panther martin trophy fish of the week contest

so i have submitted a few fish to panther martin's trophy fish contest they do every week. each week one winner is awarded  the title of trophy fish of the week along with 50 dollars worth of panther martin tackle for their submissions. a few weeks back to my surprise a bowfin i submitted won the contest. my 50 dollars worth of spinners has arrived and i cant wait to get out and use them.

could i be having a better winter?

usually winter for me consists of fishing warm water discharges for carp and muskies with the occasional trout outings. i still can't wait for summer but this year winter has been going so well i haven't been feeling as down about the cold weather as i usually am. the discharge fishing this year has been very slow only producing one shad and a decent sized musky.

the trout and pike fishing on the other hand has been absolutely incredible this year. i caught multiple personal best brown trout this year

so we have had a very mild winter this year and i began noticing there seemed to still be many carp hanging around in areas they normally would not be this time of year. distracted by trout fishing i didn't take time to target them but was always tempted when i would walk up to one of the pools and see a dozen large carp cruising through. i finally couldn't take it anymore and had to get out and try for these fish. i tried crawlers first and although i had no carp take the bait i did catch a white sucker.

i continued fishing the spot over the next few days trying corn. the fish were active but barely. they would almost suck on the bait for a second then swim away. i hooked a few and had many takes but no fish landed. finally on valentines day i got my cold water carp.

last day of fishing for a few weeks

so tomorrow i am getting two inguinal hernias surgically fixed and my recovery time is 3-8 weeks. knowing id be out for a while i tried my best to have the last few days of fishing till the surgery be good trips. i kinda failed at that. most of them i got completely skunked. aside from a few small browns and sauger i didnt catch much of anything. i made it out for one last day and stuck a little closer to home. this spot is really where i should have been going in the first place.


there were shad surfacing everywhere in the thousands so i threw a bare treble hook on my fly rod and instantly had bait. i put the wounded shad on one of my lines and corn on the other. within minutes the line with the shad got a solid bite. the fish felt pretty heavy so i was expecting a catfish. to my suprise it was a very large drum.

i really wish i got better pictures. this doesn't do the fish justice.

for a while during the day i couldn't even rebait my cutbait line because i was getting too much action on the corn. i didn't really take much for pics because none of the carp were all that big but i must have easily caught 20 of the things in only a few hours of fishing.

average carp from the spot

after a while the carp slowed down so i had time to go snag another shad and bait up my second rod. i got a shad of about 5 inches chopped it in half and threw the bait into the middle of the channel. about 30 minutes later i got a bite. very strong fish so i was thinking flathead. as i got the fish closer it came launching into the air and revealed itself. a lake sturgeon and a pretty good one. i waded out to about my waist in the water and attempted to grab it by the tail to land it. ive done this before but not with one this big. the fish had other plans and shot between my legs. i managed to pull off the whole "stand on one foot rod through the legs 180 degree turn" maneuver and luckily it worked and i didnt snap my rod. my next attempt to land the fish was much more successful. 

most of the carp i caught and my sturgeon all had large lampreys clinging to them. i pulled them off and placed them in an empty container. the idea is that they might not be bad cutbait for a later trip.

micro sunfish

was targeting some minnows for the lifelist and caught this little guy.



didnt get the minnows i was after but they will always be there next time.

kicking ass.

so a lifelist goal of mine was finally accomplished this year. i caught my first longnose and shortnose gar two days apart. the longnose were caught on minnows under a float and the shortnose grabbed a gold wooly bugger.

excuse the fact that im in the shire. i got complaints that the background of the picture was too revealing so i improvised.

 the first day i caught all the gar i also was able to get into a pretty dandy river redhorse. such beautiful fish. i really love catching these things.

 and in other news my recent trip to the north shore was an absolute blast i caught my first lake trout splake and coho salmon. of course many brookies and pinks were caught as well. i always look forward to spending time in that area targeting various salmonoids.

 

splake trout hybrid lake x brook

upon returning from up north i caught a personal best drum for fly tackle from the st. croix.

 and last but not least another species recently added to my lifelist was this little guy. a blackside darter.

more luck with the mudcats

so last weekend my friends from fargo came down to visit and while i waited for them to get to town i loaded a bucket with chubs and drove to my river spot. i only had about an hour and it wasn't fully dark yet so i did not have high hopes. literally 10 minutes into fishing i get a buzz on my clicker but miss the fish. i cast back out and within seconds another buzz. this time i got it. the fish fought really hard and it was difficult to land on the steep rocks by myself but i got him in. i set the camera on a ledge and snapped a self timer shot. after that i didn't have enough time to try for another one but after getting a nice one like this i don't mind one bit.

river kitties

so earlier in the week while fishing one of my typical catfish spots i had an interesting encounter with a large fish. i was using my usual flathead rig a 6' diawa esox edition xheavy rod abu garcia baitcast reel 80lb power pro 2 oz no-roll sinker and 10/0 circle hook, live bullhead for bait. after a few hours of waiting i get a take. the reel buzzed for about 10 second i picked up the rod and set the hook. the fish on the other end pulled back insanely hard. it took off into the faster deeper water then snapped my line. i must have had a weak spot somewhere because that stuff should not break. we only managed one catfish all night and it was caught on a panther martin #2. sort of odd but knowing flatheads typically are more predatory catfish i guess im not too suprised.

i decided i would try again last night with the same rig and also pick up some chubs to use for the other various predators that are found at this spot. this time it did not take more than an hour of waiting before i got into a flathead. i was using my medium light rod and a chub on a float. the rod is far too long for fighting in such strong fish in fast current and i ended up snapping the rod in half. luckily its under warranty and as an added bonus i still landed the fish. a decent flathead but still a baby.

as i was releasing the fish i heard the bell on my other rod start ringing. this was my larger setup. it had a wounded 8 inch creek chub on as bait so i knew it was most likely a good fish going after it. i got over to the rod as fast as possible and set the hook. this was a much better fish. even the big rod was having trouble maneuvering the fish away from any structure it could run into. i got it up close passed the rod to john and hopped onto the river bank. we had no net but it didnt matter. the fish would not have fit anyways. john guided it in towards me and i got both hands on its mouth. this was a much nicer flathead at least double the size of the last one.

after that the fishing seemed to die down alot. we had a few hits here and there and john reeled in a turtle but other than that nothing special happened. by this time it was around 2 am and we decided if we dont get any action in the next half hour to call it quits. i switched over to a lighter rod and crawler fished for a while. still not much happened so we started to pack up. at 2:28 i got a hard bite on the crawlers. the fish put up a wonderful battle. after a few minutes passed i had it in close. it was a big channel cat. my first big channel all year.

after releasing it we fished a little longer but nothing happened so around 4am we drove home and got some sleep. not a bad night of fishing and im hoping to get back out to this spot a few more times while the cats are still hungry.