Summer lovin' 2014 - Part 1

July 4th has come and gone, yikes!  It's a good time to look back over the past few months and see what has happened on our rain soaked lakes.  First off, the high water of 2014 will likely go down in the history books as the highest water of all time.  It needs to be mentioned as priority #1.  "No Wake" on almost all metro lakes has made guiding interesting.  Instead of flying from spot to spot in search of the most active fish, it's been a slower, methodical grind-it-out approach.  But, it's still been dynamite!  I think I'm witnessing the best metro walleye fishing of my life this year.  Through July 4th, the action is still going strong.  Throw in a few bass outings and only one (yes, only 1) muskie trip to date, and I have a spring to remember!  Of course, I can't forget about my lil fishin' partner in training that is nearing his 3rd month of fishing mentorship.  My how time flies!  Here are a few photos to remember the beginning of this summer season.  Thanks for all that have made it so memorable!

Fish on!

It's been a while since I've updated my fishing blog.  Life has changed a lot for this angler.  Marriage and a newborn will do that to ya - so "they" say.  It looks like "they" are right.  But that's still A-OK.  I have a wonderful wife, an amazing new son, and have found a good balance.  I still manage to find time for myself on the water, and I still manage to guide clients all spring/summer/fall long.  It's a good life, and I am blessed to live it. 

As for the fishing, it seems that every year gets better and better.  I think it has to do with the fact that every year I continue to learn more about the quarry I pursue.  I try new things and fish new places, so my options continue to grow.  I like to think of it as adding new tricks to my goodie bag.  Since I haven't updated this blog since last summer I thought I would share some of the photos that have made the past year memorable to me.  Until next time, keep on livin' the dream!

Summer 2013

I have been completely spoiled for another summer.  No surprises there, right?  I've seen a lot of new water this summer along with a few of my favorite haunts.  Adventure and trying new things has me really excited.  Muskies, walleye, bass, cats and more.  Along with incredible fishing, the people that I've been able to share it with have really made me realize how lucky I am.  The furthest distance someone has traveled to join me has been Japan.  He also gave me a few baits to try and it only took about 7 casts to find out if muskies like them.  They do.  Life is always good on the water!

If you're reading this around September 17th, which is the date that I am typing it, then you should probably drop everything and go throw a muskie lure into any muskie lake.  They are simply destroying all things swimming at the moment.  In fact, as I look out the window the conditions look very muskie-ess.  With that said, I'll post a few of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks and then I have got to run - the water is calling.  Blessings to you and may the Big Guy up above spoil you with a fish of a lifetime...or two! 

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Oh Canada!

Last week I experienced my first Canadian fishing trip.  I can't believe it took me 29 years to make it happen.  Well, all the hype about fishing in Canada is true.  It's the best freshwater fishing in North America, hands down.  My trip was focused on filming a television show so it wasn't like I had free reigns to just fish every day.  The trip was very much structured to film specific segments with specific people.

The first two days we filmed walleye segments with a few of the locals.  Each trip it was ridiculous how many walleyes we caught.  A few things stood out to me while filming the walleye segments.  First, Canadians are spoiled by their fishing.  If they don't catch a walleye every 5 minutes they consider it tough fishing and start talking about how the weather messed it up.  Also, if it isn't over 5 pounds, it's not worth talking about.   

I learned that presentation isn't as important up there as it is back in good ol' Minnesota.  I'm certain that a few of the lures that we used wouldn't even catch milfoil down here.  Essentially, a 1 ounce jig hooked on a bunch of metal swivels, tied directly to 40 lb braided line AND tipped with a sun dried leech, will still catch you a 5 pound walleye.  That would never happen on Lake Minnetonka.  Also, as long as you are near the reef and somewhat close to the bottom, you'll get bit.  No need to worry about specifics. 

Walleye fishing is really good up there.   So are the sunsets, sunrises and all the views in between.

After the walleye slaughter was finished, I had a day of fishing to myself.  My goal was to film a segment based on adventure.  Without a guide, or any kind of direction, I wanted to explore waters that I never fished and catch something big.  I chose the obvious - muskie!

If I wasn't sold on muskie fishing in Canada before, I am now.  It took about 15 minutes to find the fish.  It took about 10 more to boat one.  Muskies in Canada are not like muskies back home.  They don't have the pressure we have, therefore the action is constant.  We filmed what I believe will be a very cool muskie piece.  We have footage of muskies eating on the figure 8 and muskies completely airborn.  We filmed many incredible explosions and mishaps, and what might be my biggest rookie mistake in years.  I look forward to this piece hitting the air, and will post an air date when I know more about it.  Until then, here's a couple of shots to show you why a trip to Canada is something that you have to do in this lifetime.  Minnesota is a wonderful place to fish, and we are blessed by what we have, but I have to say that Canada is still one up on us.  Until next time, keep on livin' the dream!

Walleyes, A new camera, and Waconia is Back!

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After a 7 month hiatus from snapping photos, I'm happy to announce that I'm back up and running.  A few sweet friends pitched in to get me a gift certificate to National Camera Exchange as a wedding gift, and it helped me pick out the camera I've been saving up for.  I'm now the proud owner of a Canon 60D.  I thank God for good friends.  

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With new camera in hand, I took to the water with a couple of walleye addicts last Friday.  It took us a few hours and a couple dozen bass, but we finally got dialed in on the fish we were after - walleyes.  They managed a nice meal of Tonka eaters and another dandy in the mid 20 inch range.  The bite seems to have changed slightly, but the action is far from disappointing.  I'm now looking to make a few adjustments to follow the walleye movements into their summer patterns.  Bass on the other hand are about as plentiful as they can get.  At times the boys were landing them every single cast.

Fathers day was about as good as it gets in the weather department.  My fishin' buddy, Dusty Gesinger, and I, took our dad's out for a morning of catching on a small metro lake.  We found fat bluegills on the spawning beds with a few crappie & walleyes mixed in.  It would have been hard to draw up a better morning.

When our catching was done, I ventured to Waconia with my wife.  She was after a tan.  I was interested in the walleyes.  This was my first time fishing Waconia walleyes this year and I was pleasantly surprised by the results.  I caught many walleyes with very little effort.  This is a very good sign.  For those of you that aren't aware, lake Waconia was missing 5 year classes of walleyes and the lake has been hurting.  The DNR attempted to stock fry instead of their usual planting of yearlings.  They tried twice and the fry never made.  Since they stock every other year, we essentially went 5 years without any walleyes added to the lake.  Waconia has almost zero natural reproduction, so we rely heavily on the DNR stocking efforts.  To their credit, they were looking to increase the amount of walleyes in the lake and wanted to give the fry stocking a shot.  Whether it was from the cormorants or other factors, they didn't survive and a lesson was learned.  2 years ago they changed their stocking back to yearlings and the fish have grown quickly.  The results I had on Sunday were encouraging and I'm confident that Waconia will return to the walleye gem that it once was.   We are now only 1 year away from having a healthy year class of 16 to 17 inch walleyes in the lake.  In my opinion, next year will be a banner year to walleye fish on lake Waconia.

Now is a great time to be on the lake.  I have several bass trips coming up and I'm going to start switching gears to the muskie side of life.  It's a good place to be.  Until next time, keep on livin' your dream!