well, today brings the first leg of my Operation Muskie trip. I arrived in Grand Forks, ND Thursday afternoon. Friday I was invited to fish with Clear Channel Radio in the Cats Incredible Media Tournament. My partner was local radio icon John Roberts of KJ 108. We were guided by Capt Brad Durick. John Roberts and I started off with a nice double that consisted of a pair of twin 20" cats. From there our luck has slowed, the fish were super finicky and parley hitting the baits. Capt Brad moved us contently looking for fish, we through a spread of different baits and patterns looking for the one that would work. After about 3 hours the clouds began to part and a pattern started to establish. John Roberts and I got into the biggest cats of the day a pair or 29.5" and a 30". These two fish sent us soaring past 1st place with 8 fish that measured 159 inches. The Grand Forks Herald cam in 2nd place with 5 fish the measured just over 100 inches. I tied for biggest cat and John Roberts got to give the Skunk to defending champion WDAZ. The Skunk is a conservation award that is passed to the team that comes in last.
Saturday found Mark Grunwald and Myself in a boat with Fishing Buddy member Justin and Capt Brad. This time were headed to Drayton to avoid the traffic jam that was going on with Cats incredible. This trip was mostly a scouting trip, but paid very nice dividends for us. We started north of the dam, and side imaged a few holes. We boated two but decided to check the fast water below the dam. After a quick load and unload of the boat we attempted to anchor along a break and couldn't hold position right. Immediatly we changed from the 16 to 32 pound anchor.... This move was the right one, 4 minutes after the last rod was launched Justin land a pig of a cat. after a couple pictures and some video we weighed the cat at 20lbs. From their we moved and moved often. This afterall was a scouting trip and there was work to do. 8 more locations after the next 3 hours produced some more kitties... Total for the day was 6 kitties with the 20lber being the biggest. It was a good trip for being the middle of the day with the sun pounding down.
Tomorrow I have to finish laundry and re-pack. We will make the trip to Warroad where we will have dinner with a few of our fellow veterans and begin our official trip on Monday.
Due to the fact that I am not sure if I will have reception on Oak island, I may not be able to blog again till I get back next Friday....
Esox