Mining The Right Bedrock

The phenomenal December gold rush continued into the first part of January and we found fishing to be good at Lake Minnetonka, Lake Waconia, Lake of the Woods, and also Leech Lake.  On this particular adventure we fished Lake of the Woods and caught and released 40-60 sauger and walleyes per day with a few of the mid 20" fish each day.  As usual, our biggest fish continued to come on the biggest golden shiner in the pail on a plain colored gamakatsu hook.  I am a big fan of the orange, pink, and chartreuse in a #2 for the big golden shiners that I like to use for bait.  

The "walleye whisper" was able to get in on some of the great bite.  I am still fishing a lot of plain hooks but mixing in a few pink jigs on some of the set lines.  I would say that the "set lines" produced 75% of our gravel lizards with jigging only be productive in the morning hours and evening hours.  Our best jigging baits continue to be orange and perch jigging shad raps from Rapala.  

Had to travel for a few shows the past few weeks that has kept me away from the ice.  Hit the open water of the river this weekend, and it felt great to get out the "big rods"!  Will be back on the ice this week and have reports from a few local lakes.  Until then, Fish On!