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!

Solo Trip With a Twist

So last night I went out to prep myself for an upcoming multi species trip on Tonka.  It started out great by catching several really nice bass and a couple of pike.  At the last few minutes of daylight, it was obvious that I would be casting for my pet Ski's and I did just that.  I started working this really steep and deep edge and turned around to see the sun setting, so I turned around let my bait fall to the bottom and took this picture not knowing the chaos that was about to take place.  With my bait resting on the bottom and knowing it is a deep spot that holds many muskies, I decided to crawl my lure in the entire way and then bring it straight up vertically (this works very well for those that have the patients, there is no such thing as too slow).  Well, this was one of those times that I had one come vertical with my bait, and when I flopped the bait on its side at the boat, the muskie rolled sideways and smashed my lure and then went airborn.  All 47-48 inches of it was out of control and going ballistic (it was sweet).  I got it away from the boat and resumed the battle when it came by the boat the next time the line simply broke, that's right, IT BROKE!  Nothing Grinds my gears more than when my equipment falters, and this is my first time ever breaking 80 pound test on a ski.  I just spooled the line on the real on Saturday and this was my first outing with it only to be dissapointed.  So needless to say, he swam away with about $40 dollars in his mouth and left me simply shaking my head.  To make it worse ( and I feel bad for the fish here) the darn muskie came up to the boat about 5 minutes later and jumped out of the water with my lure clanking in its mouth as it was trying to shake it off.  I almost could have netted the darn fish.  I had to leave after that.  I had one more attack after that fish a few casts later and then called it a night.  Many bass, pike and made my 20 minutes worth of muskie fishing memorable.  Oh well, I got to see another great sunset! Keep on livin the dream Y'all!

What a Fishery! What a Day!

Sometimes things just come together!  This past Friday Keane and myself hit up the big pond again for my second time of the week.  We had the same game plan in mind as I had a couple of days earlier, only this time we were able to follow through with our plan.  We hit the water by 4:45 and had every intention of landing some Muskies.  The only problem was that the 44 degree air temps that we arrived to just made the muskies jaws lock up.  As the sun rose higher, they came out from all depths and sat on the calm surface to soak up all the possible sun.  We only had 3 legitimate follows in our first 3 hours of casting, and we saw at least 15 others that were just laying logs on the surface.  When this happens on that lake, it truly means that it could be a long day.  Our mistake on this outing was the fact that we weren't casting our baits in the middle of the full moon light at night.  These fish were apparently eating so heavily throughout the middle of the night with the full moon, that they turned extremely mellow during daylight hours.  If given the opportunity, we would have done this night fishing, but it will have to wait for the next trip.  I will however give a "shout out" to my good buddy Muskie Mike who was able to capitalize on this Midnight bite over the last couple of nights of landing fish in the complete darkness. 

With the conditions turning sour on the Muskies, and the wind laying down low, we were able to turn our tactics to the other great fish in this lake and make it one of those days that will always be remembered in our minds.  One of the great things about Mille Lacs for me is that I have a couple of spots on this lake that when the conditions are crappy for Muskies, I can go and catch huge smallies and walleyes.  The best part about it, is that I sight fish the giants! Yes that's right, I have a couple of locations where I know they move shallow enough to see the large schools of white tips (walleyes) and the blacker than night jumbo football smallies.  It is probably the coolest fishing that I know of, and what makes it even better, is that all the fish in these spots are huge.  I am serious when I say that the average size of the walleyes that we catch there are over 25 inches.  The smallies aren't too shabby themselves, and 19 and 20 inchers are quite common.  On this particular day, we landed 4 walleyes over 28 inches, with our largest topping out very close to 29.  I'm not sure how many we landed in total, but it was absolutely non-stop action with the Smallies and Eyes.  The average size walleye for the day would have to be at 26 inches.  In fact, we only had 3 fish that we thought would be under 20 inches, and when we measured them, we had to chuckle because they would be 22 or 23 inches.  What a tough problem to deal with.  The smallies were slammin as well, and we topped 19 inches several times with numerous doubles.  We could have taken hundreds of photos, but I think you get the point from the few that I will show.  What a great day to be on the water.  Even though we didn't catch any muskies, when you land that many trophy caliber fish in one day, you have to just sit back and enjoy every single battle.  It truly is one of those amazing sites to be seen, and I am fortunate yet again to watch my years of searching on that lake to pay off as well as they did.  Thanks Keane!  Until next time fellas, Keep on Livin the Dream!

How About More Wind???

This image is from the very start of our many hours on Mille Lacs yesterday, and although it is a sweet pic, the wind doesn't really look all that bad.  Well yet again it decided to blow like a hurricane for pretty much every second of daylight.  It forced us again to be restricted to only certain parts of the lake, and kept me away from great spots.  Steve, Adam and Myself nonetheless had a great time on the water.  We had chances almost immediately, and sporadically throughout the entire day.  We didn't land any muskies yesterday, but came about as close to winning the chess match as we could without actually doing it.  We also saw some real dandies over the 50 inch range that were interested, but lock jawed from the 35 degree cold front that we had blowing in our face.  The largest fish of our trip was Steve's 40 inch pike which blew up on the surface like a 2 ton whale.  We also caught some very large Smallies at random times throughout the day, including both Adam and Steves largest ever.  We were not able to catch any of the large walleyes that I like to target, due to the wind blowing on my honey holes, but that just means there will be more for next time.  We exchanged jokes from the second we were all together, and they never stopped throughout the entire trip.  There just might not be two better people to spend a cold front day on Mille Lacs with.  I think we quoted somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 movie lines, and dropped about a 100 different jokes before we were all said and done.  It was unfortunate that we had such intense wind and cold, but it was still a trip to be remembered.  The not so highlight of the day was the trolling motor snapping off the front of the boat and me catching it as it almost sank to the bottom.  Whew it was a close one, but I'm now in search of the most goofy part in the state.  I hope I find it before tomorrow's trip back to Mille Lacs.  Thanks again Guys for another great time on the water.  Until the next story comes, keep on livin the Dream!

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!