Ok, time to let you all know what went on last week… Last Wednesday Jig-em-up Josh of Burget’s bait in Grand Forks ND and I went to a small dam between Grand Forks and Devils lake. The day started out slow, but about 10 picked up with my nailing a 22 inch walleye on a gray/black rattle trap. No more walleyes came, but did we slay the pike all day long. We caught 13 pike total in 5 hours all between 26 and 36 inches. Later that evening Rich Thorpe and I took Alaska out for her first fishing adventure of the open water season. We went the farm ponds that produced so well all winter long. Alaska was a little scared about being in the boat at first, but quickly got over it and had a blast. Alaska caught the first fish, it also ended up being the biggest at around 30 inches. I caught my first pike ever on a fly rod, that is a great fight and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to try. Total we caught 14 fish ranging from 18- 30 inches.
This past weekend The family and I went to Bemidji and stayed at Rutter’s Birchmont lodge. Our weekend was started with a scare when Alaska and Aspen pushed Brison out of a 2nd story window. Thankfully there was a roof of the first floor only 2 feet below. Saturday was Crystal B-day and we travel the country side utilizing her new camera the kids got for her. We saw Paul Bunyan and Babe the big blue ox, his wife lucette, and Paul junior. On Sunday the we took the kids animal land they got to see Lions, a tiger and bears. They got to pet multiple animals and feed fish. Later that night I meet a guy who earlier that day caught a 47” musky fishing for walleyes, a fat beautiful fish.
This weekend is josh’s Bachelor party and I’m sure I will have a good story to tell from that.
www.ruttgers.com

Weather has been good the past week, and that is always a plus. Made it our fishing with my daughter Aspen for an hour saturday. We went to A small pond in the town of Grand Forks. This pond is stocked yearly with trout and bluegills just for catch and release fishing. Unfortuanaley on this day there were no fish to be caught, But Aspen had a great time and that is what counts, we saw catipiliars, worms, and insect they were just as good as catching fish.





Later that evenign I got to fish the Red river with Rich T and Josh ( AKA Jig-em-up). We started slow, but thanks to the advise of Captain Brad found the cats feeding shallow. A clinic of Ripping Lips on cats ensued, a total of 14 cats were caught with the biggest being 14 and 15 pounds, and both comming out of water the was less then 6 feet in depth. Attached is a pic of a Channel cat from ealier this year.






For a REd River fishing report be sure to check www.lakestatefishing.com
and for a awsome guide trip contact Captin Brad @ www.braddurick.com

Esox

Ok, so A new fishing season has arrived, I am going to try to post one a week or more depending on how much I can get out....

Minnesota Opener way yesterday the 10th of May. I took a half-day afternoon/evening trip with Red River guide Brad Durick. Good friend Nick from Fargo came up to tag along as we too our shot at battling the weather and river to find the channel cats that the Red river is know for. As many of you know Opener started with a few inches of snow on the ground for us, and looked pretty gloomy until about noon. By the time 2 o'clock rolled around the snow had melted and it was time to hop in the boat and head to the ramp. Buy 2:30 we were in the river and found a nice cut on the edge of the fast water, we dropped a front an rear anchor to hold position. Now when I say that it was 10 seconds from the time the first rod was set in the holder, I'm not kidding. We didn’t even have the second rod set yet and our third rod didn’t have bait and we had a fish on. It was a nice 8-pound channel, a good start to the day as fast as the kitten slammed the cut bait. our action never stopped over the next four hours, we would have a lul, but never longer then 15 minutes. Our total for 4 hours of fishing was 32 channel cats, that’s one fish every 7.5 minutes. I had a knack for snagging nick chunks of wood, or losing my fish in the snags, nick had the hot hand landing 4 of the first 9 fish and two of the three biggest fish of the day. Nick set a new Personal best (PB) with an 18-pound kitty. The five biggest cats of the day were 18, 17, 16, and a pair of 15-pound fish. It there was any worries about effects of a kill off from last fall, let me be the first to say, don’t worry about them. All of the fish we caught were fat a healthy; they fought to beat the dickens.

I have to thank Captain Brad Durick for taking Nick and myself on this trip, it has made for one of the best openers I have ever had. Brad can be contacted on his website www.Braddruick.com If anybody is in need of a great day on the river, or just wants to get out with a buddy or kids, Captain Brad is your man.

Good day
Esox