Friday was fish fry day. We needed to land a few more fish because we let our two 17″ and 16″ go. The family thought I was premature, but I really wanted to let those big ones reproduce and breed smarter fish that can outsmart predators and get just as big. I had to have faith that we were good enough fishermen to feed our family. In the morning, I headed out to Voyager’s Bay on my own. Just as I arrived at the mouth of the bay, another boat was motoring past me into the bay.... (more...)
Quiet Independence Day
On a day ripe with American celebration, I hoped for fireworks both on and off the water. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. Thursday morning, July 4th, I found George on the three season porch as I was headed out to the boat. I asked him if he wanted to join me and he said yes. We headed out to Kloek Channel and were out for about an hour and a half. The only thing we were able to land was one 12-incher on a white super fluke. The funny thing was, it was a walleye. I felt a little... (more...)
Walleye in the Bullseye
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...)
Supplying a Fish Fry
Last Saturday, during a neighborhood bonfire, Mark suggested we do a fish fry. I arrived late and by the time I got there, the plans were in full force. Mark, Steve, Rob, and I decided we would try to add to the fish fry by trying our luck Sunday morning. We made an appointment for 6:30. I got up a little early and Mark and I headed out first. We got on the water about 15 minutes ahead of Steve and Rob. We first headed to a new spot (at least to me) on a familiar lake. Unlike our previous outing,... (more...)
Lumberjacking, Almost skunking, and Ridiculousness
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...)
Best Walleye Fishing Day Ever
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...)
Mille Lacs Restrictions Relaxed
Something significant took effect here in Minnesota today. The Minnesota DNR relaxed their restrictions on the size of walleye that can be taken from Lake Mille Lacs. When the season opened, any fish between 18″ and 28″ had to be released. As of today, the limit is now 20″ to 28″. Apparently, the harvest from the lake has only been half of what is expected, so the restriction was relaxed. Two inches may not sound like much, but it’s a pretty big deal. On my recent... (more...)
Walleye 101 – The Lindy Rig
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...)
Mille Lacs Virgin No 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...)
First Walleye of 2010
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...)