After our crazy adventure in the afternoon, Ken, George, and I headed to the three bays near Liz Lake portage. We started at the Southern most bay and worked our way North. George opted for a propeller topwater and got a hit on his first cast. It was a little bass that shook itself loose before he could get it to the boat. A few minutes later, Ken landed a 10″ walleye on his pinkish fluke. On my bubble gum fluke, I scored a nice 13″ smallie. The first keeper of the night. Species:... (more...)
Lumberjacking Day 2 of our Gunflint Trail weekend turned out to involve even less fishing than day 1, which I didn’t realize until I sat down to write this blog post. You would have thought that so little fishing would have bothered me, but it didn’t because I was having too much fun doing other things. We spent much of the morning and afternoon taking down a couple of 30 ft trees because one of them was growing into the roof of the outhouse. We ended up taking down two trees (and a... (more...)
Instead of spending our usual week up on the Gunflint Trail, we decided to do two four-day weekends this year. The first was on July 4th and our second was this past weekend. We drove up late Friday night, but I was too tired to get up Saturday morning to go fishing. Because we visited the Fisherman’s Picnic in Grand Marais, I didn’t get to wet a line until 4pm. It’s a crime, I know. While the family was swimming, I decided to trek over to the neighbor’s dock where there... (more...)
Sunday, July 3rd was my last day on the Gunflint Trail. My family and I had decided to leave early to avoid traffic and allow me to settle down before I started my new job. But we wouldn’t be leaving til late. That afternoon, Ken and I decided to head to Bearskin Lake where his uncle has a cabin. We had visited with Ken’s aunt and uncle the day before on the way back from replenishing our water supply. His uncle showed off his new (used) pontoon he purchased from a family friend. Ken... (more...)
After an abysmal first day and second morning, Ken and I headed to Walleye Alley in the evening of day 2 to try our luck. I remembered a small bay with lily pads at the end of the alley that felt promising. We started down Walleye Alley and it was very windy. It was perfect conditions to drift with a lindy rig, but I didn’t have enough foresight to bring that set up. So Ken trolled while I cast with a bubble gum fluke. Casting was very difficult due to the windy conditions. My line was... (more...)
My last two days on the Gunflint Trail were uneventful. It was hard to match day 6. I do have a story of note, though. On day 7, Ken brought me to three bays near the portage to Liz Lake in the afternoon. Ken hooked a small smallie, but lost it and I caught another 11″ smallie, both in the second bay. That evening, we tried to go after a school of fish we saw earlier in the week that I’ll tell you more about later. The next day, we returned again in the afternoon. In the first bay... (more...)
When I started writing the drafts for my posts about my trip, I had intended to do a post for each day. As I was reading over them, I realized they were BOR-ing. They were uninteresting because there was no action. I would be bored reading them, so you’d be snoring before you finished the first paragraphs. Therefore, I’m going to summarize the next 4 days of my trip into one sentence: I caught 5 smallies all under 12″ and a northern at 17″. Exciting, I know. I’ve... (more...)
The BassPastor turned his readers on to this article about open water fishing in the winter in Minnesota: No ice hole necessary: You can catch fish all winter in open water It sounds like a lot more fun than sitting over a hole. But it also sounds pretty challenging unless you know what you’re doing. I may have to contact Mr. Lindgren or Mr. Douglas to get more information on these open water spots. I’m always up for a challenge. AKPC_IDS += "1906,";Share this:FacebookStumbleUponDiggEmail Read More →
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...)
