Just a few days ago I returned back to the lovely state of Minnesota from the beautiful beaches of Mexico!!  As soon as I returned, I had the sudden itch to get the boat out on the river and try to catch some of those hog walleyes!!  I awoke the other day at 6 am and first grabbed 4 rods and put new line on them and attached my favorite color of jig on all of them.  Then I went to the license center to get my updated trailer tabs and boat license.  Next, I picked up Sean and we headed out to where I stored my boat.  We hooked up and headed to the nearest gas station to get the tires back up to par with air for the summer.  Well one was considerably low and as we filled it, we noticed that it was leaking out almost as fast as we were filling it!  On to Colony Plaza to get a tire patched.  Well their air hose was broke, so back to Holiday to fill it back up.  Finally, after stopping at Cabin Fever for some bait we were on our way to the river.  After dropping the rig in the river I started her up and realized I never even thought of checking the trolling motor batteries!!  Completely dead!!  Well looks like we were going to let the current drift us around and hope to pick up a few random fish.  We did just that and fortunately it didn't take long at all to boat our first fish!  Fishing was pretty slow for what it can be down there, but after a few hours of aimlessly drifting and jigging, we managed to pick up 12 nice walleyes and a white bass.  Biggest was about 3.5 to 4 pounds!  Great fish, but not the 8 to 10 pounders that are not uncommon this time of the year.  But for not having a trolling motor and the wind frustratingly pushing us to shore often, I was more than happy with our catch! 

The next morning after we figured out the whole trolling motor thing, we were off to our destination again.  Along the way, we picked up the company of my dad and we were all jacked about catching some walleyes!!  As soon as we started fishing I had noted that there was this hole up the river a little ways that was just stacked with ten inch walleyes and you could catch them like sunfish.  My dad said, "Well lets go there. I haven't caught a fish out of the boat yet this year!!"  I said no because they were too small and it was annoying, but before I could finish my sentence, Doug pulled his first of the year in, a nice 15 incher.  Not too long after another one latched on to Seans jig.  Soon we were all on the board.  We caught a few at that honey hole, but weren't satisfied, so we went to another area we had caught fish in previous years.  Immediatedly we started catching fish.  They weren't huge but a nice 15 to 18 inch average.  Doug finally fooled about a 4 pounder into thinking his jig was a nice afternoon snack.  Not too long later I hoisted a pretty big sauger into the net.  Over the next hour or so, my dad and I were catching a fair amount, but Sean was putting on a clinic!  He was easily catching 2 if not 3 for every one we caught!  Way to go Sean!  The rain started to his us pretty hard and the wind was biting our fingers, so we decided to begin our wet journey back to the launch.  We ended up with around 35 to 40 walleyes and saugers!  Great day on the water, but still looking for that 10 pounder!!  Maybe next time!  Everyone pray the river doesn't flood too soon, because then it is all over for a while!  Get out there!!  It's on!!  From the hog infested waters of the Mississippi River, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!

Yesterday, my doorbell rang at 8:00 am!  The plans that were made the evening before brought my father to my front door.  A day of fishing with Dad was about to begin!!  We started out by heading to the local bait shop for a variety of grubs that were going to be the attactant for the bluegills and crappies we were chasing.  On lake one, we arrived on the ice about 9:00 am.  The first few holes were nothing worth bragging about.  We had produced a few small guys in the bucket for the start of our future delicious meal.  We kept plugging away and kept drilling more and more holes.  Finally we found an area that consistantly produced fish and at around 11:00 am, we were heading back to my house with 10 crappies and 13 sunfish!!  We ended up with some real dandies also, with plenty of smaller ones to fill the gaps with action!!

We cleaned our harvest and ate a small lunch and were headed out to another lake farther away in search of some monsters that we heard were biting!  On this particular lake, the bite wasn't supposed to start until 4:00 pm.  We arrived around 2:30 pm.  We fished and fished and between the stories and laughs caught just a few little guys as we anxiously waited for the magic hour.  Well soon it was 4:30 and the fish apparently didn't receive the same email that was in my inbox about when to start biting!!  Around 5:00 the screens on our vex's lit up like christmas trees!!  We were catching them as fast as we could get our lines down there....unfortunately they were averaging about 5 inches a piece!!  Not the monsters we were barginning for.  After catching about 50 of these little guys, and just as God started painting the horizon,  i had another routine bite that suddenly pulled about 10 times harder and the aftermath was a nice half pound sunnie on the ice next to me!!  We had about 10 minutes of this fast action with "the big guys" and managed to ice 10 nice crappies to complete out our crappie limit for the day and added about 10 dandy bluegills!! 

Did we have a fishing trip of a lifetime????  When it comes to catching tons of big fish, NO, not at all!!  But when it comes to the laughs, fun times, and just experiencing the outdoors with the best father in the world, it was a day I will never forget!!  It isn't always about the catching when it comes to fishing.  It is more about experiencing Gods amazing creation and spending great times with the best family and friends anyone could ask for!!  Thanks for the fun day Dad and thanks to all my friends for the many fishing and hunting excursions we have been on that you made great!!!

Sorry for not updating that much lately.  I have not been fishing at all this winter.  I have been saving literally every penny.  Fortunately I am getting a roommate this week and will be provided with some rent money so when the ice leaves, I will be back in action!!  Next target...GIANT open water spring walleyes on the Mississippi river!!!

17 inches of ice is what I measured after I skimmed out the last of the ice chips out of the fresh holes I drilled in my newly banked in fish house!  17 INCHES!!!!  Usually there is only 7 when I get it out for the first night of fishing!!  Well a series of unfortunate events kept me from getting it out sooner!!  A blizzard over Christmas kept me plowing and made travel on the lakes almost impossible.  Temperatures so cold after that made it so that my less than average fishhouse would not be able to stay warm enough to keep the holes from freezing over!!  As soon as it was warmer, my personal truck broke down for a few days, followed by the front end of my work truck also going out!!  Finally with not having a job or roommate this winter, I have to pick the days to stay out in the house, because propane is not free these days!!  After all this, yesterday afternoon, I finally got her placed!!  I put it on a nice rocky point that I found last year and never had the time to fish.  I had a good feeling about it, even though I could have tried many spots that have been proven to be good in the past. 

I dropped the first line, a jigging spoon, just as the sun hit the trees.  Before it reached the bottom, a fish showed itself on the vex and flew up and ate it immediately.  9 inch walleye!!  Ha, well at least there were some fish there!!  Over the next 2 hours, we didn't even mark a fish!!  Sean and I were playing a little cribbage when one of the rattle reels started ringing away....probably one of my favorite sounds in the world!!  It took some line and after a short battle, there was a nice eater in the bottom of the jar!!  Not too long later, I was on the phone when the "fish alarm" started ringing again.  This time after a good battle, 4 lines tangled together, and a few high fives, I was taking pictures of Sean holding a fat 6 pound walleye!!!  We released the fish and spent the next 15 minutes untangling lines......worth every minute of it!!

Over the next 3 hours, we caught 2 more that were too small to keep.  After the south wind picked up, the next 8 hours proved that the fish did not like the weather change.  5 fish the first night was more than enough for me!!  I am going to give the spot one more night tonight, and if it doesn't produce, I will move it to the next hot spot tommorrow!!  Until then, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!!