Don't Get Busted...

      playin' hooky to go fishing.

 

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day liquid dish soap in honeysuckle scent is the best thing I have found for removing that fishy smell from a days worth of c&r or fish filleting. Available at your local Targe'.

cheers and hooksets!

Leech Lake's Deadliest Catch

If you are headed out for a days fishing, do yourself and the lake a favor and drop a few minnow traps loaded with some fresh cut sucker on a 6'-10' flat with scattered weed growth and pick up  your pots on the way in in the evening. Make sure that you have some lemons, baby red potatoes, an onion, garlic, corn on the cobb, Old Bay seasoning and some pale ale and you will figure the rest out. Rusty crayfish are an invasive and delicious species so do the right thing people!

 

cheers and hooksets!

 

 

MN-Dak Cat Safari

The Red River Of The North is a world class cat fishery to be sure. Great channel cat fishing can be had from Fargo north and the further north the bigger the fish. Me and  mi esposa recently made a quick recon to the Drayton ND area. Though we didn't hook the giants we were after on this trip, the remoteness and average size of the cats left us wanting more.

 

 

 

 

cheers and hooksets!

 

 

The Fish Of 10,000 Casts

 9998...9999...YAHTZEE!

This year has been really slow to get started in the muskie fishing word. After a late ice out, very few follows and hookup opportunities have presented themselves. Water temps are back down around the 70 degree mark on Leech lake and surrounding waters but an increase of just five degrees could turn on the light switch and put the great esox in to search and destroy mode. This warmer-upper fish fell to a down sized crankbait worked through 15 f.o.w.

cheers and hooksets!

Shorts Check!

Bring-Yo-Bling For Leech Lake Walleyes

What do shallow woman and leech lake walleyes have in common?

They both LOVE shiny things.

With the lake full of forage options right now, get a walleyes attention with flash and bling.

Here are some of my best patterns from the past few weeks. Mostly silver combos with a little gold here and there. 1.7-2 mph is a good speed to start out at right now. I use planer boards for fish shallower then 20' or when fishing multiple lines. For breaklines, try sending a shallow diver behind a planer board up-top and run a deeper model straight behind, keeping the boat in 15-25 f.o.w. Run Husky Jerks or Bomber Long A's with a short lead (40'-60') behind the board when fishing over weeds.

 
                                                                cheers and hooksets!

MN River-Fancaster's First Flathead

I was south of the 218 this week and decided to wet a line for a flattie on the MN river. I located some nice water with rafts of timber on an outside corner bend on Google Earth before hand. I was fishing from shore so access is also a major consideration in this type of planning. A 9" Sucker on a 8/0 hook did the trick. The 30 second video that my p&s camera took captured the best part.

 

I had several other fish run line off of the reel with the bait clicker sounding like my boyhood playing card in the bicycle spoke routine but they were only brief encounters. I hope to try it again sometime soon.

cheers and hooksets!