rate your season

[Guest]

now that the walleye,northern and bass season
has officially ended,how would you rate your
season/success.you may or may not want to include the area where you primarily fish.
lets make it an informal survey for the fm'ers

[IceHawk]

My rate for walleye fishing would be a 6 lots of action and numbers but not much for size. I would rate the panfish fishing in the St cloud area with a 9 it was excellent lots of nice bluegills this year. My most memorable experiances will come from fishing the walker area pulled some of the biggest bluegills of the season up there. I would rate the season between 1-10 a 8 overall. I think most of all a person should feel privelaged just to have the opportunity to fish.

[Guest]

I'd have to rate this season based on my experiences at each location.

Went to RED and LOW mid-December--Rate this a 2. Lots of fish but all dinky--the reports from the area were deceiving at best.

Fished the Alexandria area for early 'Eyes all through this season--I'd rate this a 9. Incredible numbers of 'Eyes!

Tried Mille Lacs once this year on some of my best Mud areas and that I rate a Zero.

I'm hoping to hit some Perch on Winnie and work in some of my Crappie spots in a week or two. Then it's open water time.

Despite a couple of trips that were poor, I'd still rate the season an 8 overall today!

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Chells

[fiskyknut]

Well our season up here on the 'woods is still going till ice out, but it has been a fantastic year so far. Early ice on the eastside was great. Easy limits of nice fish and a gazillion little ones to try and keep off your hook, I also got into more big Wally's before christmas than I usually get all winter! Early ice rating a 10. About christmas time frame we did good in the Muskeg bay area, thru about the midway point of January, maybe rating an 8.5. Now the midwinter is upon us and it is a bit tougher, I have spent the majority of my time on deep flats Perch fishing, have had decent results on Wally's and Sauger's out there also, maybe rating a 6. However the Perch fishing the last couple weeks has been superb, rating a 10+++!!! The late ice is coming and it should be excellent again this year I would guess. If the Walleye bite shapes up before iceout, and the late ice Pike bite is as good as usual, this year will score an overall rating of 9.25!

Fisky

[Guest]

The seaon wasn't too bad at all. I hit some lakes around home early and just nailed the eyes everytime we went. When they started to slow I hit the old crappie honey hole and have been enjoying CPR 50+ crappies a night. Actually tiered of eating fish. WOW can't believe I said that> The freezer never sees fish so I always eat what I catch immediatly. I hit Mille Lacs quite a few times and i know a lot of people were complaining about catching fish I never once got skunked. Three fish was my worst over a weekend. I know not great but not bad. My season would rate 9.9 just that there is always room for improvement.

[Bushwacker]

My biggest Muskie of my life, my biggest Northern of my life, my biggest Crappie of my life, and my biggest Bluegill of my life. Also, more 'eyes this year than the past two seasons combined. I would have to rate my season as a 9.5. There always has to be room for improvement!

[phin101]

Sounds like too many of us are watching too many reality TV shows. Can't fish in front of the tube!

I would rate my season an 8, so far. I didn't get as much time on my favorite slab hole, but had fun fishing the smaller crappie in the metro. Actually caught a walleye this year, too. that says a lot since I never target them. I can't put a final rating on the season, yet, however. The best ice (march meltdown) is still ahead of me!

[Wigeon]

For me around the St.Cloud area the numbers of walleye I give it a 9, but for the size a 4. Panfish has been great and hopefully even better towards spring.

[Bagley]

South Central Minnesota:

For walleyes, a Solid 6

[Bagley]

I should have said walleyes with any size.

I would rate South Central Mn a 10 for little ones.

[mnfishman]

I would rate my time this year a 2. Minnewaska never did take off like it has in the past years. Of course you can't catch fish if your home working on the honey do list so that may be more of my problem this year than past years. I rate my honey do list a 10. Got them all done before ice out...

[Steve Foss]

Well, since I ice fished for lakers for the first time off the Gunflint Trail and around Ely, this will go down in history as a key season. A new addiction was born!

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"I still miss my ex-wives, but my aim is getting better!"
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[ice-man/vexilar-king]

I would have to break it down also. Eye’s what a phenomenal year, I have to rate it a 9. The only reason that I haven’t given it a 10, was I didn’t get that 30 incher. Shiners were hot; the eyes were eating them up all day. The hot bit this year was odd that the bigger fish came at noon instead of in the morning or evening. Crappies, Faribault area was really slow this year had some great success there one day but that was it. German, serious fish factory before the lakes froze up and the ice turned into a carnival. That open water was a force to recon with for some people, but if you took advantage of it and got out the bite was hot!!! This was true on all the lakes early in the season, every were I went I found the fish congregated in large schools. The nice thing was that the hogs were mixed in as well, caught at least 10 crappies over the 13 inch mark. That may not be a red lake slab but for our area they’re a blast. All fish over 13 were C&R. I have found the fish again this last weekend caught limit of fish in the 11inch range sat and sun. Over all crappie year at 7 ½, but on the upswing again. Didn’t get into the sunnies. Have a sweet spot saved for when the water hits 68%. Weighed 18 sunnies, and 4 perch in a 5-gallon pale last year 16-½ pounds. Only kept 3 females gill hooked. Can’t wait!
C&R~~~~>’)))))><

[Pig_sticka]

Any fishing is a 10!
caught a ton of pigs and had a great year.

[Crawlerman]

well... This Ice fishing season recives a 4. Kinda slow with only a few times out with decent luck with panfish; the ice was iffy most of the year.. and there's only a few weeks left for me.

Bass fishing receives an 8 this year. Altough I didn't beat my record; I caught atleast one 3-3.5 lb fish every time I went to this little Metro Jem of a lake I found last year.. I lost several which had to be 5 or bigger..

Northerns-- 5. I didn't catch a whole lot of them, and still can't seem to catch them on suckers. I had a few fun days that made a new minnow mepps all chewed out by the end of the season however...

I don't really fish eyes.. and the rest of the stuff I fish for (as far as panfish) are year long seasons... ratings on them to come as soon as open water breaks.

[bendaryesterday]

This year I tried a differnt tactic.
Insted of fishing allot of lakes I mostly stuck to one lake.
until mid jan. I rate 8.5
after that 5.5
I happend to go to the lake of the woods for my first time
I rate that a 10 plus

much better than last year!

I also got to learn a lake allot better!

[Icerookie]

Well, the only lake I fish, so far, is lake Mille Lacs. This is my 3rd year ice fishing and I'd have to rate it about a 4, thats for both perch and walleyes. The 2 previous years were much better. But now, I'm going to be going for the crappies/sunfish in the metro mostly, so hopefully, that will go much better than mille lacs did. I must say tho, I've learned alot about ice fishing just from reading all the posts in this forum so a big thanks to everyone for throwing out topics, and all the great discussion that goes with them. Good luck fishin!!!

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Hey, you're bobber's down!!

[ackotz]

For me...this was by far my worst winter ever. Granted, I've only been icefishing 5 yrs now, but I always did well enough to be happy. This was by far a very disappointing season, and through no fault other than my own! I've just been so busy working on the basement and before that moving into the new house...the fishing was sort of "fit it in, just to do it". Never really focused in with some serious fishing. I rate my season a 1.5 (on a scale of 1 to 10), just for effort. I did close with a walleye on Saturday though...I hope to fish hard until "iceout".

[Guest]

I think every fishing season I've had was at least an 8 or a 9 (definitely not because of my ability to catch fish) But I have to say this year was a perfect 10. I didn't get out as much as I'd like (I say that every year) But, on Feb 8th I caught a 30-1/4" Walleye on that little lake by Garison - wooohooo. My friends are gonna get tired of hearing about this one - lol.

Take care all

[CANOPY SAM]

Caught a coupla' cats through the ice for the 1st time!!! A coupla' nice eyes...
Could've been better -- BUT IT AIN'T OVER YET!

[deadeye]

I give my walleye, bass, northern season a rating of 7. I got a lot more walleyes than most years. I got quite a few nice bass and some northerns. The reason for the low rating is that, I didn't do to well on the 'eye's after december. I supose any fishing trip should have a ten just because I get to fish and get out but it is always nice to catch something. ><>
deadeye

[Guest]

The season never ends, mine is 24/7-by-365.

Never hang-um-up!

Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

[email protected]

[This message has been edited by Backwater Eddy (edited 02-22-2003).]

[Guest]

AWESOME We have 20 inches of ice in Central NY, something we see every 5 years. Within 1 hour of my house I can fish all the Finger Lakes, Ontario, and thousands of other smaller bodies of water

[Guest]

this season had varied a lot, i went to LOW in mid december and we got a few eyes worth keeping and about 50 little ones, so i would rate that a 4(long drive for not much fish), it was nice tho, i have a ice house on mille lacs and we hardly got any fish and when we did get some we had to throw it back because of the wonderful slot(sarcastic) but the lakes around st. cloud such as little rock and kraemer where producing some really nice crappies and some decent walleyes, so mille lacs would be a 3 and st. cloud area would be a 7. i hope the late ice when we go to LOW will make it all worth while tho.

[vikingtom]

I rate my season a 10. Anytime I can go and relax while I'm fishing is a 10 Caught 5 nice eye (25 to 27 inches)All released. Lots of nice crappies. (little slow now) Don't get to fish much in the summer, so over all a 10.

Go fish.

[This message has been edited by vikingtom (edited 02-22-2003).]