Fishing in Minnesota

On Taking Up Fly Fishing

As some of you may know, I'm an avid angler. I love fishing for largemouth bass, northern pike, panfish, walleyes, and assorted rough fish. I'm also a solid devotee of the spinning reel, and have used them exclusively for many many years, with considerable success and pleasant recreation.

So, after my recent 65th birthday, with my Mills Fleet Farm gift cards in hand and despite having plenty (more than plenty) of fishing tackle already in my arsenal, I visited the store and was browsing through the fishing tackle department.

"No," I thought, "I have plenty of those, and enough of that, and more than enough of those worthless things." I was just about to head for the men's clothing department and buy something practical, like a couple of pairs of new jeans, when something caught my right eye. Now, had it been my left eye, which is the dominant eye, I might have simply walked on, but occasionally my right eye leads me astray.

What was spotted by my right eye was a fly rod and reel, with a reduced price that seemed most attractive. Fly fishing, eh? Influenced by the right eye, I allowed myself to be sucked in by the promise of gracefully casting my line and using the most conservative form of fishing to land...well...who knows what? So, deceived by the promise of prestige and respect from other anglers, I found myself grasping this fly rod and reel. Of course, there were many other things I'd have to buy if I were going to take up this oh-so-old-fashioned method of angling. So, I bought fly line, leaders, an assortment of flies, and a few other oddments I had heard were part of this traditional, yet complex way of angling.

Doing a quick calculation in my brain (the left side, not the right, which has trouble with numbers and values for some reason), I discovered that I had reached, and even exceeded the value of the gift cards in my wallet. I would have to use some of my precious cash to fully participate in fly fishing, it seemed. I almost put the equipment back on the shelves and headed for the jeans, but, once again, my right eye got the better of me and I hauled all this gear to the cash register, where I parted with the gift cards, and some folding green.

I arrived home and showed my wife my dubious treasure, and she gave me the usual, "Oh Lord, not more fishing tackle" look -- a look with which I am more than a little familiar. I dismissed this lack of enthusiasm summarily and repaired to my "office." I assembled all my birthday loot, put line on the reel, tied a perfect nail knot (after about a dozen tries) to attach the leader to the line, and sorted my assorted flies. I would go the next day and master the art of fly fishing. I reviewed some useful information on the internet and dreamed of all the leaping smallmouth bass I would catch from the Mississippi River the next day.

Well, once again, the right side of my head was a wicked deceiver. I did get to the river this morning, tied a very pretty streamer fly to the leader, and set about to master casting with a fly rod. Not so fast! My first few attempts ended in having fly line and leader falling upon my head in a tangled heap. I tried again, and again, and finally managed to put about 25' of line, plus the leader, on the water. No bites, so I did as I had seen done on the many Youtube videos of fly casting the evening before, and smartly raised my rod to lift the line and all for a backcast, then duly waited, as I had been told to do, for the line to straighten out behind me, then smartly made the forward cast.

After I had pulled the hook in that streamer fly from the back of my right earlobe, staunched the bleeding, and partly recovered my dignity, I happened to glance up the river, only to see two gentlemen who were fishing with more sensible tackle laughing and pointing in my direction. I looked farther down the riverbank, but there was nothing laughable in that direction. I knew humiliation.

Eventually, I managed to make some decent casts, but never succeeded in having any of them intersect with a hungry smallmouth bass. Finally, after breaking off the streamer fly on a sunken branch, I decided that perhaps this fly fishing thing would have to wait for another time. I packed up and returned home, my head hanging low with the shame of it all. My wife, seeing my dejected face, wisely chose not to query me on my success.

I learned something, though, today: I must never let myself be deceived again by my right eye. It lies to me and tells me that things will be much better than they turn out to be in reality. A costly lesson, that diminished both my dignity and my wallet. Hereafter, I will trust my left eye...my dominant eye...my reliable eye. Perhaps I will donate my fly fishing tackle to some fishing club of old men who would die before touching a spinning reel. Perhaps...well...perhaps I'll just put a patch over my right eye to keep it from further deceiving me, and go in the direction of efficiency, productivity, and reason in my future angling. The left eye sees things more clearly, it seems.
8/6/10

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Rapala Flat Rap Review

Like everyone else, I suppose, I grabbed a couple of the new Rapala Flat Raps before fishing season. Both were in perch coloration, and I got an 08 and a 10 size.

This week, I put the 08 to the test at Bald Eagle lake. Very nice action, and it seems to run well just above the weeds, at about 2' down or less, depending on retrieve speed.

I even trolled it a while, over those same weeds, trying to stir up whatever was in there. I didn't test it as a jerk bait much, but it'll work well in that retrieve, too.

The action is dramatic, with lots of flash, even at very slow retrieve speeds. When you rest the lure, it slowly rises to the surface, then pops back down with a rod twitch or when you start retrieving again. It does a good job of imitating a tired or wounded small perch...a favorite prey of largemouths, northerns, and walleyes.

The lure generated lots of strikes, but has a problem in common with many other lures of this type. The 08 size uses small trebles. They're sharp, but too small, I think. I got hit by several largemouths, but all but two managed to throw the lure with headshakes. Larger trebles should fix this problem, but may have a bad effect on the lure's action. I'll change out the hooks and see what that does, but the current hooks are definitely too small for largemouths and northerns.

At almost $8 per unit, this is an expensive little crankbait, but looks like it will be very productive...if it can be successfully modified to produce better hook sets.

So, what I've done is to put on a pair of Size 8 VMC Sure Set trebles. 

I haven't fished this yet, but I've checked the action, and it's not affected to any measurable degree. The extended large gap hook on these trebles, as used on the Clackin' Rap, should produce better hook sets.
5/23/10

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Take Some Time in Spring to Look Around

Springtime in Minnesota is the season of clear water. If you're an angler that presents a real opportunity you won't get the rest of the year. So, grab your favorite pair of polarized sunglasses and spend some time looking at fish and underwater structure. You won't get another opportunity to actually see the fish where you'll be fishing until next year at this time.

Cruise very slowly through the weeds and rocky areas on your favorite lake, using your trolling motor and look down. If you're quiet, you'll discover that the fish aren't that frightened of your boat, and you'll be able to see fish and structure you didn't know was there.

I did a lot of this yesterday on Bald Eagle Lake, where the water was clearer than I've seen it for a long time. I could see the bottom at least 5' deep. So, I spent little time fishing and decided to go into all those areas where I'm usually casting, just to have a look. Besides, I normally fish for bass, and that season isn't open yet.

The lake weeds aren't fully grown yet, so I could see clearly what was in those shallows and weed beds where I usually fish. It was amazing! There were bass and northerns in there that were way bigger than most of the ones I usually catch. There were also thousands of panfish, which is probably why I'm not catching those big ones...they're eating the sunnies and crappies and perch they're swimming with. I even saw a muskie at least 50" long swim under my boat.

The real surprise was that the fish seemed pretty unconcerned about the NOTLUND GARCKY III passing over them. Even in places where the water was only 2' deep, they either stayed where they were or swam off slowly as I passed over. Any sharp noise from the boat, though, and they scattered, but returned quickly. Interesting information.

I also saw rocks where I didn't know there were rocks. New structure to fish later in the year. I even found, and retrieved, a nice mushroom anchor someone left on the bottom. Lots of rusty old lures on the bottom, too, but I have plenty of those, so I left 'em there.

Anyhow, the point of doing this is to explore the lake in a way you can't do later in the year, when it gets mucked up with algae and other stuff. I learned a whole bunch of stuff about the places I usually fish, and found a couple of new areas I'll be targeting later in the year. I made mental notes of all of this.

So, put your boat on the water right now and just explore. It's a treat to see all those fish, and you'll learn a heckuva lot about your favorite lake. Knowledge makes good anglers, and knowledge like this is worth more than a whole tackle box full of the latest offerings from the tackle makers.
5/19/10

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VHS Has Been Found in Lake Superior

Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia has been detected in fish in Lake Superior. This is not good news at all for anglers in Minnesota, and we can expect some harsh regulations coming down the road. It's a good time to remember the rules for boating and fishing to prevent the spread of the disease in other Minnesota waters. The University of Minnesota has put together a couple of good videos on the subject, and I'm going to post those videos below. All anglers need to see these and start practicing good preventive measures. If we don't, we'll be seeing even more restrictions on our sport soon. 

Thanks for cooperating with these prevention measures!

5/13/2010

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Thoughts on The 2010 Fishing Season

With the good weather moving in early this year, I got started almost a month ahead of time in my preparations for the 2010 fishing season. I rolled the boat over on its trailer, installed the outboard, trolling motor, and set up everything, then moved the trailer into the garage, so it will be ready when I am.

I made my annual trip to the Woodbury Gander Mountain to pick up the stuff I ruined last year and, maybe, a new thing or two. As I was browsing the shelves there, grabbing some new circle hooks for catfishing, and other cheap and necessary items, I was struck by the enormous variety of fish-catching paraphernalia available and the thinness of my wallet. Oh, I did pick up a #5 Flat Rap in perch color, and replaced the Booyah Mini-Shad the muskie ruined last year in its surprise attack. The Flat Rap is new this year, and I bought it in honor of Mark Fisher, whose voice I will sorely miss on Sunday evenings. 

But, I left the rest of the shiny stuff in the store. I don't need it, given my dedication to fishing the simple way. I already have three dozen or so lures in my tackle bag that I haven't used yet. They caught me at one point or another while I was on another trip to Gander Mountain or Mills Fleet Farm. Some came from the Sale bins, where they were because nobody bought them the year before. Some came from the pegs and were full price. They remain unused.

What does get used is a small assortment of lures that have proven productive on the lakes I frequent. A couple of spinnerbaits, a Zara Spook clone I walk across the surface of weed beds, a couple of original floating Rapalas with tooth marks on them, and assorted lipless crankbaits I troll through the tall weeds as fish locators. Then there are the hooks and sinkers I use with nightcrawlers to catch anything that swims in the Mississippi.

Fishing, for me, isn't the same sport it is for a lot of people. I fish the old fashioned way, spotting likely structure, then applying a very few strategies to catch the fish there. It's not complicated, and it works very well. Yes, I've been sucked in by the lures that are designed to catch anglers better than they catch fish, but I don't actually use them, mostly.

The rest of my equipment is similar. An old 12' aluminum boat, a small outboard, the cheapest electric trolling motor, and a fish locator that manages to locate the water depth most of the time. It's minimalist fishing, at least compared to what I see other anglers using on the lakes I visit. But, I have a couple of other pieces of equipment I find even more effective: my eyes and my brain. 

Instead of racing from one honey hole to another, I motor along slowly, often trolling a lipless crank bait behind me. Instead of looking at my LCD screen, I'm scanning the water around me, looking for the tell-tale signs of forage fish nearby. Since I don't have a GPS, I triangulate my position, using landmarks, when I find a good fishing spot.

I tend to return to the same lakes, again and again. They're mostly smallish lakes, many of which I know intimately now. I'm in no hurry, and don't want to make much noise or too big a wake. I fish where others aren't most of the time, and my rod is bent more often than those in much more expensive boats with much more expensive equipment.

Last year's accidental muskie is a good case in point. As I headed for the spot where I caught it, in the middle of an edge between dense water lilies and deeper weeds in 10' of water, I passed a muskie angler in his large boat. He was making beautiful long casts with a monstrous surface bait, over and over again. Where I went, he couldn't even get to. As I drifted into the weeds, I spotted a fish rolling about 30 feet from my boat. So, I cast a 3/16 oz triple willow spinnerbait, a Booyah Mini Shad that has caught largemouths and northerns many times in the weeds. This time, it hooked a 36" muskie. After a good fight on my light tackle, I released it alongside the boat. Afterwards, I saw the other muskie guy, who was probably 200 yards away, fishing in another location. He had watched the fight. He put his rod down, started his outboard and blasted out of the area.

No, I don't need another dozen crankbaits. I don't need a new boat. My 6 hp outboard started up on the third pull after the long winter. I did buy a new spinning rod, though -- at Goodwill, for $5. It fills a gap in my collection of other used tackle. I need to fill up the 6 gallon fuel can, though, with fresh mix. I have to fill it up twice during the fishing season. Other than that, though, I'm ready for another season of slow, quiet fishing. It calms my mind and restores my peace. I'm looking forward to it.
4/6/10

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New, Smaller Circle Hooks for Catch and Release

One of the best new things on the market for bait anglers in 2010 are the new small sized circle hooks that are now available in sizes down to 14. That's small enough for panfish. For anglers who practice catch and release, this is really good news. As everyone knows, there's a high risk of fish mortality when using standard hook designs and live bait. Fish are often hooked deeply in the throat and die after release. With circle hooks, over 85% of fish are hooked in the corner of the mouth, allowing safe release of your catch.

Eagle Claw Laser Sharp Circle Hooks to Size 14

Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hooks to Size 8

Circle hooks have been used for salt-water fishing for years, and are required by law in some areas, particularly in Florida, where many species must be released. They've revolutionized catch and release practices. I started using them a couple of years ago for river fishing, where I almost always fish with nightcrawlers, and have released many catfish and carp. Every one is hooked in the corner of the mouth.

Using circle hooks takes a little getting used to, though. Instead of the standard hook-setting procedure, you must let the fish hook itself. Jerking on the rod only pulls the hook out of the fish's mouth. Instead, when you have a bite, you simply point the rod at the fish and start reeling. As the hook exits the fish's mouth, it turns and imbeds itself in the corner of the jaw. Once you get the hang of this new process, you'll find that you actually hook a higher percentage of fish who take your bait.

This year, I'm going to be using the smaller sizes for panfish and see how they work. You can find these in the Eagle Claw and Gamakatsu hook displays at your local tackle shop, usually in the form of circle hooks or octopus circle hooks, both made of fine wire. Buy a package and give them a try whenever you're fishing with bait. You'll kill fewer fish and the hook removal and release is much easer.
4/6/10

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Bear Facts & Fish Tales Takes The Pipe at AM-1500

Another casualty of AM 1500 KSTP's remake of their station into a sports talk station is Mark Fisher and Larry Bollig's "Bear Facts & Fish Tales" program, which has aired on the station for 17 or 18 years now, at the Sunday 7 PM to 9 PM hour. Taking the place of this popular program is more inane ESPN sports talk. No doubt it will be a show that wraps up the weekend sports events for the 23rd time.

I hope Mark and Larry find a new location for their show. Their loss is just one more reason to tune off AM-1500 for another station. You want my opinion? Well, here it is: AM-1500 and Hubbard Broadcasting suck! Fishing and Hunting are sports, and they are sports that predate all other sports. See ya, KSTP!
2/15/10

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Unexpected Panfish Hot Spot

I took a relative and his 5-year old son out in the boat yesterday afternoon for a little fishing, up at Bald Eagle Lake. As expected, the kid caught tons of small panfish, plus a couple worth taking home for a snack. The adults? Not so much. But that's OK, since the point is that the kid catches fish, not the adults. He caught 12, and was happy as a clam.

What was interesting, though, was what happened just before we left to run back to the ramp before it got dark. We were anchored in some weeds just off a bank of bulrushes. The boy's father, skunked so far, decided to catch a couple of panfish, just to say he'd caught something. So he cast a worm under a bobber out and waited. After a minute or so, he hooked a small sunnie. He unhooked it and laid his rod across the gunwale of the boat. Apparently, a bit of worm was still on the hook, which fell into the water. Enough line was out that the bobber was in the water, too.

Maybe a second later, down went the bobber, and there was another sunny on the line. Hmm...he tried it again, with the same result. And again...and again. The worm was never in the water more than a second before it was grabbed by a sunny or small perch.

I learned something new. Apparently, an anchored boat, even with three people in it moving around and making noise, is a powerful attractant for panfish. Fishing away from the boat meant waiting for a minute or more before a fish found the bait. Dropping the bait right next to the boat got a hookup in just seconds. Who knew?

I'll remember that, for the next time I take a kid out fishing. Apparently, even a noisy aluminum boat doesn't scare the panfish away. They see it as another sheltering piece of structure and feel safe under it. 
9/25/09

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The Accidental Muskie

I haven't really fished for Minnesota's biggest trophy. It's just not my thing. But, today, at Bald Eagle Lake, I caught one anyhow--my very first. Not big, as muskies go, it just measured between 35" and 36", but it was a muskie, and a big surprise to me. I was fishing for bass and northerns, with a medium-light spinning outfit and 8 lb. test mono. I always put a light 6" steel leader on to keep from losing lures to the northerns. On the end of that, I had a mini Booyah 3/16 oz. triple willow blade spinnerbait, with a green skirt. 

I was fishing on the edge of a lily pad bed, in about 3' of water, casting along the edge of the pads. No sooner did the spinnerbait hit the water than WHAM! it got sucked up by a huge swirl in the water and the battle was on. I fish with a fairly light drag and it was buzzing away as the muskie took some line in an initial run...away from the lily pads, thank goodness. I made an adjustment and started working on the fish.

After some serious rod-bending and drag buzzing, the thing got near the boat...then went under the boat, of course. Rod tip in the water, I coaxed it back out on my fishing side and grabbed my net. After a few more short pulls, it was in the net. I unhooked it, gave it a quick measurement, then slipped it back in the water. No photos. It's just too hard to do that while fishing alone.

So, am I hooked on muskie fishing? Nah. I'll keep on going after the bass and pike, but it sure was nice to finally catch my first muskie. WooHoo!
8/26/09

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Aquacide Company Runs Horrible Radio Ad

White Bear Lake, MN, is the home of Aquacide Company, a purveyor of lake weed control products. Recently, they've started running an ad on local radio stations that is misleading and may result in lakeshore owners violating Minnesota laws and subjecting themselves to some serious fines.

In the ad, which never mentions once that there are regulations regarding using chemical lake weed control measures in Minnesota lakes, the claim is that lake weeds are nasty, useless things that need to be killed. According to the ad, weeds are of no use to humans or the planet, and must be destroyed.

In the first place, plant growth in lakes is essential for the health of the lake. They support the fish and other life in the lake. That's why there are strict and detailed regulations for weed control measures, along with permit requirements, and other details not mentioned in this noxious radio ad. 

In the second place, shoreline property owners on most lakes in Minnesota do not own the lake. They own only the land down to the normal high water line. The lake, including its weeds, belongs to the State of Minnesota. The company never discloses in the ad that people must learn the rules of lake weed control and apply for permits to use chemical controls. For shame, Aquacide Company! For shame!

For information on Aquatic Plant Regulations, Click Here to go to the MN DNR web page.

Let them know how you feel about this. You can Email them, or call them at 1-800-328-9350.
5/11/09

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OK, Enough Winter! I'm Going To Chase It Away

The snow's on the ground, and it's been there too darn long. So, I started this week to exercise my annual end the Winter campaign. You should, too. First, I got all my tackle boxes together, along with the new stuff I bought with those Christmas gift cards. I pulled every plastic box out of the tackle boxes and went through each one, reorganizing my tackle, sharpening hooks, cleaning crankbaits, and all that good stuff. This year, I'm moving to a new tackle system, using a soft tackle bag, rather than the noisy old tackle box I've used in the boat for so long. That meant labeling the 3150 tackle holders, since they'll be on edge in the tackle bag.

That's done, now, and I think I like the new system. I still have the catfishing tackle box, of course, and the small two-sided Fenwick box that lives in the car with my ultralight rods...ready to fish at the sight of a small piece of water.

Next job, was to water and charge the trolling motor battery. I brought it in the house and put it in the basement before the first hard freeze. It's on a raised wooden platform. So, I connected the automatic charger to it and got it all charged.

The Trolling motor, too, is in the basement. So I looked it over, pulled the prop to check for fishing line, and gave it a wipe down with Formula 409. It's ready to go.

The 6 hp Johnson is down there, too. I hang it from the side of the laundry sink for the winter. The chores for next week are to clean the exterior up and get rid of the icky oily residue on the hood and midsection. Then, while the hood's off, I think I'll put in a set of new plugs and hit all the lube points with a little blue marine grease. That should do it.

Then, there are the rods and reels to be attended to. A few need new line, so I'll spool them up in the basement. All of them need to be closely checked, cleaned and lubricated, of course. I don't think there are any repairs needed, though, since they were all working just fine last fall.

The boat and trailer are going to have to wait. You all saw the boat out in the front yard, with Santa fishing for Bass in the snow, right? If not you can see it on the Fishing page. Well, I didn't take into account the ground freezing. The boat's still frozen to the ground in the front yard, I don't think I'll be able to get it back on the trailer until some time in March. It's too darned cold to work on the trailer yet, too. This year, I'm putting on waterproof LED lights on it. I'm really tired of having to clean off the taillight bulbs every other trip. That'll have to wait, too.

I'm convinced, though, that getting started on putting my fishing equipment in order in February works to make the spring thaw come earlier. Now, if everyone reading this will do the same, maybe we'll be able to get back on the water even sooner. So, come on! Pitch in!
2/6/09

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Bass Fishing Santa

While it's a little early for Christmas decorations, fishing season is over here in Minnesota, at least on open water. But...it's never over for Santa Claus, as you can see in this photo of my centerpiece yard decoration for Christmas 2008.
11/12/08

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Bowfishing for Sharks -- A Blast from The Past

Long ago, in a place far away, in a time when my hair was still dark and living was easy on the central coast of California, I did some writing for outdoor publications. That was in 1980, and I decided to try my hand at shark fishing with a bow and arrow in the bay near my home.

A homemade plywood jon boat, an inexpensive solid glass bow, and I became a shark hunting demon. The results ended up as an article for Western Outdoors magazine. Written by me, and photographed by my wife at the time, the article caused a minor boom in bowfishing for sharks in Morro Bay, California. For several years after the article appeared, Summer weekends would find several boats out with archers trying their hand at the sport.

I was writing about a lot of things in those days, and my outdoor writing career didn't last long, as I turned to writing about computers. But I ran across the old copy of the magazine yesterday, and thought I'd share it with you. Now, I'm in Minnesota, and fishing for freshwater prey.

Click Here to See The Original Article
8/22/08

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A Nightcrawler Experiment

After my experiment and discovery with earthworms and panfish (see story below this one), I started wondering about my usual methods of fishing with nightcrawlers. I decided that an experiment, similar to the one I did at Beaver lake was in order. The results surprised me, so I thought I'd share them.

One of my favorite shore fishing spots is the public dock at Harriet Island Park in Saint Paul. A guy can catch quite a variety of fish there. My own personal records from that dock include a 35 lb. carp and a 25 lb. channel catfish. Nightcrawlers have been pretty effective there, but at a high cost, due to losses to small sheepheads, which have a special talent for stripping nightcrawlers off hooks without being caught.

So, I stopped by Blue Ribbon Bait & Tackle (see link at right) and bought two containers of nightcrawlers, each holding an even dozen of the big worms. I headed for Harriet Island with my usual catfish rod, big net, and high hopes.

My usual strategy for fishing off that dock is to use a fish-finder, slip sinker rig. I use two 1/2 oz. worm sinkers big end to big end above a swivel, with a 24" leader after the swivel. Normally, I use a fairly large octopus hook and loop the nightcrawler onto the hook, hooking it several times,  making a nice worm gob. Losing worms to small sheephead is annoying, though.

I started the day with my usual rig and worm strategy. As usual, the bite was good, but I just couldn't get a hookup, and I went through the first dozen worms without catching anything. Basically, I was feeding nightcrawlers to the sheepheads, who were deftly nibbling the crawlers off the hook, loop by loop. There went the first container of crawlers, and about $4 of my ill-gotten cash.

For the second half of my experiment, I did nothing but switch hook types and hooking style. I cut the octopus hook off the line, and tied on a #2 Eagle Claw baitholder hook...the type with barbs on the hook shank and a slightly offset hook point.

Instead of hooking the crawler in multiple places, I carefully threaded the worm onto the hook, starting at the collar and feeding the worm onto the hook until it was completely covered. I then brought the point out of the worm, leaving both ends to dangle and wiggle. "Oh, yeah," I thought, "that'll work! Those sheepheads are going to nibble that worm down to nothing."

Not so. I cast the rig out, let it settle to the bottom, and within 10 seconds, I had a fish on. It was a sheephead, but one with some heft. It was 17" long...the largest I'd ever caught. The bite was immediate and hard. The fish was hooked in the lip.

So, I threaded another nightcrawler on the hook and cast again. Again, the bite was immediate and I had a 3 lb. channel cat on the line. I caught several more cats, ranging from 1 to 3 pounds, on subsequent casts. In less than 20 minutes, I had used 11 nightcrawlers, and every one had resulted in a fish landed. None were deeply hooked, so releases were clean.

I was down to my last nightcrawler, so I pitched it out. Bang! Another immediate hookup. This time, it was a nice, big carp. Since I release everything, and since a carp is a great fighter, I was a happy guy. This fish needed to be netted, so I walked it around the dock until I could get to the lower dock, and netted and released it.

Apparently, the dangling ends of the worm and the concealed hook attracted the larger fish, and enticed them to inhale the entire worm, apparently right at the hooked area, leading to good, clean hookups and no small fish nibbling.

I learned my lesson. My old hooking technique resulted in no fish caught and a dozen nightcrawlers nibbled to death. The new technique of threading the worm onto a baitholder hook with dangling ends led to 12 fish caught in short order. One fish per nightcrawler. I'm a convert to this technique, and will never go back. Try it!
8/22/08

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Try This Tactic for Panfish from Shore

Around the Metro area, shorefishing for panfish in the small, local lakes often results in a large catch of tiny fish. Yet, larger sunnies, crappies, and yellow perch are often hanging around docks, piers, and weed beds. They're wary, though, and hard to catch using the traditional bobber and worm or artificial lure.

I've had great results from another method, and it consistently produces panfish at least twice the size of those being caught by folks using other techniques. Here's the drill:

You need an ultralight spinning outfit, with 2 lb. test line, or 4 lb. at most. You'll also need some tiny Aberdeen hooks. Size 12 and smaller will serve you well. They look like this, and any color is fine:

Tie that on the end of the line. That's the entire rig. No bobber. No split shot. Just the hook. 

Next, you need angleworms. Not nightcrawlers, but the skinny little angleworms, either from the bait shop or your own garden. Hook the worm once, right in the middle, and let both ends dangle.

Cast this with your ultralight rig, right by the dock or the weeds. You'll be surprised how far you can cast an unweighted worm on ultralight tackle. Close the bail on your spinning reel, and reel in any really loose slack. Just let the worm drift down in the water, wiggling as it goes. 

The largest of the sunfish or crappies in the area will dash out and inhale your offering, pushing the tiny little guys right out of the way. You'll know when you have a bite by watching the point at which the line enters the water. When it moves to the side or forward or towards you suddenly, just lift your rod tip to take up the slack and set the hook. Easy does it. The thin wire hook will set itself 95% of the time, and it's Fish On! Best of all, the technique usually ends with the hook in the lip or side of the mouth, allowing easy release of the fish, if you wish.

Try this strategy next time you're somewhere loaded with panfish. The success will shock you, and you'll catch more and larger fish than anyone using traditional rigs.
8/14/08

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A Day with The Griz

If you're a Minnesota angler, it's almost impossible not to have heard of "The Griz." Dick Grzywinsky is pretty much a legend in Minnesota fishing. He's been guiding for decades on the Mississippi, the St. Croix, and various lakes, including Mille Lacs. In his late 60s, now, he's pretty much guiding just the rivers. Just this year, he was inducted into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.

He's always the last caller on AM1500's "Bear Facts and Fish Tales," and is always introduced with a knocking door and a screaming woman. The implication is that his appearance is, well, something less than that of a Greek god, I suppose. Heck, he's no uglier than I am...

Well, when my wife informed me that she and her family were giving me a day with The Griz as my 63rd birthday present, I was both excited and apprehensive. I'd never met the man, and fishing with a legend is pretty intimidating for a once-a-week local angler. But, the date was set for my birthday, which was July 29. When I called a couple of days ahead, he told me that we'd be fishing Pool 2 and to meet him at the public access in South Saint Paul at 9AM. He'd supply all the equipment. I told him I was interested in catching multiple species, and he said that he always caught all kinds of fish and you just never knew what would turn up.

That morning, I loaded up my tote with sun block, sodas, a sandwich, a towel (it was supposed to be over 90° and humid). I left early, just to make sure I was there on time. That gave me almost half an hour to sit on a bench and listen to a diesel-powered pile driver clanging incessantly as it drove steel pilings for the Wacota Bridge.

Right at 9 AM, an SUV with a big jon boat backed down the ramp, and out steps this big guy, with white hair and beard and the kind of perpetual sunburn you can only get from spending day upon day on the water. We chatted for a few minutes, and he showed me some photos from recent trips as he did the minimal prep needed for the launch.

When he loaded just two well-used spinning rods in the boat and not even a tackle box, I wasn't sure what to think. Heck, there are three different rods in my boat and a couple of tackle boxes every time I go out. But, never mind. A big bait cooler followed the rods and that was that. He launched the boat, drove his truck off, then came back, and we were off.

Griz is a tiller guy. He sits on the platform at the stern and runs his 40hp Suzuki, along with a trolling motor. The boat is no-nonsense, with a couple of swivel seats for clients, a cooler full of ice for drinks and lunch, the minnow bucket, and a plastic box full of jigs. That's about it. 

As we motored upstream, the sound of the pile driver faded. Behind some sunken barges, he showed me how he likes to hook the small shiners on the jig and offered a few tips on jigging. The main tip was, "keep the line vertical or you'll snag up." I was to "snag up" several times that day, prompting some good-natured grumbling about lost jigs. 

We did a couple of drifts along the barges, and started catching fish: A walleye here, a sauger there, a couple of channel cats, and the inevitable sheepheads. It wasn't fast action, but it was steady. I caught fewer fish, but I was still learning the feel of jigging, not a technique I use a lot in my normal fishing. I missed a lot of strikes.

As we fished, I heard some stories about other trips on other days, with clients of all kinds. I shared some of my own fishing stories. Mostly, we jigged, swore mildly at the many sheepheads who stole bait or got hooked, between more interesting fish.

Over the day, we went into various backwaters up and down the river. We fished them, sometimes with good success, and sometimes with no success, and moved on. We fished several points and rock shelves, adding steadily to the fish count as we went. But we fished. And fished. And fished. Always jigging. Always putting another minnow on the jig when it got snatched off. "Sonuvabitch," Griz said, when he missed a hookup and had to rebait. "Damn thing bit it off right behind the head." But we just kept catching fish. Griz keeps a little clicker counter next to him and clicks it with every fish landed.

Me and My 28" Walleye

One highlight came when I tied into a big walleye and managed to get it to the boat, reeling it in too close the to rod tip, like I do when I have to net a fish myself. No matter, I pulled some line off the reel and he netted it neatly. It was 28" long, and about 10 pounds. Pictures got taken and the fish, like every fish we caught, went back into the water, since Pool 2 is catch and release only for gamefish. I also got a lesson on how sharp the teeth are on a large walleye and had to suck blood off my thumb for a few minutes. I took a photo of a really nice sauger The Griz caught. He took a photo of a 20" sauger I caught, another highlight of the trip.  That was it for the photos. They cut into the fishing time.

Me and My 20" Sauger

Over the day, I caught eight species, including four new ones for me in Minnesota. Walleye, Sauger, Silver Bass, Sheephead (of course), Smallmouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, and a nice Mooneye. Every last one was caught with a jig and a minnow, just off the bottom in shallow water. Lift and drop, always on a slack-free line. One technique...many fish.

Through the day, there were lots of notable moments: A double on silver bass, including tangling lines and netting both at the same time. Learning to feel the bites and fighting styles of different species. The Griz could tell you what was on your line within seconds of the bite. Hearing him say "sonuvabitch" a couple of dozen times when he got bait stolen. Stories of other days on the water. Less talking and more fishing is his style, but get him started on a subject, from fishing to politics, and he'll tell you exactly and frankly what he thinks.

According to the clicker, we caught 52 fish between us. I caught less than half of them, but I haven't been jigging the river for decades. When we got back to the landing, I was sunburned. The Griz had added to his deeply sunburned face and arms. I was tired and a bit dehydrated, but smiling broadly. We exchanged handshakes, some cash in an envelope, and went our own ways. I know I'll always remember my day with the Griz. Fishing with a legend is like that.

The Griz and His Sauger

If you get a chance and you're serious about catching fish, book a trip with him soon. It's not a cheap trip, but he's not guiding on Mille Lacs any more, and who knows how many more years he'll be guiding on the river. If you do go out, I guarantee you'll be starting stories with "Well, when I was fishing the river with The Griz..." for years to come.

Click here to visit his web site, Fishwiththegriz.com.
7/30/08

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The Old Man And The Kid

One of the few benefits of moving into your 60s seems to be an increase in patience. I got good evidence of that, yesterday, at Bald Eagle Lake.

My wife and I mentor a 14-year-old boy through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program here in the Twin Cities. We don't have any children of our own, so it's something we wanted to do. Check into it if you have the time and energy.

Anyhow, this boy had never been fishing and had never been in a boat, so I've been working on changing that. The first step was to convince him that going fishing was a good idea. Like most 14-year-olds, he was skeptical, but I kept working on the idea, mentioning fishing days from time to time, but with no pressure. Finally, he brought the subject up. "Maybe we could go fishing..." Yes! OK! So we set up a date, which was yesterday.

I loaded up the boat, set up all the fishing tackle, with a focus on panfish, and picked him up at his house. "That's a little boat," he said, pointing at my 12' aluminum skiff on the trailer. "Yup, but that's all we need. Hop in, and we'll go to the lake." He hopped.

We pulled into the parking area at Bald Eagle, and got out of the car to do the pre-launch prep on the boat. He followed me around as I did my usual checklist routine. Drain plug in? Check. Transom straps off? Check. That sort of thing. I explained what I was doing for each step, but he seemed a little distracted.

So, I get him in his lifejacket and have him stand down by the dock while I back the trailer down and launch. Fortunately, the ramp wasn't too busy, and everyone was friendly...typical for Bald Eagle on a weekday. I tied the boat up at the courtesy dock and parked the truck.

When I came back to the dock, a nice big deckboat, full of teenaged girls in bikinis, was tied up on the outside of the dock for a "pit" stop. Things were looking up, judging from the look on my fishing companion's face. A couple of them made his day by saying "Hi" to him.

Anyhow, I got him in the middle seat in the boat, fired up the 6 hp outboard, and cast off the lines, backing out and turning around.

"This lake is really big," he said. "Do we have to go out in the middle?" Uh-oh, I thought. So, I carefully asked if he was a little scared of being on the lake in the boat. He allowed as how he might be...a big admission for a 14-year-old boy. 

Fortunately, there's a nice lily-pad bed right in the cove near the launching ramp, so I abandoned plans to run up to the north end of the lake. Where there are lily pads, though, there are panfish, so we just idled over about 100 yards from the ramp and dropped anchor.

After I showed him on the fish locator that the water was only 3' deep, he stopped worrying about being in a shipwreck and being eaten by sharks, or something like that. So I grabbed one of the already-rigged ultralight rods and showed him how to work a spinning reel and how to flip a bobber and little jig with a tiny plastic jiggly worm on it. After I untangled the line, I showed him again. After that, I showed him again. I had forgotten just how alien the whole tackle thing is to an absolute newcomer. Pretty soon, though, he was casting to the edge of the weeds and halfway watching his little red and white bobber. "Bobber down!" I said. "Lift your rod tip quickly a little to set the hook." And that was that! About 30 seconds later, I was taking the hook out of a 6" bluegill, and explaining what kind of fish it was and what it ate. "Is it going to die?" he asked. "Nope," I said, slipping the little guy back in the water. He watched it dash away for the safety of the lily pads.

Fishing wasn't hot and fast there in the cove, but he started catching, not just fishing. He still made some casts without opening the bail, kept holding the rod tip too high and wrapping the line around it, so I was fairly busy with instructions and untanglings. My rod was sitting idle for quite a while, as I helped a boy with his first mess of fish. All were released.

Finally, though, I grabbed my own ultralight rod and flipped out with the same setup he was using. Mostly, though, I was focusing on helping and encouraging, and praising good casts, and still untangling the odd line snarl. I did notice a growing smile on my young friend's face, as he continued to catch and release little sunnies. He caught a really nice one, about 8" long, so we took the obligatory photo of his big catch.

The sun was shining. A light breeze was keeping the 83° day from being oppressive. About an hour had passed, and the day had settled into what a nice day of fishing is supposed to be. Then, my bobber was down again, so I lazily popped the rod tip to set the hook into another little sunny. What!? The drag on that little ultralight pole with the 4 lb. line started buzzing. Huh? I started paying attention. After a second, I figured out that it wasn't a northern on the end of my line. It felt like a bass. A sizable one. The willowy little carbon fiber rod was bent just about double. "Want to take this one?" I asked my fishing partner, offering him the rod. "No way!"

So, I worked hard on keeping this bass out of the weeds and coming my way. Finally, it was at the side of the boat. Uff da! I lipped it and lifted it out of the water. It was about 3 pounds, and it had taken a 1/64th ounce jig! "Whoa!" I heard from the kid. "That's huge!" I gave a short lesson on largemouth bass, then released the fish. I guess that bass was my reward for the day. "I'm sure glad I didn't catch that one," my young friend said. He thought for a minute. "It was pretty big, but I caught way more fish than you," he bragged. Now I knew I had a fisherman on my hands.

We were about out of time for our short day. But, there was one more thing. "So, are you still scared to be on the lake in my little boat?" I asked. "Huh? Not me!" So I cranked the anchor up, fired up the little outboard, and we left the cove. Pretty soon, I twisted the throttle up, letting the boat go as fast as it could...at least 10 mph (I told you it was just a 6 hp outboard, right?).

We motored out of the cove, circled around Cigar Island, and then started back to the dock to load back up. It turned out that the deck boat was out there, still full of teenaged girls in bikinis. It passed us on the south side of the island. My young friend waved at them, and they waved back.

So, we loaded up the boat, and pulled away from the lake, heading for his house. As I let him off at home, he said, "That was really fun! Can we go fishing again sometime?" A new fisherman is born that way. Happens every time.
7/24/08

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How A Northern Pike Strikes

The introduction of affordable underwater video cameras has really revolutionized our understanding of gamefish. I heard today from Odin Midguard of Hopkins, MN, and he turned me on to one of his videos on YouTube. In it, he records a number of northern strikes, and the variety of how they take a bait is really informative.

Check it out!

7/18/08

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Retro Fishing -- What's Old is New Again

Face it. I'm a geezer. I'll be hitting 63 in a couple of weeks. I started fishing when I was 10 years old, back in 1955. I have so many nice memories of fishing in those days. Fishing with my dad on little trout streams and lakes. My first trout. Just lots of memories. Every one of them good.

One time, while camping with my parents in the Sierra Nevada mountains, when I was 11 years old, I ventured off on my own, pole in hand, to fish a small creek near our campground. Salmon eggs from a jar, with a split shot to take 'em down to the bottom. An old spinning reel on a fiberglass rod. I wandered up the stream until I could no longer see the campground, and dunked my fluorescent, pickled salmon eggs in the water. Finally, after a couple of casts, I caught a 10" rainbow trout. I intended to have the flopping fish for supper that night, but...I had forgotten my canvas creel. What to do? Well, I did have on a baseball cap, so, I curled that rainbow into the cap and plunked it, fish and all, back on my buzz cut noggin and headed back for camp. My parents still laugh about that skinny kid walking back into camp and pulling a rainbow trout from under his cap.

So, now that I'm so far from being that boy, I tend to wax nostalgic about those days. Now, I have all sorts of fancy tackle, my own boat, and I'm out for the big 'uns. But...there was something so simple and primitive about how I fished back when I was a boy...

So, I headed for eBay one day and searched up some vintage tackle. It took me only about fifteen minutes to find what I was looking for...the same outfit I had way back then. I found a automatic half-bail pickup Swiss Record spinning reel that dated back to 1954. It was brand new, in its original box. Looking a little further, I found a 7' hollow glass spinning rod with a cork handle and slip rings for the reel. It didn't have a brand label on it any more, but looked to be in good shape. Got 'em both.

Then heading for the vintage lure section, I assembled a nice collection of the old lures I remember using way back then. A Super Duper, a Lazy Ike...that sort of thing. Well, within a week, all this stuff was at my door.

So, I found an Old Pal metal tackle box at Goodwill, and started assembling my retro outfit. Now, they didn't have fancy fluorocarbon line or superlines back in those old days. You used braid or plain monofilament. I looked around in my stash of fishing line and found a spool of basic Eagle Claw 6 lb. test mono.

I attached that old Swiss Record reel to the pole, remembering how often those slip rings used to slip off at the worst times, then spooled up with that mono. I'd forgotten that the Record spools were so wide and that they had a cork liner. Nice touches, and a lot like the new wide spool reels folks are buying so much these days. The Record also had a rear adjustment for the drag, which was cool, since it lets you change the drag setting easily, even with a fish on. A nice roller for the line on the pickup, too.

So, I arranged the rest of the stuff in that Old Pal tackle box and set off for the lake near my house...the one with the fishing pier. It just didn't seem right to go in the boat with my retro outfit...not without my dad driving the boat, anyhow. I started off with a bobber, a plain hook, and bits of worms I had flooded out of my back yard. Bam! I was catching bluegills and crappies as fast as I could rebait. I sorta had to relearn how to use a half bail reel, something that had been second nature to me back then.

Well, there are also some nice medium-sized northerns in that little lake, so I switched to a Mepps bucktail spinner, set off by a six-inch steel leader and ball-bearing swivel. The Mepps was brand new, since they haven't changed since I used to fish with them back in 1955. I started casting along the outside of the weed line. I was surprised just how far that wide-spooled Record would let that Mepps travel. It was all coming back to me. Well, it didn't take more than half a dozen casts before an 18" northern whacked that spinner. The drag worked great, and I soon released the little guy back to grow a bit.

Now, I didn't carry a trout home under my cap, but that old-style tackle worked just as well today as it did over fifty years ago. I've added an old Mitchell 300 reel and an old Garcia Conolon rod to my vintage tackle, and have a modest collection of old bass plugs and the like, in a somewhat bigger vintage tackle box. Every so often, I grab that stuff and head out to relive the old days. I'm still a geezer, but when I'm fishing with that vintage stuff, I feel like a kid again.
7/17/08

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Hey! I'm Fishing Here!

If it's a decent day...not too windy...you'll usually find me in my little 12' aluminum boat, the NOTLUND  GARCKYIII, on one of the East Metro lakes. Now, I'm trying to visit as many lakes as I can in the area this year, but only by alternating between a new lake and my long-time favorite, Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle, on weekdays, is an angler's lake. Not too many skiers or jet skis. Just a bunch of folks out fishing. But, in the past couple of weeks, a couple of incidents have occurred that bothered me a little. Not everyone out to fish is clear on the concept, it seems. See if you agree:

A couple of weeks ago, I was throwing my favorite yellow and white tandem spinnerbait over some weeds on a certain large flat that's probably familiar to those of you who fish that lake regularly. I was doing pretty good, too. I had caught a couple of those 24" northerns Bald Eagle is known for, plus a couple of largemouths in the 2 lb. range. Fun times.

Suddenly, this glittery bass boat, complete with 250 hp outboard, roars out from behind Cigar Island at about 40 mph. About 50 feet from my boat, the guy driving cut his engine. After my little boat quit wallowing around in its wake, I watched the guy and his fishing buddy for a bit. Both of them stood up. The driver walked up to the bow platform, and his buddy went to the casting platform on the stern. They both had nice, expensive-looking baitcasting rigs and spinnerbaits. Almost in unison, they cast three times each, naturally without getting a bite from the fish they had scared away. Then, they put their rods down, got back in their seats, fired up that outboard and slammed the throttle. Once again, I held on while my boat rocked for a while.

I guess these guys had been watching tournament shows on TV over the weekend. That's how the pros catch bass, right? Every cast brings in a lunker, right after they roar up to a spot. Riiiight! Well, it took about ten minutes before the fish got over that silliness, and I caught a few more. Maybe if they head over to Joes, they'll find just the right baits to use. Maybe, then, they'll catch fish like the pros. Or...maybe they're unclear on the concept.

The second incident happened last week, on Wednesday. There I was, pretty much on the same spot. Things were a little slower, but finally, I started catching. Best of show was a nice largemouth that was close to 3 lb. The eagle that nests on the island was circling around, and the loons were swimming. Another good day on the water.

So, right after I released that nice bass, I looked up to see a guy in a shiny 16' Crestliner with a 50 hp Evinrude on it, coming towards me, more or less. He was sort of weaving around, looking back and forth between a piece of paper in his hand and his fish finder/GPS. He wandered around for a few minutes, then finally stopped, about 30' from my boat...right over the spot I had hooked that nice bass.

Apparently, he hadn't noticed me there, but when he looked up, he hollered over to me. "Hey! There's supposed to be a shallow spot somewhere around here. You know where it is?" I guess the GPS coordinates he'd printed out from whatever web site he'd been on didn't get him exactly where he wanted to be.

I answered. "Sure. I'm anchored on it." Now, I don't have a GPS. I barely have a fish locator, since mine seems to cut out at the most inconvenient times. Maybe I'll find a better one at another garage sale. I had located that spot last year. The water drops off from there on all sides and offers a bunch of opportunities. Some of you probably know just where I'm talking about.

Well, I guess the guy was disappointed that some old geezer with white hair was sitting in a crummy little boat, right on the spot he was looking for. He fired up his outboard and, like the guy in the glitter boat, slammed the throttle. What the heck?!? This time, I gave up on that spot for the day. No matter. The pike were biting over at Rocky Point, so nothing was lost. 

It's everyone's lake, for sure, and nobody owns the hot spots, but the first guy there gets to fish them. I'm fickle, anyhow, and I'll be moving to another spot in a bit. I guess I'm too old. I always thought that the thing to do when you encountered another angler fishing in a place was to give him a wide berth and not encroach too closely. Maybe the rules have changed.

Never mind. Still, I guarantee that if you're fishing on one of those good spots when I show up, I'll cut my throttle and idle on by at least 150 feet away. I hope you do well there. I'll try again later, maybe. If you see me, give a wave, and I'll wish you good luck.
7/16/08

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Mom & Dad Fish at Valdez, Alaska

Despite stories to the contrary, there is fishing outside of Minnesota, and I have proof.

My parents, who are 83 years old, going on 30, have always loved their trips to Alaska. They've been heading up there for years, to fish and relax. In the past, they've usually driven their motorhome, but they've given that up these days.

This year, they flew up and joined my sister and her husband for a couple of weeks, traveling around our northernmost state in their motorhome, and doing the usual fishing and sightseeing. From all accounts, they've been having a great time.

A few days ago, they went out on a charter boat from Valdez, Alaska, for a little halibut fishing. Not a bad day, overall. Mom bagged a 104 lb. barndoor, plus a 70 pounder and my brother-in-law caught a nice one, too. Dad? Well, he caught a couple of "flyswatters." Once again, Mom scores! Way to go, Mom!

Mom's halibuts, are on the left, next to her. She wrestled it up from the depths, with some minor assistance from the mate. My brother-in-law is on the right, with his fish. Can you say halibut cheeks for dinner? My dad? He's hiding, there, between a couple of fish, looking sheepish. He told me on the phone that Mom isn't going to be allowed on any more fishing trips. He always says that.

All was not lost, though. Dad managed to dredge up a rather large wolf eel. Now, they say that people and their pets tend to look alike. I've never heard that about people and their fish, though. You be the judge:

They've also had some good luck fishing for sockeye and pink salmon during the trip. They're coming back this weekend, and have promised to Fedex a package of halibut steaks, all nicely frozen for me. I can hardly wait.

Nice trip. I wish I could have gone along this year.

Love you guys!
7/15/08

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Six Species on The Fourth

Every July 4th weekend, some friends who have a great house on Prior Lake host a big party for friends and relatives. It's a must-attend event for me and my wife. Since they're on a nice lake, have a dock, and don't mind, I always pack my ultralight outfit for the party, and spend a little time during the party sitting on their dock, doing what I love best.

Their place is on Candy Cove, which is the party cove on Prior. Every July 4th, the cove is absolutely full of boats, all rafted up and full of partiers. All day long, boats are circulating around the raft of boats. I didn't count, but there had to be a couple hundred boats in the cove. Add to that all the folks swimming and floating around near shore, and it's party time, baby!

So, everyone laughs when I head down to the dock with my little 4.5' rod, and little two-sided plastic tackle box. "You can't fish with all that boat traffic. Sheesh!" This year, I made a little side bet with one of the skeptics. I bet $5 that I'd catch something on the first cast. "You're on, dude!"

Well, I won that bet, and handily. In fact, I had a nice 10" black crappie on my line about one second after my bobber hit the water. And that was just the start of things. This cove is pretty deep, and the shore falls off quickly into deep water. Around the edge, a nice variety of weeds grows, but at the end of the dock, the water's about 16' deep. Every year, I do well there on that party weekend. I imagine I'd do well there just about anytime.

What was I fishing with? Well that first cast was made with a Cubby Mini-Mite jig, with an orange head and a Clear Brown tail. This a killer little panfish jig in clear water. Here's a photo:

These are available in some local tackle shops, and that's the actual size, there. You can see the entire range at this link (note: I have no connection to any vendor mentioned here, and never will.). I was fishing this between 18" and 36" under a small bobber, right in, and on the edge of the weeds.

Using that same bait, I caught about a dozen nice crappies, along with two sunfish species in decent sizes, a little perch, a non-keeper largemouth, and, of all things, a golden shiner about 7" long. What is the state record for golden shiners, anyhow? All of that in about half an hour sitting on the dock, pitching that little floppy jig. Total numbers were about 18 fish in that half hour, all released, of course.

So, then I took a nice break and joined the party, had a couple of adult beverages, and chatted with friends. Apparently I was part of the entertainment for all those folks sitting on the deck. Turns out that some folks I had just met also fish, but never thought about fishing from a dock on a very, very busy lake during a party.

Later on, I went back to the dock for a few minutes. This time, I tied on a Rebel Teeny Wee Crawfish, in the 1/10 oz. size, and in brownish orange craw color. This is also a killer little floating lure that runs from 1' to 2' deep when retrieve, and has a wild, wild action. A really slow retrieve works best most of the time. It's not a cheap lure, at almost $5 a crack, but it's killer. Here's a photo: 

You can find these most places. I toss this a lot of times, and have hooked up with a huge variety of fish on it, including a 5 lb. Northern that was more than a handful on my ultralight tackle. Fun times!

This time, within minutes, I picked up some more crappies, a couple of perch, and finally, a nice little pound and a half largemouth. What I was doing was waiting for a boat to pass by, about 20' from the dock I was standing on, then casting into the backwash after it passed. BAM! I hooked up every time.

Six species in one day, fishing off the dock on a crowded lake. It just goes to show ya. Fish have to eat, so throw them something that looks like food, even if conditions don't seem ideal. 
7/6/08

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Local Man Catches Big Muskie on Owasso

In a triumph of local Metro lakes, Lake Owasso has yielded up a 49.5", 31 lb. Muskie. George Ficocello whacked the big girl on July 4, while fishing for smaller prey. Good deal, George!

For those who aren't aware, Owasso has quite a few big muskies patrolling the lake. Some are used for breeding purposes by the DNR, and the keeper size in that lake starts at 48". For those who are annoyed by someone keeping a muskie, please keep in mind that this was the fish of a lifetime for this angler, who said that he had never caught anything larger than a sunny.

Check out the video at this link!
7/6/08

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A Return to Simpler Fishing

It happens to me a lot. I'm out on one of the many Metro lakes fishing and I see guys in their boats, heads down, watching their locator as they hunt for a fishing spot. They aren't looking at the lake...they're looking at a little LCD screen.

More often than not, I don't see them boating fish. What's the deal? We spend hundreds of dollars on electronics for our boats and still don't catch fish. Well, there are a lot of reasons, but the main one is that electronics do not catch fish...anglers catch fish.

Now, I have an LCD locator in my boat. It's ancient, and serves more to tell me how deep the water is than anything else. I use it...sometimes, but just to find depths. I don't know if it shows fish or not, and don't much care.

What I do, on familiar lakes or ones I've never fished before, is look at the lake. Over there is a point. Over here is a weedy area with some inside and outside curves. I notice what time of day it is and the wind and the temperature. 

I see the inlet, where a creek flows into the lake. All of these are signs...and they're signs that work better than any LCD display. They're the old signs, and they're still just as accurate as any fish locator. Yes, I do need to know the depth of the water, and when my LCD stops working, as it does far too often, I can find the depth anyhow...the way I've always done it, with an egg sinker on the end of a line.

Recently, while fishing at Bald Eagle lake, I was trying to figure out where the fish were that day. As usual, I was interested in bass and northerns. I saw about ten boats on the lake that morning, and watched them for a bit. Nobody was catching much, other than some panfish. So, I turned my attention to the water. About 300 yards from where I was sitting, baitfish were breaking the water. Not a lot of them, as in a feeding frenzy of some sort...just a few splashes.

Now, it wasn't a part of the lake I normally fished...certainly not one of my hotspots, and had I been staring at an LCD screen, I never would have noticed the tiny splashes at all. So, I used the electric trolling motor to quietly move over near that area, then twisted the AnchorMate's button. It was a fairly shallow area, early in July, and I knew it to be weedy, but the weeds hadn't broken the surface yet. 

So, I picked up the rod that had a spinnerbait on a short wire leader, and flicked it out past where I had seen the splashes. Just a few turns of the reel handle, and I was into a really nice northern for that lake. I netted and released it, then cast again. This time, a nice largemouth...maybe 2.5 lbs...smashed the chartreuse spinnerbait. I caught several more northerns and bass by fan-casting that whole weedy patch. 

In the meantime, the guys in the other boats started noticing that someone on the lake was actually catching fish, and a couple of them started moving toward the area. That was my cue to crank up the anchor and move on. I'm sort of a solitary fisherman.

The point here is that you can have all the electronics in the world in your boat, and still get skunked. At the same time, some other guy on the water may be hauling 'em in right and left, even without electronics. 

Sometimes, old-fashioned fishing skills and reading the water are more valuable than the most expensive electronics you can buy. Look up from time to time and see the lake, rather than your LCD underwater view. Use the clues that Dad and Granddad used to catch those huge stringers of fish back in the days before all that technology. They still work, and sometimes will turn a fishless day into something memorable.
7/24/07

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Are We Fishing Prostitutes?

Update (7/23/07) The Star-Tribune's story on this issue had a link to a long and interesting discussion thread on this subject on the Fishing Minnesota website.  In that discussion, many good points were raised. Sadly, the entire thread was deleted without explanation. If we cannot discuss issues regarding public access and the DNR, then we are lost. I regret that the discussion was deleted. I found nothing in it that was inflammatory. It was merely a discussion of the situation. It is, however, notable, that one of the moderators of that forum has a website regarding a resort on Mille Lacs. Check for yourself.

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Huh? Prostitutes? Anglers? What the heck am I talking about?

Well, if you're up at Mille Lacs, and read the Mille Lacs Messenger newspaper, you'd find out that all of us who come up from the Cities and use the public launch sites there are, indeed, prostitutes. That's according to Aitkin County Commissioner Paul Bailey, who wants to talk the DNR into not building any new public accesses there. He thinks we're prostitutes.

Terry Thurmer, owner of Terry's Boat Harbor, wants the public accesses on Mille Lacs closed or fees charged for their use. Odd...I thought my fishing license fees helped pay for them.  He went on to say that we come up there, use the public accesses, bring our own gas, then take our fish and go. What he means, I think, is that we're not paying Terry Thurmer for the right to fish on his lake. He pretty much said so, when he also used the word prostitutes to describe us. As quoted in the Messenger, he said, "You are making it really easy for them and make it really hard for us to make a business. We need to keep the fishing prostitutes away from public access." You can't get much clearer than that.

The DNR wasn't all that amused by the statements of Thurmer and Bailey. They weren't buying it, just like anglers won't be paying for Thurmer's facilities in the future. At least not this angler.

All this stems from the reduction in the slot size at Mille Lacs, due to the excellent fishing that's been going on there this season. The reduced slot limit will now limit the number of folks heading for the lake, unless they're like me and fish strictly catch and release.

Here are some hints for the business owners in Mille Lacs who have so much disdain for anglers who come to fish their lake:

Grow up, folks in Mille Lacs. Get over yourselves. You don't like folks fishing on your lake, but not spending a fortune in your community? Get friendly. Make your resorts, restaurants, and bars so inviting that folks will want to come there. Don't call us "prostitutes."  Prostitutes take money for their services, you know. If that doesn't sound familiar, have another look in the mirror.
7/23/07

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Mark & Larry Take a Vacation

Update (7/24/07). I am informed that Larry showed up at 8 PM for the show, so only the first hour was a rerun. I shut it off as soon as I learned that it was a rerun. The bulk of the rest of the show, apparently, was a reaction to the Mille Lacs story I detailed above.

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OK, it's July 22nd, 2007. It's 7 P.M. What do you expect? Mark and Larry's Bear Facts and Fish Tails on KSTP, AM1500? Not tonight. Mark and Larry are nowhere to be heard. They're running an undated "Best of" program. 

So what does this rerun start with? Why, the weather, of course. What weather? When? Well, it's sometime in the past. It has nothing to do with the weather this week.

C'mon you two! It's the heart of fishing season, and you're nowhere to be found. I mean, I'm not sure it matters all that much. It'll be the same old fishing report from Mille Lacs, and Rainy Lake and other places most of us aren't fishing. Same old call-ins from your loyal sponsors. Same old...same old.

Mark and Larry: Are you tired of this fishing show? Do you only care, now, about your sponsors. Is the only bait shop of any quality the one you so prominently mention on your show? What of the other several dozen bait shops in Minnesota. Are they chopped liver?

I've called in several times. I'm George from Saint Paul. What about fishing in the metro? What about the local lakes, for those of us who will never get to Rainy? How's fishing here? Any tips? Or is your show all about your sponsors, from resorts and guide services, to the one and only bait shop you ever mention?

There's more to Minnesota fishing than your sponsors. Let's talk about that for a change. What about the guys who can't afford to hire The Griz or Fairly Reliable Fishing? What are we to do? 

I'm a fisherman. I have a 12' aluminum boat. I fish lakes in the northeast metro. I don't hire guides...heck, I can't even afford an outboard that runs reliably. But, I fish. I shop at the local bait shops, including my favorite, Blue Ribbon Baits. Have you heard of them? They're close to the Metro lakes...they have a complete selection of bait plus everything else you need. Are they chopped liver?

I'm not surprised that you guys have lost your affiliate stations. You don't seem to care all that much. Larry has retired, and Mark, well, you're so busy promoting Rapala that you seem to have forgotten all those folks who have listened to you for all these years.

Are you bored? Are you tired? Then give up your show. Don't come on and talk about the weather two weeks or two months ago. It's not helpful. 

How's the fishing at White Bear Lake? Are the muskies hitting at Bald Eagle? How's Pool Two doing? We ain't fishing Mille Lacs. We aren't even going over to Minnetonka all that much. We're fishing our local lakes. What's working on those lakes?

Give us real, useful information, or get off the freaking air, boys. If you're bored, quit and give the air time to people who fish in Minnesota. Don't sell us a boat. Don't sell us a Dodge truck. Don't sell us anything. Tell us how and where to fish better.

I'm tired of your tired show. I'm a fisherman. I want to find out how to be a better one. I will never fish Mille Lacs. I will never fish Rainy. I will certainly never fish any lake where my boat might get confiscated, like Red Lake..

Either give us useful information, or give it up. I'm sure there are dozens of folks who would love to take over your show. So show up! Don't run a rerun during the peak of fishing season. Get real! 
7/22/07

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Remembering Herter's -- An Iconoclast's History

While browsing around on eBay the other day, I encountered something I'd forgotten about for a long time. Someone was selling a copy of a 1974 Herter's Catalog. Remember Herter's? They were probably the largest mail-order source for outdoor equipment, hunting and fishing gear, and more, in the world back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Located right here in Minnesota, in Waseca, to be precise, Herter's was an eclectic company, run by George Leonard Herter. The Herter's Catalog went out all over the world, and was a dream book for hunters and fishermen, not to mention trappers and others, for decades. 

I remember poring through the Herter's Catalog when it showed up in the mail each year. I was out in California back then, and that catalog, full of overblown hyperbole, made me envision life in the far North, trekking through the backwoods, fighting off mosquitoes and black flies, in search of huge muskies and other exotic game.

Well, I finally moved to Minnesota, and soon discovered that Waseca is closer to the cornfields of Iowa than it is to Rainy Lake. Oh, well...it doesn't matter. Herter's was the book of dreams in my youth and early 20s.

Herter's is gone now...sold to Cabela's sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. The big Cabela's store near Owatonna isn't all that far from the original Herters locatin in Waseca, really. Herter's had a store in Mitchell, South Dakota, too. Sure enough...there's a Cabela's there, as well.

George Herter is gone, too. He was a flamboyant fellow, prone to exaggeration and flights of fancy. Reading his catalogs...all written by him...you get a feel for the man's enthusiasm. In fact, he had so much enthusiasm about his products that I remember being kind of disappointed when my package would arrive and the contents were just ordinary fishing lures, instead of the bejeweled wonders he described. I got over it, though, and went fishing with them.

Everything in the Herter's Catalog was ultra modern, and of the best quality, or so claimed George Herter. He took credit for the design of things he didn't design sometimes. He copied lots of stuff, then gave it names that were reminiscent of the actual producers. He sold copies of the famous Mepp's spinner lure, made in France, and renamed it the Pepp's spinner. His Finland Minnows were dead ringers for Rapalas, produced in Finland. He didn't fool anyone, and probably didn't really mean to. It was all marketing, and he was a brilliant marketer in his day.

George Leonard Herter was also an author, and the same flamboyant style in his catalog was evident in his books. Probably his most famous was Bull Cook And Historical Recipes And Practices, a recipe book laced heavily with his odd, and sometimes bizarre, philosophy. In that book, you'll discover that the favorite recipe of the Virgin Mary was spinach, sauteed in butter. Really! If it were not so, George L. Herter would have told you.

Herter was a survivalist, of sorts, evident in his book, How to Get Out of The Rat Race And Live on $10 A Month. He even wrote a marriage manual, of sorts, called, How to Live with A Bitch, which isn't quite as misogynistic as it sounds. 

Herter's motto, as printed on the bottom of every page of his 1974 catalog, was: "Where wildlife cannot live, humans cannot survive." You can't argue with that one. There's no biography of George Leonard Herter, but his life is in his catalogs and his books. I've just bought a few of his books from used booksellers. I'm looking forward to reading them.

We have too few flamboyant iconoclasts around these days. George Leonard Herter was one such person. Perhaps it's time for someone to write a biography of him. I'd think a good place to start would be Waseca. I'm sure the older residents there could tell some stories.
7/3/07

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A Perfect Day on Bald Eagle Lake

Bald Eagle Lake, just north of White Bear Lake, is pretty much my home lake. I fish in other spots, but I keep coming back to Bald Eagle. Yesterday (6/5/07) looked pretty promising, so I hitched up the NOTLUND and headed for the lake in the morning. It's time for fishing to pick up, and the lake didn't disappoint.

I spent a little time with a ScumFrog in the lily pads near the boat launch, and hooked up with a nice (if a bit small) bass in a great surface strike. Not much luck after that in the lily pads, though, so I motored over to Cigar Island. North of the Island is a fairly broad expanse of weeds in depths from 8-10 feet of water. I noticed a lot of surface activity from small baitfish, probably golden shiners, and figured it might work out as a fishing spot.

Casting a variety of crankbaits and running them just over the weeds brought in three largemouths, with the largest being about 2.5 lb., and three Northerns. The largest northern was close to 30" long, and gave my medium spinning tackle with 6 lb. test line a good workout. I was the only one fishing that area, and got watched by the other anglers in different locations. I'm sure the spot got hit by some others after I left, since I didn't see a lot of action elsewhere. As I always do, I released all the fish to be caught again.

To cap the day off, I got to watch a bald eagle come off the island and lift a 10" largemouth out of the water about 50 feet from my boat. Add that to a perfectly calm day, beautiful, non-threatening clouds overhead, the sound of loons, and it was a perfect day of fishing. There was even a nice landing by a float plane that a resident of the lakeshore keeps tied up to his dock there. I could have been in northern Minnesota.

We Minnesotans are blessed beyond measure with beautiful lakes right in the Metro. Less than a half an hour from my home, and I get to fish on a great lake. I'm so glad I moved here. Go fishing, everyone! It doesn't get any better than this!
6/6/07

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A Few Thoughts on Urban Kids and Fishing

This past week, I ventured down to the public dock on Harriet Island for some Mississippi River catfishing. I didn't have much luck, but it was a good day, nevertheless. Several nice folks wandered down to inquire about my luck, and I enjoyed talking to them and sitting on the dock in the sun.

Later in the afternoon, around 1:30 P.M., about a dozen teenagers came bustling down to the end of the dock where I was fishing. I'd guess they ranged in age from 14 to 16, and it was a mixed group of boys and girls in a rainbow assortment of skin colors. One boy had spiked hair, tinted red. Trousers hung low on the hips of a couple others. A motley crew, to be sure.

They were boisterous, noisy, and carried fishing poles of various vintages and qualities. The oldest (I think) of the group had a large tacklebox, full of tackle, looking like it had been assembled from castoffs from relatives, etc.

Now, I do like my solitude while fishing, since it's a contemplative activity for me, But, hey, I'm in a public place, and the kids were talkative, asking me about my luck and asking questions about my tackle. How could I be annoyed when all that energy was out there on the dock?

After lots of confusion, teenage bantering, and general hilarity, the fishing began. One kid had a bobber on with a fluorescent yellow plastic worm. Another was casting a red and white Daredevil. Another one, with an ancient closed-face reel, barely had enough line to drop his hook in the water. None of that mattered. Advice was exchanged between the kids, some new line was wound on the ancient Zebco, and the fun went on.

One of the girls, a kid about 15 or so, wasn't fishing and came over to where I was and asked what I was using for bait. I showed her the jar of my usual stinkbait (the one that will make your nose wrinkle even with the lid on) and told her it was stinkbait. "Huh?" she said. "Stinkbait?" I explained about catfish and their penchant for eating things that were long dead.

"Can I smell it?" she asked. "Sure," I said, "but it really stinks bad." She opened the lid on the jar, took a big whiff. "Whoa, man! That stuff's rude!" She then took the jar around to all of the kids, each of whom smelled the stuff. I almost fell off my folding chair, laughing. The kids were all laughing, too.

Well, I had been there for about three hours already, and it was time for me to head home. I gave the kids some of the stink bait in a styrofoam cup, and gave a few 1 oz. sinkers to the kid with the tacklebox, since he had complained about not having big enough sinkers. I added a brand new package of catfish hooks, and took my leave, to a bunch of friendly goodbyes.

I hope they had better luck than I did. I don't think they cared any more than I did, though, about actually catching fish. They were there for the fishing, just as I was.

That afternoon got me thinking, though. We say nice words about encouraging our youth to take up angling, and form organizations to "Take a kid fishing," and the like. For a lot of anglers, though, the appearance of this brash bunch of urban kids would have caused some consternation and annoyance. Sometimes, we say one thing, but only in lip service to the idea.

These were good kids. They didn't look like nice, suburban kids, though...the ones you see in the DNR brochures, fishing with their dad in the boat. They were, however, anglers, just like the rest of us. Young. Inexperienced. Eager. I thoroughly enjoyed my encounter with the group, and I suspect they thought I was this nice, funny, old white-haired dude with the stinky bait. We got along just fine.

I wonder, though, what will happen when they get past the age of 16. Will they continue to fish when it means spending $20 or so to buy a license? I doubt it. I think it may well be time to raise the age for license-free fishing to 18. Let the kids graduate from high school and get their first jobs, so they can afford that fishing license.

Unlike a lot of anglers, I still find pleasure in fishing from the shore, or from a fishing pier here in the Metro. For many urban anglers, that's their only place to fish. Boats are expensive. I've encountered lots of very nice folks fishing on the public docks in the cities. I hope to meet more of them over the years. 

If you readers happen to find yourself on a fishing pier or fishing from shore, and a group of rowdy kids shows up with poles, I hope you won't pack up and leave. They aren't there to bother you...they're going fishing. Talk with them. Listen to them.  Give away some stuff to them. Teach them a trick or two to help them catch fish. These kids are our future anglers. 
6/4/07

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Boating Tragedy on Mississippi

Every year about this time, we hear about a boating tragedy. This time, four people died when their 12' aluminum boat was caught in the heavy current below Lock and Dam No. 7. Two adults and two children were the victims.

Tragedies like this are horrendous for the victims and their families, and affect fellow boaters. We all love to go on the water, for recreation or fishing, and we all expect to come home safely.

I use a 12' aluminum boat myself, complete with a small, semi-reliable outboard. I think about safety even more in my tiny little boat than I would in a larger craft, and with good reason. Let's look at this tragedy and see if we can figure out how it might have been avoided.

First, my 12' boat is rated for three people, and it's crowded with that many. I won't ever put more than one other person in it. Second, it does not go on rivers, especially below a lock and dam. It's just too darned small and slow for that use. I'll use it during the week on Lake St. Croix, but I keep near the shore and am always on the lookout for larger boats and their wakes.

The Mississippi? Not a chance. I've seen the wakes the barges throw up. Not for me.

Part of the reason for this boating accident was that the boat was anchored quite close to the dam. Fishing's good there, no doubt, but it's a dangerous spot for a tiny, overloaded boat. When the boater pulled up his anchor, he may have gotten the anchor rope tangled in the outboard's prop. For whatever reason, he couldn't get his outboard started and the boat got sucked in by the current near the dam.

Fishing on the river is exciting. It's a great place to catch numerous species of fish. It's a horrible place for small aluminum boats. There are many lakes in this wonderful state, and the smaller lakes are ideal for outings in 12' aluminum boats. That's where I take mine.

I'm so sorry that this tragedy occurred. I'm deeply saddened by it. I'll be especially careful this season, and hope all my readers use extreme caution while boating.
5/13/07

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Boat Hit by Barge -- A Cautionary Tale

A guy and his dog had to swim for it yesterday in the Minnesota River south of Bloomington. The boat got slammed by a barge while the guy was trying to get his motor running. Both the guy and the dog are OK, but the boat isn't.

Fishing the rivers is fun, but it's no place for a boat with a balky motor. Barges can't stop or steer around you, so you need to make sure your boat's engine will start whenever you need it to start, or limit your fishing to the lake.

Those of you who read this blog know that I have a funky boat, with a funkier outboard. The outboard will always start, but it can take numerous pulls. I'm working on it, but there it is. So, I stay off the river. I'll continue to do that until I have an outboard that fires on the first pull...everytime. It's not just a good idea. It could save my life.

As we enter the boating season for this year, we're going to hear about lots of boating accidents, almost all of which could be prevented with some common sense and by following the boating rules. We have several tragedies every year from boating accidents. Don't be a statistic, please. I need all my readers!
4/15/07

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Fishing for....Squirrels?

Like every other open water angler in Minnesota, I've begun thinking about getting ready for this Spring's fishing season. I'm already sharpening the hooks on my lures, spooling new line on my vast accumulation of rods and reels, and re-reading all the fishing books in the house. It's time for anticipation, especially with the weather starting to warm up.

There's just one thing, and it's potentially a real problem for this year's Opener. As regular readers know, I fish from a small, 12' aluminum boat, for reasons of economy. Back in November, I emptied the boat out, put the outboard in the basement, along with the battery and charger for the electric trolling motor. Then, I turned the boat upside down on the trailer so it would shed the snow that was supposed to show up. 

I have all sorts of plans for the boat this year. I'll be installing some carpeting to quiet my footsteps, and a new seat in the back to support my back while I run the outboard. So, yesterday, I went out and looked longingly at my boat, yearning for open water.

Suddenly, a small gray shape burst out from under the boat, ran between my legs and headed up the big maple tree in the yard. What!?! Once I settled down from the surprise, it occurred to me to look under the boat.

There's a squirrel nest under the bow seat of the boat. A squirrel nest! Now, this is precisely the time of year when the pesky little tree rats are playing sexy little chase games, leading to...wait for it...lots of fresh little baby squirrels.

So, what to do? Those young squirrels often don't make an appearance away from the nest until after the Opener. I mentioned the nest to my wife, who reckoned I might have to start my fishing late this year. Yeah...right!

Now, I like squirrels. I do. I even fed them all winter on peanuts in the shell. I like to watch them scramble around. But...I have no interest whatever in teaching squirrels to fish, or in giving them rides in my boat. Never mind that a young squirrel might make decent muskie bait.

So, I think I'll head out this week, when the weather's warm, and remove the next. Mom will just have to find another place to raise this Spring's brood, I think. I just won't tell my wife, who might get all worried that the poor little critter won't have time to build a new nest.

Yeah...that's the ticket!
2/19/07

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State Senator Introduces Disastrous Lake Weed Bill

Minnesota state senator Gen Olson (R) of Minnetrista has introduced SF0506, a bill regarding lake weeds and their removal by lakeshore property owners. The contents of this bill have the potential to drastically impact the littoral plant life in lakes throughout the state, and not in a good way.

The main provision of the bill would require the DNR to issue permits, on the request of lakeshore owners, to destroy weeds in an area 100' wide by 150' long in littoral waters adjoining their property. That's 15,000 square feet that would be denuded of vegetation. On lakes heavily infested with lakeshore homes, this could easily mean that most of the weedline could be destroyed by adjoining property owners.

For anglers, this would be a catastrophic disaster, destroying the very nursery for the fish in these lakes. No baby fish...no fishing in the very near future.

I'm betting that Senator Olsen has one of those lakeside homes there on Minnetonka. And those pesky weeds, you know...they are just nasty. The grandkids can't swim off the dock because those weeds...well...you just don't know what diseases the kids might get, right? Plus, you try to take the cruiser out for a day of wakeboarding and the like, and the water intakes for the engine just get all clogged up. It's a darned shame!

Senator Olson: The lake is not yours. Yes, you own the land down to the mean high water line, but the rest of the citizens of the state of Minnesota own that lake. Not you. Not your neighbors on the lakeshore. Not your campaign contributors. The lake, its waters, and the lake bottom belong to the citizens of the state of Minnesota.

I'm sure it's very nice to have a home on the shores of Minnetonka. I can't afford such a home, since I'm just a humble working man. Still, I admire those homes as I cast into and along the edge of the weeds in the lake in front of them. I catch largemouth bass there, and northern pike, too. Sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy, I'll drop my anchor and fish for sunfish and crappie on the edge of the weedline. I like to fish. I release just about all the fish I catch, so that others will be able to enjoy fishing as much as I do.

I'll bet you don't like seeing my little aluminum boat anchored in the lake in front of your house, either. I'm sorta scruffy when I'm fishing, and my crummy old boat is, well, a bit unsightly, I must admit. Still, I don't try to cast my lures under your dock. I could, legally, but I don't, since I do respect your privacy and property.

It's a shame that you don't respect the very lake you live on. It's not your lake, you know. It belongs to me, and everyone else in the state. It's not yours, so you don't get to exclude riff-raff like me from fishing in it. It's not yours, so you don't get to destroy the fish nursery that the weeds create. It's not yours, so you don't get to eradicate the life in the lake.

To readers: It's probably a waste of time to contact Senator Gen Olson, since she introduced this disaster of a bill. You can, though. Her email address is sen.gen.olson@senate.mn. However, I do recommend that you contact your own state senator and house member. Tell them that you don't want to destroy the life in our wonderful lake resources. Tell them that you fish there, and enjoy the lakes you help pay to preserve. Tell them to just say no to Gen Olson and SF0506.

Don't wait! The bill is at the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, right now for discussion. Let's stop this stupid bill before it ever even comes to a vote. You can find your state senator at this link.  You can find the names of the members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, including Gen Olson, at this link.

Don't delay. Send an email today!
2/12/07

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Big Ice-Fishing Show This Weekend

If you're impatiently waiting for the hard water to appear so you can freeze your butt off trying to catch some fish through the ice, you'll want to take in the 14th Annual Ice Fishing Show at the River Centre in Saint Paul this weekend. Running from Friday through Sunday, the show features equipment, seminars, speakers, travel opportunities, and lots more. For just $7.50, it's cheap thrills, until this week's frigid weather hardens up the lakes.

Click Here for details on seminars and times.
11/30/06

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Bass Pro Shop in Mall of America?

It could happen. The Mall of America is planning a big expansion, with construction to begin sometime next year. Among the anchor stores planned is a 300,000 sq. ft. Bass Pro Shop. This would be big news for anglers in the Twin Cities Metro, but potentially bad news for Cabela's and Gander Mountain.

With the two Cabela's stores located a good distance from most Metro residents, the new Bass Pro Shop would be a powerful attraction to local anglers and sportsmen. This shop, huge in size, would prove a serious competitor for the much smaller Gander Mountain stores. Being so close to the cities, a Bass Pro Shop would make a lot of anglers think twice about driving to Rogers or Owatonna, too, to visit the equally impressive Cabela's stores.

Worse for the competitors, and much, much better for consumers, A Bass Pro Shop at MOA would cut down on the number of men wandering around MOA, looking for a store that had anything of interest for sale. While the family browses through the many shops at MOA, the angler in the family would now have someplace to go for those normally boring hours.

I'm for it!
11/28/06

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Eurasian Milfoil Spread by Ducks? Who Knew?

For a long time, Minnesota anglers and recreational boaters have been giving their boats and trailers a good going over after retrieving from the many lakes in the state already infested with the evil Eurasian Milfoil. They have to. There's a serious fine if you're caught with fragments of the worrisome weed on your boat or trailer. 

Still, more and more lakes have ended up infested with the wily water plant. We won't get into a discussion today about the actual damage caused by Eurasian Milfoil.  It's questionable, and the bass and northerns love it.

The news, now, is that the pesky plant has shown up in several Metro lakes that don't even allow boating. That sent DNR officials to their cubicles to scratch their heads. What the heck? Were people carrying the slimy stuff in and maliciously planting it in these small lakes?

That seems unlikely, although anglers are the most often blamed culprits for the spread of the noxious water plant. But if not anglers, who? Maybe the question should be what? It turns out that the DNR folks now think it's ducks and other waterfowl who are spreading the filthy foliage around the Metro.

Ducks? Waterfowl? Who'd've thunk it? Oh, wait....let's see. Ducks and geese and other waterfowl freely fly from lake to pond to lake. A little bit of plant on a webbed foot, and there you have it. Could it be that ducks have been spreading the pernicious plant all along? Is it possible that boaters and anglers aren't the only ones at fault? So it would seem.

Perhaps the DNR should get into the business of checking duck's feet for fragments of milfoil as they take off from infested waters. Conservation officers could spy on the ducks with binoculars at lakeshores, then cite the offending ducks for violation of the law. Even better, equip the COs with shotguns and have them eradicate the offenders.

Trouble is, PETA would be offended by this program. PETA is offended by everything. Maybe an education program for waterfowl would be more effective. The DNR could put solar-powered television sets on the shorelines of infested lakes, running continuous versions of the ads we're so familiar with. If that's too expensive, there are radio versions of the same ads.

I'm just sayin....
9/18/06

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Milfoil in Lake Superior? All is Lost!

It's all over. Wisconsin DNR officials have discovered eurasian milfoil in Lake Superior, in Twin Ports, right on the border. With this intrusion of the exotic species, it's beginning to look like the battle against the encroacher may have been lost.

While I don't want exotic species of anything in Minnesota waters, eurasian milfoil is one of the least offensive transplants, in my opinion. Still, it's one more in a long line of imports, and that's not a good thing, even if the largemouths, panfish, and pike don't seem to mind the stuff.

So, it looks like you can add Lake Superior to the many lakes in Minnesota that will force you to go over your boat with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, looking for the plant before heading back out on the highway.
9/4/06

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Fishing on a Budget -- It Really Is Possible

Like a large number of Twin City area residents, I listened last evening to "Bear Facts and Fish Tales," on KSTP, AM-1500. Hosts Mark Fisher and Larry Bollig, as usual, provided their usual mix of fishing tips and calls from listeners. Also, as usual, they took some calls from the usual cast of fishing guides.

I learn a lot from the show, and apply some of it to my own fishing, but I was struck last night with something that has bothered me for quite a while. It's not just "Bear Facts and Fish Tales," but the entire industry of fishing journalism that does something bothersome to me.

Mark and Larry, last night, were bemoaning the decrease in the number of anglers over the past few decades and were rightly worried about the fate of angling in Minnesota (and elsewhere) if more folks don't take up the sport. The future of fishing really does depend on maintaining a large, active set of anglers. Without them, revenue from license sales goes down, as does the political influence wielded by the mass of anglers. Hunters have the same situation in their sport, but I'm an angler, not a hunter, so that's where I'm going to go in this article.

Mark and Larry, as do we all, recommended that you take a kid fishing or take someone who doesn't fish with you and introduce them to the sport. It's a great idea, and I do it whenever I can.

But there's a catch in this recommendation: Mark and Larry, like a lot of seasoned anglers, have big, expensive boats full of tackle boxes full of expensive tackle. They're fully stocked with expensive electronics that let the anglers find the fish they want to catch. They own dozens of quality rod and reel combos, and spend small fortunes on maintaining their hobby. So, what does it mean if Mark or Larry or any of thousands of other anglers take a novice on a fishing trip?

Well, the novice will probably catch lots of fish, certainly. These guys are great anglers. The problem is that fishing on that level is frighteningly expensive, and the novice who accompanies these anglers is very likely to believe that all that equipment is essential for any angler. Mark and Larry would tell you otherwise, if you pressed them, but they're in the fishing business, and the fishing business thrives on the sale of all those boats and outboard motors and fishing electronics and fishing tackle. The industry really doesn't want you to think you can just go fishing on the cheap. They want to sell you a pile of stuff, much of which you'll never need or use.

Then there are the fishing magazines, the fishing shows on television, along with the annual boat and fishing shows in the Twin Cities. All are designed to do one thing: Sell products. None are about just plain, simple fishing.

So, is all that stuff necessary to catch fish? Certainly not. So why subject novice anglers to the concept in the first place that fishing is an expensive sport? As any fisherman knows, but may have forgotten, fish are everywhere there is water in Minnesota. As any of the dozens of kids in my neighborhood know, you can catch a bunch of them with nothing more than an inexpensive rod and reel, a few hooks, a bobber, and some worms out of your yard.

We've forgotten the joys of simple fishing, it seems. I'm sure Mark and Larry haven't sat on a dock and dangled a worm under a red and white bobber for a long, long time. It's way more fun to jump in the boat, race across the lake, and cast $8 crankbaits at fish you spotted on your LCD display. It's certainly fun to use a $200 rod, a $200 reel, and expensive exotic line to battle the fish. You'll even catch bigger fish more often, too.

Me? Oh, I have a boat. It's an old 12' aluminum boat from the 1960's. It's on a rickety old trailer, and has a whopping 5 hp outboard almost as old as the boat. I even have a garage sale electric trolling motor and a 1980s LCD fish locator from another garage sale that works most of the time. It shows the bottom, but rarely any fish. I don't really turn it on much, except on lakes I don't know well. I have about a dozen personal fishing rods, mostly spinning rods, with reels, and almost all of them came from garage sales, or from the combo sale rack at Mills Fleet Farm at the end of the season. I have a big tackle box, full of tackle, too, most of it acquired, again, at garage sales, end of season sales, and from miscellaneous gift cards nice people give me at Christmas.

I think I may have about $600 total invested in my entire suite of fishing equipment, including the boat. I take a lot of non-anglers out fishing. We don't go to Mille Lacs. We go to places like Bald Eagle Lake, where my tiny boat is more at home. Sometimes, I even take non-anglers shore fishing. One thing's certain: My budding anglers aren't going to get the idea that fishing is a horribly expensive sport. They're also going to catch fish, since I'm a pretty good fisherman, in an old-fashioned sort of way.

While I have that old LCD fish locator, I don't really rely on it much. I use the old-school fish locating methods. I watch the shoreline and project the structure on the fish locator inside my head. I fish the same small lakes again and again, until I know where every tree stump, rock, and hole is on the lake. If the bass aren't biting, I fish for Northern Pike. If those aren't biting, I might try for some walleyes. If none of those are biting, I'm not at all averse to anchoring near the weedline and using ultralight tackle to catch some panfish. I catch fish on every fishing trip. I haven't been skunked in years, and neither have my guests.

On the metro lakes, you can even catch panfish from every fishing dock that exists...just about anytime of day or night, and anytime the lake isn't frozen. Sometimes, you'll have a nice surprise and pick up a medium-sized bass or pike, too. Then there's the river...the Mississippi River. From any accessible location along the river, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll catch something just about any day you care to go. A container of worms, some canned corn, maybe some commercial catfish bait, a sinker, a few hooks, and you're good to go. I like places like the public dock at Harriet Island Park in St. Paul, but there are hundreds of other spots.

So, that's how I introduce non-anglers to the joys of fishing. I don't overwhelm them with fancy equipment and expensive boats. I just take 'em fishing. Normally, I'll try to go out the day before and see which strategies are going to work, then I buy 'em a one-day licence and take 'em fishing. I make sure they catch fish. I make it easy for them. I always use spinning tackle for newcomers, even kids. It's easy, and they don't have to learn the delicate art of fishing with baitcasting tackle. I don't like spincast tackle much at all, because it's not all that versatile, and when things go wrong, they go way wrong. I can teach anyone over the age of 6 to cast with spinning tackle in just a few minutes.

While we're fishing, I teach them a couple of easy-to-tie knots. I identify all the fish we catch, and talk about their life cycles and what they eat. I fish, too, and usually catch a few different fish than my guest, and those get talked over, too. I sell the idea of catch-and-release, too, and always have my digital camera to grab photos of their first catches. I point out the loons and the ducks, and any other wildlife we encounter, too.

So, they catch a few fish in a non-threatening environment, using simple tackle. Usually, I start with worms and still-fishing. It's a sure thing, most of the time, and the worms are free. I just soak a bare patch on the lawn with the garden hose, and gather the worms up. I just plain refuse to pay anyone for worms.

But...here's the final step: Remember those garage sales I mentioned? I buy rod and reel combos all the time at those sales, along with miscellaneous tackle and small tackle boxes. I tune up the reels, respool them with fresh monofilament, then fill the small tackle boxes with the essentials, including some spinners and small crankbaits. Those are the rods, reels, and tackle my guests use. When the fishing day is over, they take the whole outfit home with them. My cost is almost always just a few dollars.

If I take them in the boat, I talk about how cheap it can be to get a small boat, complete with running outboard. I usually offer to have a look at any boat they are thinking of buying. If they aren't interest in getting a boat yet, I tell them about some favorite shore-fishing spots I've found in the Metro, including one that is less than five minutes from wherever they live.

Yes, it's very important to get people started fishing. I think it's even more important to keep them fishing. If they're scared of the complexity and expense of fishing, they'll probably enjoy their day on the water, but won't venture out on their own. If they have fun and learn how they can keep having fun without breaking the bank, they'll probably keep on fishing. 

Of course, once they're hooked, they'll probably start hanging out at the boat shows and making regular visits to Cabelas, Gander Mountain, Joes, and Mills Fleet Farm. They'll become good consumers of fishing goodies, so everyone will be happy.
8/14/06

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Spiny Water Fleas -- Coming to A Lake Near You?

They're here! They're here! Spiny Water Fleas, once limited to the Great Lakes, have shown up in Voyageurs National Park on a fisherman's monofilament. The DNR is getting ready to declare Rainy Lake an infested water, giving the folks up North something else to do when they pull their boats out.

Spiny Water Flea

Down here in the Metro area, we'll already used to draining our livewells and bilges, inspecting our trailers and pulling off all the Eurasian Milfoil that has accumulated. Don't do it, and you can get a big fine. 

Spiny water fleas are another matter, though. They're tiny, almost transparent, and darned hard to see. You can't just walk around your boat and trailer, looking for strings of green stuff.

I'm not entirely sure how much of a hazard the spiny water fleas are, really. They eat up plankton that would otherwise be gobbled up by small fry. Fish don't like to eat 'em....because they're spiny and give the fish a tummy ache. Other than that, I'm not sure what hazard they represent.

For fishermen, though, they represent a real hazard. If the DNR decides that spiny water fleas are a serious problem, watch for new regulations. If you fish in an infested water, you may just have to take your boat to a carwash and hose it down with a high pressure spray of hot water. They could also require that you not relaunch your boat in a non-infested water for a given number of days, to allow the pesky little buggers to shrivel up and die.

The bottom line is that regulations might slow the spread of this questionable pest, but, as with Eurasian Milfoil, the reality is that the spread is inevitable. There's always someone who doesn't check his boat carefully, or doesn't empty his live well completely, then goes to a clean lake and continues the distribution.

The question is: How much should Minnesota fishermen be inconvenienced to prevent the spread of the spiny water flea? Nobody even knows whether this tiny critter poses a real risk to our fisheries, so it seems to me that draconian regulations that have no real chance of success are out of place.

By the way, one of my favorite places to fish for largemouth bass is in Eurasian Milfoil beds. The bass seem to like hanging out there, and so do the small 'gills and other prey fish. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had my boat on a lake that wasn't "infested" with Milfoil. I still clean it all off my boat and trailer, but only because I don't want a fine.
8/1/06

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Fishing from A Car Trunk

I drive around the metro a lot. Mostly it's visiting garage sales and estate sales, looking for good junk to sell on eBay. Today it was raining, and the garage sales were a bummer. Then, I drove past Silver Lake on Hwy 120. I can never remember if it's in North Saint Paul or Oakdale, but you get to the boat launch from Joy Ave, off Hwy 120. Don't get me started on 120...I had to write an entire article on the bizarre street naming process along that road (Read).

I really wanted to see the boat launch ramp on Silver Lake, since I'm thinking about heading over there next week. I found a nice little ramp, if a bit shallow, and with maybe 6 parking spots for trailers. The ramp is in a little cove, and lining the shore on both sides are lily pads.

So, what the heck? "I might as well try some shore fishing while I'm here," I thought. I went back to my car, opened the trunk and got my car tackle out. There was a little sprinkle going on, and the temperature was about 70 degrees, so I reasoned that I might be able to scare up a little largemouth or something out of those lily pads.

So, I tied on a little topwater weedless crankbait and went to the water. I cast neatly alongside the edge of the lily pads and started a slow, twitching retrieve. Bang! First cast...I hooked a cute 5 lb. Northern. Since I had a wire leader on, I managed to land it on shore, then quickly released it back to fight again.

That was about enough for me, and the commotion would have disturbed the little cove for a while, so I quit and packed my stuff back up and went on my way. My total time? About 15 minutes, I think.

If you fish, you should always have a way to fish in the trunk of your car. In fact, you should have tackle in all your cars. Here in Minnesota, you're never more than a couple of miles of some water, and almost all of that water holds fish. Here's my suggestion for a little setup you can put in your car. It's cheap, but has all you need to catch Minnesota's variety of fish.

Get out there and have a little fun when you're near the water...whatever water. I've slipped out of business meetings at lunchtime, and caught fish in waters all over the USA. The outfit I've described above will fit right into any luggage on trips, too.
7/21/06

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Rain Dance, Anyone?

This recent dry spell is not doing our Minnesota rivers and lakes a lot of good. You can find some good info by Clicking Here. While some rain is forecast for this week and beyond, it's really time for it to get started. Never mind the scorched lawns I'm seeing everywhere. It's the rivers and lakes I'm worried about.

We've already had some fish kill going on due to blue-green algae, in lakes around the Metro, and the river levels are dropping. Oh, you don't see it so much on the pools of the Mississippi, but smaller waters are low, low, low.

So, if you know a rain dance, have some cloud seeding equipment lying around behind the shed, or have any other tricks up your sleeve, now'd be the time to get started. Rain is predicted for tomorrow, but who knows?
7/18/06

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Another Piranha in Minnesota?

According to this story in the Duluth News Tribune (read it), some kids in Worthington, MN, caught a nice piranha in Lake Okabena. No pole needed, William Somphanthabansouk, fished the toothy piscine predator out of a drainage ditch near the lake with his hands, then stashed it in his backpack and identified it with some nifty internet research A DNR official said that he thought it was a piranha, not the usual pacu that shows up in these stories. 

Folks, if you have a piranha in your aquarium tank and it starts eating up all your other fish, don't dump the thing in the local lake. It won't survive a Minnesota Winter, and some little kid could get a bite on the finger trying to fish it out of the water.

My suggestion is that you filet the sharp-toothed predator, roll the filets in cracker crumbs, then beaten egg, then cracker crumbs again. Fry quickly in light cooking oil and serve with tartar sauce. I hear that piranha tastes just like walleye.
7/12/06

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Red Lake Tribal Fiasco -- Boycott Upper Red Lake!

Jerry Mueller, a Princeton, MN resident, never expected what happened up at Upper Red Lake back at the end of May. He and his family were in his old boat, fishing for walleye, and were doing pretty well. They'd just been visited by COs from the MN DNR.

Then, things took a different turn. Officials from the Red Lake Indian Band showed up, cited the man for fishing on their side of Upper Red Lake. They followed up by confiscating his boat and trailer. Now he's facing charges and is supposed to appear at the reservation for a hearing. You can read a more complete story here.

Here's the deal, in my humble opinion. No disrespect to the Red Lake Indian Band intended, but this whole business bites. There are a bunch of factors involved in this whole nonsense, and I'm listing them below:

This business is simply unacceptable in the United States of America. If the Red Lake Indian Band has any sense at all, they will return the man's boat and trailer, and apologize for their actions in confiscating it. I seriously doubt that will happen.

My opinion is that no Minnesota anglers should fish Upper Red Lake at all, until all the waters of that lake are open to all Minnesota residents, just as all Minnesota waters are open to all Minnesota residents, including members of the Red Lake Indian Band.

Further, the MN DNR should immediately cease any further stocking efforts on both Red Lakes. All Minnesota fishing license holders pay for this stocking. If they cannot fish the waters being stocked and regulated by the MN DNR, then no funds should be spent to stock or manage such waters.

Next, the State of Minnesota should immediately file a suit with the Supreme Court of the United States of America, the judicial body charged with hearing all such suits. That suit should seek access by all MN residents to all waters within the borders of the state of Minnesota.

I expect neither of those options to happen. I do, however, expect the first to happen. Any Minnesota angler who fishes on Upper Red Lake is countenancing these illegal actions by the Red Lake Indian Band.  With all the other fine Northern lakes available to us, there's no need to fish Upper Red Lake. Just skip it.
7/10/06

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Updated News on This Story Here!

A Kid and A Fisherman

There's always a telescoping spinning rod and a small tackle box in my vehicle. A guy never knows when he's going to encounter a bit of water on his journeys around this state of umpty-thousand lakes. I've had many fine times stopping by some water and fishing for a short time.

So, yesterday, my wife and I attended a 4th of July weekend gathering at the home of friends. They're fortunate enough to have a home right on the shores of Prior Lake. After a period of visiting with the gathering of nice folks, the sight of all that water and docks extending out past the weed line just got to be too much. I figured I wouldn't be missed, since there were lots of guests, busily engaged in conversation and in consuming various beverages, so I hiked up to the car and grabbed my traveling tackle.

When I returned, several people commented that I couldn't expect to catch anything, what with all the boats in the cove there. Now, they had a point, for that holiday weekend had brought dozens of boats of all sizes into the cove, all populated with handsome young men and decorative young women--all wearing as little clothing as possible. There was much laughter, diving into the lake, and other youthful frivolity.

Still, I reasoned, fish can't stop eating just because there are people around, so I decided to have a try at it. There was an empty dock next to my friends' house. I asked about it, and my friend said that it was a public access dock, and allowed as how it would be OK for me to fish there, so off I went.

For the anglers reading this, I rigged up with a bobber and a little jig with a floppy plastic worm, putting the bobber about 3' up from the bait. It was clear that I'd be fishing for panfish, so that seemed the best move.

On the dock, I cast this rig out, first near the submergent weeds, and then out over somewhat deeper water. From the first cast, I caught fish. First, a nice hand-sized sunfish, then a scrappy, but small, crappie, and finally a nice little largemouth bass about 11-12" long. This was fun, and the guests at my friends' gathering began to consider me part of the entertainment, tossing wisecracks and jibes down at me.

Then, a boat pulled up to the dock where I was fishing. Not a problem for me, since I was fishing the water on the other side of the dock. "Did you know this is a private dock?" the boat's driver asked. "No," I responded. "I'll leave, if you like. I didn't mean to trespass." The driver said that he didn't really mind if I fished there. He just wanted me to know that it was a private dock. (He was wrong, but never mind).

So, I continued fishing, pulling something in at least every other cast. The next thing I know, a little girl, about 4 or 5 years old, is standing next to me. She's fascinated with the process and, of course, with the wriggling fish I kept catching and releasing. She was on the boat, apparently, and had gotten off on the dock, while Dad and Mom enjoyed the view and a beverage.

"What kind of fish is that?"  "It's a sunfish," I answered, holding it flat in my hand after I unhooked it, giving her a good look. "See the bright blue markings, and the green," I offered, then released the critter after she nodded, and cast once more. The next cast brought in a black crappie, about 8" long. "The hook is in it's cheek," the kid said. As I removed the hook, I explained that the fish didn't seem to be harmed by the hook, and it cooperated by being quite still as I pointed out the dark spots marking its side, and the paper-thin mouth. She just took it in.

Next, I caught a nice little largemouth, about 12" long, lipped it and held it up to remove the tiny little jig. "That's a big one," she said. "What is it?" I told her, and showed her where the fish's jaw extended to behind the eye, and explained that was why it was called a largemouth bass.

Next thing I know, the kid plops herself down next to me and keeps on watching. I keep catching, and she correctly identifies each fish as I bring it in. I ask if she wants to touch one, and she says, "Noooo....I hate fish!" So I hold one out and explain that it can't hurt her and that she could touch it gently. Of course, she does, and then watches the fish swim away after I release it.

I'm enjoying this little encounter, but I really need to get back to the gathering, so I tell the kid that I'm going to have to quit fishing for now, but that it was nice to meet her. She thanked me very nicely for showing her the fish.

I got up, my knees creaking a bit, as they do now that I'm beginning my seventh decade on this planet. As I was leaving, the little girl asked her father, "Can we go fishing sometime." He said, "Sure. Remember that Scooby-Do fishing pole we bought?" I showed him how I was rigged up, and suggested that real worms would do even better, then went back to the party.

I hope they get that pole out and Dad takes his little girl fishing. A bobber, a hook, and a worm will guarantee that she catches as many little sunnies, crappies, and  nice little bass off that dock as she can stand. The fishing's great in that cove, just about anytime, but the connection he'll make with his young daughter will be priceless.

If you have kids, take your kids fishing. Even if you don't fish regularly, take your kids fishing. Sit 'em down on a dock, put a worm on a hook, and let 'em catch a few. And, while you're doing that, you can have a real-life conversation with them...a conversation that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. You don't even need a fishing license to take a kid fishing. As long as you don't fish yourself, you can help them without a license. Who knows? Your kid may even turn you into a fisherman.
7/2/06

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End of June at Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle Lake is one of my favorite fishing lakes...any time of year. I haven't been out on it, though, this year, until yesterday, and didn't know quite what to expect. You'll find it just past White Bear Lake, off Hwy 61 and County Rd. J. The lake has a good concrete ramp, with courtesy docks, and offers a really good range of structure. Everything from Walleye to Muskies inhabit the lake, so there's plenty to fish for. 

Thursday, June 29, was a decent, sunny day, with a high projected to hit about 82 degrees. I launched at 8:30 A.M., and immediately hit some small, but frisky largemouths in the weeds just around the point from the launch ramp. I found some more in the sunken cattail island, and there was tons of bait swimming in the weeds. I even saw what looked to be about a 25 lb. snapping turtle over by the sunken island.

I spent the rest of the morning trolling the 10-14' edge on the southeast shore. I painted a bunch of fish on my locator, but couldn't entice them to bite. A couple of more boats were also trolling that area, but didn't have any better luck.

What was surprising to me was that I took the bass in very shallow water in both spots, casting a chartreuse spinnerbait into the weeds at the edge of the water and running it fast. All the hits were in less than 12" of water. 

If you try Bald Eagle, do it during the week, and in the morning. As I was retrieving my boat at Noon, the skiers and personal watercraft folks were launching. It's a busy, busy lake on the weekends and during weekday afternoons when the weather's warm.
6/30/06

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Top Ten Phrases Used by Used Boat Sellers

So, it's time to buy a boat. Maybe it's your first boat, and maybe its just another in the long line of boats that pass through your hands. Here's a guide to things you'll hear from sellers of used boat, along with an explanation of what they really mean:

1. "No, I've never seen it leak."
What the seller means is that he just bought this boat to sell it, and has never had it in the water.

2. "The outboard ran great the last time I used it."
The key words here are "the last time I used it." You can't use an outboard that doesn't run, so he stopped using it when it broke.

3. "Great looking carpet, huh?. I just installed it."
Yes, he did...to cover up the rotten plywood under it. Carpet's cheap. Rebuilding a boat floor isn't.

4. "Those little cracks? Nah...that's normal for these boats. Not a problem."
It's normal, all right. Normally, a short time after those cracks appear, the boat sinks.

5. "The transom? No rot in there. I put those braces on for that heavy engine."
Uh-huh. Yes indeed. He put those braces on to keep that heavy engine from pulling the rotten transom off the back of the boat.

6. "Yah, these trihulls from the late sixties were terrific. Don't know why they stopped making them."
Could have been the fact that they'll beat you to death when the water's rough and the folks in front need to enjoy being wet.

7. "I had the engine checked out at the marina. The technician said it was good to go."
He had it checked 5 years ago, and the technician told him it was time for it to go...to someone else.

8. "They don't make trailer rollers like that any more."
The ones he's pointing at need to be replaced, but you can't get them any more, so you'll have to spend a couple hundred dollars for new brackets and rollers.

9. "Water skiers? Heck, I pulled four skiers behind this boat last season. She'll get 'er done."
All four were under the age of 12 and weighed less than 100 lb. They "got done" all right. Their arms were completely worn out, and they never did get up on the skis. 

10. "I'm sure glad this boat's going to you. I know you'll take good care of her."
Yup. You'll have to. Before you get to use his old scow, you're going to have to spend another $1-2 Thousand getting it seaworthy.
6/19/06

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Metro Muskie Fishing

A guy doesn't have to leave the Metro to go after big Muskies, it seems. Several Metro lakes are prime Muskie habitat, thanks to the DNR's stocking programs. I've seen several caught in Bald Eagle Lake, White Bear Lake, Lake Owasso, and even at Phalen Lake.

To learn more, check out this Pioneer Press article about Josh Stevenson, who is probably the Twin Cities best Metro Lakes Muskie hunter. Click Here for the article.
6/18/06

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Google-Planned Fishing out of Your Area

Planning a trip out of state? Heading for a business conference, or accompanying someone somewhere you'd rather not go? Why not go fishing while you're there? That's what I did on a recent trip to Nashville, TN. My wife was attending a conference...a conference I had no interest in. We were going to be in Nashville for two nights and just one full day, so I decided to pack my travel rod and a small box of tackle. But where to fish? I'd never been to Nashville. I knew that the Cumberland River wove its way through the city, so I figured there could be some decent fishing there, but access to city waters can be tough.

Here's what I did, and it's adaptable to any strange waters anywhere in the USA:

First, I hunted down the Tennessee DNR site on the web. Not all states use the DNR acronym, so you can also search for "Fishing License TN (substitute the state of interest)" to find any state's fishing and hunting authority. These days, most states sell non-resident fishing licenses on-line, so I picked up a 24-hour license for the day I'd be there.

Second, I had to find a spot to fish.  I had only about a 4 hour window for fishing that day, and had to shore-fish. I was going to have a rental car. So, I needed a good spot on the river, not too far from my hotel. I checked around on fishing sites on the web, but nobody offered any shore-fishing sites anywhere near my hotel. It was time to bring in the big guns.

Google Maps is how you find fishing spots in unfamiliar areas. Type in the address of your starting point, like a hotel, and the map will appear. Click "Hybrid" at the top of the screen, and you'll switch to a satellite photo image, centered on your hotel, with street names and places like parks, etc. overlaid on the satellite image. Use the Zoom feature to zoom in so you can see some detail, then start scrolling around the map, looking for likely spots. You can follow a river or a lakeshore easily. I was looking for public access, so I focused on parks on the river. Once I found one, I centered the map on the park, then zoomed in closer to see what structure was there.

I ended up deciding on a city park on the river. By zooming in, I found that it had a boat launching ramp, rip-rap along part of the shoreline, and even a small stream entering the river. The spot looked ideal, and it was less than a 10-minute drive from the hotel. I did great. I caught several keeper largemouths and some really nice panfish from that spot.

Want to see where I fished? Click Here! Looks like a good spot, right? Try this yourself, either for your next trip or even in your own local area. It works great, and can turn even a dull day into a fine morning of fishing.
6/5/06

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Carp, Hey, Dig 'Em

After getting my new boat (see below), ready for use, I headed for my favorite test lake, Gervais Lake, in Little Canada. I needed to make sure it didn't leak and that both motors ran OK out on the water, not just in the barrel. Since I never take a boat on the water without the full complement of fishing gear, I figured I'd fish a little, all other things being OK.

The boat floated, and didn't leak, so I turned my attention to the real reason to put a boat on a lake...fishing. Bass are always on my mind in early June, and Northern Pike are a close second. Walleye? Never mind walleye. They're overrated as a game fish, in my experience. Tasty, but overrated.

Using my favorite chartreuse spinnerbait, I started fishing around the shoreline of Gervais, working the weeds heavily. Suddenly, about 20 feet from the boat, some large fish was rolling on the water. What the heck? I instantly cast over the ripples left by the rolling. Could be a big muskie or northern over there. Nothing.

I drifted further into the weeds, with my attention focused on where I was casting. Nothing was taking my spinnerbait, so I thought I'd change to a surface lure of some kind, so I reeled in and opened my tackle box and started picking through one of the drawers, looking for just the lure that would entice the lazy bass in the lake.

Absently, I looked over the side of the boat. About three fish, each at least 2 feet long, were swimming around and under the boat. What the heck? (I'm repetitive, if nothing else). Carp! Big carp. They were everywhere. That was what had been rolling on the water earlier. Carp!

Now, carp are commonly seen as "trash" or "rough" fish here in Minnesota. They're disdained by all anglers worthy of the name. Not so elsewhere. In England, they have a status amongst anglers reserved for the Muskellunge here in Minnesota. Huge tournaments are held in Jolly Old England to catch carp. An entire industry exists selling specialized tackle to angle for this lowly fish. There must be a reason.

Indeed, carp are difficult to catch, and fight harder than almost any other freshwater fish of equal size. Yet, they are scorned here in Minnesota, except for a small circle of anglers who understand the lure of the carp.

Well, I didn't have anything in my tackle box suitable for carp fishing. Kernels of corn, doughballs...nothing. Here in Minnesota, you can even fish for them with a bow and arrow, and I didn't have one of those in the boat, either.

Next trip to Gervais Lake, though, will be a different story. Since my practice is catch and release for all species, I can see no reason not to seek these carp. We'll see if my skills are up to carp fishing. Heck! The state record carp is only 55 lb. 5 oz. I see no reason I can't do better. Optimism...a fisherman's best friend.
6/5/06

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Resurrection of a Boat

I recently sold my boat to a young guy who will be using it for fishing and family recreation. It was too large for me, since I enjoy fishing the smaller lakes around the Metro, and many of them don't allow gasoline outboards. The new owner is a happy guy, and got a very good deal on a good old boat. Moreover, Ramsey County has its pound of property tax revenue flesh...and on time, thanks to the sale of that boat.

That left me boatless, a dire affliction here in the land of who-knows-how-many lakes. The fishing opener was history, the bass opener was coming up, and I was without a boat. Oh, the horror! Adding to the misery was the financial plight of the lone blogger.  There wasn't much in the family piggy bank to finance a boat purchase.

I needed a small aluminum boat and a trailer to haul it around. I already had the requisite small outboard motor and an electric trolling motor. So, the quest began with almost hourly checks of the Twin Cities version of Craig's List. The Boats section of that outstanding site is the place of choice to search for the used boat of your dreams. In my case, my budget of just $300 was a dream itself, for nothing in that bargain-basement price range showed up for several days. Oh, there were plenty of aluminum boats and trailers, but the going price was about $800 and went up from there. Despair was beginning to set in. I was scouring the fishing web sites, looking for places to fish from shore.

Then, on a Saturday morning, I saw it. A 12' aluminum boat, with trailer, advertised for exactly $300. It was about an hour's drive from my Saint Paul house, but there were even photos of the boat. Man, was it an ugly thing, with paint covering it in patches. Its owner claimed that "it floats, and doesn't leak."

The thing about Craig's List is that you must make contact at once. Such a bargain was going to be short-lived, since many people are searching for such a cheap, but seaworthy craft. A phone number was listed in the ad...a rare thing on Craig's List, for obvious reasons. I called. A guy answered and assured me that he had this boat still. "I'll take it! " I said, no doubt with eagerness palpable in my tone of voice. "When can I pick it up?" I had been carrying three crisp new $100 bills in my wallet for two weeks, and they were crying aloud to be spent.

"Where are you coming from?" the guy asked. When I told him St. Paul, he said, "Hey, I'm running some errands in St. Paul this afternoon. If you're sure you want it, I'll pull it over there and deliver it." Such things do not happen! They simply do not. "That'd be great," I said, in a state of disbelief. I gave him my address, along with directions to my East Side house, and he said he'd be there in a couple of hours. Another rule of Craig's list is that nobody delivers anything. I could not believe my good fortune.

True to his word, he showed up at about 4 P.M., dragging this incredibly ugly boat, tied haphazardly to a decent-looking trailer. Funds and pleasantries were exchanged, the boat was backed up my driveway, and the previous owner drove away, $300 richer and quite obviously relieved to be rid of an eyesore. 

Uffda! I inspected my purchase, stem to stern. Crudely painted registration numbers decorated the prow of my new boat, along with a registration sticker with a date of 1978. This boat had not been used, legally, at least, for 28 years! Hmm... It had once been painted brown, but roughly 75% of that paint was now gone, leaving ugly patches of brown paint everywhere. It's origins were revealed further by the patches of green lichen growing on whatever paint remained. Great globs of pine pitch added to the motley finish of the exterior. This was a cabin on the lake boat...long unused. Visions of lazy summer days fishing at a family cabin drifted through my mind, followed by too-busy lives, with a boat turned upside down under a pine tree for years.

The wooden transom panel was rotted away, but there was a decent pair of oars nestled under the wooden seats. The foam-filled flotation boxes under those seats had come loose and were just sitting there, held to the seat with one screw each. More of the dirt-brown paint was on the interior of this neglected craft. While the boat came with a trailer, it was obvious that the trailer had been used for some other boat, entirely. Still, the trailer was fairly new, with good tires and well-greased bearings. Even the lights worked. A box of trailer rollers, nuts and bolts, etc. was in the boat, all brand new. Things were looking up.

There was much to be done here, before this ancient craft was going to see another lake. I set to work (after a trip to the local Mills Fleet Farm, of course, the second home for all owners of old boats). Paint remover, plywood, many screws, and more nuts and bolts, were on the list. Of course, I knew I'd be returning to the store a few more times. You can never make just one trip to Mills Fleet Farm. That is an axiom of a man's life.

So, the boat got flipped upside down on a pair of garbage cans. Paint remover was slathered on, followed by scraping, followed by more paint remover and more scraping. Eventually almost all the paint was gone, exposing long hidden, bright aluminum. The paint on the inside of the boat would have to wait, since the Bass opener was less than a week away.

Next, the trailer. I installed the rollers to ease the boat on and off the trailer. A new winch and rope got bolted to the trailer. Wooden bunks, covered with carpet, to support the boat further, were another need, but the boat had to be on the trailer so they could be properly designed and installed.  I cranked the boat onto the trailer, then adjusted the rollers to hold it level.

Now it was woodworking time. I carefully cut and installed new transom boards, painting them green, since that was the color of some paint I found under my workbench in the garage. Green is good, it seems to me. The bunks were next. I had not found appropriate hardware in any of my trips to Mills Fleet Farm. They were out of what I needed. I assume there were others, like myself, resurrecting old boats in the Metro Area. I did not have time to wait, so I cobbled together some brackets from yet another trip to the store, carpeted a couple of 2 X 4s, and spent an anxious couple of hours moving and adjusting and re-adjusting these supports, until the boat sat proudly on the trailer, perfectly level and even. The several loadings and unloadings of the boat during this process gave me a nice, sharp lower back ache to remind me of my labors.

Things were looking pretty good, so I decided to rectify the ancient, outdated registration numbers and sticker. A nice lady at the Maplewood City Hall, was very helpful, when I explained the history of my new acquisition. "Since 1978, then?" she queried, skepticism redolent in her voice. "That's pretty far back. I'm not sure we have a record that far back. It will be harder if we don't have a record, you see." She began frantically tapping on the keyboard of a computer connected to the Minnesota DNR's boat registration site.  "Well, what do you think about that?" she continued, "Here's your boat, right here, and after all those years. It looks like it belonged to a fellow up in Lutsen, then. I don't suppose you have a bill of sale." I confessed that I did not. She clucked her tongue quietly, then took pity on me. "Well, the fellow is probably dead after all those years, anyhow, and you don't seem the type to steal an old boat," she offered. Then, with a few more clicks on the keyboard, a tongue of adhesive registration tags emerged from the printer. "That'll be $36, then, and you'll be all set." I paid, and left, amazed at the flexibility of such things, here in Minnesota. Such a thing could never happen in my old state of California. I didn't even find out the name of the man from Lutsen. But, never mind...wherever he might be, I'm sure he's pleased that his old boat will once again be fulfilling its role.

Well...the story's almost over. The boat's sitting on my back lawn, outboard ( fresh from a tune-up) and trolling motor firmly attached to the transom. A couple of rod holders (another trip to Mills Fleet Farm), a nice red gasoline tank and brand new deep cycle battery are in the boat. Two life jackets, one throwable PFD, an anchor in a Fleet Farm bucket and a pair of oars are in the boat. I'll load the rods and tackle boxes tomorrow. All in just a week of puttering.

It's Bass opener tomorrow. If you want me, you'll have to head up to Demontreville Lake over in Lake Elmo. I'll be the guy in the semi-shiny, $300 (well, about $450 by now...do not speak to my wife of this, if you don't mind), resurrected boat, happily casting for bass. I won't have my cell phone on, so don't bother calling.
5/26/06

Must-See Fishing Links

Minnesota DNR Official Site

WebDude's
My Fishing Pals--Dedicated to Minnesota Fishing

Twin Cities Bait Shops

East Metro

Blue Ribbon Bait & Tackle
(My East Metro favorite )

Other Useful Links for Anglers

Metro Area Boat Ramps, Etc.
Minnesota Fish Species
Fishing Knots -- Animated

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