What a weekend for crazy weather. Friday I’m sweating to death and last night I’m on the lake with my ice fishing clothes. The fishing has picked up on the big lake. The lake was very busy all weekend and so were the bugs.
I spent most of Sat and Sun with the family doing 4th of July stuff. I took out a few family members to fish some pike and we had decent success casting Scenic Tackle Firetiger spoons in the cabbage weeds. We boated 5 fish on Sunday between 28 and 34 inches with one large Muskie follow. I think we could have pulled some bigger fish if there wasnt so much traffic in the bay. Lots of jet ski’s running right over the cabbage beds. Yesterday was the day to be on the lake. Overcast and cold winds from the NE kept most traffic off the lake. Casting spoons for pike produced a few more fish but they were the same size class as we caught on Sunday. We casted spoons until about 5:30pm and then headed to some shallow rock humps that I had not fished before. With a steady and gusty NE wind, I wanted to target a shallow rock hump that I had always gazed at on the map but never fished it. I knew the wind would be ripping across the top of the hump and I couldnt resist giving it a try. It was early in the evening so we had nothing to lose to give it a shot.
My sister and I got set up around 6pm. I anchored up just north of the hump and let out enough rope to hold us just north of the top of the hump so we could let our bobbers drift right across the top of the hump.When fishing unknown structure like this, its very important not to run your boat across these humps thinking your going to mark fish. Most of the time your viewing angle on your locator will not mark too many fish in water less than 10 feet or so. The Vexilar Edge does have a very wide cone that will mark fish in very shallow water, but I mainly use this feature when trolling crank baits. My main concern was getting properly anchored and not spooking fish. The hump that we were fishing is extremely small. But it tops out at 13 feet and holds a very nice edge all the way around it in 16 feet of water, then what you want to look for is adjacent deep water. 25 feet of basin water is located within a 200 feet of this hump which is perfect. We got the lines set up. Scenic Tackle 1/32 oz jigs in yellow and orange fished under Everlasting Slip Bobbers. We were using 7 foot St.Croix Premier rods and Bass Pro Shops spinning reels with extra long spools filled with 10 pound Stren Magna-Thin green mono.
I tossed out my sisters line, then got mine out. I didnt have time to sit down and my bobber was gone. I set into the fish and knew right away it was a pig. Kinda like hooking into a tire. Ive caught hundreds of lake Mille lacs walleyes in the 27 inch class on slip bobbers when I was driving charter boats. You tend to develop a feel and know right away when you set the hook and begin to reel. We got the fish almost up to take a look at her and she came unhooked. My leech was still on my jig and I just knew there were more right were she came from. I tossed it back right in the same spot and that bobber was gone. This time a nice 18 incher came to the boat. Then my sister’s bobber was gone, I got her 24 incher in the boat and got the lines back out. 30 seconds later, both bobbers were down again. Two more nice slot fish. Then I noticed the wind was really rolling into us. Large waves were really rocking us hard. The bobbers were coming into the back of the boat and I knew we were dragging bottom. A quick look at the GPS and we were sitting right were our bobbers were. I decided to just stay put as the anchor hooked up on some rock. My Vexilar Edge showed some very soft bottom aroung this rock hump and I kinda knew it might drag with the rolling waves that were coming in. Our bite stopped as fast as it started. We pulled anchor and tried to respot ourselves. We got right back in the same spot and waited over an hour for the next bobber to go down but I think we pushed them fish off the hump or they decided to head for another area to feed. Wrapped in ice fishing clothes, a ski mask and gloves, my sis had enough coming from New Orleans. And she picked this weekend to come thinking it would be warm.. HA.. Not in Minnesota.
No pictures on this report. We took pics but will not be able to post them until next week……
Derek.
Great post. It sounded like a lot of fun. I’m hoping to do some slip bobber fishing. Actually any fishing that doesn’t involve planer boards (we’re not set up for that in the least). God willing, we’ll find a similar spot.
Great report Derek,sounds like a fun time.
Ryan Hale
Last nite went out on a launch on the west side. Took my mother out for her annual Mille Lacs trip. One nice day for the week, thought we may have fun……..no. What we had was a bug hatch of biblical proportions. Trichlorithodes by the billions… I had to put on my rain coat and hood to be able to see my bobber. Green Drakes, brown hendricksons, black caddis, tan caddis………ok I am a fly fisher too, but holey cow the bugs. Mom caught one dink wally and we got a cpl nice big perch. Bonding time between mother and son……..
Always great to get out with Ma.. What launch did you go out of?