Nice photo I took huh… well it must be the camera… turned out good. Great to be able to fish with you, I had lots of fun. Thanks for getting up there on shuch short notice.
My report on the trip…
Thanks to the EFN Trip Swap Forum… Friday, I spent the day with EFN Media Pro-Staff Steve Greene (Leinieman) on Mille Lacs. We were joined that afternoon by EFN Pro-Staff Bob “Bobber” Carlson. The fishing was good, but the catching was slow… REAL SLOW… slow being the word on Mille Lacs this weekend. In the morning on Friday with Steve Greene. We fished the North end of the lake, near Barnacle Bill’s and down to Knox Point. I had follows to the boat from two big Muskys…one while using a Salmo Slider and the other while throwing a Salmo Fatso… but no hook-ups. “Bobber” guided us to some deep water sand near Doe Island, Friday later in the afternoon, that produced a huge Walleye for Steve Green. He was using a Bait Rigs Walleye Willospoon dressed with a crawler. This was our only fish of the day! Thanks “Bobber” for spending your time with us, I realy enjoyed fishing with you. Saturday, I fished with “Crossin Eyes” (from FTR) and got to stay over at his place at Flagship Resort. Nice place he has there, rest rooms near by and a ramp, with a sheltered harbor/lagoon. “Crossin Eyes” guided me to two 25″ Walleyes. “Crossin Eyes” had one of his two Musky follows actually hit (or rather bump his bait), but got no hook-ups. Fun to watch him figure 8 these two big fish. He did a good job at the attempt to get them to hit at at boat. He was using a big Rattle Trap. I threw Salmo lures the whole time while Musky fishing with “Crossin Eyes”. I wanted to see how they would fair, in comparison to what “Crossin Eyes” was throwing and considering that Salmo took both the fish taken on the trip… I am glad I did stick with the Salmos. I took a 25″ Walleye on the Slider… which is a smaller “gliding jerkbait” having the shape and size of many bait fish. I was throwing the Fire Tiger. There is a very unique action in this lure. It has a tantalizing side to side darting action when you crank/pause… first a right dart, then it darts to the left. And a side to side dart action on a troll… not a wobble, rather an action I have never seen before! Very cool to throw… it can “walk the dog” real easy on the surface and will dive to about 5 feet on a crank or troll. After a full day of fishing… the Salmo Slider took the only fish and it was fished against a long list of in-line bucktail spinners, and many brand name Musky Cranks, top water baits, and walleye lures that Crossin Eyes was throwing. I was impressed. The Walleye that I took on the Slider was over the weeds in 11 feet of water, just South of Big Point. The wind was right so the water was fairly clam in the bay where we were fishng. I am convinced that when the fish become more active, that the Slider is going to be a hot bait for big Walleye, Northern, and Musky. I took a 25″ Walleye in hte same weeds on Sunday about noon. I was throwing a Salmo Minnow M7F in the Clown color (red head and yellow body). This lure dives a bit deeperthan most cranks in its class and I could attain nine feet which put me right at the weed tops. I loved the tight wobble action and the run is perfectly straight even when hooked on a ultra-light wire leader. This lure took the only fish of the day also…. making me now a die hard Salmo freak! I know a good thing when I see one and the Salmo Minnow I was using realy took a real pounding when it was trolled into rocks and bounced off the gravel… it still ran straight. Kind of a learning trip for me. I enjoyed meeting Crossing Eyes. Turns out he and I have mutual friends and he has lived in Owatonna.. and I enjoyed fishing with his two Springers… they are a great couple of good dogs. Real “lovers” and both loved getting my attention, they were good in the boat… and they were great hand warmers too. I ate something that did not agree with me Saturday night off the salad bar, that had me up half the night “spewing” my guts out and shaking like a leaf… but I was in good enough shape to fish on Sunday morning… which was just beautiful on the water. By Sunday noon I was in pretty fair shape… glad I stuck it out as I would have missed out on the second 25″ Walleye. Over all, I had a great trip. Thank you Steve Hougom and James Holst for adding the Trip Swap Forum and allowing this to happen. My digital crapped out on me so… I will have photos after they get back from processing. Hawger
We got a call from Bobber (Bob Carlson) he couldn’t stand knowing we were out there and he decided to play hookie from work and we met up with him around noon. Loaded up and followed him to his place and relaunched. We went out and worked over some different areas and bobber sets the hook on our first fish just to have break off. I was using a willow spoon and crawler and I got bit almost instantly . The fish stayed deep and after a few minutes bobber netted a nice eye for me. As we were getting the fish out of the net we found extra line other than mine attached to the fish. That fish wanted my Willow spoon so bad that he broke off bobbers line to get at it. Anyway as much as we tried different drifts,trolling cranks,rigs,three ways nothing worked and that is the only fish we put in the boat Friday. It was a nice day though and got to meet up with hooks,bobber,hawger,and crossin eyes. Thanks all for a great time.Steve 