Yeah I know. But the guy I store my boat with needs to do it this weekend. We both need each others’ help getting our boats into this pole barn so we typically need to go together.
I hear ya. I have a specific date I have to get mine into storage too and that was last weekend. Just an inconvenience until I can get a house with a bigger garage.
Got out this afternoon/evening. Water temps were 41-42 Deg. The bass bite was slow. Did manage a few on both a rapala clacking rap as well as on a husky jerk. Also caught some northern including a few in the mid 30” range. Got a nice 21” walleye. Lost a big fish that I never had a chance to see. I think it was a big Walleye by the way it fought. Wish I had a chance to see it. It may have been a big northern. My buddy lost one he thinks was over 40” in the same area a few days ago. Each time out I feel like it could be my last but already have plans to get out again on Sat.
Great trip Fish-stay at it, with other fish picking up the slack why complain, plus you might just be getting good info for ice time.
Got out again this morning. It rather windy but fishsble until around 2:00. Water temps were 38-40 Deg. Was surprised that the bass were still willing to chase and hit a rattle trap. Didn’t catch a ton but at this point I treat each fish as a bonus fish. Did also catch a fair amount of pike as well including a 34 and 36” fish – also on the clacking rap. Each time out I say this most likely will be my last outing but will the forecast for this next week I think I still have a few more outings.
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That is a pretty sweet last outing.
Nice job thump, what depth did you find the pike and bass at those water temps?
Thanks for the motivation. I’m going to try to go next week. Thought about it today. I’m getting soft. The wind and 40 degrees turned me off.
Nice job thump, what depth did you find the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike and <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass at those water temps?
All of the fish ( bass and pike ) came from 4-8 fow. As usual this time of the year, the greenest remaining weeds seemed to hold the most fish. I mostly fish the clacking raps this late in the season. My buddy prefers the old diamond shad. I’m normally a bigger fan of the neutral colors but the brighter colors have been working better lately. A bright colored clown was the ticket today. I prefer a pull
And let fall yo-yo retrieve.
Fished 4 hours this aft til sundown, only 3 bites… but caught two with combined weight of 10.98 lbs!
41/42 water temps… caught both on a Cicada blade bait in 12-15 fow.
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Fished 4 hours this aft, only 3 bites… but caught two with combined weight of 10.98 lbs!
41/42 water temps… caught both on a Cicada blade bait in 12-15 fow.
Well done. Those are two great fish for sure.
Excellent.
Those brownys are taunting me from the river to get out one more time.
Taking advantage of the nice weather and hitting the lake again this afternoon. Not expecting to much. My buddy has fished the last few days and other than a few Pike has not caught much.
Tried yesterday for a little over a hour yesterday by Brainerd. Not a single bite. Water temps were 36-38 degrees.
I fished yesterday in Pequot. T-shirt and shorts for awhile. 40 degree water. My son got bit off by a couple pike with an x rap and Tx rig. Saw 2 otters. That was cool. Took him wakeboarding. I found a school of crappies and picked up a few on jigging raps. No size, but fun. Nice day. Keep em coming.
Although today was a beautiful day to get out fishing, the fishing was really poor. The water temps were back up to 42-43 deg’s Today after being mostly 38-39 our last outing. Not sure if it’s the warming water temps that turned off the bite or what. It was way off for everything. We did manager a few pike, a walleye ( 3rd outing only 1 ) and a few bass. We also got a small Muskie and saw a few other nice ones follow. Not sure what strain they put into the horseshoe chain or if these fish were tiger muskies but the markings on them are way cool. One of the follows was probably a 34-36” fish so they are getting decent size out there. They look like the shoepack strain of fish they stocked in some metro lakes many years ago. I thought they no longer stocked them any place. Like I said before, this time of the year any fish are bonus fish. Looks like I may chase a few more bonus fish again this weekend. It will be my 2nd year in a row that I’m going to not go deer hunting. To be honest I really don’t miss it all that much. I’m hunting Wisc. For the 1st time this year and I have 3 weekends of muzzleloader hunting planed here in Minnesota.
Curious what artificial the pike/muskie were following? I still might do some of that this weekend if the other species slow down further…
Not sure what strain they put into the horseshoe chain or if these fish were tiger muskies but the markings on them are way cool. One of the follows was probably a 34-36” fish so they are getting decent size out there.
According to the DNR fisheries survey information, they are leech lake pure strain. They did not sample any in the most recent survey but since they are relatively new in the system, that’s not unusual. The first “muskie” survey is planned for 2025.
Curious what artificial the pike/muskie were following? I still might do some of that this weekend if the other species slow down further…
The follows we had were on rattletraps and on jerkbaits. For whatever reason the northern seemed to prefer the spinnerbaits this last outing. The few prior outings we could not get anything to bite on spinnerbaits. That seems to be the norm for fall fishing – every outing is a little different.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
Not sure what strain they put into the horseshoe chain or if these fish were tiger <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>muskies but the markings on them are way cool. One of the follows was probably a 34-36” fish so they are getting decent size out there.According to the DNR fisheries survey information, they are leech lake pure strain. They did not sample any in the most recent survey but since they are relatively new in the system, that’s not unusual. The first “muskie” survey is planned for 2025.
On the small muskies the markings are totally different. That may just be how it is on small ones. The few bigger fish I’ve seen out there just don’t seem to look like leech lake strain muskies – then again it’s been a rather long time since I’ve saw a bigger one of Them up close. Doing a little research it seems there are clear, barred, and spotted color phases of pure strain muskies. I would say the ones I’ve seen in horseshoe are mostly spotted. I’m more use to seeing the clear and barred color I guess. Looking at pictures they are not tiger like I originally thought they may have been.
Tried something a little different today… when the water temps get really cold (today 41 degrees) the fish start moving deep and hug the bottom. So hard if not impossible to locate them that way, even with Livescope. You can’t eliminate unproductive water very easily and don’t know if they’re in 8 feet of water or 50.
So I went to a shallow prairie-type lake today with no deep holes for them to hide. Most of the weeds were gone, so tried to find any bottom structure, chunk rock, etc.
Eventually it paid off. I started too deep around 15-18 feet and wasted over an hour. Finally found some shallower (7-9 fow) scattered chunk rock and threw 1/2 oz Dark Sleeper. But I wasn’t quite on the bottom even with a slow retrieve. Went to the 3/4 and even 1 oz DS and reeled so slow until I could just feel bottom and then slight bounces off the rocks – That triggered strikes. Caught 12 largemouth in about 2.5 hours.
Had to be hitting bottom though, anything a foot higher and no takers. Having a couple Uber-sensitive baitcasting rods helped to feel bottom. Smallest fish was 17 inches, largest right at 20. Fun day.. not many of these left.
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Another beautiful day to hit the water. After rather poor fishing the last few outing and with my buddy having 2 real poor outing this week, we were not really expecting much. Fishing started out really slow. We fished several of what typically are the better spot and did not catch a single fish or even have a bite. Decided to give a far back bay a try before loading the boat up and heading to a different lake. As soon as we got into the shallow back bay I noticed the water temp was 3-4 deg’s warmer. We saw several active fish chasing some bait fish near the surface and within a few minutes it was game on. Over the next 3-4 hrs we caught 61 fish. Mixed bag of pike, bass, and walleyes. Mostly pike but ended up with 7 eyes and probably 12-15 bass. Almost all caught on jerkbaits with a few fish on spinnerbaits – only a few fish on rattletraps this outing. Like I said last post ever day is different. Main lake temps were 42 with the back bay being 45-46 Deg’s.
Wow fish thats the best, love those mixed bag catches, shallow stuff is always worth a check-tell me about your retrieve for the jerkbaits.
Thanks
Water temps went from 41 two days ago to 45 today. Heavy 1 oz Dark Sleepers dragged on bottom worked for awhile but overall bite was a lot slower.
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Got to the local river shore this AM for some smallies. Super active as the sun started getting higher around 10. At the end got 4 in a row and said enough of this. All 12-15″, nothing big today but no complaints when numbers are super high.
Blue white jighead, pro stewart blue or equivalent ringworm or paddletails.
Shout out to thorne bros. The specialty plastics they have is unreal. They didn’t have the original paddle from bfnt but many other options to choose from.
Wow fish thats the best, love those mixed bag catches, shallow stuff is always worth a check-tell me about your retrieve for the jerkbaits.
Thanks
Nothing real special about the retrieve. My typical pattern is a fairly aggressive long first jerk. followed by a 2-3 second pause followed by a quick double short jerk and a rather long pause ( 6-10 seconds ) then repeat. Most of the bites seem to come on the pause after the quick double short jerks. I don’t like a constant pattern. I think you need something different to trigger the bite. I tend to get lots of follows if I keep the pattern constant.
Thanks Fish!
Got out a few hours yesterday. Small west metro lake, the only ice was in the backwaters. No one on the water, and 37 degree water temps.
Cast slow moving, bottom dragging lures – football jig, Dark Sleeper, blade bait, painfully slow retrieved Moxi… One bite, probably big pike (or state record LMB lol) that came unbuttoned half way back to the boat.
That could be it for the year for me. There are some low-mid 40’s days ahead but very few…
I’ve been out of the game since putting the boat away a few weeks ago. I’ll be hitting the river from shore Wednesday and then it’ll probably be ice fishing from here on out.
That could be it for the year for me. There are some low-mid 40’s days ahead but very few…
The fact that you’re still even bass fishing from a boat only 5 days before Thanksgiving is a feat in itself Fry.
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