Minnesota Fishing Report - 2019

[BassThumb]

On 6/23/2019 at 8:43 AM, FryDog62 said:

8 inch Big Bite Finesse Worm, 1/8 oz VMC skirt.  The smaller Ned rigs were getting pecked to death by small bluegills but they didn’t go after the big profile worm.

Do you think that skirt helps get bites? I haven't tried one yet.

[OperationEagle]

Straight into the high 80s and low 90s this weekend will empty out the shallows. 

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, OperationEagle said:

Straight into the high 80s and low 90s this weekend will empty out the shallows. 

Good thing my next planned trip is tomorrow - high of 80

[FryDog62]

On 6/24/2019 at 11:49 AM, BassThumb said:

Do you think that skirt helps get bites? I haven't tried one yet.

I dunno for sure... my goal was a big worm, with the skirt to create a large enough profile so the little bluegills would leave it alone and hopefully the bigger bass would still like.  Funny, my first cast a 20 incher nailed it half way to the bottom in 12 feet of water... so maybe the skirt helped slow the fall..?

 

The skirts are nice, the down side is they are obviously more expensive than just a nail weight - and second, makes it tougher to skip... not that I’m skipping 8 inch worms very often, but even on a 4-5 inch worm it will make it a little harder.  Will be fun to try this around docks.

 

I guess like anything else skirts are a plus in the right situation... (if you know what I mean

[OperationEagle]

2 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I guess like anything else skirts are a plus in the right situation... (if you know what I mean

OK Not sure EXACTLY what you meant but that made me laugh nonetheless. ?

[MN Fisher]

2 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I guess like anything else skirts are a plus in the right situation... (if you know what I mean

Depending on that situation...the shorter the better.

 

That applies to fishing as well.

 

[punch]

Thinking about making a Mille Lacs run on Sunday. The wind report is looking choice. 

[MN Fisher]

5 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Good thing my next planned trip is tomorrow - high of 80

Aaaand...due to scheduling issues, tomorrow isn't happening after all. Maybe next week.

[gim]

Holy crap it looks hot this weekend.  The heat index is projected to balloon past 100 on Saturday and Sunday.  I knew this was coming at some point.  The recreational traffic will be out in full force.

[SmallBlockMuscle]

Who's going out this weekend? Anyone care to share their strategy with this heat wave? 

[sully420]

@SmallBlockMuscleI'll be skipping docks looking for mats or grass to flip and maby a 6" swimbait on deep structures 

[ThatOneBigKid]

1 hour ago, sully420 said:

@SmallBlockMuscleI'll be skipping docks looking for mats or grass to flip and maby a 6" swimbait on deep structures 

What he said minus the swimbait, plus flipping deep milfoil lines with a heavy jig.

 

Might also go to Mille Lacs in which case I'll be working the the swimbait on reefs and quite possibly the Ned Rig too

[FryDog62]

Anyone ever fish a Chicken-Rig?  Kind of a Texas-rigged Neko set up...

[OperationEagle]

Was out this morning on a lake on the far west side of metro. 

 

Nearly skunked.  Very uncooperative today. Water temp this morn 71.6. 

 

 

[sully420]

It seems like some lakes are really muddy and are fishing pretty tough lately. Looking for lakes with cleaner water could be the ticket.

[FryDog62]

5 1/2 inches of rain down by Rochester… There are cows floating away in the river right now. Glad I didn’t bring the boat!

[punch]

I'm excited to hit Mille Lacs tomorrow to test out the new toy. I can't wait to play around with the new high res side imaging. Upgrading from a HDS12 gen 3 total scan. 

 

We're going out of Liberty and hitting the east side all day. 

 

[OperationEagle]

Hoping to get some decent fishing in this week w the holiday and all.

 

Anyone w any tips on patterns that have been working?  Its been awfully quiet on the board.  Bass have been in transition, I believe, making it tough to find them.

[FryDog62]

50 minutes ago, OperationEagle said:

Hoping to get some decent fishing in this week w the holiday and all.

 

Anyone w any tips on patterns that have been working?  Its been awfully quiet on the board.  Bass have been in transition, I believe, making it tough to find them.

Agreed.  I was out yesterday and either with the heat or storms, they were scattered.  Best luck was still outside weedline on a Chicken Rig 8-12 fow.  

[SmallBlockMuscle]

Got 13 Saturday AM but they were all small and couldnt find any pattern. They all seemed to be in random spots and all different lures. I need to get better at deeper water fishing

[ThatOneBigKid]

Got out Friday after leaving work early. Had a decent night. Number of smaller fish and co-worker got a nice 4.34lber. 

 

Went out Saturday for a few hours and only managed a couple short fish.

 

Jumped into a Sunday derby last minute on Rush Lake. Didn't get a chance to pre-fish, but still managed 12th out of 25 teams. I was fishing solo. The weather moving through Sunday really messed with the historical stuff I was hoping to run, but it was still fun to jump into a last minute tourney. Ultrex steering sensor crapped out on me with 2 hours left. Talk about frustrating! Shout out to Actions in Anoka, though. Dropped it off today, will have it ready to pick up after work tomorrow. 

[punch]

I had an eventful week fishing last week. Me and my partner won our Wednesday Night league on White Bear Lake, with a 12lb bag. We won on WBL last year so it was kinda fun to win back-to-back derbys on the same body of water. I really do like that lake as it sets up well for my strength, which is offshore finesse. We got all our big bites drop shotting offshore coontail with a Keitech easy shaker in morning dawn. Fishing straight vertically under the boat. 

 

Then on Saturday we hit the east side of Mille Lacs all day. The bite wasn't bad, we boated 19 smallies and probably as many walleyes. Our best 5 went for 18lbs with a 4.89lb kicker that came on a 3" chigger craw and a shakey head. The fish were really shallow on reefs.. we got a lot of bites in 10' or less all day. The best bait was a 3.8" fat keitch followed closely by a ned rig. Each smallie we caught was typically trailed by 3-4 more fish. It was kinda fun. 

 

 

[Tlauz]

Fished Bemidji area last week and got out a few hours in the Alexandria area Sunday/Monday.  Caught fish on weed edges.  Last week I was out and found nothing but small fish.  Better mix this week.  Still caught a lot of small fish, but did manage some really nice fish too.  Popper/ Choppo started to work as did a shallow running crankbait.  Wacky weighted and non-weighted still produced the most fish. Took kids out on small lake in Alex area and had them throw wacky worms to weed edges. Caught 15-20 bass in less than 2 hours. Almost all in the 15 inch range. 

I caught this little guy on a Choppo and didn't realize he wasn't even hooked. When he bit, I set the hook and he flew 15 feet and was basically lassoed.

 

[wisconsin heat]

Was out on West Bush Lake for a short kayak excursion after work. Started shallow with a frog and pitching a texas rigged pit boss around holes in the weeds, but nothing was going on in the shallows (aside from 10 bajillion tiny bluegills). After starting off shallow and not even seeing a bass cruising around I thought maybe they are post spawn and I remembered some recent posts on this thread saying they've been out a little deeper. I paddled out towards the middle of the lake looking for a defined edge to the weeds (didn't find one haha). So I pitched around blindly in relatively deeper water (10-12 feet maybe). I made a longer pitch and set my rod down to paddle a few strokes towards the bait while it sank, when I picked the rod back up and reeled in the slack, thats when I felt her on there. I set the hook and after a quick, hard fought fight, she was in the boat! I took a quick picture, and remembered I had a tape measure with. I rarely measure the fish I catch, even the big ones, but this one was nice, probably the biggest I've caught yet this year I thought. I thought right! She measured 19 inches! 

[FryDog62]

17 hours ago, wisconsin heat said:

Was out on West Bush Lake for a short kayak excursion after work. Started shallow with a frog and pitching a texas rigged pit boss around holes in the weeds, but nothing was going on in the shallows (aside from 10 bajillion tiny bluegills). After starting off shallow and not even seeing a bass cruising around I thought maybe they are post spawn and I remembered some recent posts on this thread saying they've been out a little deeper. I paddled out towards the middle of the lake looking for a defined edge to the weeds (didn't find one haha). So I pitched around blindly in relatively deeper water (10-12 feet maybe). I made a longer pitch and set my rod down to paddle a few strokes towards the bait while it sank, when I picked the rod back up and reeled in the slack, thats when I felt her on there. I set the hook and after a quick, hard fought fight, she was in the boat! I took a quick picture, and remembered I had a tape measure with. I rarely measure the fish I catch, even the big ones, but this one was nice, probably the biggest I've caught yet this year I thought. I thought right! She measured 19 inches! 

You know, that’s kind of been the pattern for me several times this Spring/Summer.  I keep starting shallow and don’t find them, and eventually toss something into 9-14 fow and there they are... nice fish!