Panfish are starting to stack up now, but this cold snap might scatter them a little. I’d start looking to the weed edge in 8′ – 10′ first with a bunch of holes and if you don’t find any there, hit the 15′ – 20′ depths adjacent to points or at the mouths of bays. I’ll be out this weekend as well and will be taking this approach. Hopefully the fish will be straightened out by then.

Madison is real sketchy from what I’ve heard. I wouldn’t recommend vehicle traffic there unless it’s 4-wheeler or snowmobile (or walking). I’d stay away from the narrows unless on foot.

Clear Lake (by Lexington?) I’ve heard has 20″, but I believe there’s an aerator on that lake, so 4-wheeler, snowmobile or walking might be better.

Tetonka, Washington, Jefferson, German all have 20″ – 28″ of ice yet. Watch out on Washington as there was some open spots in Baker’s Bay a few weeks ago, but they are marked. Tetonka – I’d just stay away from Willow Pt. with trucks and steer clear of the Cannon River inlet/outlet with trucks. Otherwise, on these lakes, there has been truck traffice (including myself).

Forecast is for 40’s this weekend and mid 40’s for most of next week. So I’d say truck traffic will be a big no-go very soon, if not already on some lakes. Check with local bait shops as well and use your best judgement.

Good luck!

Got back from our LOW trip today. My buddy and I fished the Pine Island area in 35′ and fishing was great. Fished 2.5 days and caught between 80 – 90 fish, mostly walleyes. Most ‘eyes were suspended from 8′ – 16′ below the ice. We used glow red buckshot rattle spoons, gold northland forage minnows, orange swedish pimples and red glow rattlin’ varmints. Tipping with a shiner head worked very well and 95% of our fish came from jigging.

Sizes ranged from 6″ – 23.5″ with most being in the 14″ – 16″ range. Using a flasher was definitely a big key to our success. We even had some good fishing one morning at 5:45am and one evening to 7:30pm.

Excellent trip with a couple fish frys and we brought home our limits of ‘eyes and saugs.

Can’t wait to do it all over again next year!

Well, doesn’t appear there are much for reports in the Pine Island area, so I’ll post a report after I return in case there are others interested or headed up that way. Leaving in 9hrs!!

Oh no. Go ahead and stretch those lengths all you want Brian! That’s what we fishermen do especially after

Just keep’er under 35.8″ or I’ll have to take out my ruler on you!

(j/k!!!)

Here’s the best I could do to come up with some realistic numbers. First, I printed the picture out. Second, I took various measurements across the width of the walleye to find centerline points in order to measure the length of the fish down it’s centerline. Keep in mind the tail goes off the end of the picture, so what I did was drew a line from just off the end of the tail on the bottom side long enough to cross the centerline of the fish. This line was drawn perpendicular to the bottom edge of the tail assuming that if the tail was squeezed together, the top edge and bottom edge of the tail would run nearly parallel to each other thus giving the “squeezed tail” effect. I also left a tiny bit of sluff room when I drew the line off the end of the tail in order to compute a more conservative measurement.

And so, I measured the centerline length of the fish using an engineer’s scale and came up with 38 units. I then measured the width of the gal’s fingers across the centerline of the fish and came up with 3.6 units. I then measured the width of my own 4 fingers at the same location in which the centerline of the fish crosses the gal’s fingers and came up with 3.0-inches. Calculating through…..38/3.6×3.0 I get a total approximate length of 31.67-inches. Now in many cases, a woman of her size is likely going to have fingers smaller than a man’s. So if hers measure 2.9-inches across, then the fish is 30.6-inches and for every 0.1-inch her fingers are less than mine, the walleye would be about 1.05-inches shorter.

I have no clue of the width of her fingers, but even if they equaled the width of my own (located just above the middle knuckles), the fish would still be well under 37″. In fact, the width of her 4 fingers would have to be 3.5-inches across in order for the calculation to equal 37-inches. Those would be some big woman hands!

While I don’t believe at all that this fish is near 37-inches, I do want to say congrats to the gal on a very nice fish! More than likely, that fish is in the range from 29″ – 31″ and at those lengths, the weight of 12lbs becomes much more feasible. Excellent fish!

AP is awesome! I haven’t enjoyed watching a rb like him since probably Roger Craig! Craig was one of those guys who wasn’t a bit afraid to go head-to-head with a linebacker, safety, or anyone for that matter. High leg lift, great speed, break tackles, gets the extra yard(s)….AP has these qualities.

BUT, if TJ doesn’t improve considerably over last year, we can only expect a par season from the boys in purple & gold. A lot rests on his shoulders, as it does for any QB in the league.

TJ is a real soar issue for me!!! That kid just chapped my hide last year. Terrible mechanics, terrible decisions….couldn’t even pass on an 8-man front! Allbeit we don’t have very decent receivers, but with 8 guys in the box, you don’t need great receivers. Heck, you don’t even need a great QB either…..just a “Dilfer” who can make the short slant & out passes.

TJ was just horrid last year IMO…..especially the 2nd half of the year when teams figured out how to defend the run and basically said TJ is going to have to beat them….which he did not.

Yes, TJ is a young QB. We all know that. But to have terrible mechanics??? That stuff should have been learned in H.S., developed in college and fine tuned in the pros. Those jump passes and throwing off the back foot….that’s for highschool and freshman college. Yet he’s doing it in the pros!!!

Like I say, TJ is a real soar spot for me. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though. For me, TJ has 6 regular season games to show something. That should be more than enough games to know whether he’s improved or not. If he has, great. But I’m not holding my breath.

Yeah, you’re right. I got a little sidetracked there.

I am really, really having a tough time putting any confidence in TJack. Last year his mechanics and decision making were horrible! Decision making is a learning process, but his mechanics should have been ironed out PRIOR to entering the NFL.

The rest of the Vikes I have confidence in, but in my mind it all rests on the shoulders of TJack. I don’t want to say “take him out” right now, but after the first 6 regular season games, we should know what he’s going to be like for the remainder of the season.

I’m no fan of Childy either.

I agree quite a bit with what Shrek has stated. But keep in mind, I think another huge problem other than the boats, vehicles, ATV’s, etc is the number of people that went out and built brand new $300k+ houses without thinking it through too much. That has been a huge problem which has been all over the news, papers, internet.

Looking at the Dow Jones today (down another 350+/-), we’re in for some hurt. Hopefully we can all hang in there and wait out the storm. I’ve got to believe there will be an upside in the not too distant future.