Out For Trout

A couple limits of nice Rainbow Trout

So last Thursday was my day to spend with Bill Lundeen of Lundeen's Tackle Castle on the corner of highways 169 and 27 in Onamia, MN.  I seldom get a chance to fish with Bill and usually when we go it's not only a great time but more often than not, very successful. It's been a tough year for Bill with the current situation at Mille Lacs however he is a survivor and while others are leveraged to the max, Bill has persevered through this difficult time.  I have a friend that states when a guy dies he probably has less than 5 guys he can count on as his true friends and Bill is on my list.  So when he asked if I was interested in a trout fishing outing to one of the many old pit mines near the Crosby/Akin area it was an invitation hard to refuse.  Setting the date of Thursday, October 23rd, I opened my calendar and was ready to meet him at the crack of dawn.  Unfortunately an important customer asked at the last minute if he could stop by at 9:00 the same morning I had little choice to oblige.  Now what our planned start time of 7:00 in the morning was now 11:30, oh well Bill is an understanding guy.  After a successful 2 hour meeting I headed north and pulled into the bait shop in record time.  Bill was ready to go as we loaded his canoe carrier and canoe onto may truck we headed north.  The day was absolutely gorgeous and if the fish weren't biting it still was going to be a great day.  Arriving at the lake we unloaded our gear and carried the canoe down to the landing about 50 yards down the hill. These old mine pits are deep, clear, and usually are stock with trout as they do well in the deep water during the summer.  With the water temperature around 50 the trout would be found in the shallower water as we headed to the 20 foot range and started trolling with small nightcrawler rigs.  Its kind of interesting to fish out of a canoe, it takes a while to get your sea legs and the confidence to move around and feel comfortable maneuvering around.  Our strategy was to troll the 20 foot water, looking for fish that might be suspended.  I ended up putting a 2 hook crawler rig on 4 pound test

Reflections of a day trout fishing

that Bill tied up for me which had a gold hammered spinner then weighted with a 1/2 ounce sinker. We probably went 50 yards when a tap tap was felt, I dropped the rod tip back still feeling the fish, gave a jerk yet still missed the fish. It was another 20 minutes before I felt another fish and letting it take the bait a little longer the hook set yielded a very nice rainbow trout in the 14 inch range.  Although it was a smaller lake and we could circle it in a reasonable time we decided to get back where the fish were biting. That last fish I caught ended up breaking the line (it was only 4# test)in the net so I put on another rig Bill had tied up but I don't know, not much confidence in going from Gold hammered to Red and White spinner color.  After another 20 minutes I decided to tie my own rig using 6# test, the hooks from the broken rig and the gold spinner blade I was back in business.  Almost immediately I got another rainbow trout, then another and another.  Struggling to put a fish in the boat Bill finally landed one but in the end our limit of 10 trout was predicated on my ability to out fish him 3:1.  I was just one of those days.  Most of these trout are stocked and represent a stock and take fishery, these fish had been in the lake for over a year as they were all 13 - 15 inches and had a nice pink/orange flesh.  It was a super day watching the trout leap out of the water, catching our limits, and the most important aspect........spending the day with Bill, the most important.  Heading back to the bait shop and home we cleaned the fish, had some pizza, a few beers before heading home.  It truly was one of the best days fishing this year.  One of the more striking pictures was the one of the reflections of the trees off the water as we pulled into shore.  With no wind to disrupt the water, the scene was fabulous.

Loaded with fish

Sunday was slated for getting the Ranger out to run some SeaFoam through my system for its long winter sleep.  I asked my neighbor Tom Olson if he wanted to go and he affirmed so we headed out. The lake was Indian Lake north of Annandale, MN, not particularly deep but it has 3 distinct areas in the lake that drop to 25 feet.  I have an old crappie fishing book and they claim that in the fall crappies will congregate in these holes, stack up, and should be easy to fish.  Well the first small hole proved both windy and impossible to fish so we moved south on the calm side of the lake.  Maybe thinking the fish were shallower we worked the 7 - 10 foot depth around the south shore but nothing was biting. With a southeast wind and a 25 foot trough perfectly positioned for a drift we dropped the trolling motor and using a slip bobber and jig, floated right down the middle.  With the weed line at about 12 feet, anything we marked should be fish. Just at the point where the bottom started rising was about 4 marks close to the bottom and one of our bobbers went down.  After putting the trolling motor in anchor mode we hovered over the spot and the longer we stayed the more fish congregated below us.  We caught a few crappies with the first one being awfully small with a couple of keepers in the mix, I was surprised by the amount of fish showing up on the depth finder screen.  The fish were biting very light and maybe it was just our setup that used standard light jigs verses maybe a plain hook in the dorsal fin presentation.  We ended up with 5 and I'm sure that given time we could have sorted through a limit of fish but it was time to go.  Forgetting to take a picture of the screen showing all the fish I went online and found one that exactly duplicates what we were seeing, it was pretty incredible.  Either way the day accomplished my 2 main objectives, the first was to get the SeaFoam mixed into the gas and into the motor and second, to prove the schooling crappie theory.  It would have been nice to catch more but at least I know it is true!

It time to set up my deer stand although it's more like setting up my deer blind.  With my bad luck this year all I need to do is fall out of an eighteen foot high tree stand.  My friend Jack has secured a place to hunt this year as we really don't feel like trudging the swamp again for the wet summer has surely filled it up.  There's still work to be done winterizing the boat as the oil needs changing, the lower unit is do to be changed, and it has to be tucked away in the garage for it's long winter's sleep. Slowly the ice fishing stuff is coming out and I'm looking forward to drilling a few holes soon.

Close to Home

Not the largest bass I have caught!

With the rain finally starting to get back to normal levels, it was a good chance to get caught up around the house.   The garden has started to somewhat dry out and my corn is looking more like corn than cattails, there's a lot of work to be done.  Many of my plants are yellowing from the constant saturation of  water just below the surface.  My dahlia's have simply rotted away, the beets refuse to come up, and the deer are having their way with the potatoes.  Oh well I did get the entire thing weeded and rototilled, cucumber fence is up, and the onions continue to amaze me as they have started to break the soil around them as they add layers to themselves.  Last weekend was predicted to be a wash out with almost 2 inches of rain forecasted, it didn't even come close.  It was quite windy and with the pending weather it seemed useless to head up to Mille Lacs Lake.  Sunday turned out to be just the opposite of what Friday's forecast had for the weekend and although it was windy, I had just enough time to sneak to a lake I had been meaning to try for a few years, Indian Lake in northwest Wright County.  It's actually quite small which would help protect from the wind.  The DNR reports have the lake with a nice abundance of 10" plus crappies with a few nice bluegills, it was certainly worth the try.  With only a few hours to fish I arrived to see the boat ramp was almost completely under water.  It wasn't too bad as it took wading in foot deep water to get to the trailer winch to disconnect the front bow eye, lucky the landing turned fairly deep at the end and was easy to tie to the dock.  After parking the car and believing that all the lakes in Wright County were under no-wake restrictions, I idled to the other side where it was calm and dropped the trolling motor.  The lake has a nice drop from the shore, the water was nice and clear with the weeds appearing in about 15 feet of water.  I stayed on the weed edge casting into shore with my ultralights as crappie were the main target. Using small rubber jigs that usually do well, all I could get were largemouth bass in the 8 - 14 inch range, and a lot of them.  On ultralight tackle and 4 pound test line, they can really put up a fight.  I suppose if I had brought out some larger bait like worms rigged Texas Style the size would have been larger yet my target were crappies.  To my surprise I only managed one 9" black crappie.  Switching colors, styles, sizes, shapes did little.  Years ago I would often go to Lake John, just a few miles from Indian Lake and do really well on crappies.  Maybe the high water has something to do with it, I don't know but it was still nice to get out.

Too much for the sandbags

So the same theme regarding water levels has been discussed many times.  Indian Lake tends to have some fairly high banks so most of the cabins around have no issues, except this one.  I am sure the owner purposely built this cabin close to the water (back then you could) assuring a great view of the lake,  A convenient walkout allowed instant access to his boat with the deck seemingly extended above the water.  Well I'm sure they only intended to appear that way, yet you can see that it is now definitely extended over the water.  Hopefully the water will recede before the winter freezes it as it's a mess now, I couldn't imagine dealing with the freezing effects on the saturated concrete.  Another interesting thing was the presence of 2 aerators operating around the lake.  In effect from April to November, most Lake Associations run them in the winter to avoid low oxygen levels which kill the fish.  Called the Indian Lake Restoration Project, I suspect the aerators help keep the water clear and moving.  I did catch a few bass around them but can't say for sure what that means.  Anyway it was good to get out, even for a few hours, and discover a different lake.  With such of positive lake report I know I'll be back there again sometime for those crappies.

I finally found time to switch my DSL Internet speed from 1.5 MB to 12 MB.  Calling CenturyLink they assured me ti was nothing more than switching a filter and I shouldn't notice any disruption in service......famous last words.  After spending and hour with their tech support, they concluded that my modem wasn't up to the standards it needs to be.  Because it was late, the only place open was Walmart and luckily they had one.  Between Centurylink's India Tech Support and NetGear's India Tech Support, I was finally connected and downloading by 2:00 AM this morning.  Although I do think computers are nothing but a passing fad anyway, I'm not a total idiot but geez!  Looking back, a good simple set of instructions and an expectation of time needed to allow the components to make the right decisions would have saved me about 3 hours.  Oh well.  My brother Steve and I are heading for Leech Lake on Friday to spend the night at Brindley's and fish both the evening bite and most of Saturday.  Word is the walleye bite has slowed because of the mayfly hatch and Mille Lacs is finally turning on.  Just my luck however it will be nice to see the guys at the resort again.  Hopefully we can change that slow bit into a fish fry.