spring fishing

this is just gonna be a quick post showcasing a few fish from some recent trips. 5 days from now i will be driving 14 hours south to target some new lifelisters with the main goal being alligator gar.

i added another species to my list this week from a lake 5 minutes from home. i got a tip from a friend about a large lake overrun with wild goldfish. i set up my flyrod to toss free lined bread balls to schooling fish and in no time had a new lifelister.

the trout fishing has been good as usual. currently with all the rain my spot is unfishable. it is up several feet and looks like chocolate milk. i did manage to get out before all the weather and catch my biggest of the year so far a solid 25" brown. i probably won't be able to fish that spot until i return from my trip but until then i have a lake with some large bows. i just got a new inflatable and hit the lake recently catching several nice sized fish.

i even managed to get out and fish one of my favorite river spots before the flooding last week and caught one of the prettiest bowfin i have ever seen as well.

normally i don't keep many fish but recently on one of the rivers i gill hooked a 23" brown and it would not release so it came home with me. nothing beats fresh trout cooked on the grill! its very easy to prepare and tastes amazing. i just gut the fish then place it in foil with butter onions garlic black pepper old bay seasoning siracha sauce and lemon slices wrap it up and put it on the grill until its cooked to the point where the skin peels right off and the meat falls from the bones.

spawning pike

took a hike around a river close to home hoping to find some spawning suckers but instead found pike. lots and lots of pike. had no luck catching any but i did get a close up photo of a big one hiding in a log jam and even a video of some spawning in the shallows.

no spring in sight

with what seems to be a never ending winter this year the only fish i have been having any luck with have been trout. majority of my river spots are blown out and with an additional 10-15" of snow in the forecast its going to be even longer before anything is fishable. i've caught a few redhorse, pike, carp and even a lifelister quillback but mostly just brown trout. it's been fun but i must say i am getting pretty sick of trout. here are a few catches so far this spring.

lifelister quillback

with how slow things have been i have taken more scenery photos of some favorite fishing spots of mine instead of fishing. here are a few favorites from this winter.

north shore

every october i take a weekend off and head to the north shore to do some salmon fishing. this year i made one stop on the st. louis to try for gobys and ruffe. it was ridiculously cold and windy so detecting bites was nearly impossible. if that wasn't enough the spot was loaded with tiny yellow perch that grabbed the bait almost instantly. i spent an hour freezing on the river bank catching one tiny perch after another. i started thinking about giving up because it was already 1pm and i had a few hours of driving ahead of me. right as i reeled in i noticed i had a small fish on the end of the line and sure enough it was the goby i was after! satisfied with the new lifelister i got back on the road and continued north. 

i met up with my brother in lutsen and we headed down to a favorite spot of mine hoping for some big salmon. we were not disapointed one bit. looking over the cliff into the river we could see dozens of them. i tossed fluorescent orange egg flies while he threw around a small spoon. on my first cast i landed a nice coho and almost as soon as i got it unhooked and back in the water randy hooked up on a nice fish. it turned out to be a 23" rainbow! a great catch.




randy didn't have much luck with the salmon, he hooked up on two but lost both fish i was a little more fortunate and ended up getting another nice one followed by a new personal best 16" brook trout.






the second day we went farther north to fish the river where i caught my lifer coho last year. we saw quite a few fish but only managed to catch one. it ended up being a new personal best at 21 inches.



we headed back to the first spot to try and get randy a coho. it didn't take long for a nice one to blast his spoon. 





i caught a few more on the egg flies before hooking into something that felt a little different. as i brought the fish closer i noticed red on the belly, it was a brookie and a giant one at that! soon the fish was brought to the net. i didn't think i would beat my 16" personal best over the weekend but sure enough this fish was bigger. 17 inches long and fat! an absolutely amazing fish with the most beautiful coloration i have ever seen. 



i made the drive back this morning stopping at a few fishing spots along the way with no luck. i wish i could've stayed a few more days. i think i'm gonna have to go back very very soon.

bullhead bonanza

i finally caught the last minnesota species of bullhead for my lifelist, a yellow. i have had a hunch as to where to find them and with a little help from a friend i was able to locate a good population of them. at the spot i also caught some very large black bullheads and a suprise giant brown bullhead. 

first yellow bullhead

larger yellow

large black bullhead

personal best brown bullhead

                                     

st. croix crocodiles

took my buddy greenwood out fishing on the st. croix in hopes of getting his first longnose gar. we started off the day targeting other species with just crawlers on the bottom but didnt have much luck. i caught a few small drum and kept them for bait. i rerigged both of our bottom rigs with floats set about 2 feet above the hook and we moved down to the mouth of the canal. we cast the lines a few feet out and it didn't take long before greenwoods float shot under and his rod doubled over. unfortunately the fish didn't stay on. the next cast he threw made up for losing the fish because again he got a take almost instantly. the fish pulled hard and thrashed all over until he dragged it up onto the bank. a nice longnose gar and a new species for greenwood.

we continued to fish this way and caught one gar after another.

 i even caught my new personal best 30" longnose.

greenwood even got a lifelister shortnose gar and a nice one at that.

we fished into the night and eventually the gar bite turned off. we rigged up a rod with a huge chunk of cut fish and the other three with worms. we continued catching nothing but drum and bluegill for about an hour till greenwood hooked into something much larger. the fish didn't even bite he just adjusted the rod and felt the fish on the end of the line. it screamed the drag several times and eventually was brought closer to shore. i waded out to get a better look and saw a large pale fish in the light of the lantern. i grabbed ahold of it and carried it to shore. it was a smallmouth buffalo. i have dreamed of catching them for a long time and must say i am quite jealous of greenwood for beating me to it.

the bite slowed down and we began packing everything up. just as i was going to pick up my line with the large cutbait chunk the clicker screamed out. i let it run a few seconds and picked it up only to miss the fish. next week i will be back here night fishing to see what else lurks in the depths of the st. croix.

a week on the river

i spent the last week in western wisconsin in a small cabin by a lake. the lake held quite a few large panfish but not much else so i spent my time fishing the nearest river. the water was crystal clear and packed with fish.

the smallmouth bass fishing was incredible. in the crystal clear water it was not hard to spot large fish holding behind structure. the middle of the channel was shallow and easy to wade pitching a gold bead head wooly bugger hehind every rock and boulder on the river produced a fish.

redhorse were also quite abundant in the river. silvers, goldens and shortheads were everywhere with the occasional greater passing through. we even saw a few tiny lake sturgeon swim by. my brother Randy caught the first fish of the day and it was also his first redhorse, a shorthead. we caught dozens more along with some goldens and silvers there over the next few days .

 one of the days we fished the spot we caught all the redhorse at we had the perfect day to sight fish and spent our time tossing crawlers in front of fish. i watched in awe as a giant redhorse cruised right in front of me. i tossed a crawler a few feet ahead of it and drifted it down till it was in front of the fish. i saw its mouth move and my crawler vanished. i set the hook and the fish took off towards a down tree i turned it around and after a short fight had it up by shore. randy ran down to the water and soaked his shoes to land the fish. i had finally caught my lifer greater redhorse.