What are your top fishing memories of 2022?

Mine are: Catching the fire out of the crappies through the ice last winter.

Fishing Trips with my brothers. I took 24 trips with my brother, who lives down in the cities, and only 10 with my brother, who lives at the lake. He was a busy boy between work and getting a hobby farm up and running.

Catching a big ole pike gator and a 4lb bass at the Crow Wing River during a bass club tournament. My tournament season was a disappointment. However, after fishing in the club for 15 years, I finally got paired with Chuck Fields, the second Baxter Bass Snatcher I had ever met, for the first time. He usually only fishes one or two tournaments a year. But decided to make a run at becoming the Club’s Angler of the Year for a second time. I was his non-boater in the final tournament and watched him seal the deal. Chuck is a gentleman and a heck of a fisherman.

I talked with Major League Fishing pros Mark Davis, Skeet Reese, and Alton Jones, all Bassmaster Classic Champions, in the morning before blasting off at Mille Lacs the morning I drove over.

So what are your top memories of 2022?

My first bass tournament win. Also some of the biggest bass I’ve caught to date were in 2022. Didn’t crush it for numbers, but it was a good year for size.

Early Spring, crushed it on two separate trips to the Florida Keys. Can’t wait to go back.

Summer, had a sweet camping / trout fishing trip with my son. It was hot, the bugs were bad, and then it rained. But after the rain stopped we hammered the trout.

I also caught a 21” Smallie on Mille Lacs and my son (10 yr old) caught a 40” pike.

Fall, got some slot walleyes and some impressive numbers on Mille Lacs end of October. It was an awesome way to end the open water season and finally pull some fillets out of that lake.

31 inch walleye on rainy followed by a 29 on the very next cast, pitching plastics. Felt like a pro for a moment lol

Bearcat89 wrote:

31 inch walleye on rainy followed by a 29 on the very next cast, pitching plastics. Felt like a pro for a moment lol

Back 2 back. Good for you BC!

This fall my busy teenage daughter finally had time to fish with dad , and she put the smackdown on the gills .

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I caught 7 muskies this past season. My personal record is 8 in a season.

Unfortunately I did have 2 in August that came unpinned.

22 was a good year, we released more walleyes between 20″ and 27″ than I can remember in yrs past. No slot limits on these waters but we usually never keep anything over 20″ anyhow. Although the nortens didn’t want to play much we did end up with a couple 20″ large mouth.

My northern on the Mississippi in Lake Pepin. It’s been a while since I tied into one of this size and on a stick bait I put a custom paint job on to boot.

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Finally got a chance to spend a day in the boat with my daughter Sharon. It had been a while. We caught fish but that wasn’t important.

SR

My daughter Hannah’s first trip to Canada.

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Anything with these two. Getting the oldest (4 1/2 now, 3 1/2 at the time) out on the ice this past winter. He’s now proficient with a spinning reel as well. And the first ever boat outing for the youngest (2).

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Had a good Canada trip as well as a good Sturgeon trip on the Rainy. But my best memory of 2022 was getting my boys out on their first saltwater trip. We got to see Ft Myers Beach before it was destroyed by the Hurricane. Had a great captain, also saw manatees and dolphins, but got on the Speckled Trout, a big Spanish Mackarel as well as some smaller jack and a few other things.

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Steve Root wrote:

Finally got a chance to spend a day in the boat with my daughter Sharon. It had been a while. We caught fish but that wasn’t important.

SR

Agreed! That was a great day Dad and long overdue! I can’t wait to get out more with you come spring!!

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That’s a beautiful picture.

Going up to NW Ontario in March/April with one of my best friends and dragging my uncle along who’s never fished in Canada before.

We did 2.5 days of tip-up fishing for big pike and it was just unbelievable.

41 fish on the ice

average length: 38″

only 4 fish under 36″

15 fish were between 40″ and 42.999″

Two biggest were 44.5″ and 45.75″ beasts.

Mainly it was just awesome to see how much fun my uncle had. He loves fishing but doesn’t get out much. He even caught a ~41″ silver pike, which are pretty rare(and very rare to get that big.)

Throw in a few Moose brats cooked by the lodge owner over campfire on shore, and then later some homemade poutine back at camp….what a great trip!

Swimjiggin wrote:

22 was a good year, we released more <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes between 20″ and 27″ than I can remember in yrs past. No slot limits on these waters but we usually never keep anything over 20″ anyhow. Although the nortens didn’t want to play much we did end up with a couple 20″ large mouth.

yea but how many sheepies did yea catch!!!!!!!!

Easy… My 3 YO daughter getting absolutely jacked up about her 1st musky (1st reeled in all by herself) and then more importantly asking to go fishing every single night the rest of the summer.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DR8cBcEfnT52mC8F7

2022 for me personally mostly consisted of night fishing around home after the kids were in bed and continued the trend of less time spent seriously fishing. But I will trade that in a heartbeat for kids that want to join me in the boat.

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Mine would be a July trip to Lake Sakakawea around New Town with my wife and some friends.
The weather was great, scenery was fantastic and we caught alot of walleyes that were up to 30 inches long.

Probably my 2 fishing trips to Canada. The spring one ( Early June ) was memorable because the timing of our trip was perfect to have a bay just loaded with both Pike and Walleyes. We spent 2 full afternoons in that bay and just Hammered the fish. Ton’s of pike in the 34-38″ range and probably a 23-25 Average size on the walleyes. You could catch fish on just about anything you threw but a lipless crankbait and a Large Husky Jerk were both the key baits. We also got on a good lake trout bike when the wind allowed us to fish the key spots. Nothing better than 8-10Lb. Lake trout on light fishing gear.
The fall trip was memorable because of having a Northern Pike ( 35-36″ ) jump over the back edge of the boat into the boat without even touching the bait as I pulled it out of the water. I was so shocked that it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened. I could not stop laughing for a good 5 minutes.

My best fishing memory of 2022 happened yesterday, December 26.

Went ice fishing with three of my four grandkids (the fourth is only 4 months old so a little young yet) and they all caught fish.

Great time!

Buffalo Fishhead

Several things:
2021-2022 for me
Boat captaining for high schoolers
My nephew Jacen from Tennessee up for a visit ( red shirt)
One of my programmer’s – her son – Koni – never fished before in his life
My 3 days ALONE in Canada by the fire after dinner and catching tons of Bass on topwaters
Fishing has opened up up so many things the last couple of years. Meeting new people – I CAN’T BELIEVE i have no pictures of Sheldon when we met at Big Lake by Bemidji this summer!?
Lots to be thankful for and great memories.

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Memory that will always stick with me – taking my first musky hook to the hand unhooking my first tiger.

Best fishing success was a 47.25 and 44.5 within an hour of each other on a mid Wisconsin lake.

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being the host for others is so much more rewarding than catching my own fish!
– my son’s first trip to Canada.
– my brother’s first 50″er.

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Catching 32 walleyes on opening weekend with my dad.
We fished Otter tail lake. It brought back a lot of memories of all the times we have fished it together since I was a kid.

My wife catching this 22” walleye this summer in 4th of July weekend.
It was her biggest walleye ever.

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Mine was probably giving dive and rise a try for early season muskys. Had multiple days where I would have over 10 follows and some big fish in spots ive never seen them before.

Watching my son catch his first bass and walleye in his first boat!!!!

My 2.5 year old son caught his first fish, that was my best day on the water!

I ended up with 23 muskies this year, nothing over 45″ but respectable for our area.

Putting prespawn females in the boat. Biggest was 14.15 lbs

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Onthewater wrote:

Putting prespawn females in the boat. Biggest was 14.15 lbs

Holy fatty !