Les' 2009 Minnesota Trip

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Lake: Spider Lake, Itasca County, MN - yes there are two spider lakes in Minnesota.

Location:47 30' 49.32" N 93 33' 56.31" W

Where I am staying: Spider Lake Resort spiderlakeresortmn.com/web2/

Weather Outlook: It looks like the week before we go the weather is going to be in the mid 70's with maybe some rain here and there. The long range outlook for our week July 25 - July 31 is sunny with temp in the mid to upper 80's.

General Overview: We have a group of 10 adults fishing along with 4 kids. All but two of the ten adults have fished the lake before. We will be looking to catch crappie first, then bass. Blugill normally are plentiful. Generally we spend some time going for northern, but is just depends how the crappie are biting if we change are goals around. We are about 2 weeks too early for walleye.

My plan is to keep a log of what my wife and I catch through out the week and what they are biting on.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Well, less then a week to go. I have cleaned my lines and and bummed a 9 weight rod from Krebsie. Thanks. Hopfulley I will catch a northern to put on my wall. The wife and I have agreed that we will mount anything over 40 inches.

The weather looks like it might be an issue. So the long range forcast dropped 20 degrees. Right now I am watching from Saturday to Wed. and the high for that stretch is going to be 68. There is also going to be at least a 30% chance of rain everyday. I guess I should make sure I have the rain suit packed along with some long underware. lows at night will dip into the 40s.

Also, the word on the street is that the Walleye have been biting, which is odd for this time of year.

I found some more info for those of you following along at home.
Here is a link to a map where we are fishing. files.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/data/lakemaps/b0168011.pdf
DNR lake report www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=31053800

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Here is the battle plan based on past trips.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

So after driving most the day from Monticello, IN to Eau Claire, WI we did make. i was able to meet up with one of my past students for dinner. That was a bonus. Stopped at Gander MTN, but didn't find too many good deals. They did have roster tales on sale, so that was hard to pass up.

The weather doesn't look great. Possible rain everyday. Low at night in the high 40's. High might hit 70. I did get a thermometer to check the water temp through out the week. This will be the last time I check in till I return.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

He folks,

I have found the internet again. I am spending the night in Madison, WI. I have a full report in the works, but here are the highlights.

We caught and cleaned at least 300 Bluegill, 150 crappie, 30 northern, a few rockbass, and a dozen or so largemouths.

My big fish - 9" Bluegill, 1.2 pound crappie, 23 inch northern on a 4 1/2 foot ultralite with four pound test line, with no one in the boat to help land him. Trust me it is a great story.

Like I said I will have a full report in a few days of my return.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Here are the start of the photos I hope you all enjoy them.



Thursday evening's catch. My old college room mate and I caught our limit in about an hour or so. We had three fish over a pound each with three coming in at 13 oz. They were hitting on minnows







Above is Brian my old college room mate. in the back ground you can see my folks' boat as well as the boat of my uncle and grandma.



This is my cousin and her husband. We were fishing the same hole. Even though my folks' boat and my uncle's boat were close by, they were not hitting the hole. My cousin's big fish weighed in at a pound.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Some of the other fish we caught.



A bunch of Northern about 18 to 23 inches long.



A rock bass caught using a fly I created and tied.



Bluegill



One mornings catch for about 6 to 8 people. Bluegill on the right everything else on the left.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Here is the start of the pics of the flies I used through out the week.



Talbert gray ghost leseller.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=wetflies&action=display&thread=233 This crappie was caught on my 4wt rod.





Rockpass caught on a fly on my ultralight. I haven't named the fly yet or posted instructions on how to tie it. honestly it was something I was just playing around with while tying this winter.






The imfamous falshy pike fly didn't catch any pike worth talking about. Both were 12" or less. I had some huge strikes on it while fishing some weed beds, but this bass is the best fish it produced all week. leseller.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pike&action=display&thread=335 The fly pictured is one of the two original flashy pike flies I tied at the Fly Expo in Jan.



I plan on getting close up shoots on all the flies I fished through out the week and give you some of my thoughts on them.

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Number of fish we brought home -

We had ten limits to fill. Here is the run down of folks fishing with me.
My mom and dad, my grandma (83), my uncle Tom, my cousin Darcy and her husband shawn and adopted son Elijah, Carol, Leif and I. Yes I know Leif is only 3 months old, but if you get a family liscesnse you can frezze fish in his name.

Bluegill 200 of 200
Crappie 99 of 100
Bass 20 of 60
Northern 25 of 30
Rock Bass 10 of 300
Perch 14 of 400

Obvisousally we weren't targeting Rock Bass or Perch. I have the daily breakdown of our catches in my journal and will post them tonight.

We had another family hanging out with us. They were not as hard core fisherman as us, but here are there numbers.

Bluegill 80 of 80
Crappie 31 of 40
Northern 6 of 12
Bass 2 of 24
Rock Bass 0
Perch 0

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Ok here are the journal entries I made during the trip. Pictures of the flies I used are yet to come, but I did sort them out last night. Now I just need to take some shoots of them and post the pictures. i am also working on a map showing where I caught fish.

On with the journal entries:

7-25
Carol and i caught the following:
1 Bock Bass
2 Crappie
10 Bluegill
- Carol was using beemoth. I was using two different colors of the Krebs Christmas bugger. The original olive, and a variation in white. I also tested a torpedo minnow that i created over the winter out of left over parts.

Dad caught a 20" Pike, a nice bass, and 4 crappie

7-26 AM
Fished solo
1 - 23"pike
2 crappie
1 bass
6 Bluegill
- The pike was caught on my 4 1/2 foot ultra light with 4# test line with a 1/16 oz white roster tail. Needless to say I was not fishing for pike. So I get a huge hit and he starts running. He goes under the boat and I am just trying to keep tension on the line. He comes out from under the boat. I decide to grap my net and move to the front of the boat. The fish has other plans. he goes back under the boat and make one loop around the trolling moter, which was off. At this point in time I am figuring that I am done and this fish will be gone inmoments. Since he only wrapped himself the trolling motor once I was still sort of able to keep tension on the line and let some out at the same time. Since I had a short rod, I figure I could just take it between the trolling motor and the boat. So that is what I do. By this point in time the fish is worn out and I am able to get him closer to the boat with out much issue. Did I mention I was fishing solo? No one else seen me catch the fish, they just seen teh end result.

I spent most of the rest of the morning fishing for Northern.

7-26 PM
Carol and I
40 Bluegill
2 crappie
1 rockbass

Dad 28 bluegill

7-27 AM
Darc, Shawn, Elijah, Tom - 78 Bluegil
Granny and I - 10 Bluegill
Mom and Dad - 5 bass, 2 crappie, 7 Blegill

7-27 PM
Carol and I
2 Bass, 2 Crappie, 2 bluegill
- we were looking for bass. Winds were about 20mph

Dad and Granny - 28 Bluegill
Tom - 15 Crappie

7-28 AM
Carol and I
24 Bluegill, 2 Crappie, 1 Rockbass

Dad - 1 pike, 6 crappie, 1 bluegill

Tom - 1 pike

Darc, Shawn, Elijah 5 pike / 3 keepers

7-28 PM
Carol and I - 3 pike

Dad and mom - 49 Bluegill

Weather started out coldish and windy 25-30mph gust

7-29 AM
Brian and I - 3 pike, 2 bass, 2 perch
Shawn 28" pike
Tom 1 pike
Dad 1 bass 1 bluegill
Windy this morning

7-29 PM
Carol and I - 2 Bass, 4 Perch, 4 Rockbass, 2 pike / 1 keeper
Brian and family - 40 Bluegill
Shawn and Darc - Bass and Perch no numbers recorded
Tom - Crappie no numbers
Windy and cool rain started around 8pm

7-30 AM
Grab your hat, gloves and rain suit becasue it was cold and rainny. Late start, on the water after 8am and in by 11:30 am.

Carol and I 4 Crappie, 4 Perch

7-30 PM
Warmed up and sunny
Brian and I
27 - Crappie 1.2#, 1.1#, 1.0 # , 3 @ 13oz
11 Blugill
1 perch
1 bass
Darc and Shawn
17 Crappie - 1.0# & 13oz
Tom - 11 Crappie

The crappie were hitting on live minnows

7-31 AM
Les and Carol - 7-8 pike / 5 keepers, 1 bass
Shawn, Darc, Elijah 4 or 5 keeper pike 1 @ 24" released
Tom 3 pike
Dad 4 bass, 1 pike

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Ok I have posted the maps of my trip in another thread. I figure they might take a long time to load up and slow the load time of this page. They can be found at the following link. leseller.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=memberfishingstories&action=display&thread=531

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

With that I think every things is wrapped up. I did get a cabin for the club for next year and some folks have already mentioned they are interested. I will write something on that soon.

If anyone has questions or comments about the trip feel free to ask.

[krebsie]

Les
Thank you for all your hard work and attention to the details. I think this is going to be a fantastic opportunity for our club members.
Krebsie