Northern Pays Back

I caught this northern a couple weeks ago on a shallow running shad colored rap in about 3.5 feet of water trolling into the inlet on Shetek. Decent fish at about 3 lbs, but as you can see in the picture, it had another lure hooked in its jaw when I pulled him out of the water. Under the gill was a shallow running perch colored rap that looked brand new. Don't know how long he had the lure in him, but it sure didn't affect his appetite. So, while I normally hate the slimey snakes and would never put one in my livewell, it was nice to get a useable $5 lure from this guy.

Chellie and I were in a small fishing tournament (only about 8-10 boats) on Shetek July 5th. We had a few small fish, but this guy won the tournament with a 7lb 9oz walleye. Pretty windy that day and the bite was slow, but most boats came back with at least one keeper to weigh. All the fish were caught up in the inlet to Shetek which is where we've caught most of our walleyes. Been talking to a few more fishermen lately though and I gotta fish a couple new spots they say produce fish.

Dock Fishing at the Lake

Here are some pictures of fishing from our dock at the lake. Walleyes from the dock have been small, but last week we fished a local tournament on the lake and one of the guys caught a 7lb 9oz walleye pulling plugs. We pulled plugs too and caught several walleye but only one keeper. I'm still learning the whole plug pulling thing. Apparently I need planer boards now because that's what everyone else was using. Kinda funny because the other guys had no idea how to jig fish. Anyway, we caught all kinds of other species too. Northern, catfish, bullhead, and crappie. Trolled between 2 and 3 mph. Seemed pretty fast but was the most effective at about 2.5 mph. By the way, the big walleye was released in our bay, so I'll be fishing for him soon!

The bullhead pictured is from Memorial Day when the family was up to visit for the day. Don't know how Jacob caught him with his dad helping him. The kid must just have natural ability.

It was really windy that day, but the fish were biting (carp and bullheads) on the Smith Lake public dock and the kids had a great time. We're headed up to the cabin again tomorrow and will be trolling the inlet where we caught 'em last weekend. Hopefully we have some nicer walleye pictures to post next week.

Eric's Graduation

Yeah, I know it's a little late getting this up here, and it's not about hunting or fishing, but I wanted to get this picture up here so those of you who haven't seen Eric for a while can at least see what he looks like. He's going to Winona State University in the fall and majoring in Composite Materials Engineering (geek). And no, I don't know what that is exactly.

Anyway, been doing some fishing at the cabin and will try to get those pictures up soon.