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Post by slapfish on Apr 9, 2012 10:46:27 GMT -6
Park Point near bridge. Duluth,MN ---Also be prepared to clean your net the debris goes out as far as you can walk. Good Luck
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Post by mailman on Apr 10, 2012 1:14:08 GMT -6
Lester was better than Friday night but 4 smelt wasn't quite my idea of success :)I do have a couple guys lined up for Thursday if seining is a reasonable option at the point. 2 of my 4 smelt tonight were gifted to me by a couple UMD guys that were down there till about 10:20. I stayed til 11:30 and called it a night.
Paul
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rdyzz
Full Member
Posts: 21
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Post by rdyzz on Apr 10, 2012 9:57:06 GMT -6
was up at park point last night, this is our 1st year using a seine net, it must be our technique or the fact we dont know how far out you can go. the water was calm really amost virtually no waves. we got 1 and that was it, our 25 ft long 4 ft tall minnow seine net was a complete failure...... two other locals, not sure if they post on this blog at all, was saying somthing about how we could pick up a better net at their bait shop. they had a white net that must have been a good 100 ft or so and 4 ft tall with very big slack section in the middle. those two guys ended up getting close to maybe 5 gal worth in 2-3hrs or work.
we got there at 9 pm and left at 2 am, was very disapointing to find out our equipment and our technique wasnt cut out for this trip. we did U the net, but you cant quite compare the surface area a 25ft net could cover to a 100ft one, and the experiance guys whos been doing this 5+ years to ones who just started lol... right about the time we left the sand by the wash up started freezing and was hard as a rock and quite slippery too.
not sure if it was the cold that prevented more to come out. or the cold that made them stay out so far 150yards out or so my uncle claim to have seen a school or them.
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Post by upnorth3436 on Apr 10, 2012 11:13:04 GMT -6
With a short net you may want trying getting one end of your net 10' to 15' in front of the other end, keeping the U shape in the net. Good luck.
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Post by dominodaves on Apr 10, 2012 11:18:41 GMT -6
They were using a Christiansen net. They are expensive, but worth the money. Their info is on the main page of this blog. I'm not sure on the regulations, but I think there is a 25' limit on the size of the net. And they are hard enough to pull. I can't imagine pulling a 100'er!
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Post by dominodaves on Apr 10, 2012 14:05:10 GMT -6
OK everyone, I think it's nearly time for things to pick up and start running pretty good. I thought that things might pick up a bit sooner, but as usual, weather has delayed things some with a few days of a easterly winds keeping the area pretty cool. Now we had the coldest cold front in a month come through and cool things a bit more...but some people are still catching a few in the Lester and the Point has started to produce as well. So this is telling me that the little tasties are getting ready regardless of these recent cold spells.
So my opinion is this...if we get any kind of warmish weather and sunny days to help warm the shallows and rivers, and we don't get a lot of easterly winds, things will start to significantly pickup quickly. So be ready! I think somewhere in the next 10 days we will start to see the peak. The only thing that I see that could mess things up for the rivers will be any heavy rains that could blow out the rivers and grind things to a halt. But the forecast really doesn't show any of that yet. So they are ready, primed, and just need a little kick start....just like us... ;D ;D
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Post by upnorth3436 on Apr 10, 2012 17:59:30 GMT -6
A small green salad, few oven fried potatoes and a large plate of fresh SMELT. Wow this living in the north woods is a tough life, don't ya think?
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Post by hookertoo on Apr 10, 2012 18:18:48 GMT -6
A friend of mine who lives on Park point said his son and friends caught 2 buckets on the Point last night. The commercial pond nets did well last night. I think we can expect a run anytime now. The forcast calls for east winds, lets hope they are not to hard.
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bgood
Full Member
Posts: 19
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Post by bgood on Apr 11, 2012 7:23:30 GMT -6
If anyone needs a puller or someone wants to pull with my net, give me a call, 218-391-9553. Also, what license do I need, just the MN nonresident or do I need the great lakes license too?
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Post by dominodaves on Apr 11, 2012 8:25:35 GMT -6
Just a MN liscense in MN for smelt. What kind of net do you have too pull bgood?
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Post by beidel14 on Apr 11, 2012 8:51:28 GMT -6
was out at the first parking spot on park point last night with my gf and we averaged about 40 fish per pull. It was a perfect night out little to no waves not much debris. This was her first time being in duluth and first time pulling a net what better way to get her hooked on it. We left about 11pm with enough for the season. Id say they are running and looks like decent weather next couple days to improve the run. Good luck guys and gals.
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Post by dominodaves on Apr 11, 2012 9:26:47 GMT -6
Great report Beidel14. He's probably correct peeps! They usually start running on the Point 1st. So if he was pulling 40 per that's pretty descent...and the other reports are coming in pretty consistent as well for the Point. So if you have a seine, it's time to hit the Point! This also means that the Lester is do to pick up any day now! And since we have a weather system coming in on Friday, I would bet that they will start running there before then as well. Time to suit up as Barnie says! I hope we do not get too much rain and mess things up....
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bgood
Full Member
Posts: 19
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Post by bgood on Apr 11, 2012 9:28:17 GMT -6
I have a 25 foot frabil, works pretty good for me
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Post by dominodaves on Apr 11, 2012 9:36:35 GMT -6
Bgood, the UMD guys are planning on heading out tonight, and they are going to start at the Point, I will forward your number! Good Luck, and keep us posted!
Who knows, if I can swing it, I just might be there to give you a hand as well!
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Post by schmelty on Apr 11, 2012 9:37:02 GMT -6
Domino..Thoughts on the Lester?
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