Minnetonka Heating Up…

It sure was a hot one out there on Friday! Spent the day on Minnetonka in search of bass with a good client/friend. We covered a TON of water! Hit West Arm, Harrison, Seton, the islands, Phelps, Priests, Spring Park, North Arm, Crystal… the list goes on. Found fish in several different spots ranging from 2-17 feet of water. It was a wierd day.

We started off hitting a steep, rocky shoreline pitching 3/16oz Fin-Tech Shaky heads with a Reaction Innovations Flirt… landed a couple fish with one that touched 3 pounds. Not a bad way to start the day at 6:30am. Water temps were 77 degrees.

Next we moved out onto a deeper spot where we worked the tip of an underwater point in about 12-15 feet of water… landed a couple more fish with another nice one…

After that we started hitting milfoil bouy after milfoil bouy picking up a fish here and there. It was the pure definition of run-and-gun fishing. We peppered a spot with 15-20 casts then moved on. Must have hit 7-10 bouys and touched about 8-10 fish before switching to a new pattern.

At this point it was about 9:30am and the water temps were threatening to hit 80 degrees… so we moved up to a shoreline protected by the sun with some deep docks and worked our way through and around the docks amongst the thick weeds… and that was when it happened… wham! I hooked up and saw it jump… an easy 5 pound bass was airborne hooked on the end of my 20 pound Masterbraid. This was that one fish we really wanted today and it was a battle! Fought it for a couple minutes until it decided to take a run under the boat… and it came back out still hooked… only to wrap itself around some weeds and explode my line like it was a piece of dental floss… needless to say we both cried Story of my season when it comes to big fish… I can get them close to the boat but I can’t land them.

After that fiasco we decided to grab lunch to take a break from the heat… after lunch we changed gears and tied up some drop-shot rigs and began pounding the deep weed lines again. Found a few fish out there but couldn’t come up with a pattern so the confidence took a hike on this technique… so back to beating up the shaded shorelines…

We grabbed the dock rods and skipped wacky-rigged Comidas/Senkos under some docks in hopes of another big fish… but no takers… in fact two stretches of docks only produced one fish and it was smaller than some of the sunfish I caught the other day…. so we grabbed the slug rods and decided to switch things up once again…

Upon grabbing the slug rod it only took about 3 casts to blow up on another nice fish in the pads… maybe we went about this day all wrong… at this point it’s 1pm and we’re only fishing until 2pm so we had our work cut out for us… we contiuned to beat up the 82 degree water with slugs only to find ourselves hooked a couple more small fish before calling it a day…

Overall it was a great day on the water. We fished several different techniques and had a nice average size on fish… can’t complain when things on Tonka have been so hit or miss lately… the day was definitely a success!

Looks like a little more heat coming our way… grab the sunblock and good luck out there!

Spent another day guiding on Tonka yesterday in search of the mighty bucketmouth, aka largemouth greenback bass We hit the lake running at 6am and didn’t stop until 2pm… neither did the rain

Started out with a bang landing about 8 fish on our first spot pitching finesse worms up along the banks… 2-5 feet of water. Nothing too big but it put some confidence in the boat that we might have already established a pattern. This proved to be true for all of 30 minutes… until the bite went sour on two spots and we had to look elsewhere…

Next we went out deeper and ran from spot to spot in search of a school… 8-14 feet… we found a few here and there but couldn’t track down a school until we hit a neck down area between two underwater points… and sure enough, they were there thick! Not only did we land bass after bass, but we put some walleyes in the boat on that spot too… all came on finesse worms… this spot lasted about an hour and we never had a dull moment during that time… then just like that the spot died… onto the next spot…

We moved back through the spot where we caught them in the morning up shallow but could only muster one fish… a little dink… so onto a set of deep docks with excellent weed structure around them… found a few here but again, nothing great so another move was in order…

Next we beat up the outside weedline and found the pods of fish again… 2 fish here, 3 fish there… that was how the day played out the last hour or so… they were out on the weedline in 10-14 feet of water and all fish came on a finesse worm…

By the time the bell rang I think we touched over 30 fish along with those added bonus walleyes… next time out I’m bringing some walleye gear and might actually target those fish… I know there was a good school under us but we weren’t equipped for that…

Overall, a great day on the water with excellent company! A good numbers day and it was actually nice to not fish in the hot sun for once… but then today it shined it’s lovely face right back on us… oh well, can’t win all the time… good luck out there!

Had a fun day on Minnetonka today taking part in a guided fishing tournament for Principal Financial. We had 60 boats guiding 135 people. Objective was to bring in your 3 biggest bass for a live weigh-in. What a blast!

I had a few spots nailed down-pat from the last week’s endeavors… but it proved to be a more difficult day than I would have liked…

The tournament hours were from about 1-4pm so not a lot of time… and to make matters worse I drew boat #40 for takeoff… so I had to roll the dice on taking the chance of another boat already stealing my koolaid on my go-to spots… and sure enough, there was a boat already camped out on my “honey hole”… so onto another spot right off the bat…

We staked claim on a nice milfoil edge in about 8 feet of water and began pitching Flirts… only to muster a few small fish which we threw back and didn’t even weigh (actually they were tiny fish)… so we moved and sought out better water…

Next we pounded a deep shoreline and managed to put two quick fish in the livewell… one about 2 pounds and the other a little smaller… then that spot only kicked out tiny fish once again… onto another spot… at this point it was nearing 2:30pm so already halfway through the tourney hours…

Next we punished another 4-8 foot spot scattered with weeds and some rock… again only managed a few small fish and nothing big enough to write home about… so onto our last spot in hopes of some sort of last minute heroics…

We began working a deep weed edge and fished fast… small fish… a couple missed hits… and that was it… at this point it was about 3:50pm and we were about to call it a day… but I wanted to make one last attempt at a big fish… so I scooted to a nearby dock where I know a big fish likes to hangout from time to time… we pulled up to the dock and the first cast produced a nice 4-pounder! We were back in the game! A couple quick pictures and off to the weigh-in we went…

We got to the weigh-in and I knew that a lot of teams struggled so I thought we might have a good chance at getting one of the big fish awards… however we fell short of the big fish award and finished somwhere around 20th place out of 60 boats with right under 8 pounds for three fish. 12.82 pounds won it! Seth Fielder stuck some brutes and walked away with it! Big fish was 4.84 pounds (also came from Seth’s bag). I believe there was only 5 bags over 10 pounds weighed in.

This event was for the clients, so only the client’s fish counted… to bad because I stuck a toad that would have definitely put us in the top 5 for weight (over 10 pounds for three for sure) and might have taken big fish but that’s how it goes… didn’t weigh it but it was bigger than the 4 pounder we weighed in…

Tonka has been a strange beast this year… one second hot, the next second cold… I guess that’s fishing… but regardless, what a great day to be on the water and always a pleasure meeting new people and talking with other friends/guides!

Last week brought a little more difficult challenges out on the lake… the fishing was definitely not as consistent but we still managed a few fish. Spent all of my time on Tonka again and the fish were everywhere!

We started out in similar areas as the week prior… 2-5 feet around docks… a few fish were there, but nothing of great numbers (although we did drop the ball on a GIANT right off the bat on Friday morning but it threw the bait). We then moved out into the 4-8 foot range and found more, and bigger fish. Wacky-rigs and jigs proved to be the ticket… Junebug or watermelon/blue were the hot colors.

Water temps drastically dropped too… went from low 80’s to low 70’s in a matter of days… put the fish in a state of havoc where they cruised both deep and shallow. Took part in a corporate guide trip on Friday with close to 70 boats and many boats came in empty-handed. Fishing was just plain tough. We managed about a dozen fish with only a couple in that 3-pound range, everything else was small. A fun day though.

Looks like warm weather hit us yesterday and today… might be a good week if you hit it early… good luck out there!

Nice work Matt – great fish and better pictures!

Joel

I spent most of Friday on Tonka. Hit the water at a blustery 6:30am… dark, cold and rainy! Needless to say the early morning bite was not good and we could have slept in a few more hours and caught just about as many fish However, we sucked it up and pursued the elusive largemouth bass.

It wasn’t until about 9am when things started to pick up. The clouds began to clear and the rain stopped, giving way to very short periods of sun. We found ourselves in a battle in the shallows. The fish were there and we were on their heels… nabbing one here and there for some consistent action until we left the lake around 1pm. Managed a few fish in the 3 pound range and slightly larger, but nothing quite 4 pounds. The 1-2 pounders were in full force and we found those all over. Caught our fish throwing wacky-rigged Comidas (Senkos YUM Dingers, etc) or on buzzbaits. Gotta love buzzbaits when they produce!

A few exciting moments of the day include the hook-up of about a 50-inch muskie under a dock… it must have thought it was a bass because it bit like one. Fought the fish for a couple minutes but it eventually broke me off. 20# braid, no leader and a little hook doesn’t always work the best when tussling with a 30+ pound fish We also tied into two more muskies before the day was done. Broke off on one of them that was low 40’s and the other one we got up to the boat but was only low 30’s. All came on wacky-rigged Comidas… they wouldn’t touch the buzzbait with a Tyger leader and 30# braid

Overall it was a fun day on the water. Got to fish with a good client of mine and shared a lot of fishing stories and had some good laughs. Looks like some warmer weather in the 70’s is coming our way… go out there and get ’em!!!