rascalP

We did the wading thing a few years ago. Was it crowded? Did you fish above or below the bridge? BTW, if geneoh is your partner in the GH next year, then you guys better take it easy on us.

I'm sure you'll hold your own just fine, punch. We're generally a middle of the pack team, getting a few fortunate bites on occasion. I'll have to get down to Coon Rapids dam early next year and try and figure something out. New water for me and I don't know if the league has fished it. I still haven't thrown in the towel, but I've pulled it out of my pocket. Not fishing tomorrow, but we'll see about next wednesday. Lots to catch up on at home.

Got out tuesday and wednesday and it was tough. Went to 2 different lakes and only got 1 fish. Water temps were 40 on one lake where I fished and the warmest I could find on the other was 38. Short day the second day - no fish by 2 , and my buddy had to cut out and I still have some outside work at home, so we pulled the plug. That will do it for lakes for me this year, but I still hope to get on the river next wednesday. After that it's bass through the ice. Tight lines everybody!

I saw that show. Been meaning to fish there, but being so close to the upper croix, thats where we go to scratch the fall, river, smallmouth itch. We fished it last wednesday and did ok. I meant to fish Green lake monday, but after I dropped the boat in the water, my motor said "no thanks". I forgot to switch off my gps reciever, and a run down battery has a hard time starting a cold motor. So, I got back out there today from noon to 5. Water temps in the back bays were 38 degrees and nothing going. I moved to the big weed hump separating the bays from the main lake where the water temps were 41-42. Big difference and the fish were there. I caught 8 bass, only one under 15". No slonch donkeys but a couple of 18 inchers made for a good day. 4 baits got the fish and all came from 5-7 fow. A husky-jerk baby bass color got 3, and KVD squarebill crawled through the weeds, swimjig, and a swimbait got the rest. I was surprised I only got a couple pike, both on the squarebill. I gotta tell you, if you haven't fished these KVD 1.5 squarebill's, I have found no other crankbait for fishing weeds better than these. They snake through the weeds without hanging up, and they absolutely catch fish. The forcast doesn't show any warm up, but I don't think we'll be making ice either, so we'll see what happens next week.

Sorry to hear, Frydog, that's tough. I plan to fish tomorrow and thursday. I will put the boat in until ice up even if fishing is reeeally, reeeally slow. If the fish aren't biting, then I'm scouting weedbeds for ice fishing. Plus, I figure weeds that are still healthy now are some real good weeds year round and I'll know where they are when they are surrounded by pondweed. I'll be sticking with swimbaits worked slow, swimjigs, and chatterbaits. Jerkbaits and squarebills worked real slow and finally maybe a small tube if nothing else is working. On another note, a buddy and I were up to Mille Lacs last week and it was tough. The wind blew hard for 3 days and we only managed to fish the big pond Mon morn with nothing to show, so we pulled and went to Borden. First time on this lake, and we managed to catch maybe 10 that afternoon, with 16" being the biggest. Swimjig, shallow got most fish. Sunday afternoon we fished Round and got 1 smallie each - a 20" and a 17". The big one came on a spinnerbait and the other on a jerkbait. A few small largies and a couple pike rounded it out. All fish came from wind blown reeds. All 3 bodies of water were right around 53 degrees. Tuesday we threw in the towel and came home without even fishing. Fry, take advantage of the few nice days that will come before ice up and spend some quiet time with your brother.

It depends on the water. This time of year I'm either on the river or 1 or 2 local lakes, so I can only speak for the patterns on those pieces of water. I do know that these lakes will have a shallow bite with water temps in the high 40's to low 50's. And they WILL hit moving baits. 70 percent of the time I will be throwing a swimbait or swimjig depending on weeds,pads, etc. Chatterbaits and spinnerbaits will come into play, as will squarebill's and jerkbaits. If none of these work, then I will go to jig/trailer combo. Cover water. Look for baitfish/panfish activity. This is real important. Birds can be a tip off. Throw scattered shallow weeds in the mix and you're there. Conditions make a difference - wind better than calm, cloudy or partly sunny better than sunny, rain if that's what I'm dealt. Gradual falling temps is better than a spike up. Bottom line : the best time to go fishing is whenever you can. It's not a for sure magic time, but it can be. What IS for sure is, ice is coming soon, so I jam as much open water fishing in as I can now. I would be out right now if I didn't have to work in a few hours, but starting sun afternoon, I'll be out the rest of the week. Have fun, everyone.

Like gimruis said, the nice weather this past week was not good for bass fishing for me. I fished tuesday and thursday on different lakes. Water temp was 56 on Chisago and 58 on N. Center on Thursday. Tuesday we scratched up maybe a dozen bass throughout the day, but no biggins - 16" tops, however I did get my biggest pike of the year - a 12-15 lb broadback fatty - in the pads on a white swimjig. The pike have been on a tear this week. Thursday I got a call from a buddy who wanted to know he and his son could join me and another buddy, so we went to N.Center to have the pannie option. A couple guys fished panfish while me and another threw for bass. You literally could not keep the pike from biting. My buddies son wanted to do some pickling, so we kept a half dozen 18"-22" pike. If anybody wants some pike to eat or pickle, head to N.Center. It looks like I'm heading up to Mille Lacs on monday and tuesday, but I think we'll skip the east side cause of the wind. The good thing about the real nice weather this past week is it kept the water temps up and that stretches out the late season. The lakes still have a good bite coming and the Croix will hold till Thanksgiving, even though you might have switch to minnows. Hoping to still get the boat wet in December this year.

No. I usually work weekends and I had taken the weekends off on either side of the open for the Bassmaster AOY and another trip up north. Did you make it to day 2? It looks like there were some good sacks on Green. I'm in a maroon/tan Alumacraft Competitor and we're team Hueners/Johnson.

Punch, Me and my buddy have fished the GH wednesday night league for the last 2 years and have really enjoyed it. It's a really good group of guys, very friendly. Well run organization.

Ranger, I haven't been up there since september, but based on our trip last year we fished water temps 53-54 on Myr Mar - outer edge, 7-15 fow. Best baits were keitech and skinny dipper swimbaits and pink or orange xraps. A heavy wobble head jig rigged with a pitboss, fished fast on the bottom worked well too. I'll be up there the week after next and I think if the water temps stay above 48-49, we'll be in good shape. We talked to a guy at Mcquoids last year who said any outer break around the lake where it drops from 12-15 down into the twenties should be good, especially sharp breaks. I got some spots eyed up on the east side I plan on checking out. Good Luck.

Got out on the Croix yesterday. The water was down, but the current was still really rippin, so we had to fish real tight to shore or get into some slack areas. We got a dozen or so typical size river smallies - no real toads. So-so day for the river. Most came on jerkbaits or spinnerbaits. Tubes and jigs got a few in areas with less current. Water temp was about 52. We talked to a guy later on who said they were drawing it down 6 ft. to do repairs on the dam -- again. So it sounds like the river might be out for another week or more. I went to Chisago for a few hours today and got some real nice ones. 19 1/2" and 19" were the biggest and a few more 17 1/2 and bigger. All came on either a green pumpkin keitech swimbait in some shallower offshore spots, or a swimjig in the sloppier stuff. They wanted it moving. Water temp was around 58.

Exactly! If I was on that water, I would have been using green pumpkin all the way. Another one I'm trying to get past is jerkbaits. In years past, I wouldn't even think about using one if the water temp was over 60. After watching KVD have success year round, now I never rule it out. I fished Chisago wednesday for a few hours. Kinda tough for Chisago, but got a few small fish on every spot I fished. And one lazy fish on a jerkbait. Shallow hard bottom near weeds was best using a ned rig. Biggest fish, 16"+ maybe, came on swimming a t-rig pitboss through some pads I've been doing that alot the last few years - pitchin in the thick stuff and swimming the edges and lanes with the same rig. Havoc pitboss and crawfatty both have good swimmin action. Water temp was 63+-. Thursday we were going to fish the river above St. Croix Falls, but it looked too blown up, so we went to S. Center. We spent alot of time pitchin and swimmin in the pads and got a few decent fish. We also hit some spots with scattered shallow milfoil. Ned rig and a wacky rig dinger worked there. I tried a frog quite a bit with not even one blow up. Ended up getting a few on a squarebill crank in shallow weeds. Biggest went about 18", fat with a bit of tailfin still showing in its gullet. Water temp ended up around 61 end of the day

A few falls ago we got blown off the river where we spend alot of time in fall. We went to a small lake not expecting much. I started throwing a jig thinking ultra slow and my buddy starts throwing a spinnerbait of all things. I said a "I don't think so" under my breath and he promptly catches one. Well, on goes a fat rap or DT - not sure which and it turned into a "knowin your gonna get bit" bite. I watched a John Gillespie where they were breaking ice to get on a big shallow eastern Wisconsin lake, and they're whacking them with lipless crankbaits - not lift/drop, but a steady retrieve. I'm trying hard to get over preconceived ideas on patterns. Friday, day 2 of the BM AOY on Mille Lacs had 3 anglers doing well on 3 different patterns, (gotta check out "Skeets magical morning") on a cloudy day, no less.

NOT over. I had one of my best crankbait bites ever at 43. Its over when you back the trailer in and it just rolls out onto the ice.

Went to ML for the Bassmasters tourny and like last year, it was pretty cool. We fished ML wed. and thurs. Mostly stayed away from the pros, but we did cross paths now and again. Fishing on wednesday was ok with fish caught in a number of different places on the east side. Generally we stayed 6-12fow, though we moved to the reed edges in the evening. Biggest fish was 20 1/2" and a real tanker. A few more were 19" or better. Swimbaits and dropshots deeper, and weightless dinger shallow. Thursday was much worse, though we did a little more spectating. Generally we stayed deeper on the west side fishing Indian Point to Garrison reef. Got one fish that went 19 plus and lost another nice one and got off the water about 3:30 to watch the weigh in. Friday we went to a small lake nearby that had a great avg size of largies - biggest went 20" to go along with nice numbers of 17-18 inchers. Came home friday and watched the weigh in on sunday from the recliner

Tryan, If your not tied to the metro, look to the Grand Rapids area, specifically, Pokegama gives you a largemouth and smallmouth option. Pick a lake. We have some of the best bass fishing in the country. Welcome to Minnesota and let us know how it goes.

Gonna be fishing hard these next few weeks. League fishing wraps up and gotta get out on some "for fun" lakes. Work, fish, eat, sleep. Hoping to get up to Grand Rapids area the end of Aug. and going up to ML for the Bassmasters in Sep. On that note, I hope everybody saw how our "hometown boy" Seth Feider did at Lake Champlain. Cool to see how a guy known (at least to the Bassmaster nation) for being a smallmouth guy, comes up with some toad "greenies". Way cool. I've tried to figure out the whole cold front, warm front, pre front, post front. I've fished days I thought would be outstanding, and it stunk. Days I thought would be bad, high skies, and cool were great. One thing I've learned FOR SURE. The best time to go fishing, Is whenever you can. SO, for all you getting out tomorrow... ENJOY.

I fished 2 different lakes this past week, one being a clearer deep weedline lake and the other a dark lake with a much shallower weedline. Tuesday we fished weedlines at 14 fow on various offshore structure - needed to be hard bottom out to 16-17fow. One rod day - t-rigged culprit junebug worm on a pegged 3/8 oz sinker. Lots of fish caught with 19" being the biggest. Wednesday we fished league night on the darker water. Much tougher. Our best spot only gave up 2 small keepers. We moved around to a few other spots, staying mostly under 7 fow around shallow weeds fishing reeeal slow with weightless wacky dingers and got a couple more. Then we went to a deeper spot (7-10 fow) with no weeds and caught all the fish we ended up weighing in. They preferred a ned rig instead of a black trick worm on a jig head. Notched our first win with 12 1/2 lbs.

Ranger, I fished S. Center on the 4th - started early. It was brutal. Fished pads to deep rocks. One thing that I would try different is spending some time fishing real slow in shallow weeds - 4-6 fow with a black 6" trick worm or other finesse worm. I fished some of those spots, but with heavier stuff and faster (swimjig, heavy t-rig pitboss). I think they're there, just need a little coaxing. The water is getting pretty colored, not much clarity. Chisago on the other hand is a little clearer, and a bunch of flooded shoreline brush, if you like pitchin that stuff. Should be better for action and numbers. Pondweed is in the process of dying off. Let us know how you do.

I've been spending some time on WBL, Coon and S.Center, with mixed results. Last really good day was on WBL a couple weeks ago, and a week before a tourny. Last wednesday night on WBL, we just couldn't get any big bites and finished middle of the pack. Fished S.Center Tuesday and only got 2 legals, though one was just shy of 20" caught in 18 fow. And I know that lake. Tried 2-20 fow and all different ways. Coon today with similar results. I don't know if its me or the fish. On another note concerning jig trailers. How often and how do you decide to switch jig trailers? Do you stick with one tried and true or do you switch it up if you're not getting bites. Iv'e been experimenting with different ones, lately a paca chunk. It sure has a lot of action, maybe too much? My same thought process is figuring out t-rigged creatures. Pitboss (more action) or sweet beaver (less action). Thoughts anybody? Oh yeah, the ned rig (big TRD) got the big fish yesterday and today.

Been fishing a lot lately. We spent 5 days on Basswood by Ely, fishing both LM and SM and a little bit for walleye in the evening. We caught quite a few fish up to 20" in both species. Great trip. Since then, we had a tourny on Forest Lake and fished Bald Eagle and Big Marine a few times. The tourny could have and should have been better. Both me and my partner lost big fish that if landed would have put us in the money. Hopefully we learned lessons that will convert those key bites. On the other lakes we spent time scouting water and looking for good spots. In one lake I was focusing on milfoil beds. They are not the dominant weed and are scattered around the lake and vary in size and depth. I think that makes them key spots. The other lake we looked for fish where they were that day and also where they might migrate to a month from now. Techniques have been mostly t-rigs with a little jig/worm and jig/craws working best. I always throw a swimbait along weed edges - inside mostly this time of year, but it hasn't been producing that well. A KVD squarebill worked best tourny night, but the fish weren't taking it good and didn't really get good hooks into them (= lost fish). Lots of things to work on.

Wow, that's a hot walleye bite! And yes, "good fishing IS good fishing". We were up there on wed. - east side, and got maybe 15 smallies, but no walleyes. And I was throwing a swimbait, but higher up in the water column. Most of the smallies came on a small pink x-rap with the biggest being 19", so no giants. Not a bad day, but not a great day. In hindsight, I woulda done some different things like spend a little more time fishing deeper like 8-12ft and maybe slower on better fish spots. Water temp was 52. A lot of guys were out. Talked to one boat that was doing good on walleyes with tubes, so it seems get the bait on the bottom and you'll catch walleyes. Next week, we head up to Basswood lake up by Ely. Boundary Waters with 25hp motors. Fantastic smallmouth AND largemouth fishing.

Bassthumb, Nice fish. Looks like you had great weather. My plan was to get up there tues.-wed, but weather changed that. Instead we checked out a lake that's on our schedule this year that we haven't fished. We scouted a little for later and fished shallow for today. The bigger fish came from 4-8 fow, inside weedline mainly. Best baits were swimbait and my favorite early season jerkbait - a pink x-rap. It really does work well. And then a pike decided to keep it for himself. Pretty sure Rapala will sell me another one. Good opener overall.

Lotta places to fish - even on opener. Where you headed? North, south, east or west? I work weekends and get tues. wed. off. I love it in every way, but the weather has not been good to us mid-weekers. Still not sure how next week will play out. We had plans to do a 2 dayer up at ML, but now it might turn into a day trip depending on weather. I have a few new jerk-baits that NEED to be tried. At the very worst, Chisago area lakes are going good right now - seeing bass all over when fishing pannies. No matter what, bass will be caught. Bassthumb, give a report. I'll be curious to know how many wally guys will fish C&R. Also, spend what you can up there. Good for us bass guys to put our money where our mouths are.

Frydog, Our plan was to fish Wisconsin today, but for a number of reasons, opted to fish local Chisago area. Between trout fishing and bass fishing, there's not much chance for panfishing, and that's been good around here. So I spent a couple days fishing sunnies and scouting newly flooded lake spots (my weekend is tues,wed). As far as smally waters in Wisconsin- St. Croix is probably your best bet, but best in Oct. Shell, by Spooner has a decent smally population as well as Long, by Haugen. Better to head to Chequamegon Bay (3 hr drive). It'll spoil you. In May all shallow - less than 5 fow. And big avg. size. Or, wait a week, and hit Mille Lacs - which is my plan next week, weather permitting. But C. Bay should definitely be on your bucket list. Great in fall too. I used to fish Wisconsin alot for bass, but I think the size structure has gone down over the years. Not sure why and with MN opening only a week later, I can wait.