Quillback

A new state record Paddlefish was confirmed this week! James Johnson was on a guided fishing trip, visiting from Minnesota when he caught the 118 pound, 9 ounce giant on Beaver Lake! Mr. Johnson and his friend were fishing for Striped Bass when he caught the Paddlefish on a trailer jig on August 27, 2020. This record breaking catch measured in at over 5-feet at 69 inches of total length and had an impressive girth of 44 inches! The fish was weighed and verified by AGFC Biologists and the application was approved and signed by the Chief of Fisheries. The previous state record was caught in 2015, weighing 105 pounds.

Last night the local weather dude was talking about the potential for some unusually cold weather starting late next week. Coincidence?

Clicked on the link and it appears to be deleted, but anyway sorry to hear there was a fish kill, hope it wasn't too bad.

Feider would be a good source for fishing Mille Lacs, he's from Minnesota, probably has fished that lake a lot.

It's a hatchery fish, put in the lake to provide something for people to enjoy catching. That fish accomplished the mission. More browns will get stocked, a few will get huge and hopefully someone catches them before they die of old age.

Yes, very nice looking ride.

Yeah it is what I use too. I'll usually bring a few extra spinning reels with the leader attached as I try and avoid tying that knot on the water. As far as fishing a drop shot, I usually fish it vertically, I look for fish near the bottom in 20-30 FOW and when I see some I'll either drop it straight down or cast if out a short distance and it fall, it's not unusual for fish to hit it on the drop.

They work best for me starting pre-spawn until late summer. Hard to beat a Keitech, downside to them is that they are fragile, but I've never seen another bait out fish them. I like a jighead with a short shank hook, leaves more body free to kick. I like to pause the bait during the retrieve, let it fall, it will often get followers to bite. Edit: Keitechs kick real well on the fall, some swimbaits just won't kick that easily unless you fish them fast. Test them out by letting it fall near the boat where you can see it and look to see how well it kicks. Great bait for bass, walleye, stripers, hybrids and whites. I'll usually go with a match the hatch approach as far as size. When fall rolls around I don't get as many bites on them, spoons start to work better for me for shad chasers. Early spring I'll throw them right up on the bank, once post spawn sets in I'm out looking for suspended schools off deep water near cove mouths or off the bank on gravel points.

Berkley ran out of stock on these at a bad time, they are missing a lot of potential sales.

Yeah Magic Eraser is basically a very fine grit sandpaper, I would not use it.

Never been myself either, but if you do a search on Mille Lacs fall fishing I bet you'll get a few videos to watch.

2nd Weekend of December? I'm not sure yet if I will attend this year depending on Covid conditions. I'm going to wait until it gets closer to make a decision.

During my working days I looked forward to three day weekends, now that I am retired not so much. Get off my lake!!! LOL.

There can be massive schools of 6 lb smallies boiling all day on top and I still will not be on the lake that weekend.

Thanks for the heads up, I need to schedule some appointments, might as well get them done that week.

I've been fishing the local Bella Vista lakes lately, just not up for the one hour drive for a few hours of morning fishing. But looks like the weather is going to cool down again, the kids are back in school and we will soon have Labor Day weekend in the rearview mirror so things are looking up.

I have wondered about this myself - I see it with stripers, hybrids and black bass. I believe they can hear the other fish popping on top and that triggers them. Maybe they hear it or sense it through the lateral line. But it seems to happen a lot, fairly quiet, then they are blowing up everywhere, then it quiets down again for a minute or two. When used to have an aquarium, I'd tap lightly on the cover before feeding them, soon as I'd tap, they'd be swarming on top ready for that food.

Big thing about stripers is finding them. In the winter there should be some back in the coves, Indian creek, Honey creek, all the way down to Prairie creek. You just have to get out and look for them, look for shad, top water activity, keep an eye on where other guys are fishing, that sort of stuff.

I used to fish saltwater myself quite a bit, mainly trolling for salmon, it was always with bait casters, and I liked Penn 309's. Like TJM says you really don't need a saltwater dedicated reel especially for a short trip, just rinse it off every day and you should be fine. I haven't fished for redfish myself, so no idea on appropriate spinning rod, but I think a 7' 6" medium action would work fine unless you're going after those big 30 lb. bull reds.

I have some great side scan images of that place, just can't figure how to post them here.

Nice range of species.

I went back today and caught another 4 good sized gills on the swimbait. I now have plenty of fillets so will probably leave them alone for a while. They are out chasing shad over 40-50 FOW, so I don't know if fishing worms will get them, but it is certainly a possibility. I have thought about some really small swimbaits on little tungsten heads, Z-man makes some little 2 inch paddle tails that could be the ticket for these open water shad chasers. The bass in this lake just moved into one of the coves and they are in there thick chasing shad, had a good late morning throwing the Keitech at them. Had another 8 boats or so there with me, but could still get in there and get some. Hard to ignore the bass and chase the gills when the bass get going on this shad bite.

Congrats JF on some new species! Those copper nose are pretty cool. I wonder if that camo sunfish has some redear in it's genes?