10/21/17 Kelly Makes an Unexpected Catch

Kelly and I got out to fish for Pike on an absolutely beautiful late October day. Highs in the 70's and mostly sunny skies, are you kidding me?!?!? The fishing was pretty good and we boated 7 Pike in just a few hours of effort. The fish pictured below was absolutely beautiful. It had beautiful patterns and amazing coloration. I caught it on a first cast follow-up X-Rap after it just missed striking Kelly's spinner and refusing to come back for the spinner over several more casts. However, the real story of the day had not yet begun. As we were fishing down the back, I heard a bird chirping in brush along the river. Kelly all of a sudden perked up and said "I think I hear a kitten! Can we go back and check?" Me being the sucker I am turned the boat around and headed back upstream. After looking for a bit I spotted a tiny black and white kitten in the undergrowth. I paddled Kelly over to the shore and as she took her first step from the boat the kitten retreated into the brush. Kelly walked a little closer and the kitten ran further away into the woods. Kelly went into stealth mode and quietly crept up on the kitten. All of a sudden Kelly sprang and grabbed it! There was a flurry of tiny paws and claws and some hissing but Kelly had the kitten in her hands. Upon investigation there were no houses nearby and no signs of any other cats anywhere nearby. In Kelly's words "We can't just leave it!" So for the second time in my life I went on a fishing trip only to have it cut short and end up bringing a kitten home. We have a new family member!

10/14/17 Troy in on the Esox Action

Troy and I got out for a whole day of Pike fishing! The fish were very cooperative and we landed about 20 fish between the 2 of us over the course of the day. We fished a stretch of river that I have only visited once previously. This stretch is absolutely full of log jams so we had to spend quite a bit of time navigating through all of that. The fishing however was absolutely incredible and made it well worth the effort. Unfortunately about an hour before we got off of the water it started to rain and we were soaked by the time we hit the truck. All in all it was a pretty great day and a really memorable one.

9/30/2017 &10/1/2017 Back in the Swing

This year I've started doing something new: I've been building spinner baits for Pike fishing. The baits that you can buy in stores and even from most custom dealers are made of thin wire that with use and abuse will end up breaking at some point. I've had quite a few baits fall apart on me while in use. Luckily I've never had a fish break one on me. My biggest fear is to have a nice fish hit a spinner and for it to break and result in a lost fish. With that in mind I've been buying components and building lures from much heavier wire. I've gone through a few iterations with a picture of my latest build below. I've learned quite a bit along the way and have had to make some modifications along the way to make the lure work better without fouling up. I've been very happy with the results thus far and Kelly would agree as she had an awesome weekend of fishing using these baits! I'm not going to give you the play by play on our weekend of fishing, but Kelly and I fished both Saturday and Sunday and boated well over 20 Pike in the process. I had a good day of fly fishing, boating 4 fish in about an hour. Kelly was gracious enough to paddle for me and let me get some great fishing time in with the fly rod. I caught the first fish pictured below on a fly rod but missed getting it on camera as I forgot to hit record after we had eaten lunch on the water. The second fish was a 30" beauty caught by Kelly towards the end of the day Saturday. The last picture is of a nice 30" fish Kelly caught on Sunday. The fish missed Kelly's bait on the first cast but came charging in hard on the second cast. It followed al the way to the boat and Kelly executed a beautiful L-turn at the boat that extended the chase long enough to get the fish to strike. We had an awesome weekend! It  feels good to be back in the swing of fall fishing and get some great time on the water with my new wife!