Freshwater Gold

A long anticipated season is upon us and to many anglers here in the upper midwest it is their favorite time of year to fish-ice fishing season!  Since much of our weather has been above average the last few weeks I had to travel a few miles in search of safe fishable ice and my share of the "gold rush"!  Not like me; as most of you know I am usually the first guy out on Lake Waconia and Lake Minnetonka fishing and checking ice conditions.  This freshwater gold known as walleye have been known to take me over this time of year, there are only so many days I can attempt to get in on my share of the "gold rush"!  I don't like to miss many days this time of year.   

This time around I opted to "for go" that since early last week Lake Minnetonka was still open in areas and I headed north to Red Lake, Lake of the Woods, and made a guest appearance at Leech before returning home.  It seemed like I could do no wrong and managed to catch great fish at every stop along the way.  The ice conditions on all the lakes were great for 4 wheeler and wheel shack which made for a fun few nights of rattle reels going off.  Now that the weather is starting to show signs of cooler conditions I fully expect to be guiding Mille Lacs in the next few days with Minnetonka to follow shortly there after.  I will have ice reports from Mille Lacs, Lake Waconia, and Lake Minnetonka in coming days.  I will also have a fishing report; but if the way this season has started off is any sign of what is to come-things are looking good!

All the fish I caught fell victim to either a jigging shad rap or a bobber/set line with a shiner on a #2 gamakatsu octupus hook.  Colored hooks worked great.  

As many of you know I spend endless hours on early ice in pursuit of big walleye's aka freshwater gold.  I feel there is no better time than right now to be on the ice somewhere trying to get your share of the "gold rush"!  Stay tuned as I will have both fishing reports and ice reports in the coming days.  As my friend Travis once told me, "Get your rod and fish!".