After having to cancel my pheasant hunting trip to SD this weekend I decided to spend yesterday fishing Northern MN. Tom Faber, Matt Grow and myself left Richmond at 4:30 AM and arrived back home at 12:30 AM. That is a long day of fishing but it sure was an adventure. We hit several lakes from Bemidji to Brainerd. Our focus was to find some decent Bluegill and Crappie and get a feel for the overall conditions on the area lakes.
We were successful at finding both quality Bluegill and Crappies. The condtions were less than ideal and got worse as the day progressed. Almost every lake we checked had at least a foot of snow on it, some had 18 plus inches. Also, every lake we checked had major areas of slush. We were using snowmobiles to get around and got stuck several times. To say it is tough going would be an understatement. If you have plans to fish Northern MN you may want to call ahead to see if you are going to be able to get around. I would say a snowmobile is about the only way to go right now unless you have tracks on your ATV. We found very few lakes people were actually driving on. Some lakes had plowed roads but were still filled with slush. Some of the areas we checked had more water and slush under the snow than I can ever remember. I would guess there are lakes that will have a slush problem for the next month for sure.
The conditions were bad and the snow and wind yesterday did not help, but we stuck it out. It was definetly SNOSUIT weather. The two biggest fish of the day are pictured here. Matt with a Bluegill that didn’t quite touch the 10-inch mark and Tom with a dandy crappie that was just under 14 inches. Matt’s Bluegill fell victim to the #12 Gill Pill and Tom’s crappie was taken on a Demon Jigging Spoon tipped with a wax worm.
cheers