Moving some real nice fish but....

[Red Childress]

only getting a few of them (smaller fish) over the past 2 weeks. I lost a big fish last Thursday on a boatside strike that took a day or two for the sting to wear off and the day before my client lost a bigger fish just before the net hit the water. It seems like each summer we hook big fish but just cannot keep them buttoned up. The 'nippers' are driving me crazy!

We moved 4 today and another shook off by noon with 1 of them being the largest I have seen this year. It was one of the top 10 I have ever seen on this river. She came in hot after picking up the my client's bait very late in the retrieve and nipped at it but did not eat it while going in the first and second turns. TJ collapsed his 8 too tight and the fish lost sight of it and peeled off. The head looked like a shovel. Ouch.

Hopefully, this little bit of weather moving through this week will keep them moving.

[tdn5030]

I made it up to fish the river for the first time since about Christmas. I fished on Friday through the night until late Saturday morning. No fish activity at all until 10 am on Saturday when I got a 47 and a 39 in about a twenty minute period both in very close proximity to each other. Both were fat fish. No more fish activity after that. Both fish crushed my baits, they liked the big lures this weekend.

[Red Childress]

Sounds like a heck of a morning on Saturday. Congrats! We did not fish on Saturday but sounds like we should have been out there. I have been trying to stay away from weekends this summer cuz the canoe traffic has gotten so thick, especially on Saturdays.

We started later in the morning this morning chasing muskies. Launched at 9am and had 4 follows by 10:30 and all the fish were in a very small area and from an area I had not even fished this year. 2 of the fish were mid-40's and the other 2 were low-30's. The largest fish was hot at boatside and took a swing at me but did not get the hooks. We had downsized our baits today to see if we could convert the follows into eaters. No such luck.

[Red Childress]

We spent the morning on muskies and the afternoon on bass/walleye. Raised 5 muskies with the largest being in the 48" range and had 2 nippers/slashers (not the big one...she flared up at boatside a couple times but did not eat) that shook off immediately. We netted a few nice bass and several smaller ones but no walleye for the first time all summer. Water keeps getting a little lower each day due to drying tributaries. Plenty of food out there as usual for this time of year.

[Red Childress]

We moved a few smaller fish over the weekend but most were lazy follows. My little hump-back muskie (the same one I had butt tapped several times with my rod last week) was still game for the 3rd trip in a row when he came slashing at boatside but my client pulled the bait away to make sure he did not eat it. He did not want to deal with the potential 20 minute delay of unhooking him either.

Weather on the way this week so I hope we can get a few of these tankers to eat our baits, finally.

[Red Childress]

I had the day off on Monday and missed the incoming storm and did not see a musky on Tuesday or Wednesday during the cold front-ish weather. Very tough 2 days for my boat.