Saturday was muskie opener here in MN. We got 3 smaller pike and my fishing partner got this 39 1/2" muskie Spoiler
Caught my first muskie Friday (this was not in MN), which was 40'". My buddy caught a 46.5 inch muskie, also his first. It was fucking awesome.
Beautiful fish. Season opened Saturday in Michigan as well and I went out for the first time on Lake St. Clair. Unfortunately didn't boat any fish, but had 5-6 follows, 1 strike, and I had a fish which I lost a few feet from the boat before we could net it. It was an absolutel blast though and I can't wait to get back out.
glad you punks up north enjoy fishing so much, america is just great, love it down here, love it up there, just a bunch of outdoorsy ballers
Have a trip planned out next month down in Naples. Going wreck fishing out of Ft. Myers on Wednesday, Friday I'm heading down to the Everglades to go backwater for reds and snook and then slipping offshore for permit. Will probably head to the beach and surf fish at some point in between. Going to be a pretty kickass week.
Details, boys. I want details. What were you throwing (or probably trolling with if you were fishing St Clair), where were they holding? When I got to the lake at 4:45 Saturday morning, there were already 2 dozen other boats in the parking lot and they were all muskie guys. Needless to say, they were getting everything thrown at them in rapid succession. My buddy and I decided that they need to see something different, so he started throwing a Squirrely Burt and I was throwing cranks. The one my buddy got came off a weed edge connected to deep water. There were two other boats in that spot, both of them throwing big blades. One boat moved out and he made a cast right to where they'd just been casting and wham. All of our fish came from about 5:30-7:15. We fished until 12:30 and didn't see a single fish in those last 5 hours.
Going to Belize in August. Gonna try and book at least two charters and hopefully catch some bone/permit and pray for a tarpon. If anyone has ever gone and has a charter Rec give me a shout. I'm pumped/nervous about my fly ability might just go spinning to save some frustration/ missed opportunities
Throwing cranks into shallow water with fallen timber as cover out to about 12/14 feet. We were actually Walleye/Northern fishing. I was throwing a #7 red crawdad clackin rap and it followed all the way to the trolling motor. Caught mine around 6:00 pm. My buddy was throwing a #5 bleeding pearl shad rap and caught his around noon in a very similar manner. I'll get his up. Mine was only 12 lbs 10 oz. His was 20 lbs 7 oz I won't say where it was or he would murder me in my sleep.
Also, after catching that fish and seeing my buddy pull in a 20 pounder on similar gear, I'm nearly certain the monster I hooked and fought for 1.5 hrs on the Missouri last year was a giant Sturgeon or Catfish.
Where in Belize are you going? I wanted to fish for tarpon the last few times I was there, but it was the wrong time of year. One of the times, we just trolled the reef and caught a bunch of cuda. The other time, we went looking for permit. We saw a few, but couldn't get them to bite.
If the fish whomped your bait like a bass or northern, it was a big cat (or a dogfish). If the bite was almost undetectable like that of a small sunfish, it was a sturgeon.
Think it was a sturgeon, then. We were drifting slowly but it was a fucking silver rattle trap, which is strange for either of those species to me. Was a tick pull sort of like a crappie bite then it just takes off ready to pull all my line off. We chased it around the river and never got a look at it until the hook pulled loose when it ran a different direction near the boat. Will be pissed about not seeing it until the day I die.
We didn't get on the lake until about 8am, stayed until 3pm. Tons of boats out, fish were getting a ton of pressure. Lots of boat traffic as well since it was a beautiful day. We started out with one guy throwing an 8" hellhound in walleye, one guy throwing a Lindy M&G muskie, and myself throwing a Salmo Whitefish...floading in perch. Guy on the hellhound got a follow almost immediately and a strike shortly after but didn't hook up. Throughout the day we used an 8" hellhound in perch as well as salmo Whitefish in blue silver and yellow zebra (sinking and floating). Threw a couple different color bulldawg as well. All my follows and the one hookup came on a 6" hellhound blue shad. All in all, they were only interested in the hellhounds as all action came on either the walleye or shad hellhounds. They're also a hell of a lot of fun to fish. Wasn't sure if I was fishing the bulldawg correctly as those are supposed to be very successful on LSC. Going to have a few more hellhound options and a double cowgirl next time out. Probably get out there earlier too although we did see some fish mid afternoon.
There's really no wrong way to fish a bulldawg. You can jig them, rip and pause, or just straight retrieve and you'll get their attention.
Sorry, I don't have any guide recommendations. We always stay in the Cayes. Have fun, though. Belize is a great place. Make sure you stop in the airport bar and visit with Jet before you head down to Hopkins. He's someone you'll never forget. If you don't find him, he'll find you.
Fished in Grand Teton National Park yesterday and got this lake trout on a bead head nymph off a shelf about 8 feet from shore. Threw it on the grill back at the campsite for an impromptu dinner. Spoiler
cross post from another site -report from yesterday: Wade fished the south east side of ship island and caught a bunch of catfish and ladyfish. i was trying to use some of the techniques i've read about here. was looking for gulleys and casting into breakers and chop. couldn't locate the trout. the ppl i was with didn't want to wade it for very long so i didn't get to cover much ground. we then drifted the grass beds on the north side. bunch more catfish but we got into some trout too. i think we put like 2 or 3 keepers in the boat . i had a monster trout that i thought was a redfish he was fighting so hard we got him to the boat and saw him. must have been 22+ inches. buddy was trying to net him, he dove straight down and spit the hook. i was furious. we then went out front in biloxi and got into a school of 12-12.5 inch trout. probably caught like 20 of them. think we only had 6 keepers. sorry forgot to take pics. was a great day on the water.
Jenny Lake. We stopped in GTNP for a day on the way to Washington from Colorado; I really want to go back and spend time getting deep into the park for those upper lakes and streams.
if you forgo the guided route then try the Snake just south of the dam - there is a parking lot where most guides will launch from (Jackson Lake Dam Picnic Area). if you prefer quantity over quality this is your spot. Also try Deadman's Bar if this is too crowded. Lewis Lake in Yellowstone holds some big browns and lake trout. The Madison and Firehole Rivers in Yellowstone are also very easily accessible.
we got beat to hell yesterday trying to cobra fish. ran about an hour out and we checked a bunch of bouies but didn't see any. then we tried to fish a reef and were getting rocked around so hard it sucked. didn't catch any fish. on the boat from 6AM-1PM. we should have known better than to try in that wind and seas
took my daughter out. she caught a few bream and a little channel cat. then she lost a nice 2lb bass when the bobber hit the first eyelet she wouldn't stop reeling. lol
Went bass fishing with a guide just outside of Ocala yesterday. Caught about 20 fish in about 4 hours, 6 am- 10am, before the heat. 5-6 of them 5 lbs and biggest (2nd pic) about 7.
Hit the 'hooch this morning. This is a buddy of mine with the second fish of the day. We each got 3 all about this size.
Went about 30 miles out and did some bottom fishing yesterday. All I will say is that the closure on red snapper because their population is dwindling is complete horseshit.
what do you all do about the fishing dump? I have personally take a streamside or lake side poop a few times.
If it's in the summer, I just buzz back to the landing and do my best to avoid getting blue poop splash from the porta-potty. If it's on the ice, we keep a toilet seat, a bucket, and a bunch of big garbage bags in the fish house. If nature calls, we set up the portable outside the big house and set up the seat/bucket/bag combo in there. I took my kid ice fishing in the big house a few years ago. He made it 8 or 9 hours out there, but he had to shit 5 times. I ended up hauling 5 bags of shit in the back of my truck and looking for the nearest dumpster on the way home.
shockingly (to me at least) they were hitting hoppers early in the morning. then closer to noon they were taking small black midges that I had dropped off a BH pheasant tail