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.

HUGE TOAD SLAMS MY FROG!!!

I went out to a lake tonight to see if I could catch a lunker bass or two for the bass derby. For presentations, I limited myself to the Hoochie Coochie swim shad, senkos, and the Ribbit high floater plastic frog. It was really windy and actually chilly as I set out in my float tube. The strong NW winds made it difficult to fish with the few plastics I brought. Plus, it being post-frontal, the bass were not active at all. I had a couple puny hits on my frog in about an hour and a half. I knew I got out there a little too early, as there was still an hour to go until prime time. I was not too hopeful of catching anything and was getting bored, so I decided I would head in for the night, passing up prime time. Well, the winds started dying down a little bit and I was getting closer to the landing, taking a few casts here and there with the plastic frog when all of the sudden this huge freakin' toad slams the frog! Immediately I knew this was no ordinary bass because it was fighting like crazy and pulling me around in circles!!! After it tired out some the head popped out of the water and I just about had a heart attack! This bass is truly amazing! I got it close to the tube and grabbed it by it's gaping jaws with a vice like grip before it got away and pulled it out of the water to get a better look. It had a huge gut. I was thinking this one was five pounds easy. Heart thumping, I realized I had to get a measurement, a weight, and some pictures of this brute bass before letting it go. There were a couple asian guys on the shore, and they witnessed the whole thing, so I put the bass on a metal stringer and headed toward them and asked if they would take some pictures, and so they did. It measured 20.25" and weighed 5lbs 11oz on my digital scale. After catching this monster I didn't see the need to fish any more so I went home. Enjoy the pics of this impressive bass...

Mike Thompson bags a pig!

Me and Mike Thompson got out for some bass fishing last night in our float tubes. I was using a plastic frog the most and Mike was using a jig/craw combo. The fishing was really slow at first and we were wondering if we were ever going to get into some fish. We caught only three bass in a couple hours. Well, as it neared that golden half hour before sundown we moved to a different section of the lake and started to pop a few bass. Nothing huge though. I caught one @ 17", with lots of smaller ones mixed in. I was using the trusty frog and Mike switched up to a Senko. Bass were getting very active and I had a huge blow up on my frog. The bass was a monster, but simply didn't get the thing in it's mouth. It was getting darker and darker and we worked our way in to the landing area. I was out of the water and Mike was just about forty feet away taking a few last casts when suddenly Mike gets onto a big bass. He got it in and by his measuring stick he said it was 19.25". It was really chubby, so I weighed it on my scale I happened to bring with and it weighed up at 5lbs 1 ounce. Good job there Mikey. Enjoy the pictures...