Father Son Trip To Remember...

Well it is clearly time that I get something new up here.  My apologiies yet again for the lack of reports.  I guess that first rain day will have to be spent pouring the pics and stories out.  Ah heck...who am I kidding, I love fishing in the rain!  I guess I am too busy livin the dream to sit down and write about it, which is good and bad.  Right now I have a few hundred photos and about 25 stories that I want to share.  I will keep pushing along and try to get as many of the stories up very soon.  In the event that I have slacked lately, I have a cool story that came from a gentlemen and his son last week.  His name is Mitch..He's a stud...and so is his boy Theo!  I hope you enjoy the read as I have.  Thanks Y'all!

As Travis is busy "Living the Dream" and clearly struggling to find time to blog, I thought I'd share the experience my son Theo (9) and I had with Travis last Thursday evening on Lake Waconia.

Our trip was planned on short notice; I didn't tell Theo until we were in the car on the way to the lake around 5:00 PM. Needless to say when I told him we were going out with Travis to chase big walleyes and bass, he was pretty excited. Theo sat in Travis' boat several weeks ago while it was trailered at Cabin Fever so he knew that we were about to be treated to a first-class experience! We eventually made it to the marina and Travis was ready to roll. He gave Theo a Ranger hat which Theo proudly wore and then it was off to our first walleye hot-spot.

If you've ever fished with Travis you know it didn't take long for us to boat our first fish. In fact, Travis had a nice walleye hooked on the first cast but was a little cocky trying to swing it into the boat and it came off.

A few casts later travis set the hook and handed the rod to Theo. We were all pretty excited when Theo fought the fish and boated a nice 17" largemouth bass. It was the biggest bass of Theo's life by about 6"! A few casts later we caught another 15" bass followed by a couple monster sheephead. As nasty as the sheephead are, Theo had a blast reeling them in.

We set off for a new fishing spot that Travis new would generate more action for us....he was right! Theo caught the second 17" bucket mouth of the night and then hooked the largest Northern of his life (6#)!

While the walleye never really turned on, Travis still managed to put Theo on his first ever walleye!

While Theo was clearly the star of the show, I had a minor milestone as well landing a 15" crappie....the largest of my career!

As the sun set on our perfect evening of fishing it was clear that Travis had provided a fishing experience that neither father nor son would soon forget. Thanks Travis for sharing your passion for fishing and life.

Happy Birthday Chuck!

Happy Birthday Chuck, and what a way to spend it.  Tonight I was fortunate enough to share what Chuck described as "the best birthday ever" with this great couple.  Now that is quite the feat to hear, and I feel very honored to receive such recognition, so thank you for that Chuck!.  This is our second time fishing together for the season, and this time, he brought his wonderful wife Suzy with to join the fun.  The first time it was 40 degrees and 30 mph wind, tonight the conditions were absolutely gorgeous.  We would have to rate it as the best of the year thus far.  We had little wind, and a perfect temperature with the nice sunshine.  We found that the deck of the boat acts as one romantic spot to have a cup of wine and a nice dinner on your birthday.  The only question that we wondered, was if we put 3 Bemidji State Beaver in one boat if the fish would run for the hills! 

Suzy eliminated our worries by boating the first fish of the day, which was a very nice bass.  Chuck followed and we all went back and forth several times on the ol' bucketmouths after that.  "Where are the walleyes???" we all asked.  It took a quite a while, and a few spots to find them, but when we found them tucked in a very small spot in 14 feet of water, it was game over for the fish, and our camera's got a huge workout.  The bite was not typical for me this year, but actually more typical for normal walleye behavior.  Our action occured around the last half hour of daylight, and we caught some more whoppers.  Sheesh, I think Chuck is good luck on the biggins, cuz last time out we only caught big ones.  Tonight we had 7 walleyes right after sunset.  They ranged in literally every category.  The largest was 27.5 inches, and the smallest was about 5 inches.  Kinda funny to see such a huge size swing, and we had action from every specie in the lake to go with it.  We through all the fish back, but took pics of some dandies including a 22 incher a 24.5 incher, and a 27.5 incher that Chuck tried viciously to knock off with the net :)  A great night on the water, and as Chuck and Suzy put it, "the best birthday ever!"  Thanks for the fun guys, you were great!  Until next time, keep on livin the dream!

Untold Stories of Recent Memory...

Well hello again!

Much apologies on my part for my lack of story telling lately.  Sheesh you would think that I have dissapeared lately.  But I must say that I have still been hammering away.   Much of my time has been spent lately on my new obsession and career which many of you are aware of at Ron Schara Enterprises.  I have taken on a roll that will basically allow me to keep on livin my dream.  I couldn't be more thrilled about the opportunity to further my passions with this great company.  I am doing and learning many things including how to be a tv dude, what it takes to be a tv dude, web work, sales, and helping out with a charity fishing tournament that we have coming up.  Nothing but fun, however I have to apologize for it taking away from some of my Trophy Encounters time. 

With that being said, there hasn't been a lack of fishing coming in, just a lack of posting my results.  I have been having yet again a fabulous spring chasing the old Marble Eyes around.  Waconia has been a Godsend yet again, but the surprise to me and those joining me, is the amount of large fish that we have caught the past few weeks.  In the first two weeks of season, my boat saw 10 fish over 24.5 inches.  Normally we catch many nice eaters under 20 inches and a few just over 20, but this year we have been blessed with the biggens.  The season started out by catching them in the extreme shallows, and everyone who joined me got to see what shallow walleyes are all about.  We pretty much stayed in 5 feet of water or less everywhere we went.  The #1 approach for our success was the "T-Rig" which I quoted a few years back.  If you don't know what it is, feel free to ask and I'll enlighten you further.  It's been killer.  The standard jig and minnow hoisted several nice ones also, and we started hitting some real big eyes on cranks after dark.  Just a great stretch of trips on the water with some great people.  The list is very long, and I have so many pictures that I won't be able to fit them all in this update, but thanks goes out to all of you who joined me.  To see more of the fish that we have been catching lately, you can go to the photo albums and I will have them in there respective categories.

We also made a trip during Memorial Weekend up to the Brainerd area.  We snuck out on Mille Lacs for a quick pit-stop on our way through and caught the last 3 hours of the evening before the 10:00 closure.  We managed about a dozen fish which were pretty much all 24-28 inches.  Nothing even close to keeper status, but fun nonetheless.  We switched gears and chased the smallies around for Bass opener, but found cold water temps and blowing winds.  Our success varied from lake to lake, but we had a great time and caught about 75 total.  Our best results came from the gant Mille Lacs smallies.  Which by the way I will be enjoying with a couple of great guests in a few days. 

Along with the walleyes locally and the trip up north, my dad and I also had the opportunity to take the boys that we mentor for out on Waconia for some fine crappie and sunny action.  They also managed a few bass, and it reminded me of my days growing up with my grandpa when I wanted to keep everything that I caught.  We were a week before bass season, and every bass they caught they wanted to put in the livewell with the crappies and sunnies.  It is sure great to be able to pass this sport on to everyone. Thanks dad and grandpa for bringing me up with this sport to share with everybody.  I strongly encourage you to get those kids out fishing if you can!

As a quick update on what is happening with the local walleyes right now, well, they are biting.  The last few times I have been out, I have fished Waconia with some pretty good success.  If you have fished the lake the last two years you have seen a very distinct decrease in the milfoil, well we are having similar weed growth this year and it is causing for interesting behavior in the fish.  I have found some descent weeds, and that is where all the fish are coming from.  Literally...IN THE WEEDS!  from 5 - 12 feet is where the fish are, and I'm not pulling your leg here.  Go get em!

Again I apologize for the lack of updates, but thanks for reading as always, and until next time....Keep on Livin the Dream!

Keepin On Em...

The last two evenings have been spent doing what else...Willie fishin!  The temperatures early into this opening season has been less than favorable.  It has been hard to establish a real strong pattern of any kind.  One day the water is up to 56 degrees, and the next it is back down to 51.  These fish just can't seem to figure it out, and it has left us searching for the next great bite.  Not that I am complaining, cuz I love the challenge, but it just makes for a little more work to land our fish.  As the first 2 days of season have been showing, we aren't catching numbers of fish, but a very good quality in the ones we are landing.

Monday night we hit Tonka as a little prep work for my trip out last night.  We hit a few spots and found nothing, but kept searching.  Our efforts were rewarded with 5 nice eaters, and one that we released at about 22 inches.  The pattern we found was yet again shallow, but his time in different areas.  The good old faithful, jig and a minnow produced our fish, and the water temps in the bays we fished were about 54 to 55 degrees.

Last night was a little different story.  Yes, we were on Tonka again, and yes we were shallow again, but the bite wasn't quite as good.  There was a cold front that moved through mid-day, and it made for not only a chilly evening on the water, but gave the fish a slight lock-jaw.  I was joined by a gentlemen named Terry, and we gave it our all.    The water temps had dropped again from the day before and we were seeing the results of it in the number of nibbles.  Terry landed the first fish at about 18 inches, and shortly after I missed 2 nice fish.  For me, that was all the walleye action I could muster.  A few bass later and a few spots later Terry landed a very nice Tonka eye that pushed just over 25 inches.  We fished hard into the night, but the fish didn't cooperate any further.  A good attempt  on our parts, but a bad attempt on the walleyes part.  That's fishin, and that's why we keep coming back every day.  Thanks for all the fun the last two nights everyone.  Until next time, keep on Livin the dream!

Opening Weekend...Cold But Successful!

Opening weekend never seems to be one of great weather.  Does that stop any of us hardy fisherman??? Absolutely NOT!  How did everybody fare?  Well, the jury is still out on that one, but I have been hearing mixed results. 

I will consider my opener a great success.  Taking it from the top.  To continue the tradition, of midnight start times, we did it in style this year.  As I reported in the last update, we had fish within minutes.  I boated a nice 21 incher about 7 minutes into the season, followed by a surprise in a 28 incher.  Sweet, and I figured that would be top dawg of the night.  Boy was I wrong!  Dusty followed that up with a very long and unfortunately rather slim 31 incher.  A great fish for sure, but just a little too slim for him to consider for the wall.  A great opening run, that we continued hours later.

After about an hour nap, we were up again by 4:00am and heading for Tonka.  This was in the plans, and we were pretty jazzed from our large catches already.  Once on the lake, my gut took over, and I went to a most unlikely spot.  The results???  We made the right choice, and thank you to my gut for that call.  We all threw a nice 18 incher in the boat almost instantly.  These fish came from less than a foot of water.  Wow were they shallow, but par for the course with this cold water temperature.  After fishing for a few hours longer and trying some new spots, we picked up a couple more before we headed in for our fish fry.  We brought back a perfect meal of 6 eyes for breakfast.  A perfect start to the season, but would it continue?

After our opening day walleye feast, we napped and headed back out for the afternoon and evening bite.  To sum it up, it stunk.  Our hot hand was cooled by the blowing wind and pounding rain.  The lakes water temp dropped from a chilly 56 degrees, down to 49 by the evening.  That never makes for good conditions.  I boated a healthy 22 incher, and we caught a few bass, but all in all, it was pretty darn tough.

Sunday morning was a morning that could have made someone question their sanity.  I met a couple of hardy fisherman by the names of Chuck and Mike.  This brother fishing combo resides in Chicago and Plymouth, MN, and they were destined for success right out of the gate.  We laughed when the 39 degree wind almost knocked us over at the access at 5:00am, but they said that they still wanted to give it a go.  Surprisingly, we made a great decision.  Judging the conditions, I figured that it would have been tough to coax even a perch into biting, but that was not the case.  We used the wind to our advantage, and even though we couldn't feel our fingertips, we trudged forward.  The sun came up and the walleye mouths opened up.  For some reason, only the big fish felt the need to bite, and these boys landed some trophy caliber Walleyes and Bass.  Before our morning was through, we landed a couple of 24+ inchers, a 26 incher, and Chuck's largest ever at 27.5.  Throw some 19 and 20 inch bass on that, and you have good fishing!

Looking back at the opening day and following morning, I am not sure if I would consider it normal by any means.  We didn't land a ton of fish, in fact I think we only had 15 total, but the size was great.  We had many over 20 inches, including a couple of 21's, a 22, 2 over 24, a 26, 27.5, 28, and a 31.  We had enough under 20 to have a big walleye feast on saturday morning, and I found out that my new rain suit works pretty well.  My fingers still aren't back to normal, but the camera is full of new pictures.  I am going to consider this another very successful opener.  Thanks to all who made it so great including Mike, Sean, Dusty, Chard, Dougy, Anna, Mike and Chuck. Stay tuned, the dream continues the next few evenings as we try to continue with success...