I like other fish too!!!!!

   Ok. This is Chasing Leviathans, we chase and and attempt to catch true trophy fish right? The key words here are TROPHY AND FISH! Bullheads are fish. Bullheads can reach trophy proportions right? Well, in my head they do!
   As a young angler, around 10 years old, I was introduced to bullheads. I thought they were the neatest things with fins, and I still do! Over the years I have been so wrapped up in the popular fish, i.e. Bluegills, Crappies, Bass and what have you, that I have kind of forgotten about the bullhead. Sure, it's not super technical, advanced, need a million dollar sponsor type operation but, it's still fishing and still looking for the biggest, baddest, dude in the lake. As a matter of fact, it has been some of the most relaxing fishing I have done in a long time! I really needed this relaxing outing too.
   Fishing for bullheads is very simple. I have been looking for weedbeds, preferably cabbage, on main lake points. I anchor the boat in 10-12 feet of water and rig up a 6 ft St. Croix ultralight panfish rod with a size 4 aberdeen hook, some splitshot sinkers, and thread on a big, fat, juicy nightcrawler. With a nice soft cast towards the outside face of the weedbed, I let the crawler rest on the bottom and wait. The bite comes hard and fast! The ultralight rod tip acts as a spring bobber, much like in ice fishing. When that rod tip starts dancing, grab the handle and hang on!

   I love all the fish Minnesota offers! I relived some childhood memories, and had loads of fun! I had so much fun that I went out twice in one week after these giants! I'm hoping to get one that qualifies for a Minnesota Master Angler award this summer. For this species of bullhead pictured, the Brown Bullhead, I need one 20" or bigger. This lake has the potential!

Giant fish aren't always the pretty and most popular ones, but giants none the less! All these big boys were released!

A Late night...sTROLL!!

   One of Shawn's favorite summer activites is trolling at night for walleyes. He has started getting me hooked on it as well! I'm not a walleye fisherman at all. Don't get me wrong. I like to fish for them when I'm with someone that knows what they are doing. I have never really taken much time to understand the walleye's behavior or seasonal patterns, like I have with bass, bluegill, crappies, and pike.

   It doesn't take much convincing on Shawn's part to get me to go trolling after dark for some 'eyes. He has been doing this for quiet sometime now and is very proficient at it. The idea here is to troll shallow main lake humps, and bars adjacent to deep water. Using original floating Rapalas in the #7 size, trolling speeds average 1.7-2.2 mph is the tacic of choice! And it pays off!

19" Released!

25.5 Released!

On the water with my little Brother!

   I, like Shawn, have been very busy the past couple of weeks. Work has got me for 12-14 hours a day. That doesn't leave much time or energy to fish afterwards. I hope it slows down some.
   This weekend was my family reunion. What a great time it was. I was able to reconnect with some family members that I haven't seen in 20 years or so! One of the best parts of this reunion was the fact my little brother, Eric, was able to attend. Eric is an officer in the United States Marine Corps and has been deployed for most of his career or stationed too far away to make it home.
   When Eric told me he was going to be able to attend the reunion this year I asked if he would want to wet a line before it started up Saturday. He was more than thrilled for the invite! We haven't fished together in 20+ years either! So, needless to say, I was super excited for this outing!
   We were lucky enough that the reunion was being held at the Wynne residents, just north of Bemidji, MN, on the beautiful Crookston Lake. This lake is fun cause it has no public access, which makes the fishing out of this world! I wanted to keep the fishing as simple as possible. Eric likes to fish but, rarely gets a chance to do so. We targeted bluegills and largemouth bass.

Eric and a nice Bluegill!

A little hook removal!

First MN Largemouth Bass!

Me with and handful of Hen!

   Eric and I both had a great time. It was a short little trip, about an hour and a half but, it was quality time together! All fish were released and a great memory never forgotten! Thanks bro for a good time!

   

Every day is a great day on the water!!

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!!

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!!

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!

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.