FISH ON

Home from my first big Red Lake trip with lots of good stories and some elusive Red Lake SLABS.  My good friend Theo hired me for the weekend to show some friends of his a Red Lake trip to remember.  DJ, Todd, and Jim arrived on Friday morning after their seven hour tour trying to find Upper Red lake and using all of their On Star minutes, visiting the not so friendly town of Red Lake, and a small spat with Red Bull.  Hey guys, I told you Red Lake - not (vodka) Red Bull. 

Once they finally arrived at camp Theo and I proceeded to show them what FISH-ON means, and boy did we catch some fish on Friday.  After they were all settled in with some lines down we played a few games of Hold'em and all they did was take my money.  They weren't kidding when they said the rich get richer  (DJ).   Friday night was pretty low key with Jim trying to heave and ho DJ's truck across the lake.  Up early on Saturday, the boys wanted to catch a little breakfast at West Winds.  I had already told them numerous times it was too early and they would be closed.  Well, guess what? They were closed.  So instead, with some quick goat thinking, I cleaned up some fresh crappies and fried them up.  I couldn't have done it with out the 104 oz's of Bubba love.  With a good base and some more fish to be caught, everyone got real serious for about two or three hours, and once again they were ready to go to West Winds and eat.   We had an early exit due to the smart mouth of Theo's brother Phil.  Everyone accomplished what they came for (a good time).

After DJ, Phil, Mark, Andy, and Jim bedded down for the evening Theo, Todd, and I stayed up telling Bubba keg stories until we couldn't take it any longer.  And trust me, even Bubba had had enough at this time of night.   With one of my strongest performances out of the way, I could focus on catching more Red Lake slabs.  Sunday morning we got up and made the decision to clean up and try to get an early start on the drive home.  We finished the trip with some where in the neighborhood of 35-40 Red Lake slabs. 

We were also very successfull at catching lots of nice walleyes that we had to send back down the hole for one more winter.  The walleyes will bite anything and everything.  A few of the walleyes weren't so nice, as you can see in this picture.  This will go down as my all time smallest walleye that I have ever caught.  I actually caught it on a Northland forage minnow jigging with a full minnow on it.  Thanks for the great times and trip, fellas.  I can't wait till we can do it again.  Until then FISH-ON and tight lines. 

Matt

Mille Lacs with the crew 1/07/06

Just had a great time with Mike, Sonja, Seth, Destiny, and Travis up at Mille Lacs over the weekend.  We arrived on Friday and got set up a little late for the evening bite, but we made the most of it.  We fished until about 9 p.m. and then Seth, Destiny, Travis, and myself headed for Bayview to take part in the evenings festivites.  Once arriving we met up with Dave Bently (a.k.a. Mr. Mille Lacs) for  a few cold ones and cocktails.  Needless to say we had a great time, a bunch of cocktails, and played some pool.  We then headed back to the fish houses for some after bar activites, one of which was fishing, and the other was to climb Spirit Island.  We accomplished both.

Fishing was a little slow but we managed to catch three fish over 24" and some slot fish.  Pictures of us on the island are to come but for now check out some of these Mille Lacs dandies. 

Yes, that is Travis Frank with the BBJP.      

Last night's beauties!

All it took was a change in weather and Waconia decided to cough up some real nice walleye last night.  From 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. (when I ran out of bait) I caught eight walleye.  It felt like every fifteen minutes - and there were some real nice ones in the bunch.  I released a 14", 15", 15 1/2", 24", 26" (pictured below), 26 3/4", and a 27" (pictured left).  Had numerous other nice fish on and was not able to land them all.   

If you are looking to get in on some of this action feel free to call and set up your own personal guide trip today.  The ice conditions are improving and should allow for more good nights of action. 

I kept a couple for the frying pan - only a 19" and a 21".  What a night!  This one will be remembered forever as one of my best nights of walleye fishing.   

This ice stinks...

A not so good time was had last night on Waconia.  As you can see the ice conditions were a little suspect.  My brother from Switzerland and his two kids got to experience a rough evening on Lake Waconia.  The fishing was no better then the ice conditions.  We ended up with one lousy perch.  I would proceed with caution on all lakes at this point. 

Thanks to the help of Travis Frank  and Dusty Gesinger we were able to get it out of Lake Waconia.