rascalP

The Lindner crew always make it look so easy, don't they . SD has been on my bucket list for the last few April's as well. Trout fishing has always gotten in the way. Along with that work thing. Enemy Swim and a couple of other lakes to the south of Webster and Roy and Clear are on my list. Frydog, what were your best baits? Jerkbait must have come into play at some point.

I guess it's the slow pace of working it. It's not a search method. Which brings up another area I need to work on. I tend to move on too quick after catching a fish, thinking they're somewhat scattered. Even when I have a spot the size of a house dialed in, I figure i can cover a little more of that area with jig or t-rig, or repetitive casts with a crank or swimbait. I figure I need to have a spot narrowed down to the size of a car before I pull out the drop shot. Maybe I need to re-think my thinking. I tend to lean to the power side of fishing - flippin and pitchin, casting and cranking is what feels good, so I need to break out of that comfort zone and slow down. What's your 1,2 and 3 choice of plastic on a drop-shot?

Skipping docks with a baitcaster is my weakest link. I've been trying to force myself to practice out in open water to get the basic mechanics down, then start target practicing on things that don't make a big CLANG. I need to get better and gain more confidence at drop-shotting. Don't like doing it, but need to be good at it when it is needed. My deep game is getting better and had good success last year throwing 5" swimbaits on 1/2oz jigs, slow swimming near the bottom. I will spend more time slow rolling a spinnerbait in similar situations. Right now, it's trout fishing. April IS trout fishing, and it's been pretty good. BTW, Frydog that is a nice rig. Did you get the bench seats? Dual or single console? That MK ultrex is a real game-changer and someday I will have one. Please keep us posted on how you like the boat and trolling motor.

Pretty sure it was 5:00 - 8:45. Website has the tentative lake schedule, but i didn't see start times.

Punch, Me and a buddy fished the wednesday night series last year for the first time. We're signed up again this year. They're a real nice laid back bunch of guys and the emphasis is on learning. Top 3 teams each week tell how they got their fish. No fancy boat needed.

Hope you do well this semester, Nathan. When the time comes, you can add gear a little at a time. Auger and flasher should come first. With all the new stuff coming along, good used stuff is easy to find. Simple flasher, lightweight auger. I got my first few bass of the year, through the ice yesterday and today. Yesterday I went panfishing on a lake lake where it is quite common to catch bass mixed in with your panfish and got a 14 incher along with the bluegils. Not huge, but a fun battle on UL tackle. Today we tried Green lake for some sight fishing and I got a couple small ones. My buddy had a biggin come through, but he couldn't get it to bite. Pretty fun to watch it all.

No, it isn't like open water fishing, but the way I fish, it isn't staring down a hole drinking beer either. I ice fish the way I open water fish -- run and gun. We'll pick an area, drill a bunch of holes and break that area down. If nothing going on or smaller fish, we'll move, either big distance or small. We like panfishing, big gills in particular cause it suits the run and gun style. I ice fish for the same reason I open water fish - I flat out love to fish. Breaking down water, solving the fish puzzle with the goal of catching larger than average fish and the whole process of doing this. No doubt, catching nice bass as well, on 3lb test is a hoot and tests your skills. Sight fishing, when the opportunity presents itself is a blast too. It can really help you dial in water that you bass fish too. Covering water slower than in a boat can give some insights to the different structures that you bass fish, bottom content, weeds, etc.. Nathan, I would say, give it a chance. It gets you outside and just adds another pursuit for a few months.

That's it for me ( I think). The boat sits in a heated pole barn, so it's always ready to go, but after this week, the river looks to be the only option. Geneoh's got me beat. Way to go. I watched a John Gillespie show over the weekend with them up around Iron River, WI last week and they were smokin the bass - numbers and size and a couple big pike most on lipless cranks. Got me fired up all over again. But, time to get some home jobs taken care of and get ready for ice. Got some nice bass through the ice last year sight fishing. I'll keep you posted.

Fished the Croix wed. and thurs. Bite was pretty good. The numbers were better on wednesday, but size was better on thursday with quite a few 14-17" and one tank at 201/2". All were caught on a tube or jig/pitboss in 12-20 fow. The water temp was 48-49 wed. 47-48 thur. It was a nice change from chasing LM with 6 or 7 different rods. It's still not over. I had one of my best crankbait bites ever at 42 degree water temp.

Jeff, we fished Chisago last thursday and really struggled. We saw dozens of nice fish cruising around remaining patches of cabbage in 3-4 fow, but could not get them to bite. Came back several times, even at dusk, and they would not bite. Tried it all. Knowing there were so many fish in these areas meant a lot of switching baits. We did catch a few small ones in another part of the lake, similar weedbeds. Water temps were 52-53. Tough. Today I fished another area lake that has been real reliable and got blanked on bass. I only had a few hours and only got a few pike. Water temp was 50-51. I read an article not long ago about rising water temps in the fall tend to shut down bass. Speaking for myself, it's been true. Heading to the Croix tomorrow.

Punch, glad to see you got on some fish. Love the swimbait. What was your best size? I'm going to try again this week to get up there. I got some areas on the east side I wanna check out. We chose the north side a few weeks ago for a little calmer water, and it paid off with quite a few nice fish. What was the water temp?

Sorry to hear that, gimruis. We usually fish open water til Thanksgiving. The river stays open into December no matter what. Tues. the river was pretty good. Started slow, but every spot kicked out a fish or three. Jig/craw and tubes worked best. Very soft bites. Big fish was 18". Water temp was 49-50. Mille lacs fell through today, so stayed in the chisago area. Again, started slow. Had to go to a jig/craw and a t-rig worm to get the first few. Then, in the afternoon, the bass and pike went on a tear on a swimbait for a couple hours. All less than 6 ft. With the calm water, you could see where all the panfish were schooling and thats where the bass/pike were. Seemed like every pike in the lake were in this area. Big bass, a 19 incher, came from dying pad field, 2 fow, on a barely weighted swimbait. Way Cool. Water temp was 50-52. This weather is nice to fish in, but I'll be looking for some wind and weather to get things fired up again.

fishingmn, cabbage bite is in a lake. 4 ft most all around the lake and generally flat. The lake has good milfoil and coon that sets up deeper, but the active bass seem to like the shallower weed this time of year. Going to try to get up to ML this week. We were up there 2 weeks ago and did pretty good on the north side. Top 5 fish were over 19" with 2 over 20. We wanted to fish the east side, but the wind was a little too much out of the west.

Still going strong. Local lake has the largemouth going after anything moving horizontal. Swimbaits have been the best, but chatterbaits, jerks, and squarebills have been good too. Shallow cabbage - 4 ft have been holding the majority of the fish. Getting at least one tank (18"+) each time out. Tues. there was a good jerkbait bite on the st. croix and tubes were getting smaller fish deeper, offshore. Water temps on both river and lakes are right around 49. With the weather forcasts, this will hold for another couple weeks.

I fish the Croix a lot this time of year. Jerkbaits were on yesterday. What temp do you pull the plug? We'll fish it till they don't want a minnow or thanksgiving, whichever comes first

Hey, from east central MN. It's late fall and we're in overdrive. Bass are biting, largemouth and small. Word is getting out on how good the bass fishing is here - hope you can all get up here to check it out. Lots of good info here, hopefully I can add some