Nick's Christmas Present

Christmas Eve and Chritsmas Day are always a couple of my favorite days to ice fish.  It is a great time of year and the lake is usually rather quiet.  In return for all my hard work and time the fish gods usually reward me with a few nice fish over the 2 days. 

Well this year was no exception.  After leaving the fish house to race back to my mom and dads for Christmas Eve dinner Nick hooked into a walleye on a rattle reel at about 9 p.m.  Little did he know he had hooked an early Christmas gift, because on the end of that line was a 12 pound walleye measuring 31 1/2" by 19 1/2".  This fish was a absolute giant.  Lets just say it made his Christmas and Winter!  

It was so big I had to take a couple pictures with it.  So here it is at another angle. 

Nick kept this fish to put it on his wall.  I always recommend catch and release and would like people to consider getting a replica.  Being that Nick was alone at the time he caught it and had no camera he decided he wanted to keep it to mount the fish for lasting memories of Christmas Eve 08! 

From 80 To 0!

Curty of Curt-a-Sea charters in the Florida Keys (80 degrees) arrived yesterday and came straight to the lake (0 degrees) to get in on some holiday ice season walleye action.  I am thinking the fish gods were in a giving mood with the holidays, because the action was hot.  We had numerous eaters and a few big fish get off all before he had to leave at 9.  Both the jig bite and the rattle reel bite was good for once.  

I also had another guest for the evening and that was my long time friend Tony.  Tony was in town for the holidays and took advantage of some free time from the kids and wife to catch a few fish as well. 

So back to something I mentioned earlier.  We lost some really nice fish last night.  I am not sure what was going on but I have never had this many things go wrong.  I pride myself on the fact that I don't lose fish and if I do I work that much harder to never let it happen again.  Last night even 3 pros like us couldn't keep from losing a few eaters and giants.  Tony started it off with a giant fish while he was jigging.  It just came un-buttoned after a bit of a battle.  Then I followed suit while I was jigging.  Then the rattle reel, get a giant to the bottom of the hole and "boom" there goes the jig into the ceiling of the fish house.  Then again on a rattle reel and this time it just gives a few extra head pumps before we get him in the hole and "bam" the line breaks.  I will be back at it tonight and hope to have some better execution.  Merry Christmas to all!  Hopefully I will be reporting back tomorrow with my 10 plus pound walleye present that I catch tonight.         

Chuck You Da Man

Chuck, Smelly (Paul), Joe, and I were back on Lake Minnetonka this afternoon to watch a pathetic Vikings game and chase the gravel lizards (walleyes).  The Vikings might have disappointed us but the walleye action did not.  Chuck and I were in charge of the catching.  Joe and Smelly did not contribute to our effort but did enjoy the laughs and cheered Chuck and I on.  Here Chuck is posing with our biggest fish of the night and it came in at 25".  I caught this one on a fathead on a rattle reel.

   

These were the 3 eaters that we managed to jig up.  We caught all these fish after dark on jigging spoon.

The weather was stable the past 24 hours...cold and windy.  The stability turned lookers into eaters tonight.  What a difference one day or the weather can have on your results.  

I will be at it all week so stay tuned right here for updates.  If you are looking to get into a fish house for the holidays or have anyone to entertain please contact me.  I am doing fish house rentals aside from my guide trips.  So if you have company coming in for the holidays you should consider showing them MN's best winter past time!  Call me or email me for dates and rates.     

Frostbite

I took Scott and Ted out for an (adventure) evening of walleye fishing on Minnetonka.  By the time the 3 of us arrived at the fish house I think we all had frostbite!     

For those of you that have fished with me or know me I am usually always optimistic and expecting great things every time I hit the water.  Well Saturday night was no different except it was -7 and blowing 25-35 mph with 6 inches of fresh snow on the lake.  Full blizzard conditions.  Anyone with a few brains knew to stay in...not me.  You would think that would put a damper on my high hopes...it didn't.  I expected great things and didn't get it, I was let down.  We caught one eater walleye and marked a few others we didn't get to bite.  At one point I even asked myself, "is it the change in pressure and the weather that shut them down?"  It must be...Only thing I could blame the bad bite on.  That's my story and I am sticking to it.  Or is Teddy just bad luck?  Scott what do you think?  I mean seriously he is so aggresive he doesn't even need a Vexilar to jig!?