What's New?

Another week gone by, and more stories to tell. Hmmm. Where to start? How about the weather? If you haven't noticed, this has been an unusually cool summer. Water temps are still hanging in the lower 70's on the metro lakes. That is about 10 degrees cooler than an average year. How about the drought? Yep, the water is a solid foot or two below the normal depths. Weed growth is different based off of both the aforementioned details, and the fish are reacting differently than in the past. What does all of this mean? Absolutely nothing! It's still fishing, and you still have to experiment to find what is working right now.

While it may seem like the bite has been slower than other years, the fish are still biting. I have caught muskies this year in the most random places. I have found 'em in 30 feet of water, 2 feet of water and everywhere in between. Basically what I am saying is that I have really been experimenting a lot. Some days have been spectacular and others not so good. As I write this post I'm not quite sure how I feel about everything. I went from landing at least one muskie on 16 out of 18 days on the water, to having only one successful trip in the last 4 days on the water. Normally this would leave me feeling down and out, but I guess I'm not quite ready to hang my head. In those 4 trips we managed a nice 45 and 48 incher. They both came about an hour apart from each other making for a great evening of fishing. The other 3 days just have me shaking my head. During these outings myself and my guests have managed to raise about 40 fish without successfully landing one. If it could go wrong, it has! Fish shaking hooks boatside, in the air, under water and in the weeds. Argh! I have to laugh at the results, because looking at the stats behind it, you would think that it hasn't been a good stretch of fishing. The opposite of that would actually be a better assessment. Sure we didn't land any fish, but the amount of action that I have been having lately is actually up from the week previous. Even though that week lended itself nearly a dozen muskies in the boat. Weird. Each trip has yielded some chances for myself and the other anglers, but we failed to connect on nearly every occasion. The only time we didn't miss any chances came on Friday morning when no muskies attempted our lures at all. Greg and his son Jack came out for a multi-specie morning on the water. We tried for muskies for a bit, switched to bass, caught a few pan fish, and then threw for ski's again. Jack was the victor on that outing with one of the largest pike I have seen in the metro in years. Not to mention a heck of a dandy bass! We landed some nice fish that morning, but no muskies.

When I look back at last week I just have to shake my head and chalk it up as another learning experience. A good stretch on the water that just didn't pan out like it was suppose to. Oh well, this week is a new week and I get to try it all over again. I'm just thinking that the results might be a bit better.

As a side note, I have been doing a lot of radio hosting the past few months. If you are ever on the road on Monday evening, you can catch the show as Mike Max and I talk fishin', huntin', and everything else outdoors. WCCO 830 AM from 8 to 9:30 PM. Until next time, keep on livin' the dream!