Hi

[snookchaser]

Not trying to interrupt your usual board activity, nor be over redundant.  Looking for a little help/advice.  Please see my thread "Greetings" in the new to MNO forum.

Thanks and Tight Lines

[DDSBYDAY]

   I moved snookchaser's questions to this thread. 


Long day today, getting work done to make the trip to Chapel Hill on Wed for the BBall game vs dook. 

Gear questions tonight.  I have a pair of shimano calcutta 700S's on 6'6" medium star rods, 20lb Ande mono (been used for pitching baits to sails, and trolling live baits for kings, drifting baits for tarpon). A pair of shim calc 400B's on 6' medium american rodsmith rods 14lb Ande mono (albacore, kings, snook, tarpon).  I see no need for the speedmasters, penn 555's, or anything bigger.  Several penn 650ss spinners on assorted rods, and some penn battles for light to medium line (8lb-10lb Ande mono).  I have a ton of fluorocarbon leader from 20lb-80lb, steel from 24lb-48lb, fluorocarbon and steel swivels.  Tons of circlehooks (gamakatsu tourney approved). Tons of jigheads for fishing DOAs for specks, reds, and flounder.  Hoping to not have to buy any rods and reels, but if this isn't sufficient, I want to start procuring some now.

Lures??  Specific brands, colors, sizes?  Spinners, swimbaits, hardbaits (cranks, jerks). 

I will definitely be doing some live bait fishing and hope to procure my own.  Ima download a fishing regulations pdf tonight or tomorrow.  Any tricks to catching bait, and what type of baits should I target.  Ie If I was going trophy bass fishing here, I would hit a small creek and seine some 8-10" shiners.  Striper fishing in a reservoir, I would castnet some shad at the boat ramp, or where I was marking bait on the fish finder.

Thanks

[DDSBYDAY]

   1st thing that comes to mind is live bait.  You will have to buy it.  One thing you will need that time of year is night crawlers.  Using a spinner (crawler harness) behind a bottom bouncer is an effective method of catching walleye and smallies in the often very rocky northern Minnesota waters.  Minnows can be used but they are generally trapped in smaller ponds by bait dealers.  Leeches are another popular walleye, small mouth bait.  Again they can be trapped but it is a process you will not have time or equipment for.  Keeping crawlers and leeches alive in the heat of the summer is a challenge in itself.  Frabil makes a crawler box that works well.  Keep them in the shade and their bedding moist and cool.  Leeches also need to be kept cool.  Shiner minnows are a great bait early spring and fall.  They are very fragile and there use drops off greatly into late June and July.
               Keep in mind these are just my personal opinions and others will surely chime in with their thoughts.  I think most would agree you should have

    1.  Thermacell, and bug spray.  (mosquitoes and ankle biting flies can ruin a trip)
    2.  A couple of good coolers.
    3.  Electronics with the right mapping.  Lake of the Woods and Rainy lake have their own chips in some instances.   (to be continued)

[corny13]

The calcutta 400B will be good casting reels for Northern and Muskie I use 80-100lb braid then the 100 lb fluro leader with berkely cross snap and sampo swivels.  Not familiar with your rods but I cast with longer rods esp for muskie 8-9'.  The classic live bait rig for northerns if you want to release is not a circle hook but a quick strike rig with two treble hooks one thru the snout of the sucker one thru the skin under dorsal fin.  Pike  grab the bait sideways take a long time to swallow and the hook is set on the run with usual hook up.  Bait for Northerns is usually large sucker minnows in july, hard to catch u will have to buy, .   Muskie live bait fishing is a late fall cold weather thing..
Lures several large bucktail/flashaboo spinners, giant spinner baits in white, large topwater like Poe's giant jackpot, and several rubber creature jerk baits (Bull dawgs ) lb,er for muskie size smaller for northerns they love em and wreak em. You can easily go overboard here and break the bank..

[dakids]

Love top water for smallies on mille lacs.  My favorite is rapala pop-r's in metallic blue. 

Favorite baits for muskies and pike is a single Colorado bladed spinnerbait.  Colors are black, white and firetiger.


For muskies and pike.  Speed kills.  We troll deep diving super shad raps at 5 mph in 5 to 7 feet of water on the north side of mille lacs all year long and at all times of the day.  Remove the front hook or you will have to deal with snails fouling the front hook.  your lure will be banging the bottom nonstop.  the north side of millelacs is sand.  We have also caught a lot of 8 pound plus walleyes as well.

[Bobby Bass]

Welcome to the site, you will find a wealth of information here and a wide variety of experience in just about every different kind of fish that swims in our area. Rather then try and answer all of your questions about tackle and equipment take some time and try and pick out one species at a time. I would suggest that if you have already down loaded the fishing regulations from MN you should read it several times over. From what I understand we have a few laws here that will make no sense to you from down south. Off the top of my head here in MN casting nets are not allowed you will need to buy bait and you will have to learn about our fickle laws in regarding to transporting bait and our invasive species laws.

The time of year you are coming up it is a must to have bug protection both for mosquitoes and our biting black flies. We truly are a land of 10,000 lakes and as you will discover there are a lot of different ways of to catch some fine fighting fish and some fine eating ones to. Besides the Walleye ,Northern, Musky and some world class Smallmouth Bass fishing there is some fine fishing in the big lake, Lake Superior, a charter fishing trip would introduce you to Lake Trout, Salmon and Steelhead fishing, Like we said tons of different fish to go after.

[snookchaser]

Corny, your live bait technique sounds just like live bait slow trolling for king mackerel,  I am well versed in tying stinger hook rigs. 

Our main targets will be northerns, hoping for some shots at muskies.  Deffinately want to try for some walleyes also.  I have caught smallies before in the mountains here.  This trip is to check some species off the ole list.  Fish I have read about, and watched on TV ad thought to myself, I need to do that.  As a kid I thoroughly enjoyed targeting chain pickerel, with mepps minnows.  I loved how they would explode from under the mats of vegetation in the northeastern NC cypress swamps.

I am toying with the idea of bringing a couple fly rods also, yet I might save that for a future trip depending on how this one turns out.  As far as fishing regulations, I understand the absurdity of some laws, yet I follow them to the T.

I have a small cooling unit in one of the bait-wells on my 21' yellowfin, and can purchase one for the gheenoe.  Still haven't decided on which vessel we will be bringing, however with fuel prices, it will probably be the gheenoe.  Trailering the flats boat all the way up there would be expensive.

Is there any availability of non-ethanol fuel up there?

I looked up the bottom rigs mentioned earlier for walleyes, and think I might order a few this week and try my hand at making my own.
 
Any recommendations on tackle shops up there that do online/phone orders?  I prefer not giving my money to Bass pro, or Cabellas.  The local shop guys need the money more and I think they are more vital to the success of anglers.

Thanks for the flow of intel

[corny13]

Reed's Sporting goods of Walker,MN or Thorne Brothers of Blaine,Mn will take care of your Northern Muskie needs.   Thorne brothers also has a flyfishing dept for muskie/pike  but for northerns its best to go some where u can fish northerns right after spawn like canada, or North Dakota with the fly when they are still in shallow.  Yes Premium fuel in Mn is Non-ethanol  for your boat.

[snookchaser]

Just got home from the gulf stream, caught a wahoo, 4 yellowfins, one rogue king, and a bunch of dolphin.  Getting online today to order some tackle.  Purchased a couple 8' rods on the way to the outer banks per corny's suggestion, put my pair of 400B calcuttas on them.  Broke them in on a few dolphin, and the king.

[dakids]

Pictures, we want pictures.  Soundss like a bucket list trip to me. Someday I will fish in the ocean.