Bass Fishing in central Minnesota

[Bob Jensen]

This week my nephew Sam and I joined Mike Frisch to chase largemouth bass. This was Sam's first fishing trip to Minnesota, something he had been anxiously anticipating. We fished several lakes between Alexandria and Fergus Falls. That's a pretty good sized area that is full of lakes that provide excellent LM bass opportunities.

Most lakes provided very good weedline action with jigworms. I wrote an article that will soon appear on our Main Page detailing the results that a new style plastic worm provided. That worm is called a SaberTail, and it really produced.

We fished Tuesday and Wednesday, Tuesday was about 35 degrees colder than Monday, but the weather change didn't effect the fishing.

LM bass can provide so much fishing excitement this time of year. If you just want to get your line stretched, find a good bass lake(they're not hard to find), tie on a jigworm, and get on a deep weedline. You'll get bit, and you'll have a great time.

Best Fishes,

[RK_unlogged]

Hiya -

Good report. Yeah, bass are a hoot this time of year. Fun when you can get them out on the weedlines with spinning gear and a jigworm. You probably perfected your jigworm technique on Long and May Lakes like I did ;)

Get an amazing number of walleyes on them too...

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

[Bob Jensen]

Robb:

Long and May lakes, that goes back to the Camp Fish days. That's where I started using jig-worms many years ago.. By the end of the summer, every bass in those lakes knew what am 1/8th ounce jighead with a 4" blue worm was. In fact, most of the bass in those lakes probably got caught several times with a jig-worm.

Wonderful memories, a great learning ground, when were you there?

Best Fishes,

[JAK]

Bob,

Glad to hear you got out with your nephew! He is sure lucky to have an uncle that is willing to get him into the outdoors, no less a chance to fish with a TV star. :)

[Bob Jensen]

JAK:

I think it is very important that those of us who enjoy fishing do all we can to make sure that youngsters or anyone else who enjoys fishing gets to go as much as possible. Rob Kimm above refers to Long and May lakes. Many years ago I was an instructor at Camp Fish in Walker MN. Camp Fish was located on Long Lake, May Lake was connected to Long Lake.

We had lots of youngsters go through Camp Fish. Those kids all enjoyed fishing, but for many of them, the only fishing they got to do was once a year at Camp Fish. Dads, moms, uncles, grandfathers, etc. might take them once in awhile, but most of them only got to go fishing when they were at Camp Fish. For many of those kids, Camp Fish was the highlight of their year. It was disappointing to learn that so many of them wanted to go fishing, but had no one who would or could take them. I often wonder how many of those kids still fish.

My nephew Sam enjoys fishing a lot, and he fishes pretty good for a ten year old. He sticks with it even when the bite isn't so good. His dad takes him fishing frequently, and I do too. If he doesn't want to go, that's fine. However, I haven't yet heard him say he doesn't want to go.

I am confident that your new son will have every opportunity to experience fishing. You're the kind of guy that will expose him to fishing, if I recall correctly, you have already done that. Every youngster should be so lucky to have a mom and dad that realize the outdoors is a good place for their kids.

Best Fishes,

[RK_unlogged]

Hiya -

Yeah, I'd hate to think of how many bass were caught on jigworms there over the years. Still work there too. I fish those lakes every so often.

I worked there from 87 till it shut down...after your time by a bit. Quite a few former CF guys still in the industry.

Great place. Once in a lifetime kind of deal.

Cheers,
Rob Kimm

[eyewall]

Now you guys are stirring the memories, I was a Camp Fish camper for a number of years, I think the last 6-7 years it was open. Man, I used to live for that week each year. I grew up on a lake and was lucky enough to be able to fish when I wanted but those were the best. Good memories. Too bad things like that seem to come to an end...

[Riggies]

Wow, I did a search on Camp Fish to see what was out there and yeah, this brings up some memories. I went there with a buddy for four years. Rob Kimm, Charlie (Chuckie) Moorie, Dalin, Chow, Biff, those were the counselor's I remember most. I kinda helped Chuck pull in a 51 1/2 muskie up in Canada on our fourth and final year camping in Canada on a musky trip. That was about 20 years ago, but my friend and I still talk about it. Caught my first muskie on that trip with Chuck too. I'm still an avid fisherman in MN and will always remember the great times at Camp Fish.