A great catch!

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 the kids started fishing. 

For nearly two hours the kids caught fish, tangled lines, and casted into the trees.  I kept busy untangling lines, taking lines out of trees, and tying on new hooks.

After fishing we nature hiked to the pavilion where we had lunch, painted some fish, and played on the playground.

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Hookless lure Longnose Gar.

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 was competing in a multi-species contest this month and these were the species he needed to eventually win the contest.

Chad has a small boat and Nordquist brought his canoe.  The boat was not big enough for four people to fish from so we towed the canoe to the current and had four of us in the boat.  We made it slow and sure and some of us got a bit wet. Note to self, you are better off towing a canoe behind the boat then alongside it.  

The Gar were less active today and I got skunked by them however managed to get a decent Flathead Cat while fishing Bluegills in the snag.  Nordquist got his species and Geving caught a fish memorable fish.

We left the snag at dark.  I sat in the canoe with Geving to get it back to the boat landing.  Chad towed us and I ruddered.  Andy and Andy assured us they would be back, of which I am excited for.

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Whitman Dam, Mississippi River, Minnesota

The Mississippi River sturgeon are active. 

The scour hole.

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 five sturgeon breaks an hour for four hours. I fished two rods with 3 oz. of hand poured lead on the back side of the scour pool. My reels were lined with fresh 45 – pound test spiderwire fusion. 

I caught no sturgeon and only one fish to speak of. I shared the bank with six Amish Drum anglers for six hours and met an islander that got on well with the local wildlife.

Jermemiah and dam resident "Lil' Whiskers."

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A Wild Geranium flower and a spider.

I have a bike that I can ride to the creek instead of driving my car. Today I chose to take it up over the freeway ridge and down into the valley on the south side of it in order to hit a section of creek that is rarely fished. The drive took me 45 minutes to get there.

The fish were willing. I enjoyed this $1 ride to the creek to catch a few fish to get my fix. The weather was great and the bike handled the gravel just fine.

I caught several fish on a #2 Ugly Tom and found the fish holding in pools and deep runs. I tagged on fish that was 20-inches but I had caught her before so I let her alone and caught her brothers and sisters in the 12-16 -inch range.

The Wild Geranium were blooming and I discovered a cool type of spider on one of the flowers. How neat!

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