What's workin' now?

[Corey Bechtold]

Lost, is Blue lake too far from ER for you? There are some nice sunfish and crappies out there. Otherwise you might want to look at Twin lake in Now Then.

Good Luck,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

I'm having a heck of a time with the Crappies...the most I have been able to catch at one time is 3 and then thats it?

My nephew only got one yesterday, but it was 13 1/2 inches long and 5 inches deep, a really nice fish.

I can find them, get a few and that ends it, what is it going to take?

Between this ever blowing wind (Compliments of the Hurricanes, I'm sure) and these finicky Crappies, I'm getting a little P.O.! Can't seem to figure them out?

Can't head to far out of town for fear that the wind will do a number on you! I paid $1.89 a gal. for gas today, hate to use it up on a washed trip up north!

But hey, aside from the wind, has'nt it been just drop dead gorgeous out for the past couple of days? I don't believe Autumn even starts for a day or two yet?

[Corey Bechtold]

This past weekend I braved the winds with Cole and the dog. We searched the calm side of the lake for some green vegetation. We found some with a little searching and had some success with Sunfish on flu-flu's and waxies. When we fished the edge of the weeds that had a drop into deeper water we found more Crappies and a few nice sunfish. I switched over to a Power tube and started having more success than the live bait. We didn't keep any but had a great time fishing for them. We were only out for about 2 hours and boated about 30 Sunfish and Crappies. Size of the Sunfish was 7-8 inches. The Crappies were 9-11.5 inches. White tubes on a 1/16 oz jighead or a black and white flu-flu w/waxworm. Vertical jigging in 6 feet of water or fished 5 feet under a float.

Pre-release Photo

Good luck

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Those pics are awesome Corey!

"Cole the fishin machine!"

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[Oldtyme]

Great pictures Corey. Love the way the dog is eyeing those fish
Good job on the catch & release also. On labor day I took a non-fishing friend fishing. We caught about 30 nice sized crappie, he asked "why not keep them?", I say "do you want to clean them? I have plenty of fish at home" so it was a catch/release day

As far as "what's working now" I wouldn't know, I didnt catch a single crappie in the two days I went out. I did hook onto "something large" that liked my fuzzy-grub/minnow combo.... but it got off before I could see it.

Since I'm here, I've been reading up about trolling crankbaits for crappie. I think I'm going to give it a whirl this Sunday. Should be interesting.

[Lost]

Never did make it out Saturday afternoon. My ride was too tired from working all night. Oh well. Maybe next weekend!

Last night at Long Lake (New Brighton) the few that skipped the games were catching crappies in 4-5 feet of water. They were just feet from the fishing dock. I didn't get a crappie but I got a 6" walleye.

[This message has been edited by Lost (edited 09-21-2004).]

[The Grebe]

Was out this afternoon in the rain...and I caught fish! I got a few bass, a Northern, and 4 nice Crappies!

Biggest Crappie...1' 1" and I missed a few.

I can send pictures in an email, but I have not progressed to the point where I can post them here...yet! I'm new at this stuff, got my feet wet last Oct. I'm working on it.

I could'nt get a bite on any kind of artifical, but a Crappie minnow on a small yellow jig head, worked slowly across the bottom, seemed to do the trick.

[mnrstrider]

The Grebe,
Personally I have had of lot of luck like you're having in the past the year, this year has been nothing short of great for me, Yeah the biggest **** in probably short of 12" for me this year, numbers have been great, I'm not hunting for a trophy as much as I am action. I've found on a certain lake I've fished a few times this year, live bait would almost always catch me a couple fish, but they just seem to shut off after that even thought there were still there and active, they would not hit my bait again.... Now I fish 95% plastics. I always keep my bait moving, I found a couple times out I'd catch a fish here a fish there, after which I had to fine tune what they wanted, in these cases I basically ended up trolling my jigs through them, and the numbers picked up right away, and meanwhile I watch another guy out there work the heck out of a jig to catch some crappies, off the bottom I was out fishing him 2-3 fish to one. I found last time out this method needed one more hitch to get more bits too, I'd either chop the trolling motor off for a second, or make little "S" turns while trolling along with the trolling motor, the little slack line would result in a hit more often than not, but the bait had to be moving along at a pretty good clip for these pauses to work, if it was too slow it didn't work. I think this size this way he been a bit smaller in some cases, then those that I've seen and jigged up from the bottom, but I tend to think the fish higher up in the column are the more active biters. In fact a little time sitting and watching my flasher I could see the fish I was jigging off the bottom come upto my bait and look at it, but not hit it, and where as jigging in the middle of water column I pick up one here and there, trolling along slowly , maybe a .5-1.5 mph worked much, much better.

Not that this would solve your "problem" , but in this lake, is has for me.

[The Grebe]

mnrstrider...I don't mind working for the fish...sometimes I whine a little and I don't even know why? Overall, I have had a great fishing season to this point and there is more to come.

Having to work for the fish makes you a smarter angler, frustrated at first, but smarter overall. I like to strike out on my own anyways and I really don't care to catch fish as fast as I can pull them in and then go home...what the hell kind of trip would that be?

I like the hunt...applying Technique knowledge, using electronics, landmarks, lore, memory, the works, trying to figure them out and if you get them, you've done something!

Even when the crowds are catching fish, I won't be among them, I might be on the edge, but never in the group...unless it's my group of fishermen.

[mnrstrider]

I was out for a quick C&R trip, I caught maybe a dozen fish, they were a bit tight lipped tonight, I worked for them, a little powerbait upped the odds for sure, most fish were found in the 14+ fow range, twas a beautiful night on the water, too bad I had to call it early to go to work. Gosh by the time you guys read this I'll probably be out ther fishing some more, I'd like to see if I could find a nice big one, I wonder if I upsize to a 6 inch grub lol... Maybe I'll troll my secret crankbait that really seems to pick up the crappies...

[The Grebe]

Went to fish the Crow out by Hutchinson this morning, me and a bud.

Heck of a scenic drive, the colors are going to be breath taking in another week or two.

We get to the bait shop and the guy tells us we can't fish the river, posted, someone spilled raw sewage into the river, we checked it out and sure enough!

We went over to Otter, "Eeeegh"...We went over to Stahls, "Eeeegh" and we finally wound up at the Crappie hole.

About 10 minutes and 3 Crappies and a few misses into the spot, a big black cloud comes over, very ominous looking, a huge wind comes up, blows so many leaves into the lake, we could'nt get the light weight jig heads to sink!

The wind changed from the South to every direction, especially into our faces!

We limped away wet, but determined to continue the battle another day!

[Corey Bechtold]

Grebe, I was at work when that cloud cruised in. That was a heck of a wind gust! The rain was pretty heavy after that too. Hopefully the fishing will come on like that this weekend (hard and heavy)!

Good Luck

Corey Bechtold

[This message has been edited by Corey Bechtold (edited 09-23-2004).]

[Corey Bechtold]

Well this weekend is the duck opener so be courtious to those hunters if they have their decoys on your favorite fishing hole. You might want to try and beat them to the spot. I hope to get out and try some fishing. I'll let all know how I did and what's working. Good Luck to all!

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Well I made it out Saturday afternoon from 5-7:30. I had the pleasure of sharing my boat with my daughter Bailey and my wife's friends kid Faith. We started out targeting Sunfish and had some success with waxies and flu-flu's. The size and numbers didn't impress me much so we relocated and searched for Crappies. It didn't take long and we found a school of them right on a break in 8 feet of water. The fish were really moving and I had a hard time staying on top of them. It seemed like they were really on the move, but when they were on the locator they would bite. Plastics like the Berkley power tube, Power minnow, and Paddletails seemed to work best. They didn't show a preference toward a certain color or size. The only way they wanted it was slow or vertical. We got to watch a beautiful sunset and moonrise. All in all a good day, and most importantly, the kids had fun.

Faith shows off a nice Crappie

Bailey's Crappie

Bailey after sunset/moonrise

Hope everyone had a great weekend

Corey Bechtold

[Oldtyme]

Geesh Corey. Will you take ME fishing

I struck out on the crappie yesterday. This is my first year hunting them full time. I must be fishing in the wrong areas or something. I'm still in "learn mode" so I'm not too upset.
I did catch about 20 nice bluegill.... once I found the gills were biting I switched to hook / waxworm. Didn't feel like cleaning fish so I let them go.

(p.s) I was joking about the take me fishing part, I live in Indiana

[delmuts]

you certainly had a great day! the smiles on the girls faces tell the story! del

[united jigsticker]

Such diversity.

I just returned home from a decent outing near Howard Lake.

The Crappies were anywhere from 9 feet of water to 30 feet of water suspended.

The 9' of water fish were 9" fish.

The 25-30'foot of water fish that were suspended were 6" fish.

I finally found the big ones (up to 14") right inbetween, in 16 FOW, smack dab on the bottom.

Talk about color picky. Pink and yellow marabou was the only ticket. I tried pink and yellow plastics, and that worked as well, but smaller fish seemed more agressive towards that.

Not sure what the water temp was, but the depth diversity tells me what season it is.

It was a nice day to say the least, although the wind was a bit on the stiff side, especially on the south side of the lake.

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[Matt Johnson]

UJ,
Sounds like you have some roaming fish on your hands. Making that fall migration Glad to hear you made it out and got on some crappies. Pink and yellow huh, I'll keep that in mind. How far is the shallow water from the 16 foot area you were fishing? How deep is the weedline?

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[united jigsticker]

The shallow stuff was about 50 yards off the deeper water. The weedline in this lake only went to about 7 feet.

The main bottom make-up was sand, with few muddy areas, and the Crappies were holding in the transition spots. (bottom content)

This is a neat lake, but only the first time I have fished it. I intend on going back for first ice, or some mid to late October fishing and seeing how it produces then.

I tried a few other color patterns, and they just wouldn't take to it. (I put on a minnow, and they wouldn't touch that either, even on the pink and yellow )

------------------
Good fishing,
UJ
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[This message has been edited by united jigsticker (edited 09-27-2004).]

[Corey Bechtold]

I really like the comment "Roaming fish". This is exactly what I found tonight. I took Brooke and Cole out for a little while tonight and when I started the fish were all over the locator. I started with a 16 inch Walleye, then a 17 inch Largemouth Bass, then all Crappies and they were a little inpatient and didn't like to stay in one place for any amount of time. It shouldn't be long until they are schooled up. Nice report UJ! Nice to see you got on some fish.

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

This morning....a limit of Crappies and one Walleye...a small yellow jig head, gold hook, small minnow through the lips, slow across the bottom.

Had a few hit on the counting down drop, just prior to the bottom. 9 feet of water off shore. Tried a variety of presentation with different lures, jig head was the most consistant. Nice fish, all in the 15 oz. range.

[The Grebe]

Went out earlier this morning, kind of worked the edge of the rain....never got even one Crappie, my intended target....but I did get a nice stringer of Walleyes up to 3 pounds! Hee, hee, hee! I'll take it and like it!

[fishin4life90]

hey The Grebe

where were you fishing? what were you using?

[The Grebe]

Fishin4life90...same lake I've been getting the Crappies in and got the Walleyes on the same lure, a little white feather jig and a small crappie minnow hooked through the lips.

[CrappieJohn]

Uj....Pink/yellow, you say. How was the water clarity? Clear or stained? I might have to twist up some of my little hair jigs in this combo if the water is stained....maybe even if it isn't.

The Zumbro has been on the roller-coaster with all the heavy rains this summer and I haven't tried it as yet. I might sneak out there if I get a rain day this week, just to see if there is any consistancy to the fish there. The trees are just starting to show some color so the fall fish sould be beginning to organize, but our last bout with the heavy rains might have done that in too. High really scrambled the spring fishing and then the cold summer never got the fish relating to much of a thermocline. The Mississippi backwaters have been putting out some decent fish and black/ pink has been a stellar color combo there....maybe pink/ yellow will turn some heads. Very stained water down there, so I'll let you know how it works.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

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