Mooneye south

[WayneChristie]

My lake was a bust yesterday afternoon when I checked it out, so I hit the Bow on the way home, had 3 decent pike to shore then saw a bunch of rising fish in the same spot, so I tied on a panther martin spinner and caught my first 2 Mooneye! Feisty little buggers, and Im surprised they were at that spot since the pike could have easily eaten them. Got some pics but PB is being a knob so I cant upload and post them yet. I didnt have much for small fish gear so maybe tonight I will give it another shot with a bobber and flies or something. Dont really want to downsize too much because there are some big pike and walleye in that spot. I see a lot of fish rising in that stretch so there must be good numbers around. Thanks to some of you forum members I now know how to tell the Goldeye and Mooneye apart better, no wonder they lump them together in the regs!

[Geezle]

My lake was a bust yesterday afternoon when I checked it out, so I hit the Bow on the way home, had 3 decent pike to shore then saw a bunch of rising fish in the same spot, so I tied on a panther martin spinner and caught my first 2 Mooneye! Feisty little buggers, and Im surprised they were at that spot since the pike could have easily eaten them. Got some pics but PB is being a knob so I cant upload and post them yet. I didnt have much for small fish gear so maybe tonight I will give it another shot with a bobber and flies or something. Dont really want to downsize too much because there are some big pike and walleye in that spot. I see a lot of fish rising in that stretch so there must be good numbers around. Thanks to some of you forum members I now know how to tell the Goldeye and Mooneye apart better, no wonder they lump them together in the regs!
Yeah, I've been surprised to find goldeye and pike in the same area up here too, but it happens fairly often. I do find that there are less goldeye around when I'm pulling out pike though.

There's two ways I can think of offhand (well actually 3) that will give you a fair shot at catching both goldeye/mooneye and pike.

My favorite way to go is big-ish spinners. I like the BangTails since they've got some good weight to them for casting. I usually use the 1/2oz ones for pike but if you step down to the 1/4oz you'll be pulling in the gold/mooneye as well.

Option 2 is spoons...especially ones with a silver back. I've pulled in a few goldeye on a mid sized red and white Blue Fox spoon...I think the blue holographic kinda ones would work wll for the goldeye as well.

And finally bait. Chuck out a minnow or half a smelt under a bobber and wait :)

Oh yeah, I've pulled out a couple on a smaller white spinnerbait with a single silver blade for what it's worth...those may have just been a fluke though.

[WayneChristie]

If I can find some minnows I will give them a shot, might get lucky and hook into a sturgeon too who knows :) There are so many different kinds of fish around here its a crapshoot every time. I just have a hard time tearing myself away from the lakes and my pike. Too bad the river is so far, takes me the better part of 5 minutes if I use the highway or 10 to this hole. ;)