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.
