Been having a hard time getting fish lately. They just don’t seem to want to bite. Went out today at Lewis and Clark but caught nothing. Marked and say fish at 14 ft, nothing shallow but they were not hungry. Storm coming in may have turned them off.
Wet snowy day
A warm day, but ended up wet snowing on me. Missed 2 fish at 14 ft of water
1/25/18 lewis and clark
Went out after school on a nice 34 degree day seeking pike at lewis and clark. Managed to get 3 smaller fish in an hour, one was big enough to keep and on cleaning it was full of small minnows, I mean PACKED. Was just inside the opening still at about 15 ft of water. Might need to try shallower water already for the big fish.
January 18
Recap of the fishing week. We had some really nice weather lately so I hit the ice twice. We went out Thursday the 17th after school. Picked up 3 nice pike in about an hour right at dark st the opening to lewis and clark. Weather was overcast with a possible rain storm coming that next morning.
Move ahead to saturday, a little colder but not bad, clear blue skies, I try multiple spots. Went out of lewis and Clark about 1/4 of the way out and found 19 ft of water but no fish. Moved back in to the hole and found 22 ft of water and got one Walleye on a tip up with a trip minnow hook. Then moved to pike alley at evening and only managed one small pike with no other bites. Wondering if the clear skies had anything to do with it. Oh well, still a fun day!
Samantha gets a whopper!
Went out ice fishing today, second time this year, with lots of information to update. People have been doing really well at long creek for walleye the last few days. Temps have been warm, near the 40s, and good weather. However we got a big snow storm on Wednesday that brought along much colder temps. We tried for walleye today just outside of long creek bay in 19 fy of water but got nothing.
We then moved to my pike spot at lewis and Clark, depth was about 17 ft. We didn’t get much for a while but right near sunset things picked up fast with 4 pike hotting the ice in quick succession. Fish at 13, 8, and 6 lbs. Then Samantha catches a mpnster, 43 in 21 lb fish that is a ND whopper club size! She got her fish on a bucktail jig with a half smelt. The others came on a rattletrap and the 13 lb on a minnow and tipup. Weather was colder, 15 for a high with shifting weather from cloudy to clear and windier.
First ice 2017
First day out on the ice this year, it’s late but ice and weather has been really sketchy and all over the place. Today was supposed to be a high of 40 but a front moved through early picking up wind and cooling the temp. It’s also shut the fish down I think. We caught one pike out in the bay of lewis and Clark along the rock edge on about 6-10 ft of water on smelt. We were set up at 17 ft and saw one fish on the tpod. It was also the inaugural day for the new ice house and it did well!
Kota Ray 8/17/17
Well went out in rooke’s boat to Kota-Ray again today to mixed success. We did managed some nice perch off of the weed edge across from the back fishing dock and got a few small walleye there as well but no big bass. Weather was odd with cooler temps, cloudy, and a storm passed that seemed to shut them down. The smaller spinner jig bait worked well as did minnows on slip bobber and dead stick jigging. Overall not a bad day but not great. Also manged a trout and a nice bluegill.
River Catfishing
Went out on the Missouri River today in the yak in search of catfish. We are one week out from the catfish clash so I was hoping to find some nice cats. Put the yak in and paddled down the end of the sandbar that starts under the Lewis and Clark bridge. There was great structure and current there, with good eddies and some good split in the river chanel but I wasn’t able to put any big fish together. Found a lot of really small cats and a few shiner mostly on worm with only one hit on cut frozen white sucker and a few taps on the smelt. Weather has been nice with 75-85 high temps. I talked to some game and fish guys and they said that the cats basically spawn all season randomly as long as the water is at or above 70 so who knows where they are hiding. May need to try slower slack water next ti.e instead of deep faster pools. Water depth was around 9-12 feet in some places so it was a deep hole.
Kota-Ray on Fire
Had another amazing day at Kota-Ray for bass. Ended up catching more bass than I can count, most being in the 1\2 to 1 lb range. But did end up with 3 nice ones at 15, 16, and 17 inches long. Also caught some nice bluegills at 9 inches long! Overall the fishing for the smaller fish was great on a little spinner rig with a small jig head and a small powerbait minnow. The big bass were deep, right off the weed edge and all caught on bass jigs tipped with soft plastics. The blue black jig was the ticket however I did not try another one. Also manged some good sized yellow perch on the spinner rig, might be time to bring some home again!
Kayak Bassin Kota-Ray
Had a great day out on Kota Ray today. Went out in the yak looking for bass and I found some, eventually. Started in the usual spots throwing a chatter bait and got one small one. Then switched to a buzz bait and got an almost identical fish. Then switched to a spinner bait and got another one of the same. However I switched to a Texas rig black worm with red sparkles and that was the ticket, got 2 nice bass at 16 and 17 inches back to back and decided to call it there! Weather was nice, cool but warming after the last two days of cold and rain so that’s a thing. Little wind from the east but less than 10 mph. Had Sam with so got some great pictures! Yellow perch were all over in the bay areas and some were of good size.
