Zach hold a nice smallie , we spent yesterday and Monday afternoon fishing Pokegama. Monday we got beat up bad with winds up to 25 MPH and 3 foot waves. Thursday was a treat with mostly calm winds and sun in the afternoon. The eyes were spotty but we did catch enough to stock Z and family with fish for the week. Today(Friday I take a break to visit with Jackie) recently my fishing and golfing has made our convesations only via the cell phone. I love an understanding wife and I appreciate the freedon that she allows me :-)) !!

Hope all readers can find a good woman that understands the needs of an active life!!

Steelheader

 

Tika was busy watching the loons all day and I had to hold her tight to get a picture with me. OH and this nice small mouth bass.

 

I did catch walleyes......one was too small too keep and then this one was suicidal and found my hook. He was 6 lbs and was lucky enough to be released. Nice fish, nice pic!!

 

The smallies were large and fiesty we caught many and some tried to rip your arm off.

 

I got suckered into this picture!! Zach said we have taken a picture of a northern in awhile, hold that one you caught and I'll take a picture. Easy and stupid, so here it was a pike of rather small proportions. We did catch bigger ones!

 

Zach holds a fat eye from Pokegama.

 

Teague got his bait in the weeds and and landed this northern. I tried to take the kids to Red Lake but the waves were too large with good rollers so we spent time on a smaller lake and caught a fish apiece. It was alot of driving but a good time was had by all.

 

Cade displays his catch of the day, a very handsome perch that got lucky and was released to harrass someone else.

 

On a recent fishing trip we spotted this Loon family. Usually they have two chicks but on this northern and musky lake it probably made a quick lunch for a large fish.

 

This first fish boated in his new rig was his and it was an eye! He threatened that if it was a northern he was cutting the line. Obviously it was the first of many walleyes to come.

 

Trout alke has been tough on me this year so far. I'll released this catch of the day. :-((

 

Although we did fish last eveing the main reason for going out was to get Z's new boat fishing ready. He picked up in the afternoon and we were on the water 2 hours later. Nice rig, really a boat of your dreams. NICE!!

 

Zach has been hot this year and found another large walleye on Trout Lake. Here's he hoists a 27" beauty.

 

Ken joined us later in the evening and did catch a nice eye....24".

 

Mickey caught 2 large fish with this one being 22". He caught and released 4 small eyes and only lost 3 jigs. It was a beautiful night on Lost Lake with the mosquitoes present but not overwhelming. It was hard to convince Mickey that he had to risk loosing jigs by casting into shore as close as he could to catch the bigger fish. After seeing me boat some 15-20" fish and loosing 3 others he finally got brave and caught 2 nice eyes next to the bushes. Great Job!!

Another great night fishing,

Steelheader

 

I found 6 nice walleyes last night at Lost. In all Mickey boated 15 eyes with alot of small fish released.

 

I went fishing tonight with Zack and Ken to see if we could have as good fishing as the day before. Z was hoping to have Ken settle into some fast walleye fishing. As luck goes it did not produce any fast action but we did catch a fair number of fish, though it was a long hard evening. The best part of the evening was the scattered storms did not get close to us and the temperature and the winds cooperated making for an enjoyable night. Maybe Zach can get the Jinx ( ouch...KEN) out sometime when the fishing will be fast.

It was a great evening of fishing Z and Ken,

Thx

Steelheader

 

Ken was funny tonight he told Zach that he was going to fish his way and he would catch a fish. It took awhile but his method paid off with this nice 22" eye. Great pic and a great evening of fishing.

 

Last night Zach, Stu, and I went fishing to a lake I've never been to and the fishing was fantastic. After looking for the landing for an hour Stu finally figured out the map and his memory of the lake and we were fishing by 7:30 and pulled up on fish immediately. The point yeilded 3-4 fish on every pass and they were all 16-19" beauties. As the evening went on and the sun set we moved to a shoreline and found some big fish. As you can see from the 29 1/2" fish I'm holding. I also released a 26" fish and Z caught the fish in the following pic in the same area.

It was a great night, hope you can all get out and HIT the great bite happening right now,
Gottcha Z,

Steelheader

 

Zach put us on fish as usual and the fish caught were all perfect eating size, but this one was a great 24 1/2" eye that had to be seen by all. Look at his fat lip, his gal friend must of punched him....I'll never ask tho!!HEHE!!

Winnie Madness Fishing Is Done With The Memory Of A Lifetime

I finished my Winnie week! There are many memorable moments but the few I will share have RAIN associated with them. I still have a pair of boots that will take another week to dry.

Monday , Tuesday, and Wednesday Zach was the guide and we tried a lot of jigging and some crank baiting and caught great numbers of fish each day. We stayed on the south shore along the high banks area and had to release many fish in the 18-22” size range. Zach left to bid on a garage that needs to be built and I finally got to take my boat out to see if the problems of an annoying alarm were fixed.

Wednesday evening I took my first real soaking, I got out about 5 and the weather looked marginal. I fished an hour and caught 4 keepers and released 2 over the slot. The storm came on fast and I was about 2 miles from the landing. When I got to the landing the waves were in the 2’ range and 2 other boats had to land before me. Needless to say I sat in a downpour longer than I wanted.

Thursday was the day I went out exploring and I found the motherload on Mallard Point. With a light wind coming into the point I kept away from the boats( 15+) and stayed low on the point and found a school of large eyes. I caught 15 of the nicest fish I had seen on Winnie, all the fish were 15” and up and I kept all 15 and 16” fish. And released many in the 19-22” range.

Friday was a 2 outing day I fished Bill Hulkonen in the morning and we fished Farley Creek with many fish caught and we released 4 fish over the slot with 3 over 22”. Bill was a hard case when it came to the jigging routine, he was convinced that he could just drag his bait and catch fish. Convinced that aggressive jigging worked he started to catch the fish he had been missing all day. The last hour he made up for his misses….WTG Bill.

Friday evening was the first time that I was able to wader fish the River below the Dam. Jeff V showed up and we spent 3 hours catching mostly pike and perch. I did catch 3 keeper eyes and a 24” scarred fish that I caught and released twice.

Saturday Mickey showed up and with the weather looking like rain we were prepared to get wet so off fishing we went. We had caught many fish with most small when the rain began and it was steady for the next 3 hours that we fished. In all we caught over 35 fish and had one limit of fish 14-16”. Mickey caught and released a 22” and 23” eye so he was a happy camper even though the picture I took of him holding a nice fish doesn’t show it. I think I have yet to take a picture of him smiling. I guess he thinks his scowl of his is sexy. HEHE!!

Bill came back on Sunday afternoon and we fished Farley Creek and caught our limits of small fish and cooked them up for a big fish bake that evening. On Monday morning before we left Bill and I had time for one more wader fishing expedition below the Winnie Dam. I will say again I had packed everything but the rod I was using. The fishing started out slow with pike and perch making the usual pests of themselves. We did start catching some walleyes. Bill caught the same 24” scarred fish that I caught with Jeff on Friday. Then I hooked onto a very big fish. It didn’t make any big runs but would not move much as I put pressure on him. After about 5 minutes he came close enough and I got a glimpse of a large brown fish and said to Bill I may have a huge dog fish because we have caught some big dogs in Little Winnie over the years. A few minutes later I got the fish close enough to see the head and saw that it was a walleye. To get to the point the fish was the eye of a life time. It was a dull brown in color and an old spawned out female that was 32 ½ inches long. The tail was so beat up it was frayed with no white markings on the bottom. With a large eye mounted and a rather ugly looking super large fish in hand….. I let it go to fight another day. Now that makes for a great trip the biggest fish ever in the last hour.

NO PICTURES but a great witness in BILL,

Steelheader

 

A late evening catch...we pounded them one night.

 

More eye candy from my Winnie fishing week!

 

This 20+ walleye had to go back, Zach has a knack of finding fish to catch....Tkx BUD!!

 

Its a nice eye but look at the outer wear, YES it was cold and rainy this morning.

 

Zach and I were out fishing one early morning and this cloud or fog closed in on the High Banks area of Big Winnie. It was odd enough to get a picture and have it turn out in this low light.