WCCO - Fish Tales Hall of Fame

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10:14pm, 01/06/09

Hall of Fame

Brendan's Fish Tale
My name is Brendan I am 9 years old I went to Mille llacs for the fishing opener with my Dad. Here is a picture of me on Friday before the opener fishing in the lagoon at Fishers Resort in Malmo the water was calm...on Saturday the opener took a weird turn a guy backed his boat and entire truck into the water with the trailer still on it my Dad told me to stand in front of it so he could take my picture...we didnt catch any keepers the whole weekend...the next week the weather as you can see was very nice I didnt have my leech on but for a couple of minutes and I reeled in this 26 inch walleye...I love to spend time with my family and fish whenever I can...

Dave Vogel's Fish Tale
While spending a weeks family vacation on Big Mantrap lake near Park Rapids, MN. one evening while others were busy doing other things, I decided to try my luck at catching a Musky. My wife and daughter and I left the dock just as the sun was setting. Using the electric motor we went about 200 feet out to a weedy point I had discovered earlier. On my third cast I had a hit and set the hook. Immediately I knew I had a large fish hooked. After a 8 - 10 minute battle I netted a 38" Musky, and took photos and released it. But this isn't the end of the story..... I continued to cast to the weedy point, and about 45 minutes later had another hit. I immediately said , "This is a bigger one!" After a 10-12 minute battle, I netted a 42" Musky, the second one in about an hour. We took photos of the second one and then released it. Wow, what a thrill to catch two Muskies in one evening.

Debi Schurr's Fish Tale:
Yes, I've bragged to others that I catch Largemouth Bass, Northern, Tiger Muskie, Crappies and Sunfish right out my back door in Hennepin County. Well it was time now to prove it and to show my friend Mark, where all those fish were. Fishing for Largemouth Bass was the choice on August 4th as we agreed that they are the most fun to catch. So the search was on. We tried the few structured areas I knew on the lake and some shoreline haunts but other than catching the smallest Sunfish in the lake we had no luck for over 2 hours. Was I just telling tall tales? Who cares? It was a beautiful summer's eve to be out on the lake! It was near sunset and I thought we should anchor off of my favorite shoreline, straight out from my dock. Mark was definitely doubting my fish tales by now but we were enjoying being out on the lake fishing. Relaxed and discussing our different strategies, Mark offered some snacks he brought out. Suddenly he saw his fishing rod heading for the water! He grabbed it while I got the net over the side and Mark pulled in a big 3 pound Largemouth Bass! There was time to take a quick picture with the cell phone and time to hold the Bass up so the 2 guys in the boat nearby could have a look too. Then I said, "The big brother of that Bass is still in there!" Quickly we had both of our fishing rods baited and back in the water. Luck came to my line this time and minutes later my friend used the net to help me land my 3.5 pound Largemouth Bass! Its great fun the way those Bass hit! Now I'm "hooked" on fishing for another lifetime to come!

Bob Kemmerer's Fish Tale:
"While sitting at home watching the Olympics I was interrupted by my three youngest children as they came running in screaming something about a huge fish they had caught. The rest of the story will be told from my son David's perspective who was in the boat when this monster was pulled in. 'My younger sister Sarah, my older brother Michael and I were fishing in a little boat right by our dock. We were going for largemouth bass. I had already caught three nice bass, so I asked my brother if he wanted to take a cast with my rod and spinning reel which had a Texas rigged power worm for bait. On his very first cast I saw him half set the hook. He shouted, "I think I've got one", but then we realized he was only snagged on a weed. All of a sudden, the line started to move. I quickly told him that it was a fish. The fight was on! We thought my brother had hooked the biggest bass in Victoria. Finally, after around five minutes of fighting the fish, we got a glimpse of what turned out to be a 35½ inch Northern Pike. We at last landed the beast and took a few photos with Michael's cell phone that he had in the boat. Luckily, I had a pair of pliers so we could take the hook off. It was a miracle the fish didn't snap the line with its teeth. We released our catch and ran into our house screaming about a huge monster fish that we had caught. We knew our lake was a pretty good bass lake, but we never would have guessed that we would pull up a 35 1/2 inch Northern Pike.'"

Jim and Linda Ek's Fish Tale
After finishing supper we decided to give it another try for some good “keeper” Walleyes before evening set in. Fishing in the vicinity of Dead Man’s reef we spotted fish on the graph.
While catching quite a few small to medium size walleyes, I caught a small Northern with teeth marks in its side and belly area. Shortly afterwards Linda caught a Walleye also with marks on its body.

After these 2 fish were caught we did not catch anything else for almost an hour.
Assuming there was something BIG lurking in the depths below us, I designed a makeshift Lindy rig.
Utilizing some crude engineering skills, I made a 2 foot Snell and put about 1 oz. of lead weight on the one end and then I put a deep runner #9 look alike Perch on the other end with the idea of allowing the Rapala to free float about 2 feet off the bottom of the lake.
I used my bait caster with 30 lb. Test Power Pro line and casted it out.

Well…about 15 minutes went by and then I saw my fishing rod bend. Picking it up I set the hook and started to reel it in. Within about 2 minutes my line snapped. After quite a few sharp words, I returned to jigging.

About 10 minutes passed by and Linda informed me that “I hear a rattle out there”.
Not paying too much attention to her I continued to fish. She saw a fish jump and commented again about the rattle. She pointed to the surface of the water where she saw the fish jump. In the twilight of the evening I could see an outline of something which I told her was a rock.
Continuing to fish she pointed out that the “rock” had moved and was now about 90 degrees from where it had started.
NOW, I started believing her. I shut off the live well (to eliminate any noise) and we were able to drift over to the “rock”.
What was thought to be a rock was a fish floating on the surface.
Quickly I grabbed my net and scooped it up.
The fish turned out to be a 25 inch Northern with my Rapala in its mouth.
After returning to the dock I informed the dock boy about our catch and he told me that he has never heard of anything like that before.
And so……this is my 2008 3M Fishing Club annual Temple Bay Lodge TRUE FISH STORY.

Mark Lahtinen
While trolling for some bigger game fish on a BWCA lake over the 4th of July weekend my son Andy caught this 10 inch bluegill sunfish on the crankbait shown. He ended up catching two more on the crankbait and we caught some on live bait as well. A different color combo of the same crankbait produced a 19 inch smallmouth and a 26 inch walleye. We also got a 40 inch northern on a different crankbait and found a lure of mine that was lost a few years ago from a line break while fighting a fish (smallmouth I think).

Gary Wheaton's Fish Tale Story
"In May of 2005 my 12 year old Grandson Robby from northern Iowa and I were planning a weekend of fishing on Mille Lacs lake. Unfortunately the weather forecast was for thunderstorms so we deceided to stay home and on Friday night we choose to fish Bald Eagle Lake in White Bear. We started fishing at about 5:00 PM and had no luck. Around 8:00 PM the moon was just beginning to rise over the trees and the sun had just set and we deceided to reel in. Just as my grandson was about to the boat he got a strike. He batteled this fish for about 20 Minutes with an ultra light fishing rod and 6 pound test line. It was dark when we landed the walleye in the photo, 33" long and 13.2 pounds. What a great fishing weekend."