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

El Paso

Some images from the past couple days

all sorts of stuff

The other day I heard something funny, a wife laughing back at her husband for his claim of "fishing hard" on WI trout opener, the thought! I fish hard, get dog tired then do it again. fish hard....

Here's what's happening in my neck of the woods.

heard some reliable reports about the croix, high water or not they have to be eating somewhere. what I heard was kinni decent as well as a couple other spots. However bro fritzy did get a monster sheepie, 18lbs! looked like a damn ocean fish! I'll try it sunday night if time allows.

Hamroom! the ham is just around the corner, did I mention Ingy and I are going to win it this year?

Trout stuff: had 2 terrific fella's from Louisiana today, we fished hard. BUT, the caddis and trout become cooperative and turned into an outstanding day of fishing. Joey and David fished hard too, Joey even treated himself to a five minute snooze after lunch, nice work.. Caddis coparadun's, bigger than usual did the trick, but at one point you could do no wrong, I'm sure they are still coming off.

Tomorrow I'm on the Rush with Brent Paulson, local angler out to pick up a few new tricks. weather looks like some rain perhaps but conditions are ripe for a nice hatch of bugs.

fish hard!

I missed the opener....

ya well, I worked and as it turned out, I didn't miss much. The Croix is amazingly high with a current moving over 3mph in the channel and sparse reports from the bro's on success. I'm guessing the walleyes are up shallow somewhere and out of the heavy current, we tried that a little last night (Ingy and I) and got 1 17"er dragging crawlers in between the islands in the channel area. the good thing was, my impeller repair worked flawlessly! Thanks be to Fred for helping make that happen. I'm amazed at the equipment I own, yamaha makes some fine machines, start first time every time, despite the use and abuse....I'm going to miss the MN opener as well, but no surprise there I usually don't go anyway. As of now, doing a bit of prep work for the next couple days of guiding, ie rounding up gear, making delicious lunches and thinking of stories in case the fishing is lousy...

Speaking of lousy. Until the past few days the weather kept the fishing spotty on the local rivers. Monday I was down in El Paso about 3 or so, got a nice 16" brown on my third drift, skating a caddis about, there were a few bugs here and there but too early for much activity. However, the woods were a carpet of trillium's and other woodland flowers so I kinda got caught up in that instead. made a poor decision and ran for the willow @ last call only to be foiled by high water and nearly impossible fishing. Elsie's getting over her bout with Lymes, so she finally made it out with me and will be along the next couple of days as well.

have not been to the Brule yet, although a report from B-rad says the fishing is terrific. Not sure when I'll be off there, maybe end of next week. Ben and I are also getting an early start on T'river's salmon fishing this year, with early reports of numbers and size, in early may! we're meeting the weekend after memorial, damn that's a fun trip and we have all new gear! Tekota's and new rods thanks to Ben as well as his ever changing scheme of gear and technique, we kick some serious behind at the cleaning station...

tomorrow on the Kinni and saturday it'll be the Rush, oh ya, sunday back on the kinni for a group casti9ng session... more to come...