What has Patrick been doing?...not fishing!

   Shawn has been out chasing "scales" more than me lately but, thats ok! At least one of us is able to chase! It's my turn to play catch up with you all, let me fill you in on what's been happening with Patrick...
   I have been DYING to get out on the water. Believe me, I have, especially since my wife Stephanie and I finally purchased an outboard for the boat we bought last late summer! What a long wait and hunt for the perfect motor. We ended up purchasing a 2006 Yamaha 15 hp 4-stroke and, it is in mint condition! It should be for 2000$!

   So...there she is! With this baby clamped on the transom I was anxious to get out on the water and run it. One problem, we are just starting to move. We decided late last year that this was going to be the last year in the rental house. Moving from a house , with a garage, to a apartment in downtown Bemidji is an eye opener and a lot of work. Storage for the boat was a top priority!
   It took about a week to move and find storage for the boat and all the other stuff. Longest week in my life, it seemed! With all this moving going on, Shawn was out hitting hot spots...lucky dude! It's looking like Sunday, May 29th will be the madien voyage with the R.P. Mc Murphy!

Whirlwind Week

This last week and a half has come and gone so fast, so let me get you up to speed.
 Roughly 10 days ago fishing the Bemidji area found the bluegills and crappies in pre-spawn, fish were shallow and sight fishing was the preferred method. Alot of  crappies and a few gills but the gills were of quality size.Pitching 1/64th oz. jigs tipped with plastics was the ticket most days.We didn't get any double-digit ( inches) gills but alot just under.
  Memorial Day weekend found me in the Grand Marais (MN.) area, trout fishing.
Mother Nature was less than cooperative, making our fishing time extremely limited.The truth is we fished roughly 5 hours in 4 days!!The Lake Trout in that area had already moved into the depths and only smaller fish were up shallow. By the time we concluded this  Ol' Mom Nature unleashed a downpour that drove us off the lake.The following day was not much better with 30+MPH winds making downrigger fishing virtually impossible.
 After some deliberation, we decided to fish Brookies, (Brook Trout) only to find a heavy mayfly hatch had happened upon us making the bite difficult at best . We decided to troll small baits slowly to see if we could connect on fish location only to find the bite was inconsistent.The few brookies we did catch were VERY heavy bodied, but spitting up large amounts of insects.Then Mother Nature came for another visit and fog forced us back to the portage,AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
 The rest of the weekend found us in a heated battle of cribbage.
 I am heading back up to the Grand Marais area tomorrow a.m. for another 4 days,knowing a little better what to expect.We will be heading to a different area this time with a little more variety of fish species on the agenda.I have a little wager with one of my fishing partners that I find rather tempting.
 The goal is for one of us to catch limits of 4 different species on 4 different lakes in 1 day!The species included are Brookies,Rainbows,Splake,Lakers,Walleyes,Smallmouth,Northern,Crappie and Bluegill..All fish have length minimums in order to count and documentation (photos) required! I will check in with you all later this week to let you know how it goes,until then, get fishing!!LATER!!!

The Opener

 2012 Minnesota Walleye Opener found me in the Grand Rapids (MN) area fishing "The Mighty Mississippi" with my good friend AJ. We have been opening there for roughly the last 10 years, with some true "leviathans"coming from her depths.
 This year was no exception, with AJ's first fish of 2012 stretching the tape to a healthy 28 1/2 inches!!After a few pics she was released to catch again.
 High winds and water levels forced us to fish areas not typical in past years,but one must adapt to the fish. A jig and minnow combo caught our fish this weekend,although our numbers weren't staggering, we did catch quality fish.

 After the weekend I was back in the Bemidji area, fishing panfish by day and "eyes" after dark.
Monday morning I found a shallow water crappie bite that produced some nice 10-14 inch crappies.The bait of choice was a 1/64th oz Lindy "Lil Nipper" jig tipped with Berkley Power Bait below a slip float.Way too much fun!! I lost count but I would guess there were 15 fish put in the boat.

The evening found me out chasing walleyes,working the shallow sand flats with shallow running stick type baits.On this evening the walleyes were most cooperative, I landed 13 and missed about as many.(I guess the old hook set is a little rusty!!) A limit of "eyes" made their way home with me as a peace offering to my very understanding wife!!

Pre-Spawn Gills!!!

   Hello! Patrick here again. Although walleye fishing on opener was fun, I always have big panfish on the brain. I can't get away from it either! I'm not complaining at all, I just love trophy class panfish! In order to get mix "bull fix", I decided to head to one of my favorite big bluegill lakes for evening of slip float sinking fun. On this journey, my beautiful wife Stephanie, joined me. It was Monday, May 14th and it was absolutely gorgeous outside. The plan was to take the small boat out and just use the oars. Before we loaded gear in the boat, we had to take cast or two of the dock.

    It was decided, very quickly that the boat was not needed. We were catching some quality fish right from the dock!

   All the fish were up very shallow this evening. With the warm sun and clear skies all day the water temp has come up very quick. I did not have a thermometer to take a reading but, I'm guessing the water temp was around 62-65 degrees

   The lure of choice for this outing was a feather jig tied by a good friend of mine, Chris Salmon, owner and head jig tyer of Slab Jiggies (www.slabjiggies.com). His 1/32 oz jig under a size 0 Thill slip float was the perfect combination for this scenario. I tipped my jigs with 1" Berkley Gulp! minnows, leeches & fry.

I lost track of how many bluegills we caught but, Stephanie estimates that we landed 35-40 nice fish! All fish were released to finish their spawn and to fight another day!

   I can't wait to get back out there! The weekends don't come fast enough. That should change soon though. We, Steph and I, are looking to buy a motor for the boat soon. When that happens...lookout!

Tomorrow night, my buddy Shawn Anderson, the other half of Chasing Leviathans will be joining me in the garage to help me out with some trailer light work and some discussions about some up coming fishing plans. Thanks for reading all! Patrick

Minnesota Walleye Opener

   Well, the walleye and pike season has officially opened last Saturday, May 12th, to be exact! We had pretty nice weather for most of the day. Later, towards evening the wind picked up and made fishing difficult.
   I started out my opener fishing with Jason Rylander, from Bemidji, MN. We started our morning at 4:45 am, man that was early! Jason took me to a small lake that he has had success in find big fish. We were after quality not quantity on this opener. With this strategy we figured we wouldn't have to fight with crowds at landings and such. We hit a total of 3 different lakes on this Saturday.
   At 9:45 am, Jason sets into this nice walleye! 20.5" to be exact! Good to see a walleye after starting to "drag meat" at 5:45am!

 
   Ok, I will explain the AWESOME sport coat now, I guess. The night before the great event of "opener" I had a great idea at work with 30 minutes to spare before the weekend started. I was thinking about all fisherman that were going to be out with all their shiny new boats and equipment and the over all hoopla that comes with opener, and the sometimes way too serious tone that some fisherman take on. My idea was to be successful yet have some fun! Why not make it "classy"?! After all it is a special occasion for us fisherman! The one rule for "the sport coat look" was that you had to hook and land a walleye. As you will see, as you read this, I did not have the luxury of wearing my coat this opener.
   On to lake number 2. Lake number 2, was a short ride away. This lake is another small lake but, with more numbers of fish in it according to Jason. It didn't take long and BAM! Rylander with another "walter"! This girl hit the tape at 21" dead on.

The third and final lake we set the boat into was a much bigger body of water, Jason's home lake if you will. We took on a another fisherman and good friend of ours, Tony Klaers. We set out, and quickly discovered that the wind was not going to be friendly. We spent most of the late afternoon trying to hide from this unwelcome adversary. I was the only one that evening to set any hooks. Both, yup, two hooksets and and two pike. That was my whole day. Pike and largemouth bass all day for this guy. I'm not complaining one bit though. It was great to get out, put an arch in the stick, and enjoy the company of good friends!
  Thanks for reading and please come back!
                                                                                 Patrick

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