Cullen Chain Classic

So, there were several good fishing outings during the cabin stay at the Cullen chain near Nisswa.  Drew and I managed two doubles one afternoon.  Jeremy can fish despite having a large pad of gauze on his thumb.  My nephew can put fish in the boat with a seven foot rod too.  Josh puts fish in the boat with whatever method we try.  We also found out that the Carrot-Stick, and Sahara reel, can take the abuse of a fiesty, nearly eight pound Northern pike that sent me around the whole boat twice.  And, there where several nice ones caught in there too.  

Drew with a couple on a spot that produced two doubles.

Jeremy with a couple even with a wounded thumb.

Nice afternoon bass

Bonus Northern 32"on the Carrot stick

Thick 18 incher

19" Beast

Josh with a couple of nice ones on the drop shot.

Some fish on an afternoon drop-shot bite

Wish I were pre-fishing...

17 1/2" Muck Fish

18" -Dock Fish

Hanging out in isolated cover

Well these were the three biggest for the day from an outing last week.  I was fishing shallow, and isolated cover, and all of the fish weren't feeding too much on the whole, and I honestly caught them all over the lake on this windy day.   The water temp didn't even get to 70 degrees all day, and I caught 14 fish total.  These three probably wouldn't have totaled much  more than 9 lb's, even if I were fishing in the Pan-O-Prog this year, I wouldn't have gotten to 15 lb's on the day.   I think it will take 20 lb's this year to win it this year.

Skipping Miracle

The smile says it all!


I got to spend the day giant hunting, and I finally got one that justified the time spent.  The most gratifying part of catching this fish is it came on a perfectly skipped cast.  I have had my share of snags, and backlashes off of skips, but this one just worked out.  I had just switched out my Revo SX because of a bad backlash for my Quantom PT.  I prefer the Revo when doing this type of fishing because I have it paired with my 7' foot heavy Gander Mountain rod for pulling fish out of this cover.  I only had one heavy rod in the boat that day, and I knew I would need it if I had a big one in the cover.    This monster toppled that heavy rod as well as  any river cat or smallie.  I measured it at 20", and I am certain that it would have been at least 5 lb's, and maybe more, but it didn't ever stop shaking long enough for me to get a weight.  I ended up catching 29 bass too, the largest were 17 1/4", 17', 16 3/4", 16 3/4", all of the good ones were pulled out of heavy cover.  I had two break-offs too...using 12 lb flourocarbon and a weightless plastic.

Snagged a Snapper

18 1/2

Huge snapping turtle

It was a slow bite, with quality fish.  Dead sticking plastics...I thought I was snagged, until my line started to pry off the bottom....That is a five inch fluke.  I was worried about getting the hook out of the tough skin on the snappers neck, but it popped right off when I yanked on it.

Anderbroten Bass Classic!

One real fat one.

Dad with a couple

Drew with a couple

Left hand - 15 1/4 inch 3 lber!

16 3/4 inch males

Jeremy with the official weighing

Sam with a couple

18 inch fatty

Well, there weren't any monsters caught up at Big V this year.  But the pre-spawn largie bite was on a little later than usual.  We found a pretty good shallow pattern and caught tons of fish in the 15 to 16 3/4 inch range, with one 15 1/4 inch largemouth going 3 pounds!



I caught one really nice 18 inch fish that was pre-spawn.

There were two boats, Jeremy and Josh caught a lot of fish in timber.  And Drew, Dad, and myself finding fish in 60 degree weed beds.  The wind kept us off the water at times, and we lost power in the rustic cabin the last day.  All in all it was a good trip.

Before the Blizzard Smallies

Tall 19 3/4

Now, I didn't lose and big fish today, but a  6-7 lb Northern Pike, and 6-7 lb catfish had me thinking I had a monster on twice.  Well, I did get one beastly smallmouth 19 3/4!  I didn't weigh it, because I wanted to get it back in the water quick.  The bite was slow, but I don't mind it as long as I get some pics out of the deal.  

Nearly 19"

18 3/4 football

River Monsters

So, I went to the river today with a buddy.  It was worth it!  Wow, caught plenty of smallies... One fish was 20 1/2, and another was 19 1/8... 20 1/2 inch is the longest I have caught.  The scale read 4.36, I think I want a new scale.  : (   There were a couple other notable fish too...one of the smallies had a strange bubble on its side, and the other was a football.  Its belly was ridiculous as you can see from the picture!  I also caught a couple cats I think one of them was probably 8 lbs...Getting out in the winter is worth it!  If anyone know what that bubble is, let me know...

Football!

Growth on side...

Wierd Bubble....

FAT PIG! 18 1/4

20 and 1/2 inches! Scale said 4.36...

Nice one Mikey