Wintertime Smallies

SmallChunk

5 year old buck +
I decided to make a trek to my old stomping grounds and bring my brother and two friends to a pretty cool fishing spot. Everything in our neck of the woods is frozen, so to be able to fish for bass through open water with your summer rigs is just plain old fun. It hit 26 degrees on this day but it was windy....so our fingers absolutely froze! So much fun though, probably 50-55 fish were caught in a matter of 3 and a half hours of fishing






 
Nice! Beautiful markings on the first one!
 
Amazing area there. :)

Hard to believe the pressure those fish get, and they just keep on biting.
 
Wow awesome!! ....any other fish bite?
 
You must have been out Saturday. We went out Sunday trying to get some catfish and the bite was not to be had-

Stop in next time your down. I live on that stretch just downstream of the bridge.
 
Nice fish! I lived there for 6 months during the summer-fall about 4 years ago. Never had any real good days fishing but would usually get a nice mix of smallies and cats when fishing for <2 hours.
 
You must have been out Saturday. We went out Sunday trying to get some catfish and the bite was not to be had-

Stop in next time your down. I live on that stretch just downstream of the bridge.

We were over there on Friday. I will have to remember that the next time I go!

Wow awesome!! ....any other fish bite?

My buddy also caught a walleye that was around 24-25"
 
My buddy also caught a walleye that was around 24-25"

was the walleye in the trough?
 
yep!
 
Nice fish - other than the cold it looks like you guys had a good time. I used to fish a lot as a kid as I had more opportunity to do that then to hunt. Once out of college I had more chance to hunt than fish. Never caught a smallmouth before and have only ever caught 2 walleye in my life. First walleye I ever caught was in a small pond and I was alone - I reached down to lip the fish and had a sudden change of heart! Good thing I had my needle-nose pliers on me.
 
Beautiful fish! Looks like a cool trip. Love the pics.
 
Sure looks a lot like the river only 5 miles from my house!
 
Great pics. I bet the fingers got warm with every strike.
 
Cool pics! Looks like a great time on the river.
 
That looks like powerplant discharge fishing.
 
We went to SMALLCHUNKS hole today and caught some bait. Most of the smallies were in the 18 - 20 inch range which makes for excellent cut bait and chum.

Then we went fishing for supper.
 
Funny how different things are in different places. We consider catfish a garbage fish and eat lots of small and large mouth bass. Bass in the 12-15" range are our favorite behind perch and walleye.
 
I can even see the park in the background where I take a lot of swan pictures! Always see people out there fishing, but my boat is 120 miles away!
 
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Funny how different things are in different places. We consider catfish a garbage fish and eat lots of small and large mouth bass. Bass in the 12-15" range are our favorite behind perch and walleye.

I am glad the catfish get no respect in MN. Got a whole watershed all to myself. Flatheads are my favorite to chase. Had a cover built for the jet boat and we sleep on the river with clickers engaged. Don't eat them though as they smell like the farm runoff they live in.
 
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I am glad the catfish get no respect in MN. Got a whole watershed all to myself. Flatheads are my favorite to chase. Had a cover built for the jet boat and we sleep on the river with clickers engaged. Don't eat them though as they smell like the farm runoff they live in.

I got a 18 lber from the river bank down by Mankato a few years ago. Biggest fish I have ever got, and the guy I was with said "I don't think we've caught one that small before." He was just poking fun, but they had pictures from one night with 3 over 35!
 
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