This thread is a perfect example of why I come to this website less and less… good grief

I have found myself going flat iron more and more. Seared in cast iron with a bit of oil, flip and add butter, rosemary, and garlic. spoon over the top. Cut across the grain… I’d put that up against a strip or ribeye any day

A wise man once told me, “Don’t argue with a fool. Because people watching may not know which person is the fool”

Wow… this thread is sure… interesting.

Joe Dirty wrote:

I picked up a weird trout jig at Walmart a month ago because it looked interesting. Was pink and had 2 little fingers for the tail. Tried it out that day and the crappies SLAMMED it! I used it a couple weeks later and had some decent success.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing to see here folks

Better to be lucky than good sometimes! Fun playing as usual. Thanks everyone!

I hope he’s not tired from carrying my team all year. Because the rest of my lineup is largely smoke and mirrors.

And to you. It would be cool to go back to back!

GO HAWKS

Is Sindelar playing for Purdue? If he is… I think Purdue wins. If he sits… I think Minnesota wins.

I think its funny the continual shade thrown toward Iowa. No respect. Did you know… that since 2001, Iowa has more wins and top 10 finishes than Michigan and Nebraska. I get it… they’re not sexy, they’re not a blue blood… but they win games.

That being said… injuries and other team dynamics impact matchups throughout the season. If Iowa played Minn tomorrow, I’d say they are a 2 TD favorite. By November 16th when they actually play… its anyone’s guess. The BIG west already looks vastly different than it did in August.

PM sent. Hoping to go back to back!

Thanks fishwater. I tried the link like 3 different ways and none of them worked.

The link I added for the article from Kellen isn’t working. Not sure why

Well the reports about lots of snow etc were not wrong. But we did just fine fishing-wise. Had to cut our time from 3 days to 2 because of the weekend storm so we only fished thur and fri but ended up catching enough perch and gills for everyone to take fish home. Fished Big Stone because that was the easiest access and most consistent bite from all the information we were given. But for now you better have a sled or something with tracks if you’re headed to this area fishing. Or you can walk easily enough. Snow is rock hard on the lakes.

Would love to postpone for a couple weeks but not a possibility with the group. Sounds like a good time though!

My turn to beg for info. Heading out next week. Staying on Waubay for 3.5 days. Sounds like access and mobility are limiting factors… but that is all anyone is talking about. Not much info on the bite. Anything happening?

PS, yes I know this thread is over a year old but… waste not.

Thats what she said…

Sorry had to

Randy, are you going to try some unpainted as is? They look pretty good plain too?

Enough to drive on. So plenty of ice.

I know it gets tough there when there’s deep snow. My guess is O2 related but I don’t have any proof. Went there last Saturday… perch were half way down in 6FOW on the lake and very lethargic. Not a good sign to me when a bottom oriented fish is suspended halfway down.

Who else bet he wasn’t getting the ‘undercam’ back after only putting a few inches of line on there to snag it.

I love Aaron’s work. Quality of the videos is awesome which is why he doesn’t put as much content out. I also like that he makes a point to show proper handling and conservation of fish. Not that others don’t, but he does a nice job of it. He used to have a segment with a biologist talking about the importance of catch and release and fish handling etc and usually showed a trophy fish that was caught and released more than once. Really cool stuff.

Anyone try out his ice fishing gear yet? Frostbite?

I’m not James but… one thing that has helped me a lot is reading a fishes attitude on the flasher. If you watch, you can read the fish’s reaction to your moves. Besides actually practicing… I watched a lot of YouTube videos of underwater footage of fish interacting with the bait. Then I try to imagine when a fish comes in those same moves. When I see a mark on the flasher… quicker moves and more red = good, while slower moves with a weaker signal = bad.

So here is a typical scenario… jigging aggressive waiting for a mark, fish shows up near the bottom and ascends to your bait. You slow your jiggle and begin to raise the lure slowly… standard move. But the fish doesn’t eat, now the game begins. I used to just drop the bait back down to the level slightly above the mark and begin the lift and shake and hope the fish would change its mind. That usually didn’t get the job done. This is where watching underwater footage of how a fish reacts to a bait helps a lot. I saw a lot of times where when the bait fell past the fish that really got their attention. Sometimes they hit it as it falls past or it just helps to turn them on. So I’ve started dropping right past the mark into the bottom, shake it right on the bottom and slowly lift out of the mud. If they don’t take then I give a bigger lift up 1-3 feet. Basically I’m trying to urine them off or shift their attitude from negative or neutral to positive. All the time I’m watching the mark… if the fish starts to move more quickly with one mover or another, than I key on that move and go from there. If they continue to slowly move around, or seem to fade… time to mix it up. I wouldn’t say any one move or series of moves works with every fish… so thats why its important to watch how a fish reacts as you’re moving the bait. I’m no pro… but that has helped me a lot. The IDO episode where James is blasting perch on Devil’s lake a few years ago with the camera is a good place to start.

So here is what I find interesting. We have regs for a reason… because left to their own actions, people will abuse the resource and ruin it. Many want stricter regs to protect the resource… which I agree with. But talking regulation is a polarizing subject. The people that want to loosen the regs are usually the SAME people that the regs are protecting against. So if sportsman… fisherman and hunters… would self regulate their harvest, regardless of the limit then this would be less of an issue. So in other words… just because the flathead limit is 25… realize that I don’t need 25 catfish to feed my family (1 is good actually) and only keep one. Many folks do this already. But most don’t… they keep their limit and say thats what the DNR says they can keep so I’m gonna keep them. Then when a fishery gets hit too hard over a winter or something… its the DNR’s fault for having the limits too high.

These are fantastic btw. THANK YOU IDO STAFF

Chris, spent a fair amount of time out in that area. Bitter and Waubay get the most pressure but are also safe to access because you can follow tracks a lot of times and there is plenty of fish in both to be had. For both lakes, find the deep contour where the break from shore hits the basin and work along it until you find fish. Find a point or inside corner and that will hold them often. Last year we caught crappies, perch, and walleyes along the break. I’ll be heading up there over new years… I’ll probably fish one of those two.

Fishing sloughs or smaller lakes is hit and miss. If you hit, it can be a jackpot… if you miss, its usually a total whiff. So it really comes down to your style and what you and your son like to do.

Here is the live view of Bitter lake. Looks pretty icy. I’m sure there is open water where there are waterfowl keeping it open or current, like culverts coming in, etc. But for the most part, looks like ice

http://www.bitterlakelodge.com/

Had a nice one at 50 yards last night. Beautiful evening

You too brother

Not attacking you gun… but I do get tired of the narrative “the DNR doesn’t know what they’re doing and all they do is waste money.” When in reality… the DNR in your state and mine creates countless opportunities for outdoor recreation for you and me and everyone else on this site. Are they perfect? No. Unfortunately there is a lot of outdoorsmen that share your opinion. Most of the people I know working for the DNR are hunters, fisherman, or at the very least like the outdoors. They make management decisions based on sound science. In situations like CWD, we’re only beginning to understand the disease and managing it is fairly complicated. So you may not agree with their management technique… but they aren’t making it up on the fly to waste money. And continually bashing the one organization that is consistently working to better our natural resources doesn’t do any of us any good. Thus the reason for my response… and I will continue to defend the DNR in most cases because I believe it is self-deprecating not to.

Oh great gun! Than you also know that the primary reason for outbreaks of CWD is largely to be from captive herds of deer and elk. So why not be angry with the primary cause instead of the people trying to help the situation?

Heading out duck hunting tomorrow. But will probably bring the fishin rods to fish for eyes by a culvert or two while out there.

Costco— big box of orange chicken and some fried rice. Cooks in 20minutes on a cookie sheet and the rice cooks in the microwave in 5. Gives everyone enough time to pound a couple cold ones and get ready to eat. One box would be more than enough for 6 guys. Total cost would be like $15