Friday, August 26, 2005

Grandsons are cool

Well we just spent a wonderful week last week with our oldest grandson Stefan. He is now 16 and growing up so fast it is incredible. We spent some time on the water, of course (2 1/2) days to be exact. We caught some nice bluegills and had an excellent silver bass bite one afternoon. Stef out fished me of course.
Wednesday nite was Muskie League nite, and Stefan and I started on Eagle Point casting to a fish that I know is there, but she wouldn't show. I was proud of Stefan's casting ability, he did well for just learning how to cast baitcast equipment that week. It was raining pretty hard so we started trolling Depth Raiders in Emerson Bay, moved to Sunset and ended up in Smith's Bay, all to no avail. Randy Pritts won over $700.00 with a 40 inch muskie. Stefan enjoyed himself as did I. With the water temps starting to drop the skies should go on a tear soon.
Don't forget the 25th Anniversary Upper Great Plains Fall Release Tournament, Sept 16-18. The cost is $30.00 if you enter this week $35.00 after that. You get 3 meals BBQ ribs Friday nite, Chicken and biscuits Saturday, and brats on Sunday afternoon. Hell that is worth the cost of admission. There will be a lot of baits, rods nets on the raffle table as well as door prizes.
We are also giving away some fishing trips this year to Canada and Minnesota.
I haven't been up there but I am hearing rumors of a walleye bite starting up on Big Spirit, pull plugs in the basin on the edge of the break. The smallmouth bass are on a tear in Okoboji as well as the bull bluegills and perch.
Keep your hooks sharp and your line fresh.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Bluegills

Well, I was out yesterday with Dianne and grandson Stefan, bluegill fishing and it was tough. We fished Emerson and Eagle point with limited success. I wanted to drift the weeds in Emerson, however, the wind laid down and we couldn't drift effectively. We anchored in a spot that Rick Dicus and I had good luck on and caught nothing. We finally ended up in Haywards Bay about a boat length from a friend of ours, he was nailing nice gills and Stefan caught some nice ones. Dianne and I didn't have the touch. Stefan thinks it is cool to catch more fish than grandpa and so does grandpa.
We are going out later in the day today, my friend said the real bite starts around 6:00 PM, yesterday we quit early we had been out since 7:00 AM and the sun had us pretty worn out.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Late summer report

Hello one and all. I must again apologize for the tardiness of my reports. Here is a synopsis of what has been going on in BojiLand since my last post 7-11-2005.
Muskie fishing for me has been a joke, I haven't even had a follow this summer. I did have a very vicious strike on Eagle Point on West Okoboji 2 weeks ago during league but that has been it. I must admit that I have only been muskie fishing this summer on league nites and no one is getting an action on those nights. I know some of the guys have been doing well but not me. I know of one fish on Big Spirit that is in the 55 inch plus range that several of the Upper Great Plains Chapter members have seen but I have not seen her. No one caught a legal fish during the moonlight madness tournament August 6-7th, 4 sublegals were caught. I would like to remind all of you of the 25th Annual Fall Release Tournament September 16-18. This being our 25 th anniversary, we are going to have some awesome door prizes and raffle items, including about 4 fishing trips to Canada and Minnesota, rods, reels, nets, hookouts, Knipex bolt cutters, and many many baits. Your entry fee of $35.00 gets you 3 meals that is worth the price of admission. Friday nite's meal is Barbecue Ribs by the Blau brothers, don't miss that one.
My walleye fishing around here has been so-so. I did manage to catch a 27 incher on Big Spirit, July 16th as well as two 18's but that is the best day I have had. Dianne and I went to Lake Sharpe the week of Aug 1st. I hooked on to the Ranger and picked her up at the Sioux Falls airport on Monday the 1st (she was returning from the bushmaster Classic) and we headed for Chamberlain, SD. We had excellent fishing on Sharpe in spite of the 100 degree heat. We had our limits caught by noon all three days. We caught all of our fish trolling crankshaft on lead core line in 35-40 feet of water.
I have been having sporadic success fishing bull blacklist in West Okoboji. Some days you just hammer them and the next you have to scratch for them. The later was the case yesterday, Rick Dicus and I went out and scrapped up 14 of them but they were nice ones. Dicus did most of the catching yesterday, not me. In fact, we were anchored in 22 feet of water and he was casting a pilkie with a couple of maggots and catching the bulls as he reeled it in. I never caught a one doing that, I just didn't have the touch yesterday. I did, however, have the touch on Wednesday, when the catching was done mostly by yours truly. It is funny how that goes, 2 people in the boat doing the same thing and one guy gets them and the other doesn't. Strange, but I am sure all of you have experienced this as well.
Today Dianne and I got to Sioux City to pick up our oldest Grandson Stefan. Stef will be with us a week and we will do some fishing. Stefan is almost 16 and has his learners permit for driving. He will want to drive granpa's truck, but he also asked if I was going to teach him how to operate the Ranger. I told him of course, right after he learns how to back the boat trailer down the ramp. We will work on that. Stefan is also going to fish Muskie League with me Wednesday nite, he is looking forward to that I think as he has never fished in tournament, but has watched me at weigh-ins in tournaments I have fished.
perch fishing has been slow on Big Spirit but some nice fish are being taken on the deep weedlines on West Okoboji. Dicus and I started yesterday on Spirit but could not even mark anything in the basin. I believe the perch are in the weeds and we didn't feel like going in the weeds and grinding it out. We moved to Okoboji as reported above.
Dianne and I will be going to Winnibigosh the first week and September and I will report to you about that outing. After all even though Winni is several hours from here I get to define the boundaries of Boji Land, because this is my Blog. So Boji Land is where ever I am fishing!
LATER