The Opener – Jan 1, 2012.
A Minnesota Winter Rainbow. Jan 1 has turned into a tradition. I have spent the last four openers angling with my friend Justin. In 2009 we began with a death hike through the bluff side in eastern Fillmore County. Since then we have had a spot that we frequent that is out of the wind. [...]
January’s Winter Hatches
Few people consider 21 degrees an ideal time to hunt for bugs deep within a valley in southeast Minnesota. See what you are missing here.
2010-07-10_RootRiver
We launched from Wildcat Landing because it is a nice landing with easy ins-and-outs, beyond that its free. We are beginning to think that this landing is called Wildcat because after the ride from the landing to the mouth of the Root River you typically feel like you would have been better off fighting a [...]
2010-06-13_MississippiRiver
Wes and I launched by canoe from McNally Landing on the Upper Mississippi River Refuge confident that we could find active fish in between squalls on weeds edges in the slough. I had two spinning rods rigged and Wes was set up with a casting rod. Rod one was rigged with a 1/2-ounce chartreuse spinner [...]
2010-05-29_MississippiRiver_tripplan
Gar, Pike, Catfishes, Mooneye, Redhorse, Dogfish, Bass, Sturgeon, Buffalo, Trout and Carp, amongst other species, can all be readily caught by hook and line angling methods on the Mississippi River today due to the high pressure weather pattern that has been holding for the majority of the past week. The trick of it is where [...]
Winter Creek Rainbows; how to video.
This is the first episode for the 2010 season of On The Water. Filmed entirely in southeast Minnesota. January brings ice and snow to Minnesota however the few of us that are smart enough to know where to go to fish trout in the dead of winter typically have a successful time. This video shows [...]
2009-10-03_StCroixRiver
After the past weekends fishing adventures I thought I would bring it to the attention that after at least 28 seasons on the water I have added three new species to my list this season. This last one being one of the most triumphant. Being a mystical fish the Lake Sturgeon has been a target [...]
Trash Fish
The dominate human dimensions of angling culture as a nation describes Gar, Bowfin, Buffalo, Drum, Redhorse, and Suckers, amongst several other species as trash fish. This group is composed or predominately native species. Angling for these species is largely unregulated compared to sport species and an “angler” can net, shoot, or spear huge limits of [...]
2009-07-02_CrookedCreek
On the hunt for mayflies today I found none at the usual spot at the Brownsville lookout. Since I was in the neighborhood I decided to hit the lower section of Crooked Creek for trout. I was stopped by the landowner, who was on top of his tractor, and asked if I was gonna float [...]
2009-06-30_ProjectGetOutdoors
Every Tuesday I volunteer at Winona’s Maplewood Townhomes. It is called Project Get Outdoors and we cater to all youths. Today was my program day and we were set to go fishing in the backwaters. Many of my kids had never fished before. We started with how to cast and bait a hook and [...]
2009-06-29_mississippiriver
Today Chad and I were host to master anglers Andy Geving and Andy Nordquist. Geving holds the current world record for Golden Redhorse of which he caught out of the Root River a few years ago. We set out to our backwaters current for several species, Shortnose and Longnose Gar and Sauger. Nordquist [...]
2009-06-22_That dang stick….
The sturgeon are still jumping however there were less today in the sweltering heat. Chad talked me into getting on the water at Bass Camp with his success in landing a Sturgeon in the morning. We cooked through six dozen nightcrawlers in a few short hours. I got skunked. Chad caught the Channel Cat, in [...]
2009-06-19_That dang stick….
The Mississippi River sturgeon are active. They are busy porpoising and breaking drum anglers lines. Thankfully, they take the time to give me the fin when they break. Being sturgeon, they like to jump, these particular sturgeon jump like porpoise when a standing wave rolls from the dam gates over them. I counted [...]
2009-06-01_MoneyCreek
I got out to scout a bit today finding a creek that had no paths on the edges of the water and no other anglers about.