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Posts: 129
| We fished Tonka this morning. The rain and clouds
kept the boats fairly sparse. The water temps are mid 70s,
which is quite a bit warmer than last weekend. The fish were aggressive
and we caught everything except a musky. We had no follows, but saw two guys
C&R one off of a point. Does anyone have an idea about what to expect after this
influx of water?
Tom |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | My weekend was not what I expected... best laid plans... yadda, yadda...
I did get out on Tonka Monday morning [6am to 10am]. Dark, cool, blustery... post cold front... I threw hair, cranks and a suick. Nothing. I did mark some big fish suspended at 20 ft in 58 ft of water, off one of the structures I was working [the drifts were FAST].
Everything seemed shut down. Not even a slimer [northern].
I only saw one 'big' boat... other than that, about a half dozen fishing boats. Nice change of pace, and it will only get better from hear on out.
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Posts: 113
Location: Shoreview, MN | Fished Forest Friday 2-8. Wind was blowing pretty good out of the south and with the warm, stable weather I had great expectations. I pounded the windy sides to no avail. Had a small one follow a Topraider, and another small one blow-up right at dark. Otherwise nothing. Lake is pretty murky, but pretty decent weeds out to 7-9'. |
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Posts: 827
Location: Minneapolis,Minnesota | Sunday
Fished a large west metro lake, half dozen follows in the AM. The front rolling in made them go. My partner got a 48" on a topwater and I got a 42" on a Bulldawg right after that.
Monday
Fished a small west metro lake, we got out there about noon and I had a 37-38" in the net by 12:30 on a Walleye 'Dawg (thanks Dennis L.) My partner lost a nice low-mid 40's fish boatside on a bucktail. Not a bad 3 hours of fishing.
Heading out tonight, not sure what lake? |
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Posts: 129
| Fished Tonka this morning. Nice water temps and good conditions.
One nice follow with an open mouth and gills starting to flare,
but I ran out of real estate and the fish veered off. Northerns
are still hitting hard.
Tom |
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| Fished Waconia Sat. 11th. To my unwanted surprise I got to the access at 7:00 and parking was already in overflow. I asked a guy at the dock and he said there was TWO tournaments going on. Thats to times in a row on that lake and there have been tournaments. At least they werent musky tounaments. I dont know why I stayed but I still managed to boat a healthy 37 incher. The surface temps are hovering around 68-69 degrees. The weeds are still real strong and thick on the reefs. Finally, I have a question -when I was waiting for my fishing buddy to come and back in with the trailor I saw some guys taking photos of a fish on shore. From my distance it looked like a small norhern. My guess is that it was the winning fish in the 4 spieces tournament that was going on because there was a small crowd and one guy had a clip board. When I asked the guys at the dock they said it was a 9 pound ski. Granted he let it go off the dock, but isnt it illegal to even have possesion of that fish? Dont you run the risk of the fish dieing in the livewell? I was going to say something but I wanted to get my facts straight before I go preaching on my soap box to a bunch of anglers. |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | I had one of my most active musky fishing days on Tonka ever saturday.
I got out to my first spot... first cast, a chunky 40 incher follows up to the boat, I go into a figure 8... she just kind'a hovered about 12 ft off the side of the boat and watched... on the third '8'... she bolted off. A good start, I thought!
I caught a couple of 24" Northerns...
I was burning my bucktail in, completing an 8, and casting, always watching the bait. I'm standing on the very front of the forward casting deck, within inches of the trolling motor. As I reel in and begin my 8, and I see a muskies head poke out from under the boat [the fish couldn't have been more than a few inches from my slow running trolling motor], as my bucktail passes it's nose, bang... she's on~!
I free spool and thumb her some line. She takes a nice power run as I loosen the drag a bit... three more runs and she's ready to unhook. I only had one hook from the treble in her, and I was fishing alone, so I brought her up to the side of the boat. I noted the length from markings on the side of the boat as I gently grabbed her on top of her neck. I reached down and flicked the hook out of her with the needlenose pliers and let her go. She bolted to the depths free and easy. I measured from spot to spot... 44"
I started casting again, caught a few more northerns [biggest was a chunky 26 incher]...
I moved to the next spot, and was casting a large tandem spinnerbait, a 32" - 34" musky took a spirited shot at it, but missed... couldn't get her to go again.
I caught a few more notherns
The next spot brought another musky to the boat, a solid 41" - 42" fish... followed the 8 three times like a champ... the hair of the bucktail was tickling her nose... but then she spooked and bolted off... couldn't raise her again.
Then next spot produced a few northerns... as I reeled in my bucktail [hey, it was producing, so I stuck with it] a small northern was racing to catch it. As I'm watching this, I see a shadow under my leader, bucktail and the northern. A huge musky was 'following' under the bait and northern... Wild~!
The northern grabbed the lure, the big musky did one of their classic 'flick turns' and hovered for a few seconds and disappeared.
What a wild day! I saw five different fish and caught one... plus a bunch of northerns...
I went back out sunday, no muskies, but I caught a few northerns...
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | MuskyTom,
Please drop me a line at: [email protected]
Thanks, |
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Posts: 113
Location: Shoreview, MN | Fished WB Fri from 12-5 - south wind howling, cloud cover, thunder in the distance....nothing - man was it dead - not even a snake. Threw tails, topwaters & cranks ... ultra shallow to 30+' deep. Must have just hit a bad time when things were shut down. |
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| Thanks for the post on Tonka, I enjoyed reading it! I was out Sunday and things were much slower for me, I raised 3 fish and had a mid-40's fish blast a phantom but I never got hooks. One think that I can never figure out is the northerns, one day you'll catch 12 and the following day you never get a bite. I don't mind them not biting but always wonder if the muskies follow a similar pattern, they don't for me? Some days all you see is muskies and the northerns don't bite.
I have one spot, actually two where I see a low 50's fish almost everytime out. The one fish is easy to identify as it's got some unique markings. But how do you get these things to bite, I have brought one big girl up on 5 different lures (different days) and it won't bite. Maybe I need to get out there before a storm or something. Anyone else find fish (big ones) to just key in on one particular area like this? |
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | tom a.
I've got a deal for you give me the gps co-ord's for your big gal and I will go there and catch, photo and release her. Then when I'm done I'll tell you how I did it . . . serious
Edited by marine_1 9/13/2004 11:25 AM
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Posts: 259
Location: Alexandria, MN | Tom A
I know what you are talking about. Last year I caught 24 muskies on Tonka,
with 2 over 50" -- Those 2 50's and some of the others were a long process. I would
see them almost everytime, and always in the same spot. The fish on Tonka are getting
pounded, they are becoming harder to catch every year.
I would go back at different times of day, in different weather and try different lures.
When they went they went, there wasn't anything magic, one day they would just
come out and hit the lure.
Don't give up, just keep going back to the hole. Try a different lure, or if you are seeing her on a
spinnerbait, try adding some rubber to it for extra action and smell. Sooner or
later you will be there when she is ON, and your time will be rewarded.
Good Luck!
Steve |
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | tom, I don't think what fishin freak is suggesting is a very good idea. We had better stick to my plan just step away from boat and hand over the GPS co-ords and everything will be ok. |
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| Thanks for the follow up guys. Marine 1, I think I'll pass on your offer now - I won't tell my buddies where the big ones are at, it's like deer hunting.
Fish-n-Freak, I'm thinking like you except for the fact that I haven't been out there when they've really gone nuts yet. Don't get me wrong, I've boated some decent fish this year but nothing huge. You mention the pressure, although it's bad, if you keep looking for new spots it's still very easy to find unpressured water on that lake. Given all the shoreline, milfoil and other stucture, I'd say it's got more spots than a much larger lake like Mille Lacs has. I stay away from crowds and see fish in pretty unpressured areas. But with that said, I'm fishing 2 big fish that are on a popular spot, I just won't go there unless no one is on that spot.
What's a good bait for these fish that have seen it all? I throw alot of spinnerbaits, phantoms, jackpots (other top waters) but no plastic. |
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Posts: 267
Location: Right behind you (tap, tap) BOOO | Tom A, maybe try throwing a Dunwright Glider at them, it's a newer bait, and the action is kind of like the phantoms...
Esox23 |
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| Just a suggestion, but it seems like when many guys return to an area where they've seen a big fish, they fish it in a way that tends to promote another follow - i.e. you're trying to find out if it's still there. Instead, approach it like you know the fish is there and get very agressive - burn a bucktail, or twitch the hell out of a crank. Piss the fish off enough that it strikes. If it doesn't follow - no big deal because a follow was not what you wanted - you want a strike. Another suggestion that I've received is to try the opposite end of the spectrum and use a really slow, in-your-face preseantation like a creeper - barely move the thing so the fish gets impatient and has to eat it rather than follow it.
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| Fished WB from 2-8 - only saw one fish - mid 40's - baby Depthraider in 18' near a very sharp drop into 50+'. As far as I can tell there's nothing shallow, not even the small pike. The walleye guys seems to be working 35-45' so I'm guessing the ski's are out there too.
Anybody seeing any real pattern right now? |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | I fished Tonka from 6:30am to 3:00pm friday. I had two follows mid-40's and an upper 40's. The usual spots were not producing so I tried
some other haunts.
The wind swept shore and/or points with old cabbage were the only spots I saw fish. I talked to two other boats musky fishing, same report.
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | Boated a 42 and 36 on Saturday fish were in their typical spots. |
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| Boated a 42" & 40" on Saturday also, fish were going pretty good. |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | I took the day off yesterday and hit Tonka after fishing smallies in Wisconny with a friend for a couple hours in the early morning. After
beating the @#$% out of the water for 5 1/2 hours, the musky gods decided to throw me a bone...
A personal best [and first 50 incher]... 50 x 26.5 bee-yatch! What a pig~! Perfect shape, seeing that fsh in the Big Kahuna was a sight I
won't ever forget. That, and the hit on my bucktail, straight up, cleared the surface, head shaking, backflip, that was the most spectacular
sight... just AWESOME!
The houses on that shore probably won't soon forget this adrenaline overloaded idiot howling and jumping around in the boat after she
powered into the depths on the release...
My only regret was no one was with me to share the moment, and take my picture...
UNREAL!!!.... [BIG OL'GRIN] |
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Posts: 259
Location: Alexandria, MN | Thrasher,
Congrats! What a dandy -- You will have that 'film' playing in your head for a long time.
I know the feeling -- My two biggest fish were caught alone, so no high 5's, no pictures and
no help with the net. The netting job can be togh, when you are pumped up on a rush like that.
Congrats! again -- VERY nice fish. Tonka has some great potential and it's nice to see that they
are getting some girth. A few years ago, a girth like that was very rare on Tonka. I have caught
and seen some real pigs out there. Nice to have 'trophy' water so close to home.
Steve |
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Posts: 24
| Bald Eagle update
Water clarity between 0-2ft
Water temp 65-68
Bloom is still present
Some of the weeds are starting to look a little slimey and brown.
Had one hit boatside on a top raider. |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | Thanks Steve, it was WILD. I'm still pumped... having a hard time focusing on work today. I've seen some large fish out there this
year, and they are definitely starting to show some belly!
Yup, having the Big Kahuna in one hand and a fish nearing 40 pounds on the rod in the other hand was quite a 'dance'... She gave a
couple head shakes in the net, then calmed right dowm [unlike me - grin]... the release was smooth and so sweet.....
I'll be out there again saturday [I'll be the guy with a big grin on my face for no apparent reason]... and probably sunday.......
~ Terry
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Posts: 223
Location: minneapolis | Way to go Terry ! I know you've been stalking that girl since you first laid eyes on her earlier this year. Sure makes all the previous trips out there worth it 'eh? (maybe my "snake-lady" routine from our last trip out scared all the slimers away so only the big girls were left to be had ! ) Congrats! |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | Thanks Peg. Yup, I think your 'snake charmer dance' did the trick... probably confused the lakehome people, but hey...
whatever works, right? ;}
Just curious, are you gonna start a site called BabyGator.com? [ha, I kill me! ;] "Get slippery"
Keep an eye on your email... October's gonna be WILD
Well, my boats calling me... later. |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | We hit Tonka for 9 1/2 hours on saturday... nothing shallow, nothing in the green weeds, finally had two follow in working steep drops.
The fish were pretty sluggish.... both low 40's. They came in slow, about 5 ft behind the lures, and just veered off about 12 ft from
the boat.
She was a chilly, windy one saturday.... |
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Posts: 27
| Fished WB Sunday a.m. Water temps 61- 62 degrees. Fished inside and outside weed edges deep and shallow. Saw no fish  |
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Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | I hit Tonka last night for a couple hours after work. Seems like it's been a while since I've fishing with cloud cover and winds under 20mph. It was kind of weird ;}
I saw one fish, decent size. Wasn't really a follow... she was just kind of showed up boatside. She may have followed in part way and then just hung around the boat from that point, I don't know... I was near a steep dropoff, maybe she just came up to see what all the fuss was about...
I'm bringing a co-worker out to Tonka saturday. He's never musky fished, so we will have some 'virgin' mojo in the boat~!... always a good thing! |
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| I was out for the first the other night. Nothing, zilch, nada....I have not been on Tonka for 4 weeks....Where should I concentrate? Shallow, deep? What lures are most productive this time of year? I was throwing bucktails, top waters, a Crane and slow rolling a spinnerbait.....Need help... |
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