Thread: 100 degrees in Minneapolis on July 4th

Thanks for the public service announcement and the heads-up on the sudden storm possibility, No1son.

Today the little guy spent most of the day inside with his cousin, before we all hit the beach, followed by taking his cousin out in the canoe to explore anything crappie.

Another boat slid into our destination just before us, but they were soaking heavy suckers, so we didn't pose much of a threat...until the little guy tied into a big toothy "crappie." It took him for a run in the park before finally breaking off. The guys in the other boat were very kind, in letting him know they were hoping he'd bring it in. The boys kept busy with crappie though, so the disappointment didn't last long. I was bit off twice, and the crappies ran 9.25-9.75" at the top end tonight.

What the sucker soakers really don't want to hear is that you will often get more toothy action fishing crappies than they will. Getting three incidents in one evening in one boat is not really all that uncommon, if you got the crappie spots worked out well enough. The tooth carps are there for the same thing you are, but they will not limit themselves just to hooked panfish. You get the panfish action as the main course, but I am no longer at all surprised when something much bigger crashes the party and even takes the crappie offerings in their own right.

Your boy did real good to hold on to the fish for any length of time. That kind of hookup takes patience to let the bigger fish tire themselves out against the light crappie lines. Just don't get in a hurry. I took a 40"er two years ago that took almost a half hour to bring to shore. (and 3 days for my right shoulder to recover!)

I think you got yourself a fisherman there.

101 today. Too bad we can't stockpile some of that for next winter when it starts getting to 10, 15 or 20 below zero.

Hung out at Ft Snelling today then went tubing (not tubing as in jigging), followed by fireworks tonight. My brother and I toyed with fishing for about 2 minutes until we stepped into air conditioning and our brains started to think rationally again.

Lake Osakis this weekend for a reunion. Going up two days early to get some fishing in. We did quite well with the walleyes the last time we were up there two summers back, but that was squeezing in an hour one early morning before the reunion started. I haven't had time to chat with anyone about crappies up there. The little guy hasn't been on any walleyes this year yet, so maybe we'll just key in on them. I'm scared to look at the temps up there for this weekend though.

Have a great fourth and weekend.

The little guy handled the pike pretty well. It was just at that "very close to the boat and still a bit too green" spot, that he just hadn't had the experience working with.

The boy hammered the dock all day while I helped with reunion prep work. Plenty of small crappie, perch, and sunnies off the dock and under boats. Two 9"ers kept his hopes up, as he swam and fished until the wee hours each night.




"Last Call"


"Anybody seen the little guy lately?"



"If you can't catch 'em, join 'em"

The first pass and the last one. Pike are famous for both of them. Back in the day it was the job of the netman to anticipate those... Back then we ate a lot of pike. I seldom keep one anymore these days, just like nearly everything else catch and release.

It is amazing how many times a good pike will come in and have a look at you before really starting the battle. A good netman often got the fish on that "first pass". They always seem to have just that one more run left in them at the end, too. A whole lot of fish were lost when the netman misjudged that last surge.

Hey no1son, thinking about a vacation up your way around the first of AugustWife and daughter are wanting to hit the mall of america, me and the son are wanting to find somewhere to fish for a couple days.I have a Lowe 170W looking for a nice family owned resort with some good fishing have any info that might be helpfull.