2 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

the river is a different story, but given my time constraints, I don't have the ability to fish it.

 

I hear ya, but I wish it were otherwise. I will always miss fishing that great, great river and I was hoping you could take my place. In Lake Pepin, I caught 20-lb.-plus pike, three-pound crappies, two and three white bass at once, seven-pound walleyes, and on and on. 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Hooksets are free.

 

Tell that to the hundreds of lures and hooks I've left impaled deep into sunken logs. 😆

1 minute ago, IcatchDinks said:

 

Tell that to the hundreds of lures and hooks I've left impaled deep into sunken logs. 😆

 

One day, you'll have a boat and you'll lose far fewer lures. I snagged wood or rock several times yesterday and paddling atop the snag freed me every time, as it nearly always does.

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

 

One day, you'll have a boat and you'll lose far fewer lures. I snagged wood or rock several times yesterday and paddling atop the snag freed me every time, as it nearly always does.

 

Ever since I started wading, my "Lost Lure Ratio" has dropped dramatically. (As has my "Locating Some Other Poor Sap's Lost Lure Ratio.")

9 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I hear ya, but I wish it were otherwise. I will always miss fishing that great, great river and I was hoping you could take my place. In Lake Pepin, I caught 20-lb.-plus pike, three-pound crappies, two and three white bass at once, seven-pound walleyes, and on and on. 

 

Border water rivers are open.  Pool 4 near Red Wing and Lake Pepin (which is just essentially a wide section of the river) are open too, but they are very busy this time of year because all inland waters are closed.  I am pretty clueless when it comes to fishing a large river system like that with heavy current.  Not to mention the amount of boats often stacked up in close proximity.

 

I relegate myself to mostly lake fishing for panfish until the inland waters game fish season opens.  Which is fine.  I don't mind crappie fishing for a few weeks.  If I didn't do it now, I'd probably never even target a panfish.

Greetings All,

 

@ol'crickety Bravo, well done! Even better under the windy conditions and being medicated too. That is the angling spirit on display! Also Thank You for sharing the results of your effort too! Standing ovation! It is way more fun when the catching is good, fishing is fun, but catching is where I want to be.

 

Here in the SW desert we have had our typical series of storms rolling through. The result is the weather takes some dramatic swings. Example: snow at elevations above 6k feet then a few days later we are into 80s. This past weekend is another example where there was at least a 10 degree change within a few days. Fortunately the warming trend is not to be ignored by the anglers or fish.

 

The real challenge has been the winds and the timing. Usually when the weekend rolls around the winds crank up. So it is either not safe to be on the water, when the winds are above 15 mph, or you'll get more paddling in than casting. So it has been my motivation to drive up to Tucson and visit several of the parks with lakes.

 

This past weekend, one of the lakes was hosting a sailboat competition practice session. So I got to see that first hand in person. The bass did not mind, as they were willing to play, even within a few meters of some events.

 

Great to see you enjoying your passions with impressive results! Wishing more continued angling adventure success to you! Be well and Cheers!

13 minutes ago, Fishing_Rod said:

you'll get more paddling in than casting.

 

^So true!^

 

I've gone "fishing" some windy days for three hours, but with the wind, I only actually fished for 1.5 hours and paddled for 1.5 hours. However, I love paddling.

 

Anyway, thanks for the generous and encouraging response!

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

One day, you'll have a boat and you'll lose far fewer lures. I snagged wood or rock several times yesterday and paddling atop the snag freed me every time, as it nearly always does.

I definitely struggle with bite detection. I'm going to start a new thread on that so to not hijack this one. But to the point of this quote, now that I'm in a kayak I spend significant time getting my lures unhooked from all the treefish I catch. I can set the hook on submerged wood with the best of them. If there were a tour for that, I think I could get an invitation! 

Some fella that’s caught a few decent fish named Tom, aka @WRB, always stressed that strike detection was the key to success (among a few other cosmic factors) 

When Tom talks, I listen. 

 

7 minutes ago, FishTax said:

I'm going to start a new thread on that so to not hijack this one.

 

Cool! I'll visit that thread. Speaking of wood and strike detection, yesterday, when the wind was gusting, I hooked a "bass." When you hook a bass in a light boat in a howling wind, your rod really bends and this "bass" really bent my rod and then it surfaced.

 

Yeah, tree branch. 

4 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

When Tom talks, I listen. 

 

 

Cool! I'll visit that thread. Speaking of wood and strike detection, yesterday, when the wind was gusting, I hooked a "bass." When you hook a bass in a light boat in a howling wind, your rod really bends and this "bass" really bent my rod and then it surfaced.

 

Yeah, tree branch. 

I've done that before, and even thought I was reeling it in for a couple seconds before I realized my kayak was moving towards the tree haha but boy was my rod bent, I was sure it was a monster! 

1 hour ago, FishTax said:

I've done that before, and even thought I was reeling it in for a couple seconds before I realized my kayak was moving towards the tree haha but boy was my rod bent, I was sure it was a monster! 

 

Wind makes me easy to fool. Wind with white capping has the same effect on me as a shopping mall. I'm a woods and waters gal, at home alone on lonesome lakes. So, shopping malls overwhelm me. There's too much...everything. 

 

So, when the wind is howling and the waves are falling, there's so much sensation, much like a mall, in all that hurly-burly, I can be tricked.