Started on the west side on Coney Island

Started on the west side on Coney Island flippin' in about 13 feet of water on the edge of a milfoil turn. Only about three casts into the evening and I see a muskie swimming right in front of the boat. I throw my bass jig on 50 pound spiderwire out in the general direction, and WHAM, she hits it. I battled it to the boat a few quick pictures and I sent her on her way. It was 39 inches and about 17 pounds. The bass bite was tough. I continued to flip deep with no success so I tried a few shallow spots and only caught small ones. I will try and get out after them again this week and next and I will keep you posted. I am also going to try and get all the new pictures from the summer up.

The turnover is coming so get out and fish as much as you can in the next three weeks. The muskies are going crazy on all the milfoil reefs. Lots of reports of sightings and hook-ups. The walleye bites should pick up on the outside milfoil edges. I would run a 6-8 foot leader with either a crawler or a minnow on it and run up and down those good outside edges. If they won't go on that, slow down and vertical jig them with a jig and minnow. If you catch one stay in the area...others are close by feeding.

I spent Aug. 14-17 up on Lake Vermillion with Dave, his wife Susan and Joni. The weather was pretty nice but the bite was a little tough. I focused my time chasing smallmouth bass. The fish were a little hard to locate. I caught some on Storm Rattlin' Chug Bugs and some on Rapala Jointed Shad-Raps. Our best fish came the last day on chug bugs with the biggest going 19 inches and Joni with two 17 inchers. I was able to catch one muskie that went about 40 inches. Caught a few smallmouth on green tubes and also a few pike so all in all it was a success.

We did not catch a single walleye. One of the lodge guides was out six hours and only caught two keeper walleyes. So we didn't bother trying to catch any. Thought we would catch a couple while throwing crankbaits but had no such luck.