Minnesota 2020 Fishing Season

[ThatOneBigKid]

24 minutes ago, umdivx said:

I get the appeal but man its a whole different level getting up into the $500+ retail rods.

Yea, my most expensive spinning rod right now is a Phenix Feather. Super light and more sensitive than anything else I have ever fished with, spinning wise. I am curious if these super expensive rods are really that much more sensitive than the $169 MSRP Feather. Honestly, my mind can fathom how they could be any more sensitive than the Feather, let alone more sensitive enough to justify the $400 MSRP difference. Obviously there is something to be said about the resale value and lifetime warranty on the NRX, but still. Hopefully I have my mind blow by the sensitivity in the NRX and then it all makes sense, but we'll see. 

[FryDog62]

23 hours ago, ThatOneBigKid said:

Yea, my most expensive spinning rod right now is a Phenix Feather. Super light and more sensitive than anything else I have ever fished with, spinning wise. I am curious if these super expensive rods are really that much more sensitive than the $169 MSRP Feather. Honestly, my mind can fathom how they could be any more sensitive than the Feather, let alone more sensitive enough to justify the $400 MSRP difference. Obviously there is something to be said about the resale value and lifetime warranty on the NRX, but still. Hopefully I have my mind blow by the sensitivity in the NRX and then it all makes sense, but we'll see. 

Phenix Feather is a heckuva rod regardless of the price and extremely sensitive, I have an MLF (drop-shot) and MHXF (Neko).  I also have an NRX (Wacky/Ned) and I’m sure the Loomis purists will chuck lightning bolts at my head for saying this, but the difference in sensitivity between a Feather and an NRX is not that much... and the Phenix costs 1/3 as much.  

[gim]

If anyone is interested, there is an online auction of boat/marine related surplus items in Princeton, MN.  Bid online, pay and pick up in person.  Electric motors, trailer tires/rims, life jackets, canoe paddles, anchor systems, fenders/bumpers, etc.

 

https://bid.hansenauctiongroup.com/bid/48940?section=items

[MN Fisher]

Second outing of the year - 2 pike...here's the smaller of the pair

 

No bass what-so-ever today.

[OperationEagle]

I was out yesterday late afternoon and evening.  The bass have the COVID19 pattern down as they are keeping their distance from all baits. 

 

Caught one unsuspecting dink. Slow start to the season.

[Ogandrews]

Got my first good bass of the year, was just over 5lbs. Not a great picture, took it at a weird angle which made it look pretty small but it was ridiculously thick. Got it burning a trap over the top of grass in 4-5fow. About a foot of visibility if that, water was really low which makes fishing really hard but that won’t be the case after all this rain.

[gim]

On 5/16/2020 at 4:03 PM, OperationEagle said:

I was out yesterday late afternoon and evening.  The bass have the COVID19 pattern down as they are keeping their distance from all baits. 

 

Caught one unsuspecting dink. Slow start to the season.

I think you went one day too early Mel.  I went on Saturday for about 3.5 hours with that low pressure system coming in and it was quite good.  I finally let my Father come with after days of begging.  We drove separate and he stayed in the back of the boat (he's 67 and has stents from a previous cardiac issue).  He caught 20 and 19 inchers, 10 minutes apart.  The 20 incher was the biggest largie he's caught in years he said.  We caught 17 bass total, and most of them were on a red or crayfish colored crank bait fished just fast enough to get a slow wobble going.  Water temp 58 degrees, north metro.

[SmallBlockMuscle]

Caught 3 pre spawn fish saturday. All in 6-7 fow. We went up shallow to take a look and saw many on beds. Been a tough bite on my local lakes the last two weeks. 

[RiggityBop]

had a pretty fun weekend out in Wisconsin at a buddies cabin.... Rode ATV's, and did a little river fishing with the boys for whatever would bite in the Cornell flowage, chippewa river. fishing was pretty good, and even had the pleasure of watching my friend fillet his first fish : )

 

hard to put down the frog and the 360gt swimbaits... but once i switched over to floating a leech, man was the SMB bite good... throwing my rig on the inside seam of the main river current produced ~10 TANKS, most of them sized around 17-20 inches. It was a ton of fun on the new 6'6" light spinning rig w/ 4# mono that i picked up for panfishing... felt like i was reeling in 40 inch pikes.

 

Back to the LMB grind next weekend, here's to hoping for nice weather in the TC metro area. 

 

[ThatOneBigKid]

On 5/14/2020 at 3:29 PM, FryDog62 said:

Phenix Feather is a heckuva rod regardless of the price and extremely sensitive, I have an MLF (drop-shot) and MHXF (Neko).  I also have an NRX (Wacky/Ned) and I’m sure the Loomis purists will chuck lightning bolts at my head for saying this, but the difference in sensitivity between a Feather and an NRX is not that much... and the Phenix costs 1/3 as much.  

This is the kind of input I have been looking for. Thanks a ton Fry! 

 

[ThatOneBigKid]

Got out to Mille Lacs last Saturday and cracked on some smallies and wallies a bit as well as got a chance to test out the new Mega 360 unit. Bumped up my PB smallie to 4.65lbs. Thought I was going to check off one of this seasons goals(Break 5lbs for a PB Smallie), but it was just shy. The smallies and walleyes were hammering the jerkbait. Great first trip to Mille Lacs for the season. Water temp was 49.5

 

 

 

[umdivx]

11 minutes ago, ThatOneBigKid said:

Got out to Mille Lacs last Saturday.....

 

How deep where they running? What type of structure where they holding to? Sand to rock, mostly rock? 

 

Was out there Tuesday last week and pulled in 20 eyes but no smallies. 

 

Might head back up Friday.

[afree]

I have been bouncing around between MN and WI lately and have been fishing more in WI.

 

Found some water temps in the mid 60's today and ripped a buzzbait around for a while this morning. Caught 2 LMB on an all black 1/4-oz black Buzz Frog (Big Bite Baits), one was a dink and the other was a 3.5. The bigger was caught while ripping it through shallow weeds. Also caught a 26" pike on it. 

 

Moved over to a different area of the lake around some exposed stumps and started flipping a bit. Caught a 33" Muskie in 2.5 feet of water using a pegged creature bait. The 5/0 hook was bent in half afterwards, eyelet touching barb. Next cast, caught another decent one on the same dead-fall. It is mid-60s and clouds everywhere so the fish should be moving the rest of the day.

 

Good luck to all, hope everyone is healthy and safe from the COVID. 

 

 

[Ogandrews]

Spent the weekend fishing lake vermilion. Had some great walleye fishing and caught a 47” musky while walleye fishing, but the bass were pretty sporadic. Got on a decent Crankbait bite for smallmouth but nothing big. Also got into a good top water and bigger swimbait bite one night for largemouth in 1-2 fow way in the back end of a huge bay. They were hammering a whopper plopper 130 and a megabass magdraft fished pretty quick. Lost a good one between 5-6lbs next to the boat, but everything else was between 1-3. If I had spent more time bass fishing and less time walleye fishing I probably would gave caught more but it was a great trip.

[wisconsin heat]

Got out in Wisconsin this weekend, the lake had multiple areas with widely differing water clarity. Caught about 8 or9 and all in that 12-15 inches range. All the bass I caught were in the murkier water as opposed to clear, and we're all in the shallows. They bit a big chartreuse and black Bomber model B balsa crankbait, which was sometimes waked, sometimes cranked down to about a foot deep.

 

I figure the bass were males in prespawn mode getting ready to settle down and chose to warm up in the warmer, muddier shallows if the lake.

[gim]

I went to Mille Lacs on Friday.  We caught 5 walleyes and 5 bass.  I caught all the eyes on a perch jerk bait and the bass were all on a dark green kietech.  The kietech had to be fished at a steady pace, no hopping or bouncing on the bottom.  There is a lot of pressure on those fish right now.  It becomes harder and harder every time I go.  I managed these two 19 inchers about 15 minutes apart.  Water temp 56.

[ThatOneBigKid]

Went out to Mille Lacs on Sunday. Caught 6 smallies, biggest went 4.1lbs. Caught more walleyes that I could count. 3 of them went 24". Almost everything was on a 4.2 Kietech on a 3/8 head. Perch color. Water was 58 degrees by the end of the day. 

[rascalP]

I made it to ML as well - on Wednesday.   Very calm, fog in the morning, then sunny.  Maybe a dozen smallies between me and my buddy.  Fishing smallies on ML was new for him, so I showed him some spots around Doe island. Biggest was a 20"+ tank fatty I got on the smallest bait of the day - 1/8oz black maribou.  They work, but tough to throw.  Most of the rest came on weightless dinger.  Nothing on swimbaits, and we tried several kinds throughout the day.  Nothing deeper than 5 fow.  And one 25" walleye on a square bill.

[gim]

I attempted to fish Mille Lacs and immediately took a U-turn out of the channel markers with 3 footers rolling in.  I even saw 20 foot fiberglass bass boats turning around.  However, I made the best of plan B to fish largies on a smaller lake nearby and it was very productive in terms of numbers and quality fish.  I also caught what will likely be the biggest largemouth I catch all season: a prespawn 20 incher that weighed 5.21 pounds.  TONS of pike too.  Man those things are just lure wreckers.

[umdivx]

Had my first derby yesterday out on Horseshoe Chain in Cold Spring. Did one day of pre-fishing Wednesday last week and stumbled upon a bunch of bass on beds, marked all the beds I could and left them alone. Tried finding a backup pattern but really couldn't find anything else, so plan was to hit the beds right away an hope they were still there. 

 

Come yesterday morning I wasn't the only one hitting the same bay, and hitting bed fish. Luckily it was only 4 of us total, and the plan worked out, had 5 fish in the box by 9:30, and then just junk fished the rest of the day trying to find that big kicker.  

 

EDIT: Fun note, top 3 teams all hit the same bay and bed fished. So almost all the big bass came from the same bay which was just crazy to think.

 

Culled up in mid day in another bay, so had two 4lbers, one 3lber and two smaller ones. Went back to the first bay that we started out at in the morning, and made two more culls, one of which was literally with minutes left before we needed to head back to weigh-in.

 

My brother chucked a weightless wacky senko into a laydown and pulled out are biggest bass of the day at 4.26lb was an awesome end to the day and we squeaked out 2nd place. 

 

Was the first time ever fishing the chain and it's definitely a fun system to fish, a really diverse structure system, laydowns, rock, sand, you name it. Water was crazy clear, never expected that at all. 

 

Will definitely be back there for some fun fishing. 

[gim]

Way to go Umdivx!

[umdivx]

33 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Way to go Umdivx!

thanks!

[MN Fisher]

Well, I didn't get skunked this morning at least - not that it's an impressive catch.

 

Also lost one dink bass - maybe 9"-10" - when he shook loose from the Rattlin' Rap 05

 

If you're planning on hitting Tonka - avoid Phelps Bay. It's so choked with weeds I was clearing my lure 3 casts of 5...even with 'weedless' rigs.

[ThatOneBigKid]

Had our first Wednesday night tourney last night and my Bro-in-law and I pulled out a 1st place finish and Big Bass on a tough grinder of an event on Big Marine. Fish were in that tough post-spawn in between funk, but we were able to squeak out 10.5lbs with the help of a 4.66lb stud. Caught all our fish flipping 3/4 and 1oz jigs in developing patches of Milfoil in 8-12ft of water. The milfoil was for sure the key for us. We didn't get a bite unless there was milfoil there. 

 

Great start to the season. Looking to keep it rolling with my first solo derby on Coon Lake this Sunday.

[FryDog62]

Brainerd area finding 71-72 degree water temps.  Some fish still on beds but not for long, or mostly males guarding.  Some bigger females still in the area though..