Minnesota Ice Fishing

I have been fortunate this winter to have gone ice fishing more than my fair share. My friends and I have toured many lakes this winter in search of a few great bites. Early this season, we fished a small lake where we had a nice walk to our spot, as motor vehicles were not allowed. There were a few great fish caught on tip-ups, mostly bass and northern pike that fell for our sucker-on-a-hook trick.

The majority of my fishing took place in the Northeast Metro as I searched for slab crappies. Many days I caught 30-50 fish, but no fish larger than 8 inches were to be found. To be honest, I love to ice fish to pass the time, but my heart is fishing the open water. This thaw that we are going through feels great and I have already been out on the river in St. Paul. My time is being spent now cleaning and preparing my tackle, rods, and reels.

Stayed tuned as Team BassAckwards heads to Wabasha, MN for our first tournament on the Mississippi River in Pools 4 and 5. Last year we caught around 10.5 pounds and we are looking forward to increasing our weight and participating in our first tournament of the year.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to ask questions with regards to tackle, tournaments, or presentations.

Carl

Ice Fishing Update

With 15 inches of ice separating the elusive bass and myself, I must resort to drilling holes, placing tip-ups, and jigging micro jigs on 2 lb test line. Don't get me wrong, I still love to ice fish, but I still long for the tournament season and the pre-tournament jitters. So far I have been out on the hard water twice this year. The first outing consisted of tip ups and zero fish. We forgot beer so we didn't even catch a buzz. My next outing was to Rush Lake and we were able to catch 4 crappies. I actually only caught one, so my hour-to-fish ratio is pretty pathetic. I have plans to be out this Saturday, either tip-ups or crappies...still trying to decide. The lakes seem to have sufficient ice for trucks, so I am excited to be truck fishing soon (sleeping in my truck while tip ups are out). Hopefully, I will have a few photos with my catches from this weekend. Good luck to all that are facing the cold and still fishing!

Thanks for checking in!

Skip

Late Fall Bass Fishing

Here are a few fish that Team BassAckwards' member Dave "Buzz" Nelson caught on a local lake. The bass were caught on 11/28 and 11/30, and I believe they were caught on either a spinnerbait or crankbait. The first fish is 3.6 lbs and the second is 4.53lbs. The pike is 7.67 lbs. All fish weighed on a digital hand scale. This local lake has no public access and he was fishing out of a canoe. Frozen fingers and sore backs couldn't keep Team BassAckwards from fishing into winter here in Minnesota.

Musky Caught on Drop Shot!

Booyah Fall Fishing!

Here are a few photos from my last outing. Buzz and I headed to a metro lake here in the Twin Cities hoping to catch a few big ones. We caught three bass total for the day, with this 4.51 pounder as our first catch of the day. I caught this fish burning a black Booyah spinnerbait with one large Colorado blade. This baby thumps through the water and when this bass hit, it about took the rod out of my hands. It was great to get out and catch my largest bass of the season so far. This fish was weighed on our digital hand scale and approximately 20 inches.

Thanks for checking in!

Carl "Skip" Spande

Lake Minnetonka Muskie

Here is Jeff's 11.15 pound muskie from the Viking Invitational Bass Tournament that I wrote about in the post below.

Viking Tournament on Lake Minnetonka

On Sunday, October 4th, Team BassAckwards fished Lake Minnetonka in the Viking Invitational Bass Tournament. Tim and Carl fished as a team, and Buzz fished with an up-and-coming bass angler named Jeff. Both teams fished well and we have the photos to prove it.

Tim and I had prefished a few spots last Wednesday and we put together a gameplan. Basically, it was to drop shot a stretch of water and catch a nice limit. We found an area of water that held some fish in deeper water on a deep weed line. We had caught fish in water from 20 feet to 14 feet. Our prefishing was immediately after a cold front and when we found these active fish, I was confident we could get some to bite no matter what the weather was like come Sunday. We didn't want to waste time by traveling the lake so our spot was within ten minutes of our take off at Maynard's. On tournament day, we stuck to our plan and caught 4 nice fish for 9.09 lbs. We each caught two bass on a slow and tedious day, drop shotting for 7 hours for those four fish. Trophies were given down to tenth place, with the tenth place weight being around 10.3 lbs and first place just over 13 lbs. I truly believe that we could of had a trophy in our hands had we caught at least one more fish for our limit. Our fish were of quality size and I think we were in the right area and just couldn't get one more.

Buzz and Jeff caught a nice limit for 9.38 lbs. They caught fish throwing spinnerbaits around shallow vegetation. They also caught some fish using a rattletrap. Jeff hooked into a 12 lbs Musky and landed that beast on a tube around docks. Hopefully I can get that picture from them and throw it up here. It is a nice photo and a cool fish.Overall, the tournament was a lot of fun and the Viking Bassmasters did a great job hosting this event. They have put on this event for over 30 years and they do a good job making this charity event fun. The weights overall were not very large so anyone had a shot at taking home some hardware. A few guys from our bassmasters club, Lakes Area, were there and it was fun to see them. I am looking forward to this tournament next year and I think I have had my fill of drop shotting for a while!

Thanks for reading!

Carl "Skip" Spande