I've Finished My Livewell for 2012

Check out my best fish of 2012 by clicking on the Livewell 2012 tab under my blog header or just click on that link.  It was a pretty good year considering I barely fished after hurting my back on June 28th:  I was OK for the Bass Snatchers Leech Lake Tournament on the 30th.  I was in worse shape for the tournament at Whitefish Chain on the 15th of July , although I didn't mention anything in the tournament recap.  My back and leg were really giving me issues by the 28th of July at the Pokegama Tournament.  And my back went out on me totally the Thursday after I went out on the Launch at Eddy's with Spike and Dad on Monday July  30th.  I only blogged twice in August and September with my last fishing of the year being at the Fishers of Men Fall Outing on Sept 27-29.

Eddy's Launch with Spike and Dad

This evening my old boss at Gander Mtn in Maple Grove Mike "Spike" Miller got together a group to go out on a launch out of Eddy's Resort on Mille Lacs Lake and Dad and I went along.  The weather was warm, but not to hot, mostly sunny with a bit of a walleye chop.  We started off going for smallies in some shallow rocks.  My dad's rod had a problem with the bead getting on the wrong side of the bobber stop.  Several small smallies were caught and Jessica my old roommate from when I lived in Champlin got a 17"er.

I didn't get Dad's rod in order for about 35 minutes and by then we were heading out for walleye's.

Spike got the first eye of the trip with this 26.5" which was the big fish for the launch.

It was a slow night with only about 6 or 7 walleye's caught for 20 of us.  I lucked out and got the last eye of the night as we were pulling up anchor.

24.5"

I think dad might have had a bite, but am not totally sure.  It was good night to see some old friends.

Tonight's Launch At Eddy's with Dad

Tonight Dad and I finally got out on another Launch trip out on Mille Lacs.  The weather was almost perfect, maybe a tad warm.  Dad started things off with this 23" fish.

I couldn't see the screen to know I cut it off.  Then Dad got a 24" fish.

Then Dad got a 22" fish.

Finally I got on the board with a 23" eye.  Unfortunately the setting sun is behind my head or it would have been an awesome picture.

Then I got a 24" er.

Dad closed out the night with the last fish on the Launch and the only keeper for us non- Native American's on the boat.  It was a 15inch eye.

All fish were caught on a red hook with single yellow bead.  I think Dad caught the most fish on the launch,  maybe one other lady got 4 as well.

Mille Lacs Eddy's Launch with Dad

Well I screwed up and forgot the camera.  I did take pics on Dad's cell phone but I can't figure out how to transfer them to the computer.  Oh well.  It was a good trip with me getting 7 Eye's. 2x16" keepers, 2x 18", 2x22", and a 24".  Dad got a 23" and missed two fish.  One of the misses happened when his line broke on my rod way up by the rod.  I was able to retrieve the bobber and set up.  No clue why the line broke.  My setup was a yellow bead, and red hook. I caught the most on the launch.  People also gave us 2 fish, so we are getting a meal out of it.  Apparently the group of 9 of us got 27 fish total.

Eddy's Launch With Dad (Last Night)

Last night Dad thought it would be a nice night to go out on a launch on Mille Lacs and so I said OK and we headed over to Eddy's around 5PM. Being that we got to Eddy's early I brought rods to try for some smallies off the Jetty. As per usual this year, that was a bust. Dad and I went out on the Eddy's Flagship, which is the biggest launch on Mille Lacs Lake. Dad got me a spot on the back of the launch and he was one spot off to the side. I got us rigged up with beads and hooks. First we headed in the direction of Rocky Reef.

I drew first blood on the boat with a perch. The picture is actually my second one, because I didn't think to take a picture of the first. As we were out on this spot a kayaker went by heading much farther out in to the lake. Our first spot didn't give up any walleye in the first hour and a half, so we moved right out to where the kayaker was fishing. We did see the kayaker catch a few fish.
Anyway, at the new spot I got some bites right away, but it wouldn't take it. Other people on our launch started catching walleyes to big to keep and the action was pretty steady until it got dark. After shaking my bobber pretty good my bobber shot down, but when I set the hook the fish didn't hook up. As it was Dad got the first walleye for us.
I was beginning to think it wasn't going to be my night as everyone around me had caught a fish or two, but my bobber did go down and this time I hooked up. I thought it might be a keeper at first, but then it started fighting harder. It turned out to be this 19" fish being held here by our deck hand Jim.

Once it got to be about 9:30PM the bite shut down. The guy between me and Dad caught 4 eyes and the only keeper for the whole launch of 30+ people. However, some small eye's were thrown back. I think a total of 9 eyes were caught by the 4 of us off the back of the boat and I only got 1.

As you can see from the last picture there was a spectacular sunset, but I didn't really get to see it as I was facing the other way.

Eddy's Launch Mille Lacs w/Dad and Don

Dad, Don W. and I went out on an Eddy's Mille Lacs Launch on a cool and blustery night (Wed). Hard to believe it was almost 100 degrees just a day before. Temps during the launch were in the low to mid 60's. When we arrived at Eddy's just after 5:30PM the Flagship (Eddy's biggest boat) was already gone and there was a long line of people waiting to pay. Usually that early there is just a couple of people or no wait at all.

Anyway, we were among the 1st to be assigned to Boat #6 and we were able to get the back of the boat. I got Dad and I rigged up and we were off, just after 6PM. We headed North just SW of Indian Point in about 11 feet of water. First stop was dead so we moved closer to Indian Point within about an 1/8 of a mile West of Rainbow Island. Don had a fish on here and lost it. The anchor didn't hold in the wind and we soon moved back towards the general area we started in. That was dead so we moved again and then again. On the next stop Dad got a fish immediately before I had a chance to set his depth. I thought maybe he snagged in the rocks, but it was a fish. Unfortunately his line broke up by the rod.

In this spot a lady brought the first fish in, a keeper walleye. Then Don caught a keeper walleye. I had seen enough and switched to a yellow bead similar to what Don and Dad had. Dad missed a bite. A little later I got a keeper then missed two bites. A lady caught a smallie. I caught a cigar eye that I threw back and Dad caught a nice keeper eye and that was it. Once it got kind of dark the bite shut off.

It's always a good trip when you get fish. We gave ours to Don.

Also of note this trip was that there was a loud foul mouthed obnoxious woman who was putting down a few beers and almost never shut up.

What Was Your Best Fishing Moment of 2010?

This was the question asked on Facebook yesterday, by the guys at Wired2Fish.

For me three things come to mind.

May 23rd I caught this 20.25" smallie off of Eddy's Jetty. It is my personal best smallmouth bass.

On May 24th Dad, Pete, and I went on a morning launch trip with Eddy's Resort. We were the only 3 customers that day so we got to go drift fishing with live bait rigs; Normally a launch trip means bobber fishing. Between Dad and I we caught 5 walleye's missing several bites as well. Pete got skunked and our Captain caught a walleye and a big rock.

Another great memory from 2010 was my great pre-fish day on Rabbit Lake with Bass Snatcher Guy Henkensiefken. I was just telling Guy about a topwater pattern I knew about from an In-Fisherman video when this 19.25" fat boy annihilated my Berkley Frenzy Popper. The fishing for me was great that day and Guy was a pleasure to share a boat with.

Eddy's Launch with Dad

Today Dad and I went on the 8AM-Noon Eddy's Launch. Conditions were overcast with some sprinkles with a Nw wind about 4MPH diminishing to about 2MPH by the time we left. Upon leaving the harbor we took a 30+ minute ride to a feature they call Tom's. Our captain Brian said it isn't on any map. All 3 launches went to this spot.

About 3 minutes in my bobber went down, but when I set the hook my drag was too loose and the fish got away. It is bad luck to miss the first fish of the launch and just like the time that happened to me before I got skunked again. I did have one more fish play with my leech but not take it.

At our first stop Dad got the 19 inch walleye in the picture. Walleye's from 18" to 28" are protected so it had to go back. Our first spot only produced sporadic action but we stayed there until the last hour. We moved to a 2nd spot and Dad got a little perch. The second spot wasn't giving up anything and the other two launches had gotten into a good area and so we moved by them. In the last half hour I would say a dozen walleye's were caught on our launch with people missing several others. Neither Dad or I got a bite. We also watched numerous fish get caught on the other two launches. I did make a late switch to get rid of my beads but it didn't help. Our captain did keep us fishing the longest and we got in about 15 minutes after Noon.

First skunk for me on a launch this year. I suppose 75% success isn't bad.

Eddy's Launch With Pete

Today Pete and I went out on the Eddy's Morning Fishing Launch. The original launch we were scheduled to be on was from 8AM-Noon, but Eddy's was over run with people wanting to go out and called in a 2nd Captain to go out from 8:30AM-12:30PM. Pete and I jumped on that ship hoping there would be less people and when all was said and done there were maybe 4 or 5 less people on this 2nd launch. Another reason we jumped ship was because we didn't get the back of the launch on the 1st boat.

We left the harbor right around 8:30AM and I was a bit surprised once we got out a ways from shore just how big the rollers on the lake were. We headed out to a spot SW of Indian Point near a rise that comes up to 25ft of water out of about 28 feet of water. We weren't there long and a guy close to me got a good bite, but didn't get a good hook set. A couple of minutes later a teenage kid caught what I thought was a keeper, but maybe not as I would have the only two keepers in the bucket at the end of the day.

I was the next person to strike with a 17+ inch keeper that hit when I dropped the leech on his head with a cast. About 3 seconds after the bobber stop reached the bobber the bobber then went down. A couple of more eyes got caught that were too big, including another fish for the kid that got the first fish. Pete got in on the action with a 12incher that he threw back. We were about 2 hours in and the action had slowed and we were being surrounded by other boats so the Captain decided to move us about 100 yards closer to Indian Point and out of the other boats. Problem was that with the wind and waves the anchor didn't hold on either of two tries. The Captain then decided to go to another spot closer to the western shoreline. When we started to move off, Pete got his line caught on the depth finder transducer, he was eventually able to get it free.

At the 2nd location a few perch came in the boat, then a walleye that was to big. I had a fish, presumably a perch, chew my leech pretty good so I got a new leech. My new leech wasn't out long when I connected with my 2nd keeper of the day, a 16+ inch eye. Pete had some nibbles and I had a good hit that stole my leech. Pete and I both got a few more nibbles before the Captain called it quits about 20 minutes early.

When we got back this was my haul:

While the fish were getting cleaned Pete decided to go for some Eddy's Jetty's Jumbo's.

Here you can see Rainbow Island in the background. Actually in the original pic you could see Indian Point to, but Blogger didn't accept how I had the picture cropped. Pete did catch a few small perch.

Eddy's Launch with Dad & Pete/ Don's Dock Evening

Yesterday Pete found out that Eddy's is offering a good deal 7 days a week on their morning fishing launch trips; Cost is just $20 per person, normal launch price is $35. Pete and I made reservations and Dad decided he wanted to come along as well. It turned out the 2 others that were supposed to go on the launch didn't show, so it was just us 3 and the captain.

We started out corking over towards Rocky Reef, but that was mostly done to give our Captain Tom the time to rig up rods for drift fishing. When Tom has only a few people on the launch and wind conditions are right he likes to take the customers drifting. While we were bobbered I did have a fish mouthing my leech but it never took the bobber down for more than a few seconds. After about a half hour of that it was time to drift and we headed towards Spirit Island.

On the very first drift I missed a bite and then caught this 15" keeper.
On the second drift I caught a 2nd keeper which Tom has with the first on the stringer and Dad got a 22".



On the next drift I caught a 26.25" that put up a fun battle and Dad got a 24.5" and even Captain Tom got in on the action with a 18.5" eye.


On our second to last drift Tom caught a big rock that we thought was a fish and Dad and I missed bites. Our last drift came up empty, but I might have had a bite. Pete got skunked.

Don's Dock
At about 8PM Pete and I headed to Don W. for some dock fishing. Pete likes to visit with Don and I don't have to deal with the boat, so it's a win/win. I had a pike jump me off on a swim jig and I got 3 crappies and lots of bites on a Panfish Chatterbait. Pete caught some small sunfish and Don got a couple crappies and sunfish.

Eddy's Launch with Dad and Don W.

Since the weather has been so nice this week Dad and I decided to go on a launch trip with Eddy's and we invited Don W. to come along with us, which he was plenty willing to do.

The Eddy's night launch goes out from 6 to 10PM. Our Captain was Tom, who we have gone with at least once before and I think we had 12 people on Boat 8 which is a smaller launch that can hold up to 20. Two other launches besides ours went out tonight. There was a little ripple on the water to start, but by 7:30 it was flat calm for the rest of the night.

The report when we got on the boat was that the fishing has been tough. Apparently Tom's launch last night did next to nothing fishing the usual early season shallow bite, so we headed off to a little deeper water down by Spirit Island. We parked in about 26 feet of water and withing 20 minutes there were 2 keeper walleye in the boat. About 35 minutes in to fishing my bobber went down and I brought in this 15" keeper.
Two protected slot fish were brought in within the next half hour and then it got slow.

We moved around 8PM and went in the direction of Indian Point. We set up in about 24 feet of water and fairly quickly a keeper was on board. Someone caught a protected fish and then there was a missed fish. I was not paying a whole lot of attention and when I went to look for my bobber it wasn't there. I reeled in some slack and set the hook into a better fish, which I took my time to bring in. It turned out to be this nice 24.5" protected slot walter.


A couple of more fish were caught and lost and then at about 9PM I'm not sure why but Tom moved us forward about 50yards and dropped anchor again. At this point 2 others Eddy's Launches were close by. Some fish came in right away again. I got a bite but missed it and my leech that had caught my first two fish was gone. I got a new leech cast out and after about 5 minutes my bobber went down again. This time it was fish on and I landed this 12" eye.
I threw the fish back. About 5 minutes later Don's bobber slowly went down and he brought in a nice 17+ inch keeper. The protected slot starts at 18" this year. About 5 minutes after that the guy next to me brought in a 16" eye and he gave it to us. I think maybe one more fish was caught on the boat after that. Dad was the only person not to get a bite. Don gave his fish to us, so we ended up with about a pound of walleye meat once cleaned.

I caught the most fish of anyone on the launch and I think all but about 3 people caught something.

Eddy's Launch with Dad

Tonight Dad and I went on our first launch trip of the year out of Eddy's Resort on the West side of Mille Lacs Lake. This time we got to fish out of the Flagship which is Eddy's biggest boat. On the night all 5 launches were in operation.

The day had been hot with thunderstorms that passed to the north cooling things down. By the time we were out at 6PM it was partly cloudy and in the mid 80's with a light South breeze. The Launch headed South of Rocky Reef in about 22 feet of water. A lady in the back of the boat with us caught a little walleye immediately. I was the first between Dad and I to get on the board with a nice jumbo perch that I gave away to a lady who wanted it. This woman's name was Oksana and she is a Russian immigrant who was out fishing with her son. Dad and I talked with her a lot and learned she was a massage therapist which will come into play a little later.

Dad got on the board with a little walleye.
The picture makes the fish look much bigger than it actually was. It was too small to keep dispite Oksana's protests. She was of the opinion that no fish was to small because she is used to catching and keeping little bullheads down in extreme Southern Minnesota where she lives.

The boat was catching lots of little fish at the 1st stop, so we moved around 8PM when a little thunderstorm came up and sprinkled and rumbled a little. The storm wasn't nearly enough to force us off the water. Right away in the new location a guy in the front of the boat caught a 25 inch protected slot fish. Pretty soon a few keepers and more overs were comming aboard. My bobber went down and I hooked into this 17 inch keeper.
I gave the fish to Oksana and she was so grateful she gave me a 20 minute back rub. By the end of the night Dad got a back rub too. Dad caught another small walleye and I caught a small perch. Oksana caught a couple of little walleyes that went back and her son missed several bites. A lot of fish were caught on the launch and I think there were around 9 keeper walleyes and 6 overs and maybe close to 2 dozen cigars and a handful of perch. It was a fun time.

Launch Trips now blogged

A couple of Eddy's Launch trips with Dad that I haven't blogged about until now...

Eddy's Launch with Dad.

The only fish of the trip for us.

Dad on the way off of Sherman's Point.

The Story: The weather was sunny mid 90's with a slight wind. We elected to fish out of the back of the launch again and where fishing out of the Flagship which is Eddy's Biggest Boat. The Bait Boy said the Flagship was the biggest launch on Mille Lacs and probably the world.

We headed out from Eddy's on a long haul north to Sherman's Pt. We set down in 8ft of water and before you could say fish on some lady caught a keeper walleye and then a 2lb smallmouth. Sherman's point turned out to be more of a smallie than walleye or perch spot. Dad had the first bite and it was a nice smallie that jumped and broke dad's line. More than an hour later dad got another bite but didn't convert. Right after Dad's miss my bobber went down and I landed a walter. This was to be my one and only bite. All in all at Sherman's 6-8 smallies about 4 walleyes (3 Keepers) a few misses and 1 perch. At about 8:30PM we headed out deeper to try and nab some deeper water eyes. In this spot Dad maybe had a bite but I'm skeptical. Out in the deep water 2 walters came in and 1 was lost by the lady right next to Dad.

We were in right at 10PM. The other 2 launches were nowhere to be seen. All in all a nice night but I could have used some water to drink, the two pop's didn't keep me adequately hydrated.

Lakeview Eddy's Launch 5-29-07

On 4/29 I went with Dad and the people of Lakeview Community Church on an Eddy's Launch. Dad strikes first again with a nice eater. Pictured with Launch Captain Tom.

One of the guys with a fish that had to go back. All totaled the launch had 6-8 that were to big to keep.

Dad's 2nd fish, this one may have to have gone back, 20+.

Dad with a big smile as he racks up #3

Dad packs in with #4, a good eater.

Dad catches his 4 fish limit with this one.

The Nights haul 7 plus one from 1 from Don Weinmeister.

The Story: The people of Lakeviw decided to take out a launch, this was spearheaded by Dad. It was cloudy with gathering rain showers as we headed South from Eddy's down to Rocky Reef. Our launch parked in 13ft of water and Dad landed the 3rd fish of the trip. I missed my first one of the night in this spot. After about an hour and a half of pretty sporatic action and a rainstorm we headed out by one of the other launches in about 22ft of water. In this spot Dad had the hot hand landing 3 eaters 1 over and a rock bass. On the night I went 3 keepers from 10 hits and got 1 rock bass. Dad and I did the best of anyone on the launch. We fished off the back of the launch this time and I now will seek the back out because it's easier to fish from there. All in all our launch probably landed 20+ fish with 6-8 overs and 6-8 cigars with about a dozen keepers, 7 of which were caught by Dad and I.