Welcome to 2010! The beginning of each year brings New Year’s resolutions. I’m not much for resolutions as they tend to become broken promises. However, goals are more realistic and give you something to strive for. Here are mine for 2010: Fish 40 days out of the year (28 in 2009) Have patience to try new lures and new techniques Start float tubing Catch an average of 1.5 fish per day (1.04 in 2009) Catch an 18″ Smallmouth Bass (2009 best: 15″) Catch an 18″ Largemouth... (more...)
Thanx to my diligence in using FishSwami this year, I have a summary of my fishing excursions for 2009. Here are the results: Days Fished: 28 Fish Caught: 29 Locations Fished: 7 Patterns Fished: 6 Most fish caught in one day: 3 on June 14th Northern Pike: 10 Smallmouth Bass: 9 Largemouth Bass: 7 Walleye: 1 Muskie: 0 These probably aren’t very impressive numbers to you hard-core anglers, but I’m happy with them. Of course I would have liked to catch more (and bigger) fish, but the best... (more...)
Last time we were on the ice, Mark talked about the best bite being the hour around sunrise and sunset. We talked about the next time going out at 2:30pm and staying til after dark. We got our chance last night. My brother is in town for Christmas, so he and another friend of his, also an avid angler, joined us. There were quite a few fishermen out yesterday (see left). It was a nice brisk day without much wind. A perfect day to go ice fishing. We set up camp not far from our last outing.... (more...)
The scene opens with a view of the lake. A dock is in the foreground, a full moon shining brightly in the night sky. The reflection of the moon paints a path to the dock, empty except for a bench made for two. The sound of a crackling fire can be heard somewhere nearby. The camera pans to the left to find a bonfire on the shore. Two young kids sit enjoying the fire with their parents and grandparents. “Tells us the story again, grandpa,” the young girl exclaims. “Yeah, tell... (more...)
[In honor of Halloween, I thought you might like to hear about a story among our family of a legend on the Gunflint Trail.] Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a young fisherman who caught his very first walleye in Poplar Lake. He was very excited, but he caught it late in the evening and by the time he got back, it was too dark to clean it. He left it on a stringer tied to the dock. The next morning, at about 7am, he and his father-in-law decided to go fishing again. As the two walked... (more...)
Ken was up at his cabin from Aug 4 to Aug 11. He had some friends up through Aug 9 and he came back with a fishing report. His friend, Eric, caught an 18″ walleye on the channel on the North side of Young’s Island on a small shad rap or fat rap. He said he was about 12′ down. His other friend, Ed, liked to fish with live bait. Ken had trapped some minnows for him and he had it on a hook with a spinner. Being so light, he couldn’t cast it from the boat more than 3 ft and... (more...)
Date: 8/8/2009 Time: 2-5pm Body of water: Bald Eagle Lake Location: White Bear Lake, MN Weather Conditions: rain in the morning, afternoon sun, rain again after 4pm I ran into Mark on the way out to look at the Hobie Mirage Pro Angler (I REALLY want one of those now). He said he tried to call me at about 9:30am to go fishing, but I never received his call. It turned out to be a good thing because it started pouring rain shortly thereafter. But he was interested in going out that afternoon. He... (more...)
Now that I’ve written about my fishing stories of my week up in Northern Minnesota, I wanted to tell you about a fish tale from my friend and colleague, Harley. Harley has also been going to the Gunflint Trail area once or twice a year for over 20 years. Someday when we’re up there at the same time, we plan to exchange fishing holes, but it hasn’t worked out yet. He happened to be up the same week I was last month, but our previous commitments prevented us from hooking up. He... (more...)
Date: 7/18/2009 Time: 4:30-6:00pm Body of water: Poplar Lake Location: Gunflint Trail Weather Conditions: Overcast with some sun, Westerly breeze Water temp: 61 degrees After the scouting we did earlier, a bunch of us decided to try to catch the fish we saw on the fish finder. We went back to the Southern shore and again, we saw lots of fish. Ken was trolling with a deep diving Rapala that got to 15-20 ft. My brother-in-law, George, dropped a jighead with a plastic grub to about 20 ft. My daughter... (more...)
Date: 7/18/2009 Time: 11:30am-12:00pm Body of water: Poplar Lake Location: Gunflint Trail Weather Conditions: overcast, choppy, Westerly breeze Water temp: 61 degrees Ken and I spent the morning getting the pontoon into the water and decided to take it for a spin. We grabbed a bunch of people for a joyride and headed to the other side of the lake. As we traveled the channel between Kloek Island and Young’s Island, I suggested we check out the Southern shore. The reason was that there’s... (more...)
