And The Wind Will Blow...Blow...Blow

Can you say WINDY..... Holy Conolly, when you think about spending the day up on Mille Lacs, the one thing that sticks in the back of your mind leading up to the trip is that you just hope the wind isn't too bad.  Well, Monday that thought was a reality.  Theo, Matt and myself spent the entire day on the water battling about 3 hours of rain which was followed by non-stop blowing, gusting, hurricane force winds.  It was down right brutal, and after talking to both of them yesterday, it was apparent that we all had lasting effects.  We were on the water for nearly 15 hours on Monday, and Tuesday we all felt like we had a terrible hangover for the entire day.  I don't know the exact mph of the wind, but it was a howlin.  The weather center said it was from 20 -30 mph, but I think they were on crack.  It sure seemed like more than that!

Our mission for the day was to do battle with some muskies, and we gave it our all.  The conditions seemed great at times, and impossible at other times.  We did have our chances more than once, but were unable to capitalize on any of the giants that we saw.  Mille Lacs is a whole different lake this year due to the water being almost 2 feet below normal water levels.  This definitely changed a few tactics that I had planned on, but we still had our encounters of the trophy caliber.  We saw over a dozen muskies for our efforts, and had 3 different fish that I felt should have had a photo session for this website, but they won the chess match.  This was the first outing of the year that we focused strictly on muskies, but I wouldn't trade the outcome for anything.  Sometimes I think I take for granted all the days that I go out and just catch the darn things, and having a day of butt whooping like we had definitely humbles me a little bit.  As always I learned a lot about this fabulous fishery, and made note of the changing weed growth and water depths.  We made our changes throughout the day, and it did give us results.  Sure we didn't have any pictures of Muskies, but I will walk away from this day considering it a success.  Not only did I get to spend a day on the water with a great friend and soon to be a representative of our country's military system, but I also had my first full day on the water with a fellow muskie addict named Theo.  Any day you can laugh as much as I did is a great day.  Oh yeah, we did fish Smallies for a short period, and connected with a few nice fish as Matt is showing in his pic.  I will be back up there a few more times in the very near future, and am hoping for pictures of the big ones that we saw.  I cannot explain the absolute size of some of the giants in that lake.  They should make a different name for the muskies swimming in that lake, cuz they truly are a different breed of fish.  I think they should be called something like Whalesky's or Musmammoths!  Until Next time Y'all, Keep on Livin the Dream!