With Jeff Sullivan 6/24/2007

Jeff's first fish, a Larry.
Finally a pike.
Last fish of the day, a foul hooked Pumpkinseed.

The Story: Jeff arrived a little after 3PM and we were on the water right around 4PM. We headed to the South end of Sullivan to try for some Pike. We started out fishing in the wind and weeds and had no luck. Finally as we got out of the wind I brought in a little Pike. A lot of the water on the SE side was barren of weeds. When we finally hit a patch of good green weeds Jeff brought in a 13" bass on a spinnerbait. We fished this area for a while but didn't get anymore bites. I missed a bass off of the last dock we went bye.

At a quarter to 6PM we headed to the North end of Sullivan to try some reeds in the wind. We did one drift through and Jeff caught a small pike and the pumpkin seed. We called it a day right about 6:20PM. Not a great trip but not a skunking either. Where have all the Pike gone?

Platte Lake 6/22/07

The Story: I put in at the E Sullivan access around 7PM and headed into Platte to fish Loon Sex Point. I only managed a single 12" fish on the Spro Bronze Eye. The wind was out of the SE, so I decided to fish the S shore of the big Western bay in Platte. I decided to hit a few docks before getting into the slop. This paid off with a 18.25" and 13" both on Bubblegum Zoom Super Flukes. Once I got to the slop I started throwing a black Zoom Horny Toad. I lost the legs off of 2 different toads, probably to small pike. I fished with a toad with stump legs and caught a nice 17.5". I also missed a bite from a smaller bass on this frog.

To end the night I elected to go to the North end of Platte rather than the Sullivan PRO. I managed a single 13" on the North End. I called it a night around 9:35PM.

6-15-07 Mille Lacs

1st fish of the day...

My second smallie of the day and largest.

The Story: I woke up at 4am and was out the door by 4:30. I headed to the Isle public access and was on the water by 5:10. First spot I hit was Malone Island Point Reef. The wind was blowing 5mph out of the SW and I worked my way accross the point as the sun came up. I was throwing a Purple Frenzy Popper. I had one very light take that I pulled away from the fish. After trying for 45 minutes I decided to head to Hawkbill Hump.

At Hawkbill Hump I made my first pass with the Frenzy Popper and got nothing. I switched to a pink X-Rap and caught a 25" walleye (pictured). Soon after that I caught a 15-16" smallie. My reel started giving me trouble and I switched to a white twister tail on a 1/2oz gold jig head but got nothing on this.

I got tired of fighting the wind and waves and headed into Twin Bay to hit some docks. On the 2nd dock I got the 18.5" smallie on a bubblegum Super Fluke. I just wasn't feeling to much like doing boat control and precision casting so I decided to call it a day at about 7:20am. I was satisfied with what I caught.

Fishing with Todd 6/13/07

I forgot to bring the camera, sorry no pics.
The Story:

My youngest brother Todd arrived at the house just before 6PM and we headed out to The Brothers Porky Pine for dinner. We arrived at the lake about 7PM and were under way by 7:20PM. We ran from the East access in Sullivan to Loon Sex Bay. We had a double Grumpy Old Men sighting at the GOMH. Willard and Lee Ander weren't catchin nothing. In Loon Sex Bay we got to watch two Loons chasing each other all over the place like mad dogs.

We started fishing the base of the point into Loon Sex for northerns, I caught a couple of real small one's and Todd had one flash at his spinnerbait. As we worked down the point I changed to Spro Bronze Eye Frog and connected with a 17" just off the end of the point. Todd started throwing the Bronze Eye and caught a 15". We then drifted through the middle of the bay with buzzbaits around the isolated weed clumps. I caught a pike and missed a good swirl on a spinnerbait. Todd missed a good blow up on a buzzbait. We then worked the N/NE rice bed with frogs, but that didn't get us much. At 8:40 I pulled the plug to head to the PRO.

On the way we saw a deer in the water. We arrived at the PRO river mouth right around 9PM. I tried to let Todd have first shot at the good stuff. He had a few minor blow ups but came up short. We then started into the river where I caught 4 fish on the Bronze Eye including the nights big fish at 17.5". Todd caught a 14-15" and missed several hits.

We called it quits around 9:40PM. The tally Me 5 bass and 4 Pike, Todd 2 bass with a few misses between us.

Platte/Sullivan 6/10/07

Not the biggest guy in the world but I decided to take his picture anyway.
Once again my big fish of the day is a 17incher

The Story: I got up at 4:40am and was on the water by 5:20. I forgot to tie the rope off on the trailer, so I sent the boat off into the lake. I ended up wading in to get it, thankfully the area around this access is shallow and sandy. If it would have come to it there was a boat putting in after me. It was a sunny and clear morning with a light SE breeze, but mostly it was perfectly calm.

I first hit the Crossroads reed point, didn't get a bite. Next stop was the PRO river mouth. I got a 16", 15", and 12" (picture 1) on the Spro Bronze Eye Frog. Instead of following the river in, I decided to run to Platte. My first stop was just North of the GOMH fishing the Western shore. I managed to pick up a 15" there, then headed on to the North shore of Platte. The North end of Platte looked extremely fishy but all I caught were the 17" and a 11". Around 8am I headed back to the launch.

Had the GPS out in the boat today and the trophy did manage to hit 20mph, but mostly top end was 19mph.

Rock Lake (PRO) 6/9/07

This was the first fish of the night. He gave his position away by hitting something. I moved in and capitalized. This was the only fish I got by that method tonight, though I had several tries at others.

This was my last fish on the night and the biggest by an inch.

The Story: I was up and fishing by about 6:40PM and stayed out till about 9:20PM. There was a slight SW breeze when I started which dwindled to calm. Temps in the mid 70's and the skies were mostly sunny/clear. I worked my way from East to West staying more to the North.

The action was far from fast and furious. I only caught 4 bass and these were the only serious blow ups I had. Maybe 2 other times fished swatted at the frog. Most of the time I was throwing the Bronze Eye Frog pictured; I threw the white swim jig too. All fish were caught on Kermit. The first fish was 16.5" and the last fish was the biggest at 17.5". All in all I don't think the Rock Lake PRO is holding the quality fish anymore, they have moved back into the lake.

Rock Lake 6/7/2007

The main lure of the night a swim jig either white on white or white gold w/rootbeer. This particular swim jig was soon lost to a pike or dogfish.
Big fish of the night 17.25" caught on white/white swim jig in the pads.

The Story: After a warm and thundery afternoon a cool front swept through. I got tricked into thinking the winds were going to let up, but by the time I was in the Rock Lake Pro it was gusting 15-20mph out of the SW. It was partly cloudy when I started and overcast with light sprinkles when I left with the temp falling from near 70 to the lower 60's. I fished from about 7:30pm to 9:30PM.

Things started off quickly with a first five cast 13" bass. I then missed a couple of hits by the Beaver Lodge. I slowly made my way against the wind back into the river. I missed a couple of small fish in the river then turned around and headed out. I decided to drift with the wind as I left the river. I missed a strike on the Zoom Horny Toad but I was mainly throwing a white gold swim jig with rootbeer grub. On my first drift I got a few strikes and probably caught 1 bass. I had the tail of the grub bitten off a couple of times.

I decided I would use an all white swim jig on my second drift. I quickly got hit by a 14" bass by the Beaver Lodge. I then caught a dink. As I drifted out I got a solid hit and then my line broke. I retied with another white/white swim jig. I missed a few bites, had a tail bit off and caught 2 bass including the 17" (pictured) on my second pass.

I tried a third pass but don't think I got anymore fish, though I missed a strike or two. It was getting dark and the wind was a bear so I called it quits. On my way out of the PRO I stopped to fish the South side mouth along the bullrushes and weeds I managed to get a 16" on a Spro Bronze Eye Frog.

So I got about 6-7 fish total with the 17.25" being the biggest.

Sullivan Lake 4/6/07

My alarm went off at 4:40am. I turned it off and tried to go back to sleep, but when that didn't work I got my sorry but out of bed, ate breakfast, and went fishing. I was on the water and heading to the Platte River Outlet (PRO) on Sullivan Lake. My first few casts were to the North Shore rice with a white Spro Bronze Eye Frog and they produced nothing. I made a couple of casts to the West shore rice and got nothing. I then cast to the PRO mouth just off the West side and missed a fish. On the next cast I hauled in a 17incher that had a nasty scar in the middle of it's body. I think it must have encoutered a pike as a young fish. A few casts later and I landed a 16.5incher just a little farther in the river on the West/South side. I got a 13" and a 14" off the North side, one of those fish was on the Horny Toad. I missed a couple of strikes on the Frenzy Popper as well at the PRO mouth. I headed into the river where a Beaver was swimming around and occasionally slapping it's tale. I missed a couple of hits and finally got a 15" about 300-400 yards into the river. It was starting to warm up and get pretty windy so at 7:30am I called it quits thinking that fishing would be tough.

The Trophy is ready!!!

We finished the transom repairs yesterday and so today was the inagural voyage of the Trophy for 2007. The motor didn't start on the first pull but it did start and soon I was off for a couple of hours fishing at Rock lake.

16incher takes on Kermit.

Fishing Report 6/5/2007: I arrived at the landing sometime after 7PM and put the motor through it's paces. Had a little issue with the fuel line becoming unbuttoned at the motor, but eventually got that fixed. Once I was satisfied with the condition of the motor I headed to the Rock lake Platte River Outlet (PRO). The entrence to the bay was already significantly weeded up with Rice and other weeds so the motor got bogged down pretty quick. I started at the Eastern edge of the pads and worked my way west. I was set to throw a Spro Bronze Eye, a Zoom Horny Toad, and a swim jig; I never did get around to throwing the swim jig. I fished from about 7:30 to 9:30 getting about 8-10 bass from 13" to 16". All but 1 of the bass came on the Bronze Eye (pictured), the other one came on the White Horny Toad.

During a cast, I had the reel handle come off the reel I was throwing the Bronze Eye with. Fortunatly the handle landed in the boat, but I could not find the nut
I decided to do a rod and reel switch and kept right on fishing, although my distance was significantly cut back on the replacement reel.

The action on the fish was spread out with the action improving as it got darker out. I fished a fair distance West, but about 120 yards short of the beaver dam. There was a big beaver swiming around.