First Fish of the Season

On Thursday, my girlfriend and her little sister went out to enjoy some of the first ice fishing this year. We traveled to a little lake north of Calumet. There was good ice and we got set up quickly, shortly after four p.m. Her little sister was set up with a perch rig and we went out to set up a few tip-ups. Not long after, her little sister was letting out whoops and hollars and we looked back to see her pole doubled over the hole. She had hooked something and was very excited. I ran back and helped her to pull a 16" pike through the hole. It was a big fish for her and it was great to see her so excited. We caught another similar sized pike on a tip-up just before we left for the evening. It was a great first day.

We returned the next day but were unsuccessful. There must have been some sort of low pressure moving in because there were no bites at all.

Hopefully we can get out again soon. The ice should be firmed up again with the return of this colder weather.

Enjoy and get out fishing.  

Cabelas Adventure, Rogers, MN

So on our way to Bemidji a couple weeks ago, we made a couple stops at the Cabela's of Rogers, MN. It is an absolutely amazing store. It is jam packed with anything you could want to do outdoors. I also must say it was a real treat to visit somewhere like this, when I'm typically visiting/relying on a small Gander Mountain in my home area. I would definitely recommend visiting this store! The fly fishing selection was amazing, too!

Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Fish Lake, Eagan, Mn

Welcome to Eagan, MN. We have moved into our new place here in town and it is pretty awesome so far. After Em and I got a general idea of directions down, we did some searching on the web and located a nice lake to try out. The lake was called Fish Lake, which according to the park information, was home to pike, walleye, bass, panfish, and bull heads. We had fun catching some bluegill and one of them Em caught was even brilliant blue. There was also a fella there who said he has some great luck with bass the night before a storm. Can't wait to get out again. Tonight is full of large hail producing thunderstorms, so we'll be hanging out inside tonight!

The city of Eagan put together a nice guide to the fishable lakes in the area which you can access here: Eagan Fishing

Enjoy!

Fishing in Michigan's Lower Peninsula!

After school got out, my girlfriend and I have traveled downstate to visit my family and among all of the stuff were doing, were getting to do a bit of fishing! Today we spent some time at the Mill Pond in Northport. We were trying to catch some stocked trout from a recent fishing derby. We also have tried to catch some fish in the local marina which included pike, steelhead, and a monster carp! Stay tuned, hopefully there will be news of a magnificent catch!

First Fish of the Season

So this past weekend, my girlfriend and I went out for a canoe ride! We were very surprised to see the most beautiful, calm lake. It was absolutely picturesque and not to mention I caught the first fish of the season! It was a decent sized pike which we through back. Even though it was the only fish of the trip it was really great canoe ride. We hope to get out again if the weather cooperates this weekend!
 
Enjoy the pictures!

How to Spear Northern Pike

This past year, I have had the opportunity to take up fly fishing and  I have enjoyed it immensely. Now, I want to endeavor on a new style of fishing, spearing. I know its the end of the fishing season for pike and walleye and the ice is starting to melt, but I figured that a how to article on spearing would be kind of neat. If anyone has input or comments, please feel free to leave them.

Although I have yet to try spearing, I've gathered this much on the topic:

1. Park a closed shanty (darkhouse) out on the ice, in roughly 6 - 10 ft of water. Look for a weedy bottom since this is good cover for pike.
2. Acquire a proper fishing spear and tie at least 15 ft of line to the end. 
3. Acquire a few large suckers and a large wooden, fish decoy.
4. Using a line and hook, lower a sucker down into the water and let swim freely. This will help to bring in pike.
5. Using your preferred decoy, lower it down into the water on a separate string, keeping a hold of it in one hand.
6. Swirl it around in the hole to help draw in pike.
7. When a pike does come in that is legal in size, carefully lower the spear into water above the base of the pikes head. Push the spear down hard into the water. 
8. Slowly pull the pike up and remove from spear. 

Here is a really awesome story out of the NY Times about spearing in the Upper Peninsula. Click Here

Warm, Warm Weather!

As the warm weather starts becoming more prominent it will be time to start dusting of those fly rods if you haven't done any winter fly fishing. Coming up shortly, I believe the 14th or 15th, the fishing season for walleye, and pike ends. We'll have to turn our eyes back to trout and panfish.

Stay tuned for stream reports, as I will hopefully be getting out to do some stream hiking soon, weather and pocketbook permitting. Also, the Fish Species section is about finished, so check that out if there are any fish that you were looking to identify. Also check back as I will be adding a depth charts page for people interested in finding out more about the lakes they like to fish on!.

Enjoy the nice weather!

Pike Eats Baby Duck!

My girlfriend sent me this really crazy YouTube video. Check it out !!

From Emily Lake to Pike Lake

Saturday morning presented a great time to go fishing, light winds, not terribly cold, and a bit of flurries. Not to mention, the scenery was absolutely perfect, especially at Emily Lake. The fishing was slow. There were no bites out a Emily lake. I was set up at Emily Lake in about 15 - 20 ft of water off the boat launch, looking for bluegill and trout. Then I trekked to the back side of the lake looking for a 40 ft hole but I ended up missing it. Had I found that hole, I think I could have managed a few good fish.

Afterwords, I made my way down the road to Pike Lake. After a decent walk (the road was blocked), I got out onto the ice and managed to find the 45-50 hole. I set tip-ups with medium sized minnows and bobber fished in a bit shallower water for panfish with wax worms. This is what I used at Emily Lake). 


If you have time to get out fishing and want to try somewhere new, try either of these lakes, which are located a bit south of Twin Lakes. They are not terribly large, so walking isn't too bad. The entryways were also all plowed out to each. However, the road to Pike Lake is being used by a logging company so be careful.

The ice is good. Try to get out before it starts getting to warm!

Ice Fishing Saturday 1/14/12

On my last post I mentioned that I was going to head north this weekend to check ice conditions and hopefully get out to fish.

Ice Report:  Copper Harbor looked a bit sketchy. It was thin and it still looked like there were a lot of floating ice chunks. Hopefully it will be frozen over soon. Lake Fanny Hooe is frozen solid, with good ice that was several inches thick. Lac LaBelle also has good ice. Bit of a slush layer on top but very solid underneath. The same goes for Gratiot Lake.

That being said, how about the fishing? Fanny Hooe proved to be a bit discouraging, but I was not there terribly long. There weren't any bites, but I wasn't in the best spot either. Lac LaBelle was a bit more exciting. Within about ten minutes of setting up, I had a nice pike on the line. It was a bit small to keep but other than that it was a very nice fish. Sadly though, I must have missed most of the morning action because there wasn't another hit until round lunch time, which turned out to be a tiny perch.

Later that afternoon, my girlfriend and I headed to Gratiot Lake to hopefully have a little more success. She predicted that we would get a walleye that night and that we did! It was the only fish we got, but it was very exhilarating.  Hopefully in the coming weeks, the stories on the ice will be much longer and more exciting!
 

Finale on Fishing in '11

A Northern Pike Fiesta

The fall of 2011 brought great prospects for fishing. I had recently taken up fly fishing and my girlfriend was anxious to get out with me to explore and fish. However, the first few weeks were not as good as I hoped. The lingering summer heat seemed to be turning the fish away from our lures or we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Finally though, some cooler weather began to make it's way through the Keweenaw and our luck began to improve. We took our new canoe out on some of the lakes in the Twin Lakes area and found decent stashes of bluegill and bass. We had a big bass that lingered under a dock at Emily Lake. We called her "big mama." But other than that, nothing big yet.

Finally we decided to explore farther North into the Copper Country. One afternoon, I journeyed out to a little lake that is off U.S. 41 maybe a mile. It is a neat little spot next to some logging roads, hard to get to and not much access for anything bigger than a canoe. Some old roommates and I had visited this lake once before but only found one small perch. However on my way out to deeper water, I actually saw a small pike swimming away through some lily pads. Things had just got a bit more interesting.