Love the simplicity of wading! So much quicker to get fishing compared to drive a boat to a launch, pay the launch fee, load the gear, etc.
Went to Luther College (NE Iowa driftless area) and still go back. All you need is shorts, a hoodie, and a beat up pair of tennis shoes to wet wade. PB was a 26” brown there; lots of nice quality fish in that area.
Alot of repeats here, but a 2-3 color SWR is tough to beat and fun to fight fish on! Michigan stinger spoon Jaegerbomb is a favorite spoon of ours.
Thanks for the replies! Yes, we would just be walking on Dells pond. Thinking of going out of McDonough park; looks like some good structure nearby and out of main channel current
Well, appreciate the honest feedback! Doing a little research, Dell’s pond looks interesting. Anybody ever fish that through the ice?
I think I’ll pass on frontenac for tomorrow! 
thanks for the info!
Thanks for the feedback; I followed UNINC’s advice. We’ll see how it goes! I don’t really do any trips where I can’t charge it overnight.
I drove by Nokomis last Sunday and saw two guys fishing about 100 yards off shore near the beach house. Have no idea what ice conditions were like though.
That hasn’t happened yet to me. I probably wouldn’t do it, right before a trip where a large snowfall was forecasted
If it’s not a super long stay, I just park my car 1-2 blocks away from the 50th street lightrail station in residential parking, and then walk to the light rail. It’s about a 10 min light rail ride to the airport from there. I’ve done it about 12 times without any issues.
It’s $12 for non residents; $8 for residents. Nice big lot and docks in as of last Sunday. I assume you can park there after dark.
It’s not too terrible to just take your shoes off, roll your pants up, and get in the water. Wakes you up too. Then leave your boots, socks, and a towel in the boat.
I’m very anti-insurance; as listed above the goal of these companies is to make money. On average, insurance is 80% payout; in the long run for every $1 you give an insurance company, you get 80 cents back. That’s why I like the idea of self insuring; save up money so you have funds to pay the huge vet bill that probably won’t happen but has some chance of occurring.
Now, that being said, there are some situations where a worse case scenario would be catastrophic. (getting diagnosed with cancer, being the cause of a 10 car pileup, having a large mortgage and your house burning down). From those cases, health insurance, car insurance, and home insurance are necessary evils. Still, I like the idea of doing the basic minimums on those.
Thanks! I don’t know; but I think Hudson is the first to close down. Bayport is essentially always open btw.
Thanks! I was pumped. Overall this year even the eaters seem a little chunkier than usual too
I’ll be out Saturday. Haven’t fished in 2 weeks but did get this 26.25” fish last time I was out! 15 fow on a crawler harness
Would be interesting to hear how others are doing too. Moving around to find fish will be tougher with no wake.
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My cabin is in an area that has alot of tick / lyme disease issues, and the 2nd time my dog got Lyme’s disease (we think) I was able to just get the medication without having to pay for a test.
I once did that with Steelhead, and was able to mix it with cream cheese, chopped onion, capers, etc into a pate and it spread out the salt enough.
Another option with the salty grouse would be to make a cream of wild rice soup, with no salt added, and that would dilute the saltiness of the grouse.
I’ll run maybe a 20 ft of leader. 10lb power pro if I’m on the st croix. 12 or 14” flourocarbon Seagar on Lake Superior.
I know the package on a #7 shad rap says 5-11 ft. is the running depth which is quite the range. I’m guessing especially with the lower diameter power pro, the dive is on the higher range of the 5-11 ft so that’s how I came up with 10 ft. I don’t mind being 1-2 ft off the bottom on the st croix trolling lead, and some of my bigger fish seem to come even higher off the bottom.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a fish break my line trolling lead except for maybe a king or on Lake Michigan. I’ve done little barrel swivels which work well; otherwise I’ll tie a connecting knot.
5 colors should be just fine; no reason to have a super big heavy reel that has 10 colors; especially for walleye. I just do 3 colors on a lot of my rods. A few other things:
1. Leadcore will give a different action to lures (especially spoons); always good to have it in your arsenal. Sometimes it will outfish the other rods, sometimes not.
2. I typically like running leadcore straight off the back (no boards), one long rod on each side of the boat, and then run deep diving cranks off mono on the boards.
3. Suffix Advanced leadcore I really would recommend.
4. Leadcore is very speed dependent; going faster or slower will greatly change your depth.
5. When you’re factoring in depth, typically add how much the lure would go down without leadcore. For example, I use suffix advanced leadcore that goes down 7 ft per color. For example, a #7 shadrap will troll about 10 ft down unassisted. If I have 2 colors of lead, my depth is approximately now 10 + 2(7) = 24ft. And yes, to answer your question, 2 colors of lead mean 2 colors totally submerged in the water.
6. You’re not supposed to attach lead directly to a planer board, although I have done so here and there without any line breaks or anything.
They will taste anything between amazing to mediocre depending on how long they have been in this body of water since leaving the hatchery!
I fished out of the Pines this last weekend in a day house Saturday and Sunday. Good times! Lots of perch; yes lots of 5” perch but we caught plenty of 8-12” perch to get meals. 5 slot northern and a 14” walleye so overall not bad! Chad was a big character and great host!
The bay we were in had lots of good ice and no cracks. We were about 2 miles off shore of the pines in 17-18 fow. Sounds like outside of that bay there was a big pressure crack that was spouting water after the heavy winds on Sunday.
Wouldn’t affect me, but I just think of those guys with young families that get to go on 1 or 2 fishing weekends a year. It’d be nice to bring home 6 fish if you’re gone fishing for 2-3 days.
I think 4 fish would make more sense if MN made your possession limit twice your daily limit like WI does.
Average size only 6-12 inches?
Went out for 2 hours after school yesterday, fished 4-6pm trolling #7 shadraps on lead. Anderson pt got us 2 smallmouth, then went into the hudson channel. Managed a 17” and 15” eye, and a white bass. Still a decent amount of floating weeds in the hudson channel which hampered our productivity. Overall a nice evening to be out.
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I don’t really fish the croix August / September. It seems to be hit or miss, with more misses / mediocre walleye fishing than hit (at least for me).
Liking the cooler weather! If I get a chance to get out should be decent fishing now. The rain might help too today/tomorrow
Kinda off topic, but curious what skills / attributes go into being an elite professional tournament fisherman? I’m a high school teacher, and if one of my students said they wanted to play in the nfl and willing to do whatever it takes, I’d be skeptical to say the least on their ability to do so.
On the other hand, what would you say to a high school kid who said the same thing about being an elite bass tournament angler when they grow up? Is that practical? What would you say to them?
I got a 42” on the Croix right where a coldwater stream comes in mid summer. Lot’s of others 30-39” too when looking for cold water inlets mid summer. Metro lakes are harder hit with more pressure so could be harder to find big pike there.
Not in MN, but door county Wisconsin has some of the best smallmouth fishing in the country. I fish Washington Island (season opens July 1st) and it’s so much fun seeing all the fish swimming around in 2-5 feet of crystal clear water
