It Begins With A Bang

Had an absolute blast last night hitting the waters of Lake Waconia with Pete and Jeff in hopes of getting a muskie or two in the boat.  Pete was the first to strike and it was this fat 44 1/2" fish that fell victim on a great figure 8 by Pete.  Pete didn't even get a chance to make the second swing of his figure 8 and the fish just turned and inhaled his bait about 2 feet from the side of the boat.  After a short battle and a nice jump the fish was in the net for a few pictures, a measurement, and then back in the lake she went.

The season begins with a bang!  This time of year is the begining of a special time for fishwithmatt.com.  This is the start of my muskie season.  Yes, I know what many of you are thinking....the season has been open for 2 months why start now.  The reason I usually start chasing them around the end of July early Aug has to do with my schedule and also the weather.  The past few weeks have had many days getting close to 100 degrees and I prefer not to fish them on those hot of days.  But I do like when it gets hot, just need it to cool a bit in the evenings or over night.  That way the mornings are a perfect fit for a muskie catch. The weather is starting to do what I have been waiting for.  I also have a serious passion for bass and walleye fishing-as many of you know.  The bass fishing has been eating up much of my schedule the past 2 months.  The tournaments and what not are starting to taper off for the year already and I find it is time to start chasing the toothy critters (as Travis Frank would say).   

It's important this time of year, with this warm weather, that you not handle these monster fish too much.  If you are going to take them out of the water for pictures make sure and keep it short.  The sooner you can get them back in the water the better.  This fish was hoisted for no more then 20 seconds and then right back in the water she went.  She swam off without a problem.

Pete is far from a novice when it comes to fishing and especially muskie fishing.  It made my job that much easier last night.  Once I got him around the fish he did the rest all on his own.  It was fun to watch.  After it was all said and done we reminisced and shared many laughs.

I will be back at it this afternoon on the waters of Lake Minntonka and hopefully will have pictures and stories to come from this outing.  Until next time, Fish On(screaming)!  

Weigh'n In

Yesterday was the Lake Minnetonka Denny's Super 30 event.  Eric Schultz and I managed to weigh 29.10 which was good enough for 4th place.  

As many of you experienced; yesterday was a warm, humid, and calm day.  I believe they said the heat index hit 112-which for MN is crazy hot.  The sun, heat, and humidity had pushed the fish all up in the weeds and made for a "perfect" flip'n day.  Eric and I went flip'n for almost the entire day and caught about 50 fish-maybe more.  Most of which where in the 2-3lb range.  We managed enough good bites flip'n to weigh what we had.  We also managed to catch a couple fish crank'n, rig'n, and also throwing jig worms.  The key was that we had to be close to the weeds or in them.  If we got out away from the weeds it seemed like our bite disappeared.

The winning weight was 33 and some change-which is just a crazy huge bag.  Then 2nd had 30.12, and 3rd was 29.12.  Congrats to all the teams that participated and until next time, Fish On!    

Prefish what?

Practice for the next derby is in the books and as you can see my partner Eric Schultz and I found a few good bites.  We have been pre-fishing all week on Lake Minnetonka in preparation for the next Denny's Super 30 bass tourney.  

The weather was a bit goofy through out the week-first cold(needed coats and hoodies) then smoldering hot by the end of pre-fishing-today.  I think they said the heat index is supposed to be 110+ tomorrow for our tournament.  We expect the heat to help our bite or hopefully help turn the fish on and allow us to get the schools fired up.  

Both these fish pushed the scales at around 6 lbs and Eric coaxed them into biting what he was offering.....  We would rather catch fish of this caliber on derby day(hope we do) but sometimes in pre-fishing we aren't able to pick and choose the few we decide to set the hook on.  

Tomorrow morning we will start early on our best areas we found while prefishing and hope they kick out a couple giants like these 2.  I will report back tomorrow with the results and hopefully more pictures of us holding the "hardware"!  Until next time, Fish On!  Wish us luck.....  

These Are Super Slix

No more tangled rods!  If you haven't used or seen the rod slix's you are missing out.  These guys make one of the simplest but yet effective products ever.  It easily can be over looked because it isn't flashy in the fishing business.  But I am here to tell you they are a fishermans best friend. If you are about saving time and not having your rods getting all beat up you are going to want to invest in some of the slixs.