<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Sam Menard wrote:</div>
Was going to fish this weekend but unfortunately had a funeral to go to. Maybe next year.BTW, the chopper flying around was in response to Trumps claims (and resulting tariffs) that fentanyl and migrants are pouring out of Canada into the US.
There was choppers flying both sides of the river….
Claims? That’s pure facts!
I haven’t speared pike for a while now but back when me and my buddies were really into it we would see some monster walleyes in the dark house. I think it would definitely get more people into winter spearing. Maybe make it an aggregate limit of like 3 fish and no more than 2 can be walleyes? Just throwing ideas out there.
Luckily that’s not a thing this far north but if I had a cabin on a lake where bow fishing was popular I’d be sure to have a light 10x brighter than theirs to shine right back at them.
Other than the rock episode we had an awesome trip.
The prop shaft was bent to a .149 thousandth’s. My dad was able to get it straightened back to .003 thousandth’s. Took it for a spin on the lake and everything appears to be good to go.We didn’t land a lot of fish in total but a lot of what we caught was in the 24 to 26”. It’s going to be fun when that year class or two is 28 to 30”.
We struggled getting a good consistent pitching bite going. We ended up pulling jigs and paddle tails upstream and slipping the current with a split tail plastic. Unfortunately I didn’t think of using the split tail until an hour or so left in the day yesterday.We had a blast camping with Bearcat, his son and friends. I am already looking forward till next year.
I couldn’t believe how few of boats there was there this morning when we left.
How did you straighten the prop shaft? I hit a rock at about 5 mph 2 falls ago and the stainless prop bent the shaft. Insurance paid about $6k for a new lower unit and I bought it back for $75. Would be nice to get it good enough to be a spare.
Location?
I had one of the Larson FX2020’s. Awesome boat but it wouldn’t hold up to big water fishing. I had that boat for I think 3 years and it never spent a winter in my garage because it was at th factory getting fixed. The last year they took it back they gave me a new boat and I sold it. Currently run a crestliner and couldn’t be more happy with its performance for a tin boat. Will be going back to glass next year though.
Darn! That’s far from me.
Where are you located?
Fished to midnight.
Caught so many <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye while sturgeon fishing it made my mind wonder on why we weren’t pulling stick baits after dark. So that’ll be the plan tonight, and if that doesn’t work we will go back to sturgeon fishing. Ended the night with 14 sturgeon few eel pout and a butt load of eyes. Pretty good for a 7pm to midnight fish.
Keep us posted on how that goes. I’ve always thought about if the stick bait at night thing would work like it does at Green Bay. Good luck!
We are going to the Junction for lunch and beers tomorrow, I’ll take a look while I’m over there. Have to get tickets for the sturgeon tournament.
We’ve noticed this too. In all the years we’ve been going up there we’ve only had to go in to pay duty on our extra beer once. Many times we’ve far exceeded the 1 case per person rule and we’re yo front and honest about it and they usually just say thinks, have a good trip.
Went up with a buddy and fished Monday-Wednesday.
As mentioned it was a pretty tough bite. Normally when the water is clean and slower in the spring it’s lights out fishing.
I’ve been fishing the river for 25 years, and the traffic and amount of people just keeps getting worse and worse.
Birchdale used to have a handful of people camping in the old part, now it’s packed end to end all week even with the addition.
When RABCs were required you could have some great spots to yourself, especially mid-week.
Now there’s a dozen boats crammed in the tiny area of the rapids on a fricken Wednesday…
I hate crowds and boat traffic…and it’s seriously gotten ridiculous.
Maybe I’m just getting old, but the river isn’t nearly as fun as it used to be.
I hear ya on that one Bman. The girls don’t want to go this weekend and honestly I’m not that upset about it. I also hate crowds. I think I honestly might be done with the spring thing over there. Tons of fond memories of the past that don’t need to get clouded by what things are like now. Oh the good old days!
Did the Mounties mess with you at all? Saw them buzzing some people in a helicopter which seems pretty over the top and slightly dangerous.
They are ripping up and down the river but we only seen them twice .
As for the bite. The kid stuck 5 in a row yesterday before I was even rigged , thought we were on them but that ended up being a grind. We have definitely worked for our fish. This morning we got on to a nice pod for about a hour at 7am but that went away as fast as we found them. We’ve probably picked up 15 to 20 today but very tough. Down sizing to small jigs and 3 inch plastics. Did hit a big fat 26 but that’s our nicest of the trip so far. I think I’ve fished every color combo jigs and plastics i have. Hopefully it turns around. We have kept to the mn side because we keep forgetting to drop the minnow bait station off at camp. But tomorrow we are going to remember and fish the other side.
We are drying up right now and then headed out for a sturgeon excursion this evening. This snow is extra wet lol
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Thanks for the report BC. I’m trying to talk my girls into going this weekend but they aren’t really having it at this point. Mom hates the parking situation and the 5 year old would rather go ice fishing so I’m kinda out voted at this point. We get checked out by the helicopter nearly every time we are on the ice. They keep pretty close tabs on things.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
You guys that have trailer breaks carry a pre greased hub ?I carry a whole hub as a spare vs bearings and grease and what not.
I assume these are not what you are thinking Andy…they are talking about bearing and hubs for bearing buddy type systems. Not oil bath systems like on a ranger trailer.
For some reason in my mind when I posted this I thought the rotor and hub were all one piece on the ranger systems . Definitely two separate . If I was going to carry a spare I’d just use grease pound a cap on till I got home and re assessed.
No hate here with bearing buddy’s – just don’t reuse them . Then they’ll fly off.
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I didn’t know they were a one time use way over priced item. I think I dislike them even more now. What makes them a one time use thing if you don’t mind me asking?
I hate those bearing buddies so much I’m about ready to take the leap and go to oil bath hubs. When I’m beating on something at work with a hammer and it’s being stubborn, I picture what I’m hitting as a bearing buddy and I can swing 10 times harder.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>chuck100 wrote:</div>
What if the bearing race or races are welded to the spindle from over heating?How do you just put the hub on?Then you’re just plain screwed.
Cut off wheel and a chisel and a punch would give you a fighting chance. When I’m pulling the boat I have a tool box I always toss in the box of the truck just incase. No offense towards anyone but if your bringing you boat in to get the bearings done there’s pretty much zero chance your going to learn how to do it on the side of the road. It’s definitely a good skill to learn and get good at.
A few thoughts and recommendations of mine. My trailer has disc brakes on it so unless you are prepared and have the correct tools, there’s some odd ones you’ll be screwed. I always have all the stuff and am prepared for the worst but it’s never happened. Carry one of the small floor jacks with you. This is a life saver if you have the tools and know how to do the job. As mentioned above if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Most of the time unless you know what you’re doing and are good at it you’ll do more harm than good. I recommend jacking up each tire off the ground and spin it and wiggle it to check for excessive play or a rough sound. Lastly am I the only one that absolutely hates bearing buddies? I think it’s the stupidest most pointless invention ever created that causes 100 more times damage than what they prevent. My last trailer and everything else I own has the ez lube hubs and those get the job done the way it should work. I can’t count how many times I’ve had those stupid bearing buddies come off and make a huge mess and let all the grease out and then on top of it if you don’t notice it before you put the boat in your $hit is filled with water. Ok rant over. Hopefully I helped someone out a little.
I can feel your pain dealing with that trailer. My ice castle is an absolute pain in the a$$ to deal with sometimes. Most of the time it’s coming off instead of going on though. Once you get to know the trailer you’ll figure it out. Seems like every one has their own little quirks or tricks but once you figure it out you’ll be set.
Hopefully this isn’t the case. Once in a while I like to read through the bold stuff, especially the Red Lake stuff and the cooking/recipe pages. Hopefully if it’s gone from here somebody has it saved somewhere somehow.
We fished Rainy last Friday and Saturday. Zero melting there yet. Can still burry the SM40 right to the head.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>
They were reintroduced in the 1970’s by the DNR… and yes, the NWTF did raise and release thousands through the 1990’s to present day. The definitely are not “invasive”… like the Ring Neck Pheasant, which was brought from Asia to the Americas.I have never heard this part about raising and releasing turkey’s in MN and not sure I believe it. The turkeys released in MN were wild birds captured from MO with rocket nets and exchanged for ruffled grouse. The general stance of wildlife biologists is that turkeys incubated and raised by man don’t make it in the wild. The only exception to this is a population of birds in Michigan. I’ve heard this several times over the years from people. They will have a story that the neighbor bought some turkey chicks, raised them for a few months and then let em run free, and now there’s a bunch of wild turkeys in the neighborhood. A very dubious claim. Pen reared birds are too dumb to evade predators and survive in the wild.
I’d be curious to see their records on where they release their birds. Just a quick search shows they have big events where they release turkeys. The ones around here definitely act a little different than say what a normal turkey should act, I’d think anyway. There’s definitely several flocks that seem to just appear out of nowhere and they just hang out on the side of the road all summer like they are lost. Lots of them get hit by cars. There were one of those weird groups of birds by where I work last summer and a few guys did major damage to their vehicles hitting them. They disappeared once it started snowing but last summer 9 out of 10 times I’d go to town there was a dozen turkeys standing on the side of the road in the exact same spot and this is a major highway. I do know for a fact that they can survive in the wild after being pen raised because our neighbors had one get out and we’d see it all the time grouse hunting and it pops up on trail cameras once in a while. Again not putting anyone down or trying to offend anyone. Just some of the suspicions and observations I see with the turkeys up here.
Has the coyote population been going down?
I guess roosting in trees helps them evade the yotes.
But they are way easier to shoot out of a tree.
I would not do that. The sport track will not be strong enough to maintain the stability over time.
This! I wouldn’t put a cup holder in those sport tracks. They aren’t made to be used as advertised.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fins wrote:</div>
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>grubson wrote:</div>
Walleyesforme/ Fins
You’re wrong, a lot of people want them there. Myself included. It’s a great edition to the area. We have a great time at turkey camp up north and are relatively successful. You can’t say that about the deer hunting anymore.
Id love to learn more about when, where, and how many turkeys have been transplanted into northern mn. I honestly do not know. You seem to know, let’s here it. They’ve definitely made there way north at a fast pace. We see them all the way up 53 to the Ash River trail.
Do you feel the same way about whitetail? Remember they’re not native to Northern mn either.
How about pheasants? They’re the most adored and protected invasive specie ever.The most protected invasive species would have to be the turkey. Short season and you can only shoot one? I’m done here. My opinion or the opinion of the good majority of northern Minnesota obviously doesn’t matter on a thread like this.
Your opinion absolutely matters, so does EVERYONE’S.
You can’t possibly be speaking for the majority of northern mn. You’re just being ignorant and arrogant if you think you are. You didn’t even attempt to answer my questions. You make statements as facts but have no facts.
As soon as someone disagrees with you, you either get nasty or whine and leave. Probably why you were booted in the first place. Grow up.
No I just have more constructive things to do than argue with someone about some stupid bird. I got nothing against the people that hunt them the only thing I wish is they’d kill more.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bass Pundit wrote:</div>
WI used to open bass season the first Saturday in May with the rest of the gamefish.I know. That’s exactly what I’m saying.
Thumper said they always used to “open way earlier.” A week is not way earlier.
A little simple math and a history lesson goes a long ways. Maybe you should try both before you start flapping your jaws.
Another creature I think there should be a daily limit on. They serve zero purpose in nature besides wrecking stuff.
And if you can, give someone a ride.
Okay. Since this post is way off topic here goes. How about the Sushi place in Baudette? Anyone try that yet? It must be authentic and fresh, Right?
Talked myself into it. Will have to give it a try tonight.
Some of our friends have a seasonal spot at Morris point so they are up there a lot and they are always talking about that sushi place. They love it.
