Can It Get Any Better....

I really don't think it can get any better than this.  In the last 3 times out on the ice we have landed 3 giant fish with one of them being 11 pounds followed by a 9+ pounder, and last night we topped the 12 pound mark.  Simply incredible!  Along with this being amazing, the story behind this giant is almost even better.  I will do my best to put you all directly in the house with all the shinanigans.  Yesterday Mike and I moved his house to a new location that we felt really good about.  Since we both had obligations during the evening, we just decided that we would split up and tag team the fish later in the night.  Dusty and I met at his house, and Mike and Matt met at theirs to give em the one-two punch.  As we shared phone conversations throughout the evening we both went to sleep feeling like it would be a later run of activity and would discuss our results in the morning.  Well, Dusty and I had our expected results, but it wasn't until I woke up to Mike's phone call that I really got excited.  The story goes something like this.

Mike and Matt woke to a rattle reel screaming out of control.  As expected, a Snot Rocket (pike) came up the hole, and they nestled back in.  Minutes later the rattle reel screamed out of control again.  Another Snot Rocket????  Well, that is what they expected to see come up the hole.  As it turns out, this was not the case.  What Matt thought was a pike, turned out to be the biggest walleye of his life on the other end.  The only problem was how to get it through the hole.  We usually like to use the 9 inch hole, but when Mike and I moved his house, I only had the 8 incher in the truck with me.  So as you could imagine, problem #1 was trying to get mr. fatty through that hole.  Problem #2 came in to play when the fish tangled itself in the other rattle reel.  So when a massive tangled walleye is stuck in your hole, what do you do???  These two managed to somehow break the line that the fish had eaten, and when the fish sank under the ice their hearts were broken for only a second.  Realizing that it was tangled in the other line, the other rattle started dinging away, and Mike jumped all over it trying to get the fish back.  Somehow the fish was still tangled well enough for them to get try number 2 at it.  So with a 12 pound walleye wrapped up sideways under 20+ inches of ice, Matt went down the hole after it and managed to turn its head upright.  The rest is history and this beast of a fatty is now on the internet.  Simply unbelievable, but what is funnier, is that neither one of them can take full credit for the fish.  Since they couldn't label it as to who caught it, they decided that neither one of them were going to put it on the wall.  They both took their picture with the 30 inch 12 pound fattso, and if you look at Matt in his boxer shorts, you can even see how he was laying on the floor in the water trying to get that beast!  Hilarious!  Man oh Man! What excitement yet again, and this giant is still swimming in the depths of Tonka.  That is 3 nights that we have hit the water and 3 spectacular fish.  I just can't believe that we have landed a 9, 11 and 12 pounder on three straight nights.  Amazing!  Well done boys!  Only you two could pull of such a great story behind that catch!!!

How did our house fare???  We didn't catch anything for the record books, but we had some middle of the night events capped off by yet another fatty ourselves.  Dusty hoists yet another 6 pounder that is almost seeming small at this point.  I am just in awe for what is happening, and loving every second of it!  Can this get any better???  I think not!  And I have to walk away from this journal entry saying that this is how we go about "Livin The Dream!" 

Now This Is Just Getting Ridiculous...

Now Seriously!  This is almost getting ridiculous!  What is it that they say???  It's not quantity, but quality that we are after.  Well, I'll take whatever it is that we are after.  As I sit at the computer yet again writing another journal entry I giggle, smile and then giggle some more at the pictures that I am fortunate enough to keep on sharing.  Fresh off of a Trophy Encounter with an 11 pounder, Dusty, Matt and I returned to the house last night and Dusty almost matched my catch.  He didn't quite hit the 10 pound mark with this beast, but who cares.  That fish was HUGE!  We figured it to be in the 9 pound class, and that is just another one that left us smiling from ear to ear after we released it.  Though we tried to take a minute after the release to celebrate his catch, it was very short lived.  The line from his rattle reel hadn't even reached the bottom when Matt looked at his vexilar and said "Dude, there's another one down there!"  After swinging and missing the fish on its first nibble, he dropped his jig back to the bottom and proceded to put the smack down on it for bite number 2.  Yep, within 5 minutes my camera was getting a true work out, and the high fives were flying left and right.  It's not that we have been catching 50 fish a night, but the ones we are hoisting are really nice fish to say the least.  To land such huge walleyes in our back yard night after night is simply awesome.  A few weeks ago I put pictures up from some really nice fish and I commented that I wasn't sure how long this bite would last.  Well, I am being surprised more and more with every trip to the shack.  The weird thing is that they seem to be getting bigger.  We were wondering if we would even be able to catch something to eat the way the size was going, but then a few minutes later Dusty Bottoms set the hook on another one.  Finally!  An eater!  Not that we were complaining about the size, but we hadn't caught a fish under 20 inches in quite some time.  Since it is my fathers birthday today, I requested that we keep the 19.5 incher for him since he loves those tasty eye's.  A quick flurry of activity like that still has me pumped to write about a few hours later.  It just doesn't get old for me.  And then this morning on the way in I had a close encounter with another toothy critter.  Only this guy spends his time above the ice.  It was cool to drive alongside this coyote, but all I kept thinking about was how fun it would be to have a weapon in my truck and try to put a good stalk on him.  hahaha!  Yet again, a great night shared in the house, and more beauty's for the books.  Thanks for the fun times fellas.  And that is what I call "Livin The Dream!"

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me......

This fish is simply out of this world huge!  I don't know what else to say about it other than it is a freak of nature.  So the story goes something like this.  Last friday night a great muskie client of mine named John decided to bring his son and God daughter out to the house to try for some eyes.  The bite was slow to say the least, but we did have one battle with a big walleye before they left for the night, but lost it before we could get a sighting of it.  Was it this beast???  I do not know, but it was another large walleye.  So our evening went on until we had to pull the plug around 9:30.  I escorted them to shore and left the house to return to clean up.  Once I got back I was feeling lazy and decided to just hit the sack.  Before I did that I spent some time figuring out the timer on my camera.  Since I virtually never fish by my lonesome, I have never used this option, but felt that I should figure it out in case I land a whopper.  I dozed off, and within the first half hour this giant of a fish came up the hole.  It was so ungodly fat and wide that it barely fit through the 9 inch hole.  As I was telling John that night, we were due for one over the 10 pound mark, and it finally happened.  This freak measured in at just over 29 inches, but with the insane belly on it and understanding the Tonka eye's for many years, I am going to weigh this pig at somewhere around 11 pounds.  The only problem with this whole ordeal was that I couldn't figure out how to position myself in the right spot when the flash went off.  I always seemed to cut something out of the picture, but still awesome nonetheless.  How did the rest of the night go??? Well, I woke up to 3 more rattle reels dinging away, lost another 5+ pounder under the ice, and pulled the minnow right out of two other fish's mouths.  They were just nibbling on it, but that's ok.  I did already have pictures of the one that I really wanted.  My oh My, what a beauty.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  While most walleye fisherman wouldn't think twice about putting that big girl on the wall, I just didn't have it in me this time to do it.  I have two eye's on my wall already, and the next one believe it or not has to be even larger than this one.  I hope to let you know if that ever happens, but for now, that freak is still swimming in Lake Minnetonaka.  And that is just one way that I love to "Live the Dream!"

What A Run....

I have so many pictures from the past few nights of fishing that I'm not sure where to start.  I suppose I will start with my favorite pic of the many, which is this super fatty that gave me one surprise reaction!  The action and size has been pretty much incredible for this late in the season.  We had two different cameras and a few different angles on the fish.  I won't put all the pics up, but I will put a few of the Jumbos that we have landed lately.  Unfortunately a few of the larger ones came up the hole when I wasn't in the house with Dusty, which is why he has pics of them laying on the ruler.  It really gives a good view of how large they are on that 30 inch ruler, and how fat them bellies are on those fish.  While I have shared many of the catches with him, Dusty has really put a smack down on some very healthy fish the past couple of nights.  I think he boated 5 of them over 5 pounds with the largest being about 7.5.  For February and fishing in the metro area, it just doesn't get a whole lot better than this.  We have really been spoiled lately with these fish, and while we have released everything over the 20 inch mark, we have also caught several that have been of great eating size.  We have had doubles at times, and many chaotic hours of no sleep during the middle of the night.  We have been cooking up spectacular meals, playing cards, dice and just loving every single time that rattle reel dings.  The best part about these fish, is that we have also caught many of our fish by jigging, which is a tactic that usually doesn't work this late in the season.  Our action has been really consistent, and our tactics still remain the same.  Even with catching many fish and large ones, we have still been moving the house each night out, and it has obviously been paying very large dividends in our success.  The main reason that we have been doing so well, is that we have been able to put in a lot of time during the darkness.  By being able to spend the night on the ice, we are on the spot whenever the fish decide to bite, and the flurries have been great.  Some nights we catch them all before midnight, and some nights we don't get a bite until midnight.  It has really fluctuated a lot, but every morning we have smiles on our face from the hogs that we have been hoisting through the holes.  With all the numbers that we have been catching, it is awesome to see the size of these guys.  In the last couple of nights out, we have landed many fish in the low 20's and upper teens, but we have also boated fish in these size ranges: 24, 24, 24.5, 25, 25.5, 26, 26.5.  When you add that length with the ginormous bellies, all of these fish are in the 5 to 7.5 pound category.  Luckily for everybody fishing out there, we have released them all to be caught another night.  I don't know how long this run of big fish will last, but I am excited to find out.  It feels as if we should be on a trip in Canada to be catching so many large fish, but I am super fortunate to have this in my back yard.  These are a just some of the pics from the last couple of nights, but I love being able to share them.  If you want in on this awesome action, feel free to call at any time.   

I have also captured several more images that make being in the great outdoors so very special.  The sunset the other evening was yet again breath taking, so I hope you enjoy these shots.  Now that is what I call "Livin The Dream!"

What A Weekend.....

I do believe that this picture sums it all up.  I don't have time to tell the whole story right now, but this is just a taste of what we experienced out on the ice this weekend.  We caught tons of fish and BIG fish to boot!  The sizes of some of the fatties were just incredible. Along with a bunch of nice eaters, we also boated a 24, 24, 24.5, 25, 25.5, and 26.5 inchers.  When you put big fat bellies on fish of those lengths, they all ranged from about 5.5 to 7.5 pounds.  Nothing but fun.  I will share the rest of the tale when I get the pics and have a spare second!  Wow, is that a great way to Live The Dream!