Mimic Minnow Fishing Early Spring Smallies.

Howdy everyone. I'm back at it again. It's a beautiful day for some kayak fishing. So I'm out here with a friend today. We're going to try for some smallmouth bass. The Minnesota DNR made a change this year. We can now target bass year-round. We don't have to wait until mid-May. We just have to catch and release them, which we typically do anyway. But if we can manage to catch some smallies, it'll be the earliest in the season I've ever caught one. It's the end of March right now. Still got quite a bit of ice along the edge, but I drove by the river a little ways upstream and it looks like the channel is open all the way through. So we'll try our luck today. See if we can find them. I'm kind of hoping that we find them in the same spots we found them last fall. There's a couple of deep holes just right up ahead here. We'll go fish around and see if those smallies are hanging around those spots. So I think I'm going to start out with a mimic minnow. I've got one of these bubblegum fire tiger colored ones. I'm going with a little bit brighter color because the water is pretty murky looking. I'd assume from snow melt running into the river and muddying it up a little bit. Yeah, we'll start out with that. I might switch to a wacky worm or maybe a jerkbait or a chatterbait. I think my buddy's throwing a chatterbait over there, so if he starts out fishing me, too bad. I'll probably copy what he's doing. Yeah, it's nice to have a friend with sometimes because double your chances of figuring out what those fish are into. I just snagged up on a rock or something down there for a second, but it came free. Yeah, I like the action of those mimic minnows. I figured that'd be a good one to start out with. Caught a wide variety of fish on these in the past. Like it says on the box, panfish, walleye, bass. It's a nice simple rig. It's pre-rigged, so you don't have to deal with rigging it up. You just tie it on and it's good to go. So, I'm excited to see what we can catch today. It's supposed to be a beautiful day. It's going to get up to about 55 degrees. Kind of got a cold front coming through tomorrow. I think the high for tomorrow is about 30, so I'm really hoping that these fish are all fired up and looking to eat. We'll work our way upstream a little ways, fish around, and find out. We're both still looking for our first fish of the day. My friend Aaron over there did have a small. He chases chatterbait up and then I missed a bite a few minutes ago, but I've been out here for about 45 minutes now just fishing our way upstream. We're almost to the area up here where we typically do really well in the fall. So, I'm kind of hoping that's where they're stacked up today. We'll work our way up there and find out. There's one. What do we got here? Oh, it's a smallie. Come here, you. Spoke it into existence. Nice. This is the earliest in the year I've ever caught a smallie. It's March 25th today. It'll probably be first weekend of April by the time I post this video, but absolutely gorgeous fish. Yeah, he inhaled that little mimic minnow. All right, well, we're on the board. Wow, what a pretty fish. Yeah, that was a good feeling. That thump at the end of my line. Yeah, we got the first one out of the way. That's always the toughest one. Hopefully, we can get a few more thumps like that. Had some junk on my jig. I think I shook it free, though. Is this a fish? Sure feels like a fish. Oh, yeah. There's another smallie. Get up here, you. Found a couple kind of right here in this corner now. It almost felt like I was just hung up on something there at first. I suppose they're another nice smallie. I wonder what these weird spots are all about. Nice fish, though. Heck, yeah, I'll take it. Catch you later, buddy. A bit of junk on my hook. I'll get rid of that before I put my mimic minnow in front of a big smallie. Yeah, we made it up here to where we'll pretty much always hammer the fish in the fall. We'll see if they're up here today. Get that wind to my back for a few minutes here. Try and drop my powerful stake right into the ice. Nope, that's not going to work. I was just watching my buddy catch one over there, and I felt the bite at the end of my line. All right, doubled up. Looked like he caught a smallie over there, too. Oh, yeah, that's a nice one. Well, we've made it up here to the spot where we'll usually find them in the fall. Kind of hoping we'd find a couple up here. It's been a little bit of a tough bite today, but I guess that's to be expected when there's still a bunch of ice and the water temp is about 40 degrees. But, hey, all that matters is that we're finding a few willing to bite. There we go. Felt that one pick up my mimic minnow. Come on over here. Yeah, there's a few fish hanging out this spot today. This is a real nice one. I don't know. The water might have magnified them a little bit. These are about the same size as the other few that I've caught. Ain't nothing wrong with that, though. Beautiful fish. It's probably about an 18-inch smallie. Getting them with the mimic minnow. Catch you later. Yeah, these mimic minnows are a real popular lure around here for a variety of fish because, I mean, they just flat out work. You definitely catch them. Thankfully, the pike don't seem to be real, real active because I only have two of those. So, if I start getting bit off by pike, I might run out in a short amount of time. Of course, that wind has got to pick up now. I'm just bouncing that mimic minnow along the bottom, trying to keep it out of the weeds a little bit. There's a lot of patches of weeds out here and if I get it into those... Oh, I just had a bite right there. I missed him, though. Let's see if he'll come back for it. I'm gonna paddle backwards just a little bit and then I'm gonna throw him right back over there if he doesn't come back for it here. Definitely felt like a bite. It wasn't my lure getting hung up on something as I was drifting back. He didn't bite my tail off, did he? No. Yeah, there's a lot of green junk on the bottom I'm That's okay, though. We're catching fish, having fun. It's just nice being out here. It's a perfect day aside from that wind picking up every five, ten minutes and blowing us around for a couple minutes, but the fish are biting. Oh, that one felt really nice. Darn it. I'm gonna sit right here and keep fishing this spot. Seems like they're just right up here in front of me. I had that one hooked for three seconds, so I doubt he's gonna come back, but maybe he's got a friend over here and it felt like a real nice fish, too. Oh, that's a bummer. Here's another one, though. He's just a little guy. He's fighting pretty hard, though. I don't know. Maybe that one I just lost wasn't quite as big as I thought. The way this little guy is fighting. Pick you up like this. Hook out of the corner of his mouth. Ah, let go of my thumb. It's a pretty little river smallie, and let's set him free. There seems to be a few fish. It's right up here in front of me, right behind this little couple of cattail stem pieces on the edge of the ice there. I always do that if I hook into a fish and lose them. Try to make a mental note of stick to it. Just a little bit too deep off the edge of the ice here to drop my power pole anchor, so I'm somewhat at the mercy of the wind today. I'll use my paddle to try to sit still here and see if we can keep catching them. There we go. This one gave my mimic minnow a nice thump. Oh, yeah, that's a nice smallie. You stay hooked. You stay hooked. Get up in my net. Oh, yeah. That's the one I was looking for over here. Jeez. Hey, settle down. Wow, look at that fish. Take a couple paddle strokes backward. I don't want to drift up into the spot where I'm catching them all. Look at that. Had him hooked right in the upper lip there. Jeez, that one's a tank. I'm going to get a measure on this one. He's about 19 and a half inches. Just a nice, thick, beautiful river smallie. Yeah, I like it. Here's one. Nice. Feels like a decent fish. Oh, man, he bit my tail off. That's a bummer. Well, I've got one more mimic minnow left. Hopefully we can make that one last the rest of the day. Oh, shoot. That felt like a really nice fish, too. We'll retie and get it back out there. There we go. I felt that thump. Oh, yeah, that's a real nice smallie. I wonder if that's the one that I just lost that bit the tail off my other mimic minnow. They just don't want me to grab them today. Man, look at that chunk of a smallie. Yeah, we're getting some real nice fish out here today. I'm going to get a measure on this one, too, I think. Nineteen and three quarters. Just a feast of a fish. Beauty. Let's go. You can swim away. Oh, just missed one right there. Just missed a bite. Yeah. See if he'll come back for it. Yeah, he came back for it. Get back here, you. Right into the net. Decent fish. Man, they're just chowing on that mimic minnow today. Yeah, he definitely wasn't coming unhooked that time. Beautiful. Man, it's been a long winter. I have missed catching these river smallies so much. I'm enjoying every minute of this today. Well, we fished our way upstream just a little ways. Didn't really find much up there. It seems like all the fish were kind of schooled up in this little area right in front of me. So, we're going to give it another quick try through here and see if I can catch one more. And then I think it might be about time to call it a day. This stomach's been rumbling. I'm ready to head into town and grab some food. We'll see if we can get one here. I think I'm going to go back to where I was catching a bunch of them earlier. See if I can get my foot on the ice over there and get this wind to my back a little bit. Might not even need to do that. I've got the fish I'm looking for right here. There's that one more smallie I was hoping for. Heck yeah. Not a bad fish. Yeah, I think we might call it a day on that one. What an awesome day it's been. Yeah, this is the earliest that I've ever caught smallmouth. I was half expecting to get skunked out here today, but it turned out to be an awesome day of fishing. We caught a whole bunch of nice smallies tossing around that little mimic minnow. What a fun way to spend an afternoon. Well, I think that's going to do it for this one. I hope you guys enjoyed the afternoon out here with me in the kayak. I had a blast. Thanks for coming along with me again. I'll see you next time.