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
Showing posts with label muskie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label muskie. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Who is that guy?
Someone tell the fella with the long hair and beard it's summer! Oh ya, that's me! Realizing the error of my ways, I did in fact clean up for summer and man did it feel good!
This last week was "Francis Week". I had my old friend and client Francis O'Neill here from VA. We fished wed-friday on the local streams, mainly the Rush and Kinni, but we did make a special trip to "Brookie Heaven", aka, Cady Creek. This was a special day for a couple of reasons. The Stream is not only loaded with Brookies, enthusiastic and lovely despite their stature, but it's also reminiscent of an english chalk stream of which Francis was familiar and very fond of. The banks were quite overgrown, providing much needed shade and cover for the little fella's. While this certainly made casting a bit more of a challenge, we were able to find some nice lanes for rolling hoppers, beetles and crickets over their heads and were rewarded for our efforts. I lost track after a while, but there were 20-25 that came to hand, all just stunning, and each seeminginly more beautiful than the last one. I really dont spend enough time on Cady, it's about 20 minutes past the Rush in Elmwood (UFO capital of WI), but worth the effort no doubt.
The Rush fished OK, there was a smattering of bugs from mid-morning to late afternoon, but we never hung till dark and waited for the Caddis to come out in full force. PMD's and emergers were working, as well as small slate caddis. Francis likes to switch things up on a regular basis, and that suits me just fine as I do to. What Francis lacks in mobility, he more than makes up for with casting prowess, he's got a serious cast and perfect presentation thanks to the sweetest light line cane rods I've seen or fished, what a joy to hold. I'm always sad to see him go, we've developed a terrific friendship over the last few years that I'm sure will last for many to come.
The rest of the weekend was light on angling, spent a bunch of time with my gal instead. Jennifer is off to Cali for 5 weeks, at school. Cool thing is she's living with Brad's folks in Sacramento, just a mile or two from her campus.
Speaking of B-rad, he made an appearance late monday afternoon, after dropping off a week long client from NYC at the airport. We moseyed over to the Willow for a late night attempt only to be denied. But considering it was 93, wet wading was the BEST place to be on earth that evening. Tuesday morning we got up at the crack of 8, and planned out another day of old school scouting and dead reckoning about western WI, warm water this time.
First up, The Apple River below the tubing crazed town of Somerset. We have a sweet little "in" on a chunk of basically private water, loaded with muskies and smallies, with the occasional walleye in the mix. A little boat ride, little wet wading and LOTS of smallies, up to 18" or so. All on big frog patterns normally tossed at Muskies, read BIG FLIES. Heavy current, big flies =10wt rods. The smallies were up to the task and bent the 10's like crazy! Looking for a change of venue, we packed up after 1pm or so and headed for Amery area, 30 miles upriver or so. After stopping to check out a couple bridges and available drift boat access, we headed up to the dam at Black Brook. There were a couple locals angling below the dam, and the vibe was weak so we dropped in up top and floated for a couple hours. No follows or fish, but amazing fly water so it's been added to the short list. Having run it's course, we stopped in Amery for gas and Beer and headed back to Somerset area, to have a look at the old landing on the croix, near the mouth of the apple. What an amazing place! Thousands and thousands of acres of water, woods, braids, bogs and who knows what other primordial creatures and features. However, no access for the boat but I'll be doing some scouting on the kayak that's for sure!
As if that was not enough! We decided to meet up with Eddy Philpot for some late night bassin' on Demontraville lake. We hit the water at 9:30 or so and had steady jitterbug action till we quit at 1:30. No real hogs, but some in the 4lb class.
All told, almost 20 hours on the job yesterday with some real excellent scouting accomplished. Look out tubers on the apple, I'm coming with big flies and bad intentions!
real good then!
BigPikeMike
This last week was "Francis Week". I had my old friend and client Francis O'Neill here from VA. We fished wed-friday on the local streams, mainly the Rush and Kinni, but we did make a special trip to "Brookie Heaven", aka, Cady Creek. This was a special day for a couple of reasons. The Stream is not only loaded with Brookies, enthusiastic and lovely despite their stature, but it's also reminiscent of an english chalk stream of which Francis was familiar and very fond of. The banks were quite overgrown, providing much needed shade and cover for the little fella's. While this certainly made casting a bit more of a challenge, we were able to find some nice lanes for rolling hoppers, beetles and crickets over their heads and were rewarded for our efforts. I lost track after a while, but there were 20-25 that came to hand, all just stunning, and each seeminginly more beautiful than the last one. I really dont spend enough time on Cady, it's about 20 minutes past the Rush in Elmwood (UFO capital of WI), but worth the effort no doubt.
The Rush fished OK, there was a smattering of bugs from mid-morning to late afternoon, but we never hung till dark and waited for the Caddis to come out in full force. PMD's and emergers were working, as well as small slate caddis. Francis likes to switch things up on a regular basis, and that suits me just fine as I do to. What Francis lacks in mobility, he more than makes up for with casting prowess, he's got a serious cast and perfect presentation thanks to the sweetest light line cane rods I've seen or fished, what a joy to hold. I'm always sad to see him go, we've developed a terrific friendship over the last few years that I'm sure will last for many to come.
The rest of the weekend was light on angling, spent a bunch of time with my gal instead. Jennifer is off to Cali for 5 weeks, at school. Cool thing is she's living with Brad's folks in Sacramento, just a mile or two from her campus.
Speaking of B-rad, he made an appearance late monday afternoon, after dropping off a week long client from NYC at the airport. We moseyed over to the Willow for a late night attempt only to be denied. But considering it was 93, wet wading was the BEST place to be on earth that evening. Tuesday morning we got up at the crack of 8, and planned out another day of old school scouting and dead reckoning about western WI, warm water this time.
First up, The Apple River below the tubing crazed town of Somerset. We have a sweet little "in" on a chunk of basically private water, loaded with muskies and smallies, with the occasional walleye in the mix. A little boat ride, little wet wading and LOTS of smallies, up to 18" or so. All on big frog patterns normally tossed at Muskies, read BIG FLIES. Heavy current, big flies =10wt rods. The smallies were up to the task and bent the 10's like crazy! Looking for a change of venue, we packed up after 1pm or so and headed for Amery area, 30 miles upriver or so. After stopping to check out a couple bridges and available drift boat access, we headed up to the dam at Black Brook. There were a couple locals angling below the dam, and the vibe was weak so we dropped in up top and floated for a couple hours. No follows or fish, but amazing fly water so it's been added to the short list. Having run it's course, we stopped in Amery for gas and Beer and headed back to Somerset area, to have a look at the old landing on the croix, near the mouth of the apple. What an amazing place! Thousands and thousands of acres of water, woods, braids, bogs and who knows what other primordial creatures and features. However, no access for the boat but I'll be doing some scouting on the kayak that's for sure!
As if that was not enough! We decided to meet up with Eddy Philpot for some late night bassin' on Demontraville lake. We hit the water at 9:30 or so and had steady jitterbug action till we quit at 1:30. No real hogs, but some in the 4lb class.
All told, almost 20 hours on the job yesterday with some real excellent scouting accomplished. Look out tubers on the apple, I'm coming with big flies and bad intentions!
real good then!
BigPikeMike
Friday, May 29, 2009
As seen on TV!
It's been a busy couple weeks, muskie opened and the trout fishing has been slowly improving as well. More on that later this afternoon.
Most importantly, check out this clip from a show I did with KSTP Television on wednesday, on "Twin Cities Live". We shot some footage in River Falls at the Kinni Creek Lodge and highlighted fly fishing as a "get out of town" adventure. It went really well and makes me one step closer to my own show, maybe the "Big Pike Mike Angling Hour"? It was fun, hope you enjoy it!
http://twincitieslive.com/article/stories/S951723.shtml?cat=11449
BPM
Most importantly, check out this clip from a show I did with KSTP Television on wednesday, on "Twin Cities Live". We shot some footage in River Falls at the Kinni Creek Lodge and highlighted fly fishing as a "get out of town" adventure. It went really well and makes me one step closer to my own show, maybe the "Big Pike Mike Angling Hour"? It was fun, hope you enjoy it!
http://twincitieslive.com/article/stories/S951723.shtml?cat=11449
BPM
Thursday, May 7, 2009
snakefarm
Hello Y'all! I've Been back in MN for a couple of weeks now, getting myself adjusted to the pace of big city life again. For 3 months, I did little or no driving, watched little or no TV and spent even less time on the PC. Folks ask about the great time I had, but it didn't really involve the beauty of Alaska as much as the company of the people I was with. So ya, I had a GREAT time with my buddy Curt, his wife Alyssa and the girls, Serena Rose and Maggie. We worked our ever loving asses off for about 85 of the 90 days I was in town. It's a great place, everyone should go.
More on AK later, lets talk some fishing eh?
LOUSY! Despite what looks like great conditions, water levels and such, the fishing has been off, at least on the waters I've been fishing. The St. Croix opened up saturday to the usual fanfare, 75 boats jockeying for position in the channel and lots of reports of 14.5" short eyes. We fished hard all day and only got one for the box. We being Fred (aka creek warrior) and I. Thinking I'd do better on monday with less traffic and anglers about, I went and put another full day in searching, same results, one for the box. The males were still spewing milt, so I'm guessing the spawn just got over and the big girls will be strapping on the feed bag just in time for the HAMROOM in 2 weeks or so.
The trout scene has also been a little slow. Wednesday night fishing club convened last night with Robbie and Whahoo on board. I was the only guy to manage a fish, scrappy little 13" brown and that was it. So far this year I've got 10 I think, with one at 20" or so. I've not been on the kinni or the Rush but intend to here this coming week, hopefully with some clients. The guiding is starting out a little slower than I like, but frankly I expected it a little with the economy the way it is right now. Hopefully when schools out, folks will feel more compelled to keep their fishing business local and fish the area, as opposed to hitting the road to Montana.
I've kept my 09' rates the same as 08' and added a "kids fish free" component in order to get some family involvement this summer, lets spread the word and lets get out fishing!
In the meanwhile, still doing bathrooms and kitchens and I'm off to look at a job right now. more later with some recent images and more info!
cheers,
BPM
More on AK later, lets talk some fishing eh?
LOUSY! Despite what looks like great conditions, water levels and such, the fishing has been off, at least on the waters I've been fishing. The St. Croix opened up saturday to the usual fanfare, 75 boats jockeying for position in the channel and lots of reports of 14.5" short eyes. We fished hard all day and only got one for the box. We being Fred (aka creek warrior) and I. Thinking I'd do better on monday with less traffic and anglers about, I went and put another full day in searching, same results, one for the box. The males were still spewing milt, so I'm guessing the spawn just got over and the big girls will be strapping on the feed bag just in time for the HAMROOM in 2 weeks or so.
The trout scene has also been a little slow. Wednesday night fishing club convened last night with Robbie and Whahoo on board. I was the only guy to manage a fish, scrappy little 13" brown and that was it. So far this year I've got 10 I think, with one at 20" or so. I've not been on the kinni or the Rush but intend to here this coming week, hopefully with some clients. The guiding is starting out a little slower than I like, but frankly I expected it a little with the economy the way it is right now. Hopefully when schools out, folks will feel more compelled to keep their fishing business local and fish the area, as opposed to hitting the road to Montana.
I've kept my 09' rates the same as 08' and added a "kids fish free" component in order to get some family involvement this summer, lets spread the word and lets get out fishing!
In the meanwhile, still doing bathrooms and kitchens and I'm off to look at a job right now. more later with some recent images and more info!
cheers,
BPM
Saturday, January 10, 2009
January 10th.....
The passing of 8am or so marks another year under my belt. Yep, 41 years old today I am. I can remember sitting back in my late teens early twenties wondering where or what I'd be doing when I was 40...From where I sit, things are going pretty swell and 41 feels good.
A few weeks ago, just before Christmas I asked for Jennifer's hand in marriage and lucky for me she said yes! We are stoked to create a sweet life together, we've got some plans and both believe with hard work and some luck we'll be taken care of.
To celebrate the aforementioned accomplishments we are having a good old fashioned throw down tonight. Fish Taco's, corn chowder, keg o' summit and about 30 of our close friends and family should be coming by. Not to mention the fact that in a weeks time I'll be in Cordova AK for the remainder of the winter. I'm starting to get really excited about this trip, it's going to be a long time away no doubt, but we'll have some adventures and I'm really looking forward to working aboard Curt's boat. We've been talking some and it may turn into an annual event depending on how I do as a crew member. I'm guessing I'll do just fine.
I'll be posting from Alaska over the next couple of months,, maybe even a report on winter King fishing or at the very least some amazing images from one of the truly beautiful places on earth.
A few weeks ago, just before Christmas I asked for Jennifer's hand in marriage and lucky for me she said yes! We are stoked to create a sweet life together, we've got some plans and both believe with hard work and some luck we'll be taken care of.
To celebrate the aforementioned accomplishments we are having a good old fashioned throw down tonight. Fish Taco's, corn chowder, keg o' summit and about 30 of our close friends and family should be coming by. Not to mention the fact that in a weeks time I'll be in Cordova AK for the remainder of the winter. I'm starting to get really excited about this trip, it's going to be a long time away no doubt, but we'll have some adventures and I'm really looking forward to working aboard Curt's boat. We've been talking some and it may turn into an annual event depending on how I do as a crew member. I'm guessing I'll do just fine.
I'll be posting from Alaska over the next couple of months,, maybe even a report on winter King fishing or at the very least some amazing images from one of the truly beautiful places on earth.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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
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
Friday, June 20, 2008
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!
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!
Friday, June 6, 2008
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.......
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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.
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
Friday, May 30, 2008
Francis & Me
Images from my 4 days with Mr. Francis O'Neill. More to come on Francis and the week we had.
Monday, May 26, 2008
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
Monday, May 19, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)