The Ultimate Panfish League!!!

[hanson]

I've changed my plans 3 times now for the following weekend.

First was Burntside Bash, second was snowmobiling, now I'm just going to hang out in the cities this weekend. Got a big ice fishing trip a week and a half away (Chequamegon... cough, cough ) so I figured to save some coin.

I'm going to come out on Sunday and fish Medicine with you guys. I wasn't planning to compete but if someone needs a partner and doesn't mind walking all over the lake, I'll do it. I've got a long walk from French to a few of the spots I'd like to fish.

Matt- Are sleds & quads allowed for the UPL?

[BDR]

glad to hear it Chris. Sleds and Atv's are just fine.

Riding thru the water should be a blast, and shower. Hopefully we get a freeze by Sun. I drove by a couple small lakes late today and it was getting hard to see ice. Lots of water on top of the ice.

[Corey Bechtold]

I'm charging the batteries for my boat . It'll be ready for Sunday.

Hopefully I can make it to the event,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Sounds good guys.

hanson,

I e-mailed you back...

[Matt Johnson]

I'll be at French Park around 7:30am. See everyone in the morning!

[hanson]

Sounds good Matt!

Its sloppy out there guys but the ice is in very good shape.

Vehicles??? LOL!! No way.

This is going to be a fun time. Now if I could get MedMan to let me know where he caught them big perch at.

Who's bringing the donuts?

[MedicineMan]

Hanson, I could tell you where I caught those Perch.

But then I'd have to kill ya....

[Matt Johnson]

A little rumor says that MedMan is going to be there tomorrow? Is this true Derrick? If you can't make it at 8am for the UPL, maybe you can stop by later for a little fishing...

[MedicineMan]

Yup, looks like I'm gonna make it out there tomorrow. I'll be going out around noon.

[metrojoe]

I'm going to miss this one guys. With the rain still coming down when I went to bed I had to make the decision not to go last night. I didn't want to drag the kids all over the ice in all that water. Have fun, we'll see a lot of you next weekend.

[Matt Johnson]

Next event is on Saturday, February 11 on Rush Lake. There are still spots open...

www.UltimatePanfish.com

Should be a great time for pannies on Rush. I'm expecting to see some nice fish brought in. I've heard several reports of 11-12 inch crappies being caught, as well as sunfish pushing that 9-inch mark. I'm really excited for the Rush event...

[Matt Johnson]

Saturday we'll be on Rush Lake. Still a few spots if anyone is interested.

See everyone on Saturday!

[CALVINIST]

Matt,

Rush will be a fun one for the tourny. When me and Mike were there last saturday, our usual spot wasn't productive at all...subservient chips and small perch ! My brother lives in Cambridge, and is driving on his local lake, and I hear there is some traffic on Rush now too. If that's the case, we'll be driving out, trying to find some fish. What are your thoughts on driving out on Rush?

[Matt Johnson]

Last I heard there were full-size trucks driving all over. Report is that there's a consistent 13-15 inches of ice (expect through the narrows and islands).

We'll play it by ear. I'll be out there tomorrow and I'll check ice conditions. I won't have Internet access until Saturday night, so I'll let you know at the event in the morning on Saturday...

[BDR]

I was out there earlier this week. I used a tape measure from one end to the other and found 13-15"s in all spots. There are lots of smaller trucks out there and a few full size ext.cabs. If you drive you want to stay away from any smaller openings between the islands and channels. These are notorius for vehicles going thru good ice.

I can point out spots to stay away from on Sat. morning.

Fishing has been fairly decent in all the deep community holes. Move to the edges of the crowd and drill till you graph them. I have been finding Crappie suspended with Perch and some nice gills below them.

Also look for schools of shiners about 6-8' under the ice. I have been finding the game fish very close to the shiners.

[tommyk]

BDR,

I was out yesterday and found the exact same scenario, crappie/perch/gills all out of the same hole. Can't beat pullin the three species that count Saturday out of the same hole! . Also, As of yesterday ice was an estimated 16+" everywhere. Lots of full size trucks.

-TommyK

[Mr. Pike1]

Matt, hope it was a good tourney. Waiting to see results. I got out with three other FMers on west metro lake and we hammered them. Mostly 8-10ers with a few 12" crappie mixed. The added bonus was there were a few bull sunnies mixed in with the crappies.

[hanson]

Lets say it was a good tourney for Matt & BDR.

I just don't know Rush as well as those two guys. I pulled a monster gill to start off the day, measured at 9 1/8", and it was all downhill from there. Weighed a limit of nice perch, a limit of so-so crappies, and I struggled to find more bluegills.

And of course, the award for big fish this week went to the biggest crappie. Would have won that one if it was biggest bluegill this week.

Oh well, Turtle Lake is next and I have a partner for that event.

All I can say is these events have been really fun. They force you to fish a little differently and with a little more intensity and focus. Just wish I had the time to pre-fish for Rush.

[Mr. Pike1]

If I can round up a partner for turtle I may be in that one. Rush has some good crappies and few weeks back found them in a deep hole away from the crowds.

I really want to be involved the panfish league during the summer and am waiting for Matt to announce the schedule. For those I should have a partner for most events or may fish a few solo.

Turtle is actually one lake I have never fished so I would not have any pre-determinded go to spots like some of my more familiar lakes.

[CALVINIST]

The gills were especially tough to find for Mike and I. Weird. Everywhere we looked those pesky perch (and crappies) were there gobbling up everything you put down there . One 6" gill in 6 hours of fishing...go figure! It was fun, and we found a place that was stacked with crappies that was totally unpressured. Look forward to the next event.

[tommyk]

It was great to get out and meet some of you FMer's not to mention finishing dead last with only a limit of pot belly perch. Oh well, at least the $25 enrty fee got me a meal! It was nice to finally get a full day in out on the ice instead of the 2-3 hours I am usually limited to. These events are a cool deal and am looking forward to participating in a few of the open water events. I unfortunately can not make Turtle next month. Hanson, you had fish of the day for sure, too bad money was on big crappie! Good luck to all of you going to be in Turtle.

[rosspj59]

Tommy or Hansen, may I ask what you caught the perch on? Minnows or waxies/spikes? Hansen, I said hi to you in the morning in the shallow bay. I found some perch in a shallow water area, but most were small and did not seem to want to bite very well. I tried finding sunfish in my usual areas and only caught one small one. It was kind of weird for the sunfish to not be biting very well as usually you can still find the small ones even if the bigger ones aren't biting. The schools of crappies seemed to be moving around a lot too.

[hanson]

I brought out my favorite perch fishing tool- the jigging spoon and went to town on those little buggers. I actually found some decent sized ones as well and filled my perch limit in about 10 minutes once I located some.

I was fishing in about 20-25' of water for the perch with an Angel Eye, Jr jigging spoon tipped with 3-4 Eurolarvae on the treble hook. Drop the spoon to the bottom and jig, jig, jig. The perch were very active and I could get them to come off the bottom 5-6' to hit the spoon.

Unfortunately, those 5-6" perch also like the AE, Jr. I don't know what they are thinking smacking a bait that is half their size.

I like to stay aggressive for perch and hopefully pick off the larger fish with a bigger spoon such as the AE, Jr.

[rosspj59]

Thanks for the info Hansen. Mighty fine fishing rig you had out there saturday!

[tommyk]

ross,

Not to make things difficult for you, but my perch came opposite of Hanson. I was actually fishing the drop on the outside of that shallow bay where hanson was fishing. I was looking for gills from the weeds out and came across tons of fish hugging the bottom in 12-14 fow turns out they were nice perch. The big ones were there only a short while before the small ones took over. I can't remember the exact time, but it was 10 o'clockish when the pigs were hitting. As for bait I was using a vertical style small gold jig tipped with one or two waxies. Once the jig came within 5 feet of the bottom they came charging up and nailed it. My mistake was staying there too long after I got my five nice ones. I should have moved on in search of other species. Tournament mistake!

Hope this info helps.

-TommyK