And it happens....

Well it finally happened!  Not that I have had too many outings, but still, I landed my first muskie of the 07 season.  Normally I would have a handful of them after the first couple weeks of walleye season, and occasionally throughout the early musky season, but this is my first toothy bugger of the year.  I blame my lack of muskies on the fact that I haven't been fishing my normal waters and patterns as often.  For the most part, I have watched everyone else in my boat have chances this season, and it wasn't until Mille Lacs on Monday that I actually had them trying to eat my bait.  This morning was the same thing, because I watched 3 different muskies try to eat Matt's lure, and I still hadn't had any action.  Not to mention the fact that Matt lost yet another muskie, this one was screaming by the boat when the hooks let loose.  Well, after ragging on him for nearly an hour, I set the hook and I was watching yet another muskie fly high.  I love it, and that is all I have to say about that.  This year I have yet to fish my pride and joy waters of Minnetonka, and have opted to learn a thing or two about the Waconia muskies.  I wouldn't say that I am an expert at it, but in the 4 outings after them, we have landed 3 and had many other chances and sightings.  I feel pretty good about what I have going on with my hometown lake, and hope to put a few more sore mouths on them before I head back to Tonka.  The fun of having the opportunity to spend time learning new water just intrigues me, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity.  Hope the bite keeps up, and as always, Keep on livin the Dream!

Oh yeah, 41 inches.  Not huge, but it'll do.  Plus I don't think this is the last picture taker of the year.

Oh, and I am actually not complaining that I wasn't getting all the chances cuz I would much rather have everyone else get the catch instead of me, hence why I enjoy guiding!

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!

A Mille Lacs Quicky!

Well it wasn't until 11:15 last Thursday that I learned I would be heading to Mille Lacs, but by 3:00 we were on the water, and by 3:10 we had a walleye in the livewell.  I guess that's how it goes when you are busy trying to live the dream, so that's just what we did!  Jeff, Brian and Myself cleared our schedule and made the journey to catch ole marble eyes.  We spent roughly 4 hours catching walleyes and about an 1 1/2 hours after muskies.  We landed many walleyes in the short time period we were on the water, with almost all of the 30 or so that we boated falling in the 22 - 26 inch range.  We only had two under 20 inches that we were able to keep, but we weren't complaining.  In fact, I don't think we could have picked a better day to drop everything and head up there.  The wind wasn't blowing (FINALLY), and the temps were near perfect.  The one really dissappointing fact was the health of the fish that we were catching.  As you can see from the pictures, they were all very very skinny.  It's hard to say if they are all starving, but for whatever reason they don't look too healthy.  Hopefully they plump up shortly!  I could post many pictures, but they all seem to look the same, so I'll  just show a few, and you can kinda get the point.  It sure was fun though. 

Our limited time chasing Muskies didn't provide any monsters in the boat, but I hope to change that tomorrow when I head up there in search of a snaggle tooth. 

Nice call on this one Jeffrey!  Thanks for yet another fun day, and til next time, Keep on Livin the dream!

Dang It's Hot Out There!

Well yesterday morning I was given the privilege to take out a new client by the name of Ed.  This is Ed's first time in the boat with me, and our main goal on this outing was to get him familiar with lake Waconia and how to go about catching fish.  Ed is new to the lake, and recently purchased a boat slip from the marina along with a boat to put in the slip.  With that being said, it was my goal to try my best at teaching him a few tricks and techniques that I use to bring fish in the boat.  Our morning started by chasing the Ol' Marble Eye's, but due to the recent heat that has just moved in, many of the larger fish were reluctant to take the bait.  We settled for a few shorter than normal walleyes and then switched to the elusive Muskies.  We had a few nice fish going instantly on one of my walleye spots, and watched an upper 40" fish chase a crappie to the boat while we were still walleye fishing.  We decided to work that area over, and found there to be about a handfull of different fish willing to chase the bait.  Exciting? Yes, but no takers.  I enjoyed the time on the water trying to teach Ed a few tricks, and hope to get him dialed in very soon. 

With this new weather pattern that just came in, and with water temps skyrocketing into the 75 degree range, it's now time to find a new pattern and force feed them darn walleyes. 

I highly encourage y'all to check out this link that Ed sent to me.  It just might be the most crazy fishing you will ever see. 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.fullscreen&videoid=1125465453

I bet I know a few people who would give an arm and a leg to try that.  Thanks Ed!  Until Next time, Keep on Livin the Dream!

And Bret Strikes Again!

The last time Bret and I hit the water together, we managed to boat 3 muskies in a trip that got cut short due to the weather.  One of which was Bret's largest at a very healthy 48'.  While those memories were shared yesterday morning with Tim, we didn't exactly have plans to repeat that success.  Our mission was to start out the morning by boating a few walleyes and then switching over to the ol' Bucketmouths.  Well, we did do as planned, but as you can see from the pic, we also did a little unplanned dancin with the toothy critters.  Our morning started by catching roughly 10 walleyes, which was pretty good action considering the intense wind.  They weren't quite the size that we were looking for, but Bret took home some fresh walleye fillets for dinner.  We then switched over to bass, but with the tornadic strength winds we were dealing with, it made it quite challenging to strategically place our casts.  We landed a few bass including a nice one by Tim, and dealt with the wind the entire time.  The great part about the style of bass fishing that we were doing, is that we were working a couple of my favorite muskie spots on the lake and giving ourselves the opportunity to do battle with a trophy of another kind.  The first time we encountered a muskie on our lighter than normal muskie gear, the muskie won, and left me to retie another lure.  The second time we encountered a toothy critter, it couldn't have gone any better.  The battle was won by Bret, and it was quite the battle at that.  First of all, I took out my gigantic net to make room for the finesse fishing, which forced us to land this fish in a very different matter.  Secondly, and the best part of the story, was that this muskie was spotted before it even ate the bait.  As Bret would put it, there is nothing better than seeing it before the attack, and observing the entire strike.  And lastly, it was battled on lighter gear than my normal musky fishing tackle.  According to Bret, it beat the intense battle that he encuontered with me last year when he landed his 48 incher.  While this muskie wasn't as large, the 43 incher will always be remembered as the one that he watched eat the bait and somehow got in the boat.  While we didn't plan on landing the muskie this way, it definitely is quite common to entice them on lighter tackle this time of the year.  There are a few baits that seem to work really well for me, and they are also my favorite bass baits.  It only makes sense to throw them this time of the season and give ourselves the opportunity for a little bonus action.  Truly a fun morning on the water, and I cannot wait to do it again fellas.  Thanks for the fun time, and until next time, Keep on Livin the Dream!