Kiwidan and friends fishing report thread.

Didn't do too well this winter. Caught a few walleyes, northern pike, and crappies but not many. Our regular fishing season closed the end of February so the only thing we are allowed to fish for now are sunfish, crappies, perch, and a few rough fish. I'm not big into fishing for these too much so this becomes my slow time of year for fishing.

Saturday, however, I loaded all my gear onto my ATV and drove 10 miles to a lake near my home. When I got there I discovered there was about 8' of open water at the public access so I wasn't able to get onto the ice with my ATV and I didn't have any sled with me to haul my gear so I was out of luck. I was out a couple days earlier and even though the ice was still 30 inches thick I could tell when I was drilling my holes the ice was getting softer so I have decided to put my winter gear away. Waiting for open water fishing. It'll probably be two to three weeks before the ice is off the lakes.

Our regular fishing season reopens on May 15. Between now and then I will also be busy preparing my fields and planting wheat so I don't expect to be fishing now until May.

daninthelionsden said:

My brother-in-law used to take me fishing when I was in my early teens. I really enjoyed it. Caught a lot of Perch. I've long forgotten how to even set up a pole/line/knots/hooks/bobbers/sinkers...........wish I could fish once again.......it was a peaceful kind of fun. Found a video on VUDU on the basics of Fly Fishing.

Click to expand...

Fly fishing is a different animal. Much more skill and practice involved. I don't fly fish anymore but I once did. I tied my own flies too but over time I slowly lost interest. I would keep grouse and pheasant capes after hunting to use the feathers on my flies. I also found a deer carcass left from a wolf kill and took some of the back, belly, and side skin to obtain the three different colorings. Deer hair is hollow and works great for making floating flies. I eventually gave my fly equipment to my son as he likes to dabble with fly fishing on occasion.

For fun, I thought I'd share a few pics from past trips. This first one was from 2005 when I caught a 27-1/2" walleye. This particular walleye was not as pretty as they usually are. It seemed to have a small head and looked old.

This one is is a 42" musky that one or our gang caught in 2010.

Here's a 39-1/4" northern pike caught by my brother in 2012.

Sometimes the walleyes we've caught set records on the other end of the scale.

Also catch glimpses of other wildlife from time to time like this moose and bald eagle. Sorry about the clarity of the eagle. It was moving pretty fast. We've also seen black bears, whitetail deer, and beaver. View attachment 11059

Here's my son with a nice walleye. Other species we've caught on these trips have been smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rock bass, black crappie, white crappie, perch, whitefish, and rednose sucker.