The 10 Minute Fishing Trip

I was coming home from Wal-Mart and wanted to check out how an area of the St. Louis River that's been clogged with brush and trees turned out after the rains last week. I figured I couldn't even cast into the area before I got there because everything was pushed up against a culvert since winter.



There was just enough opening to see if maybe a Smallmouth might be hiding under the brush so I decided to cast...

Nope, no Smallmouth Bass were biting...But....



THIS guy was.. I only had about 10 feet of distance to cast to..and this Northern Pike hit as soon as the Rapala X-Rap hit the water, it came out of the water to get it.

This Pike trumps the May 24th Pike easily weighing twice what that one did for pretty much the same length in the 30+ inch range.

That was a huge improvement over 4 hours of shore fishing Saturday without catching anything because of all the recent rain.

Three Hours of Fishing, 2 Fish, Definitely Worth it.

I spent 3 hours this afternoon/early-evening fishing... I had no luck until back-tracking to the car .....



We had a LOT of wind from the east today and I decided to cast a Strike King Spinner Bait white skirt, white willow leaf/Colorado blade combination along a bridge/overpass that people ride 4-wheelers on. The 30-inch or so Pike is the biggest one I've caught in probably three years.

I caught a much smaller pike near the car but that one wasn't worth a photograph.




This smallmouth I caught yesterday and quickly snapped the picture before releasing it since it wasn't much size and not the season yet.

Canadian Snowbirds in Duluth

Headed to Duluth to watch the Canadian Snowbirds give a 35 minute airshow, as advertisement for the Duluth Air Show in July. Without a good telephoto lens, I ended up with a few good pictures but someday I'll go the expensive route and get a really good camera capable of extraordinary pictures. For now my 12 Megapixel Kodak Easyshare is perfect for what I usually use it for.

The Canadian Snowbirds aren't nearly as loud as I expected, and incredible maneuverable having only seen the larger jets at the Air Show the one year I attended.







As always, CLICK on the photos to view them in larger size.

When in Duluth, with a camera, a person tends to take pictures of the Aerial Lift Bridge, even though I've taken enough of them in the past, here's 2 more:




One thing I'd never seen before, is a mini 'Statue of Liberty' which is hidden in a courtyard next to the DECC Auditorium. According to the plaque, it was placed there in 1976, the American Bi-Centennial.




On the way home I stopped at the river to fish for a bit....



I caught that small St. Louis River Northern Pike, and a nice Smallmouth Bass, but Bass season doesn't start for a week or two, so they have to be released immediately so no photos of that one.

And finally... the end up the day, the sunset....

A Few Fishing Pictures

The following are a few St. Louis River pictures from the past couple days. This is one of the best times to fish, as well as take fall pictures. The non fishing picture is an early fall colors picture, of the same area just farther back of a picture I took last fall.







This Northern Pike is the first Northern I've caught in a while, with the shallow water I'm not sure where they've all gone hiding to ;)

Fish, storm, more June 7th

I went down to the river before the storm, it's one of my favorite times to fish, besides the fishing there's always some great pictures of the clouds/storm rolling in. There's also a couple pictures from the EVENING of June 5th, I went out again after the earlier June 5 post. This will be a LOT of pictures:





The first 3 pictures were 'leftover' from June 5th (Tuesday). The Trains are common in Northern Minnesota, BNSF comes through town a lot.



















The clouds came in on the storm from the previous post with the weather channel's storm warning.. you can see the marble size hail that we got int he first round about an hour at at 3:25 PM. They forecast golfball or baseball sized hail so I hope it stays farther south!

June 5th Fishing Pictures

I ended up sorta 'hiking' to a pool of the river, where this time of year you can catch a variety of fish.. today I caught 1 Northern, 2 Smallmouth Bass, and 1 Crappie. See them below








The last photo, of the sky.. I actually took before catching the 4 fish. I don't really know why but I like pictures of the clouds and stuff like that.

June 1st Fishing Pictures

I got out today for the first time in a few days.. and caught a a few smaller Northern Pike and one 24 inch Pike also. The GEESE have finally brought their young out onto the water so there's a few pictures of them also!

First the GEESE pictures:






The baby geese are already getting large and getting rid of the fuzz they're born with.




Both Pike were caught on Rapala Shad Rap after they were following but missing a gold colored "Silver Minnow" weedless spoon. I caught a couple other really small pike but they really weren't any bigger than the little tiny one in the first picture.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's Memorial Day and I got a few fish pictures from the Holiday.


The river was totally calm and glassy Sunday early evening.


This is one of the regular size Rock Bass from the river.




Smallmouth Bass from Sunday :)


This one's a 20 inch Northern Pike I caught this evening.

The Northern was the only thing I caught in 2 hours of fishing today (Memorial Day).

I went to the Duluth Memorial Day parade etc but forgot to charge my camera batteries ;) oooooooops! :)

Fishing Today, before the rain came

I got down to the river about 3:15 and it's 4:22 now.. so yes, it started raining, hard enough for me to stop and come home. Caught 4 fish, 2 with pictures below :) All caught from the shore of the St. Louis River.


The first is a 28-30 inch Northern Pike. This was following my spinner bait (see the next picture) to the shore twice so I crabbed my other rod/reel and threw a Rapala Shad Rap. After 5 or so casts (2 of which I saw the Pike follow) I hooked him on the 6th cast.


This other picture is a 15 inch Smallmouth Bass caught on a Strike King Pro Model with Indiana or Colorado blade (they always look the same really.)

While I was removing the lure from the Northern Pike, it decided to start raining so here I am.

A few FISH pictures from 2006

Below are a few photographs from the 2006 fishing season. All of my fishing is catch & release, especially from the St. Louis River, which has high mercury levels.


Smallmouth Bass


Another Smallmouth Bass


A decent LENGTH Northern Pike, but man was it skinny for it's length.