We set out to find the Pike and Walleye this past weekend! We had around a foot and a half of snow on the lake so the plow and tire chains came in handy. I think its time for new tire chains as I broke 3 links and had to bolt the links together to keep on going. I think its also time for some new tires on the Ford Plow truck as we have been putting on miles this year hitting lakes all over MN. I plowed out spots for 6 groups this last weekend. 5 groups on a shallow 1000 Acre lake primarily fished for bigger pike and walleye. The other house was in 24ft of water fishing for crappies and walleye. The house on the smaller lake caught 6 walleyes and 6 pike 3 pike in the 22 inch – 26 inch slot that had to go back.
The other lake that I had 5 groups set up on the fishing was mostly a waiting game. I had two groups that really wanted to bag some pike and those two groups did not do as good as the other three groups. The other three groups did mostly catch and release so they put most of the pike back. That is the way it goes. We had sightings of walleyes on the camera last weekend but the walleyes just did not want to commit on the 1000 Acre lake besides one. Most of the walleyes we catch on this lake are 20+ inches along with some big girls 25 inches + so I feel that some of the lines that got bite off were the bigger walleyes. I kept hearing from a few groups that the hook sets felt like a giant log and then the lines snapped. Customers did say that they were not prepared for the bigger fish. I do still have one hook and go rental up on Lake Of The Woods so I look forward to hearing that report. Its always interesting to see sometimes customers go 300 miles on hook and go rentals and we end up catching more fish around home. Not always the case but that is fishing for you. Sometimes we see customers catch more fish on larger bodies of water and sometimes we catch more fish on smaller bodies of water. One thing I do know is we usually always catch something down in the Wright and Meeker county lakes.
For this weekend coming up we do have a sno bear outing open for Sunday. I have a guided package with 4-5 guys showing up on Friday. I am thinking we will chase crappies and blue gills and set up some portable shacks not far from the Grand castle for them to hop into for the low light hour bite for those bigger walleyes. As far as the 8 x 16 ice houses and the other grand castle they are all going on hook and go rentals. One is going to Mille Lacs and the other two are going up to the famous EelPout Festival. Today it was around 10 degrees and little to no wind so was comfortable out on the ice moving fish houses. As walleye and pike season will close at Midnight on February 24th we will then be on the crappie bite for the rest of the season.
