Central Minnesota Memorial Day Weekend

This long holiday weekend found me and some Hastings buddies back on my old stomping grounds, good old Melrose Minnesota area. Our goal for the weekend was to relax and find out what the local lakes were giving up.

After getting a coordinated game plan together, 3 boats were out in search for crappies and walleyes. With the water temp still a cool 52 degrees, and a constant stiff wind out of the east, fishing was cold and tough to hold onto the short pieces of structure on this area lake.

The first evening was spent bobber fishing on a couple humps and points that had given up fish years prior, with only 2 bull heads to show, we decided to call it a night and get after them again in the morning. First thing in the morning I drove over rock/gravel shallow structure to try and find some walleyes, then figure out how to fish them. After picking up some marks on the graph, out came the drift socks to try and slowly run lindy
rigs over top of them. With only 2 short walleyes to show for my efforts, frustration was setting in.

We met for lunch and Putz had some real nice crappies in the box. Well after seeing that, we switched gears and fished crappies. The area we were targeting was shallow sand with bull rushes near by. The pies were getting ready to span and were eager to hit our jigs tipped with crappie minnows. Early morning and late evening were the best times for getting bit.

Crappies weren’t the only fish holding in this area, we also caught a few sunfish and some real nice large and small mouth that would just smack the jigs and drop the bobber in a hurry.

With the east wind, it took some time to get the boat anchored up in just the right spot, close enough to cast to the rushes, but not to close to spook the fish. With four guys casting light rigs in the wind, it made for some interesting tangles, cross overs, and casting contests.

All in all it was a great weekend, the weather could have been a little bit warmer, and the wind didn’t have to blow constantly, but when you’re having this much fun with good friends good and good fishing, the weather really didn’t matter. Now I have to figure out why I don’t pan fish very often, it sure is fun fighting a fish with an ultra light!

See you on the water,

Jami