punch

I made another terrible video if anyone wants to check it out. I've been spending some time working on some holes in my fishing game this year, one of which included river bank fishing. I live near the Coon Rapids Dam and have always been a little intimidated by it because in past years i've fished it and not gotten a single bite and had no confidence. I've been taking it more seriously this summer and I've managed to find some good spots.

I've been using this rod all summer and I LOVE IT. I've been using it literally every trip out because I've grown very confident in the dropshot this year and this rod has really helped me catch em. The soft tip really helps you put action on your bait without lifting the weight up off the bottom. This rod is really fantastic as a pure drop-shot rod. I have it paired up with a Abu Garica Orra Power Finesse 35 size reel (AWESOME reel) with 20LB high viz 832 and a 8lb floro leader. I've caught at least 30 fish with this setup. The 7' ML Cody Meyer elite dropshot rod is a winner.

I really hope you have side imaging.. it's KEY in finding spots to fish on Mille Lacs IMHO. You gotta drive around and find packs of rocks/boulders, mark them, then fish them to see if anyone is home. Smallies relate to the cover, so they may not be right on top of the rocks but they will likely be 'around' the rocks. The key is finding isolated patches of boulders or bigger rocks.. anything that kind of stands out as being unique. Dropshot is key BUT be sure to have a 3" or 4" swimbait tied onto a 1/4oz jig head. It's a fantastic search bait on Mille Lacs. Just find those rock piles and launch the swimbait out and let it hit the bottom. Then slowly bring it back letting the swimbait bang off the rocks. This is a deadly tatic in the fall. Don't rule out that fish might be suspended higher in the water column right now. Mid-summer smallies can be suspended in schools. If you're marking fish up off the bottom it could be a sign that fishing bottom contact stuff isn't going to get much action. In that case tie on a bright colored jerkbait (xrap for instance) and work it fast. Ripping a loud jerkbait that dives like 4-6' in 15' FOW over suspended fish can be pretty productive. Honestly I'd probably have jerkbait, dropshot, tube, swimbait, and a jig/craw or craw on a shakeyhead all tied up. Probably cover all your bases when trying to find the brown fish.

I've actually been getting a lot of my dropshot bites fishing IN the weeds, not the edges. The bigger fish like to hang out right in the junk when it's warm this time of year. punching the weeds with a texas rig/jig or dropping a dropshot into it and keeping it still while shaking it seems to get some pretty good bites. It can be an adventure getting the fish out though with the lighter dropshot setup. Point is, don't feel like you have to be a ninja around the edges of weedlines with the dropshot.. dive right in there and see what happens.

Got a nice 3lb 9oz fish tonight on a strike king poppin perch (their new poppin frog). I was able to cobble together about 6 fish off dropshot and topwater, which has been my one-two punch the last few weeks. Since it warmed up I'm basically tossing one or the other and getting a some nice fish. I fished a wacky stickbait and power fished a jerkbait bait and got no bites.

Want to extend the life of your DT series baits?? DON'T SLAP THEM ON THE WATER! Can't tell you how many people slap their balsa baits on the water to shake weeds off.. you're basically shortening the life span. That being said DT4 and DT6's are basically in my rotation all season. They are awesome multi-species baits too... catch a lot of walleye and pike on them throughout the year.

Oooh these look interesting. Is this the first "tatula" branded spinning reel? I think it is.

Went out last night and did well with a dropshot + Power Team lures Hammer Shad (been my go-to this year) right IN the weeds in about 8-12'. Also got a nice fish on a chug bug at sunset. Dropshot and popper have been my confidence baits this year. Also, I've been catching some smallies down on the Mississippi river bank in the Coon Rapids dam park lately on swimbaits. Kind of a fun thing to do and I don't have to take my boat anywhere. I'm putting together a little river bank fishing video that I'll edit soon. I used to do a lot of river bank fishing when I was a broke teenager.. so it's kind of fun to revist it. You never know what you're gonna get river fishing. The other night I got a smallmouth, walleye, crappie and a pike (in that order) in one spot.

Yes I know they are overpriced and Yes I know there are better/cheaper options.. but man I'm a homer for Costa glasses. I have a few pairs and I think I'll keep buying them for a long time. I've been able to find NEW pairs off eBay for steep discounts over the years if you keep your eye out.

The Curado has me interested.

I'm guessing it will be from a larger, under fished body of water. So many lakes up north that don't get much bass pressure. That's just my .02 though.

If you're in the Visa club, they mailed you a coupon code. Otherwise you can get them on eBay.

Good taste in knives! Benchmade grip

I actually punctured a tire on my expedition on my way to Ida and had to turn back around. I ran over some twisted metal bar. I'm going to attempt to fish it this week though after work.

Nice fish Frydog! Anyone ever fish Lake Ida? By Monticello. Going to try and hit up Saturday night. I've never been on it before.

We spent the weekend up at In We Go Resort on Eight Crow Wing lake. I love the Crow Wing chain.. it's such a cool system. The water is clear, and boat/fishing pressure is light. The fishing on Eight Crow was pretty awesome once I figured out a pattern. The bass were NOT up shallow, and the few that I did find wern't too interested in biting. I started keying in on flat, hard bottom sections NEAR shallow water & weeds in like 10-20 feet of water. I started fishing the Ned rig down deep, very slowly and started getting hammered. I was catching lots of species too! Crappies, big bluegill, perch, rock bass and lots of largemouth. I got exactly ONE bite all weekend on a crankbait... very weird. I got a few fish on a swimbait, but the Ned rig was the juice. Caught at least 25+ fish on the NED.

I'm going to give the Eco's a whirl. Cabela's had them on sale for $2.50 a pack so I bought a ton of them.. seem to be a pretty legit Keitech clone? I'm going to use them for chatterbait/spinnerbait trailers.

Nice! I went out last night on Crooked for a little bit. The fish had their feed bags on that's for sure. I got about 10-12 good bites and boated like 9 fish in a couple hours. Mostly on a drop shot in the weeds in like 8'. One thing I noticed is that the fish seemed to be all stacked up together. If I got one bite, i'd get a few more bites within about a 20 foot radius. Got one on a swim jig and one on a keitech + jig, but most of the action was on old faithful... the dropshot with a Power Team Lures JP Hammer shad. Honestly the hammer shad is quickly becoming a top 3 dropshot bait for me. Fish can't seem to resist it. Ya'll gotta try it. T

Interesting, was this in the bargin cave? Or a markdown at the counter.

A little fun from last week.

Topwater bite is ON.. got a 4+lber on a x-rap prop yesterday. Biggest fish of the season thus far. I got a cool video that I'll put up. I was just doing some pond fishing over lunch break.

I've been catching a lot of fish on their sick stick worms wacky rigged. They are durable! I've actually been using them more than sekno's.

Was that about the time the sun was out with bluebird skys? When that afternoon 'warmup' happens when the sun is high fish seem to tuck back into cover. That's the time I start fishing docks, thicker weeds and start working pads with frogs or flipping baits. Fish tend to seek cover and hold tighter to it. Also boat traffic has to do with the bite turning off in some cases. I'm no expert BUT if you're fishing the same techniques that get bit in the morning, then the fish 'turn off' it's usually time to start breaking down specific cover that looks 'bassy'. I tend to start grabbing the texas rig and drop shot and fish slower vs covering water. Man the water got warm FAST in the metro area. I went out yesterday morning and the water already cracked 70!

I guess I feel YT has some responsibility to help monetize medium-to-large sized channels and content creators that generate hundreds of thousands of views every month. Without supporting these content creators there is no YouTube. They should get paid for the audiences they organically generate, IMHO.

I think it sucks that YouTube isn't paying content creators like they should in the fishing/hunting space. It's really not easy to put out as much content as these guys do.. grab a camera every day and see if you can fill up a channel and build a following. It's harder than it looks! I do have a lot of respect for the young youtube fishing "stars" because they are trying to chase their dream of fishing for a job. Plus they are having a big impact bringing young people into the sport. A LOT of kids watch their channels and get excited about catching fish. You should see the crowds at their "meet up" events, it's all kids and teenagers. I wouldn't care at all if my children watched their channels because the enthusiasm that the youtubers have for the sport will spread and we'll get more and more kids out there hitting ponds and asking mom & dad to take them out on the lake. If they have to make their income by forming partnerships with companies to sell their product, so be it. Their hustle isn't much different than the life of the tournament pro's.