Minnesota trip

Spent a week with Sarah and her children at a remote fishing camp on Elbow Lake in NW Minnesota. My first time in Minnesota.

Fantastic trip, although I ended up spending much of it relaxing and reading the final Harry Potter book... sorry everyone, it's a great book! Laughing

Caught quite a few largemouth bass, rock bass, and sunfish... I just did all catch-and-release. Tried for pike a few times, but no luck. I've never caught a pike before and wasn't quite sure of technique... fished along the bottom with a diving lure based on advice at the camp... I'm very open to suggestions on catching them.

The highlights for me were fishing with Sarah and her kids...

...and seeing a bald eagle circling in an updraft and then dive to the water to catch a fish, I'd never seen that before and I was absolutely speechless at the beauty and power of it. I wish I could have gotten a picture... but maybe it's best that I didn't. Wink

We had a big bass fry the last night, courtesy of friends that were also there, and one of Sarah's children who landed and kept some nice size bass. I felt really good for him as I watched him develop a strong interest in fishing, and learning from me how to rig and care for his gear without help from anyone else. I'll keep encouraging him.

One of the many funny things that happened was for part of the week we were constantly smelling what we thought was "poo", and that one of us had somehow managed to snag dog or raccoon droppings into our stuff. After much investigation it turned out to be a small tub of horribly stinky blood-bait that her eldest had quietly snuck and kept hidden in his tackle box. Talk about the smell in the hot and humid Minnesota sun! Laughing

Anyway, I'm still teasing him about that, especially since no one seemed to know of anyone ever catching a catfish in that lake and we weren't rigging for them.

A big campfire, marshmellows and "s'mores" rounded out a pretty good week. Very Happy

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"Asinus sæculæ maximus."

> FISHING ROCKS !!! Laughing

sounds like you had a great time there. No Pics !? Shocked

im,im, very upset you didn't share Confused

Why you Little ! Mad

Cheers.

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A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Sorry, DD... but the few pics I took were not good.

Wink

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"Asinus sæculæ maximus."

Awesome stuff Dobry Very Happy

So, how did ya cook the fish?

eric

Dobry, I have lived in Minnesota all my life and avid fisherman. If you need any advise I would be glad to help.

	turd wrote:
	Awesome stuff Dobry So, how did ya cook the fish? eric

Filets pan-fried, using an egg wash, and lightly seasoned cornmeal. Yum yum! Very Happy

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"Asinus sæculæ maximus."

	muskalungi wrote:
	Dobry, I have lived in Minnesota all my life and avid fisherman. If you need any advise I would be glad to help.

Thanks muskalungi!

I was fishing just off the bottom, or along the bottom of the deepest parts of the channel, using Rapala "ShadRaps" and "deep runners" on a steel leader, and slowly reeling/trolling That's what had been recommended. Didn't have any luck with the pike. I wish I had been fishing with an experienced pike fisherperson.

Thoughts?

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"Asinus sæculæ maximus."

Great stuff, Dobry. Cool

Fishing is always fun. Very Happy

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Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. - Prov. 27:17

First of all, the Minnesota DNR has a great website which includes lakefinder. You can access almost any lake in Minnesota and read the survey done on populations of species. This lake may have been a marginal pike waters, where the numbers are few but the size is large. I'll check it for ya. In mid to late summer, the larger pike tend to go deeper because of the heat.(which has been excessive this year) For larger pike, you want to fish the drop offs in these conditions adjacent to weed beds. Also there are many pike in weeds....pike LOVE weeds. You can run spinnerbaits or weedless surface plugs which is very effective. What you want to find is 'cabbage'. This weed has little multi-flowered tops and usually grows in 4-12 feet of water. Look for that environment....cast the weed bed..no fish...move to the next one. The best time to fish Northerns is in low light conditions or rain. Good luck next time you visit Minnesota.

Here's the link to the DNR website with info on the lake you fished.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=03015900

I haven't fished that part of Minnesota too much. There are fewer lakes, but I would like to try it sometime.

Muskalungi,

Thanks much! Very Happy

Your info will help me focus and tune-in much more to where I need to fish next year. Basically I was hearing simply "channel, fish the deep part of the lake channel", but I didn't hear any info on pike habitat, weeds, where they like to hang, etc. This is what I needed. And I was using plugs and deep runners. For what it's worth though, no one else was catching any pike either. Confused

Caught plenty of bass though. Laughing

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"Asinus sæculæ maximus."

No problem....you will certainly give me tips on fishing the Mid South...Right? I fished the Norfork and White River in Arkansas for trout a couple of springs ago. I did very well.

Good times love making shmoes.

Glad you like our state too, drop by anytime Very Happy

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Limitations are created only in the mind.
Only by ignoring them can one truly be great.

Dobry wrote:

Muskalungi,

Thanks much! Very Happy

Your info will help me focus and tune-in much more to where I need to fish next year. Basically I was hearing simply "channel, fish the deep part of the lake channel", but I didn't hear any info on pike habitat, weeds, where they like to hang, etc. This is what I needed. And I was using plugs and deep runners. For what it's worth though, no one else was catching any pike either. Confused

Caught plenty of bass though. Laughing

Yep same here, all I can catch is bass. Confused

That's fine, but I want something to take home because I've never cleaned a fish.

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I grew up along the Mississippi River in St.Paul and I have fished from Canada to Hastings in Mn After all we have about 12,000 lakes woohoo Must admit my alltime favorite has been the Snake River Smallmouth Bass ,floating the river is whatever you want it to be a good days fishing maybe just few hours ,then again maybe a weeks float and camping combo on the St.Croix ,or the Metro Bass ,Hm walleye on leech anyone Very Happy

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Give me my pack a bag of rice and my knife I'll handle the rest

all I catch is trout because thay are lightweight. Cool

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

	linsleyk wrote:
	all I catch is trout because thay are lightweight.

Well you should get out to some of the Canadian lakes back east. Some Lake trout can weigh as much as 25lbs Surprised

lol, insane. Cool

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
We are Known By The Tracks we Leave Behind
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

oh my gosh. that would drag me in yikes. I like the little ones Very Happy

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I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

	linsleyk wrote:
	oh my gosh. that would drag me in yikes. I like the little ones

If you like small ones catch some round goby's out on the bay. Shocked

They're terrible, because they bite right away and the get in the way of the perch. Confused

They're about 5" long on average.

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