung it up on Oct 22 but I also had to prepare for deer hunting, which I’m doing now.

The final month of the season for me as quite good. Overall I would say the season was average.

I kept track of how many times I went fishing again this past season. The total was 31 between April 21 and Oct 22. Last season I went 34 times but I missed a couple weeks in May because I was moving this past spring.

I had a few IDO’ers commin up this weekend but called it off. Put then toon away last weekend.
Ironically enough I’m heading to LaCanns tomorrow morning to pick up the new fishing rig.
Can’t wait to see the 15″ Solex.
Hopefully Global warming kicks in and gives me a weekend to soak the Alumicraft this season.

Yep, put mine to bed last night, had a really nice fall, got into some big crappies a few times. Nice thing about that was we found them shallow. Had a few good walleye night trolling trips on top. Glad to see the ice might start forming next week, highs in mid 20’s next week!

Water temps as of Sunday were still around 50F as of Sunday in many of the lakes I fish, but after the weather comes thru on Thursday night in southern WI, the water temps will drop quick. I plan on getting out Friday, Saturday afternoon and Monday late AM thru afternoon. that might wrap it up for me but I will hold off on winterizing the boat for another week or so in case the weekend of 11/19 allows for some fishing yet. My boat is in the garage when Im not fishing so no big deal for now.

Overall, I did not get out in the boat this year as much as normal with other things coming up, but it was great to do our late June Canada trip again after missing it for 2 years, along with going to the Rainy River/LOTW in early October for the first time. Turned out to be a good move for us going there from Rainy Lake for the fall trip

Mine is in the heated shop for now. Got to go south for about 10 days and if river is still open I will do some fishing. If not I hope to fish below the dams in South Dakota this winter but who knows what Mother Nature will bring this year

Last weekend I was shore fishing with my brother in laws today we got ice.

Post edit: Ignore the amazon order lol

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Always keep my boat ready for Lake Superior. Supposed to be another colder than average winter so finding an ideal day to go might be tough.

Week B4 Thanksgiving is usually my last now I think last Sun was it. The gambler in me would like to wait (i bet more 50s are coming!) but the place that does my shrink wrap will not do it if I wait ’till December. Good year for pannies, so-so for bass. Good year for accidental Walters & Cats.

I’m an idiot, I mean duck hunter. So my boat will be breaking ice for the next few weeks. Then off to storage it goes…

I just put mine away last Friday. 60 times htis year with 3 trips to Canada – 9 times less than last year but hey, I’ll take it

I’ll have to keep track of how many days I go fishing next year. It would be interesting to see how mine compares to others here.

Fish thumper I keep detailed notes since 2013. Trips out what I caught etc. This season which is from ice out till I put the boat away. I was out 127 trips this is the least I have done however I caught the most fish this year. On average about 140 trips per season. I keep track of bass and pike as well as walleyes. You will learn a lot from it. I wish I would not have put my boat away mid October could have been out at least 1 more week for myself.

I will be putting my boat in storage tonight. Didnt fish near enough and that is sad. Need to use the boat more next year or its time to evaluate keeping it or not.

mrpike1973 wrote:

This season which is from ice out till I put the boat away. I was out 127 trips

That is a lot of outings. I consider myself fortunate to be able to fish 1-2 times/week all season with a house, family, dog, and full time job.

I encourage everyone to put their boats away, more open water for the rest of us!

mrpike1973 wrote:

Fish thumper I keep detailed notes since 2013. Trips out what I caught etc. This season which is from ice out till I put the boat away. I was out 127 trips this is the least I have done however I caught the most fish this year. On average about 140 trips per season. I keep track of <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass and pike as well as walleyes. You will learn a lot from it. I wish I would not have put my boat away mid October could have been out at least 1 more week for myself.

Yeah, but you didn’t have that wonderful bump seat under your butt anymore – thanks for the “lift” AGAIN! ( can just see the top of it – man I LOVE IT!!)

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Cool UMY glad it worked well for you!

put my girl in hibernation today for good…….sigh. with the forecast in SE MN, I might be walking on water come thanksgiving so fair trade off? It hasn’t happened round here in at least 8 years this early so I am not too confident but super excited!

DaveB wrote:

I encourage everyone to put their boats away, more open water for the rest of us!

thanksgiving is my cutoff. if i didn’t have an obsession with the hard stuff, i would probably buy a POS little river boat and fish all winter? fall is the best fishing and starting friday, the S will hit the F. good luck if you are out there in a boat.

Pulled the boat out of the lake tonight. I took 163 trips with it this year. Fishing was better than expected due to a winter kill on Platte. Didn’t catch a single bass over 5lbs all year. But caught a fair amount of 4lber and some nice dogfish.

Looking like my last outing was on Sunday. Awfully windy, but managed a nice mixed bag of catches including crappie, LMB, SMB, pike, a walleye, and a snagged carp that had me excited for a few seconds. Don’t keep track of outings, but had an average season getting out about twice a week. Was holding out hope for another late season warmup, but there is none of that in the long range forecasts. In fact, if what I’m seeing is true, we’ll have walkable ice west of the metro by Thanksgiving. Open water season goes by way too dang fast!

I had planned to get out one last time this week, but decided to get sick instead – ugh. So I’m transitioning my energies now on further additions to the Autopilot fishing kayak in Florida – adding Livescope+ this year. Only 52 days and 13 hours to go, but whose counting??

Boat has been put away since 2nd week of October. LOL.

I started school and trying to sell the boat, boat still isn’t winterize yet but it will be this weekend.