The Adventures of Guru and Bob....

Yesterday I was the fortunate soul to spend the day on Mille Lacs with two awesome fisherman named Guru and Bob.  As you can see from the picture, our quest to get this Kentucky born man a few walleyes was well accomplished.  He is holding one of the doubles that we had with both walleyes being in the 26-27 inch range.  In fact that was the very large majority of our catch for the day.  We probably caught over 20 walleyes throughout our day on the water that were over the 25 inch mark.  I think our average had to be 26 inches, but we failed to top the 28 inch mark.  A few times we thought we had done it, but 27 and 3/4 was all we could get.  Absolutely insane when you look at August and think about fishing for walleyes.  It just isn't suppose to be that way....or is it.  The pattern that we used was simply the same pattern that I found while on a muskie fishing trip with my fishin buddy Dusty about 7 years back.  It's crazy, but the hotter it gets, the bigger the fish seem to be and larger the schools.  Simply great walleye fishing wherever you go.   

I would say that it was a relaxing time of catching very above average walleyes, but it was far from it.  There was not one single point during that outing that the 3 of us felt that we could comfortably stand up without being thrown out of the boat.  The wind yet again was howling with force.  The only difference this time was that we put all sanity behind us and went to where the fish were anyway.  I managed to get my spike stuck in a large enough boulder and let out enough rope that the boat was able to ride over the 4 - 5 - 6 - whatever size those giant waves were, and keep us over the right spot.  Anchoring was the only option this time, because there was no chance of keeping us in position with the trolling motor.  The schools are definitely in certain spots that are typically no more than 15 - 20 feet large.  And for those of you who know about the "love Rock," yes it was kicking them out again, only now the name might just be called "BobRock!"  Once Bob got dialed in on the sunken giant boulder, there was no stopping him.

It was funny because Bob braced himself up against the back seat and didn't move from his position the entire time.  He simply would set the hook, battle his fish from his perch, I would net it, unhook it, release it, hand him a leech, and he would do it all over again.  This sounds like a lot of work, but it couldn't have been any more enjoyable, or done any other way.  We could have taken several nice photos, but it just wasn't worth keeping the fish out of the water that long and risking going overboard.  Unfortunately the wind meant that Guru would be doing more watching than fishing, due to his current hip situation, but he still claims that he was having more fun watching us monkeys run around the boat catching fish than he would have if he were fishing.  We were kinda limited to moving from spot to spot, and only fished two Willie holes and one Smallie spot for the day.  Granted, they were my two favorite spots, and the action was continuous.  We caught two Smallies that were both respectable fish, and called it a great day just after lunch time.

As you can see from some of the pictures we took, the waves were quite intense!  It is really hard to capture this wave action on still photos, but these are a couple of the examples.  They sure don't grow them like that around the cities!

Update on 2007-08-03 17:12 by Travis Frank

I am waiting on more pictures to show up for this beastly 54 incher from this mornings guide trip.  You just have to check back soon to see the monster from this morning!  Until then, here is a taste!

Reliving A Dream...

I recently received more pictures of a trip that Steve, Adam and myself took up to Mille Lacs a couple of weeks back.  I just thought I would kinda relive the dream so to speak and post more pictures of our catches that I didn't already show.  Once again, our main catch during our trip was the fabulous Smallies, and I hope to be having similar results when I head back up there today. 

Originally we planned to be fishing today, but since we left room in our schedules to play the weather and the wind, we chose to pick Thursday as our day of attacking.  I will be up there with Guru and Bob on what hopes to provide several walleyes and smallies, and as I talk to Guru more, it sounds like we may be spending some time chasing my beloved friends (ol' Snaggle Tooth).  I will report back when my time on Mille Lacs is through, so until then, we'll just have to look back and relive the past experience up there. 

I especially like the shot of the sun almost rising, and the two guys that look like they are trying to pick a fight with the camera man (heehee).  That's the attitude I love to see, Look out fish these guys are coming for you!  Also included is a shot of a giant walleye that Steve landed on his recent trip to Canada.  He said that they weren't all that small, and they landed some whoppers in the 28 inch area while they were up there.  Sometimes you have to weed through the large ones to get to the small ones, or something like that!

The Canadien Whopper!

Keep on Livin the Dream Fellas!

Wow! 102 Kings in 2 days!

Now this is very impressive!  My longtime friend John Lavalle (Chewey) who now resides in a very small town up in Alaska sent me some photos from a recent fishing trip he was on.  As you can see from the pictures, they must have timed things right and dialed in on a fabulous bite, because they boated 102 Kings in a matter of 2 days.  Judging from the pictures and the size of these fish, they probably had some sore arms after doing all that battling.  I would have to say jealousy is an understatement because that looks like one heck of an awesome time. 

Chewey moved up to Alaska some 4 years ago to take his teaching abilities to a small village in the middle of nowhere, to help the natives.  As I recall, he was going to try this for a short period, but after his experiences and finding the woman of his dreams he has yet to move back to his hometown of Waconia.  I hear great stories and pictures from this man all the time, and it is only a matter of time before I will get to go visit him and try some of these adventures.  If he isn't hunting something down, he is probably reeling something in.  Now that is living the dream!  Way to do it up right Chewey and congrats on a great couple of days of Kings, not many people can say they have experienced such a trip.  Keep on livin the Dream!

2007 Ranger Boats Ultimate Bass Challenge....

For the past 3 years, Ranger Boats, and a handful of sponsors have been hosting a charity event on lake Minnetonka to raise money for Northwestern Health Sciences University.  This year I was invited as one of the 50 Ranger Pro's.  Quite an honor because I was fishing against most of the upper midwest's top Ranger professionals including guys like the Capra's, Mehsikomer's, Raveling's and others.  While this was a charity event, and all the money raised went to help a good cause, we were still fishing in a tournament. 

Each Pro was paired up with two others that would also be fishing in the boat for the day in search of the 3 largest bass to weigh in for our limit.  It was a very relaxed tournament, but when you get 50 intense professional fisherman competing for even a peanut, there is bound to be some excitement.  My guests on this day were absolutely awesome to fish with.  Dave and Todd were longtime buddies who decided to donate money for their great cause and earned a spot in a boat.  I couldn't have asked for better partners on this day, and we spent the entire time catching bass and laughing at each other.  The hunting and fishing stories that these guys shared while we were out fishing was awesome, not to mention the world records that they hold with a certain Canadian fish on 6 lb test. 

Todd started the morning by filling our 3 fish limit with really respectable bass, and then we went searching for Mr. Big.  I was able to land a real dandy a couple of hours into the day, and it jumped our chances of finishing well.  We caught several bass during our day along with a few pike, and even a walleye.  We all figured that if we could get one more big one like the one Dave is holding in the picture, that we would possibly have a chance to win, but that wasn't the case on that day.  Instead we were more than happy to finish in 7th place with a bag of roughly 9.85 pounds.  Not too shabby for a muskie man fishing in a bass mans world!  At our weigh in we were then put on stage in front of the crowd to tell about our fish and our day, and I even hoisted the 5+ pounder in the air for all to see.  It kinda felt like we were on ESPN or somethin.  Ranger really put on a great event that, and the fish cooperated for the 3 of us making for an awesome time on the water.  I'm not exactly sure how much money was raised for the charity, but judging by the turnout of the event I would say it was quite a bit.  Oh yeah, I also got to see both of my fishin bud's try turning their key to see if they could start the motor on the boat that was given away.  Oh so close on that one, but a nice lady won it instead.  Thanks for the fun and the memories fellas!  Until next time Y'all, keep on livin the Dream!

Multi Specie Event....

This past Thursday I was on the water for a large corporate event where several guides were partnered together with two others to fish with them for the day.  Each individual in the boat was competing against all the others for the largest Northern, Bass, and Walleye.  The guides were in charge of measuring and recording each individuals catch and hoping their fisherman would catch the largest.  The tourney was from 1-5 in the afternoon, and if you like sweating without any activity and feeling like passing out, that was the day for you.  We started our trip by trolling to catch some pike and get that specie taken care of, and as you can see, we landed some fairly large ones.  They each had a few fish in the 5 to 8 lb category, and although I couldn't stay to see the results, I would have to say they would have been close to the top in the pike division.  We then switched to bass and only had small ones hitting our baits.  The heat was almost too much to handle, and we definitely were ready for 5 o'clock to roll around.  Until next time, Keep on livin the Dream!