summer patterns

I saw 76 on tonka monday night. The dock/shade bite should be good with the heat and sun.

Buddies boat has 2 newer top end hummingbirds on it. One always reads about 1 deg. Higher than the other. We have verified his temps to those from my boat and they have always been real close. This lake is a rather shallow muddy type of lake and is usually a few deg’s warmer than the other lakes in the area even though it has some rather deep water ( 60+ ft. ) this was the same lake we recorded near 90 deg’s on a few years ago and everyone said no way. Going to be fishing a different lake after work tonight. This lake is normally much cooler than others in the area. It will be interesting to see what the temps are on this one.

Here’s one you don’t see often. Pulled the trailer out yesterday and started to clean the weeds off and found this – Dead bloated decent size pike. My guess is that someone kept it and got to the landing and saw the size restriction posted and realized this one was not legal. Buddy tried hard to get that smelly thing to fall off. No luck it was really hung up on the cross member well. Yuck. It was a smelly mess. After getting g it off and the weeds all cleaned off the trailer still really stunk. A few miles down the road we pulled into another landing and backed it in and out a few times to try and rinse it off. Seemed to mostly work as the smell seemed gone when we got home.

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Lmao that is gross! Bet that reaked of nastiness

gimruis wrote:

Lmao that is gross! Bet that reaked of nastiness

That is a understatement !!!! Almost tossed my cookies and I have a rather strong stomach.

gimruis wrote:

Lmao that is gross! Bet that reaked of nastiness

Some critter was probably happy for the meal. Although I’m not sure if anything would have eaten that smell thing.

Glad my weekend wasn’t the only suck fest lol.

In the last 2 weeks we pre-fished a lake 4 times for the high school tournament that was held yesterday. In that 2 week period there were 3 or 4 other tournaments and you could see the pressure having an impact, plus I think the recreational traffic picked up big time around 4th of July.

Water temps increased from low 70’s to upper 70’s. We found fish in pads, deep weeds, reeds and even found smallmouth out in open water chasing baitfish one day. On tournament day they decided to fish deep in the reeds thinking that most of the boats would not be willing to go in there, which turned out to be a great plan. Best baits yesterday were a texas rigged creature bait, belly weighted 10″ worm or an Ozark Rig 10″ worm. The bass really seemed to like the action of that Ozark Rig but it was harder to work through the reeds so the boys opted for the belly weighted worm. They had 18 or 19 good bites but were only able to land 7 of them. After the tournament we had a good discussion about cast length and picking equipment that matches the environment. I think they could have landed 5-7 more of those fish with shorter casts and longer heavier rods. They needed to set the hook and get them headed to the surface immediately.

For the most part the fishing was pretty good every time we were out there except Sunday the 8th was really tough. I did not get a bite for 4+ hours, then something changed and I caught 10 in the next hour or so. Did they turn on? Did changing baits make the difference? If I would have been throwing the t-rig and ozark rig in other areas would I have been getting bites earlier?

Seems like we are getting warm enough now that fishing in pads, matted grass and docks will really start to takeoff.

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I guess I’ve never seen a Ozark rig till I just read it here and did a quick Google. I’ll have to look in to it further.

We just started throwing it this year, I’d say I’ve been impressed with the action of the bait(s) on them.

Not that much different than a belly weighted hook, but slightly better I’d say. And the hookup ratio on the Ozark rig seems to be better.

Thats pretty awesome! I hope when my kids are old enough they want to join the high school league

Yeah it’s a pretty cool experience for them. I know I would have loved something like this when I was in high school.

Ryan Speers wrote:

Yeah it’s a pretty cool experience for them. I know I would have loved something like this when I was in high school.

Yeah me to. I captain for my nephew and his buddy. Next summer my kid will be old enough and we both can’t wait. Told my nephew sorry he will have to get a new captain and be our competition

Fished a new small lake by me thats fairly dirty. Tough bite. Water temps were 85 and only got one bass on a frog. Tried docks, pads, weed edges, off shore structure. Nothing was going.

I’m going a different route this weekend and leaving the boat home. Taking the kids to camp at cascade and fish streams. Little change of pace

Tough for me too-lots of smalls, probably caught 30.

Sure hope this weekend the fishing turns around a little for me. The last 4 outings have been rather tough to say the least. To avoid the heat a little and hopefully get a better bite, we will be on the water as early as possible tomorrow and Sun. Best of luck to those getting out this weekend. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water. Its going to be a rather warm one out there.

I think I might take this weekend off from fishing. Unless one of the kids asks me to go out, they won’t have to twist my arm to hard!

Ryan Speers wrote:

I think I might take this weekend off from fishing. Unless one of the kids asks me to go out, they won’t have to twist my arm to hard!

Its nice to take a weekend off every once in awhile. With the heat forecasted this weekend this many be a good one to do so. Sadly here in Minnesota we only have so many of them a summer so I tend to try and fish as many of them as possible.

Its going to be a scorcher! If there is no wind then I would not be on the water. But its MN and it always seems windy now.

I was out on the big pond a couple days ago. It was flat calm and high sunny skies which made for tough fishing throughout the day. Water temps were right around 73 most of the day. Around 4pm the wind picked up and the fish magically started biting. We caught 40 fish between the two of us in the last 2 hours or so. Not a ton of size but a lot of 2-3 pounders. Our best 5 went just under 22.5. Big fish on the day was 5.3

Couldn’t buy a bite on topwater all day but caught a 26 inch walleye on a popper in 4fow. That was definitely a new one.

I’m taking the weekend off as well. Too hot for this guy. Next week looks much better again for air temps.

I will not be fishing this weekend either, with the same story as every day this month so far; I’ve got serious back pain issues. My fishing right now is watching various YouTube videos and tracking the Bassmaster Open at St. Clair; unfortunately, no one from MN made the final day cut. Not sure when I’ll be getting out again fishing again. Injections in my back are the most likely next step. My goal has been to fish in my bass club tournament on the 27th. Right now, things are looking doubtful, unfortunately.

Not a bad time to Wade fish smaller rivers. The water is going down slowly. My in laws live on the Crow Wing river. Sometimes the smallies are decent with a bonus walleye. The water feels refreshing. Lots of recreational boaters out on weekends now

ssaamm wrote:

Not a bad time to Wade fish smaller rivers. The water is going down slowly. My in laws live on the Crow Wing river. Sometimes the smallies are decent with a bonus walleye. The water feels refreshing. Lots of recreational boaters out on weekends now

I did that yesterday in the Rum. I floated it for about 4 hours in a small Jon boat. Caught 22 smallmouth, mostly on topwater lures. They are very aggressive and fight like they’re angry. Didn’t get any big ones though, they were all 12-15 inchers.

Ryan Speers wrote:

Yeah it’s a pretty cool experience for them. I know I would have loved something like this when I was in high school.

They never had fishing or shotgunning as sanctioned sports when I was school either.

I’m not very familiar with the HS team fishing thing. I assume you’re with as an adult captain to drive the boat and for safety reasons, but you cannot actually fish or help them, is that correct? They have to do all the fishing, picking spots, running graphs, and operating the bow mount on their own? If that’s the case that’s pretty impressive for a 17 year old.

Yeah mostly safety reasons, I’m the only one allowed to run the outboard during the competition. They can help get the boat on/off the trailer though.

I can’t do the following:
– Touch a rod if the lure is in the water
– net a fish
– determine which fish to cull
– run the trolling motor
– those are the main ones, but there are many more rules to follow as well.

There’s a 5 minute period (food break) that I’m allowed to give them some advice/feedback/coaching. For the most part though I just tell them to keep grinding.

Thanks

Captain can fish in our inhouse local tournaments but not in the state ones. So I fish on most Monday nights with the boys but not the other state tourneys.

That would be fun to fish with them!