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Posts: 118
Location: Minnesota | Fished metro area as well. Had 7 follows, 3 fish hooked, 2 hit the bag... Comical watching the 1001 boats try to get off the lake before/during/after the storm... |
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| From the news here in N. WI, sounds like high volume of boats everywhere. Rhinelander paper even carried a photo from a local boat landing that was titled "Traffic Jam". Taken on a hot day, so I am sure some was recreational traffic, but also a very popular lake for fishing. |
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Posts: 32801
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I have almost given up on fishing on the weekends. The traffic on the Minocqua chain is absurd. |
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Posts: 14
| New to the forum.
Didn't get out but hoping to try tomorrow. Probably Forest Lake. Just kind of picking summer muskie fishing back up after many years off due to racing schedule. |
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Posts: 735
| I was at the Rice Lake, Wi. Farm and Fleet this morning and over 50% of the fishing item displays were empty! Never seen that before. A lot more folks out there fishing I guess. Kdawg |
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Posts: 408
Location: MN | Fished Tonka in morning, 12-10, got a 45 at 1, boat partner lost one around 7. Saw few others, smaller fish.
Hit Sugar in the evening, 6-11, mostly trolling no rips. Headed home early, lightning a bit too close for comfort. |
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Posts: 69
Location: Royalton, MN | Went up to Vermilion with my dad Sun, Mon, Tues of Opening Week. I barely saw another boat musky fishing. I can count maybe 5 in the 3 days we were up there. I was on the east central part of the lake, launching out of a resort in Big Bay. The pressure was a fraction of what I saw up there last Sept on my first visit. Contrary to the other reports here, it was a ghost town.
On Sunday, we fished hard for 7 hours after our arrival, staying out until a little after sunset. Tried the usual spots around Isle of Pines and Birch Point, and then headed up into the narrows towards Vermilion Dam Lodge to find some weeds and calmer water. Ultimately, we had no follows or fish in the weeds or rocks on that first day. Targeted 10' and under, trying a whole variety of bucktails, Beavers, topwater, and dive-n-rise. Snake eyes.
Started the next day trying for some smallmouth bass. Just planned on bassing for 4 hours, heading back in for lunch, and then musky fishing the rest of the day and probably the rest of the trip. First spot we went, within sight of the resort, we started tagging 3-4lb smallies near the beds in under 5' of water. Top 5 fish in the first 30 minutes weighed more than 15 pounds. Needless to say, we stuck with the smallmouth for the remainder of the trip. We were using swim jigs and hard jerk baits to search, and soft jerk baits and wacky Senkos to clean up. My dad caught a 32" or so musky while bass fishing, and I was able to get a pair of mid-20s walleyes on the jerk bait up shallow in midday as accidental catches.
I think future early June Vermilion trips may be somewhat bass-focused from now on. It was some of the best fishing I've had in a while. Top smallies were 5.5 and 5lbs.
Edited by BassThumb 6/16/2020 1:25 PM
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Posts: 1
| After the first week of the season my initial impression is the increased pleasure boaters have pushed my shallow patterns from last year straight out of the window. Nearly 14 hours logged out on Forest lake and have had 2 follows. Looking like night fishing starts early this year I guess. |
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Posts: 11
| happy hooker - 6/7/2020 9:26 AM
Horseshoe chain,,4 follows 1 biter 73 degrees curly leaf pondweed everywhere. is that chain now producing larger muskies? |
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Posts: 84
| Not really opener anymore, but I've had a decent start in the West Metro. 5 in the boat, all sub 40 though. Bucktails on the deep weed edges is all that's been going for me. Size hasn't mattered. 6's, 8's, and 10's have all produced. Haven't gotten a follow on anything else yet for whatever reason. |
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