Great review! I'll make it next year but those darn perch got in the way this weekend.

It was a great and beautiful day. It was nice meeting some new faces and seeing some I have before. I also did not take much pictures, but I did get one to show you the crowd before sunrise.









We will see you all next year. Thanks for the great food and good times. Bob is a great cook and tells some good stories. It also was cool watching Borch, Dtro and Ed cleaning those cats and then how you fry guys operated. You guys had down that process to a ”T”, plus it tasted great.

I'd like to say that my daughter and I had an excellent time, unfortunately I got called away and ended up leaving early. It's great how cooperative and helpful everyone was. It was also nice getting to meet quite a few of you, ironic how I drove 2 hours to meet up with some of the guys that live only 20-30 miles from me though.

The great thing about events like this are putting faces to the names that are already our friends.
I apologize to everyone that I forced to take one of the forcepts that I was trying to get rid of.
Thank you to the gentleman that gave me the homemade salsa. That stuff is good and then it sneaks up on you when its going down.GREAT
Someone left a Pyrex cooking container that I think had brownies in it. Its here so contact me to get it back so your wife will talk to you again.
After most people left I policed most of the area and found a cigarette butt, a napkin, and a twist tie. All white objects. This group really cleaned up after itself.
Dtro, you organized a great gathering. I didn't heatr any complaints, except for the lack of dancing girls.
Whoever was handing out the samples of liquid apple pie; that stuff could become a habit.
And a big thanks to Grump for taking that big inflatable monkey from me. I've had it in my house for over a year and a half and haven't caught a fish worth talking about in that time. Now its in your house. Good luck....

Bob,

Are you talking about the Tupperware box with the green lid? I can remember the guys face who brought it up to the table, but can not remember his name.

I was amazed at how you ran your cook table. I am the guy who chopped your onion . I do not know what the guys did at your duck camp to insult you, but they sure lost a great cook. Hope to see ya next year.

The bait for me yesterday, seemed to be very small crappie minnow and a Ratzo. It sure was a blast reel’in in cats on light tackle, but I lost 4 right under or at the ice. By what Dtro said about the shiners and the group from Brainerd that where pulling fish left and right (using smelt and garlic), those seem to what was working best. I brought and tried cut sucker and crawlers. All they would do is come it for a look and swim away. That’s when I down sized to a spring bobber and Ratzo. A lot a times, the cats would swim in, bounce my spring bobber and leave. Funny

Papa-grump, it was very nice talking with ya and during the summer, if you want to hit the river up this way, let me know.



Anyone know how Dietz did? I seen him blaze off with a group of trucks in search of fish.

Also the Meth Hole was pretty neat to see. I figure it was a reference to an area (with a small amount of methane bubbles that would show up on electronics), not a geological occurrence.

The recycled fish guys where a very nice group. I talked with them for awhile and they seem to know their stuff.

Again, nice to meet you all and see ya next year.

Man, I was impressed with the day! Great food, great peeps, great weather. Lack of sleep is worth is for a day like that!

Darren caught 4 fish in about an hour, all just before lunch. That was a quick nice flurry, especially that 27 incher. After Darren went to help cook lunch, someone came in and parked in his hole and nothing bit between that and til we went home, other than a couple rock bass. LOTS of fish on the camera though.

Shack, some of the ones that hit your spring bobber and then left might have been just hitting it with their side. My buddy saw his bait get smacked by a tail a couple times while the camera was down. One larger cat even came at and hit the camera with his mouth, he was prolly the most aggressive one we saw all day.

I'd say we saw a couple hundred cats on the camera, at least. Schools of between 2 and 20+ fish, off and on throughout the late morning and early afternoon. At least 10 times we saw counts of 7+ cats on the screen at once. However, there were few takers. Most of the time the school would just cruise through without even looking at the baits (large and small baits were tried). Just enough biters to keep us interested!

Again, it was a great time out there, thanks to everyone who helped out with anything from cooking to cleanup to hole drilling, etc. Fun times, to be sure, I'll be back next year!

Icehousebob's cooking seems to be the talk of the event! There was even people inviting him to their deer camp next year. You did good work bob, sorry you didn't get more fish. It was me who snatched that last piece for you, that catfish sure went fast!

I managed to ice 8 cats and had my best luck on a secret bait ;)Metrojoe could verify it worked! Only fished half the time so I could meet people the other half.

Forgot about that but I never did see Dietz show back up, you sucker! I'm pretty sure I know where he disappeared to though, must have had some good cattin.

Shackbash, its pretty neat ice skating over that meth hold area earlier in the season if there's no snow. The amount of trapped bubbles in the ice is very neat and looks amazing.

Nice meeting so many people and putting faces with names. Can't wait for next year.

Great point aanderud!

I dropped my camera down early and could not see anything, I put it away and never brought it back out.

I tell ya, the action around that area is hot. I would go threw a dry spell on the MarCum, reel up to go out and mingle. I B.S. you not, right after I reeled up the line, bars would start to show up. Also I found if you left your holes (lines reeled up), come back and drop down 20-30 minutes later, the fish came in for another look and I did get some “right away” action after this.

Tippman,

It was nice meeting you.

Shak--took a skunk... I ended up back at the Meth hole around 1:30 and ended up catching one there... Shouldnt have left in the first place.. LOL

My dad and I had a great time at the event. Got the chance to talk with a lot of FMer's and meet a lot of new people. A lot of people on the ice chatting and having a good time, that's great to see.

Here's a shot of a couple that my dad and I landed on Saturday...




Ended up down-sizing to 1/16oz chartruese/gold jigging spoons tipped with a single minnow head. Had to keep the jig moving in order to get a strike. Ended up landing about 25 fish on Saturday but had to work hard for them. The shallower bite seemed to be the key too, as we caught several fish in 7 feet of water.

Yesterday morning was the day to hit it though. The weather was great (not as much wind) and the fish really turned on and we had multiple doubles. A great weekend to fish overall!

Nice pic Matt. I've also found the shallower water in that spot to be more productive the few times I've fished it.

Dietz and Matt were there?!?

I walked around looking for familiar faces, but didnt see many..

The food, like usual, was great! My son had a rough time with the slower bite. He's use to fishing out of a portable for pannies, where there's alot of action. He ended up breaking my sunflower and had one line wrapped around his leg when he went to grab some more grub from the table. After that I decided to call it a day and head home.

Thanks for organizing this Darren. I had lots of fun. fyi, the MN river is opening up nice in some spots as of sunday, and the channels are starting.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to talk more with you Kylersk. We talked a little about were to drive off at when the little guy needed a potty break. I hoped to touch base with you later regarding your fishhouse and how it's working out for you. After that I was up to cleaning and cooking cats. When I was done with that I didn't see you again.

Next time.

Jeff