Taking A Break...

Man, I'm getting old.  I had an old hockey teammate in town for a "boys weekend" and Jeff and I sure made the most of our time together...  The theme of our trip was "ice".   We started by lacing up and spending a couple hours each day on the ice.  After we'd wear out, we'd trade in our skates and sticks for ice fishing gear.  See, although Jeff is from Montreal, he never really got into the ice fishing thing.   I vowed to change that.  We headed out to one of my favorite metro lakes and it  was

Jeff in the Otter...

instantly clear that Jeff has a future in ice fishing.  We set up the Otter Ice Cabin and just as soon as Jeff's tiny jig dropped through the hole, his rod tip dipped and he had a tug on the end of the

Jeff With Two Nice Fish!

line.  Jeff quickly reeled in his first big sunfish.  He proceeded to repeat the act all evening, coming up with quite the pile of fish.  Heck,  the two of us went through two tins of waxworms in three hours. 

Another Nice Fish

That's pretty rare, especially on a metro lake.  We even had a tip-up pop right about sunset.  Jeff slowly pulled line in, hand over hand, and brought a beautiful largemouth out through the eight inch hole. 

Winter Bass

What a weekend of fishing.  Again, our recipe for both big crappies and sunfish consisted of Northland Mud Bugs tipped with waxies and also Northland Bro's Bloodworm Jigs tipped with plastic Buggy Tails.  

Cleaning Fish

We ended up cleaning quite a few fish and enjoying quite the winter feast.

The Fish Fry... Our last afternoon, we decided to skip fishing and head to one of my old skating haunts.   We split up Splitting Up Teams...sticks and skated against a bunch of high school hotshots.   Nothing like a classic game of shinny with ten guys on each team.  After that game, I need a bottle of Advil.  Man, I'm getting old....

Willie WalleyeWell,  just returned from a FANTASTIC  few days with our friends up at Ballard's Resort up on Lake of the Woods.   If you've never been up north, you need to.  That wide open lake and the novelty of riding Our "Bomber""Bombers" to and from your shacks is worth the trip alone.   Northland Pro Jason Durham and I fished along with head guide Nick Anthony (a great guy to look up when you're up there).  We caught literally dozens of walleyes and sauger out of our magic house, "#8", but the big treat of the trip had to be Shack # 8Jason's catch shortly after lunch.  His rod dipped and the drag buzzed as Jason wrestled the fish up and eventually to the hole.  Wow!   The biggest perch I've ever seen.  It appears Northland's new Macho Jason's GIANT PerchMinnow works!   After leaving Lake of the Woods, I stopped by Red Lake for a quick couple of hours on the ice.   5.2 miles out from Waskish and fishing buddy Greg Schultzenberg and I set up shop.  We Otter's Ice Cabincaught a few dandy keeper walleyes.  Spent the weekend on Gull Lake chasing perch.  Caught a few dandies on Northland Eye Droppers tipped with minnow heads.   This year we signed on with Otter Outdoors and I'm very impressed with the Ice Cabin portable shack.  It pulls so easily and I can't believe how well the polyester shell holds in the heat! 

Well,

I'm happy to report that we're finally out on the ice and chugging away!  I got a late start this fall, only because Travis Frank and I spent the last few days of the musky season trying to catch a new

A Bitterly Cold Ride Out

Minnesota state record musky.  While small lakes were freezing up, we were chuckin' 'pounders on Mille Lacs, trying to get that big fish to bite.  We fought snow and ice and wind.  Goggles and more than  a

Cold Casting

dozen pairs of gloves were mandatory.  What an adventure!  We saw a couple of fish that, if not state records, were certainly close, but we never put a big fish in the boat.  Other reports from Mille Lacs were about the same.  A very slow Mille Lacs bite this fall....  Just a few days later,  many of the smaller lakes froze u and we had fishable ice!

 My favorite winter walleye rig!  I started the season with a visit to a most unusual lake, right out behind my neighborhood.  It's surrounded by private property and has no public access.  My fishing buddy, Dirk Colby, invited me out to check out the lake.  Wow, what a fun place!  It has a reputation for a great walleye population. 

Wayne and Dirk on the ice

Dirk, along with my other fishing buddy, Wayne Smith, and I spent the afternoon chasing walleyes and trading a few fish tales.  We had good ice at the time, although I now wonder what the heavy snow has done to the lake.  I suspect a good chunk of central and southern lakes will be choked by slush for weeks and weeks and weeks.  Bummer.

Dirk and Wayne with a perfect walleye!

With all the snow, I'm sure the slush has set in.   Over Christmas, we fished St. James Lake through much of the winter storm that absolutely pounded us.  Wow!   I woke up Christmas Eve morning to quite a sight.  We found ourselves completely snowed in!                                                  

Snowed In!

 My wife and I were able to wrestle the shack through deep snow and slush, out to a promising spot on the lake.  She's a saint for helping!  Sure enough, we got the panfish to bite.  My little sisters, Ellie and Zoie sure seemed to have the hot hands. 

Katie and Ellie with another perfect panfish!

They watched dozens of sunnies and bluegills rush up to their baits! Now they both want Vexilars of their own!  

Ellie with a gem!

The panfish bite on St. James is great!  My bait of choice was a Fat Boy tipped with a couple of waxies.  I'd have used eurolarvae if I could have found them!  Meantime, I've already popped a couple hundred holes with the new Strikemaster, powered by SOLO.  I now understand why Randy Havel and Ray Peterson went all the way to Germany to find the new engine.   These machines purr...

The New Strikemaster Solo!

I'm hoping to be back on the ice over the next few days.   I'll keep you posted with reports!

Well, I just returned from a hard week of work in the Colorado mountains with local angling guru, Pat Dorsey.   We documented Pat's story for another of our national programs on The Outdoor Channel, "Legends of Rod and Reel".  We spent a couple of days tucked away in a favorite canyon of Pat's called Cheesman.  What an adventure and what a fishing hole...

The drive up Pine Creek Road

Steep, dusty grades

 Crossing at the Meat Hole

Getting to work

Hooked up!

Brownies before lunch!An average Cheesman Canyon 'BowAn above average Cheesman Canyon 'BowA way above average Cheesman Canyon 'Bow (okay, enough of those shenanagins)The viewThe waterThe sceneryThe momentThe best damn turkey sandwhiches, period...Tomorrow I'll try and not forget my other camera and we'll continue the '09 Cheeseman Canyon journey with a rough trail, a 125 year-old fly shop and a Kamloop Rainbow for the books...

Highway 28 running out of MinnesotaI have a lot of favorite lakes outside of Minnesota.  Bear Paw iup n Northern Ontario. Erie out East. Nelson over in North Dakota. Kasba up in the NW Territories.  Now, I add South Dakota's Roy Lake to my list.  Roy Lake has, in just a couple of fishing seasons, become one of my favorite fishing holes;  Not because it's the most popular or best known, but because it fishes like few lakes I visit.  Oh, and there's never anyone around when I fish it.   As you head west out of Minnesota and into South Dakota on Highway 28 you can't help but notice the tower up on the bluff.  Fishing buddy Brandon Murphy and I had to stop and The Nicollet Towerclimb the Nicollet Tower's ten stories to check out the three-state view.  We could certainly see where we were coming from and where we were headed.  About fifteen miles West to Lake City.  We pulled into Roy Lake Resort at Roy Lake State Park right about 5 p.m., just in time to catch the evening bite.  Owner Jan Thames was there to greet us. So, Launching the Triton Allurewe drop the Due North Outdoors Triton Allure in and we fish topwater baits on the glass-calm lake and the smallmouth bass, almost instantly, go Topwater Baitscrazy.  I mean we catch a pile of fish on a bunch of my favorite topwater baits, including Zara Spooks, Skitter Walks and Lucky Craft Sammy knock-offs (I can't afford the real thing!).   I even tied up this little Penfold's Shiraz Poppercritter after a buddy popped a bottle of red wine for dinner with our steaks.  On our second day, wind kicked up and we encountered some downright tough weather. Weather hits us! A cold front moved in and we delt with squall front after squall front.  Heavy wind pounded us all day and ever hour or two, we'd have to contend with a quick Shelter under a giant Cottowoodstorm blowing through.  Weather got so tough we had to ditch the boat behind a protective point and under a giant Cottonwood tree to dodge heavy, heavy rain.  The view after After the stormwas sure something to see! The weather put a damper on our topwater fishing, butBrandon with another big smallie we were still able to find fish using jigs and cranks.  Our second evening on the lake, Jan ordered us off before dinner time and over to the steak fry at Prairie Skies.  I have never experienced anything like it.  The recipie is Pitchfork Steakssimple enough;  A big vat of hot oil, a couple of full-sized pitch forks and a bunch of sirloin steaks.  Dip for a minute or two and The covered wagon kitchendinner served.  The Glacial Lakes region of South Dakota is a widely untapped resource and the fishing Bill and Cy with a rainy day smallmouthis absolutely top-notch.  Just don't be surprised if you have the lake to yourself. Trust me on that one...