Hagigun

OK, water temps were quite a bit higher on the small lake that we fished than anticipated. Temps were 58-62 depending on area...prime spawning temps for both species. We did catch a few smaller LM Bass that were looking ready to spawn. We don't keep any of these fish ever and try to be careful with handling them. We ran into quite a few smaller sized fish and could not locate anything over a few lbs. We tried looking deep (6'-7' and deeper) but did not have much success. Most of our fish were on shallow flats near shore or in the reed beds. It was very windy and tough to stay anchored in a good position with 3 to a boat. I was able to nab a 2.5lbs smallmouth about 30mn before the weekend fishing was over. It's only my 2nd one ever, so that was a nice thrill. I caught it on a weightless Texas rigged Gary Yamamoto 5" worm. Most of the weekend I was trying to use my jig and did catch 3 largemouths on it. My first bass caught on jigs! My other catches were on standard texas rigs with craws and a few came off wacky rigged senkos. The wind made it tough for those lighter applications. It was also my first "real" effort on using a baitcaster. I loved it! I had a few minor backlashes that took just a few seconds to get undone, but no major disasters in 3 days of fishing. I guess the real highlight was some late night walleye trolling where I caught a 25"er night one, then a 25.5"er the next night! Both were personal bests for me. Only 3 years fishing walleyes so not too shabby. Both were released as I will not keep anything 20" and over when it comes to walleyes. Anybody else have any Bass/fishing success up north this weekend?

I am from the Twin Cities but do most of my fishing at cabins of friends up north. We head to the Cass Lake chain (Near Walker/Bemidji) and will fish for Walleyes, but I personally am a Bass guy. We are heading up this weekend and are in some uncharted territory water temp wise. Usually we never have a chance at Spawning Bass, let alone Pre-spawn, but since the water temps are so low, we should have those 2 patterns in mind. Last week we went up for Walleyes as the ice was finally off the lakes. The water temps were high 30's, low 40's. The fishing was terrible. But again, this was a big body of water and this was May 18th and 19th. I would guess things are a touch warmer now, but not much. I would anticipate water temps in the mid 40's to low 50's at most. This would still put us on Pre-Spawn fishing. I think I will try and target the north sides of the lakes that are sheltered from the wind and try fishing right off the shallow flats. I am guessing they will be preparing for the spawn which is to come within a week or two. So maybe just off the main shallow shores (2-6ft)...and try and focus in the 6-12 foot range with real slow presentations. I am by no means an expert, just going off all the great info on this site and some of the Flukemater's youtube vids.

I live in Minnesota and do some Ice fishing in the winter months. For those not familiar, we will drill a hole 6-10" in diameter through the ice and then jig for panfish/walleye/pike. Most people use live bait on a jig or hook, like minnows, suckers, shiners, or small grubs. Lures range from plain jigs to jigging spoons and the like. Over the last few years a few different type of lures have hit the market. Based on what they do, I am wondering if you Bass experts think they can be applied to summer fishing. The Lures I am speaking of are the Salmo Chubby Darter and the Lindy Darter. They look like pretty much any crankbait, but without the bill. They sink when dropped in a hole and will dive away and outawrds as they fall. Dipping and diving, a swimming down type of action. In the winter you can only fish vertical, so that is what the bait is designed for. My thought was tossing these baits around docks. Essentially the action is similar to a senko. Cast the bait near a dock, it will sink, dive, and swim it's way to the bottom. With a simple twitch of the rod, it will come back up, then swim back down on slack line like a fleeing/dying baitfish. I am not sure if others have tried this or not. Just based on what the lure does, it seems it could work just fine on Bass. I did see a youtube video where a guy just did a cast and retirieve with the Lindy Darter on spawning bass and it seemed to work for him. I was thinking more around docks. Anyone ever tried it? Heard of it? Think this might work? I know we are all looking to throw an effective bait, but also a unique bait fish havent seen. Thoughts? -you can just google search "chubby darter" or "lindy darter" to see a picture. The computer here at work crashes when i try and use the functions provided. Thanks,

Hello all! I have been lurking for about 2 months now...well I wouldn't say just lurking. I tried to sign up a few times and had issues with my email, site under construction, then i never got the registration email....It was like I just wasn't meant to be on here. Well, not the case as last night when i enrolled again, it finally worked! I assume my emails were in the junk file and i never saw them. Anyway, I live in the Twin Cities area in MN. I am enjoying my last year in the 20's and some of my hobbies are rolling over. I fished growing up with my Grandpa up on Big Pellican lake in Brainerd MN. Every summer I would always look forward to going out with him and just enjoying the day. He'd put on his polka tunes on low volume and tell me that the fish just loved it. Great memories for sure. Once I was into my teen years I sort of lost the fishing bug. My grandparents sold the cabin and moved down to the cities for health reasons. My parents never fished and not many of my friends did as well. When i was about 15, I sort of got the bug back. A friend and I would dock fish quite a bit each summer. Early mornings, late afternoons, we would go out on his parents friends dock and we would try our luck. After our friendship dissolved (just seperate ways, nothing nasty) I just put the gear away and moved onto other things. I am an avid golfer so it gets tough to split 2 summertime hobbies like that. If it's nice enough to fish, I was usually golfing. Fishing was something I never thought much about for quite some-time. Well fast forward to 2 Summers ago. I was at a friends cabin and really wanted to get out fishing. He said he used to fish, but not much any more. Well i brought my old Mitchell Spidercast Combo from when i was 14-15 years old and we had to haul his canoe 1 mile through the woods to go Bass fishing. I had a blast! We didnt catch a whole lot, but I was hooked again. During that canoe haul I must have been taken by a Deer Tick. 3 weeks later I was watching Old Tom Watson blow the british open on TV and i was major league sick. After feeling like garbage for about a week, i went to the doctor and found out I had Lymes Disease. Once I started taking the anti-biotics, I felt great immediately. During that 21 days of medication I stopped drinking because of the doctors instruction on the meds. After the 21 days I felt great, and I have no ill effects from the Lymes. But during that 21 days of no drinking, I figured i saved enough money to buy myself something for my NEW-old hobby. So I went and got a new Spinning combo! Over the rest of that summer and last summer I was able to get out a few times. I don't have a boat, so I have to be invited to get on the water. My parents do have a boat on a lake, but live 30mn or so away. Remember, for me, if it's nice I usually play golf, so 30mn may not seem like much, but I live 4mn from my golf course. The temptation is just too much. So this winter, insted of my girlfriend and I going on a trip, we decided to spend our money on Ice Fishing gear. So all this winter I have been trying that out. I had a blast. Just being outside fishing is all i need. The catching part, is a bonus. So after a few months of that, my passion for open water fishing has been festering. During one of our Ice fishing tourneys, I won a hand made open water spinning rod valued at $150. I took this as a sign that my summer fishing needs to be hit full force!! Since then, I have been buying new Bass equipment like crazy. So long story short, my good friend has a small boat now and he has been fixing it up. We plan on going out as much as we can. I even plan on sacrificing some golf days just to go hunt those Bass. I have a trip planned for Fishing opener (Walleye) and also Memorial weekend (Bass opener for us). I am super excited to get my childhood hobby back and make my grandpa proud as he can no longer fish anymore at age 94. I'm the only one of his 13 grankids that still is fishing. So please help a semi-novice in myself out from time to time and I look forward to learning more about Bass and also the great people who pursue them! So in closing, thanks for reading and I must say, this is a tremendous website! What a resource for anything and everything Bass. I was blown away when i stumbled upon this website. It was just what I needed! Thanks for having me!