Fishrapper Fishing Report Archives For November 2016

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image denotes fishing report submitted by Jeff Sundin Ice Fishing Report November 29, 2016 - Ice Watch 2016, The End of Soggy Weather?

Persistent rainfall continued for another 12 hours after I reported yesterday morning. Today, the gloomy conditions linger, but for now, the rain has stopped.
On Monday afternoon, a quick stop at the formerly frozen White Oak Lake revealed an open channel that ran through the center of the lake. There was also a pathway through the slushy ice that had been broken open by a boater.
Many of the smallest ponds remain ice covered, but even if these were "fishable waters", I'd have serious doubts that their ice would support foot traffic.

image of ice at White Oak Lake
Formerly frozen, White Oak Lake revealed an open channel running down the center of the lake. There was also a pathway through the slushy ice that had been broken open by a boater.

If Mother Nature feels generous, the next round of colder weather may be more rewarding.
The water is very cold and very ready to re-freeze, the quality of the ice will certainly be much better than it would have been had the snow fallen after freeze up. Temperatures dipping below freezing later this week will get the ball rolling again. How lucky will we be? That depends entirely on how much precipitation comes along in the package.

 

image of ice on small lake

image denotes fishing report submitted by Jeff Sundin Ice Fishing Report November 28, 2016 - Ice Watch 2016, Two Steps Backward

Anxious ice anglers haven't received much encouragement over the past few days. The small ponds that froze over last weekend continue holding on to what little ice they had, but almost all of the lakes in the Itasca Area are wide open. Yes, even the smaller ones that had some ice covered bays have opened back up again.
It’s 6:30 AM in Grand Rapids and it’s been raining steadily for about the past 10 hours. The extra water is going to put another dent in the snow cap. That said, I don’t think there’s enough rain on tap to melt away the existing snow cover. With another cold front headed our way, we can start being optimistic again soon, but not today and not likely for the balance of this week.
The St. Paul Ice Show starts this Friday at 11:00 AM and runs through Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM. Even though we’ll arrive at the show without any tales about “first ice”, we will still have lots to talk about.
We’ll be showing off some new fishing lures, sharing tips and techniques that we recorded last winter and speculating about the upcoming ice season. OH, and stocking up on supplies for the winter season too!
Mark the dates on your calendar and make a few minutes to come down and pay us a visit. December 2 thru 4, 2016 St. Paul River Centre, 175 Kellogg Boulevard West, St. Paul, MN 55102.
Show Hours Friday: (11:00am-1:00pm *VIP Preview) Friday: 1:00 pm - 7:00 pm Regular Hours
Saturday: (8:00am-10:00am *VIP Preview) Saturday: 10:00am-7:00pm Regular Hours
Sunday: 9:00am–3:00pm

image of bass lake with ice cover along shore
Some of the larger lakes have skim ice around the shoreline, especially in shallow, protected bays.

image of frozen pond near Mankato MN
In Southern Minnesota, Cub Reporter #006 reported seeing skim ice on some small ponds in the Mankato area.

image denotes fishing report submitted by Jeff Sundin Ice Fishing Report November 22, 2016 - Ice Watch 2016 Now With Added Whiteness

Ice anglers got a lucky “2 for 1 bonus” this weekend when winter weather arrived with a vengeance.
If you wouldn’t consider getting over a foot of snow lucky, then maybe you’ll agree that at least the timing was good. Good because almost all of the heavy, wet snow that landed on Itasca lakes fell into open water.
So the first lucky break is that since there wasn’t any ice cover, this storm won’t be leaving behind a massive slush problem to deal with. Secondly, air temperatures dipped into the single digits overnight Sunday and early Monday and that, combined with the blizzard’s super charge of cold, snowy water is accelerating the formation of fresh ice.
Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of lakes are not frozen yet, but the odds of an earlier freeze up just increased exponentially.
On Monday, I spotted full ice cover on numerous small ponds and slow moving streams. Even in Southern Minnesota, Cub Reporter #006 reported seeing skim ice on some small ponds in the Mankato area.
I’d guess that there are larger expanses of ice in the area too; I just didn’t see them with my own eyes yet, so I’ll wait until I do before getting too excited about freeze up. A tour of the area is on my agenda for later today and fresh updates daily as events unfold.

FISH ED Video; Big Stone Lake Prime Time Perch

Tasty Yellow Perch are prize catches across the Midwest. In this video, Fish Ed host Jon Thelen travels to the hallowed waters of Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota/South Dakota border. Join Jon and see why this prairie impoundment is quickly gaining fame as a “must fish” destination among Perch fans everywhere. View Video >> Prime Time Perch

 image links to Perch fishing video

 

image links to river fishing video

Hey river rats, here’s a great lesson on using your tiller outboard to deliver crankbaits to the sweet spots for for bass, walleye and pike.
Not all of us have lakes or reservoirs at our immediate disposal, but even if you do, rivers provide exceptional fishing in a beautiful setting. Veteran walleye pro and multi species angler Scott Glorvigen loves jumping in his river boat and pulling crankbaits for a mixed bag of gamefish. View Video >> Flatline Trolling River Bass and Walleye

image denotes fishing report submitted by Jeff Sundin Fishing Report November 9, 2016 - Chilling the Chillable

A few weeks ago, I had a little bit of fun with the countdown to closing on the new house. After the first week, things are beginning to take shape here at “Headquarters Central” and it won’t be long before the reports will become more frequent again.
I still need to drag a bunch of stuff out of the old farm house though and have to admit, the number crunch that I’m working on now is nowhere near as much fun as the last one was. No matter, in 9 days the new owners will take over and I’ll be seeing the whole episode in my rear view mirror; that will be nice.
Mother Nature, glorious and beautiful as she can be, has provided me with the absolute best case scenario for making the move and I am grateful for that. But her sense of humor is dry and she’s not above ribbing a man when he’s down. She’s proven that recently by torturing me with tales of great fishing from my friends. That’s right, the handful of anglers who haven’t put their rigs to rest for the winter are enjoying very good fishing right now.
Crappie fishing has gotten the most attention, in fact I’ve talked with 4 friends in the past 3 days and all of them have reported catching limits, all of them fishing different lakes. Walleyes have received honorable mention too and Pike fishing also has potential.
Following your favorite ice fishing patterns would be a good starting strategy. For Panfish, open water near deep mid lake basins will be productive. For Walleye and Pike, focus on the last 3 hours of daylight and fish shoreline points that connect to deep water. The presence of Cabbage weeds that remain green have fantastic attracting power during late fall and could easily contain both Walleye and Pike.
Late fall is one of the best times to anchor your boat and pitch in to shallow cover using jig and minnow presentations. A 1/8 ounce live bait jig tipped with a large fathead will do the trick, so will ice fishing lures both with and without live bait.
Finding bait may be a little tricky because some of the better bait shops are closed during the deer hunting season. There are still enough stores open to sell you some minnows, but I’d suggest calling ahead to be sure that they have what you need, when you need it.
In case you’re watching the lakes for signs of ice, take a break. There is virtually no signal that there will ice anywhere during the next couple of weeks. In fact I just read the long range forecast and it doesn’t appear that we will receive any seriously cold weather until late next week.
Good fishing, awesome weather, my Alaskan that’s ready to spring into action and a mountain of work keeping me away from the lakes; you can see the irony in Mother’s management style. That’s okay though, the next 9 days are gonna fly by and by then ice watch 2016 will be getting more interesting. By then I’ll be ready for some time outside and you’ll be the first to know what’s happening.
By the way, I’m attempting to join the modern world and operate with only my cell phone. I no longer have a “land line” phone number, so if you’ve used that to contact me, don’t be disturbed when you can’t get through, just shoot me an email and I’ll update you with the contact info.

image of cub reporter jeff sundin

image denotes fishing report submitted by Jeff Sundin Fishing Report November 3, 2016 Influencing the Influence able – My Two Cents Worth

I KNOW that at this time of the season, many of you are checking in on this page not for fishing information, but simply to keep tabs on what’s happening up here in the northland.
By now, most folks have given up on open water fishing and have turned their attention to hunting, sports, school and maybe even politics.
Politics is a tricky subject, but if we never talk about it, we could wind up in a situation where the country dictates to the people, instead of the people running the country; like we’re supposed to.
During the fishing season, I’ve talked with lots of you about philosophy, persuasion and whether or not we have any influence over anything political. The common thread running through every discussion has been the dis-satisfaction with our choices of political candidates. That’s not unusual, but this year it’s been more intense than ever before.
Many of you have said “I don’t like either of them and I’m NOT going to vote”. I believe that’s short sighted, I think that if I want to keep the right to voice my opinion, then I should at least take the time to cast my vote.
I didn’t bring a soap box and I’m not going to try and tell you who to vote for. In fact, I know that if your mind is made up, I probably can’t change it anyway. But just your mind isn’t made up, just in case you’re one of the folks who feels left out, helpless to influence anything about the election, then here’s something to think about.
Like many of you, I’m not satisfied with any of the presidential choices either. I am still going to vote though because the timing has never been better to lay the groundwork for the next election. For me, casting a write in vote for the candidate who I believe should have gotten the nomination is the best way to spend my one vote.  
Yes, I know this will not change the outcome of next week’s election, but I do not believe that will be a wasted vote!  By casting a write in vote, I am exercising my right to voice my opinion and with luck, my opinion will be noticed by decision makers who influence the nominations for the next election.
The choice is easy for me because I know who I believe should have been nominated. But it doesn’t matter to me if you agree with my choice or not. I would support your choice no matter who it is; the point is that I wish you would at least cast a vote, for somebody.
If you think about it, there is no such thing as a wasted vote. We, the people have a lot of clout and if we ever learned how to use it, we’d be dangerous. Of course that’s just my opinion and luckily, it’s still okay to have one vote to express it with, I think I’ll use it while I still can. image of fish smiley

 

image of house

image denotes fishing report submitted by Jeff Sundin Update November 1, 2016 - Moving The Movable

They say that timing is everything and that's just another reason that I feel so lucky! What I mean is that if I have to drop everything and move, it’s lucky that I get to do it now, while we’re in-between fishing seasons.
The closing on Cub Reporter Headquarters went off without a hitch yesterday and now packing and moving is going into high gear.  So don’t be worried if the reports are sporadic for a while, it won’t be long before I organize the organizable and get started with “Ice Watch 2016”.
Oh and by the way, there will be a new mailing address, and the land line phone number will be disconnected in a few days. The email address, website and other contact information will remain unchanged so if you need to contact me, email will be the best way to do it.

 

Do You Know that you can post your own helpful hints to our fishing reports page on facebook? YES! You Can! You don't have to tell us your secrets, just go ahead and brag a little when you get a whopper! Click >>> Fishing Reports Minnesota .
And ... did you know that Jeff's Thursday Morning Program is available for two weeks after the air date? Yes, you'll never need to miss the show. Click the image and then select the 6:00 hour on Thursday. Scroll in to about 6:20 AM and you're in business! Link to KAXE Audio Archive

"The Early Bird Fishing Guide" Jeff Sundin - Fishing Blue Books, LLC 715 Byington Ave, LaPrairie, MN 55744 218-245-9858
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