Thanks for the feedback. Please keep the comments coming.

This is the Thumper Jig.

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Mojo,

Did it matter if you pulled up or down stream? Would you mind saying how fast you were going?

Thanks for the report!

I guess I need to get my chainsaw tune-up.

I just came across a similar story from 2 years ago. There is a nice picture of a young woman with an ice rod fighting a 70-inch sturgeon from the St. Croix River.

stillwatergazette.com/2013/02/15/a-big-fish-tale

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What a great fish. Congratulations to those guy! It is hard to believe that they actually got that fish thru the ice.

I heard that they cut 4 connected holes to get a space large enough to pull it thru the ice. That is a real fish story!

Congratulations boys!

Ed,

Thanks for posting that report. It is really cool to hear that your 93 year old Mother is out fishing, and fishing well. And great job on including the pictures.

What lake did you fish on?

Patrick

In regards to leader and wanting the bait to be on the bottom…I was reading that carp fisherman are into using leadcore leaders to keep the bait on the bottom. Is anyone doing that for sturgeon fishing? Google “leadcore leaders carp” and you will find all kinds of info on that. I am interested to hear if anyone has tried it for sturgeon.

“15 fish 50 or better” in one day? That is putting over 750lbs of fish in the boat, in one day! Wow that is amazing!

I am guessing your wrists are sore from reeling them in, and your backs are sore from lifting all that weight. Sounds like good problems to have.

Thanks for sharing! Keep up the great work.

I fished Th, Fri & Sat. We landed a 29.5″ (I think that came on an orange twister tail- no meat) on Th and a pair of 24’s, along with a few box fish. Some of our guys fished minnows on a jig (3/8). I only fished plastics, yellow/orange core pulsars, and did as good or better than everyone in the group. Dragging them on bottom in 8-11 fow. We also got a picture of a young guy from Albert Lea that was fishing alone and needed some help getting a photo of his trophy walleye, which measured: 32.75″ length x 17.5″ girth. What a great fish!

The walleye fishing go a lot slower on Fri and was dead for us on Sat.

For us the highlight was the sturgeon fishing, the sturgeon fishing was on fire. We fished the deepest holes we could find (21 fow).

Some of the notable fish caught over the weekend
71″ length x 29″ girth sturgeon – Andy Fronek (this one measured larger than the state record)
61″ sturgeon – Austin O’Kane
60″ sturgeon – Austin O’Kane
56″ sturgeon – Patrick O’Kane
55.5″ sturgeon – Tom Wrobel
Plus a handful of other 50″-55″ sturgeon
2 tagged sturgeon (both in the mid 40″s) Pete Brinkman & Joe O’Kane

Side note – I don’t fish with circle hooks, except when fishing in the spring on the Rainy River for sturgeon. Somehow it escaped me that you don’t need to set the hook, as I like to when bass fishing. We lost several sturgeon that first day due to hook sets. Once we just started reeling the line in and let the hook do the setting we started having a ton of fun.

As you can see from the pictures there is still snow on the ground.

You will see a picture in there of a 60″ sturgeon with a great shot of the ice. That is my nephew Austin, who was fishing with his dad (Joe O’Kane). They fought that fish for 30 minutes and when they finally landed and returned the fish to the water they were shocked to realize that they were surrounded by large floating chunks of ice. I understand there where some tense moments as they looked up stream and saw a large volume of ice continuing to come at them. It took them a long time to pick their way out of that ice pack. To say that they feared for their lives is not an exaggeration. I tell that story in the hopes that we can save some other poor souls from making that same mistake.

To end the story on a positive note, Andy tells me that he had never caught a fish large enough to warrant measuring it. So needless to say, landing that giant sturgeon was a real shocker. Way to go Andy!

What a great fishery! I can not wait to get back up there.

What do you think that deer condo cost you to make?

Chomps – When are you going out there to go ice fishing? Have you done the early spring fishing out there?

Did not hear the owl. The perch tasted amazing. My wife cooked it up in beer batter and what did not get eaten the other night was eaten the next day as left overs. It is all gone. I would love to go back for seconds this weekend.

Q was so helpful. The guy really wants to see you catching fish. I look forward to meeting him at some point.

Here are some pictures of the fish from our trip to Webster.

A few years back I got on a good perch bite in Isle Bay. There we maybe 20 boats stacked up in 7 feet of water in Isle bay fishing perch that fall day. That was so much fun I have always wanted to do that again. Does anyone know if that fall perch bite is, or did, happen in Isle Bay this year?

In the spring we have had good luck using plastics. Is anyone having luck using plastics in the fall? It also seems like everyone is fishing the deep holes in the fall. Is there any shallow shoreline bite like we have seen in the spring?
Thanks for your feedback!

Nate,

Did you fish the shore line in 5-9 feet, or did you look for shallow reefs? What time did you fish?

Patrick

Four of us are thinking of going out to the Waubay area the weekend of the 14th or 21st of Sept. Can you recommend any places to say? We are interested in fishing for whatever is biting best.

Brad,

Great info as always!

Would happen to have a diagram showing what you mean by this statement?

“This is where segmented lead core comes in. You have a leader then splice in your lead core (3-5 colors) then tie that onto braid or mono which goes back to your reel. You then attach the planerboard right after the lead core on the braid or mono line. Only drawback is that you are pretty much locked into that lead core depth (3, 4 or 5 colors). You can gain some depth by attaching the planer board further away from the lead core line but it’s hard to be consistent.”

Thanks

Eye, How much did that amazing cover cost you?

joshmarkell1 – welcome to IDO

Clementson’s Resort has done us all a great favor by documenting on their web site the history of ice-out on the Rainy River over the past several years. A review of that history looks to me like it typically takes about 1 week from the time the first small boats get pushed across the ice until the large boats are rolling down the ramp and into the open water. With Temps in the 40’s up there the next 3 days we should see a major change n the ice. We are getting close now.

Is the dubuque rig legal on inland lakes or up on the Rainy River?

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I have 10 – 12 year old Sedonas for half the price that still work flawlessly.

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Hi James – Thanks for the feedback. Which model of the Shimano Sedona are you fishing the Pulsars with?

Got to love the Rainy River. And how about the Lil’ Chief, he is very excited about hooking up with the monster of the deep.

T Ellis That fish is huge. Nice job!

“protective covers for the transducer on 1198”
I had someone suggest to me that the hbird 1198 transducers might need a protective cover to avoid damage. Does that make any sense? Does that go for both the standard transducer and the high speed transducer?

Kroger3 & Onestout – I was looking up the Trollmaster on-line and came across a similar product called the iTroll. Have you heard of it?

Do you have any screen shots you could share to help advance my interpretation skills? How are you using your 1198’s? What screens do you use the most?

Dumb question time. What is the benefit or drawback of Ethernet capable units?

Tom – thanks for directing me to bassboatcentral.com
They have some stuff on understanding the images. That is very helpful. Do you typically run your 1198 in 80kHz and then switch to 200kHz to see how far the fish are from the boat? Have you used the FishID+ feature? The DualBeam Plus feature (which shows fish Icons in Orange for narrow beam and blue for wide beam) seems like it might be helpful for a newbie like me.
Irishman

Hello Jeff,

Thank you for reach out on this web site for prayers for your granddaughter. Your leap of faith to ask for prayers in your troubled time is a witness to the multitude of men that visit this site daily. I am personally encouraged by the number of people eager to hold you and your family up in prayer. I am also praying for you and your granddaughter.

Patrick

Thanks for the quick reply. I have an old Lowrance GPS depth finder. And I have a Trolling motor. But I don’t have the Minnkota iPilot Terrova with spot lock/anchor feature. I fished with a buddy last spring on the Rainy River and that anchor feature was sweet. So my first purchase this spring is going to be the iPilot Terrova. With an 18 foot boat will a 2-battery unit work for that boat or do I need the 3 battery unit? (The current trolling motor has 2-batteries. Not sure where I would put the 3rd battery.)

But the next item is the upgraded Hummingbird unit. I was fishing next to a boat on the Rainy River that seemed to be able to see the fish off to the side of them, on the river. They had a huge display on the dash of the boat. Some people have been telling me that you can not see the fish on these units, because the rivers have to much debris in them.

I talked to that boat and they sure sounded like they were seeing the fish. I did not get the make and model of the unit they were using, which was a big mistake.

What situations are you using these units in (Humminbird 798 si)? (i.e. rivers, deep lake water vs. dock fishing, seeing across sandy flats…)
When is side imaging helpful?
What is the best benefit of HD?
Are you a able to pickout the fish?
See schools of bait fish vs larger fish?

Did you say that the Minnkota iPilot Terrova will link with the Humminbird 798 si? What is the benefit of that? Does it have to do with following contours, reversing course, returning to a waypoint?

Thanks for your advice!