The big silver fish, steelhead, really like 40 degree water temperatures. The little silver fish, smelt, want it a couple degrees warmer than that. Upcoming sunshine and warmer nights should help.

We have 50 taps out about 45 minutes Northeast of Duluth. 90 gallons for the year so far, has been cooking all night and expect to finish about two and a half gallons out of this. Constantly adding fresh sap to boiling sap. once done I will leave it in a refrigerator in a bucket for a couple weeks to settle out all the sediment. Much much easier than filtering.

Replaced the transom in my 2000 Lund Alaskan with a composite product called Coosa board. Not cheap, but it will also never rot. There is also a portable mix called Seacast that you could look into. process seemed easy, but price was going to be comparable given the size of my transom void. Coosa was very easy to work with.

aluminum honeycomb would be awesome… But we would see a respective raising in price as well.

All speculation. I live a mile and a half from the lake, and have been on it almost everyday this week. No telling what will happen after the wind and the rain. I would guess there will be fishable ice somewhere on our side, if not lots of places. Time will tell once this crap subsides.

Lots of fish chasing baits along the bottom today. Fighting, not so much.

Over 65 not needed. Under 18 not needed. Fishing with a 24-hour or 72-hour license, not needed. Fishing with a special angling license, not needed. But for most of us out here, those anglers with an annual license, ages 18 to 64, need a Minnesota trout stamp.

Yes, angling in Minnesota Waters requires a Minnesota trout stamp. Also, no limit on ciscoes in Minnesota Waters.

To be clear, whitefish have a downturned mouth (think sucker-like), while Ciscoes (aka lake herring, tullibees, etc) have a more upturned mouth (pouty). Different nostril flaps between round (1) and lake (2) whitefish…

I have heard rumor of whitefish caught in Pigeon bay, but never tried it. That would be fun!

I live in Two Harbors and fished the past few days. Ok ice, slow fishing. A few cohos around, some schools of Cisco (Herring) and a couple Lakers caught on the bottom. Weather change should hopefully bring better fishing, but also maybe a bad wind for the ice.

Upturned mouth vs downturned mouth for difference in whitefish vs Cisco. Bloaters are not ciscoes. Whitefish are rare on North shore. Schools suspended with cohos are ciscoes (Herring or blue herring locally) not whitefish.
Coregonus artedi: Cisco, herring, tullibee,
Coregonus hoyi; bloater (very small,8-9 inch max)
Coregonus clupeaformis; lake whitefish, bigger and rare on MN side
Prosopium cylindraceum: round whitefish, more common in MN waters but pretty rarely caught unless anglers get access to shallow flats.

If you catch a whitefish on the MN side, esp up the shore, chances are it is a round whitefish (Menominee) and not a lake whitefish like they catch in Chequamegon. A few lake whitefish show up but not many. The ‘herring’ caught are ciscoes, same species as tullibees inland. Very tasty and very fun when you get into them.

Whitefish- downturned ‘sucker’ like mouth. Cisco/herring/tullibee (same fish)- upturned ‘pouty’ mouth. Whitefish are better eating, but both great for smoking, frying, fish cakes, etc fresh. Whitefish bruise very easily: I’ve found that a quick thump on the head right away keeps them from flopping on the ice and ruining meat. Ciscos get a lot of worms depending on the lake they are in.

I have a foot long chunk of 4×4 lumber in the bed of my truck on the drivers side. As soon as I park in the water, that goes behind a wheel. I’ve personally witnessed three vehicles in the water at a non-crazy-busy MN access. I don’t want to be the 4th…

So let me get this straight. Sounds like the CO showed up and did his job exactly as we expect him to, and you are taking to the internet to curse him and call him names over his proper use of a flashlight? You even said that the contact was pleasant, and yet you’re here behind his back trying to gather the mob of hate for his actions?

I’ve been in law enf for 16 years. There are two things professional officers fear; being ineffective, and not going home safe. Did he shine the beam in your eyes the whole time (not the peripheral, the actual beam)? Highly doubt it, he was looking for your hands and your actions. If the discussion was pleasant, his actions have nothing to do with ‘being a dick’.

He was there to enforce laws. Good to hear he was pleasant, but that’s not required. They are required to be professional. I see a lot of comment replies conflating a ‘pleasant’ contact (ie, one you liked) vs an unpleasant contact (one you didnt) with a ‘professional’ contact. They are not paid by us to praise and converse, so how can we say he should have shown up to BS? He could have stayed in his truck; then you’d be calling him lazy. He could have scratched you a parking ticket (yes, COs do that at accesses and state parks) and you’d curse his discretion. He could have skipped you and instead walked to just the other group, and you’d say he was inefficient.

Your kid gave a kid response. He felt negatively towards a stinulus and voiced his feelings. How about you educate yourself and your kid some more as to how and why officers in any uniform do their job rather than resort to internet insults. I’ve contacted a CO before when I had questions, their info is very easy to find on the web. Why don’t you pick one of the hundred and ask them why a contact went a certain way before name calling and pitchforks? There are quite a few visible in different forms of media, I’m sure one would be happy to explain a few things.

I guess if he had taken the alternative route- leaving a $125 ticket on your windshield when you were close by- you would have been happier? Sounds like he did the job we pay him to do in a pretty fair way.

Financing a toy; that’s why we as a community are in the shape we’re in…. buy for cash, make it what you want it to be,have more pride than debt.

Season dates set by state law established by legislature, not DNR.

I have a Masterbuilt digital electric 30” with their optional external smoke generator. Tons of online forums and info about this inexpensive smoker and recipes to learn from. For $200 you can get the smoker and generator if you shop a little. I can cold smoke cheese at ambient temps, and it held temp smoking outside at 0 degrees this winter. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to start.

Not sure where the confusion is… the CO’s were in agreement. The first confirmed that in Pool 4 you cannot keep a foul-hooked fish. The second included that same info on the border rivers and added in the info about the statewide lakes.

Yep, luckily only outlawed statewide in WI. Most of MN makes sense on that… I suppose the other MN restricted waters are where they border WI and so have to play nice…

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/outdoors/4431557-ask-conservation-officer-when-can-you-keep-foul-hooked-fish

I tap trees about 15 miles inland from Two Harbors. Just tapped trees this week, the latest I have ever tapped. Very little run so far. Still 18 to 20 inches of snow in the woods. Tough year!

Gents, convenient points, but your are leaving out a couple things;

1) JawJacker and downriggers are not ‘exactly’ the same by 90 degrees: the downrigger does typically have the rod bent over and when the line is pulled from the release it does take up slack. However, the line is trailing behind the boat and 90 degrees away from the rod; not a direct ‘hook setting’ device that ‘hooks fish with a spring device’ as the statute says. I have fished extensively with downriggers, and it still requires a hook set in most cases. At typical downriggers depths, a quick trigonometric figuring would show that much of the time the amount of slack taken up by the bend in the rod is equal to or less than the change in the distance between the lure and the point of tension (the release before the strike and the rod after the strike) hence no auto hook set. It is legit to argue that it is very similar, but if so then you could also take it one step farther and say that trolling with a rod that bends also utilizes a spring-like device to hook a fish. This is a whole lot of hootenanny and gibberish, and so brings us to a more simpler point…

2) It is legal/illegal because that’s what the law says. Similar to the debate over deer baiting and food plots, the law specifically prohibits one and not the other. Very similar, yes, but not the same or it would apply.

This brings up a good point; don’t empower the DNR any more than you need to. These laws are passed by the elected state legislature. The DNR gives input, but it is an administrative agency and not a law making body. Sometimes they get what they want, other times they don’t. The only regulations they get to ‘make up’ are those which the Legislature has empowered them to make. Want something different in the law, organize and speak up. If you look at the state statute that prohibits the taking of fish with a spring device (97c.325) you will also find that the law specifically empowers the DNR Commissioner to authorize a recoil device for ice fishing, a la Jaw Jacker. I have used these in neighboring states, and I think there is a very legitimate argument to be made for their use and less swallowed hooks, but that argument needs to be made to the right people, not among those of similar thought.