Yeah we can’t wait. Gonna have to hit the St. Croix a few times to ease the anxiety I’ve always had a group of six up at the Excursion Brian, usually half are too tired to hang out at the Wigwam @ night though!

My party of six just booked a cabin at Adrian’s. Ordered a flat of crawlers too. $33 for people staying there, he said probably $40 for all IDO members, and probably $50 for non-members. Heck of a deal! Can’t wait! I’m guessing the water will be pretty high and fast moving like two years ago, but who knows this IS Minnesota. Hoping I don’t have another $300 Rod explode into four pieces like last year haha.

Catch’em Fast!

Hey Brian, Aaron here, I agree…too much unpacking and emails and phone calls and etc. It’s a lot to handle after a trip like that!

Bill, are you back in Denver yet? I only have one thing to say……IT WAS THIS (___________________________) BIG!!! You know what I’m talking about. See you next year!

My report…fishing was slow. But, I did have three “Sturgeon Virgins”(stolen trademark from our t-shirt captain)in my party of six, and all three of them caught the biggest fish of their lives. They caught a 50″, a 48″, and a 46”. And that’s what it’s all about….do the hokey pokey

My party came nowhere near landing a good amount of fish, but we did land quite a few decent Sturgeon and best of all we made memories. All in all, wonderful trip.

***Pics to come, and video of my brother’s $28 rod(and reel!!!) vs. my $300 rod. Words cannot do justice

-Aaron Crosby-
-Catch’em Fast! fishing-

Brian, I don’t know who was doing an oil change yesterday at noon. I was still in Missouri fishing Table Rock. Today, reality struck…back to work. Not too bad though, in two days we leave for Baudette! Can’t wait. See you up there.

Hey Brian, Aaron here. Had a question for you. It looks like signing up for the tourney is pretty simple this year. My question is, does a person have to be a member of this site to sign up for it this year? I would assume so, but I’m not sure. I personally bring up five guys each year and most of them are not site members, but would love to join the tourney. I have no problem helping them all become members, and heh…it would be very useful to them anyway. They would have a chance to see how big and how passionate this fishing thing is. Just wanted to clarify. My vote is members only, but if that’s not the way this year then I’m ok with that too. Big Sturgeon dance coming this year…I can feel it!

As I’m counting them, it’s seems well over 500. You see…we are in Branson, Missouri right now fishing Table Rock Lake for huge LM Bass and Crappie. And get this…we are using some “left over” crawlers from last years Sturgeon Excursion! That’s awesome. I asked my buddy today where he got the crawlers from and he said, “I picked some out of my yard and would you believe that some of these are still from last years Sturgeon trip.?.?” I couldn’t believe it. So, now everyone knows that $39 for 500 crawlers is the best deal you can find. If you don’t use them all, keep them around and use them all year!

–side note–It’s funny how I’m down here in Branson, it was 82 degrees today, three more days of awesome fishing and weather to come….and ALL I can think about is the Sturgeon Excursion!

Just ordered two for our crew. Ugh…two more weeks. Feels like the night before Christmas when I was a kid.

Yep, just saw it on Kare11. It’s true.

Yeah, check the dryer! I found a sock in there once that didn’t have a matching pair!

Very good, and very useful points Johnny P. Now, what about the ideas of cylinder type(and sealed) “hole savers” that would not allow the muskrats, water, moisture, etc. to enter? Are these all just ideas that don’t work? I think a lot of people would be interested in various opinions/experiences.

Funny how this went from LX-5, to float or no float. Guess I have to add to the the float vs. arm debate. To me, it is simple…I greatly prefer the fixed arm over the float. The fixed arm does not let the transducer move, it’s that simple. The float always moves around and continuously changes what you are reading. But with the depth our ice reaches, a fixed arm only works for so long. Once the ice is 15 inches or more, I simply switch from fixed arm to float. I just zip-tie the float on, lower the transducer down near the bottom of the ice, and fish. If I was able to put a fixed arm down through 2-3ft. of ice, then I would.

ahaha! lol. I haven’t seen it until now and that’s hilarious. Dem der dose guys got some basketballs to do that!

Myself and the five guys I brought were all rookies and repeated all of those words many times. We didn’t know what to expect and were in awe when we heard everyone stating how tough the bite was this year. I think you are correct about being spoiled. And we can’t wait to be spoiled next year. Brian, this is Aaron from Dave’s, it was a pleasure seeing you and it sure is a small world.

Catch’em Fast!

Ralph,

We caught almost all of our fish near the red marker off Wheeler’s Point. There are rapids directly off the Red marker, we were just south(about 150 yds.) of those in Minnesota waters. Now, we were going to fish just north of it but then I turned on my gps and found that it was Canadian waters. I bet there were over 100 boats fishing Canadian waters. I don’t think they knew, or maybe they were just chancing it?

Let me add a little info. on our learning curve… Fri. was a huge learning process. I don’t know where people were staying on the bottom with 4 ounces, must have been somewhere in four mile, but we started w/ 3 oz. no rollers, then up to six ounces, and still no bottom. We had to have 7-8 ounces to stay down. Sat. we needed 9-10 ounces, and Sun. morning we needed 10-11 ounces! No joke. Yes, we were in a very fast current area, but I would have never thought we neeeded that kind of weight to stay down. It worked though and we landed a lot of fish. Also, we started with about 24″ leaders(80lb. braided) and didn’t have a lot of success. When we closed in on 12-14″ leaders, then we started landing a lot more fish. 3 crawlers on a 3/0 circle hook. It was as good as going to Alaska to fish the running Salmon. Like I said before, I can’t wait to see what it is like during a “good” year.

Catch’em Fast!

It was my first trip up and I brought five guys with me. We couldn’t believe how fast some boats were cruising by us and others, but chalked it up as “guess that’s just what happens up here.” When numerous of you told us that this was a bad year, it just got us excited to see what a good year is. On Fri. afternoon we didn’t do much because we were not on the bottom. Sat. we landed 32 fish with the biggest coming in at 57″. Everyone we talked with seemed to be great people. If this was an awful year, then I can’t wait to see what a good year brings.

Catch’em Fast!

You guys have a great site here! Please count me in.

Catch’em Fast!