What's workin' now...

[harvey lee]

Stellar day on the water this morning.I started at 5:30 and fish for approx. one hour.In that time I caught approx 30 crappies and 20 sunfish.The water temp was 60 degrees and the depth for the crappies was at the first break in 7-9fow.The sunfish were in just a tick shallower at 3-5fow.

All the crappies were caught on a Berkley power minnow and the sunnies were caught on a Exude micro-shad,white in color and tipped with a waxie.The crappies were on average 10 inches with the biggest going 13.75.The sunfish were all very nice in size and the biggest going 9.50.All the fish were released except for a meal of crappies,the female sunnies to nice to keep.

I didnt think I would have a day like this for at least another week.O.K.,thats enough.

[CALVINIST]

Buzz,

Me and about a hundred buddies will be out there before you! YukYuk . Actually I have to work this weekend, so can't fish . Funny thing, I haven't been out on the honey hole lake but two times this year. Boat troubles, plus I've been fishing a couple metro gems for big pannies. If you ever want to get into some nice, fat gills, contact me. I think your boat is too big for the launch on this lake but mine will work, or Mark Stanley's boat will work there too. But regarding the H.H., I might have to get out there for some action. Thanks for the tip.

[Matt Johnson]

basscatcher,

Glad to hear you're having some pannie success! Those Micro Shads are a deadly weapon! I heard a few reports from your area and it sounds like the action is definitely heating up. Keep us posted...

buzzsaw,

I'll try my best to make a trip down your way in the near future. I'll let you know if I can work something out...

[eyepatrol]

It was pretty awesome Matt. I've got a new-found respect for those open-water crappies. They sure did fight hard. Had to really pull on them to keep them up out of the weeds, otherwise they'd be wrapped up and would come off.

By the way...could you please explain to me a little more about what you meant when you said "shock" them during the panfish with plastics seminar at Gander in 'kato?? Did you mean to use something out of the ordinary? I should have asked you afterwards when I had the chance...

[Matt Johnson]

Yep, when the traditional, standby plastics don't work, I'll throw something at them that they're not used to. Like a hot pink, crazy fire-tiger, or something like that. This is intended to get a reaction strike because it presents something new into their surroundings.

"Curiousity killed the cat," sort of comes to mind here.

The shock method is intended to offer something new and unique that the fish are not accustomed to seeing...

[buzzsaw]

I was out this morning from 6-10 and the bite slowed down quite a bit, especially the bigger fish. It had to do with that cold night, the water temp was back down to 60 from the 64 mark that it was at, I assume it will heat up again by Tuesday or wednesday.

Matt, Are you down here at the Gander Mtn in Lakeville on the 24th?

[Matt Johnson]

buzzsaw,

Yep, I'll be there on Wednesday night at 7pm...

[Mr. Pike1]

I got out on Saturday for some panfish and pike. I used my stand by plastics of the 2" berkely power minnow and the exude 1" micro shad. The sunfish were for the most part bruts. got into some nice bull 9" sunfish. Man that is fun on 2lb test. The crappies were mixed in with the sunfish but a bit on the small side with most being 9" and thin. When the sunfish get above the 9" mark they truely are fun to catch.

I was fishing a west metro lake that my dad has fished for 25 or more years. It have been a couple years since I seen consistant 9-9.25" bull sunfish. I am glad to see they are there again in large numbers and hope they have a great year class to keep the future of the sunfish fishery there stron for years.

All are back as forced my dad to keep only the 8"ers for a meal.

[Quackaddict9]

Ole Matty and I went out and did some searching in the reeds in 3-5' of water. Average size was around 12 inches. We used flu flu's, mimic minnows. some good action, All fish were released.

Ole Matty with few of his catch

showing off a few nice ones

cpr

and a nice sunset to end the day.

[harvey lee]

Dude

Them there are some nice crappies. Always fun to get into a nice bite. Looks like you had a nice calm day also.

[bgreen82]

nice fish quack. me and a couple guys took the canoe out and got on the sunfish big time. no monsters but we kept about 10 of those and a couple crappies. hooked into a couple bass about 2 lbs. then we saw another guy we know fishing the shore where there is a culvert that runs under the street from the lake into an almost ditch like runoff about a foot deep everywhere. so we pushed down the bobbers and started hitting them again. used everything from panfish leeches to crappie minnows to worms, then powertubes and beetle spins. just felt good to get on the water for a guy who is primarily a shore guy.

[Matt Johnson]

Nice fish Quackaddict and Ole Matty! Looks like you found them right before the spawn. Dark-colored and in the reeds. Sounds like a good day on the water. Congrats!

[markkstanley]

Been after the weedline crappies all week and some bull gills. Managed to find some nice crappies on Tonka -largest hit 14" and a bunch of 10 to 12s. Micro shads (white) followed by Culprit paddletails were the best fish getters. One night it was Stub grubs. Calvinist and I found a spot that holds a lot of 8 to 9" gills and that was a blast. Matt, you think we could get Mister Twister to offer the micro shads in a 2" or even 2 1/2" size?? I tried the 2" power minnows but all I caught with them was green carp.

[united jigsticker]

Guess I'd best pipe in since I have been hiding...

Opener was good in 20 feet of water for 11" Crappies and was also very good for Walleyes in 16 feet...So that's that.

Last weekend I tried yet another new lake and found a mixed bag of fish...

Some small ones in 20 feet, some small ones in 25 feet, some 11" fish in 15 feet, and then some 12-13" feeders that were going nuts in 6 feet of water.

These were females, very very aggressive. Probably caught and released over 75 of these Brutis Honkey Tonkers.

It was a great day...water temp...dat der' 59 duh-grees.

[Matt Johnson]

UJ is back at it again!

So, when are we going fishing?

[Corey Bechtold]

Yes, nice catches. I can't wait to get back to fishing Panfish. I spent the weekend fishing Walleyes on Mille Lacs with good success. Not a ton of slot fish but everywhere we fished had nice Walleyes. It was hard knowing that there are good sized Crappies and Sunfish roaming the shallows right about now and we stuck to the Eyes.

I will be out of town starting Wednesday afternoon. There is a family vacation to Disney world we are taking. Save some fish for me guys! I'll see be in touch when we return.

See ya later and good luck fishing ,

Corey Bechtold

[Mark Christianson]

Ah dump Corey. When are you coming back?

I sent you an email asking if you wanted to hit a local lake this week.

Have fun, and lets get out when you return.

[harvey lee]

Cory

Have a good and safe trip. I will try and catch some slab crappies for you.

[Matt Johnson]

Corey... are you going to tell us how the tourny went? Come on man, don't hold out on us I heard a lot of fish were caught up there this past weekend...

Have fun at Disney World and get a picture with Mickey for me

[bgreen82]

hey corey,

if you get out of disney world over to universal at all check out islands of adventure. its got good kids stuff, but more importantly its got some awesome thrill rides. have a good trip.

[Corey Bechtold]

Thanks a lot guys. I'll definately miss hearing the good fishing reports and I can't wait to get home to contribute some of my reports .

As for the Walleye fishing all I can say is I am glad to be a Panfish geek. Don't get me wrong, I like Walleye fishing just fine, it's just not the same. They are boring fighters and the techniques to catch them seem more like commercial fishing to me. We did ok but didn't cash a check. There are a ton of 23.5", 24", 25.5", 26" Eyes in Mille Lacs right now and getting good "tournament" slot fish is tough. Especially when there is a major insect hatch going on and the bite was so good for the last 2 weeks leading up to the tournament that a lot of the slot fish have been harvested. Still a magnificent fishery and well worth taking a trip, especially when the Bass and Muskie seasons are open!

Take care everyone,

Corey Bechtold

[Tyler Holm]

Stanley wedgetail 1.5" purple/chart with a purple 1/32 oz collarless jig head. Caught under a #2 Lindy/Thill mini stealth bobber

[Matt Johnson]

We worked over a pod of sunfish relating to some shallow lilypads this past weekend.

We pitched Pearl White Exude Micro Shads up amongst the pads and they were more than eager to intercept the Micro Shads and play a game a tug-o-war!

We fished the Micro Shads with a 1/32oz collarless jighead, and coupled that with a 4 pound test copolymer line. Bobber below a float or fan-casting worked well...

[CALVINIST]

I got chance to fish an awesome lake in Otter Tail county this Memorial day weekend. Caught good #'s of big, hefty gills, largest going 9.5 Average size around 9". We caught 'em in the reeds. I started out using soft plastics, which caught a few, but once I switched over to a Flu-Flu tipped with a bit of crawler worked under a float, the numbers and size went way up. It was a blast bringing in fish after fish around the 9" mark. My kids (Genna and Lucas) and my wife all caught huge gills. All fish were released except for a few we kept yesterday for a meal.

[Tyler Holm]

I finally got ahold of some huge SoDak pannies. All these fish were taken on a JB Lures Tadpole Spin - 1/16oz red/pearl-white. They are one of our sponsor’s so check them out at www.JBLures.com

All these fish are between 10-10.25" and all were released.