What a super day on the water today!

Everyone was out deer hunting and we had the river to ourselves. 65 degrees sunny, light wind and hungry fish. What more can you ask for?


It took us a while today to figure out a pattern, but when we did it was lights out.

Without a doubt, the hot bait today was a Zoom Fat Albert in Chart/Pepper.



Whenever I tried using a different bait, John would smack another one and I would have to switch back to the Zoom. This is just my theory, but these fish prey on frogs this time of year and I think the larger tail on these baits put out a bigger "thump" like that of a frog burrowing in the mud. Another reason for this theory is that the fish today wanted a very slow presentation that was basically a couple of pops and let it sit on the bottom for 1-2 seconds. The fish would take it as it sat motionless. I think this also backs up my frog theory. But who knows.

No real big fish today, all of them were anywhere from 13"-20" with a couple of big Carp mixed in that put out gear to the test, and even a very rare MN river crappie.

We ended up with 8 or 9 in the box and a few throw backs.

Water temp bumped back up to 44 today with the warm temps and the river is still a bit muddy for my liking, but should be clearing little by little now if we can stay rain free.


















































They will make a couple of nice meals!

yummmmm.

Yummmm is right!!! Cool reports!

Looks good, nice report!

Lots of fun I'm sure.

A crappie too. That's a surprise.

Nice looking fish, looks like we should have stayed closer to home instead of hitting Pool 4!

I used to catch alot of nice crappies in the backwaters near New Ulm, seems to take a year where we get some warm weather while the river is still very high. I think the fish move up to spawn and then get trapped, until I came along and released them to my freezer!

Nice outing Darren and John!!!

The river is looking mighty fine right now. The level is kind of at the "inbetween" stage, but the clarity has improved quite a bit.

Last night we had 44-45 degrees, (i bet it came down a degree or two this morning after the hard frost).


I should've stuck to what worked previously with the Zoom Fat Albert grub. I got all Mr smarty pants and picked up a pack of 4" Chart/Shad Gulp and let John know how bad I was going to outfish him now.


Total was 5 for him and 1 for me.


As payback I made him clean them all.


The bigger tailed plastics seems to be a key element lately.....



Kind of getting a little twitchy to start drilling some holes in the ice. But still lots of good open water fishing to be had.

Thanks for the reports Darren, I'll be shoving off in about an hour and I'll post tonight the results. Hopefully a nice one to CPR so I can get a pic for my avitar.. Has live bait turned on yet? I got both plastics and minnows so I guess I'll answer my own question in a bit just curious what you've noticed.....F&F....

I've heard minnows have been working as well, and usually will always work, but given the choice, I like to keep my hands dry

So until we start getting skunked with the plastics, I won't really know because I won't even try.

Good luck! I might make it out today as well.

Feel free to post a report here.

Well since the open water season is winding down here and I won’t be doing much hardwater fishing on the MN, I thought I’d share the reports here that I had been posting all year in the HSO Club Premium forums.

It was a great year on the MN. I think I still have several more outings left in me, that is if Mother Nature cooperates. But you just never know.

But, I would like to thank everyone I spent time with on the river this year, whether in my boat or yours, I had a blast and I appreciate you all spending time with me. Special thanks to WWG (we put a ton of hours on that SportJet)!

Open water winding down???

Dude!!!

Best is yet to come! Well...for the scaly kind of fish anyway

Thanks for sharing this report Darren. I would also like to say thanks to WWG for allowing me to tag a long now and then. As well as Thanks to Andy, Gordy, and Dennis for taking me out in their boats as well! You all are great and it's always a good time listening to stories and also learning from some experienced river guys!

Its definitely been a fun and productive fishing year for me! I have caught some nice fish this year and they are all back in the water for someone else to catch as well!

Thanks again.

P.S. WWG, if Darren doesn't want to put on anymore hours in your boat id be glad to make you get out a few more times

Dennis, let me know when you wanna get out again. How'd those eyes taste from last time?

Well when you start fishing in March, 3 weeks is winding down in my book

As some of you are well aware, the season doesn’t end until you run the risk of getting iced in, and in some cases succeed in even doing that