Fished Saturday and Sunday on a small shallow lake connected to larger deeper one north of Bemidji.  Saturday was windy. Tried the big lake first and struggled to find fish. Finally found a patch of emerging reeds and caught 6 small largemouths on a jig.  Tried to run the same pattern elsewhere with no luck.  The larger lake has smallmouth. Didn't catch any.  Went back to the small lake and threw spinnerbaits in shallow reeds and in emergent weeds. Caught between 10-15 largemouth.  Went to the bigger lake to start today and it was sunny and calm.  The smallmouth were on beds.  Had a great couple of hours. Caught  10 smallmouths in 2 hours, biggest was 20 inches.  Tried jig, weighted and weightless wacky worm, tube, and swimbait. Caught every fish on weightless worm.  The wind picked up and bite stopped. Water temps were 63 degrees.  

1 hour ago, Tlauz said:

 

Fished Saturday and Sunday on a small shallow lake connected to larger deeper one north of Bemidji.  Saturday was windy. Tried the big lake first and struggled to find fish. Finally found a patch of emerging reeds and caught 6 small largemouths on a jig.  Tried to run the same pattern elsewhere with no luck.  The larger lake has smallmouth. Didn't catch any.  Went back to the small lake and threw spinnerbaits in shallow reeds and in emergent weeds. Caught between 10-15 largemouth.  Went to the bigger lake to start today and it was sunny and calm.  The smallmouth were on beds.  Had a great couple of hours. Caught  10 smallmouths in 2 hours, biggest was 20 inches.  Tried jig, weighted and weightless wacky worm, tube, and swimbait. Caught every fish on weightless worm.  The wind picked up and bite stopped. Water temps were 63 degrees.  

A 20 inch Smallmouth is good anywhere... especially a girthy one like that.  Nice hat by the way..!

Haven't been able to make it out too much recently, but managed a couple hours this weekend. First fish with the new hat! Glad to be repping BR thanks @FryDog62

Had quite the oops on Saturday Morning and to top it off we didn't get bit on the lake I did this on:

 

 

Ended up picking up and going to another lake real close to the first and then proceeded to catch approx. 50 largies, biggest being 3.5lbs. Fun end to the day after a tough start. 

 

Dropped the boat at Frankies this morning. They're hoping for a 3 week turn around. Everywhere else I talked to couldn't even look at it until July. preparing myself for the damage estimate, but thank God for insurance. Honestly just hoping for a completely new lower unit and prop. The prop shaft is bent for sure. Not sure what else inside might be broken. Would give me some more piece of mind compared to a rebuilt case. We'll see....

@ThatOneBigKid

 

ouch.  Hope you get back on the water sooner than 3 weeks.  Interested to hear what they find etc.

1 minute ago, OperationEagle said:

@ThatOneBigKid

 

ouch.  Hope you get back on the water sooner than 3 weeks.  Interested to hear what they find etc.

I'll certainly update and provide a review of the experience working with Frankies as well as making a boat insurance claim through Allstate as this is my first one with them (in terms of boat insurance).Allstate has been fantastic to me in the past with Auto related claims(wife was involved in a significant accident in November) so I am hopeful they'll be good to me on this one as well.  

What did you hit? A boulder?

15 hours ago, gimruis said:

What did you hit? A boulder?

Yea I am guessing a large rock(s). Couldn't see it in the water afterwards. Hit it just as I was trying jump up on plane. 

Mark Croxton can probably fix the prop to better than new.  Then you'd have a back up.  I'd be wishing for a new LU as well.  Good luck getting her back!

15 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Mark Croxton can probably fix the prop to better than new.  Then you'd have a back up.  I'd be wishing for a new LU as well.  Good luck getting her back!

I have wanted to send my prop to Mark for a couple years now, but this is now the perfect excuse. Have also been wanting a 4 blade too, so I might start looking at those too. Talked to PropMD about one so I'll probably work through them. 

 

First derby of the year tonight on N/S Center for the Greenhorn Advanced league. Should be a good time. It is nice as hell out side right now. 

Dang Kid, that's tough, hoping your fix is easy and works out.

 

Quick report:  I went to Waconia this morning with an old friend who was in town on business.  Had to cater to his limited abilities a little but definitely the first day for me that the bite seemed tougher.  There are bluegills and crappie everywhere in the shallows and inside weedlines - the bass we caught were all dinks.  Bluebird, post front with not a lot of wind out there, so I'm sure that didn't help.  Also, tons of giant carp in the shallows spawning and carrying on dirtying up all the water in areas.  i don't tend to find many bass around them when they are doing that, curious of other's experience?  I would have just flipped the grassline if I was by myself, not sure if that would have been more productive or not.  

Anybody been out?  Looking to figure out what the bass will be doing this weekend. 

 

With this instant summer/dramatic rise in water temps will they be tight to cover?

I was out Wednesday for several hours. Couldn't find any of decent size either in cover or deeper. When I was launching, I talked to someone who'd just come back in...he hadn't found any either.

 

This was on Minnetonka; Phelps, Cook and Spring Park bays.

On 6/4/2019 at 12:53 PM, ThatOneBigKid said:

Had quite the oops on Saturday Morning and to top it off we didn't get bit on the lake I did this on:

 

 

Ended up picking up and going to another lake real close to the first and then proceeded to catch approx. 50 largies, biggest being 3.5lbs. Fun end to the day after a tough start. 

 

Dropped the boat at Frankies this morning. They're hoping for a 3 week turn around. Everywhere else I talked to couldn't even look at it until July. preparing myself for the damage estimate, but thank God for insurance. Honestly just hoping for a completely new lower unit and prop. The prop shaft is bent for sure. Not sure what else inside might be broken. Would give me some more piece of mind compared to a rebuilt case. We'll see....

My gas motor is fine but trolling motor blown up.  Obliterated on the inside - snapped cable, entire assembly needs replacement.  Not as expensive as BigKid’s, but has put me on the DL for 2 weeks.  I miss fishing!

Been an odd season thus far. Warmed up super quick over the last week. I haven't been LMB fishing a whole lot so I'm not dialed into the spawn at all.

 

Almost all my good trips have been to Mille Lacs. The SMB bite is hit and miss, but the size is there. Jerkbaits and turds in under 10 FOW, sometimes as shallow as 2. A couple nice ones have been caught midday scooting heavy tubes around in 17-20 off the breaks.

 

More than half the time on ML I'm fishing walleyes on artificials. 1/4 - 3/8oz VMC Mooneyes with 4" Keitech swimbaits glued on or 1/4oz turds. 12-17 FOW. First break rocks, north and west end. Gigantic mayfly hatch occurred on Tues/Weds and screwed it all up on the northwest end. The fish will be pounding mayfly nymphs instead of our baits for a few days.

16 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

My gas motor is fine but trolling motor blown up.  Obliterated on the inside - snapped cable, entire assembly needs replacement.  Not as expensive as BigKid’s, but has put me on the DL for 2 weeks.  I miss fishing!

uggghhh...what did you hit w the TM?  So you will repair and not replace?  Does this mean warranty will cover it?

Update on Lower Unit situation: Both the full lower unit and prop are being replaced with brand new replacements. Allstate couldn't have been easier to work with. Dropped the boat off at Frankies Tuesday morning and as of this afternoon Allstate had it all processed and payment on it's way to Frankies. Couldn't be happier with the experience so far from both Frankies and Allstate. Should be back on the water in 2 weeks. 

 

In other news, My bro-in-law and I placed 2nd in the Greenhorn Advanced Wednesday series this a couple nights ago on N/S Center. I also caught big fish of the night at 4lb 13 oz. Wa a very fun night. 

 

17 minutes ago, ThatOneBigKid said:

Update on Lower Unit situation: Both the full lower unit and prop are being replaced with brand new replacements. Allstate couldn't have been easier to work with. Dropped the boat off at Frankies Tuesday morning and as of this afternoon Allstate had it all processed and payment on it's way to Frankies. Couldn't be happier with the experience so far from both Frankies and Allstate. Should be back on the water in 2 weeks. 

 

In other news, My bro-in-law and I placed 2nd in the Greenhorn Advanced Wednesday series this a couple nights ago on N/S Center. I also caught big fish of the night at 4lb 13 oz. Wa a very fun night. 

 

What kind of coverage w Allstate that covers damage like that?  

10 minutes ago, OperationEagle said:

What kind of coverage w Allstate that covers damage like that?  

Not sure of the name of the policy through Allstate, but I work all my insurance through Monticello Agencies and my guy Aaron Siemenson recommended this policy to me for my boat and motor when I bought it based off their value at the time I bought them. 

 

I'd recommend Aaron and Monticello Agencies to anyone looking for Insurance or a change of policies. I have been with them for at least 10 years and have had no issues at all. 

Yeah I’m pretty sure my progressive insurance will cover if I hit an object like that. Think it’s considered an underwater collision or submerged object. Thanks for the info though. 

3 hours ago, OperationEagle said:

uggghhh...what did you hit w the TM?  So you will repair and not replace?  Does this mean warranty will cover it?

I got caught on a lake on a trip to SoDak when the winds were 15-20 but then kicked up to 45 mph in about 2 minutes.  Hid behind an island for an hour and it only got worse.  Eventually got to the ramp and loaded the boat solo (somehow) with 3 footers at my back.  Almost put the bow of the boat through the back of my Jeep.  

 

End result was a snapped TM cable and a new 4 foot Duckett worm rod

 

Everything else was fine (except my nerves)!

5 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I got caught on a lake on a trip to SoDak when the winds were 15-20 but then kicked up to 45 mph in about 2 minutes.  Hid behind an island for an hour and it only got worse.  Eventually got to the ramp and loaded the boat solo (somehow) with 3 footers at my back.  Almost put the bow of the boat through the back of my Jeep.  

 

End result was a snapped TM cable and a new 4 foot Duckett worm rod

 

Everything else was fine (except my nerves)!

Wow things can change in a hurry.  Glad you are ok. 

I went to Mille lacs again yesterday. Was able to only catch 2 of them because around 9:30 the wind really started picking up. So we went to a bay and fished largies instead for a couple hours. I think the spawn is over up there and the fish are transitioning to deeper water now. Water temp was 66, so it went up 6 degrees in about a week with this period of warmer sunny weather.

Water temp today was 74. Had a pretty good day.  All were up very shallow. Landed a 20, 17, a couple 16+’s amongst the 15+ fish today. 

 

Chatter bait early in the morning then they wanted a senko in the afternoon.  All of them were tight to the shoreline except a few that were roaming.  

 

They will be transitioning soon to their summer pattern.  

Caught this guy on a dark sleeper. Drifting it through the current and twitching it. Weighed 3.32lbs, second one of that size. Hope to find something bigger.