Here's my report from this past weekend. I got a chance to get out and try a couple different things close to home, fishing Lake Bronson on Saturday and The Thief River here in town on Sunday.

Saturday 8/23/08 Report

Arrived at Lake Bronson mid afternoon with trolling in mind. I was going to troll the lake for eye's all afternoon, but that plan changed after a couple hours of pulling crankbaits with nothing to show for it. I then tried casting crankbaits on the wind blown shorelines...again nothing. So, I dropped a crawler rig over and made a couple of drifts on the main lake with no bites? I moved to the back area of the lake, pulling a crawler rig, and caught a couple bullheads. Decided, to pull the crawler rig back into the river area and had a couple bites, which I missed... After a while longer with no action, I went back to the area I had the bites in the river. It was 12' feet deep, I put a minnow on a jig and started catching perch. I ended up catching a lot of perch, ALL RELEASED... Biggest perch was 13"!!! Most measured around 10" with a few more 11-12". Also caught a few very small walleye (7"-9"). In the end it was a good day...I caught a lot of fish and had fun. I also saw a Skunk swimming across the lake by the mouth of the river, which was a first for me.

Sunday 8/24/08

I was bored so I decided to put my boat in the river and pull a crawler rig around for a while. Went up the Thief River a little ways and started slowly making my way up river. After trolling about 100 yards I got a bite... Put another crawler on and went back through the area and caught a nice fat 21" Walleye. I stayed in the same general area all afternoon, with several more bites, but no more walleye were caught. I had a nice 14"-16" walleye right next to the boat, but got off. I also caught a small perch, small pike and of course a sheephead.

That's my weekend report.

Sound like it was a pretty good weekend. I was kind of surprised you didn't hook a northern or two at Bronson....it seems like everytime i'm up there i can't help but to land a few of them.
-have you made it out on the Red River lately?? I'm thinking about heading up to Hallock this weekend to battle some cats.

Nope, I haven't been to the Red River since Cats Incredible. I will be going to Pembina a few times in September and October though...Gotta love that fall bite. From here to ice up Catfishing is just gonna get better and better.

As for Pike in Lake Bronson, I did catch a couple, but they were too small to even mention in my post. I expected to catch some bigger ones too...but nothing came along.

Talk to you later...Good luck fishing if you get over to the Red this weekend.

Is it me or have the pike below the dam in TRF seem very very low in numbers this year I havent fished exclusivly for them but usualy get at least a few hammer handles by accident. FYI the Eye bite is very good last few days caught several tonight at the graveyard 20" average. seemed to prefer small frogs to minnows even picked up an 8lb cat

I've noticed the same thing with the Northerns below the dam. I have caught a few small ones, but numbers do seem low.

Way to go on catching some nice eye's and a decent cat.

How were the skeeters fishing down there after dark? I haven't been night fishing for a while now, but did get out and catch some smallies a couple days ago which was fun. I caught something like 10 in a row from the exact same spot in the river.

On a side note, Man the water is low...I think this is the lowest I have ever seen the river here in town! I wonder how low it can get before it really affects the fish big time??? Hopefully we get more water flowing before ice up.

Talk to you later.

didnt notice to many skeeters.
Its scary how low it is going out tonight to toss out some frogs early for eyes and late for cats going to try the driveway if ya feel like stopping down

Sorry, I didn't see your reply till just now or I would have stopped by. I went down to the river for an hour or so yesterday evening with not much happening for me, just a small pike.

I see the river dropped more again, it's dropping so fast still, you can see the water line from yesterday a good ways from the water!

So how did you do last night?

I'm going out on the river today to pull spinners and see if I can't round a couple up...I'll post how it goes.

lots of smallies no eyes or cats.. my son just sat with a plain hook and minnow and caught one bass after another he had a great time, not sure why the eyes where gone maybe the additionale water drop forced them out