Making the trek up to the Great Ice Extravaganza again this year. Any word on area fishing? We are going up thursday and plan on prefishing gull lake thursday, but need another spot on friday. Anyone know the area and can give me a heads up and where to go for good fishing on friday?
Thanks.
There is quite a bit of structure in the areas adjacent to the contest you might try. That last snow combined with what we had made a bad situation worse for getting around on the lakes. You can’t see the drifts till your high centered in them. We have a house on Gull we were going to move sunday and gave up. Down by Ernie’s is a good bet to on the south end of Gull. Great place to eat and drink also.
I second the recommendation for food and drink at Ernie’s.
Check out the brainerd lakes forum for other info. I just posted there before coming over here to surf.
Quote:
I second the recommendation for food and drink at Ernie’s.
Check out the brainerd lakes forum for other info. I just posted there before coming over here to surf.
where is that forum? Here?
Shane, Go to Forums and scroll down. Find the Mn forum and open it up and scroll down to Brainerd lakes.
Shawn
I just went there and I don’t see anything posted by Pat. Not sure what he speaks of? 
Shawn
Man, had a blast at the contest. Got to speak with John @ marcum and some of their ice force pros, they love my custom aluminum arms and how they dont flex from the ducer weight, and John loved the story of my donating plasma to afford the LX-9 when it was released. He gave me a little hint, told me I might wanna start donating again for what they have up their sleeves for next year…. take it for what its worth fellas….
Also, prefishing the lake really paid off. Our group figured out what the perch were wanting, and we were on fish during the whole tournament. I registered the 8th fish caught, and caught around 20 perch. our group placed 145th (that fish came out of my hole)for the aquaview micro 2 camera and 150th for a new 4 wheeler. Everyone in our group caught a perch, while myself and mitch and jesse caught about 20 each. Next year we will focus more of our efforts on other species and finding out their habits, since that lake seems to have an abundant supply of small perch and not many large ones… lol.
Big props to 13 Fishing for keeping me warm from their gear and allowing me to drop down the hole lightning fast with their inline reels, Striker Ice for a suit that kept me warm from the cold and wind, Clam for their new Ice Drop jig that seemed like it couldnt miss a hookset, and TUCR for the quicktip rod that allowed me to feel every little bite from perch smaller than our minnows…..
congrats Shane 
!
Shawn
Crongrats as well!
It was my eigth year and still no fish landed for me personally. Came close with a bite right before 3pm but too finicky.
Care to share your secrets? If not, I uderstand not posting on the intrenet.
We were on perch two years ago when we were shallow. Unfortunately the 150th place was too big for what we were catching. We’re deep this year and one person got 122nd in our group. Right next to our group was #14 too.
Quote:
Crongrats as well!
It was my eigth year and still no fish landed for me personally. Came close with a bite right before 3pm but too finicky.
Care to share your secrets? If not, I uderstand not posting on the intrenet.
We were on perch two years ago when we were shallow. Unfortunately the 150th place was too big for what we were catching. We’re deep this year and one person got 122nd in our group. Right next to our group was #14 too.
My first bit of advice is to look at what sizes most of the fish are that was being caught in years past. That should determine an idea of lure size.
My next advice is follow past fishing reports. For gull lake, they say the bite has been between 18-33 feet for the last couple months.
Then go pre-fish. We fished the southern area near the dam, learned what some of the fish were biting on. We got the notice that perch was the mystery fish so we decided to start targeting them. With about 12 of us on the ice, we went thru lure colors and sizes to see what would get the most bites. For me, i had the best luck with a gold clam drop lure. For others it was gold tungsten jig, but gold was definately the color.
During our prefish we noticed that spikes and waxies were getting more hits than anything with them, however during the tournament I reeled up at least a dozen with minnows in their mouths, lol. Little bait steelers. Every time I seen a perch with a minnow in its mouth, i just wondered how many fishermen were unknowningly dead-sticking an empty hook 
The bite was real lite, so a very sensitive rod tip was key.
When we got to the tournament, we decided to hit that contour of 18-20 feet and see what results we would get, since it matched the reports and our prefishing. We popped open our holes and had fish under us right away. I don’t know how to explain it, but knowing you have fish under you and waiting 90 minutes for a cannon to go off so you can get to business is mind-wrecking.
Next year tho we are going to try to learn the other species since the amount of tiny perch in that lake is crazy.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
