Minnesota Fishing Reports - 2017

[punch]

On 11/26/2017 at 2:00 PM, geneoh said:

I bought my Christmas gift to my self. Dobyns champion extreme HP 784 jig rod from TW. Pretty stoked about it!

TREAT YO SELF!

 

I did some damage myself.. 

-Picked up 3 croix legend tournament casting rods from Thorne Brothers at 50% off. Couldn't help myself. 

-Swim senko kit off amazon for 14 bucks

-Order from the big fish tackle shop with some heardheads, swimbaits, new strike king comeback jigs, and some DT6's

-$40 president LE spinning reel from cabela's then a $100 13 Envy 7'1 medium to pair it up with (yet another Finesse rod). Might have to toss some SUPER light line on this and use it for walleye fishing & Hair jigs

 

I gotta sell some shiz now.. anyone looking for some Tatula CT reels HIT ME UP! 

[OperationEagle]

Got you all beat...I bought a Helix 10 SI Mega to replace my Helix 7SI for my console unit.

 

Found a price I couldn't refuse and bit the bullet.

 

Bought some Rage Craws, and Menaces to try this coming season.

 

In case anyone is interested...I have a perfectly clean Helix 7SI available.  Has an upgraded transducer.

[gim]

Haha, good one Eagle.  St Croix is having a cyber sale this week if anyone is interested.  Some of their rods are up to 50% off and they all come with free shipping.

[FryDog62]

Picked up Panoptix PS22 transducer to go with my 1042xsv... “a drop-shotting video game at its finest!”

[geneoh]

Looking back at the year, did you guys reach your goals?

 

Punch asked what techniques were we going to try and what we going to try to improve this year. 

 

My goals were to learn my graphs and get confidence with soft plastics, mainly dropshotting. I ended up switching graphs in the middle of the year but I have started to pick up on them. So much more confidence in what I'm seeing. I still have a long ways to go with them. I picked up dropshotting fairly well, mostly in shallow water 5-15ft is where I liked fishing the technique. Didn't try really anything deeper or any video game style, maybe next year. I really took a liking to flipping jigs/punch rigs/texas rigged beavers. I caught my largest bass this way. Found it to be my favorite way to fish as well. 

 

Other goals I accomplished - Caught a 6lber, and never got skunked in my boat.

 

 

[NathanDLTH]

For me , finesse so wacky worms and tubes however tubes for smallies isn’t fair really. Never threw my big glide baits this year, was always afraid of a pike biting me off, well as it would have it snapped the line on my s-waver late fall. Jumped in the waders but never found it. Got multiple 4s this year and high 3s but no 5s.

 

My best bass was my last, swimbait at a little local lake in Roseville super pressured. Couple was taking engagement photos and I walked in on the bank late October afternoon. Started pitching out to the right of me, looked left for a second to see a bass jump straight out of the water. Reeled my swimbait in, fired off in the direction of the fish and almost immediately got hammered. I was hootin’ and hollerin’ and boy did that fish fight. Wish I could get a picture up.

 

I made a big order from TW to prepare for next summer. Going to dedicate more time to glide baits and walking baits. 

[punch]

I was really hoping to dial in spybaits this year, but I didn't.. only caught dinks on them. Nothing quality.

 

I did tend to finesse fish a LOT this year. Previous years I leaned more on a combo of cranks/jerkabits/topwater/texas rigs but this year I found myself picking up spinning tackle a quite a bit. That's partly because I got two spinning rods that i'm smitten with.. a 7' medium steez and a 7' medium light tatula elite dropshot rod. I used them a TON this year. I feel i'm super proficient with a dropshot now and I really got good at neds, neko rigs, and wacky worms. I think I caught most of my best fish this year on either a ned or dropshot. 

 

I'm such a fan of the swimjig now I got a whole rod/reel combo JUST for tossing it next year. Going to be my primary searchbait for the foreseable future. 

 

Next season I need to go back to the heavy stuff and start flipping again. I've gotten away from it the last few years and I need to gain my confidence back. 

 

Side note, did anyone else have a really bad frog bite this year on metro lakes? I did and the other anglers i've talked to didn't have any amazing "frog days" either. I'm wondering if fish are getting kinda used to them at this point. 

 

[gim]

On 12/11/2017 at 11:56 AM, punch said:

Side note, did anyone else have a really bad frog bite this year on metro lakes? I did and the other anglers i've talked to didn't have any amazing "frog days" either. I'm wondering if fish are getting kinda used to them at this point. 

I keep a frog setup handy every time I go out and give it at least a chance every time I see "froggy looking habitat."  I can't remember the last time it worked.  They literally will not even HIT it.  Simply not effective anymore, which is too bad because I really enjoy frog fishing.

 

[FryDog62]

Speaking of frogs... anyone see the video that Glenn posted with Randy Howell on the new Freddy B frog from Livingston?  It makes sound... maybe that will be something new/different for the frog bite next year??

 

 

[NathanDLTH]

Every year, it will never end. Always something new. 

[rascalP]

   First couple of bass of the ice season.   Out on Chisago today and got a 16" and a 17" on a tungsten jig and plastic combo.  11 ft of water - they're hangin with the sunnies.    3lb test and a pannie rod - it's a riot.

[punch]

Nice! I got out on the ice last Friday and hammered some crappies on the new "brand that can't be named" ice tackle. Hopefully get out some more this week. 

 

I don't LOVE ice fishing, but it's something to do. I've gotten more serious about it in the last few years. 

 

@rascalP we should hit some hard water sometime. You got a shelter?

[gim]

Hey Punch I finally made it to Thorne Bros the other day in Blaine.  That place is awesome.  I've never seen so many muskie lures in my life.  Some of those things are just ridiculous.

[rascalP]

On 12/25/2017 at 6:58 PM, punch said:

Nice!

 

@rascalP we should hit some hard water sometime. You got a shelter?

Punch,  yeah, I got 3 portables.  A 2 man otter that doesn't get used much - once or twice every few years when we go on a group trip,  my 1 man trap, and a eskimo pop up that we use once in a while for base camp. But I prefer to fish outside.  I really like to hole hop and move around, so the most portable is no portable.  Even today, with no wind, it was pretty tolerable fishing outside.  It would be great to get together, but weekends are tough. I work every fri/sat afternoon/eve and sunday day. My weekend is wednesday, so weekday afternoons and wednesdays are when I get out. If that ever works, let me know. I can put you on some fish in Chisago area.

 

 Today was tough for bass. I was blanked, but my buddies son got a nice one.  

[Jmhalvo]

I learned that big skirted jigs that are Texas rigged and therefore very weedless work much better than I ever knew. Became my go to. I learned that I should have had much heavier jigs in the past years. So many more big bites. I still did Great on my previous standby: 4 in tube for LM and 3 in for SM. I also discovered the Whopper Hopper which has been fantastic. Frogging was such a waste of time! Glad to hear it wasn’t just me.

 

still struggling with drop shot. No confidence.

 

Just over 100 days.....