Thanks for all the replies! The Mako looks like a good deal – seems really cheap for what you get and a great price at Fleet Farm! Any other feedback on the Mako? Anyone seen it run side by side to a Strikemaster? Does look like it is about 5-6 lbs heavery and larger profile.
Thanks for posting John! We ended up going to P12 at Dubuque – first time fishing that pool. Didn’t really know what we were doing/where we were going so just went from wingdam to wingdam pitching jigs. Also trolled cranks on the wingdams but didn’t have any luck. Tried to find some on outside bends with current but was very surprised at how little flow there is right now.
The bite was pretty slow for us – ended up with 8 fish on Saturday with the largest being 21″ and only 2 shorts today…however the drum made sure that we donated our share of crawlers this weekend 
. Was still nice to try somewhere new and was a neat area. Guess there is always next time!
-Mark Krakau
Thanks for the reply Riverking. Planning to hit the river for sure….just need to decide which pool! Good luck this weekend everyone!
I’ll give that a try. Do you know if the GPS has to have a signal in order to update? I did the update in my garage and might have to pull it outside.
The files are definitely on the SD card and was able to pull them up on the machine but couldn’t get them to start manually.
Nick – I cruised around on Lowrance’s site and couldn’t find the instructions. Any pointers on where to look? Thanks!
Impressive pics/reports as always! We just got back from a few days on Rainy (Daze – we were the guys at the bait shop/gas station. My buddy was inquiring on a big ice trip). We struggled to get on numbers of fish but probably made the mistake that you outlined by not fishing water temps enough. We did slow the presentations down and spent a good amount of time rigging but caught almost as many covering water and picking up the active fish on spinners. Only decent bite we could put together was an evening slip bobber bite on shallow rock piles.
Spent most of our time around Saginaw Bay as well as a day at Kettle Falls. Would certainly look for an area with warmer water at least close by if I was to do it over again.
Was my first time at Rainy – sure is a beautiful lake and an amazing amount of structure! The camping set-up is really neat, although a little chilly the past few days!! I’ll be back to get even with them! 
Looking forward to the reports!! Some good sticks going to be on the water the next few days….leave some for us!
Some nice fish!
We didn’t do as well in terms of quality. Caught LOTS of fish at night that were anywhere from 8-13″. Frustrating after awhile. Did manage a few keepers, a couple of slot fish and a decent smallie.
How deep were you fishing?
Outstanding! Looking forward to those!
Both of your tips are very interesting and informative reads, Jason. Thanks for sharing!
Have you considered a recap of the tournaments with different strategies and your thought process? That would also be very interesting!
I’ve heard about the strong bite at Storm this spring but was a little surprised that there weren’t more limits weighed. Were you catching a lot of slot fish?
Interesting. I had no idea there were updates. Are they updating GPS data?
Thanks for the update, Dean! I was really hoping to be up there today and fish through Friday but couldn’t get schedules to align for a last minute trip. I’m hoping things hold out until the end of next week….but think I already know the answer to that 
!
Great info here – Thanks, guys!
Got the boat ready to go tonight. Only a couple more days!
I would recommend mounting it somewhere else. Mine is under the windshield and I have problems picking up a signal when the windshield has any moisture on it.
-Mark Krakau
Planning to head there tomorrow for the first time. Have the rollers calmed down since the last water rise?
Thinking about starting the day with some pitching – any suggestions between wingdams or sand? I’m gathering that the Wisconsin side would be the place to start? Are the wingdams south of the boat ramp in Gutt. any good? Thanks!
-Mark Krakau
I believe this is the tournament that you are referring to, Jason.
http://www.binningoutdoors.com/secure-binningoutdoors/Downloads/2009springentry.pdf
Was up at P4 Mon PM, Tuesday, and Wed AM as well. My buddy, Ryan, came down from Mpls and we had positive results. Didn’t give the pitching bite as much time as I had intended, but did very well fishing vertical with ringworms. Firecracker chartruese and Redneck Cracker both produced very well. Oystershell also had its place during the peak sunlight.
Caught fish in every place we stopped. Only spent about an hour up by the dam. Was nice to avoid the crowds and still catch plenty of fish. Probably ended up with 70+ fish for a total of 2 days fishing….no monsters, but hard to complain about those results!
Thanks for all of the tips and hospitality, Dean! Hope you get that buck yet! 
I’ll be up there around 11-12. I’ll be staying at Eddy’s since the Red Door was full. Would probably be smart to get a couple hours of sleep before we fish until sunrise…but will probably be too excited to do that!
Not sure if we should fish St. Albans or up by the Red Door. Any suggestions? Can’t wait to hit the water!!
Weather.com is showing the wind to die off tomorrow night. That is a very long drive to not be able to get on the lake!
I’ll be in a black/silver Alumacraft TP175 with Merc’s on the back. Hope to see you up there!
Quote:
I wouldn’t hesitate to start my night of fishing at midnight with the plan to fish until sunrise.
That might be all that I needed to hear! Thanks for the info fellas…I’m not sure if I’m crazy for thinking about doing this, just stupid or probably a little of both!
Any suggestions on what side of the lake would be best? I’ve only been up there twice and mainly fished around the Red Door and St. Alban’s Bay. Was up the first weekend of October and was a week too early…still caught some nice fish, just not much for numbers.
Good to hear, Dean!
May keep an eye on the water levels and make a last minute decision. I probably have more confidence in catching fish on the pond than in high water on the river….but the thought of catching one of those big mama’s is very tempting!!
Went out of The Red Door all weekend without any problems. Just stay close to the flags until the break and you should be fine. However, a strong south wind might make it tough.
Good stuff! Thanks everyone!
Jack – anything going on slip bobbers in the rocks? Can a guy still get leeches?
Thanks everyone! Hope to hear a couple more reports before we take off.
Anything going during the day???
keepcasting – thanks for the tip on the Cubbies!! Wasn’t real happy about the 9:00 game on Wednesday night when I’m planning to leave early on Thursday morning. 
Stuart – look me up, I hope I have good news for you! We’ll have a tan Silverado with a black/silver Alumacraft TP 175 and a 150 Optimax on the back.
No problem, Doug! Keep an eye on the Mille Lacs forum – they catch some huge fish in the fall up there….just hope I’m able to as well!
Glad to know that I wasn’t the only one that had a tough go of things. Went down Saturday late afternoon and evening with only a couple White’s to show for it. I also was marking nice fish all over. I fished about 30-45 minutes after dark and couldn’t believe the amount of baitfish that were jumping all over the surface…..thought that I might be getting into something but wasn’t the case. Heading to Mille Lacs next Thursday and hoping for MUCH better luck!
-Mark Krakau
WOW!! Thank you for all of the responses!
Traumatized – We do have a 9.9 Pro Kicker, so should be able to troll at the necessary speeds. Since we’re going to be out there at the same time – let’s hope the weather cooperates. If we end up staying on the main land, would it be tough to catch a ferry to the islands so we could still fish? I see you’re from Iowa as well…If you see a silver/black Alumacraft with an IA registration make sure to flag me down!
Ranger Walleye – thank you very much for the offer! We’ll have to keep in touch as time gets closer. By the way, a 33′ Sportcraft is not a boat….it’s a ship!! I’m leaning towards staying around Wild Wings, Camp Perry or Turtle Creek and figured I could always drive to Catawaba and launch there or catch a ferry to the islands??
Was up on Pool 4 Thursday PM through Saturday AM and thought I would post a report.
As I mentioned before, I’m not much of a river fisherman. In fact, only fished the river a couple times and was limited to pulling cranks over wingdams in the summer. This was a total different experience.
We launched out of Evert’s and was able to meet Dean prior to heading out. It was great meeting you Dean, thanks for all of your help!
I guess that we had mixed results in the end. We did catch some fish, but certainly nothing to brag about. I think that we ended up with the following counts: Thurs – 7, Fri – 7 and Sat – 0 (we only fished for a couple of hours and had to hit the road). It sounded like some people really got into them early and late, we probably should have hit the water an hour or two earlier than we did each day and weren’t so fortunate with the evening bite.
We spent most of the time dragging ringworms with 3/32 or 1/8oz. jigs in 15-20′ of water and moved a little shallower at night around 10′. Spent most of the time moving at .6 mph according the GPS and slipping with the current.
I guess that there was a little bit of a learning curve associated with this style of fishing for the first time and I would certainly do things a little different next time. I know that there were fish there (we dropped an Aqua View and were amazed at what we saw!). Probably should have switched up speeds/jig weights/colors more often to try and find a combo that worked and also varied our depths more to find active fish. We could have fished deeper water and caught small sauger all day, but that wasn’t what we were after.
Any suggestions that might have increased our results? Overall, I enjoyed experiencing a new area and would like to give it another shot sometime. Who knows, if the bite takes off and my schedule allows I might just be back up in a couple of weeks?
Thanks for the reply Dean. See you on Thursday!
