10/25 Minnetonka report

I spent sunday evening fishing on Lake Minnetonka for walleyes, and found the bite starting to pick up pretty good. I caught about 6 walleyes, all were dinks except one at 17" but I'll bet the size will only improve from here on out. I had the best luck anchored up 16+FOW using a blue/glow lipstick-redtail minnow combo. The bigger walleye I got on a slip float. I had alot more bites but didn't connect. Seems you have to really let them take it a long time before setting the hook. Also caught one slab crappie and a rock bass. I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera so that sucks, oh well. Next time I head out there I'll get some bigger minnows for the slip bobber.

Things will only get better for the next few weeks!

A minnetonka walleye

I got out to Lake Minnetonka on thursday evening for some walleye fishing. It was overcast and drizzling with winds out of the east. I didn't fare very well. I caught one walleye, probably 14-15 inches on a jig/minnow combo.





I might make it out again tonight. With winds out of the south the bite might be pretty good but we'll see.

HUGE CATFISH!!!

I had a couple hours to kill in the afternoon this monday so I headed to the Minnesota river to try to catch some walleyes. At the last minute I decided to bring my heavy gear and frozen shad just in case I wanted to try for catfish. Keep in mind that just last saturday I went fishing on the Minnesota with Lucas and my buddy Ben Newton and Ben connected with a 43" flathead. So I bought some minnows on the way, launched the boat, headed down the river and anchored up. I tried a couple different spots, either casting out a slip sinker rig or dropshot tipped with minnows but after an hour I got bored with that so I switched over to catfish. I took one of the shad, poked a few holes in it, attached it to a big circle hook, casted out, and about five minutes later I had a run on my line. I started reeling in. It was a decent fish but not huge. It turned out to be this sheepie, I didn't measure it but it must have been 24". Here it is in all it's glory...



Well, I decided to give it another try, so I put another chunk of shad on and casted out. About 5-10 minutes later I got another run. I let it have line then started reeling in. I feel the fish on and I'm thinking, "This is a pretty good fish. Must be a cat". I battled that fish for quite sometime before getting a good look at it. Sure enough, it's a huge cat! I'm by myself, and now I gotta figure out how to get this beast in on my own. I got it close to the boat, grabbed the inside of it's mouth, put the rod down and hoisted this river monster into the boat. I am awed by this catfish! I measured it at 44". I got a couple good pictures, although the tail is clipped just a bit, but not bad for being by myself. Take a look...

ODDS AND ENDS AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 2009

Wow have I slacked off on the blog! I'll have to make an effort to get back on track, especially since the fishing should be picking up in the fall.

I have taken some good pictures over the past month, so instead of doing a separate post for each outing I thought I would just compile them all together.

Here's my good buddy Jim from church with a big slab crappie @ 13.5" caught on Green lake in Kandiohi county...


A chunky pumpkinseed from the same lake...


Green lake bluegill...


Me and Lucas went to the Mississippi river by Dayton. We anchored and caught some fish. Here's a smallie...


And a redhorse...


Scott Cullen catches a sunny from lake Minnetonka...


Me, my family, and my brother's family did some camping on the St Croix river over the Labor day weekend and caught lots of fish.

Me and a smallie...


The release...


Lucas gets one


My brother Mitch's kid aaron is quite the fisherman. Here he is with a smallie...


And a walleye...


We were fishing for cats one night. It was slow so Aaron decided to soak a crawler. About 10 minutes later he gets this 42" sturgeon on his line. He fought it for at least 15 minutes on medium spinning gear and 8 lb. test. Good job Ryan!



Check out the expressions on Lucas and Ryan's faces!!


Smallmouth...


I caught this monster redhorse @ 26"...


Lucas holding the redhorse...


Here's another big red I caught on the river, close to the same size as the other one I caught...


I have saved the best for last! My buddy Ben Newton caught this last night on the Minnesota river. His personal best @ 43". What a beast!!!


Lot's of great fishing opportunities coming up for me including a three day outing at Lake of the Woods at the end of September with Jim Schwandt. I plan on spending less time on Minnetonka this fall fishing for walleyes and more time fishing the Minnesota river. There are also some opportunities to fish pool 4 on the Mississippi river for panfish in october. And of course, I can always hit up "hawg lake" for bass to enter into the bass derby.

I look at my blog entries and I certainly need to improve chronicling events and people involved in a more thorough manner, taking alot more pictures. Hopefully things will come together and I'll have some great entries!

Saturday Morning Lunker...

I got up before dawn on saturday morning and did some bass fishing during prime time in the float tube. This is the first time I hit this lake in the morning so I was curious as to how well I would do. This time I brought my neighbor Phillip. Phillip is 14 years old, and I usually see him shore fishing the lake where I go tubing. He asked me about my tube and how much it cost, so I know he wanted one. Well, yesterday Phillip and his dad showed up at my door; apparently they found a float tube at the Bargain Cove at Cabala'a and they wanted to know how much to inflate it and some other details on tubing. So I went over to their house and looked it over. It was a Trout Unlimited Kanabec model, bigger than my Fish Cat but lighter. So I told him I would bring him out for his maiden voyage in the morning if he was willing to get up that early. His dad didn't think he would get up, but when I dropped by his house in the morning he was ready to go. We got to the lake and there is a breeze out of the west, a little choppy in spots, but not terrible. Here's Phillip in his new tube...



I brought a couple rods as I usually do, one rigged with a Ribbit frog the other had a black spinnerbait. About ten or fifteen minutes into our outing I cast to a little pocket of pads and this lunker slams into my frog. 19.5" long. I forgot to get a weight on it before releasing it but looked to be over four pounds for sure. Phillip snapped some photos. There were two photos I liked so I'll post both...





I had a couple more huge bass attempt to take my spinnerbait, but didn't connect, but I know they were bigguns! I caught only one other small bass and Phillip didn't catch any, but at least he can get out and catch some lunkers on his own now. That bass I caught might just catapult me into first place in the Bass Derby! We'll see...

Lotus lake bassin' with Kyle

I took a detour from my usual thursday evening fishing routine and did some bass fishing with my friend Kyle, who really knows how to fish. He has had success on Lotus lake catching 5lb bass in the past, so I met up with him at the launch with his bass boat. It's been awhile since I fished out of a boat! We started out fishing some deeper structure using Carolina rigs. He caught a couple small bass and while I was distracted with something I got a decent bass on my Hoochie Coochie swim shad. When I got it in it was 17", but very gaunt looking...you know, big head, no body. Plus it swallowed the hook. It wasn't bleeding, so I cut the hook off and let it go for it's best chance of survival. I didn't get a picture of it though, oh well. We tried shore fishing, casting to outside weed edges. Kyle had a huge hit, a quality fish no doubt, but when he set the hook his line got tangled on something and broke the line and no fish! We buzzed over to another shoreline, Kyle caught a couple more pocket bass. I was casting a black spinnerbait with a big colorado blade, slowly reeling it in when a big bass smacked it. It measured 18" and at least this one looked healthy...




We fished a little bit more but didn't get much else so we called it a night. I was hoping to get a bass bigger that 18" because that would put me in first place in the bass derby, maybe next time! I didn't even get a picture of Kyle, but hopefully I'll get a picture of him next week when we get out float tubin' where he has a reasonable chance to catch a real lunker!

Tubin' and Bassin' with Mike Thompson

Me and Mike got out last night for some float tubin' hoping to get onto some more huge bass. The weather was warm, but the winds were a little stronger than we thought they would be. I tried the Hoochie Coochie swim shad, but didn't get any hits on it so I pretty much stuck with my trusty Ribbit High Floater frog after that.We split up working different parts of the lake, both working slop and pads. I found myself in an open area with slop all around. I started to get a few hits on the frog too but could not connect. Dang, some were pretty big fish too. So I decided to downsize to the smaller profile frog and decided I had to let them take it more. Immediately I got a 14" bass...



About five minutes later I tossed my frog to an area I had a good hit on earlier and a big bass smacked it! It was pulling my tube around and I'm thinkin' "Here we go again...big bass!" I got it in and it was a 19" LM bass. I weighed it on my digital scale, but it said it weighed a little over 2 lbs and I'm thinking, "That can't be right". So I put the bass on my metal stringer and headed over to Mike Thompson for photos, who was quite a ways away. As I was approaching, Mike was tossing a frog when he got a big fish on which he thought was a state record bass! But it turned out to be only a big fat northern...

The catch...


And the release...


Here's the 19" bass I caught...



When I got home I was examining my scale when I discovered it was on the metric system, Measuring in kilo's I believe...so that's why the bass only weighed what I thought was a couple pounds!

Right now I am in second place in the Bass Derby. The result on my outing means I get to cull a smaller bass, getting darn close to first place. Wow! This year has been the best bass fishing I have ever had. I never really targeted 'em too much before, but I gotta admit seeing those big ol' lunker bass is pretty cool! This year is far from over, and I truly believe when it is all said and done I'll have a 5lb. average.