Fishing Reports
November 25, 2009, 08:37 AM by Greg November report
My focus the last 3 weeks has been on Archery hunting. With the warm weather the river has been producing well from what i hear...I just haven't had the opportunity to get out.Unfortunately, I didn't see anything worthy of getting an arrow this year. The rut was slow due to the warm weather, which had most of the larger bucks nocturnal. I did have a visit from the same mature buck 3 times during my week off. To bad his one side of his antlers were all screwed up (one side was a main frame 8, the other a long spike with a brow tine) so i decided to let him walk.
I did have a visit from a momma bear and 3 of last years cub at the base of my tree. That was really cool. Love to see them, unfortunately i didnt have my camera as it would have made some great pictures.
Now its off for gun season this upcoming 2 weeks. I will be taking my 10 year old with me....this should be interesting.
October 24, 2009, 08:34 PM by Greg 10/24/09
Had a 1/2 day Charter with Leo Watrin and his son Grant. It rained sideways today and it poured pitchforks and hammer handles for the entire am!!!. Didn't bother the fish at all as they are wet all the time. Water was clear to start and 55 degrees.Saw some Gobblers standing on the edge of the water on our way to the first stop...they were all hunkered down.
We fished for 4 hours today and they ended up with 50 smallies, 1 walleye and one rather large white sucker. Leo got to master a new technique and Grant got to catch his fair share of smallies. I always carry some extra clothes and rain gear for clients and it came in handy today!
I was thinking about postponing the charter, but i am glad we didnt as the heavy rain was muddying the river up pretty quickly. When we went back to the ramp there was debris floating everywhere and i have never seen all the waterfalls flowing heavily as they were this afternoon! it was quite a site! All in all, we got wet, but they toughed it out and we had a pretty good day of fishing!
No pics today as i was scared to death to take the camera out of the bag in fear of getting the camera soaked! but we got a lot of quality 15-17"ers today
October 20, 2009, 10:49 PM by Greg 10/17-10/19
Fishing was extremely good the past 3 days even with the very cold, windy and snowy weather. We put a number of big fish in the boat over the weekend including 2-19"ers a bunch in the 18" range and to many17'" fish to count. I BELIEVE!!Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was a 30# "golden smallie" that "hit"...yes in the lips! a Jerkbait in 2' of water! I had the trolling motor on high chasing this fish down or it would have spooled Marks reel! It was the biggest Carp i ever saw come out of the river!
We even got into a couple of Mr. toothys...One a 30+ inch Northern and a Low 30" musky. Water was in the mid to upper 40's and is GIN clear. Perhaps the clearest water i have seen in a long time with10' of visability! We even took a couple of marble eyes home for dinner and man were they good!
October 11, 2009, 07:09 PM by Greg 10/11/09
Rich H and i Fished together today from 9 till 4.....Water was light green stained, 56 degrees and at a gauge of 9.2....Rich was singing "i believe"!! today....After i got him to switch over today...he started the day with a 35" northern. After that it was all smallies...all 107 of them... up to 18-3/4" today.
Bite came in spurts...it would be a flurry for 15 minutes then die off for 15 minutes. Saw lots of turkeys today along the shore line. Leaves should be at or near full color over the next 5 days or so! SWEET!
October 8, 2009, 12:23 PM by Greg 10/04/09
Fished with Tom G today...Water was 58 light green stained and a gauge height around 9'.Today was just one of those days you long for on the river. The bite was on and the fishing was excellent. We ended up with somewhere in the neighbor hood of 85 to 90 smallies and one walleye in only 5 hours. At one point i had 8 in a row on consecutive casts.
My trolling motor isolater bolts lost the battle (with another rock) and we left early. Didn't really matter as i had bass thumb and my wrist hurt!
Tom had perhaps the best day he has had fishing on the river. After he mastered the technique today he had a smile on his face a mile long.
September 26, 2009, 09:46 PM by Greg 09/26/09
John and Joe Allen came up fishing today on an all day charter. Water was 66 degrees green stained at a gauge height about 7.9There was a brisk 20 mph wind today with afternoon clouds and rain.
Had to work today for the the fish. Floating snot grass made it tough with some presentations and there was absolutlely no top water bite at all. They did manage 29 smallies...with the biggest at 17.5" and 2 walleyes.
September 20, 2009, 08:46 AM by Greg 09/19/09
Fished with Nick Perez Sr. today. Weather was cool with beautiful blue bird skies and a light steady wind all day. Water was green stained (low) and in the low 60's. Navigation is getting a bit tricky now due to the low water.I was anticipating a foggy start this am, but it was crystal clear which put a damper on the am topwater bite in the early am. Although we did catch some on TW, i thought they would be on fire with a foggy start.
We did well on a variety of baits today and although we didnt catch any toads the overall quality was consistent today with most of the fish in the 14-16" range.
Have to give Kudos to my wife who really came through today. I broke my sunglasses shortly after take off this am, Nick spilled his precious am coffee out the back of the boat and forgot his lunch cause of his late start this am. A quick call to my wife produced, sunglasses for me, a subway hoagie and thermos of coffee for nick! What a gal! Thanks Honey!
September 6, 2009, 01:25 PM by Greg 09/05/09
Charles Stanley came up from Virginia for an all day charter. Charles wanted to target larger fish in the am and thats what we did. We started out in the am fog with a stained river @ 68 degrees. We caught 22 fish before noon and 4 of them were over 17" with two 17-1/2's an 18" and a 19 1/4" pig beast.We took a break at noon pulled the boat out, had lunch and ventured out in the afternoon for the evening bite. The bite picked up in the afternoon and we ended with 62 fish in the boat for the day with some decent size fish towards evening.
It was a fun day with Charles..he is a good angler with a great personality! I even thought i was going to get to finally use my custom hook "puller outer" as a smallie buried a treble hook in Charles finger! Luckily, the hook was just barely not far in as the barb and he was able to easily pull it out....a painful experience regardless!! OUCH! Those smallies are nasty with a face full of treble hooks!!
September 6, 2009, 01:16 PM by Greg 09/04/09
Had an evening charter with Mike Rickels, his dad Karl and Mike's 8 year old son. We had an enjoyable evening although the fishing was on the slow side.Mike managed several nice nice smallies as the bite picked up around dark.
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"