4th of July Fishing

Today is officially the first day that I have not wet a line in the past 10 days. The nine days prior to today have been nothing short of fantastic fishing and spending time with great people. I had the opportunity to take a week off from work over the 4th of July to spend some time up north at my cabin. I will keep the Lake name hush for now, but for your reference its about 45 minutes south of Walker, MN and 45 minutes north of Brainerd, MN.

The fish up there were in a postspawn mode, but they were really starting to feed up well. The water temperatures were anywhere from 72-78 degrees depending on the day and how cold it got during the night. I know the lake pretty well, so I was able to nail down various patterns throughout the week. The most reliable ones were as follows:

• Texas rigged plastics fished right in the weeds on a steep dropoff. I would pitch to the inside edge and drag the plastic (tubes, creatures, worms) right through the weeds. The best weeds were coontail and northern milfoil that was in about 6-10ft of water. I've really struggled in the postspawn in the metro area this year and will hopefully be able to apply this technique next year when the time comes.
• Spinnerbaits, flukes, senkos fished in the reeds (3-5ft). This pattern was the best in the mornings and evenings with lower light conditions.
• Tubes and crankbaits around rock piles. Rock piles that were in about 2-4ft of water and dropped very fast into about 12-15ft of water. The fish were right on the edges.
• Docks. Anything worked under docks as long as you fished them from about 12pm-6pm. This is where a lot of my bigger fish came from.
• Creature baits, Jigs, and frogs in the pads and rice patties. The pad bite was starting to heat up the last couple days I was up there which was fun.

Some fish surprisingly still had eggs in them, but most fish were very skinny. Here are some pictures that show the difference in the prespawn and postspawn fish. Note: I caught these fish within 15 minutes of each other on the last morning I was up there on frogs.

Postspawn\/\/

Prespawn \/\/ (same fish in next two pictures)

Not only was I able to fish a lot, I was able to get out on the water with my Grandpa, Mom, Dad, and even my 85 year old Grandma was able to get out and watch me fish one evening with me and my Mom which was pretty fun. I'm not sure I will ever get the opportunity to fish with my grandma in the boat again, so that was pretty special. We also took a small trip to "pike lake" - a lake in the middle of nowhere that probably gets fished maybe 5 times a summer. It has no boat landing and has been known to give up some big northerns. Its always and exciting trip because of the potential fish, but more so for the adventure. Here is a picture with a pike my Mom caught on our "pike lake" trip: (cell phone picture..)

This one went about 8lbs, not huge, but a pretty good one in my book. Better yet she got it on an old silver weedless Johnson Spoon!

Metro Area Report:

Yesterday I was able to get out with a couple buddies on a south metro lake and we were able to catch them pretty good in the pads on jigs and creature baits. The fish were starting to get fat too. That was nice to see since it seems like this spring was sooo long with the late ice out this year. It was good to get out with some friends too, I find its always more enjoyable to fish with others in the boat.

I've also got another Silverado Pro/Am coming up this weekend on Lake Minnewaska so check for a report on that sometime next week! Hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe 4th of July!