Fishing just for fish…

My kids have been VERY patiently wating for tournament season to end. Today was our first opportunity to get out and chase after some panfish for the fryer. Next weekend we have a Graduation Party for Ben, my 18 year old. Many relatives will be in town, and they have put the request in for a fish fry. Spring Lake was our lake of choice today, so after convenience store breakfast sandwiches and orange juce we were on our way. The kids were still wiping the sleep out of their eyes when we pulled into Prior Lake Bait on Highway 13. We grabbed a scoop of minnows, and we were on our way to the landing.

We got a little later start than we had planned, and were EXTREMELY surprised to find parking spaces still available at the launch. (Normally if you are not there before 7:00 AM, you park a mile away across the highway.) We scurried about getting the boat ready to launch..and I kept wondering why this was so deserted….?
I backed the boat in, and could not float it off the trailer! I could have cried! I tried going in a little further, and felt the truck start to drop off the launch…Oh-Oh….So I flipped on the 4WD, and ever so slowly tried to inch it out without spinning the tires. It worked thank GOD! So with a little quick thinking, we were off to Cedar Lake which resides just south of Spring on HWY 13. Launching there was much easier. Wow, this drought is really taking it’s toll!

I have not fished Cedar for a number of years. It used to be choked out with milfoil and was just all around unappealing. Since then they have dropped a number of areators into the lake, and must be combining or otherwise controlling the milfoil. The lake was in exceptional shape! Unfortunately for us, many of the sunnies and crappies are on the smaller side. We caught 100+ crappies, and couldn’t get any to go over the 6″ mark. The kids had a blast though. It was great for casting practice! We were trolling Mini Mites, and Fireball Minnows at about .8 MPH with the T-8. We were able to fish 4 people with ease that way. We were able to put a few sunnies in the box, but no crappies made it to the cleaning table. We were able to land a 2 pound bass that Sarah was surprised to see hanging off the end of her line. She kept trying to give me the rod, but there was no way that was going to happen! She caught it, she had to reel it in! The fish today showed a real affinity for plastics. Minnows just turned belly up in short order.

On a more unfortunate note, we found 3 walleyes floating dead. We picked one out of the water that had died fairly recently by the looks of it. We measured it with mouth open and crooked, and it measured 29″!!! The other two we saw were in the same class. Very large! Hard to tell if these dead fish were the result of hooking mortality or just the heat. The fish we pulled aboard was inspected for hooks in the throat or in the mouth, but no signs of either were detected. In my opinion, these bigger walleye are stressed pretty heavily by the warm temps and shallow water. More casulties of this prolonged drought! We need rain! I would imagine the walleye on Mille Lacs are feeling the effects as well. I am planning to hit a north metro lake sometime this week to accomplish our mission for the fish fry. Maybe we will see you on the water!