Made a last minute decision on a whim to head up to the chain for one last weekend before ice up. Probably not the best idea. The plan was to fish the upper chain Saturday and Skegemog Sunday.
I decided to fish Benway Saturday morning. When I got to the boat access on Wilson it was a warm 17 degrees out with a wind chill easily in the single digits. There was some ice at the access but was not too bad and I was able to get the boat in fine. Put the boat in and went down the river to Benway. There were patches of skim ice here and there in the north section of the lake and the entire western shoreline had 10-15 feet of ice out from shore. The wind was pretty strong out of the SW so I was restricted to fishing the south side of the lake in my little boat. I fished all morning and into the afternoon with not much action. Had one fish on for about 10-20 seconds but got off before I could get a glimpse of it. It did not feel very big and was probably just a pike (at least thats what I always tell myself about situations like that to make me feel better about it).
Decided to get off the water for some food and try Six Mile for the rest of the evening. Headed up the lake towards the river to Wilson and I notice there arent any waves up on the north side of the lake. Get closer and realize that the entire north corner of the lake was frozen over. There was ice from the river mouth all the way out a good 150-200 yards I would say. The lake literally froze up around me while I was fishing all day. Luckily it did not have enough time to freeze very thick and I have a v-bottom boat so I was able to plow threw it with the gas motor to get to the river mouth. The ice at the access though, was not so thin and was probably a good 3/4 inch thick already. Was not easy getting the boat back on the trailer and I messed up one of my tail lights on the trailer backing it in…
Was able to fish Six Mile for awhile but the wind got worse and I called it a day after a couple more hours of skunk when the troll battery died. Sunday was warmer but the wind was twice as bad. Went to Skeg in the morning and the lake already had white caps so I didnt even bother accessing and decided to throw in the towel for the year up there and went home to watch football instead…
It was a long year up there for me with countless hours of hard work and nothing to show for it. Ill be back at it even harder next year.
"Jim tenHaaf" said:
[quote="Kingfisher"]Wow, glad you got out . Murray is still open. It is a real good late season lake. Mike
I don't think Jason vk will agree with you!
Lol definitely won't; 'bout threw my shoulder out casting megadussas and pounders while the old man tried spinnerbaits, bondys, gliders, and others with nothing to show for it.
"Chris Musselman" said:
Dude, sorry I didn't join. I've got thin blood and I don't last long in that kind of weather. Sorry to hear you didn't get rewarded for toughing it out. Never seems to work that way…
No problem at all man. I dont blame you one bit. My Grandparents, who I stay with up there, think I have a serious mental problem…To be honest, your fish back in November was the reason I went back up one more time. SO I have you to blame for my fun little Saturday haha.
"MattG_braith" said:
[quote="Chris Musselman"]Dude, sorry I didn't join. I've got thin blood and I don't last long in that kind of weather. Sorry to hear you didn't get rewarded for toughing it out. Never seems to work that way…
No problem at all man. I dont blame you one bit. My Grandparents, who I stay with up there, think I have a serious mental problem…To be honest, your fish back in November was the reason I went back up one more time. SO I have you to blame for my fun little Saturday haha.
I am too jealous that you were able to get out… I have been trying to get back there for the last month and a half and it hasn't worked.. the closest I came was manistee and all I found were a bunch of half dead coho… I'd much rather have frozen my butt off in a boat looking for toothy beauties in the chain.
Weeellll, maybe they want something a little smaller???? Shelly caught a bunch last year on little bass size spinner baits. And we moved upper 40 class fish and one 50 plus on baits under 7 inches. Those smaller lures will also keep you from becoming crippled by the time you reach my age 😀
I love fishing big just as much as the rest of you guys but I stopped being a one trick pony a long time ago. I'm guessing you guys don't even own a crane 205 bait. when the bite is tough many times it takes finesse and down sizing to get results.
Yes , you will catch more small fish but the bigger ones will bite too. smaller twitch pause lures are easy targets for lazy fish that dont feel like eating a pound of rubber. Last season proved to me beyond any doubt that there is a small bait late season bite on Murray. I cant tell you why just that we did real well in December just before ice up. Even our Suckers were small ones ranging from 8 to 12 inches. ALMOST EVERY ONE OF THEM GOT BIT at least once and one of them twice.
Just sayin 😀
I have a lot of smaller baits including many cranes, shallow raiders, moski lillyhammers, big games, and your little claws but don't really use them much in the fall. We did throw some spinnerbaits and gliders, but didn't have any action on them. I didn't think to throw small twichbaits as we were fishing the deep weeds (15'+) and the fish are usually tight to those weeds so didn't think a bait only going down a foot or two would have action. I'll definitely have to try it next year though or maybe even a time or two this year still [smilie=biggrin.gif] .
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