5/24/15 A Little River Fishing

I got out with my friend Andrew to do a little fishing on a northern Indiana river. We only fished for a few hours. I was throwing a spinnerbait the whole time looking to connect with some Northern Pike. I ended up with a few Smallmouth Bass and one Northern of about 20 inches. It was a pretty night to be out and I'm really looking forward to fishing this body of water again during the summer months.

5/21/15 The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat

I got out last night after work to do a little Musky hunting. After my pretty successful trip last week with 5 follows, I felt like it was about time to get out and give it another go. My first mistake was leaving my GoPro plugged into my computer. It still holds true that if you don't have a camera, you are definitely going to need one. Upon arriving at the lake, I was surprised to find it pretty windy after observing how calm it was at home. The wind was pretty heavy at times but as the evening wore on it got less and less. I started off the night by drifting with the wind and casting a large bucktail spinner. About a half hour in, I had my first action of the night. I was bringing the spinner to the boat when I noticed a Musky was following right behind it. I started moving it faster and changed the direction of the lure. This triggered the fish to strike! Unfortunately, I never got a good hook set on it and after a few seconds it came unhooked and swam away. Undeterred, I continued fishing. When I got to the windiest side of the lake, I decided to switch lures and troll back to the calmer side and then drift back with the wind again to cast. I put on two Shallow Raiders and trolled back to the other side of the lake. When I got to the other side of the lake, I pulled one rod from the holder and reeled it in quickly. I hooked the lure to the rod and stowed it away behind me. I pulled the other rod from the holder. I was really just messing around with it while bringing it in. I was ripping it probably 3 to 4 feet at a time and reeling it extremely quickly. When the lure got to the boat, shockingly there was a Musky chasing it! I kept the lure in the water and moved it around frantically trying to keep the fishes attention. I was moving the lure so fast it was practically waking on the surface. After what seemed like an eternity, the fish suddenly surged forward and smashed the lure on the surface right at the boat! It was a take I will never forget. The fight was short lived and I soon had the 30 inch Musky on the fish grips. I got it up for a quick series of pictures before releasing it. What an adrenaline rush! Success! Being only an hour and a half into my night at this point I decided to continue on and see if I could get another. I began drifting with the wind and casting with the bucktail from earlier. This is where things got crazy. As I was approaching a point, I made a cast. On the retrieve, I could see a MASSIVE fish right behind my lure. It followed all the way to the boat and I began moving the bucktail in a large oval. It gave chase and followed the bucktail around a full oval 3 times. After that it peeled out and was sitting a few feet from the lure watching it intently. I continued moving the lure and suddenly, without warning the fish charged the bucktail and smashed it. The image of this massive fish hitting the lure and my giant hookset will be forever burned into my memory. After that, it was game on as the Musky took one leap before going deep and pulling line from my reel. My heart was pounding and I couldn't believe that I was connected to the biggest freshwater fish of my life! I am using 80 pound braided line and I had the drag down almost as tight as it would go so having a fish take line with this setup was extremely impressive! The fish gave me quite the battle but after a few minutes was looking like it could be landed. I grabbed my fish grips and tightened the strap around my wrist. I pulled the fish close to the boat and reached out with the fish grips. It thrashed and took a small run. I pulled it gently back in again and within moments, my biggest kayak fish ever was on the fish grips! I pulled the fish about halfway out of the water to inspect the hooks and see what I had to do to get this bad boy unhooked. This is when everything went wrong. The fish suddenly began to thrash violently from side to side. It was so powerful that it pulled the fish grips from my hand. I still had the wrist strap on and I thought it would be enough to keep the fish secure. I was wrong. The fish pulled so hard the wrist strap broke from around my wrist and somehow during the thrashing, the fish had also come unhooked. I had barely had a chance to look at my catch of a lifetime and it was swimming away with my fish grips. If you've never seen a grown man cry over losing a fish, yesterday would have been a good opportunity. I have never had my heart broken quite so hard by a fish and it makes me sick thinking about it. Luckily I got the opportunity to see the fish strike, set the hook on it, battle it to the boat and touch it for a brief time. The memory will last a lifetime. Unfortunately for everyone else with my forgotten GoPro, it becomes just another fish story. I have no proof other than the one piece of my fish grip that ended up landing in the kayak. It pains me to know that I don't have a single picture of what is undoubtedly my biggest kayak fish to date. I had one more follow before the end of the night. Regardless, I had one hell of a night of Musky fishing. Needless to say I have a new and better fish grip currently on order and I am really looking forward to getting back out again as soon as possible. As with most things fishing, if you are doing the right things in the right areas, it's not a matter of luck. It's just a matter of time.

 

5/17/15 Spring Trout Fishing

My Dad and I got out on Sunday to do a little spring trout fishing. In Indiana, the vast majority of our trout are stocked fish but they are really fun and get pretty wiley after they have been in the stream for a while. We walked a huge section of beautiful stream. Between the two of us, we caught 14 Trout (12 Rainbows and 2 Browns). If you've never done this type of fishing, it can be an absolute blast. It's usually pretty easy and the fish are pretty willing to take a variety of lures. It can be a great way to introduce someone new to fishing as there is usually good action. It never gets old watching a trout race out from under a log to devour a small spinner! While walking through the woods I almost stepped on a Morel. When I got to looking, we found 12 great big Morels all in one small area. I also got a pretty cool picture of a frog sitting on a giant mushroom. I thought it was a neat picture and worth sharing. It was great getting to spend the day with my dad, enjoy the wonderful weather, and explore the great outdoors.

 

5/16/15 A Little of This and That

I've had really good luck on a variety of fish while trolling crankbaits. I've landed Walleyes, Crappies (White and Black), Channel Cats, Smallmouth, Carp, and Rock Bass all from the same lake using Flicker Shad Crankbaits. The Catfish are by far the most fun as they will give you a great fight on light tackle. It's been a good May. Get out fishing if you haven't already!

 

Week of 5/9 - 5/15

Sorry for the delay in posting trip reports but my computer is once again acting up. I'll just be giving a brief update for today and I'll get pictures and stories up when I can. Last Saturday 5/9 Mike and I went Walleye fishing. The post spawn bite is hot right now. Between the two of us, we got 11 Walleyes, not to mention the numerous Crappies, Smallmouth Bass, Catfish, and Carp that were also caught. On Monday Kelly and I fished for crappies. We caught a lot of short fish but probably caught 30 - 40 fish total in  a few hours in the evening. The females still had eggs in them and the males were just starting to turned black. The crappie fishing in Indiana should be on fire for the nest couple of weeks! Last night 5/14 I went Musky fishing for a few hours after work. Over the course of the evening I had 5 follows. I saw fish ranging from a small 2 footer to a massive 4 foot fish. I was pretty fun but incredibly frustrating as it seemed like none of the fish were really all that interested in taking a lure but they would show themselves just to taunt me. It's been a busy week and I'll give a more thorough update when I can. If you like fishing, now is the time! Everything seems to be biting this time of year.

5/5/15 Mixed Bag

Kelly and I got out today to do some Walleye fishing. We ended up with a mixed bag of just about anything that may be interested in a crankbait. Between the two of us we boated 3 Walleyes, 3 Crappies, 2 Channel Cats, 2 Smallmouth Bass, and a Carp. We had a great day on the water. Check out the video and pictures below.

5/3/15 Buck Creek Whitewater Park

I had vacation this week with the intention of making it to Tennessee to do some whitewater kayaking. Long story short, our original plans did not work out. However, Kelly and I decided to make a side trip to Springfield, Ohio to visit their Whitewater Play Park. We had been here one other time when the creek was flowing at 222 CFS. With the current level at 110 CFS, we were unsure of what it would be like and if there would be enough water to make the trip worthwhile. When we arrived, there were about 10 other paddlers out playing around on the waves so it was pretty obvious that there was still enough water to have some fun with it. We spent the next several hours playing around with the 4 drops there and had a lot of fun surfing the waves. A photographer came down and asked us if he could take some pictures of us on the waves. I gave him my email address and he sent me some excellent shots of Kelly and I! We also took some video so you can get a better idea of what we were doing. We had a lot of fun and hope you enjoy the pictures and video!