MEA Smallies

Takes a lickin and Keeps on tickin

Nice Colors

Every year, I head to the river over MEA.  The smallies cooperate most of the time, and sometimes you get a big one too.  The biggest I caught was 20", but literally every fish is exciting.  I caught a 28 " cat fish that had me thinking it was a Giant smallie.  It ripped out drag, up and down stream.  I know I caught a few over 19" too.  Occasionally, I will think I have a giant on, and it turns out to be an 18 1/2 that just happens to fight like a six pounder!  This time of year is great, and if you like catching smallies, the river is a nice place to get some 4 plus pounders, and their fight is unmatched!  I don't even take picture of most of the fish.  If it is over 19"  I try to take a picture, but sometimes I just want to get my line back in the water, because when they are biting they are ferocious!

Nice Belly

Big Cat 

October Surprise - River Smallies

 It was a beautiful day to catch smallies on the river.  What a blast! Caught my biggests smallie ever at 21".  I had my cell phone with, so I didn't get the best pictures, but you can see with an 18", two mid 19"'s, and a 21", it was worth it to miss watching a little football this afternoon.  You can see the size of the 21" in the bulging eye photo, and the height of this fish, as I layed it over my waders.  It was a tank.  I thought it was a big catfish at first, until it bolted, and pulled drag.  I probably ended up catching between 15 and 20 smallies.  I know I caught three in three casts at one point.  The water is starting to cool, but I wore the summer waders without any problem.

Fat, Tall, Beast, 21"

Mid 19"

mid 19" again

21" of smallie power!

Nice Cabin Bass

16 3/4,  over 3 lbs

 I enjoyed getting back on the water after having my first child.    I tossed around for musky, and finally couldn't stand not catching them.  So, I grabbed the G'Loomis with the Texas Rig, and started catching bass!    The GL2 pulled these chunker's in nicely.  I did a fair amount of crankbait fishing too with some nice action, and managed to put a topwater frog bass in the boat too.  It was fun to use multiple methods, successfully after being away from the water for so long. Probably not much more than 2 months...   I am very optimistic that these two fish are an indication that the size on the lake could be increasing.  I also saw a dead fish floating this weekend that was probably around 20 inches.   My theory has always been the Musky keep the size down, even though the fish on this lake have always been chunky.  But, lakes go in cycles, and I think the size is on its was up!    Can't wait to start river fishing smallies.    

16 1/2 approaching 3 lbs

Walleye Launch - Mil Lacs

Dad with a wally under 25"

Nice 27" incher biggest of the night!

My dad ended up catching the most walleye, and biggest of the trip.  I caught a 25 1/4, for my big fish, which I was happy with too.  Dad brought home some eaters, that others didn't want to take home.  It was my first experience on a launch, and I must say it was nice.  Eddy's did a nice job.

Almost went home, and then...

19"

Okay, so I only managed 4 small fish fishing a carolina rig in the float tube.  I was ready to go home, and I told myself that I should leave before trying the spot that I caught the 19" last time.  So, I switch it up for some shallow casting.  I caught four fish in the same spot.  Boom 19", he swam out toward me, so I was thinking there must be more fish in there.  Another one, smacked it, 20 1/4. I think this was the biggest fish, and it had a strange warty tongue...  Next cast, big fish again, 20 1/2.   I finally had one miss, so I cast just to the left, and again 19 1/4.  These fish were stacked in one spot.  Man, am I glad I tried that spot before I left!  Catching those four great fish in about 15 minutes time made for a nice outing that would have otherwise went into the books as a slow afternoon.

Belly of 20 1/4"

Side view 20 1/4"

20 1/4 " Warty Tongue?

20 1/2 "

20 1/2 Bellyview

20 1/2 "

20 1/4 "

Wisconsin Bass (Nasty bass wound...)

Shaky Head Fish

Drop-shot Fish

 I had a nice time fishing some mid-lake structure with some spinning tackle, and I did throw a shaky head on a bait-caster too.  I was having a hard time adjusting to controlling the fish with lighter line, and lost a few giants to be honest.  Probably two that would have gone over five...  I really hammered them the first day on this spot.  The water temp. got to 80 degrees and things started to really slow.  I got really worried about the sore on the biggest fish I caught too.  If anyone knows, or has seen this, I don't think it is a good sign for this lake.  This lake has an abundance of bass in the 16" to 16 3/4 inch range, and they are usually really fat too!  I caught one that was 16 (no pic) that was bursting.  I looked into its mouth to see if I might find out why, and sure enough there was a big old crappie tail sticking out.  And, there are also some nice crappie in this lake, some of them seemed a little sickly though.  Not sure if it was the thick water, high temp. or something worse.  I really hope that the fish are okay, it is a great early summer lake!

Nice Crappie on a five-inch dinger!

Biggest fish of the weekend with a nasty sore.

Never seen anything this bad on a fish...

Drop-shot

Got a good one tonight!

I only got three fish tonight in the float tube, but I got another good one.  The most gratifying part about the night, was I had a spot in mind that I was going to, and the first cast at that spot this big girl grabbed it.  She jumped out of the water twice, and then buried herself in the milfoil.  I got a lot of pictures with her to help show her size.  This was the biggest MN bass that I have caught!  I got my PR for MN just this month too.  The milfoil is really taking over this time of year, and I am still learning to fish it.  I was worried I lost the fish when she buried herself but, luckily she wasn't struggling when I went to grab her, I didn't know how big she was until my hand disappeared in her lower jaw.  What a great fish!   I carefully measured this one, my tape said 22", when I closed the mouth and got a strong 21 1/2!  Can't wait to get back on the water! 

Biggie - sized head.

21 1/2 inches!

On some fish you get a raw thumb, my hand got grazed!

In the foil!

Big belly!

Thick back!

19 1/4 looked small after the monster...

I love Minnesota Bass fishing in June!

19 1/4

 I was in the float tube for about 7 hours today!  My wife was out of town, so I took advantage of it.  I went to a familiar lake, and found some cover to toss to.  I actually caught some good ones today, and lost at least one that would have matched the top fish today.  I was tossing a plastic up shallow, and seemed to find pockets of fish. I My top fish today were 21, 19 1/2, 19 1/4, 18 1/4. 18, 18.  I counted twenty fish total, so the quality was definitely there today.  I had to go into the slop and get the big one.  I lost another fish that could have been bigger, she bulled through the weeds to deeper water, changed directions a couple times.  As she was taking a circle around my float tube I saw her and the hook came out.   The 19 1/2 incher actually spun my around in the float tube three times, I thought it was a way bigger fish, and it came out of a spot without any cover.    

19 1/4"

21" chunker

21" Big Head

21" side view

18 "

18" 

18 1/4"

19 1/2"

19 1/2