North Dakota Get Together????

[iffwalleyes]

Snow is not a problem probably like about 2" on average across the lake. There is about 14" of ice through out the lake. I have had my truck out there for the last 2 weeks. Thing is there was 13" before Christmas so the past weeks weather isn't growing it very fast.

[fishlakeman]

I'm still planning on coming from NDSU with a friend. Should be a great time! Just curious where exactly we are going to meet? I really am coming into this thing blind as I've never even fished in ND before. I do have a ton of experience through the ice, just not in ND. How big is the Jamestown and what is the water clarity like? Should I bring the aqua view? Plan on seeing you all there, and catchin some fish!

[marine_man]

iffwalleyes is going to post a map sometime on Friday of where we'll meet... he's still trying to locate fish with some size... hence the late posting of the map.

Jamestown is a pretty good sized reservoir.. not real wide, but pretty long...

Here are two lake maps from the ND Game & Fish Department:

Small (1.3 mb - not as much detail as the larger map): Jamestown Small Map

Large (2.7 mb - good detail) Jamestown Large Map

We'll have the large map blown up and with us that day...

Depending on where iffwalleyes finds the fish we'll post the address to a bait shop too...

Should be a good time... temp is supposed to be in the mid 20's...

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

Aqua view will work I have used one out there but I seldom use it mainly cause my camera isn't that good. Like I say I will be putting the finals together Fri. because I am trying to find a spot that will produce some fish that we can set up in.

Here is a map with three options of where the event will be held or based out of.

Directions to option #1. Directions are if you are coming from the east (Fargo).

Take I94 West to Jamestown then go to the HWY 281/HWY 52 North By Pass (exit # 256). You will go all the way west through town to get to this it is the last exit west of town.

Take this North you will go across 3 bridges and then come to a stop sign at that stop sign you will be at HWY 281 and HWY 52 make a left onto 281 and you will be heading North West. You will stay on this road for about 8 or 9 miles be looking for a big brown sign on the RT side of the road it says something like Jamestown Recreation Area you will need to be slowing down and getting ready to make a right turn on the next road it's road number is 28th St SE. There is also a smaller sign that says Smokies Landing on it on the corner as well. After you make a turn you will be going a little less than 2 miles and you will be at the lake. Once at the lake you will want to head Southeast onto the lake and if we are in this area I will be about 1/2 south.

Option #2

Take I94 west to the Bloom Exit (Exit 262). Exit here at the stop sign on the off ramp make a Rt. heading north stay on this road until you come to a stop sign you will have gone across some rail road track and a processing plant called Candish Farms. At that stop sign make a left. Stay on that road you will go around the Jamestown air port. You will notice that the Jamestown high school is on the south side of this road you will need to start slowing down so that you can make a RT turn north at the next intersection. The road is ND 20 but there aren't any signs that say that the road goes by 12th Ave NE. Make a right onto this road you will be heading north out of town you will only go about 2 miles north and then you will see a big brown sign on the right side of the road saying Jamestown recreational area. Be slowing down and you will make a left heading west at the next intersection. Stay on this road and it will bend around and you will come out at the res. just watch here and you will see where everyone is going on at. There is kind of an island (when the water is high enough) you will go just south of that and there is a well established track to get on the lake.

Option # 3 is similar to number 2 except for the end part.

Take I94 west to the Bloom Exit (Exit 262). Exit here at the stop sign on the off ramp make a Rt. heading north stay on this road until you come to a stop sign you will have gone across some rail road track and a processing plant called Candish Farms. At that stop sign make a left. Stay on that road you will go around the Jamestown air port. You will notice that the Jamestown high school is on the south side of this road you will need to start slowing down so that you can make a RT turn north at the next intersection. The road is ND 20 but there aren't any signs that say that the road goes by 12th Ave NE. Make a right onto this road you will be heading north out of town you will go about 4 miles north. When you see Hwy 20 start to make a bend to the NE slow down you will need to get ready to make a LT on a road that is perpendicular to the curve the road should be 30 St SE if there is a road sign there. Stay on this road till you come to the lake. Once on the lake head pretty much straight south on the east shore and about 1/2 miles south you will find me if I am in this area.

So that is how you get to those spots. If you have further questions please email me.

Bait shops.

Now if we end up at option 1 the easiest stop for bait would be either to bring it with or else to stop at Valley City at exit 292 there is a Tesoro truck stop they have small and large fathead minnows. Because Jamestown doesn't really have a bait shop along there route I listed.

If we do option 2 or 3 then there is a bait shop/gas station not far from the route to the lake. Once you go past the airport and the high school don't turn north right away on 12 Ave NE go about 2 block farther to the west to the Conoco station and they have small and large fathead as well.

I usually get a scoop of each size. The large ones this year have been pretty large so it is nice to have some small ones too.

For those planning on coming email me and I will get you my cell number. I would rather do it this way than posting it. Also I forgot to mention my brown house on wheels the name on the back reads

Jason Manlove

Valley City ND

As I said any question email me at [email protected] or you can find Marine_Man at [email protected] either of us will be able to answer your questions.

[JoeTC]

I'm planning on coming along with fishlakeman and I'm excited to experience my first time fishing in ND. We won't have a power auger, but that doesn't sound like it should be a problem. Can't wait to meet you guys and share some fishing knowledge. See you sunday.

Joe

[Anylakeanytime]

What are we going to do about food? Is someone going to bring a grill that we all can share? I presume everyone will be responsible for their own food, but a community grill doesn't sound like a bad idea. I don't have a truck or I would bring mine... any takers? I will be driving a white Explorer.

[iffwalleyes]

For you guys that haven't fished ND before one thing to remember is that the only minnows you can use are Fatheads. No shiners dumb rule to me since I am from MN and that was all I had ever used but never the less it is a rule. So there fore when you go in the bait shop your selection is small and large not different types. Also the best part for me in North Dakota we are allow to use 4 lines. So throw some tip ups in. Depending on my house that I am in and the number of people with me I will sometimes throw a couple tip ups out in the mix. Like mentioned equipment is not a problem but marine man and I just need to know what you guys need help with. My garage has more equipment that Scheels this time of year. So I don't always have the equipment along. We have house and augers enough for people to use just let us know.

I am planning to get some hot dogs and stuff for eating but bring your own choice of drink. We will either have a grill along or I have a hotplate in my house to cook on that we can warm them up. For that matter if anyone wants to bring anything that needs to be warmed like soup or anything like that it can be warmed in my house.

[marine_man]

One other thing... there is a slot limit on walleyes on the reservoir... only walleyes over 14" can be kept which means there are a lot of them.. you do catch larger fish too, but it's kind of like lake of the woods... a lot of small fish...

No registration is required on fishhouses... if the house is left unattended the person's name and address must be on the house...

Here is a link to the ND Fishing Regulations

I think that's about it... I've had good luck on the same tackle that I use for catching walleyes everywhere else, so you should be in good shape there...

There are crappies in the lake... 5-6 years ago there were URL size crappies in the lake too, but got fished out I think... I haven't heard of too many people catching a lot of crappies the last two years but they are there...

marine_man

[Scoot]

IFF and MM, it's starting to look really good for me to be able to make this. I'll likely be bringing a couple guys with me too. A couple questions for you- 1) I know the exact location is still to be decided, but what about time? When do you want to meet? 2) What do you want me to bring to help out? I have lots of gear and spare dump if I can grab anything that'll help. I've got a spare flasher, I'll bring that (I think that's already been called for though). What else? 3) Anything else I can do or round up-let me know.

[iffwalleyes]

Scoot as near as I can tell we are covered. I have heard nothing from anyone on needing equipment so I guess most everyone has what they need. I am planning to bring hotdogs and fixings and Marine_Man will have his grill along. I said that we would start around noon. But some people are saying they are coming earlier. I plan to be on the lake around 11 am though. Right now I am thinking that we will be fishing in option #3 spot but I have one other spot I want to try tonight that will finalize the decision tomorrow I think. I also have one other spot that I plan to fish tomorrow night so if I really smoke them in that spot there is a possiblity of a last second change. So keep checking back especially Fri night about 9:00pm. I fished at the option #3 spot last night and did ok but again no size (11-13.5") to the fish there are all the little shavers. But that is better than the evening before when I only got (8-11"). The last two nights I have caught about 20 fish over the evening hours (4-6) but none have been keepers. Of course this is still better than where I was fishing last week and only caught 2 fish the whole week that makes it depressing. So that is the newest report. I can't promise anyone we are going to smoke the fish but I can promise we will have a good time.

[iffwalleyes]

Ok after fishing the past few day I have decided that we will be going with my option #3 for meeting location. The following map shows just the route to this option.

Take I94 west to the Bloom Exit (Exit 262). Exit here at the stop sign on the off ramp make a Rt. heading north stay on this road until you come to a stop sign you will have gone across some rail road track and a processing plant called Cavindish (SP.) Farms. At that stop sign make a left you will be on county road 40. Stay on that road you will go around the Jamestown air port. You will notice that the Jamestown high school is on the south side of this road you will need to start slowing down so that you can make a RT turn north at the next intersection. The road is ND 20 but there aren't any signs that say that the road goes by 12th Ave NE but there also is no corner street sigh here either. Make a right onto this road you will be heading north out of town you will go about 4 miles north. When you see Hwy 20 start to make a bend to the NE slow down you will need to get ready to make a LT on a road that is perpendicular to the curve the road should be 30 St SE if there is a road sign there. Stay on this road till you come to the lake. Once on the lake head pretty much straight south on the east shore and about 1/2 miles south you will find me. Also there is a area here that the snow has been cleaned off and there is a hockey net out on the ice. This is right in the area we will be fishing. So this is one thing to look for once you are on the ice.

For bait:

There is a bait shop/gas station not far from the route to the lake. Once you go past the airport and the high school don't turn north right away on 12 Ave NE go about 2 block farther to the west to the Conoco station and they have small and large fathead as well.

I usually get a scoop of each size. The large ones this year have been pretty large so it is nice to have some small ones too.

For those planning on coming email me and I will get you my cell number so that if you have any question you can get ahold of me. I would rather do it this way than posting it. My fishouse is brown house on wheels the name on the back reads

Jason Manlove

Valley City ND

As I said any question email me at [email protected] or you can find Marine_Man at [email protected] either of us will be able to answer your questions.

[marine_man]

Glad to hear you can make it Scoot... I look forward to meeting you...

marine_man

[ivegottabite]

So how did this go? I wish I could have made it, but a family trip to SDak took priority over this unfortunately.

Guess I'll have to meet everyone next time

[iffwalleyes]

Well the company was good which made up for the lack of fish I guess you could say. We had a good time and I sure we will probably be doing this again. Wished you could have been there.

[marine_man]

It was great meeting everyone yesterday... too bad the fish didn't cooperate... but a good time was had none the less.... ScottND - how was your night on the ice?

marine_man

[Scoot]

Jason, Rob, Nick, Joe, Scott- it was good to meet all of you. We had a good time. The fish certainly didn't want to cooperate too well, but Ben and I enjoyed the trip out. Always fun to get together with some FMers. If you fellas get into a good bite, be sure to give me a shout- I'll happily run out and give it another go.

Jason and Rob, sure was nice to see you guys using some good, quality fishing rods. Funny how often I run into people with rodsbyengel gear around here. Glad to hear you've been happy with 'em.

[fishlakeman]

I really had a good time out there. A huge thanks goes out to Rob and Jason for doing a great job setting this thing up. It was Joe and mine's first FM get together and we're sure to be involved in many more to come. We had a few opportunities at fish so not all bad, maybe we we're just rusty, haha. Scott, I'm also curious how the overnight went in the Otter I think you had the gear to pull it off so it probably wasn't all too bad.

I'm definately in for next year, and maybe I can get a Otter Tail one organized too. Again, great meeting all of you, and am looking foward to the future get-togethers. -Nick

[Anylakeanytime]

I too had a blast. Even though the fish didn't cooperate, just getting out is enough for me (...most of the time). We will definitely have to do it again.

Ben

[ScottND]

Thanks guys for setting this up. I wish I could have got started earlier in the day but that's life on vacation I guess. Devils Lake, Brainerd and Jamestown all in a row while tweaking fishing toys, changing vehicles and equipment back and forth in between isn't what I'd call resting but I guess I'll wait to get back to work for that! Taking a day to wash clothes, charge batteries and make an Otter Den mount for my 4 wheeler then back at it.

The camp out in the Otter Resort on the lake went well enough to do it again. I picked up some 2x3 rubber mats at Macs for laying on the ice so I didn't get my socks wet crawling in & out of the sleeping bag and it wound up being one of the best things yet! I'll have them with all the time now while camping or not. Great traction inside a portable! I made some lights from garden hose, taillight bulb sockets and (6) 19 LED tailight bulbs. OVERKILL! I only need two of them for great light. The walleyes started hitting just after sun up but they were pretty small so I packed up and left by noon. Took my daughter out for dinner and stopped at The Buff (my son's bar) and he said he heard the crappies and walleyes are starting to hit on the west side of Pipestem in 7'. Guess he'll have to put the new 2-2-4 Strikemaster and LX5 I picked up for him to work and let me know for sure.

Thanks for the idea Loren, wished you could have made it. Again, thanks for setting this up Jason/Rob. It was great to meet all of you!

Ready for the next one!

[JoeTC]

I had a great time meating all of you and I hope we can all meet up again. Great to hear your night went well scott and that you were able to catch a few fish. I also heard some crappies were biting on pipestem so maybe later in the year we could head out there if anyone is interested.

Joe