Where to let the bait sit?

[Kurt Paulsen]

Well, for those in the Mankato area, Rapidan Dam park opens this coming weekend. I will be out there for sure! Goldeye are hitting hard right now if you can find some slow water. Does anybody fish for shortnose gar?

[DARK30]

Now there is some cut bait worth fishing for! How are you foolin um?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Kurt- Good to see you posting.. Welcome to the Forums!!!!

Now keep your car out of the water on LOW!

[Guest]

WHere is Rapidam? I have heard the name many times.. just never knew where it was.

I'll go out there this week sometime to get some bait if they are biting pretty good!

That is.. unless my buddy Dark30 can get down there and donate a couple to a friend? I think its in your neck of the woods.

[DARK30]

Rapidan Dam is south of Mankato on the Blue Earth river near the town of Rapidan. Its a good place to fish most of the time...and the Dam Store Cafe at the dam is a GREAT place to get a piece of Jenny's homemade pie!

I've only caught a handful of goldeyes in the Minnesota and none in the Blue Earth. It would be nice to see a few more.

[Maashkinoozhe]

How does one go about catching goldeye? General location, bait, time of day, etc. I'm trying to work on a species list.

Thanks!

Dave

[DTro]

I would also like to get into some of those goldeye. Be nice to stock up on some bait. I might take a ride down there either way. Kurt (welcome to FM) if you could give me some general info I would appreciate it

dtro(at)mn.rr.com

[Fishin Beast]

Is it a waste of time to fish during the day at a dam?

[Kurt Paulsen]

Thanks Deitz... For your information, I recently acquired a Dodge Dakato. No more ice-hopping in a saturn for me!

As for the dam... I fish there all the time in daylight. You can catch cats, carp, redhorse, etc throughout the day. I've seen some very nice walleye come out of the waters right under rapidan in the middle of the afternoon.

For those interested in Goldeye, you have to look for calm cloudy water. The cloudy part should be pretty easy to find but the calm is not always so easy. I have always found them in or around a stream connecting to the minnesota. Minneopa creek, seven mile creek, and now most recently at a small stream in sibley park. They are supposedly a nocturnal feeder, but with the cloudy water, they will hit all afternoon. They really turn on for about a half hour at dusk and then nothing. The best thing I have tried so far is a fathead on a small hook suspended about 8 inches below a bobber. They are surface feeders and you can often see them disturbing the surface. I usually just cast right at them. They have short mouths, with two jaws, so they will often take half your minnow without the hook, so a drophook rig of somekind is probably a good idea. The hardest part for me is getting a hookset.

[Kurt Paulsen]

Here is a closeup of the tongue of a goldeye. Their latin name actualy means "toothed tongue".

[Fishin Beast]

Well I went out for about an hour yesterday for my first time catfishing. Using nightcrawlers I ended up catching one within one second of casting. I did not catch another one but the bottom had way too many things to get stuck on. So I actually wasn't fishing, I was breaking my line and figuring out where the safest spots were to cast.

I wish I would have taken a picture but I think it was an average channel cat around the 2# range. Definitely have an itch to hook into a bunch of them but just have to find the right day and setting to go.

Thanks for all the help on here, because I still cant believe I caught my first catfish after 22 years of fishing.