Rumors......

Of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

In fact quite the opposite, while I've not been visiting the computer much, I have had a significant fall.

On a terrific early September day I married my best Gal Jennifer! We did the deed down at Vino in the Valley, near the shores of the Rush River. It was a smaller ceremony, just good friends and some family which was nice. We followed it up with a throwdown at Little Whiskey complete with campfire singalongs and the whole nine yards. Jennifer keeps suggesting we do it again, it was a day to remember!

There's been some fishing as well, some really amazing fishing to be quite frank...where do I start.

The Sturgeon season on the croix came and went pretty quickly, despite the addition of the C/R season on the tail end. The weather was just too damn nice and the water temps really didn't start to dive until the last week or so, when the fishing actually really picked up and got good. We never landed a 60"er this year, which was the minimum, but did get a couple 3-4 that were close. I only did a couple of trips due to the whole Coast Guard license controversy, more to come on that. Oh ya, on the sturgeon....."feel the power!" proclaimed another angler, a regular to my area...he cracked me up...

I had a kick ass trip to the upper Flambeau with Brad, Lucky Porter and Tom M. We pulled a long distance overnight float on some seldom fished water. The weather was out of this world for mid September and the muskies were seriously snapping. As I had declared this trip an MMA (mixed martial angling) adventure, I decided to huck a topraider (my one bait) around the landing area while waiting for the shuttle. Good thing I did, I raised 2-3 fish just within casting distance and it was determined game on! We got rolling and about 400 yards downriver located a nice hole to wade & cast to. After the pool had been beat to a froth with big flies, I chucked mr topraider in, from the anchored boat where I was enjoying a cold one....Big Wake, angry fish, Violent Strike! Damn near at the feet of Brad too, I better get outta the boat! Turned out to be a nice stout 40" river muskie and only the shape of things to come. All in all we landed 5, I got another 40" and lost a freak. Add to that a little after dark cat fishing with frogs and 35" channel cats and you've got a great trip. Oh, and we ate musky too, my first time. It was a 36" fish that lucky deep hooked on Ghost Lake, so it was legal, and tasty!

The Apple River provided some late season action as well. Brad brought the boat down and we got on it 3 days straight in Nov. Only 1 landed but we saw 12-15 a day, chasing flies and occasionally taking a shot at them. We never did get the float down the tubing water, next year I guess.

The fall fly fishing was overall a bust, save for one crazy night with Fred, where I lost the biggest trout I've had one in the Midwest, the fabled 26"er I fear. I do enjoy hooking them and know it's all about the ride, but I wanted that fish. It was a full moon, 1 am or so....one good night and that was it. Good thing early season is just a few months away.

hey, just like that it's ice fishing time! Ingy and I got out last friday for the inaugural day and it wasn't too shabby! they cut the panfish limit in the county down to 10, mixed. So with a little sorting I had a nice bag of 11" crappies and 8-9" gills, made for a tasty dinner. I like to harvest panfish, they are delicious and somehow I don't mind picking through the little fella's, I'll keep going to get some meat in the freezer, if they make it that far. I've been out a couple times with the same results, but with a lack of pike however. Speaking of, I lived up to my namesake on friday with the biggest Pike I've landed in some time. Nice long, but extremely heavy 39" fish, Ingy's crusty scale said 13lbs, I say 16-17 easy. She'd have made 12-13 jars of pike, but I released her in hopes of seeing her hit 40" and 20lbs.

Here's a good pic of the monster Pike!

bigpikemike

miller time

Afternoon All!

The bugs seen in the image on the front page are the venerable White Miller. The millers are a lesser known hatch in our area, in fact good intel on them is hard to come by for the most part. With a little research yesterday, I did learn a little more about their life cycle, which I might add is quite interesting. All I know is trout love 'em and if you can find them, the action can be fast and furious. This image comes from "river X", those who know me or follow the flog know of "river X".

Last night the millers treated me right, I got my largest stream trout of the season (21" +) on a dry about 10pm or so, epic. and no you cant come with me next time, it's my river dammit!

Did I mention the big spiders were out? Ginormous wolf spiders inhabit the shorelines of river X, there on a mission to attack and kill any unfamiliar anglers who happen to stumble down there. Last night I counted a dozen or so of my minions, all guarding their nest's and ready to pounce on whomever I tell them to. Did I mention they were about 2.5 to 4" in diameter. I'll grab some more pic's on wednesday, but in the meanwhile I'll load an image from last year.

whew. nook burger hangover. Jen J and I went up the street to the original nook (saint paulites know the place), came home with intentions of making cookies and walking the dog but ended up on the couch snoozing at 7pm instead.

Back to blogging, 'er flogging as it were.

Whahoo & Robbie are up fishing with Brad for a couple days, muskies out of the drifter. Certainly a good time and as Brad told Robbie, bring your big boy pants....and maybe a change of underwear too.

For those of you not in the immediate know....I'm getting married in less than 2 weeks! I'm pretty stoked, really stoked in fact to be wed to my gal Jennifer. We've been together for quite some time now and I'm really looking forward to the wonderful and amazing things we're going to do together. She's something special that Jen J. The nuptials will take place on 9-5-09 down at Vino in the Valley, this sweet outdoor restaurant and vineyard down on the lower Rush River. Reception to follow in El Paso at Little Whisky. There'll be some beers, some live bluegrass jams and I'm guessing a trip to the El Paso Bar and Grill as well. And if this gal wasn't cool enough, she's camping out on her wedding night with a bunch of close friends. keeper...

Today I was on the Kinni with Les and his son Eric from Soiux Falls SD. Both Les and Eric were rookies, but dang eager rookies willing to soak up info and learn about this trout stream thing and all it involves. I explained a little about my "field trip and you might catch a fish" method and it hit home with both of them. It's so very refreshing once again, to have clients who understand and appreciate the life beyond the stream, and it's no wonder as Les and Eric were embarking on a father & son organic farm project together in SD. BRAVO! These are two fellas immersed in nature and working their butt's off at restoring Harmony within the soil they are working with. I cannot honestly think of a more humbling and rewarding work, and I'm guessing it's hard work. They are versed in many aspects out of the normal farming realm when it comes to how they plan to go about this work, not the least of which is the study of bio dynamic farming, of which Jen J has enlightened me on. google it to learn more, suffice it to say it is a holistic but yet simple and sensible way to grow crops. Oh, and the fishing was OK too. We'll be at it again tomorrow, refining what we learned today and adding some other techniques to the mix as well.

On that note, I'm out. I'm off to rally Jen for a dog walk and an early to bed as I'll be up at 5am again tomorrow.

reel good then.

BigPike

Working backwards......

Bad Bad blogger......

So, while Jennifer was away I helped myself to a full heaping of angling, roughly 37 days in a row. Suffice it to say I was tired, having piled that on top of work and guiding duties. It's all good though, not complaining and yes, she's been home now for a couple weeks and so ends the hitting streak.

That's how things go sometimes, a fella gets streaky and focused on the task at hand. Those 37 some odd days were filled with some serious and not so serious adventures. I'll do my best to re-cap the last couple blog free weeks.

Working backwards... Last week was all about the trout, in fact that sums up the last couple weeks as I've been laying off the muskies till this week. Tuesday and Wednesday I had the great pleasure of fishing with Mr. Jerry Shurson of the Twin Cities here. Jerry was just beginning his fly fishing career and had a decent base from his other angling experiences and a little smallie/fly fishing on the local rivers. Our goal was simple, get him up to speed on the ways of the local trout water, refine some techniques and catch some damn fish! Jerry was a quick study, perfected his roll cast straight away and proceeded to clean up on the local trout population. Once in a while you get a client who can really put 2 & 2 together, get a fish and see the direct results. Jerry was such a client. We fished the Kinni both days, had one good morning of Trico's and one day of tornadic mayhem. Jerry caught the smallest fish I have ever seen mouth hooked on a fly. Size 20 midge emerger > 1.25" longnose dace. see image, it's almost not believable but he did it. He gets the "dink" award, hands down. I'm very much looking forward to another day with Jerry, we got on really we'll and had a great time. Maybe the Brule in October for a weekend, lets do it Jerry! My other trips have gone pretty well. Had a nice outing on the Rush early last week, with a group of 4 retired gents and my guide buddy Mr Andy Roth. This was a few days before the recent deluge of water and the Rush was still low and clear, but fishing well. Caddis on the surface and nymphs were the ticket. You wont hear me talk much about specific patterns because for the most part, I don't adhere to any specific patterns. it's more of a "put it in the spot" approach, knowing that good presentation trumps the pattern details in most cases. I know I'd get a good argument from the fly techs but that's just the way I play it. So small buggy nymphs, hows that..... Like I said earlier, I've laid off the muskies for a couple weeks. My last good outing was with my muskie buddy Jeremy from lakeland. We got out on the front end of a wicked impending storm and right off the bat J stuck a 46.75 on a cowgirl. Not too much later he put another nice fish, 44", in the boat as well. That made 22 for the year in the boat, not great numbers but only one for under 40" and nine over 44". I'll take it.

I've got clearance to fish this evening and better go get the boat ready to go. More to come, I promise... see following fish porn.... bigpikemike