After the visit I went to the damn in Gays Mills and renewed my dance with the MONSTER pike. One less pike in the way. The big girl did not show herself today.

Caught on a deep diving light blue shad rap.

Jumbo shrimp placed in another pyrex bowl
with a stick of butter and some minced garlic
and bake for 25 minutes. Put the steak fries in same oven.

Put the brussel sprouts in a covered pyrex pan with a little
butter and salt and pepper and microwave them for
5 minutes.

Cut up your morels in half. Lightly salt and pepper and fry in butter until slightly crispy.

Trout angling was my area of expertise. We covered all types of trout angling. Responsible harvest and selective harvest were touched on.

There was hands on knot tying and a pop quiz at the end to see if they were paying attention to my presentation. The first to answer correctly, I gave a panther martin spinner. I gave 10 presentations and 10 panther martins were awarded.

The carp typically school up below the first dam on the Kickapoo River every winter. This right in my hometown of Gays Mills. These schooling carp have an interesting secondary effect. The smaller carp attract the big predators like pike.

Getting back to casting my little cleo for a wayward pike. I was there about ten minutes. The carp were schooled up in the open water just below the dam like usual. There had to be 300-400 carp schooled there. There was every size imaginable carp there. I typically work the edges of the carp to get a pike to play.

Then it happened. The water is typically really clear there and I can see down a good eight feet. The carp all parted quickly. It was like the Red Seas being parted in the bible. The only difference was there was no bearded guy with a long staff parting the carp. There was an enormous pike parting the school of carp with a smallish carp sideways in its mouth. I swear I couple hear the jaws tune playing. My biggest pike to date is 41 inches. This pike had that one by about 6 inches or so. It was so wide across the head I was left with my knees shaking. I guess the monster at 48 inches and 30 pounds. She did not come back that day.

May season opened on the 4th and the water was high and dirty. Not many people went to the dam to fish because of it.

The Wednesday after the opener the water was down and a little cleaner.So I decided it was time to try the HUGE pike. I had gone to Cabelas during the closed season and stocked up on lures I thought the monster would like.

I had new 30 pound power pro on my Shimano 4000 reel and inspected my Falcon medium heavy spinning rod and was ready to dance with the big girl.

My second cast in to the dam area was rewarded with a follow by the resident monster. She looked like a mini submarine turning at shore. I threw right back in there and my lure was freight trained. It was a relativity short battle. I caught this 38 incher. It still boggles my mind that I was actually disappointed in a 38 inch pike. No more takers that day.

Mother’s Day was last Sunday and I was in my hometown so I broke away from the family and went to the Kickapoo to try again. I cast and cast for almost 2 hours. I changed lures at least 20 times during those two hours. I told myself it was my last cast and I looked in my box and put on a bass lure with a white and chartreuse skirt. I was just to lift it out of the water and there she came. She hammered the lure and the one hooked lure just bounced off her armor plated mouth and swam away. No more hits after another hour of casting.

I took my daughter to school Monday morning and then drove the 32 miles to Gays Mills to try to catch the monster of the Gays Mills dam. Ten casts in my lure was slammed by a fish. This fish ran off lots of drag and it had me excited for a while. Five minutes later I landed her. It was not her. It was another nice pike but only a lowly 34 incher. No more hits after two more hours of casting.

I just got back from the dam. I casted from first light to about 8:45am. There were no hits. The weather is supposed to get really warm the next few days and cool down a little on Thursday. I plan a return trip on Thursday.

Lost one a foot longer.

It hit again about an hour later

A rematch is in order.

Gave the pictured pike to another angler that was fishing there.

I go a little early and fish at the dam there.

Second cast I had a behemoth pike turn at the wall.

It was so big it made my knees shake.

I threw right back in there and this one slammed it.

I was actually disappointed that I caught this one instead of the monster.

I have a superstition that makes me stop fishing after catching one large pike or trout .

The rematch may be on Mother’s Day or next Wednesday. My sister Debbie is preparing the pike on the grill on Mother’s Day.

Scott and his dad went out early Saturday morning to a stream that I gave them a tip on. Scott and his dad accessed the holes and Scott let his dad have the choice of where he wanted to start. Dad went upstream and Scott took the second place.

At the end of the morning Scott was certain he secured the trophy. Scott caught a 26/22/14 incher. Dad caught a fattie 16 incher. Both returned to the campgrounds and basked in their opening day glory. Winner of the trophy gets their name on the trophy and bragging rights for the year. It was not the first time for Scott to win the trophy

A wicker creel is a relic of the past. It is not functional. It is too small for medium sized fish. Has no cooling properties .It sticks out too far from your body and gets in the way of fishing. $59.00 for a wall decoration is too much in my book. My wicker creel is on my wall in my Man Cave.

I love my Arctic Creel. It is made of Scottish flax water bag canvas. Evaporation greatly reduces the temperature within, keeping fish in excellent condition. A plastic apron keeps the wearer dry. It lays flush to your body. 79.00 bucks but well worth the large sized Arctic Creel. Has two separate compartments . The outer is a zippered and you can put cold packs in there with bottled water. The big back area has one snap that opens easily for putting in fish and snaps securely after. Have had mine for 4 years and holds up well to my abuse. Only thing I didn’t like about it was the color and I solved that by dying it olive green the day I got it.

If that fish is just too dang big for your creel you can use the compartment in the back of your vest for a short term carrying area.

Anna had a monster hit. I could see the huge trout flailing away near shore. It was a gill hook up. There was a cloud of blood already behind its gills. I knew this one was going to die that moment.

I waded in and netted it. Anna and I unhooked the trout and carefully attempted to revive the fish for over 30 minutes. There was no reviving of it. This one was dead. She had been pestering me the entire time we were reviving it to get a photo of it. She said no one will believe she caught such a big trout. I told her that we needed to give this trout every chance to live and no photos were going to be taken unless we were sure it was going to die.

We talked about the dead fish and how wasteful it was to just let it go and let the other creatures eat it. I guess she understood a little at age 10 but it really seemed wrong and against everything my father had taught me about wasting fish or game. We took one photo of her and her monster brown and sent it belly up downstream.The evolution of trout fishing?

The Wisconsin trout regulations are going through some changes soon. There could be 3 more months added on to the season and these months look like they are going to be c/r only also. Five months for c/r folks and 5 months for the rest? This seems quite foolish seeing the vast majority of trout anglers harvest trout.

I was recently voted in to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress in my county “Uncontested”. I plan on getting on the Trout Committee and help shape the rules in the state to show the wishes of the majority not the few.

Our first choice of streams was taken by turkey hunters and decided to let them have it to themselves.

The nearest stream was 10 miles north.

The weather this morning was awful. It was snowing and raining and windy. It did NOT seem to bother the trout because they were on fire.

We fished from 8:30 until 1:30pm.

I let Andy have most of the holes first and he landed 47 browns and three brookies infested with gill lice. I have never found gill lice on this stream. I also had never caught a brookie on this stream until today.

I landed 32 browns and three brookies with gill lice also. I have already filled out the report form on the brookies.

Andy had 2 doubles. He was throwing a woolly worm with a uv stone dropper.

Andy landed big brown of the day…it was 16ish.

I landed big brookie of the day… about 12ish brookie