Lake Minnetonka Minnesota Fishing Report 6-23-08

Monday I joined over 30 other anglers taking out a large corporate group of over 90 people. I love these group outings. Everyone is out to have a good time for the next four hours and hoping to out fish their peers. While there may not be any money on the line, bragging rights are at stake! It’s much better than golfing in my opinion. After getting paired up we hit the water in search of big fishes. I was very fortunate to get paired with 3 very accomplished anglers.

Since the outing didn’t start until noon and I made it to the water early I figured I would check out a couple spots to see what was happening. As I drove by a deep weed line spot I noticed there were a large amount of sunfish just under the surface. I decided to stop and see it there were any predator fish in the area. The first cast with an Outkast Tackle Money Jig and 7” Power Worm yielded a nice 2lb largemouth bass. A couple casts later I hooked another. A couple more and I got bit off by a pike. I figured that was good enough and made my way to Lord Fletcher’s to get the boat ready and retie rods. From the sounds of it from those that had fished all morning the bite seemed to be a bit off.

Once we got paired up we headed right out to the same spot I caught the fish earlier. We managed to boat a couple bass and pike to get the guys on the board. Our second spot was very similar to the first, but only gave up a bite off by a toothy critter. Our third spot was the ticket. We were fishing a weed point with milfoil up shallow and coontail out deep. Just for kicks I picked up a crank bait and caught a nice pike. One of the guys decided to trade in his jig worm for the crank. While all three were catching fish on the jig worms, the crank bait was just a little better. The jig worm got the biggest bass for the day. We worked this weed point for over an hour catching quite a few bass and pike. Then all of a sudden it happened.

As we neared the tip of the point the angler using the crank bait set the hook on a good sized fish. About 20’ from the boat it surfaced and everyone in the boat got excited. Here was a solid 40”+ muskie that was as thick as can be. She made quite a few runs, but fortunately they weren’t those hard charging ones, rather she just took 30-50’ of line at a time and we would than have to work her back in. The drag on the Revo worked reel well and this by far the biggest test I have put it to. After 6 or 7 runs and about as many trips back and forth across the bow she finally came close enough to get with the net. I’m sure glad I had a big net for walleyes, but it was still too small for this fish. It took 2 of us to get it in the boat, but when we did the hooting and hollering began. This was his first muskie ever. She tapped in at just less than 42”. After a couple quick pictures we got her back in to be caught again.

The bass right now are quit scattered. You can still catch them on inside weed lines, but also on the outside as we did. If you get an over cast day a rattle trap over the top of the flats will work well. The pike are active on about any weed line.

If you have a company outing and want to try something different, these 4 hour trips are just the ticket. There are about a dozen of these each year and we are adding more each year. If you have any questions, give me a holler!