The day started pretty slow, fishing a few flats without any bites!  Finally on a new spot, I connected and pulled in a nice 19 incher.  Shortly after I battled another about the same size.  We finally found a few fish and even a few that were under the 18 inch slot that we could keep!!  Soon the wind started to pick up and boy did it ever!!  We had huge rollers that were crashing in the boat!  We had to wear our rainsuits to keep dry and it was sunny as possible!  We even had one come crashing over the front and put about 50 gallons of water flying down between the consoles!!  Good times!!

We managed some decently consistant fishing throughout the day!  It wasn't phenomenal, but we were catching fish.  Our biggest was a 24 and a half and we managed 4 that were between 15 and 17 that we could keep, with several others that were too big.  We even managed 4 bonus jumbo perch!  Mmmmm Good Eatin!!! 

Our plans were to fish walleyes until just before the sun was going to set and then try out our skills at a muskie at dusk.  Unfortunately when we arrived to another spot, the trolling motor did not work at all!  No power was getting to it!  So we ended the trip early.  It sure is hard to long line walleyes or cast for muskies without a trolling motor.  It ended up being a circuit board in the pedal that went out.  Bummer!!  But all in all, it was an excellent trip with my father and a great friend!!  Heck it was worth it just to see my dad in that amazing hat all day!!  Awesome!!  Thanks!  Fall muskie season is coming fast!  Can't wait!!  Until Then, Keep Living Your Dream!!

A few days later he was sitting in front of my house with the crestliner hooked up and ready to go!  It was a hot, humid, calm day.  But the pike usually don't care!  After launching the boat and throwing our cranks behind it, it sure didn't take long for the first one to tear the rod of my dads hands.  After a nice battle, there was about an 8 pound pike in the net!  We hi-fived and were immediately back at it!! The next hour or so was really slow with nothing to show except for a few short hits.  Then we were back in the game again when I caught about a 4 pounder.   Not too long later, my lovely girlfriend Jenn called.  Well only about a minute in the conversation I said "Got one, gotta go!"  I landed the nice fish and took a few photos of the 30+ incher and released it.  I called her back to continue our conversation and immediately my dad was hooked up!  "She should call more often when we are fishing if it means we are going to catch fish the whole time!"  yelled my dad.  Haha! 

We landed a few more solid pike and called it an evening!  It was a splendid evening with my father and hope to do it again soon!!  Thanks Dad!!  Until next time, Keep Livin' that Dream!!

First spot produced nothing but a bunch of floating milfoil!  Second spot scored me a nice largemouth bass.  Third spot I finally had a huge explosion on a topwater over some weeds!!  Just when I thought I was battling a muskie, I learned it was just a huge Bass on steroids!  But at a half inch over 20 inches, one can't complain!  To add to the excitement, on the very next cast, there was a nice 40 inch class muskie screaming at the boat in hot pursuit of my presentation.  But at the last second decided the sight of the 20 foot white fiberglass thing floating in the water was a bad sign and left. 

I was absolutely determined to catch a muskie on this trip!  I was alone in the boat and casted, casted and casted more!!  I headed deep, shallow, mid range, everywhere!!  I was thinking that all the thunder and lightening shut them down for a few days.  At about 11:30, yep, over 7 hours on the lake, i was just about falling asleep and fishing in daydream mode when i was rudely interrupted by a nice nudge on my rod.  The little nudge was followed by some heavy weight.  I got my senses together and pulled back as hard as I could!  The rod wagged like a happy dogs tail as the muskie reacted with massive headshakes!!  FINALLY!!  Persistence paid off!!  I fought this fish for longer than normal as it stayed down and didn't give me the jumps that usually come from a muskie.  I pulled hard as it moved from side to side and shook its head from time to time!!  My 8 footer was bent to the max when the line started to rise, my excitement doubled when she showed herself!  I couldn't believe when I saw the thickness of this sea monster that definetly needs lay off the weight lifting for a bit!!  It wasn't so fat as it was just really thick acoss the back and extremely deep along the whole length of the fish!!  As I was trying to manage to open up the net and get her in, I looked up to see Travis driving across the lake with his dad.  He saw me battling the fish and came over and jumped in to net it for me!  "Is it a nice one?" He said as he jumped in the opposite side of the boat from where the fish was.  "Yeah, its a giant!" I answered!  "Oh my gosh, that's a pig!!"  He reacted upon seeing the whale on the surface.  High fives all around is what followed when the giant admitted defeat and slid in the net.  We both guessed at about 52 to 53, but the board proved us wrong at exactly 50.  The depth and width of this fish is what made it look ridiculous!!  There WILL be more BIG fish in the near future!!  From the shark filled waters of Minnesota, Keep Living Your Dream!!

Things were going awesome when we rounded a corner and came across some really shallow water.  We had to push over rocks in many places to get through the area.  Well a few hundred yards later, it happened again.  It was starting to get really frustrating!!  Soon we realized that the river was not going to get any deeper!  There were no fish present. The average depth was 8 inches to a foot.  The crystal clear water proved there were no fish because we could see they weren't there!!  About 4 more hours of this constant pushing over rocks in the pouring rain, we admitted defeat and called up my wonderful mother to come get us at the next bridge.  Unfortunately it took almost 4 more hours to get to that bridge!!  After the largest upper body workout of my life and about a 5 hour constant rain, we managed 4 smallies and a half dozen small pike.  The website that told us the river was canoeable, was a big fat lie!!  But we did make it safely home and in the long run laughed that we would never forget it!  And that we gave it our all!!

Well that evening, I headed straight out to the muskie waters to put my first one of the year in the boat.  Night number one yielded just one follow.  The next morning gave my dad and I 3 follows.  That evening My dad caught the tiger(see Trav's update.)  Monday evening I was back throwing the big lures again.  Jason, Matt, and I tossed and tossed and tossed.  We finally saw a few fish, but no takers.  We switched up our game plan a bit and the first spot....FISH ON BABY!!!!  I had one crush my bait and instantly come up the the surface doin the muskie shake!!  A few seconds later, I managed to win the battle and we were giving high fives all around the boat!!  A few photos and she swam to be caught another day. 

After getting one on the board, of course I was out last night shooting for number 2.  This time Eric and Derek were with me.  Action on the end of my line sure came slow last night!  But for Eric, he was sure bringing them to the boat.  He managed to hook one and get her about half way to the boat, only to see her jump, throw the bait, smile, then swim back to the depths.  On the very next spot one completely tried to T-Bone his bulldawg about 30 feet from the boat!  Mouth wide open and everything, but somehow this muskie completely missed it.  He also raised 2 beautiful fish to the boat, but they weren't quite hungry enough.  Torwards the end of the evening, Derek, trying to get his first muskie, was casting his arm off!  It was his second time muskie fishing ever.  The first time, last year, he had one hooked for a bit, but it shook the hooks!!  Well this time, it was an exact image of last year!  He set the hook, the fish came up, did the head shake, and then it came unbuttoned!!  Sorry Derek, it will happen sooner than later!!  Hey you can't complain, 2 trips, to chances!! 

Then after being high on life from all the action, my boat broke down on the way back to the access!!  So things will be a bit slower on this end for a while.  They said possible up to a week and a half before they even look at it.  But I still plan on catching the muskies from the back of the boat!!! Until then, Keep Livin' the Dream!!

Anyways we dropped the boat in our little piece of heaven around 6 on Saturday morning.  The first 5 minutes produced the first fish!  About a minute later, we had a double!!  Then another!!!  This crazy topwater action lasted all morning!!  We would fish all the hot spots and just start over fishing them again and new fish would be all over the already fished spots!! 

But I do have to say, these fish sure won the battle!  We boated probably around 30 of these bronzebacks.  The average size was about 15 to 16 inches and we had a few in the 18 inch range.  But i can honestly say we had another 60 fish take our topwaters that we either missed or they would jump and shake our lazer sharp hooks halfway to the boat!!  It was crazy!!  We just couldn't stop missing them!!  Oh well that is part of fishing!! You can't catch them all, But I sure like to try!!  This week, I hope to catch some more of the great walleye action that is happening and this weekend, My dad and I are floating the Rum River for a few days just south of Mille Lacs!  I have never done this or fished it, but sure am excited for a great weekend spent with my father on the water!!  Until then, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!!

Our tactic was to hit a few spots quickly.  We were running and gunning and after about 3 spots in 45 minutes, we finally settled down on our last spot just as the sun was playing hide and seek with us.  We witnessed one heck of an incredible diplay of colors on Gods wonderful canvas last night!  We were talking about how amazing it was and Matt just said, "We have to catch a fish now!!"  "We need that in the background!!"  Well not more than 5 minutes later Matts Jig and minnow combo was crushed by something from beneath!  As he was battling it, the fight got more and more intense!  I grabbed the net and after about a half dozen runs back to the depths, she finally showed herself!!  We were super happy to see a giant fat walleye on the end of his line!  At last we got her in the net!  We took a few pics, measured her, and released her!!  Then the high fives and hoots and hollars started flying!!  28 1/2 inches she went! 

We fished for about 15 more minutes and decided to call it a success and not be out too late.  So one bite and one big lone giant walleye was the gift given to us last night!!  Perfect sunset, perfect fish, perfect night on the water!!  Bass opener this weekend!!  Lets get some hogs!!  From the crazy colors of the horizon, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!

Our destination was Baudette, MN to fish the Rainy River for the massive, super strong sturgeon!!  It was our third year on this expedition and let me tell you that each and every year has been completely different!!  Our first year we had slow currents, cold water temps and MANY MANY FISH!!  Last year we had very cold air temperature, high water, extremely fast currents and tons of debris and ice flowing down the river, along with not as many fish, but many very large ones.  Well this year we were welcomed with 30 mph wind the first day, then no wind the next 2 days and upper 60 degree air temps and upper 50 degree water temps.  Which is almost unheard of for this early!  The currents was even slower than the first year and the fish were everywhere.  50 to 60 inchers were surfacing all over, the graph was constantly full of huge arcs!  But they had a severe case of lock jaw all weekend!!  We caught fish, but for the amount of big ones we were seeing swimming around the boat, it was obviously they had other things on their mind other than eating.  Was it the high water temps, the lack of any wind most of the trip, the mini cold front that came through the day before we arrived???  We will probably never know, and that is sometimes the largest mystery of fishing, WHY WON"T THEY EAT???

Well the first morning started out very slow! It was almost noon before our first fish was in the boat, just a little one.  But we received a call from the other boat and they also caught there first fish, a 30 inch walleye grabbed on to their ball of crawlers!  Finally we started hoisting a few more fish, but the size just wasn't there.  Day 2 provided a pretty good morning with over a dozen before 11, but then the wind died and boy did it ever die down!!  We sat, baking in the sun, shirtless with our pants rolled up floating around on the massive mirror of 4 mile bay!!  Not even a ripple for the rest of the day and the fish followed the wind and died at the same time!!

Day 3 we were just planning on fishing the morning and then heading back to good ol' Waconia.  I started out the day with 5 fish in the first few hours, while Sean and my dad were still at zero.  Sean finally picked one up and we were on our way to the access and called it a year.  We still managed about 30 to 40 sturgeon for Sean, My dad, and I over the 2 and a half days, but the size just wasn't there this year.  I had a few over 40 inches and so did Sean.  Our boat didn't have a fish over 50, but Brian from the other boat managed a fat 57 incher.  Along with his walleye, he won both bets for largest sturgeon and largest "nonsturgeon fish." 

As with any fishing trip, I still had a blast and everyone else did too.  We laughed ourselves crazy each and every day and night!  Just being out on the water with friends and family is more than enough for me, the fish are just a bonus!  But I like the bonuses a lot!! Haha!!  I can't wait until SturgFest 2011 for probably another completely different trip that is successful in its own different way!  Thanks everyone for enjoying the outdoors as much as me!!  Until next time, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!

Catching rough fish to me is AWESOME!  They are super ugly, but put up a great fight!  Add some current in there and you have an incredible battle ahead of you!!  Also there is nothing like tossing a night crawler out and sitting down on the bank and soaking up the rays as you wait for the throttle on the end of the line!!  I love working for my fish, but everyonce in a while it is just fun to reel them in the lazy way!!

I pretty much went straight to Seans house after Church and didn't even leave myself time to change I was so excited about the afternoon!!  We purchased some crawlers and weights and were on our way!  It sure didn't take long to feel that first tug, after a quick hookset, the first battle of the day was on!!  I won that battle against about a 3 to 3 1/2 pound redhorse sucker!!  It was probably the biggest redhorse I have ever caught!  Up next was Sean who tossed yet another nice redhorse on the shore!  Over the next few hours, we managed to fool 5 suckers and a few carp in to eating our presentation.  Nothing like catching nice fish with absolutely no effort involved at all!!  Just toss it out and wait!  On the river you never know what it tugging at the end of your line!  We have caught walleyes, carp, catfish, bullheads, and many different kinds of suckers!  I have seen a few pike caught on it also.  Some of the carp reach over ten pounds and take quite some time to pull against the current with a 6'6" MH spinning rod! 

Tommorrow after work, we are heading up to the magical Rainy River in pursuit of the beautiful Lake Sturgeon!!  I hope to have a great story with excellent pics early next week!!  Until then, from the muddy banks of the Crow, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!!

After a busy work week and letting the water warm up a bit, Sean, Luke, Derek, and I ventured out to a local lake to chase some early season crappies!  We hit the water Friday evening about 5:30.  It didn't take long and we were hauling in some nice fish!!  We were tossing small one inch plastic twister tails under a bobber in about 8 feet of water.  These piranhas were absolutely on a feeding frenzy!!  Over the next few hours we caught at least 50 each, if not more, of these tasty little morsels!!  To our surprise we found some real dandies!!  Biggest of the night was 1 pound 4 oz.!!  We fought several between 3/4 pound and a pound!!

I abolutely LOVE catching the biggest fish that live in the lake!  My favorite is chasing the massive muskies, or huge flatheads in the rivers.  In 4 days I am heading to the Rainy River chasing the huge sturgeon that can weigh over 100 pounds and is not uncommon to catch them over fifty!!  But something about catching a meal of sunnies or crappies with some great friends on a nice warm sunny Friday evening is amazing and it kind of makes me feel like a kid again!!  The laughs, amazing nature scenery, stories, and just being on the water enjoying Gods incredible creation is more than enough to make it a perfect evening for me!!  To make it even better the artistic sunset was brilliant and boy did the fish taste incredible!!

Now that I have my panfish urge out of me, I will be back to chasing the heart pounding, adrenaline raising, drag burning species!! Next on the list, beautiful rough fish out of the Crow River!!  From the painted canvas skys of the April waters, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!