Fishing report from this weekend 5/21 - 5/22

[erikwells]

I had my three boys 4,6 and 8 in the boat this weekend fishing a central Minnesota lake. We had a lot of pike action in 7-9 feet of water pulling Rapala J13 Firetigers. I spooled up the 20lb Powerpro and trolled. On Saturday all the weather seemed to move just north of us. We fished from 2-4 in the afternoon and had a hard time trolling more than 50 yards without a rod being bent. In less than 2 hours we boated 6 pike and two bass. I estimate 30 minutes or so was spent pulling the hooks from fish and getting the lures out of the net (rubber landing net is on my list). I put the rods in rod holders and had the drag pretty tight and watching the rods during a bite was awesome. My sons had a ball. They reel in all of the fish and even handle the netting. I setup the lines, drive the boat and remove hooks from fish. I had to tell someone as we had so much fun. The no stretch super line sure makes those strikes seem violent. Sunday we had similiar results with the weather moving past us. We were pretty luck as the weather around the rest of the state was severe in some areas. Some of the best pike fishing I have had in a long time. Kept a few and had them for lunch on Sunday and it was too good for words. My boys sure can catch fish if only I had them cleaning them and cooking them then I would really be in business. Anyone else get out this weekend and have like results?

[Slabasaurus]

Yeah! I love days like saturday, big storms but a great bite if you are lucky enough to dodge em....

Saturday I shore fished for a spell on the good old Mississippi. I left my place in Blaine and hadn't made it even 3 blocks before the sirens went off. I could see clearly the wall cloud ahead of me, moving north, so I decided to at least journey over to the spot. Get there, little overcast but it's obvious the storm had passed me by. Awesome, time to throw some jigs!

Just had a coupla twister tails and a 1/4 oz fireball, havin a blast. The pike were biting ferociously. The smallies would not leave the twister alone, but as I was using a 5" twister, well... the smallies weren't ever hooked. Just played with the jig abit before spitting it back in my face near shore.

Well, the bite was so good somebody was neglecting to pay attention to the sky... which had become rather ominous. "Meh, I'm sure it's just the sun setting or something" Ha. Wrong.

First it drizzled. I yell at the clouds "You ain't so tough." that might not have been good because almost on cue, it opens up. I say "[not to be repeated here] it's probably going to be the end huh" and bag my gear up. Then i notice a small white thing land near me, hail?! No.. couldn't be. there was just the one little speck. I passed it off as me imagining things.

Well... as soon as THAT thought went through my head... quarter to half dollar sized hail started to pound my head. A buddy of mine was finishign off an adult beverage and looked up, only to have a hailstone hit him in the noze... which actually cut him pretty decent.

SO i get back into my car, realizing I'm not making the drive yet, only to sit in my car listening to it get pounded by hail, laughing to myself at the irony of using twisters on a day like that.

I can only thank the gods that I had to move some stuff to my new place yesterday, or I would have had a similar situation pop up, but this time would be an actual tornado. With how quickly that storm seemed to develop I would have been out there in the middle of it.

[erikwells]

Tried the same things that yielded me and the boys pike two weekends ago this weekend and we got shut out. Fish were between 7-9 feet and J11 J13 firetigers two weekends ago where we couldn't troll 5 minutes without a fish. Tried shallower, tried deeper, tried spoons and spinners. Where did they go? I assume they moved deeper so I tried deeper and got zero. Any theories?

Thanks