4th of July Madness: Day 2

Day 2 brought a little more wind and some chop, and I wondered if we were going to find fish at all. Granted, I am always paranoid...

We said screw the boat ramp on the other side of the lake this time around. We decided with the wind the way it was, we would again try our normal spot right off of the ramp. It didn't take long and we were pulling walleyes in.

 

We caught plenty of walleyes right in this pocket again, but this time walleye-weirdness prevailed and we only got pics of a few...... After only a couple of hours we called it a morning and headed back in for food, some pics, and maybe a quick nap.

 We didn't exactly limit out, but we did well with some hefty fish.
After some lemon grilled walleye and some leftover steak we decided to take it easy in the afternoon and maybe troll the lake. After only 20 minutes the girls were already done. They had their frozen lemonade things and laid on the front of the boat while we fished.

 We caught only pike in the main lake and I ended up catching a bunch of small walleye in the bay we have fished so often already, but nothing giant. I missed a couple of railroad ties, but I will work on that in the future.

We finished the day by hauling back to small area by the boat ramp and pitched for 10 minutes before calling it a day on the water.

Paul found a nice waldo and we even convinced him to throw it back!

The rest of the evening consisted of dinner at The Lookout, and blowing stuff up in the parking lot. It would have been a hell of a lot more fun if my pup hadn't broken her kennel in her fireworks loving fit....


I never really expected this trip to go as well as it did. We caught a ton of fish and even some big fish to boot. It was great to have my wife along on this fishing adventure as we both enjoyed the insanity together. Hopefully, we can figure out a way to get out more, but for the time being, we are focusing on whatever comes next for us.


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4th of July Madness: Day 1

Friday morning Adam and I started the weekend getting on the water and trying to find the fish. We struggled initially, trying our standard spot, but we could not pull a fish out. Conditions were warm and relatively calm. There were boats absolutely everywhere on the lake. We tried bottom bounchers for about ten minutes before we gave up on that venture and headed across the lake to our other spot. We pitched crankbaits in our spot for awhile and I did manage another slob waldo.

We tried trolling awhile after that and came up with one northern and a small walleye on our first loop. Trolling the old roadbed I did finally boat a good pike.

We ended up catching a few more walleyes throughout the mid-afternoon. Despite Paul's many death threats, we did throw all of these fish back. With it being mid 80's, we didn't figure we would do so well keeping them alive anyway.

We headed back into town to re-organize everything and get things ready to accommodate Paul, Cathie, and Rachel for the evening fish. We had a quick bite of food and got on the water.

The boat ramp I got permission to use on the other side of the lake left a lot to be desired. What looked like a great boat ramp turned into axle grinding, tire burying, motor crunching uh-oh. We tried three go's at it before giving up and trying to put in off of the road like everyone else. This was worse...
What everyone else lacked was a boat load of people and gear. We finally did get it out into the lake but a chunk of concrete did it's handy work on the prop.
Right off the bat Cathie started us off with a waldo.

Even the Mrs. managed to boat a fish!

We worked the bay until almost and I caught a couple more walleyes to throw in the live well. We ended the evening with Adam boating another SLOB GATOR!!!

It was a great cap to a great day! We dropped everyone off at the dock Nick and I fished at earlier in the week, and got the boat out without too much trouble.

This was merely the beginning of our trip and trip and tomorrow would hopefully bring a few more walleye for the freezer as well as a couple of pike to satisfy my obsession.


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Finally. A Career!

As Nick and I finished out our evening of fishing I got a phone call that I was not expecting until the following week. As I fished from a windy dock with my brother I was offered a dream job. As of July 14, I will be the Service Forester working with the Urban Forestry Coordinator Team, based out of Watertown, SD.

I have put in my time and have been as patient as possible, and I am humbled to have been offered this position. I know this will be a great fit for me, and I cannot wait to be the local tree expert guy!



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Nick Visit

Nick was in the area for business and stayed with Rachel and I for a couple of evenings. We were able to get out on the water. We did an evening sit off of a private dock that I got permission to fish. It took awhile to finally hit a fish, and it was Nick with the flyrod.

Not everyday you get to see a guy fight a walleye on a flyrod. We strung him up on a stringer for the dinner the next night.
I was able to catch another similar sized fish, but the fishing was tough. Nick missed an opportunity at a pig of a waldo but they were hit or miss most of the night.

The evenings catch back at home.

 For whatever reason this pic reminds me of an old pic of my Grandpa Marshall Hoiland.

I cleaned up the fish for tomorrows dinner before retiring for the evening.

The next day we hopped from lake to lake exploring a little more of the area. We started out where I had caught all of my fish from shore before and biffed on a few nice pike. We did however find a few waldos again.

I turned a really nice pike in the spot twice but with the wind and the chop, it was tough conditions. We explored some of the other lakes in the area but as the day progressed we found it was standard summer fishing. By the late afternoon we ended up back where we started the night before. Again, we found a few waldos.

 Not a gill-kill, it was at the base of the fin...

A great day would only prove bigger as the evening came to a close....



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