Swan Lake

[Crash04]

Heading over to Swan here in a bit to check the ice and do a little fishing if its safe.   I'll have a report on here when I get back.

[sandhiller]

Hmmmmm, that's about 5 hrs ago, must have encountered some good fishin!  
    I hope anyway

[Crash04]

Well 2-5 inches of ice.  Went to the west end where it startes to bottle neck down.  About 50 or 60, 5-6 inch perch.  Did not do alot of moving around because where ever there was snow the ice was about 2 inches thick and weak and there is alot of snow.  fished for about 4 hours in a shack with heater going so the ice is pretty good where there is no snow cover.  Clear, could watch the perch hit.

[BojiHawk]

With ice this fresh...could be a very good thing...or a very bad thing....lol.

I would love to hear what went down there.  There are some nice ones out of there from time to time.

[BojiHawk]

Did you see any pike under you?  They put some in there in like 2006 if I remember right....might be some big ones in there but I don't hear people talking about it as a pike lake much.   

[Crash04]

Only seen perch.  There are some better ones out there, they where all the same size so we should of moved around to find the better ones but the ice was a little sketchy.  There are some good gills in there also if ya can find them.   

[hankthecrank]

Well I never had anything to do with it, but I heard rumors that it got pretty well beat up last year, people taking there limit day in and day out, within the law, but,,,,,,,,,, well I'll let you decide.

[Crash04]

I fished it few times last year and when the fish start hitting people hammer these places pretty hard.   I'm glad they lowered the limits on panfish.  I think !0 panfish would be even better and I know a lot of people that will argue with me on that but you get 10 good panfish and thats enough for a good meal.

[BojiHawk]

As with any lake...whatever there is the most of should be targeted.  Up at the Iowa Great lakes, we caught nothing but sub-legal walleyes.  Protecting the 17-22" fish for 4 years has created a decent population of 4+ pounders now and some 10+ trophy fish are probably going to be appearing in years to come.  I spose the difference is a 14.5" perch eats as good as anything...even though it would be considered a trophy fish to a lot of people.

No...a 10 fish limit on those lakes is very reasonable.  No arguement here.  Maybe even put in a "2 fish over 12 inch" clause would help those little lakes produce some Devils Lake caliber perch.  Enforcement on those4 lakes is tough though.  About 5 years ago we were leaving Goose and 2 NGPC guys came out of the woods by the ramp...I kid you not....like deer.  Stopped us and went through the coolers.  Funny thing was, there wasn't any pike in that lake over 18" due to the renovation.  I guess if people are keeping 18" pike it makes sense.  But that whole situation was surreal.  I couldn't stop chuckling since we had no fish nor did any other of the 5 people on that lake.  Still never figured out where they parked or what made them do that.  Makes a guy think though...if you can't ethically harvest some resources...you might get a hand from big brother ;-)....he's watching more than you think.