I wish I had time to read through this thread, I've been crazy busy at work. I'm fishing in a 100 boat Crappie contest on Clearwater on Friday. I was getting my boat ready a couple days ago and found out that I'll be putting a new floor in my boat this summer sometime... lovely. She runs just as good as she did in the fall, so I'm happy with that!!! I got it up to 26.3 bilstery mph last night, yahoo! And my buddy Johnny made the paper: http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/18389214.html
ouch I'm going to try and get our boat set-up friday and then probably run out to tonka saturday morning. otherwise I'll just take the canoe out to a local lake
White/Green flu-flu jig, bare hook. My dock. I know its not huge, but its pretty good for tonka. That sucks!!
I am very close to Cook's bay. cant let you know exactly where, or else you might steal all of my fishies.
you have nothing to worry about. I only fish the western end of the lake. plus, like i said before - catch and release. i might take a limit of crappy early season before I switch to northern, bass, and muskie but that's about it
Sure.... I can just see it now. I tell you where my dock is and next thing you know there is a WRB boat down there with 800 fog lights pulling in all the fish. lol.
:needpics: Here is my set up. Total cost for everything:$1,850 Truck: Free (about $50.00 in black rattle can paint) Boat: $1,200 (I've put about $600 into it)
I don't actually have any pics on this computer of it - all my pics were from film. nothing special - 40hp evinrude, front and rear minnkota trolling motors (usually leave the rear on at home), front and rear eagle depth finders. all equipment is a bit outdated but still works for my needs (although the bowmount trolling motor is getting pretty beat up)
Right on, same here. 16' Lund from 1974 or so with an OLD 50HP Evinrude. Bow mount 24V trolling motor with auto pilot - love auto pilot. New monochrome Lawrence finder and I just bought a color iFinder with the lakemaster chip. Hopefully this summer (after I get a new floor in it) I'll build my live well, get the rod locker in, and re-build the platform.
that's one thing I'd like to have - trolling motor w/ auto pilot. since I don't fish tournaments or keep fish, my livewell has turned into a storage compartment :laugh:
HA HA. Yeah, I fish tournaments and am alwasy the slowest, oldest boat out ther but seem to do well. I pan on rigging up a battery powered airator in a cooler for this tournament.
Anyone have plans for up north for opener? I have the whole week after opener off work and now I'm hearing the ice may not even be off Vermillion by then.
Not me- I am sticking around the cities for opener weekend. It's the wife's first mothers day and that's importiant to her. I'm hitting Mille Lacs on the 2nd weekend from Saturday - Tuesday. YAHOO!
bump, anyone know how the bite on tonka is right now? trying to decide if i want to go out tomorrow morning in the rain and wind
i was out on minnetonka from about 11 to 3:30 today. it was really windy so my dad and i stuck to fishing in the little inlets (the few that weren't marked no fishing for spawning) and the lee side. grays bay, wayzata bay, tanager lake, browns bay. we got skunked - I lost something small. otherwise zip. the 2 other boats we came across hadn't caught anything either. I did see a lot of carp in tanagers - should have brought the bow along
caught some big crappies over at minnetonka tonight. also a bass...http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii270/vangstaboi86/rims/?action=view¤t=bass.jpg
Went out yesterday to Coon Rapids Dam. fished for 6 hours caught a sheep head. The water is still too high at the dam and the currents way to fast and strong. A lot of other people had luck. I saw one guy with a good size catfish and some other guys who caught 2 walleyes at the smaller channel using crappie minnows. Don't worry I watch him throw it back.
That's true, but I JUST patched them back together on Friday. I was too busy and preocupied to take pictures, but here's my story from the weekend... On Saturday, I fished in a Crappie tournament on Clearwater Lake ($75.00 per boat entry fee). I took off on Friday to get boat ready. Got the new floor patches into the boat and trolling batteries mounted. Changed oil in truck (good thing too – it only had 3 quarts in it – 5.5 is full. Oops) Everything was ready – it started raining… We drove up to Clearwater and fished in the rain on Friday night until about 11p. Got home, ate, drank a lot and stumbled to bed. We drew the starting spot of 10th out of 100 and were pumped. At about 6am, we got to the launch and the boat wouldn’t start. The choke clicked so it had power, but no starter. Turns out the controls by the steering wheel rusted from the rain and thought the boat was in gear- so it wouldn’t start. I took the controls apart and disconnected the cablefrom the motor and it finally started. We had to select the gears manually at the motor for the day - not THAT big of a deal, but we were now 2 hours into the tournament and were JUST hitting the water. ½ way through the day a new problem - the motor would start, but then bog out and die. It took us about an hour to figure out a complicated pattern of crap to get it started, in gear, and under power. All that – ZERO fish. Oh well, at least it wasn't raining.
Sucks for you man. Anyone hit up Wabasha for white bass? Its thatt time of year where every cast you get a bass. I wanna hit it up soon. Haven't fished it for a while.
that does suck that's why i like having the tiller operated evinrude - less **** to go wrong (it's fairly new too - late 90's model).
They fight just like any bass. Same equipment also to catch one as a regular bass. The taste is the difference. Thats why so many south east Asians love to fish for them plus the limits like 25 and no limit in Iowa or North Dakota.
I think this year I might hit up Iowa since it seems like a closer drive. 4 to 5 hour drive compared to North Dakota which is about 6 to 7 hour drive.
Those are good sized Crappie, makes nice fillets! Make sure not to eat too many lake/river caught fish, mercury poisoning and what not. The younger the fish the better, the older the more chance that they are retaining more toxic things.
no it's up north near mora,mn knife lake i believe. this was last spring's fish. of course people found out about it now and only 10inches are the big one's
Its time to go out and catch the mayflies (anywhere near a light source, after dark), all types of pan fish gobble them up, bass as well.
