Minnesota 2020 Fishing Season

[dsidle61]

On 7/31/2020 at 5:38 PM, gimruis said:

It seemed healthy. Fought and acted like the others I caught. I sent a photo to the DNR area fisheries office for an explanation.

I pulled in a LM on Tonka tonight that looked even lighter, hardly any black on the back.  Didnt take a pic of course bc it was pretty tiny but id never seen anything like it.  Thought maybe it was sick too but it was a fighter.  Let me know if the DNR has anything to say about it.  

[gim]

11 hours ago, dsidle61 said:

Let me know if the DNR has anything to say about it. 

The DNR area fisheries specialist responded and said its a result of Color Morph.  He's seen it in other species of fish including walleye, perch, and northern pike but never in a largemouth bass.  It isn't that the fish is unhealthy, it has simply experienced a genetic abnormality compared to other fish.  Similar to an albino, if that helps make sense of it.  Here is another photo of it.  It was 17 inches long.

[Nibbles]

I should be hitting Tonka launching off the ramp near Mound on Tues after work, hopefully I'll catch one of these silver LM as well haha

[MN Fisher]

12 minutes ago, Nibbles said:

I should be hitting Tonka launching off the ramp near Mound on Tues after work,

Phelps or Spring Park? I live on Phelps Island and when I had a power-boat used Spring Park most of the time. Now if I launch near the house, it's Phelps.

 

12 minutes ago, Nibbles said:

hopefully I'll catch one of these silver LM as well haha

Wednesday I'll see if North Arm has any of them...

[Nibbles]

10 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Phelps or Spring Park? I live on Phelps Island and when I had a power-boat used Spring Park most of the time. Now if I launch near the house, it's Phelps.

 

Wednesday I'll see if North Arm has any of them...

Probably Surfside park, start from there and work our way east hitting up all the buoy marked points and maybe a couple of cove weedlines along the way.

 

Ill probably be throwing a combination of 3 - 3.5" paddletails on light wire 3/32 oz jigheads and 1/8 oz weedless wacky/flickshake jigs with green pumpkin/chart 4" TRDs.

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, Nibbles said:

Probably Surfside park, start from there and work our way east hitting up all the buoy marked points and maybe a couple of cove weedlines along the way.

Okay - so Cooks Bay. From what I've heard on the grapevine around here - Seton Lake has had some good luck...and it's just a hop-skip-jump from that launch.

 

6 minutes ago, Nibbles said:

Ill probably be throwing a combination of 3 - 3.5" paddletails on light wire 3/32 oz jigheads and 1/8 oz weedless wacky/flickshake jigs with green pumpkin/chart 4" TRDs.

Friday I didn't get out in the canoe - issues - but was tossing Power Worms on a Gammy 3/32 finesse jig and a 3.5" Paddle-tail...caught nothing from shore. Hopefully Wednesday will be better as I've corrected the issue I had with the canoe.

[dsidle61]

12 hours ago, Nibbles said:

I should be hitting Tonka launching off the ramp near Mound on Tues after work, hopefully I'll catch one of these silver LM as well haha

I got mine up in Harrison.  Was actually trolling shad raps for eyes when it hit.  Water was finally below 80, Harrison and Jennings were both 78-79.  But I think the heat did some damage to weedlines.  They were hit or miss to even find them.  

[Nibbles]

Well we launched out of Surfside yesterday around noon, and made our way up to Seton and then Harrison for a few hours before finally heading south toward the islands in Cooks bay.

 

Caught a few smaller ones tossing wacky jigs into docks. Found some holding off points but couldn't entice a bite with a shakyhead or wacky jig. Didn't have my crankbaits or I would have tried yo-yoing a lipless for a bit.

 

Later in the day caught a couple smaller 14s on a ned rigged Big TRD (hot snakes) and a decent 16" on a chatterbait (3/8 okeechobee craw, green pumpkin rage baby menace trailer) on some windblown flats off the big island in Cook's bay, just ripping it across weedbeds.

 

[ThatOneBigKid]

On 8/3/2020 at 10:34 AM, gimruis said:

The DNR area fisheries specialist responded and said its a result of Color Morph.  He's seen it in other species of fish including walleye, perch, and northern pike but never in a largemouth bass.  It isn't that the fish is unhealthy, it has simply experienced a genetic abnormality compared to other fish.  Similar to an albino, if that helps make sense of it.  Here is another photo of it.  It was 17 inches long.

 

Thanks for the follow up. Cool to know. I had never heard or seen that before. 

[FryDog62]

Still finding fish on some topwater and skipping under docks, but like the last couple years I’ve found around August 1st the Neko and shakey head bite outside of the deeper weed edge has cooled off.  
 

Now getting the better quality fish in/around the thicker weeds with bigger jigs like the 3/4 oz Grassmaster. Mop jigs not far behind...

[MN Fisher]

Wellll - I didn't get skunked anyway. They were a hard bite for me today - tried just about everything and caught this 1.24# on a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin swim jig with a Green Haze Pit Boss trailer along the weedline in about 12' of water.

That was the only one of the day.

[Byang98120]

Can anyone recommend a good lake for largemouth bass that rents out kayaks? Planning to go out this Saturday. Willing to drive 40min-1hr from Minneapolis.

[MN Fisher]

8 minutes ago, Byang98120 said:

Can anyone recommend a good lake for largemouth bass that rents out kayaks? Planning to go out this Saturday. Willing to drive 40min-1hr from Minneapolis.

Couple on Minnetonka

Bay Rentals in Mound close to Surfside launch - they have double (two person) kayaks - http://bayrentalsmn.com/our-rentals

Tommy's Tonka Trolley in Excelsior right on the water - canoes and kayaks - http://www.tonkatrolley.com/rentals.html

[Nibbles]

11 hours ago, Byang98120 said:

Can anyone recommend a good lake for largemouth bass that rents out kayaks? Planning to go out this Saturday. Willing to drive 40min-1hr from Minneapolis.

https://www.threeriversparks.org/page/watercraft-rentals

[gim]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:53 PM, FryDog62 said:

and skipping under docks

That's how a friend and I caught some yesterday too. You can actually see the dock I caught mine under behind me too.  Chartreuse with black flake in that murky water has been the go-to color.  Biggest one I caught was 19.5 inches.

[gim]

Anyone been on a good smallmouth bite lately?  I would like to target some brown bass instead of green ones for a change.  I usually fish rivers this time of year but largemouth fishing has been so good in lakes its hard to switch it up.

[umdivx]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Anyone been on a good smallmouth bite lately?  I would like to target some brown bass instead of green ones for a change.  I usually fish rivers this time of year but largemouth fishing has been so good in lakes its hard to switch it up.

I was up on Mille Lacs last week and man was it tough. Just can't figure out the mid summer/deep bite on that lake any more. Had good luck a few years ago but it's been slow and tough the last few years.

 

The best bite I get is up north (vermilion, kab, ect..), fall time for smallies. 

[OperationEagle]

10 hours ago, umdivx said:

I was up on Mille Lacs last week and man was it tough. Just can't figure out the mid summer/deep bite on that lake any more. Had good luck a few years ago but it's been slow and tough the last few years.

 

The best bite I get is up north (vermilion, kab, ect..), fall time for smallies. 

Was up on the lacs this past Saturday and yes it was tougher than tough. Fall bite is just around the corner. 

[Ogandrews]

Lake pepin has been treating me pretty well lately, haven’t had a day under 10 fish the last 4 times out. Had to take my boat into the shop to get the impeller replaced so we fished off of my buddy’s mid 80’s fish and ski, I have never appreciated my basic deep V tiller so much. Today I had around 20 smallmouth and like, most smallies were in the 2-3.5 range and all the pike were 25-30. Almost all the fish were caught burning a lipless over sparse weeds and around the giant sand points on the Minnesota side. Most effective baits were the SK red eye shad 2tap and cotton cordell spot, gold and sexy Shad, also got a couple on a white thunder cricket. Water temps were 73-75 in most spots, 71 at some of the creek mouths. The pike bite should really start picking up in the next month or so, as well as some more shallow water eyes.

 

idk why I didn’t take many pictures today, this was one of the bigger smallmouth but had a couple pike bigger than these in the boat.

[roadwarrior]

[gim]

20 hours ago, Ogandrews said:

I have never appreciated my basic deep V tiller so much

Lol you ain’t kidding, that thing looks rough. ?

[Ogandrews]

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

Lol you ain’t kidding, that thing looks rough. ?

Don’t know what his thought process was buying it but he likes it so I can’t knock him too much. 

[gim]

Well I tried the river today for about 4.5 hours with my Father and we caught 26 smallmouth. The biggest one I caught was 17 inches. Lots of 12-15 inch dinks. Those river bass sure do fight hard. I had a much bigger one on until it jumped and spit the hooks. I also lost a crank bait to a giant pike. I tried horsing that thing into more open water but the gear I was using just isn’t designed for it.

 

Caught most of the brownies on a bass pro xps shallow crank in hot perch pattern.

[Nibbles]

Slow day on Tonka today. Plenty of fishing holding off points in 15 - 20 FOW but refused to bite.

 

Tried jigs, deep cranks, suspending pointer 110's, etc.

 

Caught a dink pike off the weedlines of the islands in southern Cook's bay, in about 5 FOW on a black/chartreuse LC Fat CB BDS 3.

 

Finally got sick of fishing deep and hit up Seton Lake to fish the docks, where I caught a decent one in half a foot of water.

 

That's right, you heard me - half a foot. We had trolled into the area of the lake choked by lilypads, and I had just tossed a 1/16 oz wacky jig w/ a 4" Coppertreuse Big TRD into the shallows planning to drag it toward some docks in between, when I saw a big fish shape swim up to it.

 

At the time it was sitting in mere inches of water, clearly visible.

 

Being so shallow, I thought the fish was a carp at first since you can see them cruise the shallows all the time on Minnetonka. Figured I'd twitch my worm anyway, and to my surprise saw the fish engulf it, so I set the hook!

 

Turns out it was between 18 - 19"

 

Saved me from getting skunked!

 

 

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, Nibbles said:

Slow day on Tonka today. Plenty of fishing holding off points in 15 - 20 FOW but refused to bite.

 

Tried jigs, deep cranks, suspending pointer 110's, etc.

 

Caught a dink pike off the weedlines of the islands in southern Cook's bay, in about 5 FOW on a black/chartreuse LC Fat CB BDS 3.

 

Finally got sick of fishing deep and hit up Seton Lake to fish the docks, where I caught a decent one in half a foot of water.

 

That's right, you heard me - half a foot. We had trolled into the area of the lake choked by lilypads, and I had just tossed a 1/16 oz wacky jig w/ a 4" Coppertreuse Big TRD into the shallows planning to drag it toward some docks in between, when I saw a big fish shape swim up to it.

 

At the time it was sitting in mere inches of water, clearly visible.

 

Being so shallow, I thought the fish was a carp at first since you can see them cruise the shallows all the time on Minnetonka. Figured I'd twitch my worm anyway, and to my surprise saw the fish engulf it, so I set the hook!

 

Turns out it was between 18 - 19"

 

Saved me from getting skunked!

 

 

Ya, Seton is always good for a no-skunk day. Just wish I had the time and the canoe the 'range' to get in during my usual 4-hour outing. Nice fish.

 

Course right now, I'm landlocked - wife's respite worker quit so until we find a new one, I can't get the time to go out.