Short, But Oh So Sweeeeet...

As always, I simply do not know where to start here.  I guess we get to chalk up another unbelievable day on the water.  As I flip through the pictures of our short outing this evening, I am pretty much in awe yet again at what I am looking at.  I felt like I was hardly even fishing, because I was jumping all over the boat trying to capture the perfect shots.  I feel like some of them are definitely worthy of sharing, so here we go...

After being picked up from the launch (yep, still don't have my new boat yet) I was the first to get my line in the water.  I think it was because I was so darn giddy from looking at yesterdays pics.  Well, needless to say, I was reeling in the biggest of the day before anybody else got a line in the water.  I don't get to fish with my dad as much as I would always like to, so having him with us tonight made that first fish all the more bittersweet.  He looked at me shaking his head, and all he had to do was smile and I knew how excited he was.  I mean literally guys, I had my bait on the bottom for not even 5 seconds LITERALLY and this fatty of all fatties latched on.  After the battle and a total of 1 minute of fishing I was pretty much spent and said, "well, that's all I need, lets head home."  I wasn't trying to rub anything in to the boys, but just happy as a 5th grader on the last day of school before summer break.  It was awesome to hold such a beast, and how it all went down just made my day. 

After many laughs and smart comments from the "peanut gallery" we were back at it.  This is where I found myself doing less fishing and more commentary with the camera.  The weather was great, the fish were biting, and we all had some true lunkers to battle.  I took several different pictures while on our short couple hour excursion, but I wanted to capture everything from the battles to the picture perfect sun setting images.  I really think the guys got sick of my running around taking pictures, but I didn't care, and years from now, they will be happy I took them.  For whatever reason, tonight just hit me as one of those great times to be on the water.  Not that I don't enjoy them all, but there was just something about it that I'll always hold on to.  I think that's what it should always be about, and I have to give thanks to Dad, Dusty and Matt for making it happen.  Before the night was through I think we all boated a fish over the 5 pound mark which is definitely another remarkable time.  I know we didn't top 10 pounds with any of them, but boy were we flirting with it. 

Above, I was able to capture the battle, the moon in the background, and the result of the battle.  Below I was going for that epic sunset shot, and seconds later Dusty hauled in a beauty.  I'm kinda thinking of it as the sweet before and after.  I could go on for days with these pics, but I think we get the point.  I'm pretty sure that's what I consider Livin' The Dream! Thanks for reading!

It's Go Time...WOW!

I'm Not sure what to say about this other than AWESOME!  So I wasn't able to join the boys on their trip today, but that doesn't mean that I can't share their success with all of you.  By now you know these characters that I get to hang out with pretty well, so I will share their spectacular catches with you to drool over.  Heavens knows I am drooling as I write this.  So the first picture is just incredible.  The fish was exactly 30 inches long, and had an incredible girth of 20 inches.  They just don't get a lot bigger than that.  They had a quite a few over the 5 pound mark, but this birg girl took the cake.  I guess it was funny, cuz they had 12 nice eyes in the boat before Bails caught one, but he made up for that in a hurry with this beast.  Way to go buddy!  It's definitely go time for the biggens, and it just shows how quickly these fish can turn on.  Just a couple of days ago Dusty and I fished the same area with only a few small fish.  I guess the time has come, so I'm assuming that you'll be seeing more pictures posted up here very soon. 

Not only did they catch some spectacular eye's, but they also landed a couple of really weird fish that you can only catch out of the river.  The first picture is of a carp, but it has some really messed up colors.  I will do some research on it to figure out exactly what they caught.  The second picture looks like a fish that shouldn't even be swimming in fresh water.  Once again, more research to narrow that name down.  Awesome trip boys!  Thanks for sharing with us all.  Now that's how you live the dream!

Cashin In On The Weather...

The 50 degree weather yesterday just couldn't keep us locked inside.  Dusty, Mike and I grabbed the boat and manhandled our way to the spot that we wanted to fish.  There was still a little bit of ice between us and where we wanted to go, so with the front of the boat, we chipped away at it until we could sneak through to get to our destination.  It seemed to work out pretty well, and the action was pretty much fast and furious.  In total we managed 57, 1, 1 and 1.  What do those numbers mean???  Well, Mike kept a tally on our success throughout the day, and after it was all said and done, I asked him where we stood.  He said those numbers and I kinda chuckled in amazement that he really kept track that entire time.  The numbers stand for this: 57 walleyes, 1 crappie, 1 smallmouth bass, and 1 mudpuppy.  Yep, that's right, Dusty scored another mudpuppy.  Last year I posted a picture of one that Bails caught, and believe it or not, after a full year, they are still the most disgusting creature you could ever imagine.  Needless to say, the pliers were used to unhook the gross thing, and nobody wanted to be near it while it slithered around.  Yuck!  It gives me the Heebby Jeeby's just thinkin about it again.  While we threw 57 walleyes in da boat, it wasn't quite as awesome as it sounds.  The size of the fish were rather dissapointing, and we couldn't locate any of the big fellas.  Everything we caught was 15 inches or less, but the action was about as consistent as you could ask for.  I do believe that the big ones will be making a run in the very near future.  Our weapons of choice were the good ol' jig and minnow, and after a while, we simply took the minnows off and put on a twister tail for simplicity.  The fish were agrressive enough that we didn't need to use the live bait after finding the school.  If you are reading this and wondering if you should get the boat out, you are just in time.  Depending on the weather, which is suppose to remain in the upper 30's for the next week or so, I would figure that the fatties will be slammin jigs within the next 5 - 10 days.  Are you ready?  Get your gear together and enjoy the preseason action that can be had, or you can give me a call and I'll take ya.  It's worth the trip for sure.  Until next time y'all, Keep on Livin the Dream! 

The Time Has Come...Open Water Baby!

As we pulled out of town yesterday with the boat hooked to the truck, it was very obvious that people thought we were nuts.  Everybody gave us weird looks and comments like "good luck with that" or "too bad there is no open water!"  We just chuckled at it all and got even more pumped as we drove out to the river for our first open water experience of 2008.  The weather was spectacular...the water was flowing...the fish were...well, lets just say it was another learning experience.

Just being able to sit in a boat on open water made our day, but as usual, we tried many tactics and spots and found ourselves some action.  We started out by heading to some already proven spots.  Much to our surprise, we found that there was still ice covering the area that we wanted to fish.  Oh well, plan B.  Not that we had a plan "B" but we had to work with it anyways.  It actually worked out pretty well that we didn't have a plan, because it kept us open to anything and allowed us to try things we normally wouldn't have.  If there is one thing that I have learned from fishing rivers, is that you have to be ready to find fish in places that you would never expect.  I cannot recall fishing a river even two days in a row and catching fish the exact same way in the exact same place.  It seems like you always have to experiment each time out before you find the days pattern.  We did just that yesterday, and even though we were targeting walleyes, we were aware that we could battle many different species before we jumped out of the boat for the day.  After literally a few hours of no fish, we stumbled on to what appeared to be a wintering hole for many types of fish.  This hole just randomly dropped to 40 feet, and the graph was so solid with fish that it almost didn't show the bottom.  I have never seen such a large concentration of fish before, and as we would jig around, we would literally bump fish every time we lifted the jigs.  We tried everything to see what they were, and to get them to bite, but the only thing we found was that they just weren't eating the bait.  The fish were so thick in these spots that as we would reel up the bait to check it, we would bump off of so many fish that at times we would just reel the hook into them.  We weren't attempting to snag them, but when they are that thick, there wasn't anything we could do.  Accidentally we hooked many catfish and sheephead.  We had a few biters out of the group, but for the most part, if we dropped the jig down to the bottom and lifted it once or twice, we had one on.  It was the craziest thing I have seen in a while, but we decided that we just had to leave the spot and try something else.  Not that it didn't give us extreme battles, because we landed fish up to about 10 lbs, but it just wasn't the right thing to do.  I will put that hole in my memory bank for a future trip for sure.

After that ordeal and still no Walleyes in the boat, we kept on searching.  It was such an awesome day on the water yesterday and the sights were amazing.  "Images of Whorl" were in full effect yesterday as he captured many great pictures of the abundant mallards.  It seemed like everywhere we looked we had birds flying by, swimming past, and playing on the ice, and we put ourselves in some pretty cool locations to get some shots of them up close.  At times I find it hard to capture the moment with a still shot photo, but some of these really turned out well.  It's almost like you are right there in the boat with us when you look at some of these.  Nice work with the photography buddy. 

After fishing a few spots and trying a few approaches we sat and thought about the conditions before we made our final move for the day.  The water was extremely low and clear, and the current was not very strong.  Considering these conditions, we decided that the walleyes may just be acting more like lake fish instead of river fish.  We hoped that this would be the case and that the low-light offered around sunset just might trigger a bite.  Boy did we guess right!  Our day was closed by an awesome 45 minutes of throwing eyes in the boat.  In those 45 minutes, we went from zero walleyes to 24 in da boat, and many doubles and triples were recorded.  We didn't have any giants, but many up to about 16 inches.  The flurry was very fast and very short lived due to the darkness, but all of our experimenting for the day came to a close with more success.  Because of the fast action, we didn't take many pics, but these two are my favorite because of the cool scenery and snow in the background.  Sweetness!  We ran out of bait, our stomachs were hungry, our faces a little sunburnt, and the camera's were filled with more great memories.  Yep, I would consider that a great first day on the water for 2008.  That's what it's all about when Livin The Dream!

A Bid Farewell To Ol' Marble Eye's...

As they say... All good things must come to an end.  Yesterday was the official close to our walleye season across the state, and while I felt like sheding a tear or two as we pulled some houses home, I was able to look back and reminisce to myself with a smile.  We really had another epic year on the ice, and I mean that in many ways.  The laugh meter kept itself at a very high level all season which makes every night a blast.  This season we had times of both quality and quantity with the eyes that we were catching, with the highlight being the 9, 11, & 12 pounders three nights in a row.  We had many first timers in the houses this year, and many nights of filling the jar with eaters.  As always, I was able to report about the "ones that got away," and the laughs associated with the tangles and messes.  We put many hours in those houses and even more hours learning the lake and its structure.  We shared many games of dice and cards, and for living on the ice, the food was pretty spectacular too.  I want to take this time to thank everbody personally for all the memories, however the list is too darn long.  You all know who you are, and I thank you all for memories and the Trophy Encounters!

While this season just came to a close, there are still so many opportunities for us as outdoors people.  This time of year still offers us walleye fishing at its finest, however we just have to travel a little further.  I know it sounds hard to believe, but I plan to be fishing open water very soon as the rivers start flowing.  Boy am I excited to be back in a boat again!  If you have never experienced the fantastic river fishing we have, I highly recommend that you make it a priority this season.  If you would like to learn more about it I would love to have you with on a trip. 

Not only do we have the rivers, but the panfish bite kicks into full stride as the ice fades off the lakes.  This can be the most exciting bite of the year for those big "bull" gills, "Slab" crappies, and Big Bellied Jumbo Perch.  So while the stories from the walleyes in the shanties have come to an end, the Trophy Encounters updates will continue at their normal pace.  If you would still like to hit the ice, we have plenty of it and it can be very exciting for you and a group of people.  Thanks again Everybody, and stay tuned for what is next on the list for us guys that like to Live The Dream!!!