7/15/08  Time for some musky reports.  This year started out slow, but we sure are getting them now!  We're catching them during the day, and at night as well.  Moonrise during the day has been the hot time.  The couple of hours before moonset (in the middle of the night right now) has been good as well. Muskies are biting on Mille Lacs and Alexander. Bucktials are best during the day...small and fast.  Bigger bladed stuff at night, slow and low.

I just had a cancellation for this Friday and Saturday (18th and 19th)...the JULY FULL MOON!  Turn this prime musky fishing window into your chance for a big one.  Call me asap as the first guy gets it! 218-232-6067

Now for some pictures...

Steve Earhart and his nephew came out with me two nights ago. Steve had a heck of a good night!  His first musky hit way out there and did some beautiful tail-dancing out in the moonlight. It turned out to be this really stocky 47 x 20 beauty.

30 minutes later Steve caught a near identical fish...this 46 x 19 "little sister" to the above fish.

Trent caught his first musky ever...this spotted beauty came from Lake Alexander, caught on a small bass-sized spinnerbait.

I'll be musky fishing really hard for the next week or so, and will post the results and pictures as soon as I can. Stay tuned...

7/3/2008  Multi-species fishing has been awesome all over the area.  We've been catching lots of walleye, pike, largemouth, and smallmouth bass.  Throughout June, I have been really busy guiding, and finally had a down day here to report and put up some pictures.  Sorry I didn't report earlier...I've just been too busy fishing.  Now that's it's July and the water is beginning to warm up better, it's about time for me to start focusing on chasing the musky.  With that, I'll post a bunch of reports and pictures of the clients and friends that have come through my boat recently.

Mille Lacs has been very good to me lately.  Ryan and Paul from the Minnesota Wild farm team came up to fish with me, and landed these beauties, both on x-raps.

Ryan, Joe, Aaron, and Danny...four guys enrolled in the Minnesota School of Diving course, took a day off to catch all these walleyes and more over on Mille Lacs.

Pete and Chris came from Nebraska and Iowa respectively, and fished with me for a couple of days on the pond.  They caught some nice walleyes up to 27 inches, and some nice bass too, the largest at just under 21 inches.

Pete and his son Chance from Missouri spent a few days with me, and really got on some nice bass all over the Brainerd area.

I have been having a blast fishing with Trent and Pam from Las Vegas this summer. Below is a sampling of their success.

Tim and his son B.K. came from Ohio and spent a few windy rainy days fishing with me, but we still caught some nice ones!  AND, Tim put the first ever fish in my boat while flyfishing.

Doc and Jim from Las Vegas caught some really nice smallies over on Mille Lacs.

Gettin' the Kids involved...here's Eddie.

A few of my pals that I fish with...Cory Schmidt with a nice Mille Lacs smallie.

Matt Holbrook with a great Largemouth.

P.J. Brennan with some nice walleyes from the Blackduck River.

And they even let me catch a few!

And shoot one here and there...

And a couple of good scenery shots for good measure.

4/13/2008: Just got back from a grueling 10 day marathon on the Rainy River. Fishing has been fabulous. It was great having decent weather...the days were warm enough, and the nights were cool enough to give us a slow sustained melt with no worry of the runoff and melt turning the river muddy. One of the best years I can remember.  We put just under 1000 walleyes in the boat.  Highlights were a couple of 31 inch walleyes, and a 67 x 29 inch sturgeon that weighed 88 pounds! On another day, three of us caught 176 walleyes.  With that, I'll get to the pictures...

P.J. Brennan with the first big walleye, a 29 incher.

Lauren Dorweiler with his biggest ever, a 31 incher. Way to go Lauren!

Lauren then went on a big fish spree.......

Enough of the fish Hog! Next is Gary with a big sturgeon caught right in the ice flow.

Lauren with a nice sturgie...

The guys with a double...

Steve Holbrook caught his new personal best at just shy of 30 inches. He also caught a 29 incher too, and some big sturgeon as well.  Three pics coming up of Steve...

Steve's nephew Matt with his best walleye ever. A 30 incher. Congrats Matt!

Matt knows how to fight the big sturgies too...he got this one in in short order with his walleye gear. He was so tired, I had to help him hold it!

What an unbelievable day. Tony Hanson caught 37 sturgeon in about 5 hours. If we had not taken some time to fish for walleyes, I seriously think he would have caught 75 sturgeon.  It was one after another, with several doubles so that even I had to pull some in.  Tony caught the biggest fish EVER in my boat. This 67 x 29 inch piggie, sow, walrus, monster, behemoth, whatever you want to call it! According to DNR tables, it weighed 88 pounds!  Here's Tony with a couple good pics.

Brad Engel caught his new personal best walleye, with this 28 incher.

And then he did it again a few hours later with this 31 incher.

Brad and his friend Jim caught many big sturgies. I had some camera difficulty, but here's a good shot of Jim with a nice 57 incher. I couldn't get Jim to keep his eyes open, so then he went to the other extreme!

On this day Jim VanDuyn, Bill Grange and I caught 176 walleyes.  It culminated in a double, when Jim got a 30 incher, and I got a 27 incher.  It was cold and windy, but very satisfying to still kick butt in these extreme conditions.

Mark and Scott Gilbert came up for the final day. We put 101 walleyes in the boat and everyone caught nice fish. Here's a good picture of each of us.

3/28/08:  Hard to believe...several great fishing trips under my belt already this year.  I've been exploring the Mississippi River down south with some old friends and some new friends, which has been a blast.  We started out several weeks ago with some great numbers of fish, and some really impressive saugers in that 2-4 pound class.  The past couple of weeks, the numbers have been thinning down, but the size has been increasing dramatically.  One evening, friend Matt Holbrook and I put a dozen or so walleyes in the boat in that 3-9 pound class.  We also caught smallmouth bass, white bass, channel cats, and one really nice flathead catfish.  Last weekend, I fished with Steve Jonesi on Friday, and then with a couple of friends from Brainerd on Saturday.  Friday was awesome.  Very cold on the hands, but very much worth it.  First time in the boat with Steve, and we had a great time fishing together.  Steve totally smashed his previous best walleye by first catching a 28 x 17 walleye that went about 9-10 pounds.  He was thinking about ordering a replica of that one when a few hours later, he hooked into a real beast!  It was one of those huge fatties that comes to the surface and just wallows. I had very little time to prepare and it was at the boat.  Didn't even get the net handle extended, but got it in first try!  This one went 30 X 18, and weighed 12 pounds!  Now that one's definitely going to be a replica!  Best I could manage that day was a really fat 26 incher, but it was really cool to see Steve catch those other two hogs.  The next day was pretty much a bust...three guys, 8 hours, and only a half dozen fish.  It was a much more pleasent day though, weather wise, and we all enjoyed ourselves alot.

The river bite has been fickle.  Good one day...poor the next.  We started getting our fish deeper, but have now been getting them in the 14 to 20 foot area.  Jigs and minnows have been best, but we've been getting some fish on plastics as well.  Sometimes I can get the fish pitching the jigs, which is my preferred method, but when they won't cooperate, we've had to resort to vertial jigging, or slowly dragging the jigs up and down the river.  The sauger have been most active, really chomping the jig.  A few walleyes have been aggressive like this, but for the most part, the bites have been much more subtle.

Thinking about heading down again tomorrow just for the day.  Got a friend with a spot open, and a day with not much better to do.

Anyone out there interested in a big walleye excursion on the Mississippi, give me a call.  There's still time.  I expect to be hitting the Rainy River next week.  Schedule is pretty full, but I've got a couple of days open yet if anyone is interested in doing the trophy walleye/sturgeon thing.

Time to post some pictures!

Steve Jonesi with his monsterous 30 x 18, 12 pound monster!

Matt Holbrook with a late evening 9 pounder.

Me with a fat 26 incher.

Steve with another big one...this one 28 x 17, and probably 9-10 pounds.

And last but not least, my first ever flathead catfish...a 15 pounder!

3/12/08:  Looking back, the last couple of months seem like a whirlwind.  Some of you may have noticed my absense on the site and the various fourms where I like to hang out and talk fishing.  I have been dealing with some health issues for a long, long time, and things finally came to a head a couple of weeks ago.  After much doctoring and getting a number of opinions, I wound up spending about 8 hours on the operating table exactly two weeks ago today.  Things turned out better than I could have ever dreamed.  The surgeons did a fantastic job, and I was out of the hospital in three days instead of five.  Recovery at home has also been way ahead of schedule, to the point that with some help from some good friends, I was able to still run my booth at the Blaine Musky Expo last weekend.  It was great being there and rubbing elbows with all of my fellow musky hounds! (and it sure beat the heck out of being cooped up at home).  Thanks to all who helped and stopped by. 

I am incredibly grateful and blessed to be where I am now.  Yeah, I've experienced some hardship, but there are so many who have it so much worse than me.  When I focus on that, I realize that I've really got it pretty good.  Thanks to all my family and friends who prayed for me and supported me through this.  Those of you that know me know that I have an incredibly huge drive and desire to fish.  But the disease I had was really holding me back.  Now, with that taken care of, something is telling me that I am going to be more of a fishing machine than ever.  2008 could be downright scarey!  Oh yeah, forgot to mention that good friend Matt Holbrook and I fished the mighty Mississippi Sunday afternoon after the musky expo, and put around 75 walleye and sauger in the boat.  Nothing really huge, but a number of fish in the 2-4 pound class.  It was great to be out in the boat again, and I just can't wait for some more open water.  Matt will be emailing me some photos, and I'll try to get them up here soon.

Which brings me to the subject of the Rainy River season, which should be here in just a few weeks.  With all the snow and ice this year, it's looking like the river probably won't open again until the first week or two of April.  That leaves a pretty narrow window for the walleye bite, from the point the river opens for big boats, till April 14th, when the walleye season closes on the Rainy.  Add to that the other variables, like the potential for the river to re-freeze like it did last year, or the potential for a fast melt and resulting runoff that muddies up the river and makes fishing useless.

In spite of all this, the Rainy River is in my opinion, probably your best bet to catch the biggest walleye of your life.  It's also the best place I know of to rack up numbers of big fish, and just lots of fish in general.  On top of that, you can experience the thrill of catching THE biggest fish available in our area, the Lake Sturgeon.  Everyone that has done this with me says it is an awesome thrill as they are incredibly powerful and fight longer and harder than any other fish around.

My plan is to move up to the Baudette area as soon as the river opens and remain there fishing as long as the river stays clear.  I've got a number of guide trips booked, but might have room for more clients if the river opens early enough and the water stays clear.  Basically, I'm keeping a waiting list.  If you have a flexible schedule that allows you to come up with just a few days notice and are interested in doing this, shoot me an email, or call me at 218-232-6067.  If you want to see the results of last seasons fishing on the Rainy, continue on down the report page until you see the bunch of walleye and sturgeon pics from the spring of 2007.  Then realize, that could be you!  Keep in mind that the sturgeon season remains open after the walleye season closes, and I will be guiding/targeting them exclusively for the rest of April. 

Time to break up all of this dialogue with some big fish photos....lets get em!

1/9/08:  Headed for the Chicago musky show tomorrow, and looking forward to it as it'll be my first time there.  I'll be in booth #75, and it'll be filled with lots and lots of photos of big fish from previous hunting seasons!  Also a beautiful 55 x 26 replica of a Mille Lacs monster that recently came into my boat.  I'll be booking trips for 2008, and networking with many folks in the industry, and of course, picking up a few goodies!  If you're there, stop in and introduce yourself.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!  I'm busy booking musky hunts already for 2008.  Remember, a guided musky trip makes a great gift for that crazy musky fisherman/woman in your life!  Thanks to all of you who fished with me in 2007....looking forward to doing it again in 2008!

If you're interested in a Quetico wilderness adventure, contact me right away as well.  I have a week long trip scheduled at the end of May/early June, which is prime time.  Again, look below for pics from 2007, and let me know if you're interested.

Other than that, right now it's all about getting ready for the 2008 season, musky shows, and some seminars.  If you're interested in having me do a seminar, please email or call me at 218-232-6067.

January 7th:  As promised, some more photos from the tail end of the season.

Here's the last fish of the season.  Steve Earhart caught this....the fattest 43 incher I have ever seen.  It had an almost 22 inch girth!  A nasty cold rainy November evening, and a great way to end the season with a good fat one from Mille Lacs.

A 50 incher from earlier in the fall

Good friend Matt Holbrooks 54 X 26 BRUTE!  Too bad I wasn't in the boat for this one, but thought you'd like the picture just the same.

Another fall dark:30 fish.

Steve Earhart with a monster at 53 X 21, and what we believe to be the same fish caught in my boat only a month earlier and about 300 yards away.  Congrats Steve on your new personal best.

Steve Bode and Mike with two of the four fish they caught, ranging from 41 to 47 inches.  Way to go guys!

December 20th:  The last couple of months have been very busy, with not much time for sitting in front of the computer!  I also love to hunt, and October and November are always spent juggling musky fishing with hunting just about everything....deer, ducks, geese, grouse and pheasant with shotgun, rifle, muzzleloader, and bow.  Its been a successful hunting season, and some nice muskies were boated this fall as well.  I'll post some pictures soon. 

September 28th:  Fished this morning on Mille Lacs with Robert and Jason Blazer.  Saw an incredible number of muskies (about 30), but unfortunately, they were either just basking in the sun (what I call comatose) or were following very lazily. Fished tonight with Mark Waschek.  Mark and I fished earlier this summer up on Vermilion.  The conditions were tough, and on top of that, the shift cables broke on my big engine, so all we had to power the boat with was my kicker motor and trolling motor.  Needless to say, it changed our game plan big time.  I felt bad about it, so invited Mark to come up and fish with me today in the Brainerd area.  Again, conditions were tough.  It was really windy, and somewhat post front.  We had a number of follows in the afternoon, but there wasn't much doing after dark.  We moved across the lake to some calmer water, and then things got interesting.  I hooked up with a 44 incher.  In my haste and carelessness to release the fish quickly, I wound up with a trailer hook in my hand, and a feisty musky on the other end who insisted on shaking numerous times. OUCH!  I finally got the hooks out, and luckily, the hook was not in my hand past the barb.  I'll say this, I was never so happy to be rid of a musky!  I bandaged things up, and got back to fishing.  Shortly after, caught two more at 38 and 36.  Unfortunately, it was just not Mark's night.  We'll get you on a fish yet Mark!

September 26th:  Kevin Goebel and his lifetime fishing and hunting partner Jeff arrived for a little musky action.  Fishing was slow the first few hours.  Little did they know, but they were in for the time of their lives!  Shortly before full darkness, and just after moonrise, Jeff yelled "I've got one".  She bit right beside the boat.  Jeff had the drag locked down for a good hookset, but the fish was putting on so much pressure, that he was having a hard time releasing the spool to get it away from the boat.  After some pretty incredible jumping/thrasing and general boatside chaos, I got the net under her.  Jeff's first musky turned out to be 53 X 21!  Some guys are just spoiled that way.  I told him he already caught the fish of a lifetime.....a lucky guy like him might as well find a new hobby.  Then it was Kevins turn.  Kevin had been blanked musky fishing for a couple of years, so he was due!  We were having a beer celebrating Jeff's fish, when Kevin hooked up with a really healthy 43 incher.

Jeff with his first musky, a 53 X 21.  Big headed, healthy fish, and one happy Dude! And yep, that's the moon coming up just over the fishes tail.

Kevin with his really healthy 43 incher.  Looks pretty happy, doesn't he?  Congratulations Kevin!

September 25:  I took a break from guiding tonight, and fished with fellow musky hound and regular fishing partner Matt Holbrook.  First, I had a hot one follow and slash at my bait twice, but unfortunately, we didn't connect.  Then Matt caught easily the chubbiest 41 inch musky I have ever seen.  This one has the genetics to be a real monster someday.....he'll probably be 51 X 28 in about 10 years.  Check out the girth on him now......

September 24:  Fished today with Zach Hobson, and his buddy Mike.  Zach's dad bought him the guided musky trip for his 20th birthday.  Both Zach and Mike had caught a recent interest in musky fishing.  They had been fishing some of the area lakes this summer, but had yet to boat any fish.  I could tell they had "the fever" by the amount of gear they arrived with!  It was obvious that they were spending all their extra money on rods, reels and lures.  Anyway, another action packed night.  First, I caught a 44 incher.  Then, Mike followed with one of the fattest 45 inchers I've ever seen, and then Zach topped it off with his first ever musky, a 49.5 incher.  How's that for a happy birthday!

Zach with his first ever musky, a nice 49.5 incher with a really huge head.  Happy Birthday Zach!

Mike with his first ever musky too, a remarkably fat 45 incher.

September 19:  Brent Oie and I enjoyed a night full of action.  Caught several fish, and lost a few more.  Can't believe I did this, but I forgot the camera.  What's my excuse??  Well, I was fishing in Brents boat.  Trying to minimize how much gear I brought, I guess.  Brent was the lucky guy, and had most of the action.

September 17:  Just spent a few days with some friends up scouting the Big Fork River.  It was a challenging piece of water to fish due to the low water, and the work that involved dodging rocks, getting the boat on and off the truck and trailer, and getting it through lengths of very shallow water.  We floated/skidded over several stretches of the river between the town of Big Fork and the Rainy River.  All told, we caught 13 muskies.  Here's some of the highlights.

Craig Walters with his first ever musky, a 43 incher.

Myself, with a fun fish caught right after Craigs.

P.J. Brennan with his first ever musky, a 42 incher.

Paul Schreiber with a nice one.

P.J. with another good one.

It has been a whirlwind month.  Have been working and fishing almost constantly, so haven't had time to get on the computer and update.  Right now, having a hard time remembering what day it was, but Steve Earhart and I had a spectacular night, catching 5 fish between 41 and 49 inches.  Here's Steve and I with three of the fish.

September 1st:  I just spent three days fishing up on Lake Bemidji with Brad Engel from the Chicago area.  Brad lamented at the beginning of the trip that it never fails......"everytime I book a musky trip, I arrive right after a cold front hits, so this is pretty much par for the course for me".  Yep, we arrived in Bemidji right after a big storm.  The next day, it was blue skies, cool temps, and big wind out of the northwest.  After a full day of fishing and very little activity, we knew that we were looking for just one good bite, and if we got it, we'd better make it count.  Brads chance came at precisely sunset.  We were fishing a huge wind blown flat, and he was using a black and orange maribou bucktail.  The fish struck, and seeing that it was a musky, I ran for the net.  The fish wallowed on top, and Brad put the pressure on big time.  This musky never got the chance to get under the surface, and so it was spinning its wheels for the most part.  I got the net in short order, and the opportunity to net the fish came quicker than either one of us would have believed.  The whole thing took less than 30 seconds.  And then we had the great fun of handling a monstrous fish that was completely green.   We were both in shock and shaking like crazy, slowly realizing what we had just done.  She measured out at 55 inches long.  The girth was 23 inches, from right behind the head, all the way back close to the anal fin.  This fish was built like a brick house!  Our best guess was that it weighed over 40 pounds, and probably closer to 45.  I had a great time fishing with Brad.  He fished relentlessly for 3 straight day, stopping only occasionally for a drink or a bite to eat.  Congrats to you Brad, and your fish of a lifetime!  I am completely thrilled that I was there to share it with you.

August 28th:  Fishing the full moon, Brent Peterson and I had an awesome night, catching 5 muskies between 39 and 49 inches.  Brent had fished with me last week with his dad, but his dad was the lucky guy and caught the big fish pictured down the page a ways (49 X 21).  Brent fished hard and was persistant, but didn't connect with a legal fish.  When I had a cancellation for the full moon night, Brent was the first one I called, and he jumped on the opportunity.  He caught two beauties that night....first, a 46 incher, and later, a 43 incher.  He did an awesome job fighting them, and I think he's now a complete musky addict.  There's nothing quite like catching these big fish in the dark, and it was a blast fishing with him.  The two pics below look almost identical, but if you look closely, you will see that these are two different fish.

August 25th:  The great thing now is that the water has cooled, making the day musky bite better.  During late July and early August, with water temps in the upper 70's and low 80's, the day bite was almost non-existant, and releasing these big fish then was dangerous anyway...very hard on the fish.  During that time, we fished at night almost exclusively because the water had cooled dramatically, and this made our releases very successful.  We caught several big fish, including two 53's, and a 50.  Now, with water temps in the upper 60's and low 70's, the fish are more active during the day, but remain active at night as well.  Chuck and Brent Peterson fished with me Thursday and Friday of this week.  They were great to have in the boat, and it was fun getting Brent on his first musky, as well as his dad Chuck on his biggest musky ever.  Brents fish was a beautiful spotted 34 incher, and I think he's now hooked with the musky bug.  Brent's got great technique, and if he keeps it up, he's definitely going to catch some big monsters.  Chuck had the thrill of catching his fat 49 X 21 in the dark on a boatside figure 8.  There was some intense time there with tangled line, but the hooks held, and we got her in the net quickly, got a few quick pics and some measurements, and released her so strong that we couldn't get any water shots....the fish was too powerful to hold onto!  Looking forward now to the upcoming full moon.  Will be guiding early next week in the Brainerd area, and then later next week, will be guiding for a few days up on Lake Bemidji.  I'll report when I get back.

Chuck's fat 49 X 21 caught on a boatside figure 8 on Lake Mille Lacs August 23rd, and below, his son Brent with a 34 inch spotted beauty caught earlier in the day.

  Great fishing continues.  We boated another 50 incher on Mille Lacs on Sunday morning.  Caught some beautiful smallies on the Mississippi River Sunday afternoon.  Took Monday off, and then hit Mille Lacs for muskies again on Tuesday.  Clients Joe and Dave caught 45 and 44 inch muskies, and a bonus 27 inch walleye that ate the bucktail.  For having never used a baitcaster, nor muskie fished before, Dave and Joe did great!  Water temps have come down dramatically (low 70's), which is really helping the bite, and helping with successful releases as well.

 Fishing this week has been fantastic!  Mille Lacs has been putting out some monsters for us.  We've boated and succesfully released a 47 incher, a 50 incher, a 53 incher, and my personal best, a 53 1/4 X 23.  Here's a picture of me with the fish.

Dan with his new personal best. 
This one was caught last week on Lake Mille Lacs....a 48.5 incher that ate a bucktail at first dark.

Russ with a big Mille Lacs pike,  caught trolling the weedline with a tail dancer.

Steve on the June full moon. 
We racked up some numbers on this night, catching 4 between 41 and 47 inches.

Matt pulling the night shift with a Lake Alexander musky.

Mike with his 41 inch Lake Alexander musky.

More fishing around the Brainerd Lakes area. 
June was a great time to be on Mille Lacs for big walleyes and smallies.

^{_{I recently took my son Ben and his friend Shon up to Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, for a wilderness canoe trip/fishing vacation.  It was a "graduation present" for the boys, who recently finished high school up in Brainerd, Minnesota.  This is something we always love doing together, and the following are some of the highlights of the great fishing we had.}}

Bass opener was alot of fun. 
We caught numerous big smallies and largemouth on spinnerbaits and jigs. 
The Whitefish Chain and the Mississippi River were hot.

Here's some nice walleyes from the Brainerd area....a 26 incher and a good "eater".

Crappie fishing was good in late April and early May. 
Here's a great shot with some pannies!

Paul Dorweiler fighting a sturgeon on the Rainy in late April. 
Paul and I had a great couple of days up there, and boated numerous sturgeon in the 40's and lower 50's. 
We had a great time.  Following are a few of the highlights.

April 12, 13, and 14:  Craig Walters and I recently spent three days up on the Rainy.  It was an awesome trip, where we boated 189 walleyes, 21 of which were between 25 and 31 inches.  We also caught 3 large sturgeon.  The wind was a little challenging at times for drifting, boat control, and lure presentation, but we still did really well in spite of it.  Craig caught his first ever sturgeon, and the biggest walleyes of his life over and over again.  The walleyes bit well on a fireball jig with stinger hook and a minnow.  The sturgies were biting on a combination of minnows and night crawlers.  Below are pictures of some of the highlights of our trip.


Above, Craig fighting his first ever sturgeon, and a dandy at that.  Below he is pictured with the 58 incher, which he landed quickly on musky gear.
He never quit talking about the awesome fight those sturgeon put on!

Craigs best walleye ever, a 30 incher, eclipsing his previous personal best of 24 inches. It took a 3/8 oz. rainbow colored fireball jig tipped with a rainbow minnow. 

Craigs 29 incher from Friday.  On this afternoon, Craig did really well vertical jigging, and got himself some good numbers as well as 4 big ones.

The highlight of my trip....I snagged this 62 inch sturgeon while jigging for walleyes on Saturday morning.  When I set the hook, the sturgie made a mad dash for Canada, and nearly spooled me, but I was able to chase it down with the trolling motor and get my line back just before I hit my spool backing.  Then, I put on as much pressure as I could, and managed to land this beast in 13 minutes.  Easily the fattest sturgeon I have ever caught, this one girthed in the upper 20's, and weighed approximately 75 pounds.

Craig with his 53 inch sturgeon, caught Saturday morning on a walleye rig and landed in 10 minutes! 
We anchored up and caught this one right where I snagged the one above, and just a few minutes later.  Nice job Craig.

Me with Saturday 27 incher

Craig with Saturday 28 incher.

We ended our trip on a great note.  Pulled up to the Birchdale access, and decided we needed to catch "just one more fish". 
Two hours later, we had caught 15 more, including two 28 inchers, and the above 30.5 incher, which was my best walleye of the trip.  Now that's ending on a good note!

April 8, 2007:  Just got back from the most brutal conditions I have ever experienced on the Rainy.  We woke to single digit temps, 25 mph northwest winds, and -25 windchill.  Stuff tends to not work very well when it's that cold.  Batteries were sapped of their charges, and boat engines wouldn't start.  Waited for awhile for it to warm up, went in to town to purchase a fresh warm battery, and finally got on the river around 1:30 pm.  Found a nice little slack water area where there was some walleyes holding, and managed to catch a dozen or so.  The fish wanted a jig and minnow hovering right in their face.  The above fish was 27 inches, and started to get an "ice cube" look after only 30 seconds out of the water.  One quick picture, and it was back in the river.  We later caught 5 sturgeon, which Paul really enjoyed as he had never caught one before.  Saturday night, the river re-froze, and that was the end of our fishing out of the boat.  Ice fishing the next day proved fruitless.

April 4, 2007:  What the heck?  Yesterday, the Brainerd area received about a foot of snow.  Temps are hovering below freezing for several consecutive days.  Tomorrow, I head up to the Rainy with Paul Schrieber and possibly Corey Schmidt.  Sounds like the river has opened a few more miles since Sunday.  I would love it if we could get to fish down to Frontier....Pinewood would be even better!  But that is unlikely.  Highs the next three days will be around 25, and lows around the single digits.  Bbbbrrrrrrrrr.  But what the heck.....it's the only chance Paul and I have to go together, and we have been talking about it for years.  Beats working.  Time to bundle up and have at it.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going, right?  We have ample supply of gloves, heater, hand warmers, and most importantly, DESIRE.   Will report when I get back to let you know how we do.  Despite the cold, I am hearing better reports, and we will try to make them better yet.

April 1, 2007:  What a strange spring.  First year I can recall that the ramps were open and we had to wait for the river to open....it's always been the other way around.  Spent a couple of days on the Rainy with Matt and Steve Holbrook.  The turf I am familiar with was still locked up in ice, so we went on an exploratory trip.  We fished the Pelland area on Saturday, and below the dam in International Falls on Sunday.  The three of us landed about two dozen sturgeon (bottom rigs with crawler/minnow mixture), and some walleyes (jig/minnow or jig/ringworm), suckers, and even one eelpout.  I have always wondered about this stretch of the river, and now I know it.  Found some good deep holes, some good inlets, and some good looking walleye structure for future use.  River was low and cold....temp was right at 32 degrees.  River was a bit dirty below the Little Fork river (definitely not too dirty to fish), clearer under the Big Fork, and about as clear as it gets under the dam.  Rain plagued us most of both days.  Walleye run is definitely not "on" yet, as the majority of the river is still locked up.  It's gonna take a little more time.

March 13, 2007:  Just got back from the Minnesota Muskie Expo where I ran the "Big Fish Hunt" booth for a few days.  I enjoyed meeting many of the industries top fishermen and equipment manufacturers/sales people.  I also enjoyed talking with many of the folks who attended, and look forward to fishing with some of them as well.  I'm really looking forward to the coming season when I'll be testing some new baits, Abu Garcias revamped 7000 series reels, and Fenwicks Techna AV Muskie rods.  Planning to go after the muskies on Mille Lacs lake this year harder than ever.  I even have a new 65# digital scale......state record muskie, here we come! 

Matt Holbrook is pictured with his 54.5" X 25" November, 2006 fish.
There is a reason why this picture is out of focus.
The guide was kind of excited, shaking pretty bad,
and already hurrying to release the fish!

Steve Earhart releases his personal best, a 49 incher.
Look at the head on that thing!

Tom Holbrook with his 46” Lake Alexander fish, and a great release shot.

Brent Oie with his 46 inch Musky.
This fish was caught on a classic “follow up” presentation.
The fish initially came in hot after a bucktail, started to
follow a figure 8, and then saw the boat and spooked.
We both felt that she was ready to eat, so we marked the spot, and came back a half hour later.
This time, she made Brent’s day, and committed to his favorite topwater.

Have you ever hooked a musky while sleeping?
Bill has! Bill Grange and I were fishing hard on LOTW,
when Bill decided to take a nap while trolling a 10” Reef Hawg.
I know, it’s a bit “unorthodox”, but his strategy worked!

Yours truly with a “day before freeze-up” 49 incher.
This was a very memorable fish for me because I “played with” and “teased” this fish for
several minutes with a variety of different crankbaits.
It finally ate a suspended Cisco Kid, which I stopped right in front of it’s nose.
It was one of those “slow motion” deals that I’ll never forget.

Steve Earhart with a fat 38 inch Mille Lacs pike, caught on a bulldawg in late November.

Melissa with a 27 inch Gull Lake walleye.
She caught it on a minnow/lindy rig combination, and it is her biggest fish ever.
First time I’ve been bear-hugged (nearly tackled) by a
client I hardly knew, but I gotta admit, I liked it!