The Bite is ON!!!

Yep, The Bite is On!  Most people know that I absolutely love pitching jigs for my Walleyes in the metro early in the season, but I really enjoy a good crankbait bite too.  I have a pattern figured out right now, and it is sensational.  My boat managed to land fish after fish after fish for quite a while last night.  In all we kept enough for a good meal for all and threw back a bunch more  that were smaller and larger.  The largest of the day was by Tim, in the mid 20 inch range, and sizes went all the way down the list.  The highlight of the evening was me bragging up the old school crank that I tied on the evening before.  I caught several fish with it, and after talking about how I have no idea what it is, or where to find another one, I did battle with a nice fish and my line broke.  For the next 1/2 hr I tried to come up with the perfect story to tell Dusty about how I lost his crank, when Tim set the hook on a nice fish and brought the lure back to me.  Man did we giggle at seeing 2 crankbaits in that 4lb northerns mouth.  Nevertheless, I replaced my new shiny crankbait with the dull rusty old one and began catching again.  Pretty weird story, but a true one.  We caught in the neighborhood of 25 Willies, and kept a few for dinner.  The spots from the previous evening were pretty dead, and a new pattern was needed to catch these guys.  The wind switched, and so did the fish, but that is to be expected.  Our speed of crankin' was between 2.3 and 2.8 mph.  Another fun evening, and a great bite.  If you aren't catching them right now, you may want to change some tactics.  Who wants to go fishin???

They Gotta Bite With Hair Like That!!

I'm not sure if it was the color of our lures, or Dusty's wild hair, but for whatever reason we ended up spankin a bunch of Willies.  Since I've been on such a crankbait kick this year, we started our day trolling, and being that this was Dusty's fishing opener, I was pretty pumped to see him land a Walleye within the first 30 seconds of trolling.  I kid you not, we were giggling like school girls when he casted out his crank and he started realling it in within seconds.  A good start to the day and to the season for Dusty.  We took turns hauling in a walleye after walleye, and enjoyed every second of it.  We used primarily two different cranks, one being the firetiger pattern, and the other being the shad color on a crankbait that Dusty's old man use to use.  Too bad that we have no idea where they sell this old school crank, because I know it worked and I'd love to find a couple more of them.  The depth that worked best for us was 9 - 11 feet.  Nothin but fun, Thanks Dusty Bottoms.  Fish On Fella's 

2007 Minnesota Fishing Opener

Another Minnesota fishing opener is in the books!

I don't know exactly where I would rate this years opener for team Trophy Encounters.  We had an interesting weekend, and a definite lack of serious fishing.  The only hours that we really logged this weekend were from Midnight to about 11:00 on Saturday.  We ran up to Mille Lacs at the last minute on Friday, and figured we would just go wherever the wind blew us for the weekend. 

Our annual midnight trip remains in tact, and we hit the south end of Mille Lacs for the early start.  We put a few in the box, and Mike threw back a dandy.  We trolled crankbaits over the 4 - 6 ft gravel areas that had produced in the past, and found our fish.  Our battery died on us and cut the outing short, which took us back into town.  We drove to the north end to meet up with some buddies for the daybreak bite.  This is where our weekend gets a little bit more interesting.  THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE THAT FISH THE NORTH END OF MILLE LACS ON OPENER IS RIDICULOUS!!!!  The lines at the accesses run for miles at times, and waiting for multiple hours to launch your boat is not out of the question.  Not exactly what gets me excited, but that's how it goes.  We fished the typical north end sand, and yes the fish were biting, but it just doesn't have quite the same spark or excitement when you land the walleyes.  There is something about working and finding out a pattern, and then pulling in the walleyes and feeling like you accomplished something cool that gets me going.  I may sound weird for saying this, but I found little enjoyment drifting aimlessly across a sand break with little bottom feature, catching walleyes at random with the other 2,000 boats that were doing the same thing.  It just isn't very rewarding.  Yes it is awesome for the folks that only get out once in a while, but if you are looking for a fun and rewarding challenge, this is not it.  Sure some areas may have been better, but for the most part everything that everyone was doing was working, and if you drifted between 12 - 25 feet of water for more than 30 minutes, you would have a fish in the boat.  I don't care if you have never fished walleyes before.  The next person who rants and raves about their kick butt excursion on Mille lacs north end sand on opener, you can just nod your head and say congrats, cuz it wasn't tough. 

We stayed until about 11:00 until we got bored and decided to try elsewhere.  We didn't stay until we had our 12 keepers, but left with 8 in the jar and a few picture takers.  We had a nice fish fry in the afternoon, and headed further north to catch up with some buddies and fish a smaller lake for the first time.  This was more to enjoy the evening and have a few laughs.  We definitely had that, cuz while we were putting our boat in the water, Mikey and Jeremy pulled up in their boat, both excited to give us a hand and neither of them thought to tie up their boat.  Good thing Jeremy had his waders to get the floating boat back.

We cruised the lake looking for areas that we will be trying on our annual Memorial Weekend trip.  I do believe that this lake may have some lunker Smallies for our Flukes.  The Gesinger's had 8 walleyes in 2 days of fishing, and didn't start hauling them in until they put the bobbers out and the other gear away.  Nice work guys, and thanks for the laughs.  We came back to the cities and passed on another day on Mille Lacs.  I'll be heading back up there soon to get back on a serious man's walleye bite, and away from all the traffic, SHeeSh, I forgot what that big lake can be like on opener, and I don't think I'll be going back next year.  No offense, but It just isn't my cup of tea!  Heading out to the local lakes this week, and I'll be giving some pics and stories soon, Let me know if you want to hit the water. Fish On!

More From Shore! Still Waiting On Opener!

Well I would have to say that this has been the longest spring EVER! I say that because the weather has been pretty fantastic for the last month, and all I want to do is to chase around those darn Walleyes, but we can't yet. Ughhhh! Oh well it is almost here.  To pass the time, last Saturday we managed to sneak away for a couple of hours and throw our Crawlers in the river.  I hadn't done this for many years until a few days prior, and it kinda got me interested again.  I love that I can just hang out on the shore and leave my pole jammed in a stick waiting for the massive tug of whatever may grab it.  The funny thing about watching it, is that as soon as you look away for a split second, the darn rod is being pulled so hard that it is airborn, and it's such a ruckuss to catch it before it goes in the drink.  We caught many fish, including the obvious Carp, along with Catfish and some Bullheads.  Not too much variety that day, but still fun and hard fighting fish. 

Monday evening was Whorl's birthday (Happy Birthday Mike), and we spent the evening out on Waconia catching anything that would eat our crappie minnows.  We battled a couple of extremely intense rain showers, and extremely intense fish.  Instead of only catching crappies and sunnies, this time the Bucketmouths were mixed right in, and we caught several of them as well, including a few over the 4lb mark and 1 absolute giant.  It wasn't that we were fishing for them, but they were up shallow with the panfish preparing to spawn, and they were taking our teeny tiny jigs as well.  Nothing but fun!

I am getting absolutely pumped for this years fishing opener which is only days away.  I haven't quite decided where I'm gonna spend the weekend yet, but I do know that it should be a great one.  The weather is suppose to stay decent which is unheard of for the fishing opener, and with the warmer than average spring, the walleyes should be more than willing to snatch up something swimming past them.  I want to wish good luck to all of you on your quest this weekend, and hope to see you all on the water very soon.  You all have my digits, call me and let me know how it went for ya, or create your own post in the chat room, and tell all of us how you did on your opener.  Good luck, and be safe!

I also want to give a shout out to the great guys over at the All Saints Lutheran Church in Norwood.  I was invited to speak for them last night, and enjoyed all the questions and fun from last night, not to mention the awesome fish and food at their fish fry.  Thanks again guys!  Fish On Fellas!

Back To The Basics

This past Friday evening we decided to think outside the box and do something we don't normally do.  Yes, we were still fishing, but this time we left the boat at home, and put on some dirty old shoes and pants on.  Yep, that's right, we hit the river and sat on the bank with our fishing poles leaning up on a stick.  With the weather being perfect for the occasion, we brought our worms and chicken liver down to see what would possibly take a bite of our offering.  As you can see from the picture, we managed a little bit of a variety, which makes the experience all the better.  According to Seth "HollyWood Jones" the bite will only get better for the next few weeks, so I suggest getting a rod, a large weight, a plain hook, some cold ones, and a few logs for a fire, then heading to a nice bank on the river and see what's swimming there.  It's kinda nice to just relax and sit in the weeds staring at the pole, instead of busting my butt in the hectic waters that we have around us.  Getting back to the basics is extremely enjoyable, and I recommend giving it a try again.  Fish On Y'all!