Fishing the Northeast Metro area

[DrownedDesertRat]

Since I just got my boat up and running about a month ago, I've taken it out three times. The first time was just a pleasure cruise to get used to the boat. The 2nd time a part broke and I got stuck in reverse. The 3rd time I actually went fishing and had the girlfriends kid with me.

All three trips in the boat were to Long Lake located in New Brighton, just west of 35W and north of 694. All trips were early in the day before boat traffic even got started. And the 3rd trip I actually had an anchor so I could stay still.

I found a place that looked like it had some potential in a quiet area of the lake. The water was about 3 feet deep where I was casting. Now, I know there's bass in this lake but very rarely do you even see them caught. I think I found them. My first cast, before the lure even hit the water, a fish had it in its mouth. It literally jumped out of the water and grabbed it in the air. Unfortunately I wasn't ready for it and it got loose almost immediately.

I had several other hits, most of them were on top-water. Boy, have I learned that I need to practice fishing around fallen timber, and broken branches submerged in dirty water.

Didn't bring anything to the boat since I also had to entertain an 8 yr old that lost interest really quick.

Needless to say it was fun taking him around to parts of the lake which I myself had only seen once before (and that was before major storm damage to the wooded areas). We did have the pleasure of seeming several deer... one of which was a LOUD buck.

Now if I can just figure out how to get a trolling motor on this here boat of mine I'll try my hand at that.
[signature]

[DrownedDesertRat]

Silver Lake is just down the road from me, off of Silver Lake Rd and Cty Rd E. There used to be a Salvation Army camp on one side of the lake. This has since been shut down and the Three Rivers Park District bought it and is renovating it. The hiking trails and certain parts of the former camp are useable at this time with more to come.

Most of the lake is around 5 feet deep. The deepest part is accessible only by boat and I don't trust myself to even try to launch a boat from their ramp. There are two islands on this lake, one of which is accessible via bridge from the park. This is where the majority of people fish from. And this is where I went fishing from a couple days ago. I took a bunch of tackle with me. But what the fish seemed to want were either natural colors or copper.

My first cast, nothing. I was using a dark red thumpin' grub. Second and third casts nothing. Hmmm, I think I'll switch rods so I can get a little more distance in the casts. On my other rod I have a shallow diving perch colored minnow shaped lure. I stop the lure short of getting caught in a tree. It drops into the water. I look to my right to see what the girlfriend's kid is doing then I start reeling.

At first it felt like I snagged a branch (get lots of those in this area of the lake). But as I reeled in, this branch started fighting back. I yelled for a net since I could tell the fish was hardly hooked. It jumped a few times. I thought for sure this LMB was going to throw the lure back at me.

When I finally got it out of the water, it measured approximately 15 inches. I caught only 9 other fish over the next 2 hrs. One white crappie, 3 basslings, and the rest were sunnies, nothing worth keeping.

Now if I can just find somebody to take me to the deep hole in the lake.... I hear there's good size walleye in there.
[signature]