I would vouch for Prairie Pride Farm, they are the real deal. If you are looking for small farms closer to the metro, check out the Minnesota Grown Directory. It’s probably the best resource to find locally grown fruits, veggies and meats. The website is searchable by product or region.
35″x23″ caught last night. Personal best for me, and the first one of size for at least a year. Also caught a 10lb channel yesterday, not a lot of fish caught, but the ones we did find were good size.
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I pulled in this one yesterday in about 20 fow on the Minnesota. 10.75 lbs, a personal best channel for me!
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They seem to be pretty thick in the Minnesota. I’d say I catch more Shovels every year in the MN than sheepshead or carp. My guess is they manage to escape the electroshock and net surveys done by the DNR since they tend to favor strong current and tend to hold pretty tight to the bottom. This time of year, they take a bit of work to get them off the bottom and put up a decent fight. Later in summer, they tend to fight like a wet rag.
Well,anyway… I’d just like to thank people like Steve and BK for all of their work and personal time they have spent trying to make fishing regulations in Minnesota more reasonable. It’s nice that you guys are reminding them occasionally that there are other fish in Minnesota other than walleyes, bass and muskies.
I’m going to go down to the basement and measure all the bullheads I have left over from last summer just to make sure I don’t get killed for having bullheads over the legal size limit. I’ve been feeding them since August and they may have grown a bit. 
This one was caught in New Ulm on the Minnesota River this fall, so they are starting to make their way upstream again. It was rumored to be in the 20 lb range, so some breeding age adults are starting to move through the Minnesota again.
This was the first gar I’ve caught on the Minnesota in 2 years. It was 26″ not a monster, but added some variety to the day.
I was actually a bit dumbfounded, he hit that 20 lb at around 1:15
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So I got off work early today figuring I’d soak cut bait for channels. This guy Rob comes over to me and says he just lost his 3rd bullhead and was low on hooks. I offer him a 2 hook snell rig and he offers me a Bullie. We proceed to catch fish.
The carp finally are making their run on the tributaries to the Minnesota. I stopped by my favorite spot with hopes there would be some bullheads for my bait tank, but I wound up with about 10 carp instead. Only 2 bullheads for bait so far, but I think the water needs to warm a bit for them to really get going.
I’d have to take issue with this. I have abu 5500,6500, and 2 7000s. With the exception of the 7000s, I’ve had them several years and have no reason to think they will give out any time soon. Sure they need cleaning occasionally, but don’t all reels? I don’t exactly baby them either. When shore fishing I often launch my bait upwards of 70 yds downstream and bring fish in against the current. I can’t think of much tougher work for a reel. Sure the BCX line may be more or less disposable, but the ambassador line is solid all around.
I wasn’t real wild about getting blood poisoning from the stink bait and the treble in his mouth. Great way to spend a long lunch break though!
Well I haven’t managed any monsters yet this year, but since I have a 2 hour break on Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ve been hitting the Minnesota with some luck.
Well, the Minnesota isn’t the Rainy and these shovelnose are definitely not a 60″ laker, but they were fun this afternoon. I landed 4 in about 3 hours and lost a couple more on snags. The biggest was only 2.5 lbs, but they took some work to get them off the bottom in fast current. The best part was the guy in the boat that tied off to shore 20 yds. up stream from me. Poor guy was pitching jigs for 2 hours with out a bite. He got frustrated and went home. I stayed a bit longer and caught another sturgeon.
I’m going to try some 4/0 super J hooks this year for cut bait. I haven’t really settled on one hook style yet, it depends on the bait, what size fish I’m gunning for and what my mood happens to be. I do like a 2 hook rig for strips of cut bait, it really helps keep the fillets on and more than a few were caught on the 2nd hook last season.
I could see pay lakes being OK if they reared their own fish or purchased them from a fish farm, but netting them in public waters and harvesting them like that is gluttony and greed pure and simple. It’s in the same category as shooting deer in a fenced in pen as far as I’m concerned.
I have both my props in the shop getting repaired and a custom made prop guard on the way thanks to Flathead Fever, so we’re off to a good start. Here’s to spring, whenever it decides to show up.
Man, that looks gnarly and ready for some action!
Thanks for the link. I figured the topic had been covered but didn’t come up with any thing tried to search the forum.
That’s almost as bad as the walleye guys that parked on top of my Dad and I last year. We were shore fishing and they came and anchored less than 30 yds out from us. They didn’t even get the hint when my 3 oz no-roll and stink bait splashed down 5 feet from their boat. It happens every year and I think the jig pitchers fishing for my bait are every bit as guilty as the bottom fishermen chasing the grown up fish of substantial girth. 
While I always prefer fresh, I have caught lots of nice channels on frozen cut bait. Some bait shops keep dead suckers and sell frozen bags of them for a good price. Sometimes I get a bag of nice 4-6″ suckers and I just use them whole on a 0/4 stinger rig. 2 hooks really seem to help keep the bait on the hook.
Last I heard ethanol consumed around 40% of the corn crop, granted much of that goes back into animal feed in the form of distillers grains but I think the impact of corn ethanol is largely underestimated. I talked to a NRCS soil scientist from the southern portion of the state last fall and he told me it was the worst year for erosion he had seen since he started in the early 70s. I worked on a conservation program from 2006-2009 helping farmers establish perennial crops like prairie grass and biomass crops. It was a tough sell then and even tougher sell now. $$ talks and the hard truth is that those crops don’t turn the profit like corn. Until we can put some $$ value to conservation on farm land, I don’t see how anything will change.
I thought it was pretty common sense too, but some people won’t believe anything unless there is paper published. I’d guess over 60-75% of Southern Minnnesota is tiled. So we’ve lost 3-4 feet of water storage across that much of the land mass. How could it possibly affect the water quality?
One of my favorite streams just opened up where I’ve caught carp in early season. I’ve never fished carp euro style, but think I might give it a try this year. I have some corn soaking and did a bit of studying on the hair rig technique. As soon as my truck gets out of the shop I might give it a try.
Wow, well done! What kinds of bait were you using if you don’t mind me asking?
I’m already taking the river roads home and keeping an on the ice. If you happen to see the tricked out tracker on the rivers this summer be sure to give us a shout. I’m pretty sure it’s the only CatTracker Custom Pro on this stretch of the MN.
I’m getting a pretty serious case of the fishin’ twitchin’. All we need here is a run of 40’s and i’ll be stocking the bait tank with suckers, chubs and bullheads.
