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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 17, 2013 12:11:27 GMT -6
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 18, 2013 9:01:07 GMT -6
thanks guys. it helped we were down working it till 3am got just enough to make a meal.seemed like size and numbers keept dropping. driving down we saw a black bear walk up to highway and two red foxes! compared to last weekend we had seen 2 dozen dear. good number of people working break wall, less out farther on point. strong wind seemed to lay the waves down. my partner had a wave come up over her completely.got 4
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Post by dominodaves on May 18, 2013 10:36:29 GMT -6
Morning all, my wifey decided she wanted to go. So I took her last night. We met bgood at the break wall. He checked out the park and the waves made it nearly unseineable, so we decided on break wall. We were catching smelt and tons of debris, that east wind had moved it all down next to the break wall. We were getting 3-30 per pull and losing a lot at shore because of trying to avoid the debris. Bgood had to leave early so I sent him home with all the smelt, maybe a gallon. So we went up to the Lester in hopes of better success. Getting there we found plenty of folks just standing on shore by fires. No smelt showed up at all, a couple zombies out doing a few token scoops looking pretty depressed. So we stopped by the break wall on our way home to see if things busted lose. Not really, but people were still catching them and slowly filling some coolers. A group pulling 2 nets had a cooler about half full. Doing about the same as earlier. Not great, but getting them.
I think I saw polar bear carrying small round cooler with a smile on his face. It looked heavy!
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 20, 2013 7:05:00 GMT -6
yep! that be me. being new to it all. got there around 7pm walked and siened it all by daylight studied bottom. afew wooden posts just next to break wall. i snagged my new net once and got one tiny hole in it.(bummer). the cristenson net(with optional bucket) is the ticket. one of the nicest nets i have. without pulling out my old comercial seins(for suckers). netting at 7pm by daylight not even a shinner. by 9pm sun was set and getting dark fast. kept netting every 20min. finaly at 9pmish got 2 fish. next pull got like 4. then 6. it picked up quick. was gettting like a dozzen on every pull. best pull was around 100(about a gallon by my guess). 3 groups of people working it. some showed up and left when they saw the waves. looked like 3-4ft but not much wind. compared to sat we had 20mph but flat waves. stayed till around midnight or so. had around 4 gal or so. wife got dunked in water(with wet suit) but wasn't digging the wet face, so my kid took over. hes a beast with a net. wont stop. and has the feaver to take it out deeper than he should. all n. all i think i got around 8-9 gal thru weekend. also of interest im trying to get feel for how much waste. im guessing around 1/4th is head and guts. does this sound right? I used orange juice bottles full of frozen water to cool my fish down(same as all night bait fishing cats on river) 2-3 bottles and i still got ice this morning laying around. ..and sand on everything. left a set of insulated gloves on my car and drove off. with the best set of gloves a sealed set of dry gloves that seal against your wrists. hard to put on if your not used to it. takes 2 people. and tricky. once your used to it. they will keep you dry. i got mine at scuba center in eagan. around $40 or so.(dry gloves for drysuit scuba diving). will post some pictures perhaps...thanks all for tips. ..popo
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 20, 2013 8:10:23 GMT -6
enjoy the pictures looked like 4ft waves on sat evening around 7pm. no fish yet! truly nocturnal fish up to just under 9inches!
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 20, 2013 8:21:12 GMT -6
over last few days i got in a few discussions on how to properly pull a seine! interestingly i had a guy tell me to pull it tight and pull it like a flat wall. and that would keep the bottom in contact with ground. i witnessed afew people running around like chickens without heads pulling a 25ft seine, yet only probably 8ft apart from partner.(probably not effectively). my method is to produce a bowed bucket. just like minnow seining.(which i have did commercially previously with larger 50ft custom nets). you would pull bottom lead forward, and let top lead out farther back. the pols you hold at an angle roughly 45 deg pointing backwards or greater. this produces a giant bucket out of the hole net. in the darkness you could see black lines of smelt swimming or laying all over on the produced hoop, all the way up to me(the line pulling tender).. at this point i noticed that if you didnt pull it fast enough many fish would end up on the front leading edge. almost escaping. if you pulled faster, i felt that the bottom lead was lifting off the bottom. i never really saw jumpers jumping out of water like typical burster in sucker or chub netting. with suckers you will lose fish to jumpers and to fish avoiding the net by diving to bottom and finding open gaps were net comes off bottom. that and large schools of suckers will just simply out run the front net... i have much to learn about this sport. cant wait till next year. would like to put an infra red camera on my net to see what is really going on with these fish.
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 21, 2013 15:20:48 GMT -6
hey do you think any more run will continue yet this weekend on the beach? or is it basically done. also are there any other similar beaches with soft sandy bottoms that lend themselves to this type of harvest,,.. yet are farther north. my contact from grandmarais seems to think its still going to be a week or two before they start running that far up.
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Post by dominodaves on May 21, 2013 15:56:21 GMT -6
PB, You might be the only one left on this forum still chasing the run. It's hard to get a feel for the run because everyone has already got all the smelt they want, I think. So there has been very little posting going on about recent successes or failures. Simply put, most of us are done. But, I will give you my 2 cents worth. Yes, I believe they will still be running on the beach this weekend. Not great, but I'm sure there are a few schools still looking to do their deed. So I think you would get some, especially if the conditions get better. As for the rivers. We had so many people get so many on the beach this year, it's been hard to get regular posts on the river action. But I do know this, if your contact is a DNR guy up by GM, don't wait. If the water is flowing, and the ice is gone, I would be dipping right now. The Temperance is a great bet. Everyone always thinks the water needs to be so warm, it doesn't! I would think Shredder would know. But I'm not sure if he is out anymore this year. This is such a late spring...I just have nothing to compare it to....so I really don't know how much longer they will be running... ?
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Post by shredder on May 21, 2013 16:48:46 GMT -6
work sux, I don't even get a day off this week, and was busy last week, or I would have tried the Temperance, but I would think they are there, the rain, however, is making things interesting I'm sure.
Good luck to all who try!
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Post by Willie Caught'um on May 22, 2013 17:03:02 GMT -6
Has anyone heard about the smelt report in Silver Bay area?
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on May 23, 2013 7:26:43 GMT -6
im still fishing for info. looking for more shores or river mouth spots that can be seined. any reports from anyone thats been on the point in last few days?
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on Jun 7, 2013 12:14:31 GMT -6
Curious when the last smelt was taken? also curious is it possible to get these farther off shore during mid summer? as the grocery store offers them fresh thru out the year. they must come from somewhere?
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Post by popolarbear(POPO) on Jun 7, 2013 12:14:55 GMT -6
Curious when the last smelt was taken? also curious is it possible to get these farther off shore during mid summer? as the grocery store offers them fresh thru out the year. they must come from somewhere?
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