BarryBobPosthole
08-12-2013, 03:27 PM
I'll post the fish porn and a bit a bout the trip and edit to add some details later.
This year was the 25th anniversary of what we call The Annual. The trip started back in 1988 when my best buddy Bob (Bassdog), and guy named Jeff Davis, and I drove up to Lake of the Woods, Mn for a week long fishing trip. Its hard to believe I was 34 then. It was the first 'big' fishing trip of my life. Bob and I had beat the waters to death in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. And I'd never caught a walleye. Or a northern. It was a trip where I added three species to my lifetime list, and yes I have a lifetime list. Just of species I've caught. Kind of like birdwatching. Get over it.
Anyway, now I'm 59 and the Annual has added new people and one of us is gone. So its different, but its the same. Hard to describe. Hard driving, hard fishing and hard living for nine days. We used to drink more but as we've gotten old and scary we're now on diets and live in moderation. (Right)
Seven of us drank 37 cases of beer on one annual. And that doesn't include the hard liquor. This year we drank six, and brought a 18'er back. Old and scary.
The fishing was off a bit because everything up that way is running almost three weeks later than normal climate-wise. The ice went out after the opener, the mayflies hatched late, and the water temps were running 66 constantly. So everything we caught had big fat bellies. The baitfish were in balls, running about seven inches long (ciscoes), they staged up below the bait balls as they rose in the evening and then.....not much. We never saw them engage much on the locators. Then they'd drop back to 40 feet and suspend. There were still mayflies getting up off the water and flying although it wouldn't be considered a hatch, where they make your locator screen black.
One night it rained grasshoppers. By the thousands they dropped onto the surface of the lake. It was surreal. And they got busted a lot on the surface. Tried topwaters but didn't get any results. Don't know if it was bass or walleye hitting those hoppers, probably both.
anyway, here's some assorted pics and fish porn. The bass ran big this year. I had big walleye at 28 3/4 inches and he weighed right at nine pounds like he was supposed to. Fat and sleek. A friggin' wolf in a lake when you think about it. Man.
BKB
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This year was the 25th anniversary of what we call The Annual. The trip started back in 1988 when my best buddy Bob (Bassdog), and guy named Jeff Davis, and I drove up to Lake of the Woods, Mn for a week long fishing trip. Its hard to believe I was 34 then. It was the first 'big' fishing trip of my life. Bob and I had beat the waters to death in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. And I'd never caught a walleye. Or a northern. It was a trip where I added three species to my lifetime list, and yes I have a lifetime list. Just of species I've caught. Kind of like birdwatching. Get over it.
Anyway, now I'm 59 and the Annual has added new people and one of us is gone. So its different, but its the same. Hard to describe. Hard driving, hard fishing and hard living for nine days. We used to drink more but as we've gotten old and scary we're now on diets and live in moderation. (Right)
Seven of us drank 37 cases of beer on one annual. And that doesn't include the hard liquor. This year we drank six, and brought a 18'er back. Old and scary.
The fishing was off a bit because everything up that way is running almost three weeks later than normal climate-wise. The ice went out after the opener, the mayflies hatched late, and the water temps were running 66 constantly. So everything we caught had big fat bellies. The baitfish were in balls, running about seven inches long (ciscoes), they staged up below the bait balls as they rose in the evening and then.....not much. We never saw them engage much on the locators. Then they'd drop back to 40 feet and suspend. There were still mayflies getting up off the water and flying although it wouldn't be considered a hatch, where they make your locator screen black.
One night it rained grasshoppers. By the thousands they dropped onto the surface of the lake. It was surreal. And they got busted a lot on the surface. Tried topwaters but didn't get any results. Don't know if it was bass or walleye hitting those hoppers, probably both.
anyway, here's some assorted pics and fish porn. The bass ran big this year. I had big walleye at 28 3/4 inches and he weighed right at nine pounds like he was supposed to. Fat and sleek. A friggin' wolf in a lake when you think about it. Man.
BKB
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