River Muskie!!!!!

Good day all!

Here's a quick photo update of the weeks fishing.

Wednesday I had Dan Clayton and his nephew Lance Meister out for a full day of muskie fishing. We got started at 2 and by 2:30 we had a fish in the net! Dan hooked up and landed a super fat 44" muskie on a bulldog, over 40 f.o.w. This has been my strategy of late (deep water suspended fish) and it's paying off in spades. We contacted a couple other fish over the course of the day but none made it to the boat for a picture. Thanks so much Dan and Lance for a great outing, looking forward to sharing the boat with you come Sturgeon Season!

Thursday I had Rick Demarchis and his buddy/workmate Rod in the boat for a half day. Last year on the same trip Rick landed 2, so expectations were high, but we struggled and never managed to see a fish. The mid morning time period, which traditionally has been very good, has been slow. Prime time seems to be the mid afternoon then a lull leading into prime time at dark. They were good sports and understood that sometimes with muskies they bite and sometimes they are just not interested.

What a difference a day makes.....Today I had the pleasure of sharing the boat with Dan Patrick. Dan is a super avid angler, without the means of a boat. He does most of his fishing with a fly rod, from shore on local lakes, and does quite well at that. Today we were intent on catching him a muskie, make that two muskies! We got out at the crack o' dawn, raised a nice fish right off the bat, then the rains came. It poured buckets and hailed plenty as well, but we hunkered down in Afton State Park till it subsided, then the fun began. Our first stop after the thunder was a piece of structure I've been seeing alot of fish on and it didn't let us down. Dan hooked up on a scrappy 42" about 10am or so on a topraider at boatside. Not wanting to see this fish get off, I did the quick scoop and got him in the net in 10 seconds flat! After a couple pictures and high fives, we slid her back and said our thanks to the muskie gods. I said the pressure's off, lets go find another! We fished a couple other spots, made a trolling pass to take a lunch break and keeps baits wet and then headed off to another hot spot. About 2:30 or so his bulldog got inhaled by a fish, a BIG FISH, size LARGE! I knew right away he was into something special and sure as can be, this monster came barreling out of the water, did some crazy maneuvers but my net hands are too quick and she was ours! Both shaking, we got her untangled from the net/hooks etc and stared in awe. 49.5", lets call it 50 shall we? What a beast, great fighter for a big fish and oh so pretty! Another quick net scoop meant a safe and healthy fish on release, we admired her as she swam off, high fived once again and decided that's a good way to end an amazing day. Dan, you're a stud dude! That's big fish of the year and makes 20 river muskies in the boat for the season. Things are really starting to get hot and I aim to stay on this bite right up till the PMTT tourney rolls through in september. Wanna get a muskie, now's the time my friends.

Enough for now, I need a nap. Enjoy the images.

BigPikeMike!

St. Croix mixed bag reports

Morning all....

The picture up above is Chris Boland with a pretty typical river pike we got Wednesday, trolling around the Kinni narrows. Chris and I bartered some kick ass graphics for my truck, for a full day with he and his bro' Jarrett. Both Chris and Jarrett were anglers of the mixed bag variety, perhaps more focused on the big nasties like sturgeon and cats. Muskies are as big and nasty as it gets and they were looking to add some skills in this realm, so I fished them hard, all day, in the wind and with a variety of conditions and techniques. The first half of the day yielded the pike and one good rip on the troll, but no muskies. We started looking forward to the prime time twilight hour and got ourselves in a spot I thought it could happen. Straight away we had a nice fish follow a topraider, take a couple swipes and vanish. Moments later Jarrett had a long range blowup, again, no hooks. We worked the area till we could see no more and called it a day. Thanks again guys, looking forward to sharing a boat for Cat's some night.

Thursday morning I worked with "the Turk", Charlie Geirke. Turk's a long time Croix guide and a damn fine angler. I help him out from time to time with group trips and it's always a pleasure. We had a group of fellas from the city, business/pleasure outing for a guy and his clients. These are great trips and involve fishing for anything that bites and better yet provides solid bragging rights. My boat was the muskie rig as usual, with 3 guys in the boat we were pretty much limited to trolling, but could have our 5 lines rolling so I was optimistic. We we trolled and trolled and trolled....boop diddly. After a bit I decided to pull the plug for an hour and follow the other rigs looking for smallies and walleyes. We were making ton's and catching little. Then the wind decided to dictate the rest of the day. Post lunch fishing was brutal. It was blowing 30 from the NW and getting around the big lake was tough and wet. We had a great time and my clients were patient but it was not a guides day to say the least. Looking forward to calmer days....

I'm off to work for a bit, then loading up the kayaks and heading over to El Paso for some fly angling and kayak scouting. more to come.

go fish!

BigPikeMike
MN & WI Fishing Guide

Mid july Angling & guiding news

As I may have mentioned, Jennifer is gone till the 1st of August. Suffice it to say I have been fishing at a frenetic pace, here's what's been happening.

I should be posting daily I know, but between trying to hold down the fort, do my chores and keep a line wet I'm usually pretty crushed at days end. So we'll wrap up the last 5 days and lead out the next week or so, there's some cool shit on the horizon.

Last Friday was a muskie day! A day where another rod in the boat could have made it something really special. I wrote recently how I'm not a huge fan of "camping out" on a spot, but I broke a rule Friday evening and did just that. I got on the water about 5 and started on Beanies point, just south of the bridge. it's a spot I don't often see fish, but I know they are there so I regularly make a pass. Status Quo, no one home. Next stop was another insignificant spot on the MN shore, same sort of place with similar results. Things however were feeling very fishy, there was some weather moving in from the west causing regular changes in wind direction and speed, always a good thing. I made a move for Afton, there's no secret that the bar is lousy with fish and if a guy wants to get one it's worth some time to cover every inch, twice. That's just what I did. Straight away I contacted a nice fish, a long follow that terminated in an angry swirl at boat side. OK, their here and ready to play, despite the boat traffic and pontoon boat full of onlookers parked right on the captains chair. I put the viper to work, purposely fishing the opposite direction of what most anglers fish, as inside out as possible. Over the next hour or so I had another 4-5 follows and blowups, one really nice fish in particular. After an hour of this, BAM, FISH ON! & a nice one at that! She ate the viper about 40' out, maybe 25' from the pontoon of onlookers, and put on a great show for the other boaters. Several long runs and 3 jumps later I rolled her into the big net to whoops and hollers from the gawkers, pretty nice feeling and I was amped to get her picture and get after another one. She measured up about 47, although the pic has the tail cut off thanks to self photography. That makes 11 for me and 15 for the boat this year. Of my 11, only 1 was shorter than 40, with 2 over 46 so the average is good. The rest of the evening was pretty action packed but I never got hooks into another and wrapped up about 10:30 or so.

the following morning found me on the same spot, 4:45 am. Right off the bat I raised a couple, but they were lazy follows and far more negative than the previous evening. feeling good about another spot, I headed downriver to fish some points. Just north of Afton State park I raised what might be the biggest fish I've seen in years, well over 50" and stout. She tried to eat the viper at boat side and slapped the boat with her tail in the process, soaking me as well. It was pretty cool but she's gonna get caught, in due time. Nothing landed for the morning shift, but it had it's moments.

Sunday night Whahoo and I did the evening shift on the willow. We were in search of Hex, but they have been a total bust this season. No fish rising, no fish landed. I'll be giving it a rest for a bit.

Monday night found Fred and I back on the Rush in El Paso. He was feeling the need to camp out so that's what we did. We found some brookies on the dry flies and fished streamers after dark till about 11. No grabs on the big flies, but in our defence, it was DARK and really tough without having scoped out our beat in good light. It was nice to sit around the bonfire with a couple beers, need to do more of that.

Believe it or not, I pretty much took yesterday off, save for a couple casts in the morning on the Rush. I've got some work going at Fred's house to help him make it ready for sale. nice work between guide trips.

Today I'm back after the Muskies with my graphics guy Chris Boland and his buddy Jared. They are both St. Croix regulars, but just learning the muskie thing. We are going to have to fish hard today to get some action as we had a nice cold front come through last night. Tomorrow I'll be out with one of Turk's groups, fishing walleyes and smallies.

I'll follow up with a report and pics.

later,

BigPikeMike

current reports

Howdy All!

Here's a quick and dirty recap of the last few days of action. The fishing has been all over the board, it's July so i guess it's to be expected.

The image above...KK with his first muskie of the season. We hooked up Sunday night about 7 or so, looking to get out and take advantage of the near full moon and end to the holiday festivities on the river. KK and I are partners in the PMTT muskie tourney this fall, so a little recon was necessary as well as early strategizing. Right out of the gate, first cast on first spot he hooked up on a sledge, but the muskie shoot him off. OK, good start to the evening. I'm guessing about 20 minutes later, he hooked up again near boat side, with a spunky 42" river muskie. This one stayed glued and we invited her in the boat for picture day. It was a good start to a near perfect night, despite the fact it was thee lone fish of the evening. Kraig's off to visit a buddy in AK this week, doing a little fishing and rafting, sounds like a good time.

Monday night I was off to the local stream to see about some late night fishing, and mostly have some piece and quiet. i got that all right, the fishing didn't happen and the bugs were a big no-show.

Tuesday proved to be another late night affair, this time with fellow guide and master angler Eddie Philpot. Jennifer asked me if he was "fast Eddie" and I informed her there's nothing fast about him....We ventured off to an east metro lake for some evening bass fishing with jitterbugs. I know I've bagged on bass before, but this is special, as Eddy would say. Something about a calm quiet night and top water is a draw. i could probably do pretty well on the fly rod, but I'm digging the old school casting setup and jitterbug. We fished from 10 till about 1:30 or so, landed 30 or more and a couple nice ones, including a solid 4.5-5lb'er that yours truly landed. good, good stuff. Thanks Eddy!

Last night was back to the stream, the Rush this time. We had notions of hanging out down around hwy 10 till late, looking for any hex that might straggle up the river from Lake Pepin. However, the lower river looked tough, at least from my perspective. I know it fishes well at times, but not last night. So we boogied up to El Paso and hung out up from the bridge. there were a hand full of trout working and Fred and I each got one, but it was slow. The late afternoon hatches seem to be a thing of June, and past us by. Trico's are just around the corner so there's hope for the dry fly crowd.

Whew.....You can tell Jennifer is gone eh. I'm still doing my best to keep up around the house and work when it's there, but I'll be on a continued angling tear over the next few weeks. stay tuned.

go!

BPM

sometimes I wonder

Why is it that I am not just satisfied with chasing one fish or using one technique? Sometimes I think perhaps I'll give it a whirl, sell the big boat, get a drifter and dedicate myself to the fly. Or maybe, ditch the fly gear, become a dedicated psycho muskie angler and leave the buggy whips to the Amish...Hell no, here's why not! Variety!! I know full well the time and dedication it takes to fish at a high level, for one species and be consistent. So why not be a kick ass all around angler, proficient on multiple levels, for a variety of species? I like to compare it to my mountain bike riding days, I always wanted to be at least fast enough, particularly on the downhills to keep up where ever I may find myself riding, and I got to ride all over the country. Call it hanging with the locals or what have you, but I found it changes your experience if you have the ability. Angling is the same way for me. Should I find myself in Colorado or Kentucky, I want to at least be able to fish, enjoy the experience and feel like I'm in the game. That's why I do what I do. This week alone I fished 4 different bodies of water, flies, spinning and muskie tackle, caught all kinds of fish and never did the same thing twice.

Most recently, I went up to Bald Eagle last night to shake things up a little and quite frankly, get the stink back on. the River has been tough the last week or two, for me at least. I like to run up there when I need to put some fish in the boat and hone my lake skills for when I get an opportunity on another lake. From 4 till about 9 I pretty much camped out on a spot that I know is crawling with them. Aside from a troll around the island, I hunkered down and waited them out. Sure enough, I raised, missed or saw about a dozen fish. I landed 2 between 6 and 9, a low 40's and upper 30's. They were really liking the tip of the bar, but the bigger fish came in heavy cover near shore. I think I'm going to try to pull off a 3 legals in 3 lakes day here this week or next. Come up with a combo of 3 lakes (WB, BE and forest come to mind) and get as many as I can in a 24 hour period. sounds like it could make for some good footage as well.

Back to the hunkering down program last night. This is NOT something I would usually do, if ever on the river. That's one of the glaring differences between lakes and the river, if they are not on the spot, don't bother staying because they are off roaming, likely in the deep. I'll camp at Afton from time to time, but for the most part it's a run and gun situation. hunkering down sure paid off last night though. next time I'll hunker down with the fly rod and see what I can get moving.

It's the 4th of July. not planning on too much, maybe I'll sneak down the the old miss and try to catch a big cat.

be safe out there.

BigPikeMike