Everything written by Brad Durick. That information applies to all species scales or no scales.

I ordered his books thanks for the advice!

Thanks a lot Steve! I an totally obsessed with these flatheads now its basically all I can think about!

Took my 3 year old son out tonight and we had 3 bites but couldn’t close the deal. Pretty encouraging for a new to me spot.

Hope your luck turns around soon. Judging by my some of your old posts on IDO looks like your a cat veteran! I’m sure it wont be too long till your slinging 40lbers in the boat!

Thanks for all the advice fishblood! What title would you say is in your opinion a for sure must read for a newbie?

Thanks for the advice! For bait I’ve been using suckers and cut sheep was hoping to get some bullheads before tomorrow. Overall sounds like I’m on the right track as my program was similiar to yours only at night and my plan is to get out during the day tomorrow. Would you say I would be better off on the mn for #’s of good fish? I know there is big fish in all three of the rivers so just trying to increase my odds as much as possible for now. Any particular reason for the cut vs. Live?

Good day for us on Saturday north of the dam. Current was ripping, water temps started out around 43 and up to 47 by the end of the day. we fished current breaks and a mix of pulse-r’s and chubs. Buddies have all the pics on their phones yet but ended up with 4 over 20 all prespawn and so fat! Of course all the big mamas are still swimming, 4 eaters under 20. A couple hamerhandle snakes and a sweet looking sucker. Weird that everyone seemed to have the opposite amount of success. Although all the fish came from a 1/2 mile section of the river. Sometimes the stars align.

Mother nature pretty much made a fool of us this weekend. Between all the ice, the temps, then the wind on Saturday, it was damn near impossible to fish. We did manage two slot fish during a couple hour stint where the ice cleared and the sun was out on friday evening out of frontier. Sportsmans was nice and let us cancel our reservation on Saturday, and we got to meet Chris Granrud at the Birchdale access which was cool. Chris even said he was giving up after an hour and a half because it was just treacherous so I dont feel to bad about being discouraged. None the less we had a good time and as always it was a learning experience.

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Things are shaping up for next weekend it looks like! This will be our first go at it. I’m beyond excited!

I love mine for early ice, way better than lugging around a gas auger and it works real good as far as hand augers go. I busted out the gas auger now but it’ll be out early ice next year again.

I seriously appreciate all of the info guys! As I have been shopping around online I’ve ran into a few things holding me up from buying anything. Since I’m kind of picky I don’t just want to order a kit and I’ve found certain things from different websites that I want. For example I’m gonna start with a Bass Khang carbon walleye blank because they are very economically priced, however I found a nice handle kit from Netcraft I’m not 100% if they will fit together. The handle bore is .250 inches and the blank is 5mm at the butt, so roughly .197 inches. Smaller but is there something i need to do to make them work or just epoxy would be fine? Nextly, as far as guides go I really don’t know what I should be looking at for sizes, if any of you guys have input from personal experience with the guide sizes I’d love to hear it, also do I need a tip top? Or can I just tie a smaller guide on at the end of the rod? Thanks for any help!

Thanks for the info Joe, I just found the DH website and the prices aren’t terrible. I think I will probably start there. I did make one ice rod back in high school and found it to be tedious work but very satisfying when you have a finished product, so I think I could get into it. At thia point I cant think of any specific questions, although i’m sure I will later. I appreciate the info and assistance!

Thanks for the report Steve. All very true you have to stay moving to keep on those active fish, for the most part. We were up out of Garrison Saturday all day fished from Sun up till sun down and we landed 5. Weather was nasty and ill be the first to admit that I spent sometime in the warm shack but I did plenty of running around outside and that’s where I got into the best 2 fish for the day. A long skinny 29″er and a chunk of a 24″er. Nice to get out and put a few topside anyways!

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I have never used a guide up there but have contacted Ben @ Ely Ice Guides @blputnam with questions before and gotten very prompt and generous information he seems like a great guy not sure if he chases any whitefish but I know he does some laker fishing. Looks like his website is down but Google it or they have a facebook page too, or send him a message on here. Regardless he is the guy I would call and if he cant help directly I’m sure he cant point you in the right direction. Either that or try Rob Nelson @ Ely fishing guides also a good guy and should be helpful. Good luck and tightlines. Feel free to. Post an update with some fish pictures when you do get into them

Ron wrote:

I can’t help much with fishing advice as I’ve only been to Rainy 3 or 4 times and never hit a hot bite. But there’s lots of water available, and you should have plenty of company that weekend. Your Navionics should work fine. GPS doesn’t need phone service to work, it’s satellite based. But it can draw down your phone battery fast, so make sure you have a way to recharge it. Phone service in the Dryweed Island area should be good anyway; it’s not that far from the Falls. Rainy has lots of rocks and they aren’t all marked. My rule is if you’re in less than 20 feet be careful. If you’re in less than 10 feet be paranoid. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice and information ron! I will be very cautious in shallow water and I will be sure to have a couple battery packs to charge the phone up too! Much appreciated!

Great job on the video and some really stellar fish! I’ve been chomping at the bit to get down there all season but I’m currently limited to driving the truck, just wondering if you have an ice report that would be awesome.

Haha well never hurts to try. Now that you mention it I do recall struggling dragging it out once there was snow on the ground. Maybe i ahould look for a hub. Anyways thanks man ill get back to you if anything changes.

Yeah that’s not too far from me, i’m not 100% sure yet if I’ll be able to do it yet. You wouldn’t be interested in trading for an Otter cabin Xt new last year has the bench seat, also has cover, plus cash on my end? That’s the step down in size from the lodge and its not the pro just the xt. I just need something bigger now that I have the kid. I was planning on just selling it but figured I would see if your interested.

Oh thats quite a haul, i live in buffalo, I dont suppose there would be someway to meet up closer to the cities?

I’n interested, Where are you located?

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Hi Jesse,

I haven’t targeted them in the winter either.
But I can get someone on that has! @nickcox

Keep in mind that WI has not opened a catch and release season on Sturgeon yet although it should be coming sometime this year. There’s plenty of places to fish on the MN half of the river that won’t have the risk of a CO stopping by.

Here’s a video of a sturgeon nut that might surpass me in the love of sturgeon and sturgeon fishing. Should give you some tips.

<div class=”oembed-wrap”><div class=”fluid-width-video-wrapper” style=”padding-top: 56.23529411764706%;”><iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/_05v2BbNck0?feature=oembed&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” id=”fitvid558534″></iframe></div></div>
“We had a great night out on the ice. Fished for about 5 hours and caught 35 sturgeon. Biggest one was 50.5″.”

Brian,
Thanks for the info and advice!
And yeah i have eatched the videos and it seems like Brad and Darren are probably the most knowledgeable on targeting sturgeon through the ice. I wasnt aware that you had to be on the Minnesota side of the river to technically be “legal”. I guess I was under the impression that since I have a valid Mn fishing license that the Mn seasons apply to either side of the river.. Sounds like I better do some reading!