Thank You Mother Nature!

I do believe this picture says it all!

The last few days have been absolutely spectacular if you are anybody who doesn't live in bunker without windows.  The weather has been as good as it gets if you enjoy spring ice fishing, or anything outside for that matter.  A group of us were able to take advantage of the weather and the recently extended hours of daylight thanks to the time change, and enjoy all that the metro panfishing has to offer.  We all scrambled out to the ice after work and had more than enough time to throw some real dandies on the ice.  The best part about it was that we weren't stuck in a fish house, and we were free to move from hole to hole catching fish and making jokes of whoever happened to be standing the closest at the time.  After all, isn't that what fishing is all about?

The size of these pannies cannot compare to that of some of the larger ones I often come across on my northern ventures, but they were plenty large for the fun we were having.  To be completely honest, I was very impressed with the size of most of the fish out there that particular day, and the bluegills were larger than any that I had seen out of Waconia in almost 10 years.  I don't know if they decided to grow up finally, but I do like what I have been seeing coming through the hole.

We capped off our evening of fishing with what can be called "another perfect sunset."  Get out there! Catch em' and Have Fun. Fish On!

It's That Time Of The Year Again!!

Well it's about darn time I updated this site!  I apologize for the lack of information that I have been sharing with all of you.  It most definitely is not intentional, and to be completely honest, it has been driving me crazy that I have not been out gathering events and stories for your viewing pleasure.  I have had quite a rough couple of months lately, with a lot of bad luck, which has kept me from doing what I love.  I also have been working hard to get things set in place for a new business venture that I am starting up very soon.  This has require nearly all of my attention recently and allowed the fish a few weeks of safety before I get back out there and put sore mouths on everything that swims.  I fully intend to share with all of you just exactly what I am up to once I have everything where it needs to be.  But not to worry, I will be working my new venture right alongside Trophy Encounters, and the stories will still be written along with any trips that you all wish to take with me.  I am super excited, and cannot wait to get everything flowing like I feel it will!

With that being said, we managed to blast through the insane snow drifts last night out on Waconia, and harvest ourselves some dandy crappies.  Drew, Dingleberries (aka: Dingwall) and myself couldn't handle the nice weather and decided to see if the bite was on.  We didn't have the best evening of fishing that I have ever experienced, but we did land enough to fill my belly and keep us occupied for a few hours. 

Although the game fish season is over, and fish houses are no longer allowed to stay on the ice, we are now entering into my favorite time of the year to be on the ice.  With the snow melting and water running into the holes, the panfish seem to have no choice but to eat everything wiggling in front of their face.  Not only do the little ones still bite, but those big boys that have soaked up all the oxygen that the weeds have given them all winter long decide that they want to come out and play as well.  If you are experienced with the spring panfish bite, you know what I'm talking about.  If not, I suggest that you make some time to hit the ice a few more times before it is gone.  It can definitely be your best action of the year.  I will hopefully be making a few trips northbound in the very near future, and if any of you would like to tangle with some monster panfish, I would love to enjoy the trip with you.  Until next time. FishOn!

Bringin' a Little Dakota to Minnesota!!!

This story started many years ago, but is finally being told. 

For the last few years a group of friends from South Dakota have been coming to Waconia with the same purpose in mind each year.  Camp out on the frozen ice, try to catch a few fish, and stuff their bellies full of all the wild game that is provided at the local Wild Game Dinner here in town.  We ran into this group of guys last winter when our curiousity got the best of us and forced us to stop in.  It wasn't like they were hidden out on the lake or anything.  They have a very large tent and a 20ft pole stuck in the ice next to it which sports our nations colors, and they can be seen from just about anywhere on the lake.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time chatting with these boys last year, and were anxious to see them out on the water again this season.  Well, just as planned, the phone rang prior to their arrival and we met them for another weekend on our lake.  We set them in an area that had been producing quite a few Panfish and an occasional Walleye, but the cold made fishing nearly impossible.  The temps were well below zero for the second year in a row and the fishing was not exactly spectacular.  With their tent not suited for fishing inside in the warmth, the only fishing that could take place was in holes drilled outside the shelter.  A few fish were caught by them the first day, including panfish and a smaller eye', but nothing to write home about.

With the conditions not so good, it was still a pleasure to have a few beverages with these boys again and to talk foolish and tell jokes.  Just the atmosphere of standing on frozen ice inside a tent when it is -30 outside makes these guys a conversation piece for just about everyone who see's them.  Unlike other years, these men didn't really have any peace and quiet, and their zipper was almost constantly going up and down from people who wanted to come inside to check them out.  At times I think it was almost too hectic for the guys, but I hope a good time was had by all of them.  Heck, they even made front page of our local Waconia Patriot.  If you get this paper you already know what I am talking about, but if not, I suggest you check it out to see more about this great story.

A special thanks to Erik, Kent, Chris, Ken and Dan from South Dakota.  Hope to see ya'll again next year!

Fishers of Men

Last night I was offered the opportunity to talk to a group of men that belong to a local fishing organization called the Fishers of Men.  I was brought in to be the guest speaker for one of their gatherings, and to discuss some different fishing techniques that I use and also to answer any fishing related questions that they had.  I talked with this great group of men for roughly an hour and enjoyed every second of it.  We covered topics ranging from early season walleyes, to late summer muskies. 

The main reason for writing about this evenings events, was the learning experience that I encountered when I saw what a lot of these men were all about.  They spend a great deal of time working with organizations throughout the cities to promote FISHING FOR KIDS.  They have banquets, charities and gatherings that get more kids into the sport.  I talked with many great guys about what they do and gained a lot of insight from several of them including Tom, Mike, Gary &  Dave, just to name a few.  These guys have many events coming soon that are directly related to keeping kids interested in the outdoors and fishing.  A couple of links that have more information than I can describe are, www.fishingforlife.org & www.fishersofmenclub.org .  There are a few events that I think we all should consider helping with if the time will allow. 

Thanks again guys for being a great audience, and feel free to put any comments to this article or email me any other information that I can pass on.  Keep up the good work!  Fishon!

The Grand Slam of Ice Fishing!

I literally have so many stories and pictures from the past 4 days of fishing that I don't really know where to start.  Bails, Mikey and myself (aka: The Tripod) left this past Thursday in search of the grand slam of ice fishing.  I call it the grand slam because we target my 4 favorite species through the ice and they are all trophy caliber fish.  The list consists of Monster Bluegills, Slab Crappies, Big Bellied Jumbo Perch, and Fat Bellied Walleyes.  During our trip we fished all of these species and managed to try 9 different lakes on our quest.

The first on our list was the Slab Crappies, and boy did we ever strike gold.  The small puddle in the forest that we fished is one of my favorite holes to fish because we commonly catch crappies up to nearly 2 pounds.  If you have ever caught the giants in red lake then you know what size of fish I am talking about.  When the bite is going on this particular lake it doesn't take long to wear your arm out, which is exactly what we experienced.  We caught several large crappies over a pound with some going over 1 1/2 pounds.  We kept a nice meal for our first fish fry, and threw all the larger fish back for next time.  This very tiny lake can handle very little pressure, and since I have never seen another soul on it while I have been out there, I like to let the big ones grow even larger. 

After catching our crappies for the day we switched to a new lake that produces many species for us while we target the Monster Bluegills.  We set out our tip-ups with shiners and ran back and forth chasing the pike while we played around with the giant sunnies.  Since we had our meal of crappies already in the pail, we decided to throw everything back and just enjoyed the sight of every sunfish that managed to cover our entire hands.  We didn't catch any pounders, but had several up to 3/4 pound, which for a sunfish, is truly a giant and a very rare bread.  While catching our sunfish we chased a tip-up nearly every 10 - 15 minutes and caught several northern pike.  We also caught Largemouth bass, and a few BBJP's in this short afternoon on the water.  All I have to say is that We nearly caught everything on our list in the first half day of fishing for our trip.  A great start to say the least.

Day 2 of our excursion took us to Red Lake to get in on the Walleye bite and to cross another specie off our list to tackle.  Since we had all the crappie action from the day before, we concentrated on strictly catching the Walleyes instead of searching for the huge crappies that most people chase out there.  We fished in the well below zero temps all day and caught several nice walleyes.  We landed these fish by getting as far away from anybody as we could and fishing the shoreline break in 11-12 feet of water.  On this large swamp once you hit 14ft of water, there is no structure until you hit shore on the other side.  It can make things frustrating when sitting miles out on an endless flat, so we stuck to the shoreline break which is actually pretty steep if you go out of JR's resort on the SouthWest side of the fishable water.  We caught in the neighborhood of 30 walleyes and had fairly steady action in both the morning and evening.  The only downside to our day was our inability to catch up with our buddies on the big lake.  Theo, Todd and their crew were also on the water, but with our horibble phone service and the fact that Theo managed to drop his phone down the ice hole, we were unable to find them.  Sorry fellas, Next time I guess!

Day 3 had us chasing the awesome Perch bite that can be had on a few of the lakes in the area.  We fished hard and tried 3 different lakes before we decided that this wasn't going to be the weekend for the Big Bellied Jumbo Perch.  We caught many perch, but they just didn't have the size that we were after.  A couple of the lakes that I have done well on, have very drastic up and down times.  The thing that makes it worth trying is that when they do hit, they are fast and furious, and they are truly massive.  Although we didn't strike gold with them, I will definitely be trying again next time up.  We switched gears and headed down another logging road for the afternoon bite for the Bull Gills.  We had a great time catching many large fish and hole hopping around all afternoon.  This lake is my absolute favorite, and didn't let us down on this trip either.  We didn't break the pound mark, but came very close several times.  Awesome! Awesome! Awesome bluegill Bite!

The last day of our trip we decided to try another great Bluegill lake for the morning before heading home,  We tangled around with many more large Bulls, and closed the trip in style.  In the entire time of fishing, we caught trophy fish in all the categories that we wanted.  The perch were a little slower than normal but we still had some in the BBJP size category.  In my opinion this is the best kind of ice fishing that can be had and with the large variety, every day is a new experience.  If you haven't been on a trip like this, I definitely recommend it as one that you need to put on your list.  If you or someone you know would like to experience this excitement let me know soon to set up the ice fishing trip of a lifetime.

More pictures from the trip may be seen in the numerous photo albums. 

The Grand Slam of ice fishing is AWESOME!  Thanks Mike and Sean!