For ski opener, I was able to sneak away for a few hours before a family function. My buddy Al and I debated where to go the night before. Final decision was Minnetonka over French Lake in Faribault. So, we launched the boat at 4:30am and headed to #1 hot spot.
Our game plan was to work some shallow weed beds and shallow shorelines. Our primary focus was west facing bays on the north end of the lake. West facing bays normally warm up faster, as they get the most sun, thus giving you the better early season weed growth.
Presentation started out with my buddy Al working a Top Raider in search of active fish as he was in the bow, running the boat.
I followed up with a Pink 6" Phantom glider. My objective was to focus on the more negative fish that were not intested in Al’s search lure. A Phantom is more of a finesse style bait.
After working the first area for about 30 minutes, I connected!!!! In the subtle light, I seen a flash and the Phantom shot off to the right hard 2 feet. I drilled the hooks home, giving a hook set that would cross eyes on a great white shark…………..Unfortunately for the poor fish, it was just a 3.5lb bass. I felt bad for her, as I had to put her in a neck brace when I released her, but she said thanks for the ride and swam away.
The fish gave a good confidence boost for presentation, as I had planned on running a slow, small bait as very slow speeds. Purpose being cold water, early season, cold spring. These fish were not in the mood to chase fast big baits just yet.
While still working the same weed bed, not much else was happening. So, we pushed shallow, going into 2 fow. After 5 minutes of working my Phantom, just 6" below the surface, I see red fins making its way to the bait. The fish rolled up to the bait, swung around, engulfed it on a downward spike. FISH ON!!!!!!!!! A good battle and a few runs brought in this dandy 43". She was beat up really hard from the spawn, so we did quick hook cuts in the bag, pulled her out, took one pic and dumped her back in the drink to swim away in great health.
After some high-fives and catching my breath again, off we went pounding the same area looking for more fish. Ended up with a nice 7lb pike on the same bait.
All by 7am!!!
After that, we explored some new waters with no prevail. So, off to the "hot spot" that always produces fish for us. Same Phantom brought 5 fish to the boat on follows and I had another nice fish that came unbuttoned after a few seconds of battle. By 10am, the rains were pouring down and we were off the water for the rest of the day.
Great report. I love it when you hear quick pics, keeping the fish in mind
Some of my better eyes and bass come from fishing Musky. That is cool 
Thanks for getting my blood pumping for a trip North 
Nice fish. We gotta hit there and Indy sometime soon.
Told you Kooty, that you should of came along to be net boy!!!
I know Indy, Waconia, White Bear, Bald Eagle and many, many, many more metro lakes host tons of quality muskies.
However, I’m really partial to Tonka. There is so much water to explore and the structure is phenomenol. Currently, I have 7 good “spots” for my milk runs. This is after 4 years of working Tonka for skis. These spots always produce for us every outing.
We will get out there yet. Maybe this weekend or during the week??? Shoot me a pm and we can work out schedules!!!
Way to go Gary!
Too bad mine was bigger! 
How big were the follows you had?
Thanks Mike! (I think???
)
The follows range from high 30s to low 40s. No real “pigs”. That rain was something else!!!! How did you do fishing bass???
Listen here, You’ll be my net beach. I only have one muske spot that I’ve discovered. However some fine folks here have given me coordinates for spots and I fully intend to use them in the near future.
I’m off to Devils for some camping and eyes in the trees this Thursday. I sure hope we find some of those monster pike also. I’m bringing the big boy gear. Then next weekend I’m chasing smallies on the pond. God for forgive!!
I’m guessing I’ll be paying pennance(sp?) to the wife god for a while.
Let’s try some evening, my boat then you can travel light.
Pink?
Very sweet fish!
Great report!
Tuck
Gary,
Decent numbers but the size has been hit and miss. I’ll be out all day tom and plan a report after.
Great report Gary!
I also found my fish to be shallow 2-3 fow and seem to prefer smaller bucktails and presentations. I never boated a fish but had 5 follows on smaller baits.
Brian MN.
YES!!!!
I was a bit skeptical myself about Pink too.
However, after having the opportunity to do some business with Todd Cleveland, owner of Phantom lures, he convinced me that Pink should not be left out of the mix.
I used to be a really big fan (still am I guess) of Reefhawg jerk baits. They have produced many big fish over the years. However, the consistency of the Reefhawg leaves room for desire. I was introduced to the Phantom 2 years ago and fell in love with the performance. They are very easy to use, thus leaving LOTS of room to “work” the lure the way you want.
Probably the biggest part of success with connecting to these negative fish was the ability to twitch the Phantom hard, left to right, probably a 240 degree swing. When twitching to this level, the lure has very short glide path. I was probably twitching the 6″ Phantom in a 14″ glide range, total left to right. What this creates is a lot of commotion of a “dieing bait fish”, that just can’t get away. It drives the fish NUTS!!!!
Excellent report Gary! What a day!
So secret is your spot that you had to edit out a landmark?????
Yea…..Dan, that land mark was WAY to obvious!!! If I would have left that house there, every guy on the site would have known where I was…….
Hello Gary,
Thanks for the informative report. I love to bass fish on Tonka and occasionally see a muskie following a bass bait. Can you recommend 3 or 4 baits, size and color, for Tonka muskies?
Regards,
Wayne
Hello Wayne and welcome to the IDA!!!
Good question!
If I was forced to fish with 4 lures on Minnetonka, they would be: (considering that you will be fishing peak summer days)
1) 6″ Phanton in black/orange.
2) Windells Harasser Bucktail with brass blade and brown body.
3) Black/red Suick.
4) Viper topwater in firetiger.
The Viper would be your go to lure in early morning/late evening.
The Phantom and Suick would be great mid-day baits working the weedlines. (sometimes the fish want a side-to-side glider: Phantom. Othertimes they want the up-down jerks: Suick)
Then burning that bucktail when the fish are “hot”.
Good luck!!!
Thanks Gary. Looks like Thorne Bros. will be getting some more money away from me.
Regards,
Wayne
Welcome aboard to IDA Wayne
NICE GARY, GREAT WAY TO KICK OFF THE SEASON.
Nice fish Gary…I think your she is a he if it was beat up from the spawn? Nice big male, I bet it put up a good fight?
We fished Tonka for opener also. We fished from 7AM till about 4pm. Weather set up just like last year so we went back to the spots that produced three fish on the ’04 opening morning. Moved 10-15 fish with one 40″ in the boat on a Musky Nut Weagle…fished deep and found way more quality fish than the guys fishing new weed growth…all fish ranged from 40″ to a solid 52″ fish that wouldn’t eat a Lowrider. All but two fish moved on topwater the other two where on a weighted Suick and the other on a Dawg.
Went back out on Tuesday with the little woman to try and get that big girl to eat….first cast on “the spot” and the water boils around my topwater….no hooks, no fish! Fished a few other spots on the east end….she caught a few crappies on a small daredevil and had one 40″ musky follow it to the boat. Went back on the big girl before dark with a mag BullDawg…two cast later, bang, head shake…43-44″ fish…not the one I’m looking for but a decent fish anyway.
Looks like we got a good solid pattern going right now, I hope it lasts long enough to get that big fish to eat.
Will be back at it tonight to see if I can get Ms. Piggy to go.
Jason;
What type of rig are you running??? If I may ask??
I’m out on Tonka quite a bit during the summer. If you ever see a grey Champion, swing over and say hi
.
Oh and Gary….are you sure that’s a house you blocked out or a bridge?
I’m in a Mallard Green Lund Rebel with a Merc. if I’m fishing solo or with the woman, not the most two guys muskie fishing friendly boat around.
Typically if I’m on Tonka it’s with last years PMTT Tonka Champion in his rocket sled and he would kill me if I said what it looked like. Can’t imagine he wants everyone knowing his spots
I’ll fish Tonka a lot for the next couple weeks and then more up in the Brainerd/Bemidji/Cass area till later in the fall.
If I see you I’ll swing by…do you mainly fish the east side?
We always launch out of Gray’s bay, due to it being the closest ramp for me. By the end of the day, I’m just about all the way to the west end of the lake.
There is sooooooo much quality water to work on that lake. Can’t really believe that any one spot anymore is a true “secret” today. Especially when you have the 1′ contour maps.
Again, though, if you see me out there, swing by and say high!!! If I see you or you see me, we will both know what spots we are working!!!
I hear ya on the maps thing..man those 1′ contour maps are crazy. I don’t think it’s as much a matter of where you fish as to how you fish a spot. We would watch guys come onto the spots we were on and get frustrated and leave because the wouldn’t move fish…why weren’t they moving fish? The one thing they all seemed to have in common…Small baits, worked slow in the new weed growth
….good presentation for sure but the fish have seen it ten time already that morning. How about big profile, fast moving topwaters over open water….big fish baby! Sure the water in a shallow 2-5 ft weed flat is warm but the first five feet of the water column over 25-30′ of water is also warm, those big females that have moved off the spawning areas and out over open water still want to be in that warmer upper water column at this time of year.
Gotta think out of the box, can’t do what everyone else is doing and expect different results is my theory.
Next time out move two or more casts out off that reef and throw a big Pacemaker or Magnum Stomper or Weagle if you like the walk the dog thing. You might just get 50″ of reason to fish deep, big and fast next opener.
Or if you’re a troller (I can’t stand it, I was born and raised in WI.) try running Shallowraiders off planer boards running them just a few feet down over deep water adjacent to structure….I haven’t done it but would think it would be a dynomite way to contact big suspended fish this time of year?
Hope to see you out there man
Good luck and hope you break 50″ this year.
Gary,
Very nice Musky, nice report, and nice Tonka discussion guys!!!! Thanks, Jack..