My son ran up early this morning on 3 hours sleep and already found some good fish. Ah, the life of a college kid.
DT
That’s how I operated day 1. Went to bed after getting the baby down at 1030 pm, left the house at 1215. Maybe had a hour of sleep.
B man it was awesome to see you and the boys catching fish. Those two looked like pros in the front of the boat. Got a feeling they will be talking about that trip for years to come. Glad they didn’t have to stay at Birchdale. That looked like a wet sloppy mess. I spent one night at Franz landing and that was fairly quiet. Just slept in the boat that night.
I’m in the same boat as you bearcat, think I convinced my coworker to come up with me this weekend haha. We had a great few days of fishing. We dragged jigs down river yesterday because of the big wind at 1.3-1.5mph and crushed them. Almost every minute, probably best fishing I’ve had in a long while, or ever. Dragging upstream worked great too, but for some reason downstream must have got them going as they would jump on that jig as soon as you found bottom and lifted up to start dragging. It was extremely tough to leave at 3 pm to head home but had to work this morning. Debating on going up there next weekend to get a couple more days of that
I’m in the same boat as you bearcat, think I convinced my coworker to come up with me this weekend haha. We had a great few days of fishing. We dragged jigs down river yesterday because of the big wind at 1.3-1.5mph and crushed them. Almost every minute, probably best fishing I’ve had in a long while, or ever. Dragging upstream worked great too, but for some reason downstream must have got them going as they would jump on that jig as soon as you found bottom and lifted up to start dragging. It was extremely tough to leave at 3 pm to head home but had to work this morning. Debating on going up there next weekend to get a couple more days of that
Same way I feel, trying to find some one to split cost with on fuel and I’ll be golden. Would love a couple more days up there.
Was the bite good at both birchdale and frontier?
Was the bite good at both birchdale and frontier?
Yep.
You’ll find more big fish away from people. The crowds are on numbers.
Was the bite good at both birchdale and frontier?
I found great fish in many different spots, but I mainly fished frontier or birchdale. I battled to not be in a big group, but even when the group came to us we hammered fish. Both size and numbers. At one point there was my boat, a buddies of mine and 2 random boats, we all landed fish over 27 inches at the same time. And all of us were laughing like little kids. We met some good company up there. Poked fun at each other’s missed hook sets. There was 1 guy in a boat near us all day that told us we were putting on a clinic. They went from not catching anything to I guess watching and replicating what we were doing and they eneded up with a 50 plus fish day
Was the bite good at both birchdale and frontier?
Vidas is just as good to. Side scan for fish and fish them. Fish them however you want to. Go look for fish away from the crowds to. There are plenty of them and some of those less pressured schools are holding very nice fish.
For the last three days we are just under 700 fish total and that’s with one day only catching 32. Had a wind day that threw our game off. For big fish I’m guessing fifteen 27s, eight 28s, three 29s, a 30.5 and a 31. In those three days we have fished from Vidas to well up river of Birchdale. There are fish everywhere.
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<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Angler II wrote:</div>
Was the bite good at both birchdale and frontier?Vidas is just as good to. Side scan for fish and fish them. Fish them however you want to. Go look for fish away from the crowds to. There are plenty of them and some of those less pressured schools are holding very nice fish.
Looks like you guys did very good again yesterday
Hell of a run Mike.
Insane. Makes me want to Office Space my job and go up in the next hour.
Forks still holding? Are they going to be an issue with no run off?
Forks still holding? Are they going to be an issue with no run off?
They were mostly open yesterday when driving over them on 11.
Forks still holding? Are they going to be an issue with no run off?
When I drove by Sunday the one appeared to be wide open and the other was half open unless it just had alot of water on top of the ice.
Thats literally like catching fish in a barrel Mike!
Have they put any docks in anywhere so a older person could get in the boat up there
Thats literally like catching fish in a barrel Mike!
It is at times. When you get a pattern figured out, conditions are right and the fish are there it can be fish after fish for a long time.
Changed up our area again today just so we don’t keep fishing the same spot. 50 walleyes today and guess 70 smallmouth.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Thats literally like catching fish in a barrel Mike!It is at times. When you get a pattern figured out, conditions are right and the fish are there it can be fish after fish for a long time.
Changed up our area again today just so we don’t keep fishing the same spot. 50 walleyes today and guess 70 smallmouth.
Oh man we never found the smallies, did they like the plastics I assume
Yes they liked plastics but liked hair jigs a little better.
Pretty interesting about all the smallies. I remember about 5 or 6 years ago we caught several footballs ice fishing to the West of Garden Island we were shocked. Then we caught 1 by Rocky Point too. But 70?! Holy buckets.
Pretty interesting about all the smallies. I remember about 5 or 6 years ago we caught several footballs ice fishing to the West of Garden Island we were shocked. Then we caught 1 by Rocky Point too. But 70?! Holy buckets.
He found the wintering hole. I have caught lots of smallies on that river, but only in the fall
Is Vidas good for a tandem bunk to launch? I heard Frontier is a no go, Birchdale is good. Headed up in the morning.
Yes. Vidas is great for tandems.
Your on a role Mike.I would have stayed on those smallies all day.
How did the end of the week end up Mike?
Yesterday we caught 8 walleyes. 2nd boat caught 7. Third boat caught 3. Still a decent bite going but not the numbers of last week. Minnow guys are still doing well. Water levels are still rising and water clarity is way down from 2 weeks ago. Ramps where only half full yesterday.
Took the family up, wife and kids 6 and 9. Caught 70 out of Birchdale yesterday. Caught 103 today out of Birchdale. Minnows were far better than plastics and I almost exclusively use plastics when I fish here. Bought minnows because I knew it would better for the kids and wife.
Water clarity is about typical for the end of the season. Daughter caught all the biggest fish. Biggest walleye was 28 and maybe about a dozen between 24-26. Biggest sturgeon was about 68”. The kids are spoiled now.
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Fished for a few hours this evening. Biggest went 29.25” with plenty others in the 24-27.5” range. Fishing seemed a bit slower in general than last week. Caught around 30 or so.
Might fish sturgeon tomorrow. Might bring minnows. Might troll. Idk
From people I’ve talked with the minnow bite is real good to. Not sure if I even know how to fish one. Our bite was much better today pitching jigs. 87 walleyes total. Six 27s and two 28s. One more day to go. Once again off to new water tomorrow.
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