Fishing Reports
September 2, 2009, 08:08 PM by Greg 08/30/09
Every year my wife has her annual "girls" weekend out the last weekend of August...What does this mean for me? Well i get to spend some time off fishing and spend some quality time with my Son. For the past several years my associate guide Chris Gorsuch has joined me for our annual trip. Chris had to work saturday and he didnt get up until 5:30. So he called on his way up and we meet at the ramp with my son and German shorthair in tow. (i got the major sad eyes when i was leaving and i couldnt say no!)We fished till about 7:30 and pulled 40 smallies in the boat. With an 18er being the largest. Sunday we got up early and headed South. The river was up, muddy and in the low 70's. The bite was slow really early but picked up as the am went along. We put the boat on the trailer at 11am after landing another 40 fish with another 18"er caught by jr.
After a nice lunch at KFC (i hadnt eatin there in what seems like 20 years) We unloaded a little further North....When we found the active fish the Bite was ON! and from 1 till 4:30 put another 40 fish in the boat and with some nice quality smallies to boot!
It was a nice enjoyable day and 1/2 of fishing with over 120 fish in the boat under some less than ideal conditions! Including 3 over 18"
August 29, 2009, 03:50 PM by Greg 08/29/09
Fished with Andy his dad Brink and Andy's 11 year old son Will on a 1/2 day am charter. I knew we were in for a pretty good day when Andy had a smallie on his first cast.The bite was pretty much steady all am. Most of the larger fish came on TW...They ended up with smallie #s in the mid-50's. With some decent size. Thought we would get into some walleyes today cause it was cloudy and rainy but all they got were smallies. We had a great am and nice B-day present for Brink!
August 21, 2009, 08:41 PM by Greg 08/21/09 Nice fish night!
Fished with Bob Hobbes Jr and Sr tonight on an evening charter. It started out to be a walleye night as it was cloudy and windy as they caught a number of nice size marble eyes tonight. Once the sun came out the smallies fired up!They got into a number of nice size fish tonight! With Bob Sr catching a nice 18"er on a SB. But Bob Jr had the numbers of good quality size fish, overall they caught 30 fish tonight with 10 over 15". It was a very enjoyable evening on the water with some good company!
August 15, 2009, 02:46 PM by Greg 08/15/09
Fished with Emma Baynes and her boyfriend Dave today on a 1/2 day am charter. Emma bought the charter as a present for Dave's 21st birthday which was yesterday. (What a cool girlfriend!)I wish the conditions were better but you have to play with the cards you get dealt sometimes. The river is still muddy with a gauge in the 11' range and 76 degrees and visability of about 8".
They did pretty well with the conditions we had boating a decent number of smallies. Emma even caught her first ever NB smallie!
I promised them an eagle sighting today and as if on cue one appeared. It was a hot but very enjoyable day with a nice couple!
August 5, 2009, 09:31 PM by Greg 08/04/09 NB Grand Slam....
Had an evening trip with Tim G. Water was mid 70's and dirty stained with a gauge in the 12' range. The recent heavy rains have changed the river dramatically in spots and pushed a lot of trees into the water.Fishing started out slow but picked up as the sun set. A yell of excitement came from the back of the boat as something big grabbed Tim's Crankbait and he couldnt budge the fish as it ripped drag. Due to the dirty water it took several minutes to get the fish up so we could tell what it was. When we finally saw it, we knew we had a good musky on. Tim played the fish perfectly and guided it into my musky cradle. We put the tape on it and it was just shy of 40". A really nice first NB musky for Tim!
Tim's only miscue was he got his thumb up under its gill plates and got two nasty cuts while getting photos!...I told him you never can catch a big musky without a little blood letting!!!
We finished the night with smallie #'s in the 20's, 2 walleyes and one small pike. About the only thing we didnt catch tonight was a cat fish!
We also got to witness a NB annual event...the White fly hatch!!The river seemed to have a white fog over it. The boat had about an inch of mayflies in it by the time we got back to the ramp! All in all a pretty eventful trip!
July 26, 2009, 08:40 AM by Greg 07/25/09
Fished south today on a 1/2 day trip. We started early and got into some nice ealy morning action. Water was stained in the mid 70's and the gauge at 8.2Lots of waders in the channels and boats in the main pools today. Now that the water has dropped and is somewhat clear , everyone is out.
But we were able to get by all them and got through some skinny water to get to some water with no competition. We did well today boating Smallie #'s in the 60's and 2 walleye. One of which was a beast at 25" and close to 6lbs. Smallies where all mostly quality fish in the 14-17" range.
July 23, 2009, 08:22 AM by Greg Week of 7/20
Fishing has been decent over the past week. Action was good on crankbaits and Spinnerbaits earlier in the week.Last night we had some river drama...as we watched some inexperienced river boaters ruin the lower unit of their boat! They tried to traverse a severely shallow area and didnt make it. They hit and instead of turning the motor off..they continued to run in shallow water drive. You could hear the rocks crunching the prop from over 200 yards! They ended up towing the boat by hand 200 yards back up to the shore.
Did well last night boating 35 fish in 3.5 hrs. The overall quality was better last night as most of the fish were in the 14-16" range with the biggest being 17-1/2" Even got into the first topwater action of the summer.
July 16, 2009, 09:15 AM by Greg Week of 7/13
River is still off color and stained with a water temp in the low to mid 70's with a gauge height in the 9' range.Clients have been hitting them pretty well on evening charters as of late. With numbers in the 30-40 range for the evening for 2 anglers. We have been doing well with color specific Spinnerbaits, targeting larger fish.
One thing is for sure...When they hit there is no doubt what it is as they are SLAMMING the baits!!! Almost yanking the rod out of your hand when they strike! Gotta love those big smallies!!
July 6, 2009, 08:43 AM by Greg July 4th weekend
River is still a mudbowl and in the low 70's,although the fishing has been decent the past several days. The good part of the muddy water is that it kept the weekend holiday boat traffic to a minimum. We basically had the river to ourselves on a busy holiday weekend which is pretty unheard of.Fishing was steady over the weekend with good numbers of smallies in the 13-18" range.
June 28, 2009, 07:24 PM by Greg 06/28/08 another mud bowl
Seems as though this is going to be one of those summers that the river is going to be a mud bowl. Doesnt mean you cant fish though.Although most people would look at the river and go do the "honey do" list. I look at the muddy river and see fishing opportunity! You just gotta know what to look for, where to go and what to use.
Today was no different. Water was coffee and cream colored, rising and 67degrees. Fished with fellow North Branch Smallmouth Alliance Members Rich and Tom today on a last minute...hey lets go fishing trip.
We fished from about 7:30am till 11:00am and we caught 14 smallies up to 18". The weather was beautiful as we finally got some sun, we caught some decent sized smallies, no wind and best of all...no other people on the water!