Journal of a Minnesota Angler

As I was tromping through the snow at 10:00pm (I’ll explain why in a minute), I was thinking about all the great adventures I had in 2010. And, naturally, I started to rank them in my head. Some trips well exceeded my expectations, while others could have been much better. But I had fun on all of them. I’ve learned a lot this year and hope to apply those lessons not just in fishing, but in life. So what follows is my top 5 adventures of 2010. Honorable Mention : Winter storm of 2010 I... (more...)

Last Saturday, I got a call from Mark wanting to go fishing Sunday morning. He wanted to meet at 7:30am so when I woke up at 7:10am a bit more groggy than most weekday mornings, I had to drag myself out of bed. We were on the water a little after 8:00am. Ever since catching my muskie in late October two years ago, I’ve been itching to try fall muskie hunting again. So while Mark lindy rigged for walleye, I pulled out my muskie rod and hooked up a 9″ bulldawg I brought home from my... (more...)

Date: 8/26/2010 Time: 11:30am – 4:30pm Body of water: Undisclosed Location: Gunflint Trail, MN Weather Conditions: partly cloudy, West wind ~20mph For a couple of year’s now, I’ve been trying to get out to a lake that my friend and colleague, Harley, has been fishing for years. He almost always comes back with his daily limit of walleye from the lake. And last year, he landed a fish of a lifetime. We’ve tried to coordinate our trips so he could show me the ropes of the... (more...)

I’ve met some really cool, interesting people since I started my fishing blog a year ago. One of them is the WalleyeGuy. He approached me about guest posting a few weeks ago and having seen the quality of his other guest posts, I had no hesitation in agreeing. If you’re a frequent reader of mine, you know that I just started learning about lindy rigs last year and have had very little success with them so far. My first real success of the technique was this weekend. However, I know... (more...)

Date: 6/26/2010 Time: 8:00am-5:30pm Body of water: Lake Mille Lacs Location: Isle, MN Weather Conditions: overcast/sunny, windy I have a confession to make. For the past year, I’ve been lying to you. You see, when you grow up in Minnesota, you can’t officially be known as a Minnesota Angler unless you’ve fished and caught a walleye out of Lake Mille Lacs, the biggest and most well known lake in the state. But I had never fished it… until yesterday. Lake Mille Lacs has a... (more...)

Species: Walleye Size: 8″ Lure used: Lindy rig with leech Date: 6/5/2010 Time: 5:00-8:30pm Body of water: Bald Eagle Lake Location: White Bear Lake, MN Weather Conditions: overcast and rainy turned to partly cloudy Mark, Steve, and I headed to Bald Eagle Lake this evening to try our luck at some lindy rigging. We got on the lake at about 5:00pm and started on a rock pile South of the island. Mark put on a nightcrawler, Steve used a minnow, and I had on a leech. We figured we’d try... (more...)

When talking about fishing in Minnesota there is one date that is important above all others: the Minnesota Fishing Opener. In fact, it’s probably just as important to non-anglers, even if they don’t know it, because of its psychological and economic impact on the state. This year it falls on May 15. The Minnesota State Fish is the walleye. We live, breathe, and dream about walleye in Minnesota. The fishing opener is all about this fish. No one ever talks about being able to catch... (more...)

With the memories of below zero (F) temperatures, 12 inch snowfalls, and 6 ft snow drifts quickly fading away, so go the stories of winter. But not before a few of us sneak in a couple more. My friend and colleague who caught his “Fish of a Lifetime” last summer sent me this video of an 18 lb walleye being pulled out of an ice hole in Manitoba. View the video on YouTube if you don’t see the embedded video below. Is it just me or does that walleye look fake? I have several problems... (more...)

Richard Levesque scored a new Vermont state record walleye when he caught a 14 ½ lb walleye through ice! He landed it on February 10th on Lake Champlain using a tip-up and golden shiner. Can you imagine pulling out that monster out of a 6″ diameter hole? The picture above doesn’t look much like there would be ice on the lakes in Vermont. Levesque is in a light jacket, he has no gloves, and there’s no snow in sight. The picture would be very different if taken in Minnesota. What... (more...)

So I got started on my 2010 goals early. I got a call from Mark yesterday afternoon. He, Rob, and Steve were headed out fishing. I wasn’t able to join them right away, but found them on the ice at about 4:30. Steve had bought a nice 6 man shelter over Christmas (the red one on the left), so we were in some pretty nice digs. The fishing holes in the shelters were all taken up by family members that joined the adventure, so I set up my pole on a pole holder on a bucket outside. It was only... (more...)