HSO get together Big Stone Lake Saturday February 29th

[smurfy]

A friend of mine was out on bigstone with his kid this past weekend. He did send me a picture of a big gill. Talked to him sat and said they were getting some perch. Said activity was best in the morning and right before dark. Slow in between. Fish were only interested in eurolarve. No idea what part of the lake.

[rundrave]

Thanks for the report smurfy. Sounds like Big Stone was spared with this last snow system. It pretty much shut down all the other SD lakes I like to fish, likely for the year. Fingers crossed we can still get on Big Stone in a couple weeks. Not looking great on a lot of other lakes.

[Rick]

Here's a Big Stone fishing report From @Rick G...

Had a good friend send me a report of some very nice perch being caught over on Big Stone. So, without really a game plan, four of us set out in search of some tasty perchies.

 

We hit the road at roughly 530am, headed SW... snow, and somewhat ice covered roads made for a little slower ride over to Ortonville.

 

We spent a good part of the morning set up in an area a couple of us had fished a few years ago. We had lots of activity,  pods of fish were coming through about every 10-15min... they weren't really biting very well though, and almost all were smaller.

 

By noon I had 3 nice keepers and one over 12inches that I threw back.... my companions had pretty similar results. We opted to make a move versus grinding this spot out. This maybe turned out to be a bad choice...lol.

 

After spending roughly 3hours prospecting a few different areas, giving each spot about 20min, we ended up back in the first spot we tried 

We sorted through tons of 5-8 inch perch, picking up a jumbo for about every 15-20 smalls.

 

Threw the whole dang tackle box at them... tried minnows, minnow parts, waxies and larve... and just about every plastic bait ever made to try and focus more on the larger fish.  Cant really say any one bait worked better than another. It was just one of those days...lol. 

 

For my efforts, I brought home 12 good ones beteen 10-11.5. As a group we got about 35-40 keepers and threw back half a dozen biger ones. 

[rundrave]

2 weeks from today!

 

@Rick can you offer any HSO swag or any other prizes?

 

I will start putting something together and will offer up and bring a variety  new lures and plastics to sweeten the pot. 

 

Ill propose a casual contest and offer prizes for biggest perch and blue gill for the day on Saturday.

 

Would love to see some more people commit to coming. It’s always great to put some faces with some names on here.

[Rick]

I will bring some stuff to give out.

[Borch]

Slow for us yesterday but ended with a bang with 3 gills over 10".  One was 10 1/2" plus but the youngster released it before I could measure it.  Waiting on a pic of that one.

 

My 10 1/4 " bull.

 

My buddies 10 1/8" on the scale.

 

A few eater sunfish and some nice perch but very, very slow.

[Wanderer]

21 hours ago, rundrave said:

 

@Ricklove to see some more people commit to coming. It’s always great to put some faces with some names on here.

Working on getting my wife warmed up to the idea of coming with but I’ll probably be there either way.

[Borch]

Like Rick we threw the kitchen sink at them.  Difference was we didn't have as many small fish.  Big gulls started firing a little after 4:30. Got one 15 ouncer this morning but many, many lookers.   Getting a few nice perch tiday but mostly small ones.  Best bait for me was one if the Liam Lures mayfly jig tipped with a single eurolaevae.

[Wanderer]

The bite today kinda sucks around here too.  Did really well yesterday at this time but having a hard time converting the lookers today.  
 

And there’s the hey make a post about one thing then something different... Hit submit and get a double header...

Edited February 16, 2020 by Wanderer

[rundrave]

 

Just saw this on Facebook. Would love to pull one of these up through the hole in a couple weeks:

[Borch]

Super tanker!

[rundrave]

Hey @Borch  or @Rick G can either of you comment on what access you got on the lake with or what some of them look like? Trying to formulate a  plan and a place for us all to meet. With some of us coming from the SD side and others likely coming from the Minnesota side I don't know what the Mn side access looks like. It appears for now all of us should be able to get around on the lake with any sort of transportation if we are careful.

 

Here is a link to a map I created if that helps: Big Stone lake access

[rundrave]

Can now see the 10 day forecast. Earlier this week it had a lot of snow in it but that is gone now. Weather doesn't look bad but not great either. Certainly could be a lot worse!

I was hoping for a nice sunny day like this upcoming weekend. But the good news is it appears the barometer will be dropping on the 29th and wind from the west so hopefully that will trigger some fish to bite. 

[rl_sd]

I was up on Big Stone this weekend and fished mostly the center section of the lake. The lake is easily navigated. There are still a few drifts to avoid, but many of them should be shrunken down further with this weekends highs. Saw lots of fish,  but took some work to get them to bite during the day. 4 pm - 6 pm definitely had the more aggressive fish coming out to play!

[Borch]

I used the Hey 68 access and it was fine.  It's a bit steep but otherwise everything is in really good condition.   My brother drove 6 miles north of the access without any issues.  Bring a shovel in case you get stuck in a drift.  But you can drive all over the lake as of Monday with little concern about getting stuck.   Ice thickness varied from 19-24".  

[rl_sd]

1 hour ago, Borch said:

I used the Hey 68 access and it was fine.  It's a bit steep but otherwise everything is in really good condition.   My brother drove 6 miles north of the access without any issues.  Bring a shovel in case you get stuck in a drift.  But you can drive all over the lake as of Monday with little concern about getting stuck.   Ice thickness varied from 19-24".  

Did you check out the Meadowbrook access a few miles north? Might be a little better entry but I haven't went on there yet this year.

[Borch]

My brother went of of it and it was fine also.   I watched several trucks use it and one wheelhouse used it as well.

[rundrave]

We are now officially just a few days out. Weather looking great for the rest of the week with no snow in the forecast! 

 

If you are planning to attend, chime in on this thread and let us know. 

 

Anyone have any fishing reports to share after the weekend? I am sure it was was a busy place with the nice weather. 

 

I am still trying to formulate a plan on where to meet up. I would prefer to not fish in the herd but may not have that option. It may just depend on who is all coming and from where. It appears we will have some people from SD and MN. Give me some feedback and let us know what works or doesn't work for you. I think we can all get around on the lake with just about any means of transportation if we avoid the drifts. But I think snow cover is pretty minimal right now.

[Wanderer]

@rundrave

 

I am still likely for Saturday, well the weekend really.  My wife and wheelhouse should be in tow if we continue to recover from the flu as well as we seem to be at this point.  My main worry is access with the house in melting slopes.  I don’t like doing the luge with the house and truck.

 

I stopped at my local lake last night for a couple hours (had to get out of the house) and the crappies were kamakazees compared to the last month!  Hoping it’s the sign of the spring bite coming on, and at Big Stone!

Edited February 24, 2020 by Wanderer

[smurfy]

17 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

@rundrave

 

I am still likely for Saturday, well the weekend really.  My wife and wheelhouse should be in tow if we continue to recover from the flu as well as we seem to be at this point.  My main worry is access with the house in melting slopes.  I don’t like doing the luge with the house and truck.

 

I stopped at my local lake last night for a couple hours (had to get out of the house) and the crappies were kamakazees compared to the last month!  Hoping it’s the sign of the spring bite coming on, and at Big Stone!

AND that lake was where exactly!!!!!

[BobT]

I regret that I will not be able to attend. I have an appointment with my tax accountant. I look forward to hearing about the results.

[Wanderer]

3 hours ago, smurfy said:

AND that lake was where exactly!!!!!

I thought Leech was on a break??!!

 

Smurfy, if you need small crappies really bad, PM me. 

[smurfy]

9 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

I thought Leech was on a break??!!

 

Smurfy, if you need small crappies really bad, PM me. 

i'm good....thanks!!!!!!!!

[rundrave]

15 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

I thought Leech was on a break??!!

 

Speaking of @leech, anyone heard from him? I sent him a PM this morning after I realized he hasn't signed in here for a few weeks? 

[Wanderer]

2 hours ago, rundrave said:

 

Speaking of @leech, anyone heard from him? I sent him a PM this morning after I realized he hasn't signed in here for a few weeks? 

I see I still have a number for him in my phone contacts and thought about texting him.  I don’t know if he texts on his flip phone though!

 

Is there a meeting time decided yet?  Wife is asking about a leave time Since it’s a 3 hour trip for us.