Canadarago

[CNYFrank]

Frank, Al, Wayne

[CNY Tim]

BigJohnny Ice is a go! Yeehaw... We may have some winds to deal with boys early from the east then switch to the west later on. Cant wait to dip those LaDredge S.O.S.'s, should be fun.

[CNY Tim]

Mohawk Valley Joe is in! Channel 8 on the old FRS.. Talked to Tuzzy he has maybe a bit of a bug coming on I'll call on him after I get home from the fish fry at Craig's to check his status. I told him to go take a nap and dream of perch I did. I think that's the problem with most of us lack of sleep before the event, is always par for the course. Ask Johnny the last time I went to Honeyoye

[CNYFrank]

Just where exactly has that bug crawled up into Tuz?? Wind? It's only supposed to be at the most 20 mph . . .you, Wayne and I are vets from last week at the 30+ level! The wind chill is in the minus level so bring heaters.

[CNYFrank]

Never let Mother Nature think you can withstand what she wants to throw at you! I do believe we got gusts of well over 30 mph at 4 o'clock!! The rest of the day was great and "breezy." Fish cooperated again although not as well as they have . . . for all you absentees. Noticed that the weedes are getting mucky which means they are finally dying off . . . sucking some oxygen from the water. Perch were very active early in the day then became slurpers as they day went on. On the Marcums it would look like they were sitting on your lure and then flipping you off, but if you looked down the hole you could see them suck the bait in without feeling it or seeing it on the rod tip . . . if you had a spring bobber even that was hard to see. John, Tim and I had the fortune to see what a tiger muskie looks like on a Marcum . . .and through the ice . . .I got it to bite my lure as I watched it through my hole, but again . . . and this is the last time, the drag gave and the fish was gone. Tim on the other hand got to feel a tug and zip of his drag and a rifle shot sound as his rod broke!!! If anyone catches a tiger musky with a swedish pimple in its mouth, Tim would like the lure back!! LOL

[CNY Tim]

St. Croix is loving me another $27 coming there way. That's two this year, I don't understand it I really don't... What stinks is that was my crappie slinging rod too with the pink spring bobber dang...

The fishing was pretty slow today but the wind was biting eh Frank Found one of Frank's rods on the way back. That wind was something else today man o man and the blowing white out spots were no picnic., gotta about 5' from a ditch before I got her corrected. I hope Johnny made it back o.k. I tried his cell and he must of had it turned off. Got home to 5-6" of snow in the driveway so that had to be blowed out immediately.

Fished 6.5' to 37'and caught quite a few fish but all small with only 3 Canadarago specials was using the custom jigs and spins jigging spoons most of the day tipped with mousies and spikes. I think we would have faired better with a clear day visibility was enhanced quite a bit in the shallows for all of about 30 min. but they just weren't around today the slobbers. Thank you John for making that long haul up from Rochester had another great day fishing with you. I'm havind a long tall cold teer

[BigJohnnyIce]

Yeah, Timmy, I made it back in one piece....took me just about 4 hours this time, becasue of the weather. I had to go 25 MPH on the Thruway from the Richfield Springs entrance all the way to Verona. Pretty nasty going thru there. White knuckle paradise.

It was nice fishing with you and Frank again, and although the fishing wasn't too good, I had a blast. I'll try to post some pics later.

Hey Frank, remind me to never let Timmy borrow one of my St Croix Rods!! I don't want to make a 12" sight fishing rod out of a broken one just yet

[BigJohnnyIce]

Here are a few pics from yesterday's (2/25/06) outing:

Timmy setting up the Ladredge Structure on a String for the first time.

The weed line is set-up....here fishy, fishy.

Franky lands a nice perch (again!!)

Timmy gets into a nice rockbass. He was fishing a few feet from the SOS's

Timmy even lands a nice perch!

[CNY Tim]

That tiger followed that Ladredge weedline like a champ. Franky saw him first and warned me he was coming my way if that musky was patrolling that area all day he could have been a factor if he had company. It was -3 here this a.m. with Delta and Canadarago with a good solid 1' of ice it could be 15" on both after last night. It's power auger time!

[CNYFrank]

I think I am wandering over to Delta this afternoon . . .maybe around 12-1 . . .I have my reasons . . . John . . .I won't let Tim use my St Croix either . . .

[CNY Tim]

Franky left a message on your machine... Just talked to MV Joe and he was out on Darago both days and caught small perch but whacked a 15" brown trout on Sunday.

[hanson]

Quote:

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It's power auger time!

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LOL! Thats almost funny Tim. In northern Minnesota, its almost extension on the power auger time. I've been pretty close to running my gearbox into the ice my last few times on Upper Red Lake. It was also -27 on Saturday morning at my sleeper ice shack. Brrrr... Strikemaster starts 4th or 5th pull even at -27.

I see you guys are getting into some really good perch fishing out there. Minnesota's perch factories have been hard at work this winter as well. Winnibigoshish is full of perch but I couldn't get many past 11". Lake Mille Lacs is been pumping out perch all winter from 12-15". Of course, I've been so busy that I haven't made it up to Mille Lacs at all.

Oh well. I've been busy catching these 14" plus crappies out of Upper Red.

[CNY Tim]

Jiminy crickets Chris now that's a slab reminds me of the hogs we used to get on Delta. Wish we had a digital camera back then to catch those on camera, absolute brutes. The perch that Frank's holding is a 14" he has had the hammer down on those 14"rs all season, he will pop at least one on almost every trip.

Is upper red pretty close to your house Chris? Most of the lakes we fish around here are within an hour driving distance which makes it convenient.

[CNYFrank]

Chris, nice fish! Tim is right, we use to catch them like that on Delta until some guys camped out on top of the only piece of structure around and slayed them. Rumor was they would catch a limit, take them home and come back again and do it all over again. Doesn't take long before the old "they aren't hitting like they use to" song is sung. They are still there but few and far between. But then again we have had a wierd season with the weather and they could have suspended out in the channel and are just waiting for the temps to get just right and the sunlight to stay out longer to feed in the newly awakened shallower water. Time will tell. Again great fish Chris . . .I see why you guys prefer to look in the water with all that beautiful scenary in the background.

[hanson]

Quote:

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Is Upper Red pretty close to your house Chris?

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Don't I wish. Its about about 4 hours and 45 minutes from my place to my shack. My shack is home away from home. Its 7'x12' with 8 holes, 4 bunks, and a good furnace. We spend the weekend in it, sort of like base camp, and fish the rest of the lake.

The crappies on Upper Red average 13"-14" with plenty that go to 15". The 15 inchers are right around 2 pounds. Its pretty spectacular but won't be for long. There is probably 1-2 years left on the crappie boom and then its back to walleyes. The crappie numbers are no where near what they were 3-4 years ago but that is acceptable. It was natures way of filling in the gap while the DNR aggressively managed and restocked the walleyes. It was obviously a special thing that I will probably never experience again in my lifetime.

[CNY Tim]

That's definitely a weekend trip Chris and well worth it for those slabs. The most I have traveled to fish in State was Silver and that was about 3 hours and 27 minutes drive from central New York.

I find that I get bigger crappies open water fishing than I do ice fishing. Look at Six Towns Pond for instance and Lee knows this already I caught my two best crappies there a 15 1/4" and a 15 1/2" yet again out of the old town canoe., Oh man I wish I still had the pictures I had a nice shot of both of them while hoisting in da canoe. Biggest crappies of my life.

I had a long drought not fishing open water other than the fall walleyes until I met Tuzzy and we are on the water pretty much every weekend looking for crappies and eyes. Tuzzy bought a new Tracker for this year 16'SC so now we can attack some bigger waters that we couldn't hit before. Tuzzy isn't loaded either. But you know what guys sometimes you just have to pull the trigger to be happy. He didn't hem and haw either he checked out about 4-5 different boats before going with Tracker. He's happy with his purchase and I am sure Lee will be with his...

[CNY Tim]

CNY Kyle played hooky from work today to fish darago., how did you guys do?

[CNYFrank]

The lazy XXX hasn't posted, probably will say he forgot . . . he put tip ups from 7 to 20 feet and nothing . . . small perch at 22. He saw Timmy's buddy with the lure, line and St Croix left over on his Marcum . . .woke him up from a blatto sleep. Seemed to be a slow day on other lakes too . . . could be weather.

[CNY Tim]

I think we can cut the rookie some slack naaaahhh

[BigJohnnyIce]

Hey Frank,

Wouldn't be great if the next NY State Record Tiger Musky comes from 'Darago and after further examination they find a 5 inch piece of a St Croix Rod hanging by its mouth? What would Timmy do then

Just kidding, Timmy....I still can hear the snap of the rod today....like I said, I thought somebody was breaking up some small firewood on the shore before I heard you screaming!!!

[CNY Tim]

Yep you guys keep laughing it up, I can take it. It's not the first rod that I owned that's blown up on me and it won't be the last. I didn't think he'd hit the darn thing!

[RTF]

Hey guys. Just wanted to say hello. I am not far from Darago and was there all day yesterday on the south end. We marked big fish in 5 FOW. You dont even need the vex in that depth, LOL . Just look and wait. A bass at least 5lbs came by and nudged the bait out of the way and then moved on. What a sight ! We moved due north from our spot to 25 FOW, later in the day. For 4 hours we where swamped with schools of perch, but all where dinks. Only was able to get 2 of them to bite. We are getting ready to start the truck and head back this AM. May just as well head out from boat launch if wind aint too bad. Yesterday believe it or not was our very first time ice fishing Darago.

[CNY Tim]

RTF - Well a warm welcome aboard!

A NY ice brother at Fishing Minnesota????

People ask me that why Fishing Minnesota when I am from NY?

I say with all truth I hated the backstabbing and editing that goes on behind the boards whenever your having a non-sponsored discussion or posting a report. That doesn't go on here there's no private messaging so you don't have to worry if your fishing hot spots are being ripped off via back door mods. If you like to speak about any products you use, you don't have to buck up to sponsors here, heck I don't, and do only if it works for me.

That's kind of a flavor of what we have here. It's no holds bar fishing fun with a great bunch of guys..I've seen your stuff on the other site as well RTF and I like what I see. Will definitely get together on Canadarago and welcome to the best site were almost 25,000 members strong and growing. RTF will let you know the next time were down there and thanks for your report. Again welcome to fishing Minnesota!

[CNY Lee]

Welcome RTF, you'll like this board and a good bunch of people.

[CNYFrank]

Glad your here . . .want to read more on your blog!