What's workin' now...

[CALVINIST]

Float tube fun!

Cyberfish gave me his old float tube. I checked out a couple metro area lakes today. The first, gave up only a handful of decent crappies, so I scooted over to another lake and hammered the gills on the wind blown side of the lake. Culprit paddletail under a float was all that was needed. Caught a few crappies too, but not as nice as the ones in the other lake. Also caught a pike and two 4lb bass. In a boat, that's no big deal, but in a float tube? FUN!

[hanson]

Quote:

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Is that the camera you post on here with?

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Yep. The image quality at higher resolutions is really good. I end up shrinking all my images down to post here.

I just checked out Best Buy's HSOforum and my camera is apparently outdated already. A comparable model available at Best Buy now is the Nikon Coolpix L4. Its a 4.0 Megapixel camera which is much more detail than you'd need for the internet. It was listed at $149 on there as well.

[ironman]

Couple picks of today's catch. Mostly dinks..these are two of the better ones. All caught on the fly.

[ironman]

[Matt Johnson]

BDR and I made it out for a couple hours early this morning. The sunfish were more than eager to bite, but not much for size.

We caught them on 1-inch white Exude Twister Tails, white and pink Exude Micro Shad, and white/chartreuse Culprit Paddle Tails on collarless jigheads.

We worked depths anywhere from about 2-5 feet, right in the back section of a dark-bottomed shallow bay/backwater.

Not much for crappies this morning, but we figured that once midday hits the crappies will pick up their activity level. The crappies were there, they just didn't want to eat. Give the sun a fews hours to heat up the water, then the crappies will put on the feedbags.

And in usual fashion, I landed about a 3 pound dogfish

[united jigsticker]

Yes indeed, I ate humble pie.

Last weekend (the weekend before the TAX weekend) we hit a lake on Saturday and did well on nice Crappies in 5-10 feet of water.

There was actually a tad of ice on the lake still that morning, but the fish were on the edge of the weeds feeding nicely.

This weekend, I went back to the same lake, reluctantly, believe it or not, and searched for those same nice Crappies to have the feed bags on.

No such luck.

One 11" Crappie in 3 feet of water, one 9" fish in 20 feet of water, and one 9" fish in 26 feet of water.

I fished hard from 30 feet all the way to 1 foot of water with little to show for it.

I worked over areas 3 different times through out the day that produced last weekend, no luck.

I worked in the shallow grounds that produced last YEAR, No luck.

I worked the first main break, 8-12 feet. No luck.

I worked the depths, 20-32 feet, 2 fish.

I worked 12-20 feet, No luck.

The weather has been gorgeous but I think it may be too much too soon.

There was alot of crud floating on the surface leading me to believe there was a turnover this week, potentially leading to the demise of my angling experience.

Again, I was humbled, catching only 3 Crappies, 2 Gills, and a few Bass.

A different lake I imagine would have done me better, either being a shallow lake with no thermocline, or a deeper, clear lake that would warm slower.

Whatever the case is, I didn't have it Saturday.

I'm still burping humble pie, and I don't like the taste left in my mouth.

[ironman]

the only way I know to get that taste out of your mouth is to chase it with a large cup of more fishing!!

[fisherdog19]

Fished Friday all day in a small shallow bay. One side of it was 47 degrees and the windy side was 58 degrees. Needless to say, the fish were on the windblown side. Caught crappies pretty steady for 2 hours+ moving about 10 feet 2 seperate times as we were pushing fish. Yellow 2 inch exude twister tail tipped with a crappie minnow, they wouldn't hit plain plastic. Found them in 2 fow and spooked them into about 4fow and caught them there. Averaged around 11.5 inches with a few pushing 13". Lots of fun.

[Matt Johnson]

Good reports!

I see Jeff is back in action!

Sounds to me like Peter is on the big crappies! Those shallow water slabs are a blast! A little bigger than the Bald Eagle crappies you and I got on a couple years back

[ironman]

went out yesterday to the same spot as last time...only found one crappie. Caught tons of sunnies and bass. I think the fish were there but couldn't keep the bass off long enough to catch em. Man those bass were aggressive.

[fisherdog19]

Most definately bigger than those, it was still fun though. Next time I'm in the cities, we'll have to get out. Same goes if you're ever in my neck of the woods.

[bisonmn]

Hi all,

First post I haven't been out fishing for quite some time (2 years). I was finally able to get my oldest to give it a try and I got him into fish the first time out and how he is hooked. Finally!

These where pulled from Rice Lake/Maple Grove off of crawlers and green and yellow 1/32 jig heads. Probably any color would of worked but pink wasn't doing much so when he was getting action off the green he stuck with it. I was using yellow 1/32 heads and tried both white and chartreuse 2" gulp minnows with no action at all. These fish where pulled on Sunday morning and we found similar action on Monday evening.

I couldn't get the images to attach so they can be found here:

photos

[Matt Johnson]

Welcome to FishingMN.com bisonmn!

Glad to hear you just gained a new die hard angler! Thanks for the report and pictures!

[Corey Bechtold]

Nice to see some responses from others. Glad that everyone is getting out and enjoying the Open Water too.

I had a chance to fish with my nephew Andrew and Cole the other day after work. I wanted them to get on some fish and hopefully some good numbers too. I wasn't expecting much with the inconsistent weather from the last week but I was suprised on what we found.

We started fishing a calm area hoping that the fish would be there. It was a narrow area where there was some flooded timber and a lot of cattails in the water. The water clarity was clear and temps were about 53 degrees. I threw out a Power tube for Andrew and while I was getting Cole ready to fish Andrew already had a fish on. What happened for the next hour and a half was non-stop Sunfish action! There were some nice fish too. A lot of 8" fish along with the smaller ones too. They were on a feeding binge. Hitting almost anything what was in their faces. The best color for us though was a white tube with a white collarless 1/32oz jighead. We fished them a foot under a float and the fish went nuts.

We would have continued fishing if it wasn't for the 30-40mph wind gusts and drizzling rain. I was amazed how well Andrew fished for only fishing a handful of times. He learned how to handle fish, set the hook, and bring the fish into the boat. He can't wait to go again and I hope to have yet another fishing partner along with my 3 kids too.

Here are a couple pictures from the day...

Andrew with a nice Gill

Cole with a nice fish

It's been a great start to the Open Water season and I look forward to hearing about everyone else's fishing adventures too.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Mrkeb]

Well, i managed to get out for a few hours today between 10:30 and 12:30pm. Managed 7 crappie all of which were over 9 inches. the biggest two being 11 inches. Found all fish in 3-4 ft. of water. As for bait, i was using a pink 1/16 jig under a float tipped with crappie minnows. Managed a few eager bass as well. All in all a good day for a few hours worth of time before heading into work.

On a side note. As i said i would, just wanted to send a shout out to Matt Johnson. It was nice meeting you last weekend. Maybe we can get out and do some fishing sometime. anyways, hope your brother wasnt to harsh on ya Easter:)I think you know what i mean. Anyways, take er easy.

[Matt Johnson]

Mrkeb,

Easter was fine And yes, we will definitely have to get out fishing this year. Maybe Memorial Day weekend, I might head up to Amber's cabin...

[Mrkeb]

I'll be there man. See ya up there....

[bucketmouth64]

I was looking to buy some 2 inch gulp minnows. Wondering what color would generally be good for most situations. Also, has anyone tried the Storm 2 inch plastic paddle type bait? They are rigged with hook and built in weight. Are they too heavy for a bobber?

[eyepatrol]

Made it out yesterday for my first open water excursion. Not what I had hoped for in the fishing category, but still a great day to be on the water. Caught only a few 7" 'gills and a 10" crappie on a purple/chart. paddletail suspended 12' down in 40fow. Tried many different locations and depths ranging from hard bottom on points, to soft muddy bottoms in bays; from 40fow up to 2fow. Tried different colors and even went to some ice gear, but it just didn't "pan" out. Wish I could have stayed on top of the fish that I did find 'cause they all inhaled the paddletail...to the jighead!

On a side note...I wonder if it's better to get out later in the day when the water has heated up more rather than early, which is when I started fishing (6:30am).

Regardless, it was nice to be in the boat and I can't wait to get out again!

[fishin magician]

Well here are a couple from this past weekend. Check out the third picture. The big floats were working very well. Problem is they can be picked up on radar when casting them.

[ironman]

Holy Moly!! We used to tease a buddy of mine that used overly large bobbers...we called them bouy bobbers! Nothing compared to those though. Are they meant for longer casts? Whats the benifit of using such mammoth bobbers? Most articles and fisherman preach the use of finese floats like the thin Thill ones. Am I missing out on a new technique...please share.

[fishin magician]

To be honest with ya I would never use a bobber that big. My buddy asked me for a bobber and I came across that monster float and gave it to him. We laughed and laughed and then he put the darn thing on and casted out. Boom within a couple minutes he had caught 3 fish. Basically where we were fishing you could have tossed anything out and they would have hit it.

It was a good weekend.

[stovetop]

That's quite a bobber. Were you fishing on Saturday or Sunday? you obviously had good luck, whereas I fished on Sat and struggled to get anything going, got a few but that was it. Started shallow and worked out deeper, thinking that was the key with the cooler weather. Found them scattered but aggressive. Any fish locating advice for days like that are appreciated.

[Matt Johnson]

Nice crappies guys! I spent most of the weekend inside at the Thorne Bros Spring Sale. The warm weather didn't make sitting inside all that enjoyable But, a lot of fun was had nonetheless.

I bet you had a few curious on-lookers when they saw that monster "pike" bobber floating in the water Put it this way, I bet you could cast that set-up a country mile!

[delmuts]

don't you have to put up WARNING signs when using something that big??