It's been a great week to be a fisherman, I got the opportunity to get into the panfish and "eyes" a couple times this week.
Tuesday night I had the opportunity to fish with a long time friend of mine from Iowa. We were targeting walleyes after dark and decided to hit some offshore structure on "Area Lake" (my favorite lake) , after working various humps and points with minimal success we headed back to shoreline structures to find some very aggressive "eyes" .Small minnow baits in 8-10' of water trolling slow (1.7-1.9 MPH) turned out to be the ticket boating 13 and missing a few more!!The biggest that night was a hefty 26 with 3 more over 20" (released) all in all pretty good fishing for just 2 1/2 hours.Unfortunately,I have no Walleye pics as my phone decided to go for a swim and now I am the proud owner of a "smart phone".... not by choice but necessity.
My mornings have been in search of bull "gills" and crappies, and this being my first trip out in the Bemidji area since post spawn, I decided to fish deep to shallow as the morning progressed hoping the gills would move up as the sun heats up the shallows.Deep water produced a few fish but the bite was slow , and by late morning fish had started to get aggressive in the shallows and found a few "bulls". biggest being roughly 10 1/4 inches. The Crappies were active as well and found good numbers but only average in size.
The presentation of choice (by the gills) was a small bobber and leech, with the Crappies wanting a small jig tipped with plastics.
Gotta run!! Tight lines and fast action to ya!!
What We Do
- Chasing Leviathans: Patrick Olson & Shawn Anderson
- We are chasers of trophy fish (Leviathans if you will). We devote as much time as we can to the thrill of the hunt, the success, and the failure of fishing the waters of Northern Minnesota. We are stewards of the land and water. Conservation is a top priority to us because the future of tomorrow is what we decide today. Catch-Photo-Release is practiced along with selective harvest.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Finally back !!
Hey All,
Sorry we 've not been in of touch but extreme weather has left us dealing with downed trees and roofers and insurance claim adjusters .YUCK!! Anyhow,I have managed to sneak out a few times, ( not NEARLY enough) but have manged to make the best of it.
The past 2 weeks I have been on vacation although be it a working one mostly, I have had the opportunity to take out my relatives from New York on their first Bluegill/Crappie trip, hoping to give my future fisherman a little exposure to catch and release and conservation of larger panfish.
I think I had very good success as my 10 yr old nephew after 1 trip told the other 11 yr old, " That is a bull gill and that needs to swim again to protect the other fish in the lake!"not EXACTLY how I explained it but the principle stuck, well done nephew, well done.
Most of the gills have been coming off the weed edges near faster breaks using either bobber and leeches or 1/32 oz jigs and plastics.we rounded up a few 10 inch + gills but alot were between 9-10 inches. As my nephew from New York said after landing a 9+ incher, "that was the best fighter EVER".
The walleye bite was not fast and furious last week for me but we did manage to find some "eyes on off-shore structure finally, as most fish were shoreline related up to 2 weeks ago, not what I would consider the norm.Trolling stickbaits after dark in 9-12 ft near rock or transition areas from sand to rock was the most consistent bite,with a modest 24 1/2 incher being the largest.
As all family is gone now and reparations to our home get closer, my fishing will hopefully get back on track so I can provide a little more info and alot more pics!! I know as well as you do a picture is worth a thousand words.Tight lines to you all and teach a kid to fish please, the rewards will put a big smile on their face as well as yours!! LATER my fishing friends!!
Sorry we 've not been in of touch but extreme weather has left us dealing with downed trees and roofers and insurance claim adjusters .YUCK!! Anyhow,I have managed to sneak out a few times, ( not NEARLY enough) but have manged to make the best of it.
The past 2 weeks I have been on vacation although be it a working one mostly, I have had the opportunity to take out my relatives from New York on their first Bluegill/Crappie trip, hoping to give my future fisherman a little exposure to catch and release and conservation of larger panfish.
I think I had very good success as my 10 yr old nephew after 1 trip told the other 11 yr old, " That is a bull gill and that needs to swim again to protect the other fish in the lake!"not EXACTLY how I explained it but the principle stuck, well done nephew, well done.
The walleye bite was not fast and furious last week for me but we did manage to find some "eyes on off-shore structure finally, as most fish were shoreline related up to 2 weeks ago, not what I would consider the norm.Trolling stickbaits after dark in 9-12 ft near rock or transition areas from sand to rock was the most consistent bite,with a modest 24 1/2 incher being the largest.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Sheep Hearder!!!
Yes, another late entry...I'm trying to stay on top of things but, it's been so busy at work this summer, I just haven't been able to keep up. I'll keep trying!
June 14th, I set out after work to fish some walleyes with a good friend, Bill Hendricks. Bill is a very good walleye angler on his home lake and seems to have them walters dialed in at all times. Early in the year, until July, he slip floats walleyes with a plain hook and leech on main lake points that are adjacent to deep water. We usually anchor in 14 feet of water, cast to 11, with the leech 1 foot off the bottom...works real good!
On this night we did catch some walleyes, nothing huge but, some good fish for a meal. The real treat came when I set into a very large sheepshead or freshwater drum! I knew within a few seconds that what was on the recieving end of my slip float set up was not a walleye! The drag was singing a sweet and long tune! Bill had ask me if I wanted to cut my line and I said with a confused chatter in voice, "Are you nuts!", "Any fish that can do this is worthy of battle to the end." Bill, did not seem amused. He did however, do a great job netting the biggest sheepshead I have ever caught so far!
June 14th, I set out after work to fish some walleyes with a good friend, Bill Hendricks. Bill is a very good walleye angler on his home lake and seems to have them walters dialed in at all times. Early in the year, until July, he slip floats walleyes with a plain hook and leech on main lake points that are adjacent to deep water. We usually anchor in 14 feet of water, cast to 11, with the leech 1 foot off the bottom...works real good!
On this night we did catch some walleyes, nothing huge but, some good fish for a meal. The real treat came when I set into a very large sheepshead or freshwater drum! I knew within a few seconds that what was on the recieving end of my slip float set up was not a walleye! The drag was singing a sweet and long tune! Bill had ask me if I wanted to cut my line and I said with a confused chatter in voice, "Are you nuts!", "Any fish that can do this is worthy of battle to the end." Bill, did not seem amused. He did however, do a great job netting the biggest sheepshead I have ever caught so far!
18 pounds 5 ounces!
Released
Only a few, and I mean a very few, anglers around my area target these hard fisghting behemoths! Well, its safe to say that I now am one of those few you will go on the hunt for them! Just way too much fun for this guy to pass up. I will admit that I don't know much about the habits of sheepshead but, I will be figuring it out for the rest of the summer.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Reed Bustin' Bass
I'm a little late with this entry, for that I apologize. All this work and nice weather doesn't make blog entries easy!
This entry is relative to my last enry, "Extreme Backwoods Panfish." This is about day number 2 of that weekend with Andy Mott and fishing northern Itasca county.
Being that we are older than we used to be when we started fishing together, we needed to have a much easier day. We chose to fish largemouth bass on one of our favorite lakes. This lake has a public access so, that makes it a whole lot easier! Busting the reed beds for these largemouth bass is something that we taught ourselves many years ago. As far as we know, we are the only ones that take advantage of the excellent fishing these reed beds have to offer!
The presentation for this type of cover is quite simple. 1/2 - 3/4oz spinnerbaits with willow leaf blades, 7' heavy action casting rod, heavy monofilament line (17lb - 25lb). I used to use braid but, found that I was breaking spinnerbait arms trying to winch these bass out of the thick cover.
Casting the spinnerbaits with the "grain" of the reeds is important. When I say "grain", I mean the direction the reeds are bent over. This allows the spinnerbait to stay consistant in the water, without hopping out because the line is riding on top of the reeds. On this particular lake the blade color can vary. At times the wind can cause the water to turn up and make it cloudy because it it is shallow, 5-7ft deep. When the water is cloudy we found that colored blades like chartruese or orange work very well! Using willowleaf style blades is important. The willow leaf shape allows the the bait to slip through the dense cover much easier than a colorado blade.
Reed bed fishing is fun for another reason...it's a multi-species affair! Often pike of all sizes lurk in the beds, along with bluegills, rockbass, smallmouth and the occassional waleye! Although we didn't get any smallies, walleyes, or bluegills, we did find some rockies and pike!
Bustin' the reeds is always a good time and usually ends with a nice workout! happy hooksets to you all and next up I will tell ya all about the Sheepshead...another fun fish that gets no respect!
This entry is relative to my last enry, "Extreme Backwoods Panfish." This is about day number 2 of that weekend with Andy Mott and fishing northern Itasca county.
The presentation for this type of cover is quite simple. 1/2 - 3/4oz spinnerbaits with willow leaf blades, 7' heavy action casting rod, heavy monofilament line (17lb - 25lb). I used to use braid but, found that I was breaking spinnerbait arms trying to winch these bass out of the thick cover.
Casting the spinnerbaits with the "grain" of the reeds is important. When I say "grain", I mean the direction the reeds are bent over. This allows the spinnerbait to stay consistant in the water, without hopping out because the line is riding on top of the reeds. On this particular lake the blade color can vary. At times the wind can cause the water to turn up and make it cloudy because it it is shallow, 5-7ft deep. When the water is cloudy we found that colored blades like chartruese or orange work very well! Using willowleaf style blades is important. The willow leaf shape allows the the bait to slip through the dense cover much easier than a colorado blade.
Reed bed fishing is fun for another reason...it's a multi-species affair! Often pike of all sizes lurk in the beds, along with bluegills, rockbass, smallmouth and the occassional waleye! Although we didn't get any smallies, walleyes, or bluegills, we did find some rockies and pike!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Extreme Backwoods Panfish!
It's mid-winter to late winter, I don't know, around Feb/Mar of 2012, and my cell rings up. It happens to be my very good friend Andy! Andy and I met in 7th grade and have been fishing buddies ever since. Andy must be calling about your 2nd annual Bull Bluegill Bust. I was completely correct. As the re-telling of stories gets my blood pumping, June can't come soon enough. Well, that day came.
I headed to Side Lake, MN on the evening of June 7th to meet up with Andy at my parents place. Good ol' Mom and Dad's as and probably will always be base camp for this trip. It just works perfect. Andy beat me to the "base camp" cause I had to stop in Blackduck at the Shell station and get some bait and gawk at tackle. It's now 8pm and it's time for some grub and shut eye, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
7am...we are up and out the door by 8. Andy's truck finally comes to rest at our drop site and gear is unloaded. This year we are going to debut a new boat, motor and a new way into this lake. The boat is a 12ft Pelican jonboat and clamped on the transom is a 3.3 hp Mercury "camp" outboard. This a much better set up for the remote access to this lake. The boat and motor is clamped, strapped and secured to a custom rack built for his ATV. This quite the rig! all the fishing gear was loaded in a Otter Wild Side trailer. This was a much easier rig to get to the lake with!
I headed to Side Lake, MN on the evening of June 7th to meet up with Andy at my parents place. Good ol' Mom and Dad's as and probably will always be base camp for this trip. It just works perfect. Andy beat me to the "base camp" cause I had to stop in Blackduck at the Shell station and get some bait and gawk at tackle. It's now 8pm and it's time for some grub and shut eye, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
7am...we are up and out the door by 8. Andy's truck finally comes to rest at our drop site and gear is unloaded. This year we are going to debut a new boat, motor and a new way into this lake. The boat is a 12ft Pelican jonboat and clamped on the transom is a 3.3 hp Mercury "camp" outboard. This a much better set up for the remote access to this lake. The boat and motor is clamped, strapped and secured to a custom rack built for his ATV. This quite the rig! all the fishing gear was loaded in a Otter Wild Side trailer. This was a much easier rig to get to the lake with!
Let the journey begin!
2 hours to go 1-1.5 miles...so worth it! It didn't take long and were hooking up with some good fish!
The technique used was a small jig, tipped with plastic or Northland Tackle's Impluse Waterbug. Absolutely deadly! Hair jigs such as Jim Gronaw's River Critters and Lindy Tackle's Little Nippers were also killer on these fish! Slipfloats were also employed to keep baits from snagging in timber.
What a fantastic trip this was! We didn't find any super freaks but all the fish were in the 8.5"-10" class! We spent a total of 9 hours back there and loved every second of it. Day two of the trip was spent casting for largemouth bass and pike, as well as keeping a keen eye out for sumo gills, on a different body of water. I will have more on that day tomorrow!
Thanks for reading and have a good day fishing, Patrick
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Hey all!!
Just reporting in.
It has been a week since we 've hooked up and I got back from the Grand Marais (MN.) area late Thursday.
The fishing was great all 4 days and alot of fish were caught.We had some awesome walleyes caught the first night, biggest being a HEAVY bodied 23 1/2 incher that inhaled our shalow running stick bait.We proceeded to catch another 11 fish not as large but were happy with there size and scrappy attitude.
The next morning Brookies were the target species but unfortunately my 4 WD went out on the trip up so we adjusted our game plan and fished Smallmouth bass instead, again great numbers with fish up to 18 inches, all with a bad attitude, what a blast!!
The afternoon found us fishing Rainbows on a nearby lake and seeing fish rise as we were landing our boats, indicated the "Bows" were shallow even over deep water.Long-lining spinners and minnow imitations made for a great afternoon of 30 + fish being caught.
As night fell we decided to go after walleyes on the same lake as the night before, catching only 9 decent fish, but the full moon was fabulous and the company second to none!
Our Brookie trips were limited to over populated areas that the landings were easily accessible to the general public and fished hard.Although we caught fish, they were not of the size and quantity we re accustomed to.Although we didn't get to our "hot spots" the brookies were still beautifully colored and the fight spectacular.I love Brook Trout fishing!!
Day 3 found me determined to meet my personal "Grand Slam" of a limit of 4 species of fish in a 12 hr period. I unfortunately came up just short on Brookies to make it a reality,but that goal will continue onto next year.
I hear I missed out on a hot panfish bite last week so I plan to make up for lost time starting tommorrow.Bluegills beware!!
Thanks for stopping by and tight lines to you all !!.........Shawn
Just reporting in.
It has been a week since we 've hooked up and I got back from the Grand Marais (MN.) area late Thursday.
The fishing was great all 4 days and alot of fish were caught.We had some awesome walleyes caught the first night, biggest being a HEAVY bodied 23 1/2 incher that inhaled our shalow running stick bait.We proceeded to catch another 11 fish not as large but were happy with there size and scrappy attitude.
The next morning Brookies were the target species but unfortunately my 4 WD went out on the trip up so we adjusted our game plan and fished Smallmouth bass instead, again great numbers with fish up to 18 inches, all with a bad attitude, what a blast!!
The afternoon found us fishing Rainbows on a nearby lake and seeing fish rise as we were landing our boats, indicated the "Bows" were shallow even over deep water.Long-lining spinners and minnow imitations made for a great afternoon of 30 + fish being caught.
Our Brookie trips were limited to over populated areas that the landings were easily accessible to the general public and fished hard.Although we caught fish, they were not of the size and quantity we re accustomed to.Although we didn't get to our "hot spots" the brookies were still beautifully colored and the fight spectacular.I love Brook Trout fishing!!
Day 3 found me determined to meet my personal "Grand Slam" of a limit of 4 species of fish in a 12 hr period. I unfortunately came up just short on Brookies to make it a reality,but that goal will continue onto next year.
I hear I missed out on a hot panfish bite last week so I plan to make up for lost time starting tommorrow.Bluegills beware!!
Thanks for stopping by and tight lines to you all !!.........Shawn
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
On the water!!!!!
The R.P. Mc Murphy is now ready for the water! His maiden voyage! We (Steph and I) decided on the name R.P. Mc Murphy after the classic movie, one of our favorites, One Who Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest.
Jack Nicholson's character in that movie is the best! Anyway... on to the fishing business.
It is Sunday, May 29th and we have over cast skies and calm winds. Perfection for the big debut on the water! I decided to bring Steph to a body of water that was shown to me last winter by a good friend, Adam Forsythe. That winter we had pulled some very good quality crappies and big gills through the ice and Shawn and I hit the same body of water this spring and scored some big crappies. Needless to say I was pumped!
The new Yamaha run perfect and it felt real good to have a good quality, strong running motor, for once! It didn't take long and I was used to it. I have never had a 4-stroke before so, things are a tad different.
I don't have a graph on him yet but, I knew right where I wanted to start my hunt for big crappies. We set up with colored hooks and slip floats, and a pail of crappie minnows! I was the first to strike with this beautiful female gill!
10" class hen released!
We continued to catch small perch and lost a few hooks to some toothy critters. It has been a couple of hours, some moving around and, finally...BLACK CRAPPIE GOLD!!!!
This 12" fish took down a live minnow, dancing under a slipfloat! That was the one and only crappie caught this evening. It didn't matter to me if we slayed them or not. Just getting out with the new boat and spending the evening with my wife was just as great!
As I am typing this, Shawn is in the Grand Marais area of Minnesota, chasing trout. I will be heading to Itasca county in search of big gills and pumpkin seeds with good friend Andy Mott. Stay tuned....
Jack Nicholson's character in that movie is the best! Anyway... on to the fishing business.
It is Sunday, May 29th and we have over cast skies and calm winds. Perfection for the big debut on the water! I decided to bring Steph to a body of water that was shown to me last winter by a good friend, Adam Forsythe. That winter we had pulled some very good quality crappies and big gills through the ice and Shawn and I hit the same body of water this spring and scored some big crappies. Needless to say I was pumped!
The new Yamaha run perfect and it felt real good to have a good quality, strong running motor, for once! It didn't take long and I was used to it. I have never had a 4-stroke before so, things are a tad different.
I don't have a graph on him yet but, I knew right where I wanted to start my hunt for big crappies. We set up with colored hooks and slip floats, and a pail of crappie minnows! I was the first to strike with this beautiful female gill!
We continued to catch small perch and lost a few hooks to some toothy critters. It has been a couple of hours, some moving around and, finally...BLACK CRAPPIE GOLD!!!!
12" crappie released!
As I am typing this, Shawn is in the Grand Marais area of Minnesota, chasing trout. I will be heading to Itasca county in search of big gills and pumpkin seeds with good friend Andy Mott. Stay tuned....
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