2021 Minnesota Fishing Season

[throttleplate]

28 minutes ago, Deephaven said:

 

 

8 hours ago, gimruis said:

I caught 44 bass this morning on an east metro lake in about 5 hours.

 

 

 i would have quit after 20 and went panfishing from my chair?

[gim]

The water is already 80 degrees out there too.

[NathanDLTH]

 

[Primitive fisherman]

On 6/11/2021 at 10:57 AM, Fishin Dad said:

The frog bite is definitely going

I haven't had much luck this year with the frog yet in the cities but last night I did have what I believe to be a 30inch northern come completely out of the water like a shark to attack my frog. Didn't catch it, but it was an awesome sight.

[Fishin Dad]

11 hours ago, Primitive fisherman said:

I haven't had much luck this year with the frog yet in the cities but last night I did have what I believe to be a 30inch northern come completely out of the water like a shark to attack my frog. Didn't catch it, but it was an awesome sight.

This does seem like the year of the pike in some of the lakes I fish.  It is not uncommon to catch 15-20 pike in an outing on one lake we fish a lot.  Just a few years ago on that same lake you might catch 1-2.  There must have been the perfect storm of pike spawning 3-4 years ago.  Other buddies have seen similar things on other lakes this year.  They cost us a lot of money.  I am always happy when a pike misses my bait.  

[gim]

I caught a good amount of pike on opener but since the heat started I have caught very few. I don’t think they like the 80+ degree water.

 

I catch a ton of them in the fall when the water starts to cool down into the 60’s and 50’s. Sometimes 20-30 per trip, mostly being the small annoying slimy type. Occasionally tie into a 30+ incher.

[Fishin Dad]

I wish these pike would follow that trend.   They are not slowing down.  We had a 15 boat derby there the other night.   I guarantee with the talk in the parking lot, that over 150 were caught over the 3 hour derb!!  

[throttleplate]

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

I caught a good amount of pike on opener but since the heat started I have caught very few. I don’t think they like the 80+ degree water.

 

I catch a ton of them in the fall when the water starts to cool down into the 60’s and 50’s. Sometimes 20-30 per trip, mostly being the small annoying slimy type. Occasionally tie into a 30+ incher.

the pike here in detroit lakes mn area have gone silent for the past 2 weeks, even the little ones have only grabbed my lure twice which is fine with me.

The lakes where i usually catch them are very low and from the bank and wading they must be a bit farther out than i can reach and thats fine with me.

[gim]

1 hour ago, throttleplate said:

thats fine with me.

Fine by me too. I can do without a bunch of snot rockets. They ruin lures all the time and a sizable one sometimes snips it clean off.

[gim]

Bite has slowed down for me the last couple weeks now. I’m still catching fish but the quality and quantity has gone down. Slower plastics are catching most of my fish. Water temp was 76 yesterday.

[throttleplate]

the wife as i posted last week caught 25 bass standing in the same spot and 2 days later went back and she caught i think 4.

 

Friday we fished and i caught 1 good bass and the others were small and the pike have reappeared in fighting mode and yes i still use the 80lb fluoro leader on all my lures because of them.

 

Today we are headed out to same spot we ended up at friday and i am all rigged up with snelled neko hooks, circle hooks, and ewg hooks as today is worm day, senko day, and creature day.

Now the neko and circe hooks have wire cages and i couldnt use my 80 lb leader as no room to run it through the eye so they are snelled on 20 lb fluoro.

[gim]

I caught 16 largemouth this morning primarily skipping plastics under docks on a small lake in the north metro.  I caught a few early on spinner baits burned next to the docks but that bite ended by 8am and the rest were underneath in the shade.  The biggest bass I caught was 17 3/4 inches.  Water temp was 79 degrees and the jet skis were coming out in full force when I left at 11am.

[BBug]

just curious, has anyone got a frog bite going yet? Plenty of grass out there that looks prime for the frogs however seems really slow based on the water temps.

[Deephaven]

Haven't tried a frog yet....but only because I have zero faith in them on Tonka which is funny since they are my number 1 summer confidence bait.  I have only fished Tonka so no frogs.  Fully expect to tomorrow.  Went out today, lol, yeah I know, wrong day, but caught a limit albeit about a 9lb bag but the the pike were insane.  5 30"ers. Only had 2 hours so it could have been way better with some time.

[BBug]

so, do you throw it pretty much anywhere on the water or do you target certain weeds, cover, shade or depth? Have you ever targeted isolated weed patches in deeper water? Always interested in how people use the tools of our passion.

[RiggityBop]

On 7/4/2021 at 8:25 PM, BBug said:

just curious, has anyone got a frog bite going yet? Plenty of grass out there that looks prime for the frogs however seems really slow based on the water temps.

I've been getting it going at sunset, working bullrushes that are adjacent to drop offs. black and white belly pad crashers. 

 

 

[BBug]

I tried weeds with moss tops this afternoon but was only able to get one on a frog. Got 3 others on a homemade buzz bait on the outside edge in 5 ft of water. All 2lb plus, just no real numbers. 

[throttleplate]

so far this month its been slowww. Last year my frog bite was in high gear in august and the water was high. This year water is very low and looking at some of my frog spots i wont be able to fish them this year.

[gim]

9 hours ago, throttleplate said:

This year water is very low

 

The river I normally fish in July/August for brown bass is so low that I won't be able to fish it either this season.  I have an aluminum jon boat that can literally float through 2 inches of water but even that won't work this season.  I'd be bumping rocks and scraping gravel way too much.  Unless we get a monsoon of rain, which I doubt is coming.

[throttleplate]

37 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

The river I normally fish in July/August for brown bass is so low that I won't be able to fish it either this season.  I have an aluminum jon boat that can literally float through 2 inches of water but even that won't work this season.  I'd be bumping rocks and scraping gravel way too much.  Unless we get a monsoon of rain, which I doubt is coming.

not looking forard to it but we will need an epic amount of snowfall this coming winter to get all bodies of water back to normal.

[Primitive fisherman]

4th of July weekend was pretty productive. I decided to suck it up and deal with recreational boaters on a small lake and I am glad I did. Working a finesse worm texas rigged right on the weed lines and caught about 20 fish for the weekend averaging 2-3 pounds. Than last weekend I was back in the cities where I don't have my boat so I was bank fishing painfully dragging a finesse worm on a shakey head around for 2 hours at sunset, until one fish decided to bite which turned out to be a 5 pounder making it all worth it.

[gim]

Scorching heat wave coming in about a week, set to park over the Dakotas and Western MN for several days.  Temperatures nearing 100.  The summer of discontent continues.  BARF

 

 

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Scorching heat wave coming in about a week, set to park over the Dakotas and Western MN for several days.  Temperatures nearing 100.  The summer of discontent continues.  BARF

Good time for me to do the next mod on the canoe then - in the relatively cool garage.

[gim]

Just now, MN Fisher said:

Good time for me to do the next mod on the canoe then - in the relatively cool garage.

Texas continues to steal our summer weather!

[BKhaos]

Anyone been out on Mille Lacs lately? Thinking about trucking it out there next week and I've never been. Full disclosure, I've got no electronics or graphs outside of Navionics on my phone so am I biting off more than I can chew? Will I be able to find any smallies?