Blegills are on the beds already in Minnesota

**no1son** · 05-20-2012, 12:09 PM

That same size boat will also serve up the Mississippi north of Hastings after ice out and the spring flood subsides anyway through the locks in Minneapolis and then all the way north, too. The last lock north is right in downtown Minneapolis, but there are good launch sites up the river from there and good fishing all along the way in both directions for those who dig it out.

I see canoes and kayaks going through the top locks quite frequently; a decent jon boat with any kind of dependable kicker should be able to take it right in stride, too. Of course one can also contact the Corp of Engineers; they operate the locks.

**ekim22** · 05-20-2012, 04:43 PM

LOL CTom - I already have an invitation from someone @ Gen Mills to go ice fishing....I'll definitely give that a shot.

Now as far as driving on the ice.....I realize to never say never in life but......coming from a southern boy, I can't see that happening LOL

Thanks for the info guys. I'm excited....especially at the thought of river fishing. There are certainly rivers here in Ga but not any major ones in the area of GA I'm at. In Virginia I was blessed to be 4 miles from a major tidal river and that was a blast. We're talking 100lbs catfish and excellent crappie fishing.

But yea, I'm super excited at the prospects.

**CTom** · 05-20-2012, 06:30 PM

Here at Rochester we have a ton of run-off control reservoirs that are ripe with fish of all kinds. I took a little jaunty to one this morning with a rod rigged up with a saftey-pin spinner to look for post-spawn crappies. I found none, but a couple sunfish and a few bass came out to entertain me. The bass season is a couple weeks away yet but the bass can't seem to read the rules so.... They all went back for a battle later on down the line.

The sunfish hit that spinner bait and were firmly hooked up. What these sunfish can lack in length they more than make up for in thickness. They are super strong fish. If they grew to 18" we'd have to fish them with chain instead of line.

**no1son** · 05-22-2012, 10:53 AM

Speaking of post spawn crappies, there is speculation that crappie spawn is really just getting started here in Minneapolis with the big runs just now showing up. What I have heard and been seeing sorta bears that out. That the crappies started real early with the exceptionally early ice out and the very early warm weather, but the following cold snap aborted that and now they are starting all over again as we have finally gotten stable enough warm weather. I have seen before that the male crappies can have their spawning behavior interrupted and have to start all over again. I still have not taken a colored up male crappie around here this spring.

**ekim22** · 05-24-2012, 04:21 PM

Sitting in Minneapolis / St Paul airport waiting on a flight back to Atlanta right now. Appreciate the feedback from you guys. After work each day I was able to spend some time driving around looking at area. I went as far north as Elk River, swung out west as far as Waconia, and then ventured south to around Chaska, Chanhansen, and prior lake. I wasn't able to get to Apple Valley.

I liked the look of the Mississippi river up around Elk River...but honestly I liked the Waconia & Victoria areas the best.

**no1son** · 05-26-2012, 07:09 PM

Before you make up your mind about where to settle, check out the roads and the rush hour traffic. Some places are miserable to travel to and from at some times of the day. Pay attention to the routes for closure barracades; some roads get closed during some storm conditions and you cannot use them at all regardless of what kind of vehicle you have. Same goes for some freeway ramps. There may be times that they just plain bar you from getting on.

We have a saying up here that we have two seasons, winter and road repair. During the winter you will drive on ice sometime whether you drive out on the lakes or not. Winter storms will make long commutes on heavily traveled routes into nightmares. OTOH Road repair may make you wish for winter driving.

**OLDFISHERMAN** · 05-27-2012, 08:59 AM

AND, Depending on time of day you drive to and from work....Can be a bear to drive into the sun in morning, and into it again in evening.. Even if you do not mind, trust me, it slooows traffic. We are still not Chicago, but the man is right, road repair and other things can make driving a real pain around here.

**IMFSHN** · 05-29-2012, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by no1son

Definitely a weird year. But one with an exceptional bite when one can find it.

We had finished our crappie and Walleye fishing earlier on Sunday, as well as the 8 year old swimming around the boat for a while as the adults continued to fish, so when he got back into the boat and started throwing a spinner bait for some bass, my fishing buddy and I looked at each other twice when he pulled in this cow of a bluegill.

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Of course, the wind and BIG boats made short work of our crappie spot, but not before getting into a bunch of them.

**IMFSHN** · 05-29-2012, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by IMFSHN

We had finished our crappie and Walleye fishing earlier on Sunday...
Of course, the wind and BIG boats made short work of our crappie spot, but not before getting into a bunch of them.

P.S. All but one of our couple dozen Crappies were blackened males.

**no1son** · 05-29-2012, 01:52 PM

A real dandy sunfish!

But not a bluegill. Color is wrong and there is no black spot on the back of the dorsal and the faint coloration on the back of the black tab wouldn't be there in a full blooded bluegill. It looks like a bluegill/green hybrid (from the golden fin edges - although the mouth is a little small), which are relatively common, and where fishing pressure is not too heavy they can get to be real pigs.

They are generally more aggressive than either of their parents and so usually get picked off first; so remember that spot. Something about it allows those hybrids to outgrow either parental species to a very respectable size. BTW you will not often take more than one or two of these bruisers from the school of sunnies you find them in and very often it will be the first fish taken there. Since the hybrids outgrow their school mates, the true bluegills will probably be a bit smaller, but hybrids of this size are a good indication that the school will also be relatively large for their species. This is also a male (from the extended gill tab) and is probably also sterile; some few of them aren't but the vast majority will never reproduce. Size potential decreases with additional generations anyway. So harvest of these will not hurt the population. Real good eating too, just like both parents. Nice fish and will definitely outfight a bass its size in the process. This is the same hybrid combination that some southerners select out of for the so-called "Georgia Giants" giving it the best size potential of all the sunfish hybrids. The extended gill tab also indicates that this is a fully mature fish and will probably never have gotten much larger, since male sunfish size slows to almost a complete stop when it matures. Also they are very pretty fish for their own coloring combinations.

Real good to hear about the crappies, too; the males are still trying to bed the way it sounds.

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