#loading mega massive giant boulders

[lovetriangled]

guys......... byler 😭

[mnranger5]

A Trip Full of Battles Finally Pays Off, Brown Town, U.S.A., 9/12/19 - 9/15/19

I talk about fishing in crummy conditions all the time on my blog.  It’s not that I am being overly dramatic, it’s just the reality of fishing in Minnesota.  Our springs are cold and wet.  Our summers are wet and windy.  Our falls are cold, wet and windy.  We get used to it.  Fishing can be a grind in crappy conditions.  Battles with controlling the boat in windy conditions, staying warm, keeping dry and coaxing finicky fish are all part of experience.  Much of the time, the battles are not won.  But on those days where you persevere through the challenges and stick with the game plan, even when it doesn’t appear to be working, it can produce some of the most rewarding days on the water.  And battles won at Brown Town, U.S.A. can produce the very best rewards imaginable.  This is a story of an epic battle that I eventually ended up winning at Lake Mille Lacs.

9/12/19

I had work appointments in Duluth on Thursday afternoon/Friday morning, so I took that work trip as an opportunity to sneak away to my most favorite lake of all time, Mille Lacs, or as I refer to it, Brown Town (because it produces the biggest smallmouth bass - brown colored bass - in the world).  I left early Thursday morning because I knew finding a place in Duluth to park the boat could be a challenge.

For the record, when booking the hotel I called ahead of time and asked if they had an oversized vehicle lot.  They assured me they did!  So, when I arrived at the Radisson Duluth, I was shocked when the oversized lot was full with employee parking.  They told me there was nothing they could do other than direct me to the top deck of the parking ramp.

Battle #1: Jake vs. The Parking Ramp

I spent over an hour getting up on the parking ramp and turned around so that I could leave easily the next morning.  After a 53-point turn, I had the truck and trailer parked on top of the ramp.  The weather was miserable, with gusty winds, rain and fog.  Not a nice afternoon in Duluth.  I used the skyways to walk to my work appointment.

9/13/19

Following my last meeting of the morning, I hit the road toward Brown Town.  I arrived to my campsite, Father Hennepin State Park, around 1PM.

Battle #2: Jake vs. 30mph winds

Winds were out of the west at 30mph.  The waves were crashing up on shore.  Being out on the water in these conditions looked miserable.  I noticed deep-v walley boats slowly scooting across the choppy waters slapping hard against every swell.  I wasn’t going to let the lake beat me up today.  This was a victory for the wind, although, my body was sure happy I elected not to get jolted around by the waves.

That afternoon I got camp set up so that it would be ready when Dyan arrived later that evening.  We grilled out jalapeno cheddar brats, had salad and chips and salsa.  We feasted as we sat around the campfire.

9/14/19

The following morning, we finally had some beautiful weather!  The sun was out and the wind had calmed down dramatically.  We were on the water by 7:30 and immediately went to the rocky reef off of Malone Island.  

Battle #3: Jake vs. Big Brown fish

I started by throwing a Yum Flash Mob Jr. umbrella rig with a single hook.  I was casting it on my musky rod with 90lb braid.  It was a mega setup, for a mega fish!  And a mega fish hammered right off the bat.  I was swimming the umbrella rig in about 7FOW above a rocky point when a smallmouth absolutely destroyed it.  The fish fought ferociously for at least 2-3 minutes as I guided him over to the boat.  The fish began thrashing right next to the boat as Dyan prepared to scoop him out of the water with the net.  But on one of the fishs’ flops, he threw the hook and dove into the depths.  He was gone.  I was crushed.  This fish was well over 5lbs.

Battle #4 Jake vs. Another Big Fish

Just a short time later (after my tears had dried), I hooked up with another giant.  Just like the smallmouth, this guy crushed my umbrella rig to smithereens.  This heavy bodied fish lethargically made it’s way to the boat – a much different fight than the erratic smallmouth.  This time around, Dyan was able to get the net in the water and scoop this beautiful walleye out of the lake.  This beauty taped out at 26”.   Lucky for him the DNR considers him a protected species.  Otherwise, he would have been in the fry pan over our campfire that evening.

After that flurry, the rest of the morning was pretty quiet.  I fished ultra shallow in the pencil reeds to super deep rocky points and everything in between.

Later that afternoon, we were getting hungry, so we loaded up the boat and headed over to Grand Casino for some food and fun.    

Battle #5 & #6: Jake vs. Lunch Menu and Jake vs. Casino

On the way to the casino is a little resort called Eddy’s.  They have had the most amazing duck wings on their menu the last time we came here.  But today, not so much.  They had an all new menu, and duck wings were not a part of it!  On the bright side, the server said they had so many requests for duck wings that they’d be adding them back to the menu in the near future. This was a battle I’d lose today, but win next time.

And speaking of losing battles, I lost another one at the casino.  My favorite herd of Buffalos just didn’t show up to the stampede.  The casino took all my money!

Battle #7:  Jake vs. Massive Thurnderstorm

So after the casino, we headed back to the campsite.  On the drive, a mega thunder boomer popped up right over the south end of the lake.  The campsite, tent and boat, all were drenched. The campsite was a muddy mess with standing water in the boat and tent.  

After the storm passed, Dyan and I got back out onto the water for some evening fishing. Unfortunately, the storms turned the fish off, and we couldn’t steal a bite.  The entire evening wasn’t entirely lost however.  We were treated to this gorgeous sunset.

Back at camp, we built up a raging campfire in the cool damp air and draped a tarp over our waterlogged chairs.  Redneck camping at its finest!

9/14/19

Battle #8: Jake vs. The Fog

Overnight, the fog rolled in, and it was thick as thieves.  Dyan had a bridal shower for her cousin back in the cities, so she took out around 7AM, the same time I dumped my boat in the water.  The fog seemed pretty thick, but I could still see the shoreline 100 yards away.  This was going to be a piece of cake!

I put the hammer down on the Merc and started cruising out into the big waters of Mille Lacs.  As soon as I was out of the Isle, the fog really thickened up.  I backed off the throttle as visibility was rapidly decreasing.  I was so far from shore, nothing was visible.  A wall of white in every direction.

I’ve been on the lake in fog before, but never so thick that you literally cannot see 20 feet in any direction.  I could hear bass boats in the distance roaring around the lake.   There was an insane amount of stupidity going on with boat traffic moving at more than 50mph.  Although, there was probably some stupidity on my part for leaving myself as a sitting duck target for those other boats to hit.

I would compare navigating on the lake in fog to landing a plane in fog.  Pilots cannot see anything because of the load cloud deck so they rely on their computer systems that they are correctly approaching the runway safely. Similarly, I was relying on my Humminbird and Ultrex to correctly navigate and lock onto spots I had previously marked.  The only difference is that pilots have a radar to tell them about other flight traffic in their area.  All I have is my ears!

So there I was, in the middle of the Mille Lacs, isolated by the fog.  Nobody knew I was there.  I may as well have been fishing naked!  Since I was moving much more cautiously in the fog that the other boats, I knew it was going to take me substantially longer to get to spots I wanted to fish. Therefore, I hatched a plan to fish less spots, but hit those selected spots more methodically and thoroughly.

In the fall the bigger fish tend to move offshore and located adjacent to large boulders.  The bigger the boulders, the better.  On a previous trip to Brown Town, I had marked a GIANT boulder, (a.k.a. The Main Event) about the size of my truck in about 18FOW about a mile south of Big Point on Sunset Bay.  This giant boulder had many smaller boulders scattered around it. My plan was to drag a dropshot all around the boulder field and hopefully pick up some small mouth bass.

I approached the boulder field, making dozens of casts at the smaller rocks.  If I noticed moderately larger rocks on my side imaging, I tended to make multiple casts to those rocks.  I spent nearly an hour casting to the smaller rocks as I inched my way closer to The Main Event.  I hot spot lock on my Ultrex, as I sat about 30 yards off the humongous boulder.  With the boat locked into the perfect casting position, I began casting into the fog.  The fog was so thick I could not see where my bait was hitting the water.  But as my 3/4oz sinker dove through the water column, I could feel it ricochet off the gian bould and roll off to the side.  I found what I was looking for.  I made cast after cast to the hunk of submerged granite, but could not pick up a fish.  A breeze began to pick up so I repositioned the boat into the wind and hit spot lock again. I was not casting out of the rear of the Nitro.  

After two hours of dissecting this spot, I was getting close to giving up.  I made a few more casts, one going just a bit further than The Main Event. The sinker raced to the bottom of Mille Lacs dragging the KVD Watermelon Dreamshot with it.  I slowly reeled, giving the bait a few tugs and pops here and there.  I felt it bang off the boulder.  I let it sit. I slowly lifted my road and could feel the bait lifting and simultaneously scraping upwards along the side of the boulder.  I let the bait drop again.  My bait was exactly where I wanted it to be – situated right at the base of the boulder. I let it sit momentarily.  I popped it a could of times, moving it a few inches closer to me.  A few more pops, then I let it sit quietly again.  Then something bumped the bait.  It was definitely a fish.  I lightly lifted the rod to check for resistance, but there was nothing there.  I popped it a couple more times.  I had a couple feet of slack in the line so I reeled it in. Once the line was taught again, instantly, a fish started tugging at the other end.  I gave a half-hearted hook set, but since the fish was obviously hooked, I just continued reeling.  The fish fought ferociously for a couple of minutes.  It stayed deep underwater never giving me any a visual indication for what species it was.  However, by the way it was fighting, it could only be a smallmouth.  I babied the fish for at least 3 minutes as I waited for the big girl to tire out.  Finally, she approached the surface, and at that moment I almost lost it.  This was a freak of a fish.  Easily, the biggest bass I’ve ever caught.  This pig had to go 5+ pounds!

With my rod in one hand, the net in the other, I cautiously brought the two together and guided the fish into the net.  In that moment, I let out a loud “Whoo-hoooo!”, but nobody was around the hear, or see it. The fog, still just as thick as earlier drowned out any kind of audience that may have been able to see this catch on any other day.  It didn’t matter!  This fish was a giant of giants!  I quickly got the tape out to check this donkey’s length and she came in at exactly 21” long.

And looking at her profile, it looked like she just ate a cannon ball for breakfast!  

I put her on my scale and she tipped it at 5.75lbs.  This shattered my previous person best by nearly half a pound!  Here is a pic of old PB vs. new PB!

I was ecstatic!  This was the fish I had been looking for, and even though it took forever to catch her, she was exactly where I expected her to be.  Catching a fish like this is so much more satisfying when you put in the work to find exact spots you think the fish will be, and to have it pay off.  Don’t get me wrong, I love catching big fish anywhere on the lake, whether it’s random or premeditated.  It just more rewarding in situations like this!  Obviously I was going to let the fish go, but I corralled her in the live well for the remainder of the morning so that I could have somebody take my picture with her back at the boat launch.

Around noon, the fog finally burned off, and gave way to a beautiful sunny day.  Back near the launch, I met a father and son s in a brand new Nitro from Lakeville, MN who were out fishing for musky.  Super nice guys and they offered to take a pic for me.

Unfortunately, the fish does not look like a giant because 1) the pic was taken pretty far away, and 2, the fish is angled in my hands and the tail side of the fish is further away from the camera. No joke about it, this is the same fish that is pictured on the tape above. 

By 2:00, I loaded up the boat and was headed home.  While the battles on this trip were quite real, the reward of catching the biggest bass of my life is absolutely priceless.  I would weather all of the storms on this trip all over again for a chance to catch a giant like the one I caught. Lucky for me, there are much bigger smallmouth bass to catch at Brown Town, so I see plenty more winnable battles in my future!