angling

I do not mourn the end of winter and ice fishing, not at all.
For the most part, this winters fishing was pretty limited to a few trips to the park for pike and panfish and a handful of outings on Cedar lake in Mpls, trying in vain to ice a few walleyes. Winter leaves behind it some ugly stuff, especially in the city. A seasons worth of garbage and in my case, 2 five gallon pails of Elsie poop, which I had to clean up this morning, thank goodness it's 25 out and the little devils are frozen. It'll be nice in a few weeks when things start to green up and the memory of another winter (my 42nd) has faded.

Early season trout opened a couple weeks ago to low clear streams and a foot of snow on the ground. The warm temps of the last few weeks broke everything loose and all of the local streams got a good scouring. I had one nice evening on the willow prior to the deluge and landed 3, 2 browns and a rainbow. The previous years rainbow stockings have created a number of holdover fish that have escaped predators and hungry anglers alike and all of the sudden we have some fish in the 15-17" range. They don't fight for shit, but are fun to catch as they will take streamers alongside the browns.

This past wednesday saw the first installment of WNFC (Wednesday night fishing club). For those who don't know, I fish with pretty much the same fellas every wednesday and have for the past few years. It's a beautiful thing, all our gals now know that Wednesday's are off limits, boys night out. We meet at a secret location, OK not so secret but we have a private access parking area which is conducive to enjoying a few beers and even a bonfire now and then. Fishing this week was a little tough, the water was falling but still a little high and off color and very cold from the snow melt. We each landed a nice holdover rainbow, shared a stream beer and kicked off the season in style.

What's with all this bashing of my brother in arms Brad "the Afton Angler" Bohen? The poor fella's is being savaged and slandered by the fishing community at large, but mainly from a few folks, jealous of his success I suppose. He was axed from the MW fly show despite being a huge draw in his speaking engagements. The fly fishing community needs to grow up a little and accept the fact that there are NEW anglers out there, not the tired old lefty-holschlag-FFF-orvis hags who we all have seen and heard for years, do and say the same thing over and over and over again...the problem lies in that they cannot accept the fact that the industry as a whole is dying a slow death and needs to reinvent itself, new faces are and have to be part of the process, new products are now enough. So Brad is a shameless self promoter, big deal! Try being a guide, building a clientele and not ever doing a lick of marketing or promotion, does not work, in this business or any. I've known this dude for 30 years, fished with him in all reaches of this great land and to those who would dare to call Brad a poser, piss off. His angling skills (note angling, not just fly fishing) go beyond what most folks could ever hope to achieve. And really, don't you fools have anything better to do with your time than savage someone over the interweb....

Sunday morning and I'm off to make my wife some breakfast. till next time.

BigPikeMike

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

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

in no particular order

Here's what's been happening on my side of the rod....in no particular order.

The picture there is Greg Powell of Austin TX with a bonus 40" Sturgeon we got yesterday fishing for eyes'. Interesting day to say the least, what's with the 97 degrees anyway? The Texans loved it, no humidity! Good lord. Aside from the Sturgeon, we managed a couple small Walleyes and missed our share too. Wahoo jumped in the boat from 5-8, we had a couple beers and caught a nice 20" eye for his fryer. release to the grease.

Overall the fishing has been off and I really can't put a finger on it. Clearly we need precipitation but beyond that the systems just seem less fishy. Trout fishing for example, has been really slow for myself and my regular comrades. I can think of one good morning I had a week or so ago where I landed 5, one nice one and had steady action. Most outings have been a bit of a struggle. However, we did completely change our program last time out and Wahoo got a nice 17" on golden rocks, nymphing as opposed to the venerable streamer. Seems the trout decided to act like trout and not pike as previous years. fair enough, we can adapt.

Speaking of adapting. The 14th Annual Hamroom Walleye tournament took place this last Saturday. Dude Hale walked away with the event, 28+ pounds and maybe 8 over second place team of Farr and Johnson. Ingy and I donned the "Gitmo Fish" orange jumpsuits and proceeded to spend all day battling the 30+ mph winds and finished seventh or so. We only weighed 4 and had a 22" but no consistent good bite. Dude was fishing within sight of us for most of the day, we knew something had to be up but I'm not one to crowd a fella, wasn't anyway. I am now.

Guiding has been a little slow too, which I completely understand but still don't like. Aside from the ability to make a living, the client interaction really is what it's all about. I dig people and always look forward to making a new Friend. It'll pick up soon and already is a little as I've been booking some trips over the last few days.

Musky opens this weekend, I'm deep in the pits of a bathroom remodel and am struggling with time, fishing vs. work. arrgghhh. I guess either is "dropping by the jobsite" but I like completing projects and the benefits of doing so. I usually fish with Googh, er Todd Hess, a musky wizard in his own right. Last opener I think we each got a 40ish incher as I recall. it was cold however and the current heat wave could really start things off with a bang, no high water either...guess I'll go for a couple hours anyway.

I'll be out over the next few days and get some more intel rolling, bye for now.

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.

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

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.......

Francis & Me

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

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.

River of Spotted Cow....or the delinquent blogger

Ya ya, that's me...been a pretty lousy week for fishing, the rain and snow left me bummed and the river's over their banks. The walleye bite has slowed some on pool two I understand, but frankly I've not been since the cold snap. However.....

I got a chance to fish SW WI last weekend as well as help with a massive tree planting project on the West Fork fork of the Kickapoo River, the family farm of Paul and Bernie Hayes. They are the parents of fellow angler and good pal Ben, the guy who taught me all I know about great lakes angling. We were fortunate to have great weather last saturday and the rain sunday held off till we were done and ready to fish, speaking of....

What an amazing area, every time I'm there I'm really in awe of the amount of water and lack of anglers for the most part. We fished the Bad Axe out of Viroqua and the west fork on the Hayes property. The Bad Axe was tough, we had high skies and warming temps and I'll be damned if a 3wt felt foriegn in my hands after chucking big flies and sinking lines all spring. Ben managed one decent fish and lost another, I reckon I got one as well. Pretty river, looked to be heavily impacted by last summers flooding though. The west fork is amazing to me, every hole beckons you to the next, "c-mon it says, there's another sweet hole just up the bend", a fella could get caught up in that and I did. We fished streamers, small leeches and buggars on saturday night and got about 20 in an hour or so. They were fiesty 11-15" browns and a number of brookies as well, they seemed to be in pods at places.

Saturday night was Bowling and Spotted Cow night at the lanes in Westby. Lo and behold who should stumble in but Dan Boggs from Janesville WI. Dan is the president of the Blackhawk WI TU chapter (of which Paul Hayes is a member long standing) and he joined us for bowling and even volunteered to help with some planting the next day in exchange for a TU donation and a couch to crash on. Thanks D! As an added bonus, Dan and I got out on the same west fork beat, this time with larger muddlers and had similar sucess. it was great to fish with Dan again and I look forward to my next visit to the area, what a place!

High waters look to be the norm, although I did see the kinni and rush were dropping pretty steadily after the storm on the 11th. The willow is blown wide open, it's got a huge drainage and lots of lowland topography so I expect it'll be a couple days till we can get out there again. I'll be focusing quite a bit of attention on the Rush and Kinni for the next couple weeks with some trips on the books, looking forward to nice weather and good fishing.

Hot tip of the week: crappies on lake Mallillue (sp?) around the dam from shore and by boat. good reports of numbers and some slabs to be had as well. may try to get out this week and stock up for crappie tacos!