Journal of a Minnesota Angler

After our last adventure, George’s friend, Greg, and I decided we would get together again to puruse some fish. Greg works near the Mississippi River, so we thought we would try fishing the river. It was something neither of us had done and it would allow us to get started earlier. We met at 5:45 and were on the river by 6:00. So as not to come into the adventure completely unprepared, I did some research on-line before I left work. I found a great page at TakeMeFishing.org that suggested... (more...)

Last Thursday night, I ran into my neighbor Mark while he was walking his dog. I asked him, jokingly, when we were going to go fishing next. He said he was going the next morning at 5am and that I was welcome to come along. Since there wasn’t much going on at work that day, I decided to go. We didn’t leave our houses until 5:30 or so because Mark’s wife didn’t want him to wake up the dog too early who would in turn rouse up the rest of the house. By 6am, we were fishing. We... (more...)

On our way up to my father-in-law’s cabin, Mrs. MNAngler and I decided to look for the MN DNR Fishery that is on Hwy 61 on the North Shore of Lake Superior. We hadn’t been there in years and thought the kids might like it. We found it not far up the scenic route between Duluth and Two Harbors. The French River hatchery sits next to the MN DNR Area Headquarters and raises Rainbow Trout for release into regional lakes and streams. They trap Rainbows going up stream to spawn and harvest... (more...)

On our last day, we had planned to get started on the caps for the roof, but the weather forecast was about 4 hours off. It wasn’t supposed to start raining until 1:00pm, but it started raining at 9:00am. That put a damper on roofing and fishing. It was a light rain, but enough that it was able keep us off the roof and the lake. The other annoyance was that it was on and off. At one point in the morning, the ladies had convinced Ken and I to go fishing during a lull, but as soon as we started... (more...)

Later in the evening, Ken, George, and I headed out on the pontoon. One of our usual spots we hadn’t hit yet was the three bays between the Prune Lake and Liz Lake portages. We first started in the bay near Prune Lake. I started with a bubble gum fluke because I was after my species trifecta. Using a fluke allows me to target multiple species at once. A couple of casts in and I was on the board: Species: Smallmouth bass Size: 10″ Lure used: Bubble gum super fluke George also got... (more...)

Thursday morning, Ken allowed us to sleep in and didn’t request that we be roofing until 8. We spent three hours on the roof and finished everything but the caps. Ken didn’t expect us to get nearly this far, so he was happy with our progress. At about 2:30, nothing much was happening, so I decided to try casting off the pontoon at the end of the dock again. Since the dock bass seem to like the watermelon Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw, I put that on my baitcaster to get some more casting... (more...)

I found it amazing that I had been at my in-laws a little over 24 hours and already had a week tally of fish nearly in double digits. Fishing has been good there before, but not this good. I’m not sure if it was due to the fish, the weather, or the honing of my techniques. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t complaining. Day 3 was July 4th. We were looking forward to getting a bunch of work done and possibly visit Grand Marais for fireworks that night. Ken wanted to get an early start... (more...)

After dinner, Ken, George, and I headed back out on the pontoon. With such success landing smallies, I decided it was time to try targeting a different species. Given my recent fun with lindy rigs, I was anxious to try to land a nice walleye with a similar technique on Ken’s lake. When I first started coming to the Gunflint, Ken always took me trolling. He seems most comfortable fishing this way. I thought I would get him back into his comfort zone by trolling for walleye. However, lindy... (more...)

After I had gotten back from float tubing, everyone was pretty much out of the water. Ken and George were now ready to take the pontoon out and hit some spots before dinner. We decided to Kloek channel because it had some shady areas for fish to hide from the cloudless sky. Having been successful with KVD’s worm earlier that morning and afternoon, I tossed it out again and got a hit in short order. Ken asked if I needed a net, but it was small enough that I could handle it. It turned out... (more...)

The morning after we arrived, I got up at 7am to see if Ken wanted to head out for an hour or two. He said he couldn’t, but got his fishing boat setup for me to go on my own. I didn’t think I had much time, so I opted to stay close. I puttered my way via trolling motor to the West end of Kloek channel where I’ve previously had success. There always seems to be a couple of bass holding in the area. In order to prevent a skunk, I started with my go-to lure in bubble gum. It paid... (more...)