Fish Catching Travel

Fish Catching Travel

Well my weather luck continues.  I have been waiting for this weather system to break so I can do some serious fishing.  So Tuesday Keller Bay was up.  I have not been to Keller in quite some time, but if I had thought the wind direction through a little better I would have gone somewhere else.

The wind was blowing some, surprise surprise, and it drizzled on and off that morning.  According to the radar it cleared some around noon, so I headed out.  When I got there the the wind was blowing straight down the bay.  There was huge thunder storm close, over Port Lavaca, and so I sat at the ramp for a half hour until I was sure I wouldn’t get fried.  I finally headed to the south end, near the back, over some grass flats.

Topwater got me nothing, plastics the same.  The only thing I could get a bite on was a Rage Shrimp on a popping cork.  Three came over the side in 3 foot of water, but that was it.  After giving up on that area I headed to one of my favorite spinnerbait banks at the mouth of the bay to catch a redfish.  After fishing the whole thing I had a total of 1 bite, and I think it was a flounder.

Next was the east bank along the pasture leading back to Olivia.  I drifted with the wind covering from 1 – 5 feet.  Again the only thing that produced any bites was the popping cork.  I caught 2 more trout on a long drift in an area where I usually catch them.  The storms continued to blow by, the wind was blowing harder, and I finally decided to call it a day.

The plan had been to wade as soon as I found some, but it was not to be.  Clearly it is a much better bite in the morning.  After 5 hours, and 5 small trout, I surrendered.  That will not happen in the morning.  Our storms are on the way out, and I plan on spending the day on the bay tomorrow.  Hopefully the results will improve dramatically.  Who knows, there will maybe some pictures to go along with it.

So you take the good with the bad.  I have had a good run this year, and it was bound to slow down with the summer doldrums.  But as I said before, I am not sure if the fish are in the doldrums or is it me?  Thanks for reading my stuff and keep stopping in, I am sure the quality of the reports will improve.

Good Luck and Tight Lines

Fish Catching Travel

Finally after 3 days of getting rained out it was back to POC.  Of course my luck in that department would not hold.  My trip got cut short on both ends.

I decided to launch out of Charlies.  When I got there it looked like a high dollar boat yard.  There were lots of nice boats everywhere, all waiting out a storm on the horizon.  You could see lightning off in the distance and most folks were playing it smart by waiting it out.  So I decided to head to Froggie’s instead, and when I got there I was surprised as there was only about 7 trucks in the lot, unusual for this time of year.  I did notice at the Community Center they were setting up for a tournament, which probably explains the bunch at Charlies.

I headed to Big Bayou and started with topwater.  By now it was almost 8:30, and the water had a slight tinge to it from recent rains.  The tide was way up, so I decided to see if I could get the reds to cooperate.  And they did.

This was the first guy, a nice fat 23″.

Over the next hour I caught 3 more on that Zara Spook Jr. in a bone color.  While I have thrown a few other topwaters, that has clearly been the best.  Get out at daylight and find some shallow grass near sandy bottom and you should be in business.  If you have docks, or cuts or drains, with grass around them, there are reds there right now.  Unfortunately the tide was high and the water was not falling yet.  If you can get a good falling tide after a high that puts the water in the grass, you can catch redfish as they pull out and cruise the grass edges.  But after messing with them a while I decided to try and catch a few trout.

Now, I had not had a bite from a trout on top, so a switch to plastics was in order.  With the water color as it was, I went with a Tsunami Swim Bait in chartreuse on 10lb line.  Now the trout fishing was not fast by any means, but it seemed the fish that hit that thing were nice ones.

The first of 6, all were nice keepers hopping and dropping a Tsunami.

I fished deeper banks, big flats with grass, and a couple of cuts leading from Big Bayou into Barroom.  No place was particularly better than others, and the fish came occasionally.  I guess I just do not have them patterned right now.  That sure happens when you do not fish all that much, something I am going to remedy this next week.

This bonus red while trout fishing made the picture cut because of 2 things.  One, he hit that thing like a ton of bricks and tried to jerk the rod out of my hands.  Two, just wanted you to see that Tsunami.

Unfortunately there was a big storm coming over the hill.  I waited a little bit, and then joined the mad dash to the ramp.  Boats were coming in from all over trying to beat that storm.

So for the day, it was barely 3 1/2 hours of fishing, but I got lucky considering and caught 5 reds and 6 trout.  I definitely do not have the trout down right now.  I do know that there are some pretty good strings coming right now off croaker and shrimp.  And I talked to a guy at the ramp and they did real well that morning on a variety of fish at the jetties.  And for you surf folks, when it is right they are really doing well.

Hopefully this week will bring calmer weather, though I am sure not complaining about the rain, we need it.  I plan on getting out 3 days this week even if it kills me.  So am wrapping up a few things today so I can get back in the game next week.

Thanks for stopping in and reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Fish Catching Travel

7/5/2012

With the holiday in full swing I decided to leave it to the braver ones of you who do not mind fighting the crowd.  I have seen tons of boats on the road, and the fishing reports I have heard are good, or not so good, just depends on who you are talking to.  But either way, I was going today no matter what.

Indianola and the Powderhorn was the today’s choice.  Often when the crowds are running over POC, the Powderhorn still has room to fish.  First off it was one of my favorite wading banks.  It is halfway back on the left, after the marsh.  There is a small oyster bar marked with a stake, and it usually holds a few trout, but not today.

I hopped over the side and even though I tried plastics, topwater, and popping cork, I did not have a bite, if you call a couple of gafftop on plastics to be a bite.  It was simply one of those times where my bank selection left something to be desired.  I fished from the bank out to over waist deep, and no luck.

So I headed up to the bar that runs along the boat lane.  I did manage to catch 2 little ones, but had far better luck on gafftop.  One thing about the Powderhorn this time of year, it is full of gafftop.  I can only imagine what it would be like if I live baited.  The water had started moving now, but basically it followed a high low, so it just crept up.

The real plan when I left the house was to spinnerbait for reds.  The wind was projected at 10 – 20 so it should be time to spinnerbait.  I started in the big pocket down from the dock and immediately caught one.  Then another, and ended up catching 3 in there on Strike King Redfish Magic with a black body.  I settled on the black body with a chartreuse tail due to how off colored the Powderhorn was.  I kept one of them, and decided to head to the very back on the right side, which was the windy off colored side.

 2 of the nice limit I caught today on spinnerbait.

 I started on the grass bank on the right leading to the very back end.  The wind moved the boat just right, and the fish cooperated.   There was no particular place, but once you got a bite you always got a couple.   I did not even make it all the way to the back before I quit.

I managed to put the rest of my limit, and 5 more got to live to fight another day.  All were on the Redfish Magic, basically staying a cast length off the bank, and just reeling the spinnerbait along at a moderate pace.  About half of the 10 I caught absolutely tried to jerk the rod out of my hands.

One thing to remember, redfish do not mind off colored water.  As long as it is not “muddy”, off colored water is perfect for the spinnerbait.  You can move it slow enough they can catch it if they want, it is easy to throw, and the vibration gives them something to hone in on.  All fish seem to have their own characteristic bite, and the thump as a redfish whacks a spinnerbait is one of my favorite.

 Checking it once, checking it twice….gonna find out who’s naughty or nice!

When I quit about 2:20 the Game and Fish guy was doing his creel survey.  Those surveys are important to us, so before you look at it as a chore, look at it from your own self interest.  The creel surveys tell the Game and Fish a ton of information that will go into the future decision making process, so it is important for all of us to participate.  And this gentleman was a real nice guy.  He did report only checking one person with fish, and he had 2 reds and 2 trout.  My fish measured 22″, 23″, and 24″.  Not a bad limit, but I will let you know after some of them hit the grill tomorrow night.

Coleto Creek  – last Sunday.

I did manage to hit Coleto for a quick evening trip, and it was so-so.  Though I ended up catching 12, 8 on buzzbait and 4 on Rage Craw, there were no big fish.  They are in the grass, and it is starting to make some major mats.  So time to throw the frog.  As soon as that grass makes big mats with holes and slots, throw the frog.  So as soon as the weather gives us a cloudy day  I will be giving that a go.  No matter what I have to change tactics.  So stay tuned.

Random Notes 

My brother, alias shoe dog, had a couple of interesting things happen the last couple of weeks.  The first fish he caught on his new Carrot Stick was a muskie, on a jig and frog fishing for smallmouth.  The next fish he caught was a founder at POC.  There are very few people in this world who can say the first fish I caught with that rod was a muskie and the next one was a flounder.  What are the odds?

Additionally in almost 50 years of fishing he had never caught 2 fish at once on the same lure.  Well he did it, twice.  First was 2 bass, the next time, 2 perch, all on a crankbait.  If he keeps up that rate who knows what could be next.

I am starting to get excited about Africa.  we are staying way out in the bush, and will go on 4 game drives, should be awesome. Still not sure what kind of fish I will get to catch, but found a marina with guides in the town we are doing the mission in, and it looks like a half day for the bay will be $100.  Sounds like a deal to me.  And of course I may be offshore for tuna, but the last report I got from my son-in-law’s uncle in Cape Town was that they had not had the big boat offshore in months.  He said the tuna are not there right now, so we will see.  Though a big tuna is on the bucket list, I did manage to scratch the muskie off last month, so I guess I should not be greedy.  If I finish my fish bucket list this month what does that mean?  Either get a new bucket list, or kick the bucket.  Guess I will start working on that new list.

It seems like I have been kinda quiet lately, but there has just been lots going on.  But I am back to fishing, so the reports will keep on coming.  So thanks for reading my stuff, I appreciate it.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Fish Catching Travel

For some reason, the last 2 weeks I have only hit the water 1 time.  Jet lag from Canada, a trip to Padre Island, the eye doctor, and on and on.   My brother Jeff, alias Shoe Dog, decided to come down for the day, so off to POC we went.

We got there at daylight and there were already a bunch of trailers at Froggies.  We put in and headed down the inter-coastal to Army Cut.  The tide was very high, a great time for the cut.  Topwater was up first, and  not only did the cooperate right of the bat, we caught trout on top until about 11:oo.  It was not fast and furious, but steady.

Basically it came down to grass.  We mad several passes in the cut and then started down the inter coastal.  We kept the boat in 3 foot of water and made lots of parallel casts.  We managed about 25 anyway, and missed at least that many.  The Spook Jr. in bone was easily the most productive.  We did not work it fast, just walking it along at a good steady clip.  Several more came on a whte Strike King Rage Shrimp under a popping cork, a few others on red pearl paddle tails.

It seemed the high water had the fish positioned on the grass patches.  Many of the fish in the barge canal came from isolated patches of grass, or an irregular feature on the patch.   All total we kept 7 that measured, with a 19″ best.  Quite a few of them just made it, but I have a fear of ice shrinkage, so they either make it on both ends or they get to swim off.

We only had about another couple of hours left, so we went to Big Bayou to topwater fish, and try and catch a flounder.  Other than one good blow up from a big  red, they were definitely off that topwater by noon.  We caught a few small trout here and there on plastics, but it was definitely time to give the flounder at try.

Right now there are flounders on docks, especially those with deeper water. The best time for me to catch them is when the water is on a nice steady falling tide.  If the bank has grass on it with deeper water, and soft bottom, there is a good chance there is a flounder on it.  It seems the flounder like to position themselves along an edge where the tide pulls dinner out of the grass.  And of course the dock is a food magnet, so when combined with grass banks and deeper water you have a perfect set of conditions.

We caught 3 on plastics, and missed several others.  They are probably one of the harder fish to catch on plastics.  By far paddle tails have been the best for me.  Being a little more compact, when you hop it up it falls fairly straight back down, giving them a chance to inhale it.  Those you feel a real thump, the rest just get on, and I miss lots of them.   A real founder fisherman should be able to whack them right now.

When we quit at 2, the best we could tell we caught about 25 or so total, with 7 trout and 2 flounder in the box.  Not a bad morning.  The last 2 times I have gone the fish have hit topwater pretty consistently, and I look forward to keeping after them.

So back to a regular fishing schedule.  This is my favorite time to fish the bay and I love the warm weather.  The heat comes with it, so be sure to keep yourself hydrated.  Add a buff and plenty of sunscreen, and you are good to go.  I appreciate all of you who read my stuff.  I will try to be a little more regular with posts, and plan to do several how-to stories with videos.  So keep stopping in.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Here is a bunch from my brother’s camera and Clyde Burchard.  At least Clyde had the good sense to take a couple of pictures of something besides fish, I guess I was just to excited.

My buddy John Bauer from Mt. Home AR and the good old Panther Bay Marina days.  This nice walleye and pike ended up being the first fish fry.

Clyde Burchard, one of our oldest friends.  His 20 years of experience cut the learning curve in half easy.  But how he covered all that water without a GPS I will never know.  Go Hogs!

Clyde with a big pike.

John with one of his better pike, though we all caught a bunch of these, and boy are they fun!

Ahhhhh….I made it!  Now what?

 Coming into the dock at Muskie Bay Resort –  what an awesome place to fish.

 Talk about awesome.  Jeff fixed Nebraska killed, corn fed, medium rare venison loin!   We made pigs of ourselves.

These are Clyde’s pics.  A great time was had by all, and I am already thinking about how to do things better next year, if it could be any better!

Here are some of Jeff’s pics.  You may have seem some of them but there are sure fun to look at.

Jeff’s first good pike.

 A nice brownie.  The cold fronts slowed them some, but we did catch them off and on during the week.

One of my better pike for the week.  Hit like a freight train and fight like the devil.  If you are a spinnerbait fisherman this is for you.

An awesome bird.  There lonesome call in the early morning said all outdoors. 

 Jeff’s last big pike of the trip.

So there you have it.  This was truly a great fish catching travel expedition.  If you love to fish, and to actually catch fish, this is a trip you need to take at some point in your life.  It is a long way to go, especially if you are towing the boat.  But having all our tackle sure helped out.  So if you want to read more with some helpful sites just click on the Fish Catching Travel section on the header above and read about Muskie Bay Resort.

Now back to real life.  I am at Padre Island near Brownsville today, spending some quality time with the wife.  I hit the surf this morning, but was actually a little late as the tide started pounding in.  Looks like the weather in the eastern Gulf has things rolling.  There are red flags up on the beach.  I did manage to catch a few lady fish under the birds, but should have been out earlier.

As soon as I get back it will be several days of bay fishing.  So stay tuned for more.  Thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Fish Catching Travel

June 15, 2012

A Dream Realized!

Today made my trip, in fact it made my bucket list one fish from complete.  And it was awesome.

First we hunted and pecked various coves catching pike.  We had no muskie sightings, and no other fish than pike.  We met the other boat and off we went.  We headed back up to the reef where we caught the nice walleyes for another run at them.  We managed some nice pike, but no walleye.

The wind at this point was really howling and it was raining on and off.  So we decided to get back to casting.  If you will remember I said in the caption of the walleye picture to look at the cove in the background, that is where we headed.

The cove was really a slot between 2 islands, which had a reef in the middle of the slot.  The wind was pounding on it, with water lapping into the side we started on.  It was calm in the back, though the wind was pounding.

There was a small tree laying down and I buzzed a in-line spinner over the top and a really nice pike smoked it.  Great hit and a really good fish.  As we got to the back of the cove there was about 4 foot of water.  A couple times during the week we saw big crawdads, with lots of red.  I had trolled a Strike King Red Eye Shad for just a little while, but I could not keep the pike off when we were chasing walleye.

So I picked up the Red Eye Shad and slow rolled it out of the back, and like a dream, a big muskie followed it  to the boat.  Then she opened her mouth, and with 2 foot of 12lb line out, she ate.  I could almost not believe my eyes.  What followed was mayhem.  Spinning the boat, not letting her break or cut the line, but still keeping pressure on, and then the net job.  It went as well as a cluster can!

Jeff did a great job and slid her right in the net.  And then of all things she thrashed, spit the bait, and stuck her nose through a hole.  She was headed out in a big way and  I just leaned over, reached in her gill plates and grabbed her, hung on for dear life, and in the boat she came.  A lifelong dream realized.  Now I had caught 3 muskies during the week, but this is the girl I caught a hundred times in my mind over the years.

 Look at the muskie in the picture in the article below, they were about the same length.  But this girl was thick from top to bottom and head to tail!

This is what happens when you leave the first aid kit in the cabin and a muskie tears you up.  Toilet paper and electrical tape, only duct tape would have been better.  Real antiseptic wouldn’t you say?

 We kept going, and in the very next cove with the exact set of circumstances, I buzzed a Strike King spinnerbait from the back end and one maybe a little bit bigger than the one above came for it like a freight train.   She opened her mouth wide and I jerked just a split second to soon, my fault.  But I had a good week, and made few mistakes with good fish on, so I was entitled.

The one thing about the trip that I wish I had done better was filming some.  First the Internet went out and stayed out, then I could not get my batteries charged, the fish were biting, and I did very little filming. Oh well, I promise to do better next trip.  And what little I did was never at the right time.  So here is some I do I have.  It was pike fishing with a buzzbait.

If you could reel a spinnerbait or a buzzbait you could catch pike.  So what a good time.  If you ever wanted to take a trip where you catch fish, and lots of them, this is the place.  Lake of the Woods, Crow Lake, and Muskie Bay Resort are the real deal.  Be sure to drop in for one more installment of Canada.  And I have some pictures from Jeff and Clyde and will put them on.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Fish Catching Travel

Crow Lake and Lake of the Woods

The plan for Wednesday was to catch a Lake Trout, something Jeff has done, but I had never done.  It was one of my goals for the trip.  I was surprised when Jeff was up before me, so we slid out and did a little fishing waiting for John and Clyde.  We fished the cove where Muskie Bay is, and Jeff managed to catch a small muskie, our 5th, on a buzzbait, and I caught a nice pike on a spinnerbait.

About 8 we figured the guys were up, so we headed to the cabin.  Clyde had been at the office talking to Paul, the owner, about catching a trout.  Paul is the local expert on Lake Trout, and catches them year round.  A portion of his business, Muskie Bay is open year round, is ice fishing for Lakers.  And when you see some of the pictures on the wall, Paul obviously knows how to get it done.

He was kind enough to direct us to not only the basics, 65 foot deep, but to put us on the specific place.  And then he actually gave us 3 lures to use.  They were Sebile jigging baits, reminded me of the Old Gay Blades or a Sonar.  So off on a long run to the Blackey Bay area.

When we got there we idled around looking for bait and fish.  Paul said look for “Christmas trees” of bait on your graph.  We putted around in 80 to 60 foot looking for bait and fish and finally found an area with lots of both.  Jeff caught a small one and then about 10 minutes later caught this one..

8’13” of beautiful Lake Trout out of 65′ of water.

The wind was up, and it was making it a little hard to deep jig, so we slid across the way to another bank out of the wind, idled around, saw some more bait and fish, and bang, I had my first Lake Trout.  As it was a goal for the trip, I have never caught one, it was cool.

8’15” of tasty table fare, my wife and I ate one filet off her last night.

We ended up fishing about another hour for trout.  I know I missed another couple, and Jeff caught another small one.  One thing I learned, next time it will be 8lb flurocarbon line, as Jeff had lighter line he definitely got more hits.  And one thing to know if you ever think about going, Lake Trout spawn in the fall, and Paul says that is a great time to be there.

It was after noon now so we decided to fish that area for awhile, but we kept a sharp eye on the 2 trout in the well.  Trout of all kinds, in all places, need to be either alive when cleaned or on ice immediately.  Those 2 guys were swimming happily in the well so we fished a little.

The only thing of import that happened before we headed back to the resort to clean fish was we did raise a big muskie in the middle of the day.   He followed Jeff’s buzzbait to the boat and he attempted to figure 8 him without any luck.  I was throwing a jerk bait so I stuck the rod in the water and called her back up.  She followed it for a while, then lost interest.  After catching the first 2 by using the figure 8, I thought it was a slam dunk.  Now I will probably never get another on that way.  Clyde said he has been going there for over 20 years and has not caught one that way yet.

About 2 we decided to head back to the resort and clean them while they were still alive and kicking.  After getting that done, it was off to Vic and Dot’s, the resort we put in at on Lake of the Woods, to give the grass beds a try.  It was trying to storm, like it did every day we were there, so we sat at the ramp a while waiting for it to settle down enough to fish, which it did.

We started right past the ramp in a flooded grass field and for the next 2 hours caught pike on buzzbait.  The fun thing about today was they wanted it fast, real fast, and they would absolutely smash it.  We found a few in the grass, but ost were in the open water on the edges.  I managed to get the best bite of the trip.  Even though it was only about 8lbs. he literally exploded on it.  What a bite.

So after being on the water for 14 hours we called it a day.

Hook Out.

I promised you the video of me taking the hook out of Clyde’s finger.  Folks this method works.  The hook pops out like a rocket.

Here is the short video of me taking that hook out of Clyde’s finger.  What is not clear from the video is exactly how you do it.  So what you do is make a loop out of line, place it on the bend of the hook, and then press down on the eye of the hook with your thumb.  As you press down on the eye, and slightly toward the hole, it stretches the skin, and out it pops  out when you jerk sharply on the loop.  Now how well it works on huge hooks I do not know, but as you can see it popped right out.  It was awesome, and saved a trip to the ER.  Just be sure you have something to clean it up with and then cover to prevent infection.  Your fishcatchingtravel tip of the day.

So again thanks for stopping by.  Tomorrow’s post will include my biggest fish of the trip.  It was an epic struggle and fulfilled one of my bucket list fish.  So keep slinging.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

Wasn’t sure when Jeff caught this one, but we probably caught about 50 of this size during the week.

Fish Catching Travel

Let me start here with some comments on Lake of the Woods.  First, we were at Muskie Bay, a resort on Crow Lake, which is just a 3 mile tow to the ramp at Lake of the Woods.  Crow Lake is a deep lake, noted for it’s muskies and lake trout.  In fact with the muskie openor starting Saturday, Paul tells us that there will be over 200 muskies boated out of his resort just next week. We fished it Wednesday, and will cover it tomorrow.  But for 4 days we fished Lake of the Woods.

With over 65,000 miles of shoreline, and 14,500 islands, it can be a daunting place.  I have fished many places, but this is the biggest mother around.  You head a mile from the ramp and you are out there, and when you turn around it all looks the same.  A GPS and a good map are absolutely necessary.

And along with the islands, there are reefs, rock hard granite reefs, that will eat a lower unit in a heart beat.  In fact, one of the rental boats where we stayed sheared one off while we were there.   They are everywhere, and caution is a must.  But in our case we had Clyde, who over 20 years has learned this massive monster with just a map in hand.  We had a high dollar GPS with the mapping, and it was indispensable.  It had a main passage line that allowed us to get around, and then an easy idle to the areas we wanted to fish.

And the contours on the map allowed us to finally narrow down those places that were the best.  What we learned in the week was a drop in the bucket.  But I wanted to say, if you ever wanted to take the trip of a lifetime, this is the place.

After I cover the rest of the trip, 3 more days after this report, I will blog one more how-to of things you need to know if you visit.  I have been lots of places I wanted, and did, return to, but this is one that I will fish again and again until I kick the  bucket.  It is just that awesome.

And unfortunately the internet went down, and they were unable to restore it.  Sort of took the fun out of my expectation of blogging every day, but oh well.  Better late then never.  So sorry I have not posted much, I will get caught up.  But after 10 million casts with heavier tackle, and a 30 hour straight drive, it has taken this old body a couple of days to catch up.

Tuesday

Today we made a decision to fish for pike awhile, and then head quite a ways up the lake and fish a couple of reefs we had not fished yet.  So today would be a combo day, some pike fishing, and then some trolling.

As we headed up a different arm of the lake this time, we split off and set a 11:00 meet time.  The day was already wet and blowing, and there was a 20 degree temp drop from the day before, our third cold front in less than 4 days.

As we idled to some islands, I noticed a log sticking up in the middle of a pass between 2 islands.  In Lake of the Woods, it is all a pass between 2 islands.  So we headed in there and did not have a bite until it flattened out to about 2 foot when you got out the back side.  With the cold front the last thing I thought would happen, did.  A really big, a hoss of a muskie, followed it from really shallow water.  He was no more interested in eating than the man in the moon.  But what a sight, a fish big enough to eat your dog sitting by the boat.  Wow!

We caught a few pike until it was time to meet, but nothing worth mentioning.  Basically all week we alternated between a spinnerbait, buzzbait, jerkbait, and rattle trap style baits.  So at 11:00 we headed to meet Clyde and John, and off to the big reef we went.

This reef was about as big as a house with deep water on one side and an island on the other.  We started trolling Shad Raps and crankbaits and Jeff ended up losing 2 big fish right off the bat.  It was tough on him as both were big.  I notice that since we were in about 10 foof when they bit, and we were getting hung up some, it was time to switch to a Rattle Trap.  And the next three you see here were my next 3 bites!

This was a big pike I caught trolling.  Notice the cove in the back ground, more on that with Thursday’s report.

This was my first, and biggest walleye of the trip, a couple ounces shy of 7 pounds.   He came back with us from Canada and will soon make an awesome meal.

This was the second walleye off that reef, he weighed 5 pounds.

We trolled for quite a while but had no more bites.  As we had a big run across open water, and the wind was howling, we decided to leave about 2 and fish our way back.

The next pattern we tried was coves, out of the wind, with the sun on them.  Of course right after we made the long rough run the wind laid and the sun came out.  We tried several of that kind of cove, but were not having the kind of luck we were looking for.  But do not get me wrong, a long period even when it is slow is maybe 15 minutes without a bite.  Those pike are everywhere.

Then we were in the back of a shallow pocket with logs laying down when I saw a muskie following my jerk bait.  I did the figure 8 at boat side and just like on TV he rolled up and ate it.  When that happens, it is like it is in slow motion, almost a dream.  So she ate, and I did it all right, and after a cool fight in the net she went.  Not a really big one by their standards, but for me, they were getting bigger.  And as we could not legally target them as the season was opening the next week, we were happy with any muskie.  And of course, as it is on my bucket list, I was thrilled.

This muskie followed a gold jerk bait out of a log, and when he came to the boat I used the figure 8 with my rod and he smashed it with about a foot of line out.  This was my third of the week and the only one that jumped.  It was awesome. 

 The last area we fished was full of pike.  None were giants, but we caught a ton of them on buzzbait and spinnerbait.  We finished out the day catching them until we quit.

Tomorrow the plan is to catch a Lake Trout.  I have never caught one, so we will be fishing on Crow Lake out of the resort.  So we will see how that goes.

Stop in next time for Day 5 of the great Canada trip.  The fishing has been good, and we are having a good time.  Hopefully there is some big fish in our future.  So thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.

First let me apologize.  I was so excited to post every day from Canada, and then of course the biggest possible screw up happened.  The weather was stormy all week, and Tuesday afternoon there was a whooper, big lightning, winds, the whole thing.  And what did it do, it knocked out the Internet at Musky Bay, and it was not on the rest of the week.  Folks you realize when you are there it is not one of those, we will send a crew right out and fix it.  And if your Internet, or anything else, is not fixed within a couple of hours, you are really bitchin’.  This is the middle of the woods, and nothing happens at a pace we are all used to.

So after driving 30 hours straight, and getting home Sunday, here I am.  I have some pressing errands to do and then I am going to sit down and post pictures, a few small videos, and fill you in on the week.  All I can say is, when can I go back.  It was fun.  So if you read this, I will be posting for the next 4 days in a row as if they happened that day.

So stop in tonight for some nice fish, and read some fish stories.  All I have to say is Canada rocks.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.