regular "work"

Like most folks in my position, there's gotta be a regular job to pay the mortgage in the winter month's, and I've not yet given into the idea of moving somewhere's to guide year round quite yet. Maybe when I'm 50. So in the meanwhile, I'll continue on with working with my hands. I'm a handyman for all intents and purposes, although I prefer craftsman. I've learned enough over the years to be proficient at just about anything but haven't yet admitted to myself that it's what I should be doing. Having spent 9 years or so behind a desk, albeit in a very good working environment, I'm destined to carve out my own niche, win or lose. This work, like a lot of my guide gig's, comes word of mouth. It's nice when folks are pleased enough to recommend you to family or friends. I've been on a bathroom remodeling tear, Ben dubbed it "pimping the crapper", I think I need to turn that into a cable TV show.

Today I went to a funeral, for the father of my good friend Ingy. Ingy had the misfortune of finding his father dead in his easy chair on monday morning. In her rememberance of hre father, Ingy's sister told an interesting story about an old scottish tradition whereas when a person passes from this life, a window is opened to allow their essence/spirit to pass through. She thanked Ingy for opening the window for his father. I was pretty moved by this, Ingy is a pretty private guy and it was a nice little insight into his thoughts. Be well brother Ingy.

Plans are being laid for the Alaskan adventure, which is getting to be just around the corner. I must admit to being a bit nervous, despite having traveled well in my day, Ive never been away from home for such a long period of time. However much I miss my gal's, Jennifer & Elsie, I know it's an opportunity I can't miss. Curt is looking forward to the time together and thinks I'll work out well as a deck hand or tender captain, I think I'll do just fine and come back with all my fingers. The added bonus of winter king fishing near town will quell my hook and line jones....

really not much fishing to report and it looks like were going to get a full on freeze with subzero highs on monday and tuesday, I think I'll stay indoors.

bloody icehole

Note to self, leave cell phone in truck when ice fishing. Yep, I dropped my phone down my ice hole yesterday, watched it most of the way to it's new home in 14' of willow river water. I was pissed of course, but I had to laugh after a while knowing it would give everyone else a good chuckle. I'll just add this to the list of items lost including keys, hats, many many sunglasses, fly boxes, tools and who knows what else. On the other hand, it was a pretty good year for catching who knows what. I seem to recall a tea-pot, muscle shirt (perforated 80's style), women's panties, numerous dock lines and a Ken doll, which I never actually got in the boat (he was tough!) but saw bobbing away, head up, steadfast...forgot my damn camera too, I laughed hysterically.

So I've finally got some pike on the brine. The pickling season has begun and the aroma of spices and vinegar will soon be permeating the house. The pike fishing was decent over the weekend, I think all told I got 8 flags, landed 3 and lost another at the hole. Saturday was brutal, 30mph winds and 10 degrees. My ice buster tip-ups were getting ice over and I missed a couple fish as a result, no flag action. The panfish bite is pretty good and the size seemed to be up a little as well. Fred joined me last night and iced some nice gills and a couple crappies, all of which are being pickled as well. I need a couple more nice pike to satisfy my obligations for Christmas gifts and such.

more to come.

few images

Flags Down

For many folks across the land, fall means harvest time and I'm no different. My thoughts turn from catch and release to release to the grease. While there's still good late fall musky fishing to be had among other things, locally my options are panfish and pike. Those of you who know me well enough, know I make a mean pickled pike. It's my grandfathers recipe and if the early ice pike cooperate, a dandy homemade x-mas gift, best I've had...seriously. So that's what's been happening. I did manage about a week or so of good walleye fishing on the St. Croix in early november. Oddly enough, it was a trolling bite on the shoreline breaks, not exactly a late season pattern on the river, and I never did find the fish deep in the usual haunts. Either way, harvested a couple limits and will be set for a month or two.

Client and good fishing buddy Jim Hirsch was back in town a couple weeks ago. He had a couple days of fishing with Brad on the Chippewa. He's a persistent sun of a gun and it paid off with a nice 38" muskie. It was the start of the cold stuff and most of the small bodies of water were getting iced over, but I had he and Dave on saturday, for something, open water somewhere....We'll we got totally stymied. Took a drive up to the apple to see about Riverdale Flowage, iced up. Drove over to Cedar lake thinking maybe we could troll? windy and partially iced up. Hmm, back to the croix? but these fellas want to cast a fly...Well needless to say, we ended up on pool 2 of the miss, trolling and enjoying a beer. total bust. that's late fall fishing for you.

So on comes the hard water. It set up really quickly, the state park already has a good 5-6" of nice ice. I've been out twice now and done as well as I expected. They cut the panfish limit back to 10 total, so a lot of sorting is required when they are going but it's fun. The terms of ice fishing are coming back to me..."Flags down, Shack back, crappis". I have a love-hate relationship with ice fishing. I adore eating panfish and pike, but the slog out, the shack back and just staring at the vex get old too fast. So far no Pike, although I did get a small largemouth on a tip-up.

So it looks pretty solid that I am going to Alaska for a few months starting in January sometime. A dear from from Hudson is a commercial fisherman in Cordova, been there for years and now has a family and a home that needs remodeling. If weather allows, I'll be joining Curt for the early part of the 2009 Halibut season in Prince William Sound as well. Curt's been on me for 20 years to come up and work and although the timing's not perfect (I'll miss my lady something fierce!) it's good in that I can make enough $$ too make it worthwhile, and one hell of an adventure. Cordova is an amazing place, no roads in and surrounded by mountains and glaciers. It's been years since I've been there so the opportunity is not to be missed. I'll return just in time for early trout season, sometime in april I suspect, all depends on the fishing.

Ben Fuego is off to Costa Rica this week on a "vendor trip", off shore billfishing at Crocodile bay. I remember those "vendor trips", nice little perk for having to sit behind a desk all day. There should be one a week.

Brad is coming down this weekend with Jen, not sure of his plans yet but I'm going to try to get him on the ice somewhere, if not just to have more suckers down for pike.

I'm off to clean the garage, wish me luck.

fall update

I've no excuse, I've been a bad blogger.  One of the things I pride myself on, is being outside and away from convenience of the computer.  Do I wish I'd have had one as  kid, no way!  But as an adult, they are a necessary evil.  Ya Ya I know, without one there would be no blog, no this no that, or means of communicating or sending your message or promoting your deal.  I recognise the importance but am guilty of ignoring it anyway.  perhaps there's something more to that, either way, I have been fishing, I mean fishing!  In the northwoods, flyrods, big gear, big fish, full blown mixed martial angling.  

I for one am really sad to see the trout season end.  It was truly a great season for myself and some very wonderful clients along the way as well.  I guided more on the stream than ever this year, that was a catalyst to spending more solo time or with wha or fred.  We got pretty dialed in if I might say, and were able to stay on big fish pretty much all summer long. I was lucky enough to have a trip the last day of the season with a couple from Maiden Rock, we caught a few trout and planted a seed for next season.

What's this mixed martial angling BS he's got going anyway you ask?  Well it goes like this.  The crew I "train" with are some of the best anglers in all disciplines going.  This exposure to high level angling puts a guy in a pretty good spot to be able to fish anywhere, anytime, for anything...cep't for widemouth bass that is, ahh maybe with a flyrod.  These dudes, guys like Ben Fuego,  B-rad, dude hale, eddy philpot, fred sparling, whahoo, fritzy, this list goes on but suffice it to say these are the best local anglers at what they do well, which is for a good plenty of them, everything.  So we tie it all together, fly gear, big tackle, light tackle all done well.  When visiting anglers talk about "picking the brain of the locals", we are the damn locals.  So that's it, combined with the sheer volume of opportunity in this area we live that makes us want to do it all.  One might say, it's hard to do it all and be proficient, more yet to be good at it all.  Here's how I go about it.  I pick my tool, based on season and the best opportunity at hand, generally involving the big fish of the desired species.  It provides the chance for change, new techniques, learned skills and time on the water with good anglers and friends. We've got this crazy idea for a mixed martial angling world championships, more later on that.

Last weekend, I was up on Spider Lake with Brad and a crew of family, friends and clients.  An amazing weekend of muskie fishing hosted at the Spider Lake Lodge, thanks to Brad and Jen for the hard work and out of this world food.  We had some great clients and with some hard work and luck, everyone got a muskie, even you Jim....This New Yorker busted his ass on saturday, got schooled by a couple nice fish but was redeemed on sunday, thanks for the entertaining boat ride, hope to do it again.

I'll say this, I have been all over the sturgeon fishing this fall.  So far on the season the boat's at 73 or so, give or take.  Good numbers but even better big fish average and giant fish landed!  For me, I've got 4 legals. two at 50", one at 54.5" and one just a hair short of 60", by far my biggest fresh water fish landed, had to be in the 60# range.  Not only my success mind you, but at least 4 clients with their biggest fish ever and Ben Fuego's freakish 55.5".  I'm going out tomorrow as well, for my last shot at targeting them this fall, the season is way too short.  The DNR should just put a no kill limit on them, allow catch and release for a longer period of time.  They are amazing fish, brute strength and stamina that shames any fish of comparable size.  

Ben was up for the weekend and we put in a marathon, about 40 hours over four days fishing. The tally for the weekend (including ingy's fish and the kids I took sunday afternoon) was 32, for a total of 1300 or so inches, average length of 41" and an estimated weight of over 400lbs. My arms were sore from reeling in big fish, how can you not like this? Seriously?  The pictures say it all.

enjoy the fall.

        

images to warm your heart

Here's to a face only a mother could love, or anyone who loves to catch big fish......

arrrgghh

OK.....so my computer got rendered useless by a virus and I've been delinquent in getting it repaired, so here's my long lost update...There's been a lot of fishing going on and I'll do my best to remember it all...

Wednesday night Fishing Club:  pretty much since spring my Bro's Whahoo, Fred aka "creek warrior" and I have been meeting every wednesday evening on a piece of local trout water to enjoy the fishing, a couple beers and get out of the house on a consistent night.  It's been good for me as it's kept me in touch with what's happening on the river over the course of the entire summer.  The fishing has remained quite good, we've been surprised by the life on the river during the warmer parts of the normal midsummer fishing lull.  Most importantly to me,  I think the guy's would agree, is the time shared with good friends doing what we love to do on a regular basis.  For me, fishing and being on the water is my spiritual endeavor, it's where I find the time to process the greater decisions of life, fine tune my connection with nature and balance out all of the flotsam and jetsam that flows at us from all directions down the river of life... sounds cheesy perhaps, but only to those who don't take the time to slow down a little and feel the flow of the water.

I've been back to Lake Michigan since my last post.  The fishing overall was kinda lousy, by our standards anyway.  We struggled to find fish in the usual depths and situations and had to completely retool our delivery after the first evening out. The deal was this, consistent east winds had been blowing in the warm water from the Michigan side, therefore forcing us to fish depths we were not quite prepared for at this time of the year.  Ideally we'd have been fishing 50 to 100 FOW, but conditions forced us out to 150 to 175 and our rigging was just not suited to working this strata.  That said, we still found fish and as it seemed, did as good or better than any of the charters running 15 lines.  Weird thing was, no 3 year old fish. they were either 18 lbs or 8...one coho as well which is a rarity for us in T'rivers.  We decided that next year we'll do an extended late june trip of 4-5 days to take advantage of the strong mid depth King bite as well as the plentiful Steelhead which always help out in filling the bag limit.  

Muskies are still on a tear in the River.  I get almost daily reports from the river rats on big fish and lots and lots of quality 40 to 48" fish.  As for myself, the boat has been spending alot of time in the garage and in fact I noticed and had to fix a flat on the trailer this fine morning... All that changes tomorrow as I'll be heading out for the morning, all this muskie talk has me feeling a bit out of the loop and I need to be the one making the calls of good luck as opposed to always getting them.  

Yesterday we had an epic float down the upper Apple.  Brad came down with the drift boat and he, Whahoo and I floated about 15 miles above Star Prairie Wi.  Rivers like the apple are the epitome of under fished and overlooked for freshwater angling, and it shows in the care given to the river, lack of access and overall availability of opportunity...Rest assured it's there, all a fella needs to do is get out with the proper craft and gear and explore.  We've been talking about doing this section for some time and now we have.  All in all it was a wonderful float but the amount of fishing water was limited overall.  Smallies were plentiful as were the pike in areas with wood and depth, but the endless sand flats made the good habitat hard to find.  In that stretch we found 2 good areas, separated by about 6 miles.  Brad did most of the oar work, supplemented with ample amounts of the Dr's Cherry Schnapps. We did contact a few muskies, got maybe a dozen smallies, or should I say Whahoo did as i could not buy a fish to save my life.   There's enough there to get me back in the fall, roll through with the Kayak and wade fish the good water.   

There's much more to report and I'll do so tomorrow or saturday, getting the computer back and I've got gobs of great images to add as well....

get the hell out there and fish!   

muskies En Fuego!

So ya.....it's been a week or so since the last update, maybe a bit more in fact....There's been a bunch of fishing going down, but my computer came down with a virus and I'm having to add this report from my lovely Gal Jennifers, until I get de-bugged.  What is their point anyway, worms, spam, virus etc....get a damn life hackers.

Lets see...I'll start with yesterdays action and work backwards.

I was on the River yesterday with Joe and Tom Hackbarth, father and son team from River Falls WI.  It was to be the Croix mixed bag day, but we got a little sidetracked with MUSKIES! The muskie bite has been terrific in mid summer form so that was to be the focus till noontime lunch break.  We started out with a couple trolling passes to see what and where, the first 2 passes nothing, and I could sense the need for a little action so I convinced them the 3rd pass was a charm and my gut told me to stick with it. It's a damn good thing because straightaway on pass 3 we stuck a fully airborne 44" stud of a muskie, Tom was on reel duty and within minutes and some struggle we got this very hot fish onboard.  OK, enthusiasm levels sufficiently redlining now, high fives and pictures all around then came the real work.  As happens, the fish just engulfed the bucktail and I had to do some minor surgery and get in the water with her to get this fabulous creature revived and swimming strong.  Both Tom and Joe understood the importance of a clean and safe release so we took our time. after a nice ride along the boat, mouth agape, she was finally ready to go.  We all felt great having not only netted her, but more importantly released her to fight again.  Good job men!  NO sooner had we gotten lines back in and just settled down from the excitement that was the first fish, WHAM!  There's another!  controlled chaos that is a muskie on a planer board.  Same bait as last fish, Tom on the reel once again.  Another great fish and great fight, but this one spared us the revival issues and came off just as I slid the net under her. 2 fish in 45 minutes, needless to say we were stoked!  This one taped out at 42", not quite as heavy as #1, but really spunky as these 40ish fish seem to always be.  So cool, Tom @ 15 gets his first two Muskies and I got to be a part of it....Love my job!  Off we went to afton State Park for lunch and while the afternoon provided none of the excitement of the morning, we finished off the day in fine style; full and happy with memories of big green fish with teeth!

While were on the muskie talk....The Image on the top of the blog is of Rick Demarchis from the twin city area with one of his 2 muskies landed last wednesday morning.  Rick was with a group from 3M and Excel Energy and the one guy in the bunch who had the desire to chase muskies that morning and it's a good thing!  We started out doing a little trolling to get the feel and were seeing fish free swimming around as the sun started to heat up the water surface a little, so we dropped the trolling and picked up the top raiders.  not 5 minutes into casting and Rick had a nice blowup only to be followed moments later my a nice 42" fish that gobbled a black TR.  Nice start Rick, lets find more I said!  We ended up going 2 for 6, with a nice spunky 37" fish trolling and as the time bell rang we lost a much bigger fish that we never saw.  Rick was hooked and we're going to try to get out this week yet, perhaps tomorrow or thursday.  

I have done a bit of trout fishing and did have one good night with Fred last saturday.  We fished Hex but they were not responding to the dries so we switched back up to streamers and it's a good thing we did.  I popped a nice 17" brown at about 10pm, Fred got a number of grabs and a couple nice big stream smallies to boot.  About 10:30 or so he got broken off on 8lb and said "get in there, there's a big one about" so I did and Wham! the big whahoo muddler was clobbered by a 22" male, gorgeous fish, big kyper of a jaw and all colored up nicely. My big trout of the year to date.  Brad is coming down for a funeral today so I think we'll be out this evening, barring any crazy storm action.

This weekend I'll be fishing with my good friend and Client Francis O'Neill from VA.  He's flying in from the Oshkosh Airshow on saturday and we have 3 days of Muskie fishing in the Hayward area over the long weekend.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing Francis again and getting him on the freshwater Tarpon...

More to come, here's some images from the week that was.

cheers,

BPM                           

Brule Update & Images

Howdy All!

Here's what's been happening for the last week or so. I'm a little behind on the updates but I'll do my best to fill ya in.

On the Local Front: Still getting reports from the River about muskies, and lots of em. With the heat finally settling in and regular storm activity I would expect a terrific bite. Not sure why, but I'm just not super motivated to get in the boat right now, perhaps it's because my connection to the trout streams is so good right now, I'm hoping to maintain that groove. Cost of operation is a factor as well, it cost's about 50 bucks just to drop the boat in the water these days with gas and all....That said, I do have to get out there this week at some point, I have a couple day trips on the river next week to prepare for.

Wednesday of last week we finally got the shoot in with Dave Carlson from Eau Claire. We paddled the Kinni and fished a bit, but it was more a piece on Paige and the lodge etc etc. All in all it went well and despite dumping the canoe once, they managed to keep the camera dry thank goodness. It'll be on next Sunday as I recall and Dave wants to get another shoot or two in before the years end, for sure a Sturgeon show on the river come October.

Thursday afternoon found me at Brad's doorstep in Brule WI. The Hex have been starting to come off late and so a mission was in order. I cant believe I'm saying this, but I might be fished out for a day or two! Over the course of the 4 days, I fished an average of 15 hours per day, half of that in a canoe either on Big Lake or paddling the various stretches of river chasing resident browns. Thursday nights hex fishing was the most productive of the weekend, the hatch was moderate which I think helps because there were not as many naturals on the water to distract them. I got two about 18-19 or so and the other boats did about the same. What a trip Hex fishing is.....late nights, moonlight, skeets and big slurps all around you, it's hard where to figure out to cast first and easy to get lost in the moment. Hooking up once you get grabbed is another story, I think I went 0 for 17 before i finally figured out the no slack-sidearm hook set routine and was able to stick one good. I could see it being frustrating for some but the setting is just so perfect and fish in hand or not, still an amazing experience. One night out of the way, 3 more to go....

Friday was a bit of a leisure day at the club, we drank some beer and played bocce mostly until it was time to get ready for the evening festivities.. Fred arrived about 7 and sadly, brought a whopper of a thunderstorm along with him, rained us out good about the time we planned on hitting it. Worse yet the storm brought lingering high winds which would plague us for the next couple days. I went to bed early and the boys went to the Kro bar and hassled the cute bartender till 2am..

Saturday Fred and I got up early and did the Stones Bridge to Winni float. This has to be the nicest canoe float in WI, easy enough to fish most of the way from the boat and plenty of good water to stop and wade for a break. Fred got the trifecta, one of each resident species and I paddled most of the trip. A nice 30mph tailwind down big lake and we finished with enough time for a nap and retooling for the evening. Damn wind, the stuff usually lays down after a nice hot day but that was not the case, kept blowing s/sw all night and made the fishing a bit tough...understatement. There were a couple bugs coming off, but it was slim pickens and we packed it up earlier than usual, there's always tomorrow eh?

Having left the boats at the landing the night before, Fred and I mounted an early morning mission to Big Lake, looking for browns scrounging up wind blown hex from the night before. Not long after getting out, we had a nice little wind free window and cruised the lower end of the lake stalking risers. Having seen a nice rise 80 yards off, we stalked over there and got Fred into position for a cast and he made it count! Nice 18" brown, daylight hours on a BIG hex spinner pattern, it was perfect! That was the only fish we were able to get to go, so we headed downriver and made for the club, casting big dries along the way. We did get a couple more grabs but nothing in hand. After a short break and lunch, we rounded up Brian and Weston and made the float to the Ranger Station. This is an amazing stretch of streamer water so we changed gears and loaded up with big streamers. Brian and Weston were having luck picking fish off in the faster riffle sections where Fred and I focused on the deep slots and pools. The best action was lower, down towards the station in the deeper water. I hardly touched a fish all day but was super stoked to get a 19" out of a big deep sweeper log. It was probably the most beautiful Brown I have ever caught, buttery gold and red's with a million spots, the pic's hardly do it justice. He ate a medium sized whahoo streamer in natural and with a conehead. couple minutes later and we finished up, had some grub and rallied for the evening Hex battle. Sunday night hex hatch was enormous, so much so it made it really tough to get the fish to go with all the real things cluttering the water. Brian had some success and I hooked one good one but it was tough. Brad did get a terrific 13" brookie however, kinda saved the night.

if the Brule is not the best Brown Trout fishery in the country, I don't know what is. The sheer variety of fishing options and styles is amazing and I feel blessed to have it so close, and to have Brad on the river keeping a pulse for us all.

More to come, here's a few images from the weekend.

TV shoots, HEX and canoe ass.

Hey Folks,

I just have a couple minutes to update and will add images from the weekend later. Was up on the Brule from Thursday to Monday, fished an average of about 15 hours per day and had an amazing time. I'll submit a full report and new images this afternoon so sit tight!

BigPikeMike

TV shoots, HEX and canoe ass.

Quick Update

On the local front....

The muskie bite is ON down at the river. I have been getting almost daily reports of fish up to 49" being caught and good numbers as well from the local muskie bros. I sadly, have nothing to add...been trout guiding so much that I've been reluctant to dig the boat out and I'd be lying if I said gas prices haven't effected that as well. However thursday night I'm going to make an effort with Fritzy and Fred and am hoping to contact some fish...

The Fly Fishing has been decent despite the mid summer warmth. Most of my trips have been in the morning so taking advantage of the first couple hours is pretty key. Today I had a wonderful crew, The Robeson Family from the Des Moines area. Well that is Dad and sons Wade and Justus. All have fished a little but this was their first fly fishing experience and all went well, the fish could have cooperated a bit more but everyone had some action and more importantly learned a bunch about the workings of the trout's world. Justus was 9 and did great on nymph fishing and missed a couple on the Dry Fly. I reassured him that a trout on a fly, any fly is a BIG DEAL and we had a great time trying. Kids can be hit or miss with interest and attention span, but he hung in there and was working till the last minute. I very much enjoyed my day, thanks guys!

Enough for now, believe it or not I'm heading back over to the valley tonight and again in the morning. Tomorrow is my show with Dave Carlson on the life of a guide....I better get one...

ciao,

BIGPIKEMIKE!

July 4th already?

Good lord, where did the spring go? Seems like just a few weeks ago it was still shitty and snowing, then bang! summer time. I missed my spring steelhead trip to the Brule this year but I do know for sure that I'll be heading up sometime in the next couple weeks to fish Hex with Brad. Ben Fuego and his lovely wife MJ have been up at the Brule all week, I have yet to get a report from him but I'm guessing in true Ben fashion he creamed them on wolley buggars between Big Lake and Stones Bridge. Brad said the fishing has been off the charts, lots of bugs and the hex lingering around the corner.

It's been a busy work week for me, not so much guiding but I do have a couple items to touch on.

Last saturday I had a trip with Mark and Charlie from Burnsville. It was a 16th B-day gift from father to son, the kids got smarts, choosing fishing over the myriad of other options. We did a full day on the Kinni and ended up with a decent day overall. Strange weather made the fishing a bit odd. Neither fella had every fly fished so the morning was spent getting them up to speed, roll casting and mending mostly and with a little practice and lunch, we were ready to get serious for the afternoon shift. The Skies opened up and rudely dumped about 15 minutes of rain and hail on us, followed by a temp drop of about 20 degrees. All the hail stirred up the water a ton, but cleared briefly and we finally got Charlie into a birthday trout, a nice 14" on a sparkle caddis pupa, my standard go-to fly when times get tough. I was very encouraged by the Charlies enthusiasm, lets keep the youngsters on the water! Thanks Guys and lets fish again soon!

I made tracks to El Paso post haste for a nap and my all nighter expedition of the Rush with big flies. I made it till about 1am or so, with a little break and a chat/beers with some fellas from the Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls area. They were out for the late evening dry fly fiesta and had some success. I focused on the long deep frogwater sections that one would normally walk by during the daylight hours. I did get a 17" and a number of other mystery grabs but by 1am I was ready for a little bonfire and scotch. Fishing alone at night is creepy, fun but creepy. There was basically no moon and it's dark as hades in El Paso at night. The stars were amazing however and it felt good to get out of the city, albeit only an hour away, what a difference 50 miles makes.
Sunday night I headed over to the Willow for some late night action as well. Got on the water about 8 and tied up a #8 red humpy, "mr. do-it-all". I have to confess to ignoring the willow after about June 1st, and I could not recall the last time I caught a trout on a dry there. Didnt take long though, there was plenty happening bug wise and the humpy got creamed straight away. here's the kicker, I was sooooo off on my timing I think I went like 1 for 10, but I did hook and land a 17" smallie and about a 16" brown. Lost a nice one, maybe 19 or so. there were Caddis by the zillions, Golden stones the size of Chinook Transport helicopters and the odd hex, oh ya skeets and more skeets....

Wednesday night fishing club! Well sort of, this week it was Whahoo and I as Robbie and his lady had themselves a baby on monday (Congrats Rob!) We hung around and drank a couple summits and came up with a game plan, which consisted of hex or as I called Wha's white flies "moth patterns", what an exciting Way to fish! BUT, the fishing was pretty slow overall, there was a pretty stiff breeze and high pressure so for some reason they were just not snapping. We had intentions to fish till 12 or so, but cut it short at 11. Whahoo did the most AMAZING thing I have seen with a flyrod in years. He picked off a 18" fish that we had seen chasing bugs, in less than a foot of water, completely slack and gin clear. He fooled this critter with the moth and a twitched retrieve on a short line. I only know a couple fella's who coulda pulled that off, really really tricky move. wow! As for me, I got a couple grabs on a hex and sadly had one break me off on 4x, looked like a good fish for sure...next time.

lastly, had an amazing day yesterday with Jurgen and Katarina from Hammond WI. They had been in the area (from Germany) for about 8 years now and had decided this was the week they get out and explore the area. Both were complete rookies and ya coulda fooled me, nary an hour of instruction and they were both into fish. We had success on caddis and beatis emergers mostly, in the faster riffles. What a fun couple and I think they are hooked on the whole fishing, woods, water thing. Thanks so much and I'm looking forward to late July's outing with you again!

Gotta run, Jennifer's heading out for a month to Sacramento Ca for school and we have a bunch to do in getting her ready. I'll miss her something fierce but I'll get my 28 days in a row of fishing in to fill the time....

Hasta Luego.

BPM

weekend update & BPM email.....

First up, my email from bigpikemike.com has been non functional for a while now. It appears we just got it rectified so if you have been trying to send an email to that address and it got bumped back, please send again~! enough of that, on with the fishing reports.

Friday 6/20: I spent the evening with Greg from Osceola WI on the mighty Kinni. Greg had purchased a fly rod some 10 years ago and it was finally time to give it a shot! Better late than never I say. We got a late afternoon start and headed waaaay down river past all the other anglers, maybe 2.5 miles or so to a spot I particularly like at dark. Having never fished before Greg was quick to pick up the idea of a simple roll cast and mending and lo & behold, his 3rd drift or so and he got a nice little brown! With some work and time, Greg got himself a few more trout and really got a nice feel for the rod and mending in particular. There was a wide variety of bugs coming off, little olives, caddis, stones, brown drakes and lastly the sulphers, which attracted a crowd at dark. Most of my guiding is morning oriented, so it was nice to get out in the evening this time. Thanks Greg and good luck!

Speaking on the Kinni...Jennifer and I made our first kayak trip of the season on saturday and had a great time. I've always been into the kayaks and am slowly warming her up to the idea that maybe we should buy a second boat and do it more often. The Kinni is a perfect first experience, just enough challenges to keep a beginner on their toes and I really enjoy the middle section of river from a scouting standpoint. After kayaking we made our way to Little Whisky to camp and fish a little around the property. Oh ya, we grilled out some Salmon from last weekend which was just fabulous! Anyway, I got in just a few minutes of fishing, mostly probing the depths with streamers and actually did really well, especially as dark rolled around. I pulled a 17 & 20" out of the same hole on a big muddler, got me thinking hmmmm....what if a fella started at 9 and fished till 3am or something crazy. Well I'm going to try to do just that this weekend. I'm guiding saturday and reckon I'll head to little whisky and fish streamers till all hours...anyone wanna join me?

Lastly, Fritzy and I were chasing muskies on a good report from Swervy. We made a bee line to the Kinni area and despite seeing a bunch of fish, just could not get one to eat. We fished hard till almost 11pm and I'll be doing the same tonight with Rodger Bradford, we'll see how long I can keep him interested. RB's been muskie fishing with me a half dozen times now and has yet to boat a muskie, although he's had some good bites and follows. Might have to throw for smallies to get a tug and then switch up to the big girls. I'm going to be throwing big flies on a sweet new 10wt courtesy of master builder Tom Schenk of Holcombe WI. I'll post a late night report if I'm not too stunned...

See ya soon!

BigPikeMike

the week that was....

Wow, it's been a helluva week of angling, this boy has been all over the board...Lets re-cap it shall we?

Thursday 6-12: Fished the mighty Kinni with Leo and Janet from Rockford Ill. We met them in Chicago at the Fly Show and they came up for a long weekend to explore our area. Sadly, the water was still high and in fact, rose about 4" in the 5 or so hours we fished. Needless to say the fishing was tough although Janet managed a nice little brown nymphing out of the current areas. Sometimes the timing is just tough and with all the rain we've had we're pretty lucky compared to some folks.
Friday 6-13: More high water, this time with a group on the Croix. My boat was the smallie rig and good thing because the smallies are biting well on the croix. We fished south of Afton mostly, pitching tubes and spinner baits into the trees and dock areas. We did find numbers but no slobs, save for Steve's 16" on a pepper tube. Thanks for a fun day guys, hope you had a nice outing!
Saturday & Sunday: DOS RIOS! Friday I left immediately for Dos Rios WI for the first salmon trip of the year. Got in late, slept a couple hours and was ready for the first light bite...which never came. Here was the deal, the twin rivers had dumped an enormous amount of mud and sediment in the lake, in the early a.m. we had no clue as to the depth of breadth of the mudline and this turned out to be the key for the weekend. Once the sun came up and we found the edge, we lit them up! The mud from the rivers, including the Manitowak was out to 125 to 175fow, maybe 4-6 miles off shore. We found a really solid edge of blue water vs. mud and worked the edge hard and started picking up fish almost immediately. Spoons on stealth leadcore rigs and clean lines were the keys as usual and saturdays box was the biggest at the cleaning station. So much so that the local charter guys cornered Ben for the details on what we were doing out there. Our trolling program is tough for them to match for a number of reasons, namely speed and style of gear. it's tough for the charters to run stealth gear, IE: put it down efficiently and keep it at the right speed. Our ability to change quick, check speed and move quietly is what keeps us on the top of the heap at the end of the day. Needless to say saturday we were off the water @ 10:30 with 8 in the box (5 four year old kings and some nice steelies inc a 32"). Overall we went 17 for 25, released a bunch of 2-5lb lakers and a couple smaller silver-fish too. Ben's got himself a new fillet knife, looks like some damn Ninja tool, he cuts, I pack....After a nap and re-grouping we gave the afternoon a shot, but storms in the area picked up the wind from the SE and that's bad in Dos Rios, we got blown off the water and had to settle for the sunday morning troll instead.
Sunday morning we found the same program, but the ever changing mudline challenged us just a bit more and we had to work till 1 or so to fill our box. Not as many big kings on sunday, but lots of nice fish and fewer lakers, although we did kill one for the smoker.
As fun as this is, the drive over and back, plus the bodily wear and tear means I am stunned for a couple days afterwards (sorry Jennifer!) It's tough fishing but soooo worth it!

Monday 6-16: Today was my favorite kind of trip on the Croix, the mixed bag day! Fished with Max and Taylor Kearns of the St Croix Valley. We started out focusing on smallies to get on the board, feel some tugs and get a feel for the high water, which had gone up 2' over the weekend! We found smallies in the usual places, tight to shore, rocks and sand etc. having had our fill of smallies and a sweet lunch break at Afton State Park, we decided to fill the remainder of the day with Muskies and Walleyes. Headed up to Afton to cast for a bit, neither fella had boated a musky so despite the mid-afternoon timing we donned bucktails and topraiders and gave it a go. From his "Bill Dance" seated position up front, Max almost instantly had a follow on the TR and the fish was hot, so we stayed in the area and hunted for a couple more. Mind you. 1:30 in the afternoon here....Well 15 minutes or so and 25 casts later Max hooked up at boat side on the same TR. The fish exploded out of nowhere and grabbed the bait, Max put the Almighty wood to him and it was game on. He was able to keep the beast close at hand and it was in the net in less than 15 seconds. Not the epic lengthy battle but rather the boat side meltdown and chaos of a musky on a short line. Good Work! High fives all around! Remember, this was from a seated position, I'll have to try that...stealth.. So we got our muskie, then decided to roll for some walleyes out in the main lake. Dealing with a 15mph north wind, we set up on the humps and did manage to get a couple but kept none for the box, just a nice way to round out the day. 5 species, mixed bag and a heckuva good day!

As if that's not enough!
In doing some recon for tonight's trip, I went to the Kinni last night with Ingy. It was his first time with a fly rod in a couple summers but he did just fine. We hiked a long way down, which is the norm for me, escape the hoards....Despite the sporadic bug activity which included Stoneflies of all things, fishing was pretty tough. I mostly fished a caddis just as a searching pattern, pitching to cover and small slots. got a number of grabs but I'll be damned if I didn't got skunked. Tough one for the Guide to admit but it happens. However I learned enough to be fully ready for tonight's action, busting out the big stimulator's to get their attention, especially as dark rolls around. I'll have a report later this evening, including pics from the previous weeks action!

Jennifer and I are going to kayak the kinni tomorrow and have a nice camp out in El Paso, very much looking forward to an evening away with my lady!

more to come, stay tuned!

weekend at hand

Greetings All.....

It's been a pretty slow week fishing wise for me, with all the rain we've been having the streams have been on a regular pattern of flood or near flood conditions since last week. Nothing like what SW WI has been seeing but enough to make the fishing very tough. Fortunately our waters drain pretty quickly and my favorite fishing is generally on falling water so here's to hoping next week is dry and calm...

This weekend marks the first of what should be 3 trips to Dos Rios (Two Rivers, WI) salmon fishing with my bro Ben Hayes. This is almost always the highlight of the summers fishing and over the past 4 or 5 years we have dialed in a system which always seems to put us at the top of the heap at the cleaning station. We definitely do it differently than most of the others out there, clean lines and a stealth approach are our keys. T'rivers is the shit, the last crappy fishing village in WI. There are no harbor side condo's, just the old mills and seagull marina to welcome you back in after your day. We generally target kings and steelhead, although we do get the occasional brown and coho. We'll miss the friday night sunset bite but have all day saturday and sunday to fill a box. I'll have images and the box score on monday.

Walleye fishing on the croix has slowed with the water levels going through the roof. Fish are scattered from 6 to 30' over a variety of bottom terrain. I'll be out tomorrow with a large group and hopefully we'll find enough to make it interesting. This afternoon finds me on the Kinni with 2 clients, water is high and off color so I reckon we'll bust out the streamers and try to coax some fish into chasing. It's an overlooked tactic on the Kinni, we'll see what happens!

Good luck & Peace.....

BigPikeMike

rain

It's looking bleak for a while, local streams are blown out and we're in a pattern that looks to hold for a while. I'm starting on my ark.......

Trilliums

There's a particular spot on the Rush, upstream of Stonehammer Rd where the canopy is high and the wildflowers cover the rolling ground like a carpet of color. Wild Geranium, Phlox and Trillium dominate along with a host of others of which I don't know the name. Most were in shades of purple it seemed, even the Trillium which were starting to lose their milky white to the summer season. It's my favorite spot on the Rush, Francis and I visited twice during our days together. I'd like to think it's as much to enjoy the flowers as catch a few fish.

As a client, Francis reminded me of why I love to guide as I do. Each outing has it's challenges, having been a frequent client of guides in many different places for many different species, Francis embraced the challenge that is the spring creek trout and sporting a beautiful cane rod, proceeded to master the techniques needed to fool these wary creatures. Not to say there weren't moments of trial, maybe 10 flies in 30 minutes trying to match or even come close to the variety of bugs available on the water. At any time there was nothing at all, or a mixed bag of Hendricksons, Sulphers, midges, caddis of several varieties and even the odd crane fly. Despite a bum knee, Francis indulged my insistence at covering a little more ground in the interest of not only seeing more water, but enjoying the scenery and finding that perfect spot to enjoy lunch and reflect upon the day.

Overall, the fishing last week was good. The timing of the hatches varied from day to day but the advantage of having 4 days was that there's a good chance to be around when something does decide to happen. I was lucky enough to get out on Monday with another great client, Seth from Stillwater. He was new to trout fishing (save for an adventure on the North Island of New Zealand) and with a little coaching on his cast and mending, took to it just great and had a terrific morning of angling. After parting ways with Seth, I dragged the boat to the river and chased muskies for a couple hours. Fritzy and I did manage to raise a few fish but no takers. Water temp was upper 60's and had actually gone up from the weekends rains. I'll be back at them here this weekend sometime and have a trip friday for the croix mixed bag. Look for more updates in the next couple days.

bigpikemike

Francis & Me

Images from my 4 days with Mr. Francis O'Neill. More to come on Francis and the week we had.

Reports for the week

Hey All,

I've had the pleasure of fishing with Mr. Francis O'Neill from VA all this week. So far the fishing has been very good and today we are off to try to time the late morning olive hatch, with the overcast skies and mist I'm expecting to have another terrific day. Tuesday we spent the day on the Kinni, the morning was a little slow but having patience with the bugs always pays off and we had a terrific finish about 6pm, with Caddis like crazy and very agreeable fish. Yesterday was a little different, the am was slow on the Rush, mostly nymphing to try to locate some active fish and again, wait out the bugs. We had a nice noontime flurry with Caddis in El Paso however and today we're going to fish the Rush again and with this weather I expect a good day. I'll add some images and a more detailed report upon the conclusion of the week.

Good fishing to all!

BigPikeMike

muskie opener on the River

Finally, a sign of summer. Muskie fishing opened on the St. Croix saturday morning to bright skies and lots of mid day wind. I Met "the Gooch" aka Todd Hess @ 5 am and we made our way to a few of the favored early season spots. Early season can be tricky for river muskies, with the high water and current that remains, the fish act a little and sometimes alot differently. That's one of the challenges of the river I love, the less predictable nature of the fish, as opposed to say Bald Eagle or White Bear where they tend to set up in more predictable patterns. I think lake fisherman struggle with the River a bit because of the ever changing nature of the water. I've been fortunate to have spent an enormous amount of time patterning these fish and have a pretty good bead on where they go and why. Part of my goal has always been to seek out the "B" spots. Everyone knows the community holes (afton, Kinni etc etc) but the trick is to fish the backups, and lots of em. The new anglers to the river tend to gravitate to the known spots, but rest assured there are muskies roaming just about every stretch of the river from Stillwater to Prescott. Trolling helps to locate some likely areas and perhaps a fish or two to target but my preference is always to cast. So How'd we do? Well Gooch got things started with a slender but scrappy 41" down at the Kinni, ate a swim bait on a figure 8, which is a rarity on the river. I got myself a nice fat 42" up on the WI shore, trolling a bucktail, a new Maina cowgirl type in funky colors. We did raise a couple others and in keeping with my namesake, I got myself a nice BIG PIKE. I shoulda whacked it, good pickling size at about 32" or so. There's more and more anglers targeting the Croix for muskies, the word kinda got out. I think it's got HUGE fish potential, there's just so much forage and space for them to roam, someones going to get a superfish this summer I bet. My personal biggest was a 51.5" from 2006, but there's been lots of 46-50" class fish seen and caught. Fished yesterday afternoon in and around the passing storms, nada. I thought it was going to be dynamite, playing the weather and all.

This week I'll be guiding trout all week, have a client flying in from the east coast for 3 days. I think we'll mix it up some both on start times and locations. Maybe I'll even talk him into a boat outing if he's game. weather looks good, fishing should be terrific!

have a great week all.

BPM

8th best!

Hey, nothing wrong with 8th best walleye angler on the river, not when the field was a stacked as it was. The Hamroom was tough for most teams, but the Farr/Johnson team found the hot bite. Ingy and I struggled to find cooperative fish, it was not the kind of day when you could pick up one here and there to fill a nice box. The trick was as always, find that hot bite area and stick on it like white on rice, which is what the winners did. They were in sight of us almost the whole day but we never picked up on the action. Still had a great day and saw some familiar faces, but I will add the weigh in seemed somewhat lackluster, maybe it was just me and my 8th place bag...

The trout fishing continues to be off the charts, I can say I have caught more and bigger fish this year than any of the previous I can recall. Time on the water certainly helps, but the overall numbers and scale are amazing. Fished with Fred last night, he was wishing he'd have stayed home I think. the tally for Fred, 3 lost streamers and nary a grab. While he was re-tying at his favorite hole, I slid in and coaxed out yet another 20" trout. I felt bad for a couple minutes but heck, opportunity knocks! I think this year I can say I've got about 8 fish at or above 20" and a huge number of 17-20" fish. average size for the spring is about 18" I'd say. Who needs Chile, I've got the willow.

Here's a little excerpt from an email I got from a client...

I have met a few nasty people who chase salmonids, but not very many of them. For the most part, the rhythm of the rise, and the purl of the water, seem to have calmed fishers down, so that their lives are perhaps a bit less frenetic than they would otherwise be.

amen to that.

peace.

hamroom 2008

Ahh, Hamroom time. when a fellas thoughts drift towards well, drifting a crawler in search of that Ham winning walleye. While there's certainly a little of cash at stake, it's the ability to claim the title of "HamRoom Champion" we're all chasing. After all, winning the Ham allows you to lay claim to being the best walleye fisherman on the river, at least until the River Rat.

A lot has changed in the 8-9 years I've been fishing the Ham. Most notably the boats. Seems back in the day, a Klund style "redboat" was the norm, these days there's gotta be three quarters of a million worth of rigs involved with the 30 or so boats. gotta admit, it pays to be fast sometimes. No more shotgun start by dave, in the boat launch parking lot. Kortum may not even have brought an implement of sheephead destruction last year, in the old days watch out if you were a drum, ya mighta got sawed or squirted with axle grease...dude must be getting all serious with him.

The Ham is a helluva lotta fun. Most of the participants are high school bro's and a few stragglers too and it's a good chance to catch up a little and walk tall if you get a nice box.

Good Luck saturday fella's, your gonna need it because BigPikeMike's got em dead to rights.

Cheers!

little of this, little of that...

Howdy All!

This week has been pretty good fishing wise so far. Went out on the Croix monday afternoon, they lifted the no-wake so that made getting to spots more fun and guilt free as well. I was doing a little recon for the upcoming HamRoom this saturday and did manage to find a couple fish and gathered what I think should be enough info to get us in the money again this year. Ingy and I almost won the damn thing last year, couple 4oz off the leaders and dammed if we didn't have a BIG fish shake off about 3pm, we're guessing it was in the 28" range...not this year my friends. As for Monday, I got 3 that I kept, another 6-8 shorts and one 24.5" that I released with instructions to stay put till saturday. Did a little of everything, rigged, trolled and cast all with success. The fishing was really good in fact. The high water has me compelled to cast husky jerks in the old weeds and wood on the shore where permitting. There were walleyes to be had in 2-6', but the real treat were the bonus smallies. I got a 19 & 21", only to be bested by Fritzy who boated a 22", which I got a great pic of, the scale in my boat said 6lbs and I'm guessing it was all that. what a freak.

Fished the Willow last night and ran into fellow willow wizard Rob George. Rob was out earlier than I, right when the front was coming through, prime time and he did well. I got an 18" shortly after we got going, but only a couple grabs after that. He got a couple more and missed a bunch. The woods are getting green, jungle like even and the lower willow is a bit like a throw back in time. maybe that's why I like it so much.

Was thinking while fishing last night, how fortunate I've been to be present for a bunch of buddies "big fish" moment. here's a short list. Ben sorry if I missed your Rock Bass.

Fred Sparling: St Croix Walleye, 30" and well over 10lbs. November in maybe 99?

Kraig Klund: Winni Muskie, 54" and 45lbs or so. super freak, only fish we touched all weeked.

Kris Klund: 22" smallie, Monday afternoon on the river. made my 21" look small

Ingy: Several. Largemouth Bass, through the ice on the willow, 22" or so? Pike @ the park, 40" and 18lbs or so, good story to go along with that one, another time though.

Ben Hayes: 20lb steelhead, lake MI, Two Rivers WI. Last summer? the trips all blend together, either way it was a solid 40" trout.

that's the short list but you get the picture...thanks fella's.

here's some pics from the week, enjoy.

bigpikemike