Hotspotoutdoors

Was out tonight at Big C. On the lake at 6:15 and fished until 1am. Seems like everything was at 17 feet.

70 degrees on the East side. 68 on the West. Only Rocky action until about 10:30pm. Kept a 17 and 18" Walleye.

1st time on Big C with no slimers.

Busy for a Monday night. Jet Skis, Jet Boats, Water Skiing and even a float plane making about 10 practice landings. That thing is louder than any of the boats.

Fished Beers in the morning. Had one follow and saw one muskie just sitting below the surface. Caught a few largemouth. Picked up my brother and stopped at the gas station for fuel and bait. Topped off the boat and walked in. The gal says, "Did you have the diesel?"
[PoorWordUsage], had to dump the whole thing and start over. We went to Lida. Caught a bunch of smallmouth and walleyes. Only one of the ten or so walleyes was small enough to keep. Got them on leeches, nightcrawlers and crankbaits. The only thing we didn't get one on was shiners. Hey Fisherdog, were you out last night. I think I met you at the lights at the corner of 59 and Cty 6.

Fished White Earth last night with 2 of my kids, they had a blast catching bass sunnies and crappies. We ended up catching a dozen slab crappies. They weren't too aggressive but they were fun.

Last night was a bust for me. Fished from 7:30 until almost 10:00. No gamefish at all. Some dandy sunnies but no eyes. Tried crawlers, leeches, spinners, plain hooks...Lots of folks out and about enjoying the awseome evening.

Interesting that you say that. I fish Big C for bass a lot, and in the past 3 years I bet I can count the number of pike I've caught on one hand. I'm around the rocks most of the time though.

That does lead me to a question for you Big C regulars.... Do you guys catch many smallmouth fishing the weedlines/cabbage on C? Just curious...

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

No, for me. Most of the smallmouth I catch on Big C are on breaks at the end of bars and rock piles or right on the deeper rock piles. Once in a while they are near the weedline, but usually deeper.

Took my four year old boy out last night. Went to tamarac. Holy Moly were there people out there. Apparently that lake has been in the outdoor news the last few weeks. Anyways the fish cooperated. Caught some dandy sunnies, a pile of snakes, a few ferocious bass, and a couple bonus eyes. A pretty solid couple hours. Also learned that when your kids set the rod down, make sure the bail is closed or after about 10 minutes the line is all gone. Pretty funny watching him reel and reel and reel with no line on.......

Cicada, I had my kid out on Big C searching for crappies in a regular summer haunt but they have yet to show up.

RK- I fish Big C quite a bit in the summer for slabs during the day and eyes after dark and caught 1 smallie after dark on cranks and got my first 1 two days ago fishing cabbage. I have caught quite a few in deeper water on rocks in the past when I used to do more live bait rigging for eyes. I've gotten quite a few on Pelican on the rocks, and also on Lida. If I was to target them, I'd probably hit Lida which I'm sure you have fished plenty of times being you're only a stones throw away.

Hiya -

Cicada, Peter - thanks for the info. I was mainly asking out of curiosity. One of the many things about smallies that baffles me is when and why they relate to weeds - and when and why they don't. I fish a couple other smallie lakes where it's almost completely a weedline bite at certain times during the summer. I've poked my nose into the weedline off and on on Big C though and never done much. I think if they were there the walleye guys would probably be screaming about what a nuisance they are - heh. Not too many smallies can pass up a leech or crawler on a live bait rig. It kind of puzzles me on Big C though because in other cases where I catch them in cabbage weeds it seems to be a forage deal - they puke up baitfish when you bring 'em in. (One of the great things about smallies is they barf a lot and tell you what they're eating... ) I really think they're fish eaters on Big C too, but they don't seem to use the cabbage much. Smallies are weird...

Lida is my 'overslept' lake. It's so close I go there when I couldn't haul my butt out of bed early enough to go somewhere farther away

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

My parents had a cabin on Lizzie for about 15 years. I caught 3 muskies over that time period and all were pretty small; two were in the spring pitching shiners in the river.

RK, you mentioned you saw one porpoising? I was on Miltona last weekend and about a 40 incher came up with its head completely out of the water swimming like a snake. It did it for about 30 seconds and you could see him looking back and forth checking out the boats that were around slip bobbering for walleyes. About 2 minutes later he came up and did it again. I would assume it was looking for ducklings to eat? Is that what you call porpoising, and is it a common thing with muskies?

I seen a big northern doing the same thing about 3 years ago on North Twin, it was a BIG one too. His head was completely out of the water kind of bobbing along, one of the craziest things I ever seen.

Does anyone know any thing about trollbridge just north of vagas.I might be staying at lost valley in august.

Happens all day long!! Something to do with digesting, I believe!!

Hiya -

Prairiefire - yeah, that's what they do. Sometimes they just come up and go right back down - kind of a slow motion deal. Other times they'll swim for a ways with part of their head out of the water. I had one on Lake of the Woods swim half way around the boat with it's head almost all the way out of the water.

Lord knows why they do it. I don't think it's any kind of feeding behavior. I've casted at hundreds of fish I've seen porpoise over the last 25 years, and I've had exactly two of them bite. You get a follow now and then, usually slow and lazy. I have on occasion seen a fish on the surface chomping on something, and I suppose using gravity to help them choke down whatever it is they just ate, but even that's something different than porpoising. It seems to be weather related a little bit. They seem to do it more when it's warm and calm. I remember one night on a lake by Longville after a storm, and there were fish surfacing all over the lake. You could see 2 or 3 at any given time. It was freaky (and, we never had a bite that night...). They seem to do it more on some lakes than others too. There are a few lakes where it's unusual NOT to see one.

I've heard about every theory out there as to why they do it. Best one I've ever heard is from Doug Johnson, the legendary Lake of the Woods guide. He says "It's because it feels good, and makes them happy..."

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

RK, have you noticed that the few days after a new or full moon the fish do it a lot more??? Im on the lake everyday and noticed that last summer. Also after a nice cold front goes through they will do that a lot more the next day(if its sunny and calm.)

I had a muskie follow the boat for about 100 yards last year with a pike hanging out of it mouth. Half of it head was out of the water and nothing even bother the fish(including a few well placed bulldogs!)

Hey Brian -

Never noticed and correlation with moon phase....but, I've never looked for one either. Could very well be one.

After fronts? Most definitely. After a cold front or after a storm is when I seem to see it most often. The night I described above is a good example. A fairly hard t-storm rolled through, then it got flat calm and sunny afterward, and there were fish porpoising all over the lake.

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

Trowbridge is mostly a panfish and bass lake. Not much for walleyes, but there are a few along with tons of slimers. The crappies and sunfish are decent sized if that's what you're after.

Got out last night with Watersguy! Had a heck of a fun night, we caught some crappies, some absolute beefy northerns . Actually they were some of the smallest northerns I have ever seen, but the crappies were pretty decent 10"-11". watersguy caught the only walleye of the night but we had more fun shooting the bull maybe next time I'll keep my mouth closed long enough to actually catch some fish !!!!

Hey Leechbait, an old high school classmate of mine came up this weekend and is staying until Tuesday. I will be able to fish with him on Monday and he wants to fish up north. I don't know if you know him but he coached Mahnomen to state in basketball years ago. Anyway, I fished White Earth and Tamarac Lake last week with limited success. Lots of mayflies on WE and the bass ran smaller than I have caught in previous years. He would like to try smallmouth, walleyes and/or muskies.
Thanks

Juggler and Long lost are the best smallie lakes around my area. The bugs are out on Tulaby now, so it slowed quite a bit.. As far as Muskies go they have been stocking the hell out of Many Point for the last 5 years w/muskies, even with adults. I haven't heard any reports on them or haven't tried for them my self out there yet.

Got out yesterday on a lake I have not fished in the summer yet and we got into the crappies pretty good. Found them in 7-10 fow just out from what looks like a good spawning area. The wanted a set bobber 4 feet down and some meat on the hook so crappie minnows were the choice. Fish averaged about 11" with some up to 12.5". We were pushing the fish down the shoreline and once we started catching smaller fish, we'd move down the shoreling 30 yards and started getting bigger ones again. We made 3 moves until we got pushed off the lake by lightning and rain. My 4 year old son is becoming quite the fisherman; he's been practicing his casting skills a lot and caught a lot a fish by himself yesterday. I even taught him to put is own minnows on yesterday so now I don't have to do it anymore!!

YOu better watch out Peter, before you know the boys are going to be asking for the keys to the boat all by themselves.

Thanks Leech, Juggler is definately on the list. He is also leaning towards Elk for the long critters. I'll bring up Long Lost and see what he thinks. I think he had Tulaby in the back of his mind, so good to know about the hatch. Little Elbow is also a possibility for largemouth. I'll post results early next week.

REPORT- On the way up to Elk, he remembers a little lake that he bass fished in the past. I think the name is Pickeral, it's on Pine Island Lake Road. Some would call this an adventure, it was plain goofy. The road back to the public access is flooded and there is a stretch where you are actually driving in the lake to get back there. We only caught a few bass and had some sunfish hit our buzzbaits. We headed out for Juggler about 1:00. Caught 16 largemouth between the two of us and two northerns and one rock bass. He outfished me, so there was a bit of chirping going on in the boat. Saw one smallmouth, but didn't catch any. I think with the weather we've had lately, we needed to fish deeper and maybe on some sharper breaks for them, but we were having fun with the buzzbaits.

Nice report Cicada, so you WERE able to get back to the lake on that landing road at Pickeral? I wussed out when I seen it a month ago, I switched lakes and scored big time that night. I may have to try my luck out at Pickeral but for a different species!!!! Any follows on Elk?

Never got to Elk. Pickeral was a late thought that couldn't miss. Funniest moment was when we pulled up the the little island with the tall pine trees, there was a hawk's nest on the corner. As we approached, they circled screeching and generally going nuts. One lands in the tree and is giving us "whats for" when it decides to make sure we are not welcome. It blows a big load out it's butt, plays the wind perfectly, and paints my buddy, his trolling motor and the front half of his boat with little white specs. He has no sense of humor in the first place, but he did crack a little wry smile as he cussed.