Sheesh, someone needs a winter hobby I think. Anyone who sets out their 60 panther martins for a picture and then posts it online must be suffering from a mental illness from a lack of fishing or something. Dude, hope you get some trout soon.
Dang man, you broke the LenH streak of consecutive posts up here. THANK YOU!
Just to be clear, Eel are a native species. All American Eels are born in the ocean and migrate all the way here up via the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico. And these are only female eels we catch here in MN. The males remain pretty much costal, not traveling very far into the interior. Pretty cool how they get around the locks and dams. They are rumored to cross parking lots and such on rainy nights. They are pretty rare for the most part in MN, so dont toss them on the bank please. Dont beat them out of disgust either. Just cause their not a friggen sturgeon doesn’t mean they all need to be clubbed on sight. I only say this because I’ve heard of it going on out there on the Croix. I’ve been lucky enough to catch 12 eels in the last two years. And the only one on here that knows about my eeling territory is that crazy dude Aaron. But I might introduce Coley Crawler to my eel lair next year if shes extra nice to me….
Got me a dead of winter Northern Hogsucker the other day…
Some still have crawlers, some dont. I do know the Gander in Lakeville had them as of a few weeks ago. One good thing to check for when buying crawlers in the winter season, make sure they are still alive before you leave the store. Nothing sucks more than making it to your spot, then finding your bait to be dead as a doornail, which is really common when buying crawlers this time of year. They just die inside the tubs after so long. Most stores dont re-order any during the winter season, so the ones still around are probably pretty old.
Small to medium sized rivers. Mostly targeting slow, deeper pools and likely looking wintering areas. In the river I fish the water is really low right now. So most of the water near this wintering area is shallow, riffle water. Worthless to fish this time of year. These fish are still pretty active though, considering the time of year, and water tempratures. Their just all in one area right now. And Redhorse and Suckers are good cold water species to begin with, so hopefully the action will continue until the area eventually freezes up. Then the goal is to catch these same species thru the ice, including Carp too.
No worries man, still trying to get this In-Depth style humor. Dont know if I ever will….haha
So does that mean you were just trying irritate me then, with no point really to your original post? Just curious, its good to know for future reference…
I appreciate the understanding. Maybe got a bit worked up, maybe I took what you were saying the wrong way, I really don’t know. Somewhere along the line this thread became a pointless battle. And your right, the area used to be great before they tightened down security back there and put up all the new “no-no” fences. Just had alot of good years catching some pretty cool species. And to see them all dead was just very un-cool. So hey Pug, didn’t mean to beat up on ya like that. Kinda funny, we have talked before on a different site. One of those disgusting, multi-species roughfishing sites. My name on there is Doc or Dr. Flathead. Peace!
Well your attitude toward the situation kind of speaks for itself.
Just make sure your catfish buddies dont hear you talking like that. Wouldn’t want you to get shunned for the love of non-gamefish. You would think a fish lover much like yourself would react differently. Not saying this fish kill is the end of the world, but it is sad. Maybe not to you cause its not your turf, but alot of folks had alot of good years fishing for those roughfies and cats back there. And I’m sure they will replunish themselves just fine after a few years of high water. It just sucks seeing it first hand in an area you love, thats all. I have the right to that opinion, and my original post wasn’t meant for you and your downplaying the situation style words. So yeah, I love all kinds of fish too man. And quite frankly, it made me sick to my stomach to see them all rotting. And you know damn well even if it was computer error with the plant, 99% of the time someone is running or managing that machine. Human error caused this kill, no question. So its a lose lose situation. We get stuck paying the fine thru our energy bills, and Blackdog Lake sucks for fishing. Sweet!
I guess I’m just partial to this area because its where I learned to fish the river. Kinda my home waters, so to speak. And I do know more than the average person does when it comes to that lake, more than I care to speak about on a public forum.
Maybe it wasn’t carelessness, or maybe it was. Who knows. Its not like they would release info like that anyway. Anyhow, whats the point here again? Oh yeah, we were talking about a massive fish kill, and you said pretty much “who cares”. But I’m used to the closed minded folk like yourself who could care less about a bunch of “roughfish”. Point is this, there was a massive fish kill back there, not only roughfish but gamefish too. Xcel’s fines they pay will be passed off to us and obviously someone was at fault for this, hence the fines to Xcel. Why else would they be fined unless someone messed up? And anyone who had a fleck of conservation in their blood would think of this situation as a very waistful and preventible one.
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Too bad any sort of fine was probably just a drop in the bucket to Excel Energy. I went down the next day and saw first hand the massive loss of fish. Most of the stuff was dead Carp and Gizzard Shad, but I did see pleanty of gamefish such as Walleye, Sauger, Perch, Sunfish and Crappies. Even seen a few Northerns and LM Bass back there. Wasn’t expecting to see such diversity in that river backwaters. I bet I counted 15 different species of dead fish. Pretty dissapointing, to say the least…
If it keeps my energy bill down I am fine with that. The amount of fish are a drop in the bucket to the river and not many people actually fished the lake.
Oh I doubt your or my energy bills will go down anytime soon.
True, it may have been a drop in the bucket compared to the river. But seeing death on that level is not an every day occurence. You would have to been there and seen it first hand I guess. Good thing there were hundreds of people there to harvest alot of the dying fish trapped in puddles. Still, thousands of fish rotted because of Excels carelessness. They probably got a ten thousand dollar fine that will just be passed on to us.
Too bad any sort of fine was probably just a drop in the bucket to Excel Energy. I went down the next day and saw first hand the massive loss of fish. Most of the stuff was dead Carp and Gizzard Shad, but I did see pleanty of gamefish such as Walleye, Sauger, Perch, Sunfish and Crappies. Even seen a few Northerns and LM Bass back there. Wasn’t expecting to see such diversity in that river backwaters. I bet I counted 15 different species of dead fish. Pretty dissapointing, to say the least…
http://www.roughfish.com is the best you will probably find
Cool catch there. Thats actually a Golden Redhorse, not a Shorthead. Shortheads have red fins and tails.
I think this is where it starts. Its using the Channel Catfish as a gateway into the gamefish category. Next thing you know, they will want to harvest Flathead by bow methods too. Maybe the Lake Sturgeon in MN will get “over-populated” again, then they can go after them as well..
It should be only Carp (Commons, Bighead, Silver, Grass Carp, Goldfish, you know, the invasives) they are allowed to harvest with a bow, but even that can get screwed up. Too many fish shot by “accident” if ya know what I mean. Adding Channel Catfish to the list of hunted will only increase this statistic, and you know the Flathead will be part of this. Right along with Black Buffalo, Blue Sucker, River and Greater Redhorse….ect. Even these guys blasting our native species irritates me. Fish like Buffalo, Quillback, Redhorse, Suckers, Goldeye all have their place in the ecosystem, and are a part of the native food chain. I harvest my share of fish, but I can tell you this, none of them get tossed into the ground for fertilizer.
I dont think there will be too many people even getting their limits of Channels. Thats not even the issue here. I mean hows a guy gonna even be able to tell a Channel from anything else in the Minnesota River or the Mississippi? Its just pointless to open them up to bow-“fishing”. Go get your limit just like anyone else has to. By fishing with rod and reel, you know the good old fashioned hard way. Christ, whats next, a hand grabbing season in MN?
Too much blind shooting going on by these bow-fishers. How the heck are you gonna ID a Channel from a Flathead in stained water, much less ID anything at all. A dark shadow of a fish could be anything. Shooting at boils, even more foolish. Even the endangered Blue Sucker could be the target, who knows. This here is a bad deal. Not so much concerned about these guys limiting out on Channels, but concerned with the IDing of species in turbid conditions, before the shot is even fired. And then you are gonna have things shot by accident, like Flatheads for instance.
