Been Awhile...

When you don't see much from FWM.com it is usally because I have been a wee bit busy.  The fishing has been good on Lake Waconia, Lake Minnetonka, Lake Mille Lacs, as well as many other places I have visited.  Did a short stint at Lake of the Woods and Red Lake and caught a few gravel lizards for the frying pan.  

A visit to Las Vegas for ICAST 2013 was recently happened.  Now back in MN and getting in the swing of things.  This is a bass that recently fell vicitim to a big bite trick stick on Lake Waconia.  It came in around the 5lb mark.

Tomorrow I am off to Alaska to do some fishing with family and friends.  I will have many pictures and stories when I return.  Until then, get out and stretch the string.  Fish On!  

Smallmouth Smack Down

Fishing has been GREAT to say the least.  After traveling for a few weeks for some tournaments, I was glad to be home and back to guiding.  The last few days have been very memorable and took the bar up one more level.  

Yesterday I was joined by Dustin Byfuglien and Mark Parrish for a good ole fashion smallmouth beat down!  We managed to catch over 30 fish and many of them were over 4lbs and managed a few slobs that tips the scales at 5lb+.  Most of our fish came on a few presentations.  For the fish that were spawning we fooled them with a drop shot, for the pre spawn fish, we caught them on tubes and jerkbaits, the last bait of choice was a black marabou jig.

I will be back on the water tomorrow and will try to expand on all the above info and have much more to say and report.  Back to stretching the string and screaming Fish On!  

2012 Opener

Yes, I understand that we are in 2013 and we just had "opener", but this is a walk down memory lane.  Last year Travis a I were selected for the Governor's opener on Lake Waconia and I had the honor of fishing with LT Governor.  Here is a great re-cap and story by Travis.  The story starts at about the 10 minute mark.   

Open Water-Finally!

As winter finally lets go and the the ice leaves us for a short 6 months, the open water anticipation gets under way.  Many of you MN and WI anglers have just finished taking in "opening" weekends for your relative states, but some found it impossible to even launch in boat.  

Those of you that were trying to fish in the northern half of MN or have cabins up that way, found the water to still be hard.  It marks the first time in over 50 years that many of MN's best walleyes lakes were still ice covered on opening day.  Therefore, many folks opted to stay home or adjusted their plans accordingly.  

Myself on the other hand; I opted for the waters of Sturgeon Bay WI.  This is an area of the Green Bay arm of Lake Michigan that I have come to love.  After being introduced to this area last year, I can't ever imagine a spring without a trip to this amazing fishery.  Last week I caught smallmouth in excess of 6 nearly 7lbs and lots of fish in the 3-5lb range.  When I say lots; I mean like 30-50 a day.  It also has some great walleye fishing and I did manage to hook into a few nice eyes.  

 

When fishing smallmouth in clear water like I was last week I many times will opt for a G.Loomis GLX spinning rod paired with a Shimano Sustain 2500.  The line is just as important and there I go with 8lb power pro(braided) and I tie on a 5 foot 6 or 8lb fluorocarbon leader.  

Water temps out at the bay hovered in the 40-50 degree range depending on where I was fishing.  If you got back in a bay it would warm up a bit, but if the wind blew or you got out close to the lake, it was much closer to that 40 degree mark.  

I will be returning to Sturgeon Bay today to fish this week in the Sturgoen Bay Open.  Upon my return I will be hitting the MN waters hard, including Lake Waconia, Lake Minnetonka, and Lake Mille Lacs.  Until then, Fish On and get out and stretch the string!