Non Target Species

Tim and I hit the river yesterday. On the water at 6 am and fished until 3. We brought in a number of smallies including a flurry of fish that were stacked in a back eddy under the foam. We had to anchor in pretty heavy flow but the action was well worth it. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the day was the presence and apprehension of what my buddy Shocks calls "Non-Target Species". In addition to the smallmouth we also brought to hand: 1 Northern, 2 Channel Cats, 1 Mooneye, 1 Walleye, 3 White bass and a Gar. Pretty interesting water. Take a look.

Upstream on the Sconny

Met Shocks and camped on the river Saturday night. Slept but little. 5 am wakeup and a 6:15 launch. 3 fished hooked 2 landed. Fishing was superb, catching was a little slow. Floated an estimated 2 river miles and motored back up very very carefully. There are more rocks in this section than crayfish and you wouldn't believe the number of crayfish. The one that got away ripped an honest 50 feet of line off of my reel... thought maybe I'd hooked an atlantic salmon in the big W. Take a look.


I think Shocks and Jon Johnson got along well.

Minnesota 4th O' July

I took the family and Jon Johnson home to Minnesota for the 4th. Smallmouth bass were caught including a few nice fish during the Hex Hatch. A few walleyes were caught by my Brother Kev during the Hex Hatch (I lost both of the fish I hooked...damn it.) and although I tried for hours to bang a Northern Pike on an inland lake, it wasn't until I was casting a deceiver for lake trout in Lake Superior that I finally managed one 4 pound pike. I suspect I was a tad more surprised than the fish. I also spent a morning pulling herring nets in Superior with my father in law. No trophy fish were caught but it was very fishy outing nonetheless...

And one for the utha brutha...

Kev gets one, so T-mos gets one...
(is anyone else tired of looking at T-Mos holding fish? Damn you T-mos...damn you.)

simply a cool photo

Kev sent me this shot from a recent foray into the BWCA for a daytrip with his trusty hound...

Fishing is awesome.

John and I went back to the big river for some smallmouth. I shot a picture of the boat at the landing at 7 am. Pure potential energy. You get the sense when the day starts that anything goes. The sky is the limit. You might hook a whale or snag a mermaid. Well, as it turned out, we did neither. What we did do is boat an astronomical number of smallmouth. 50-75 we estimated. I'm going to guess the average size at 13 inches, but we got some fish pushing 16-17" as well. Regardeless of size, they all put a bend in our 7 and 8 weights. Who needs mermaids?