Walleye Fishing Escape to the North

March 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Being a meteorologist certainly has its benefits. One of them is knowing what kind of weather to expect when traveling and knowing when and when NOT to travel. In the same way too much knowledge can be a detriment, and it almost cost me an awesome little vacation last weekend. With several snow systems and a lot of wind I was seriously thinking about not hitting the road with the family to head up north to Brainerd. In fact I actually called the trip off the day before we left because it looked like conditions would be poor. After taking a really close look at stuff Friday morning I decided we would be able to squeeze our travel in between the weather makers, and I am soo glad we made the trip!

We left Friday around 1 and got in to Brainerd late on Friday. The trip wasn’t bad at all! And the kids were a joy in the car which hasn’t always been the case.

OK enough about the travel, let’s talk about the fishing! We were set up on Gull Lake and despite the vast number of awesome lakes in that area I was committed to fishing Gull. I went out early on Saturday and just did some basic exploration. Reports on the lake were scattered and there really wasn’t that much activity on the lake. Guys were driving out and we had a solid 18 inches of ice everywhere we went. By late Saturday morning despite not catching any fish I had some good spots marked for the evening bite.

Weather Details: While the pattern was active and typically stable weather is preferred, the snow systems coming through weren’t bringing with them drastic changes to the barometer, temperature or wind. Saturday was sunny all day long with temperatures in the low to mid 20s for highs, winds were very light throughout the day. Sunday brought clouds and snow showers; our area near Brainerd ended up with 2-3 inches of snow with it starting in the morning and carrying on throughout the day. Highs Sunday were in the upper 20s, it was definitely more breezy throughout the day. We had a slight dip in the barometer as the clipper system passed through but it wasn’t a drastic change. Monday brought clearing skies and temperatures back into the mid to upper 20s. The winds relaxed again.

So as you can see while we did have a shot of snow and a change in weather during the weekend the effects of that change weren’t very strong. It is my opinion that subtle changes in the weather can go unnoticed by fish while large changes can modify fish habits.  Our time on the ice confirmed this as we had nearly identical fishing experiences on Saturday night (before the storm) and Sunday night (after the storm).

Back to the fishing. Through my time looking at the maps I wanted to get away from any groupings of houses and locate our own pattern. There are a couple of good flats on the NE side of Gull, my plan was to find a unique area along the transition from the deeper water to the actual flat. I was hoping to fish in around 18-22 feet. The spot we found was an underwater point reaching out from the flat into the deeper water. We used our Lakemaster chip in my father-in-laws GPS, to locate the spot and set up on the point. We got out and set up early at around 3 pm. It was very quiet up until about 5 when I started to see a few fish on my Vexilar. The first couple to come through were pretty tight lipped but as we got closer to the golden hour of sunset the bite really picked up. We had an awesome flurry of bites and fish and several times had to try and content bites on both our rods at the same time!

Most of our fish were on the small side around 10-12 inches. I was fishing a dead stick with a fat head and a red hook about 1 foot off the bottom and jigging a Northland rainbow color glow spoon with a rattle and a minnow head. I ended up with 11 walleyes in about an hour and a half when they slowed down. The split was about 50/50 on what I caught them on. One of the tricks I used was to give my dead stick minnow a little pop when I saw fish coming in. That resulted in a number of good bites. Saturday night we were able to put together 3 fish to take home. My biggest was probably around 16 inches which is a nice eating fish.

The next morning we fished and I caught another 8 fish with 2 keepers out of the mix. We fished the same spot and used the same technique. The fish weren’t as aggressive as the night before but we still caught them from about 6:30 through 8 am. Our last evening of fishing was Sunday night and we went back to the same old spot and had another great night. I ended up with another 11 fish and a few more keepers to take home to the family at the cabin for a meal.

All in all it was a fantastic trip, we also got to do a little skiing on the fresh snow, went for some fun family walks with the kids in the sled and enjoyed the pool and hot tube at the resort.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the stuff we did or the weather we dealt with…

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Coyote Hunting/Ice Fishing Adventure

February 12, 2012 by 2 Comments

After being stuck inside since the last day of the deer season I was pretty excited to get back out to do some hunting and fishing. My buddy Clint and I made plans to go up and chase some coyotes and do some ice fishing up around my families land in the Lake Preston area.

Weather Details: The weather started cold! When we left Sioux Falls it was -4, and when we got to our first hunting area it was -7. Even a “light” wind in South Dakota is noticeable when it is that cold! Wind chills were around 15 to 20 below zero. Thankfully it was bright and sunny which definitely helps. Temperatures warmed into the high teens through the day and the winds shifted from the north to the west. It was definitely cold on the lake, and the post cold front conditions didn’t help us much with the fish. By the time we were sitting in the afternoon it was pretty pleasant. We finished the day with decent temperatures and a very light west wind.

Our first spot hunting spot in the morning had us working a couple of smaller sloughs near a lake. The lake sits south of the land we were hunting so with a north wind it worked out perfect for us to set up with the lake at our back so the coyotes couldn’t get behind us and wind us. We had two sets trying to call the ‘yotes out of two big sloughs. We didn’t have any luck. Next we went and tried to call some coyotes out of a monster slough. We did some calling and were able to move some pheasants and deer out of the slough but again no coyotes. The coyote hunting thing was new to me, Clint had an electric call that we used as well as a “decoy” which was a stuffed dog with a rabbit pelt on its head. He had a string tied to it and planned to give it some movement if we saw any.

With our first round of coyote hunting behind us it was time to head to the lake. We went to a lake north of our hunting spot called Lake Poinsett. I had gotten a couple of reports for the lake and thought it would give us our best shot. With several trucks on the lake, and several in the parking lot it was a tough call on whether or not to drive out. We decided to walk out, it was a lot of walking but after seeing open water 30 yards from where we were headed we were glad to be on foot. I am certain that we had enough ice to drive every where we went but it wasn’t worth the risk. We fished 4-5 different spots at different depths and never could find the fish. We did see one perch on the camera but that was it. Fishing is my absolute favorite thing to do, so I just enjoy getting out. It would have been nice to catch a couple but we will have to leave that for next time.

After fishing we went back to coyote hunting and were excited to head to our best spot for the evening. Before we went out coyote hunting we ran into some wild turkeys in the farm yard. Clint is a turkey hunter and started calling to them, it was pretty crazy stuff! I have never seen turkeys in this area. Hopefully, they settle in and I can add turkey hunting to my list!

Back to the coyote hunting! We set up on my favorite farm to hunt and started calling around 3:30.

We called and watched and called and watched and nothing moved except of course a ton of pheasants. It was great to see the numbers and it looks like they are enjoying our mild winter. In the mix was a white hen which was pretty cool. Once the sun went down we made a move to get closer to the slough we were watching. We called some more and didn’t see anything moving. With just a little time left in the day I saw some movement on the other side of the slough. It was a coyote! He took off running AWAY from us. Which of course wasn’t the plan. I got my scope on him but by that time he was on the edge of the neighbors farm yard and I wasn’t about to take that shot. It was very cool to see him and while he could hear us and looked somewhat interested in our calls, we couldn’t convince him to come down and see us. We closed the day by watching 20 some deer around us, it was an amazing day outdoors and we had a blast watching all the wildlife in this great state!

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Back on the Ice

February 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A shot from my first time on the ice in MN in December.

I am incredibly excited to get back on the ice this coming weekend. I have decided that enough is enough; it is time to get out and figure out a few South Dakota lakes! Growing up in Minnesota and Wisconsin I always had lakes very close by, which spoiled me. Here in SD there is a little bit of travel time needed to get to some of the good water, and up until now I have only been out fishing in SD a couple of times. I do make several trips back to the homeland and fish nearly every time I go back but it has been too long and I am ready to get back out.

The plan is for a buddy and I to combo some coyote hunting (totally new to me!) and some ice fishing. He knows the yote hunting and I know the fishing. We are going to head out early and try to call in some coyotes on my families land, around 10 or so we plan to head out on the ice. I am thinking of trying Lake Thompson or one of the smaller bodies of water around there. I still have to do some research on where we should go. Thankfully my families land is near some pretty good bodies of water so we have some options! After chasing perch for a few hours we are going to head back to another farm and see if we can call in another coyote during the evening hours. Hopefully, we have some success. To be honest, I am just ready for a new adventure!

As for the forecast it is looking pretty good. It will certainly be chilly early so we will be bundling up. Temperatures will warm a little through the day with highs topping out in the mid to upper teens. It does look sunny which always helps, especially when you have a Frabill black fish house! Winds are expected to be very light, they will start out of the north and may shift a little northwest as the day wears on. From what I have read coyotes are very weary so even with the light winds we will need to pay special attention to wind direction. As for the fishing, we will be 2 days out from a pretty significant cold front which will barrel through late Thursday into Friday. Cold fronts aren’t usually a good thing when it comes to fishing, hopefully the fish will start coming around two days post front.

I will definitely report back on how we end up and how the weather ends up working in our favor (or not!). With the weather being so mild this winter we will of course be going out on one of the coldest days of the winter. The challenge of course with being a weekend warrior is that you have to make the most of any time you get outdoors. When you can’t choose your days on the water or in the field you have to be ready for anything and do the best you can.

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