Mexico-1 Pat-0

Well, this was a trip for the ages. Cancun first off is beautiful. I have never really seen the ocean up close and personal every day. The colors of the water seem to be different every time you look up and the drinks, well good luck keeping up. I know why you are reading this blog. If you wanted to hear the rest of the details you would call me. So let’s cut to the chase on what you came here for. You know a trip to the ocean wouldn’t be complete without a fishing trip, turtles doing what turtles do in the middle of the ocean together (figure it out), and a near death experience out in the middle of the ocean with no help in sight. Now that I have set the table for you, let’s get down to the meat of the story.

Everything started out as most fishing trips do for me. I lay in bed all night and go over every single possible scenario that could happen throughout the next morning. I could catch a world record, I could get a hook stuck in my hand, I thought of my reaction if we didn’t catch anything, and I was mentally prepared for whatever happened… I thought. Before I could think of one more possible scenario, the phone rang and the nice lady who greeted me every morning said it was time to get up. We got ready, ate a quick breakfast and made it to the shuttle. The ride down to the marina was spent talking to some guy from Pennsylvania about deer hunting. How much he deer hunts. How many deer he shoots. His trophy room and his experiences catching fish. It was a good thing the car ride ended because I was ready for a nap just listening to this guy. All I could think of was how long his wife would have to wait for saint hood after she dies. Not long I would imagine. We finally got to the dock and the boat before he explained how he saved the world from imminent danger for the 2nd time.

We meet our captain Carlos and first mate Jose at the dock and they take us down to the boat where we meet the other two people that are along for the ride, Derek and Jenny from Dallas. They are just as excited as we are about going out. On our way out we saw a couple of turtles (refer to picture) doing what they need to do to make sure the species continues past their generation. About 10 minutes later Jose puts the bait in the water and we were off and running. 10 minutes in one of the rods goes crazy and Jose sets the hook on a nice fish. Derek was up first and he reels in a nice barracuda to start things off. High fives all around and I’m feeling good about this. I’m pretty sure I am up next so I start to get really anxious and mentally prepared for whatever might be on the other end.

20 minutes later it happens. The rod goes down and Jose grabs it and set the hook. I immediately jump out of my seat and run to the fighting chair like a kid chasing an ice cream truck. Head down I am trying to keep my balance. I lift my head up and BOOM! Jose unknowing to me sets the hook a second time and I get a heavy duty sea pole to the temple. I’m dazed, but not going to miss this for the world. You can start the video now if you didn’t already watch it. I won’t bore you with the play-by-play since the video takes care of that. It is about 15 minutes. During the fight I notice my hands keep cramping and I am getting a little dizzy. No problem though, all I can think about is reeling this fish in. I get the fish in and I realize I’m really light headed. I get back to my seat and realize that I am going downhill fast.
My fists are starting to be permanently clinched. I am cramping up in my feet and starting to realize I am really hot. I decide to go down to the hull of the boat and lay down. Jess follows me down to see if I am ok and realizes pretty fast I’m not. My eyes are rolling to the back of my head and I am told I was requesting to go to the nearest hospital. At this point my body is one big cramp, I am not making sense when I talk and my speech is so slurred that Jess is having a hard time understanding me. Jess is trying to get Jose to help but he keeps telling her to bring me up on deck. Jess gets me to stand up and steers me to the top. During that 10 foot walk I gag twice, run into everything and am so disoriented I don’t really know where I am. I get to the deck and Carlos immediately starts dumping water on me. He dumps 1 bottle on me, then two bottles, then three bottles. At this point I am starting to come too and also starting to realize the state of my current predicament. I am screwed. My hands are still stuck together and I am starting to get that sleepy feeling again. Jess is forcing water down my throat like a farmer feeding a baby cow. The more water I drink the better I am feeling. By the end of trip we count 11 bottles of water drank. I fall in and out of sleep for the next two hours before we go back to the dock. We get back to the dock and I am feeling pretty good. I pose for a couple of pictures and we are on our way. As you can see mine is pretty big. Jose wanted me to mount the fish, but Jess didn’t think a mahi-mahi would match anything in the living room.

We get back to the hotel and we sleep for the next 19 hours…. straight. We get up for 30 minutes to eat dinner and we went back to sleep. It was the worst day ever. I realize now that I was pretty dehydrated. The story has been proof read by Jess to make sure I’m not embellishing the story in any way. I have a tendency to do that at times.

It's back!

My goal each and every time I go fishing has been to out fish the other people in the boat. Fun always came with knowing that I was the better fisherman for that day. I didn’t care about anything else, just put the trolling motor down and lets fish. Turn the cell phone off, don’t waste time with conversation, keep the senkos at your feet and get as many casts as you could out there. Chances are if you out cast the rest of the guys in the boat, percentages say you should have a greater chance of having more opportunities to catch fish. That’s not the attitude for me anymore. I want the big fish. I want the challenge of finding the one that hasn’t been caught yet. This is what I am after now. I want records: personal, state, world it doesn’t matter.

Welcome back to the blog that tells it all. I have taken a year off the blog circuit in hopes of finding myself and saving some money, at least I accomplished one out of the two. I have done some pretty heavy duty research on fishing both through articles and through actually fishing. Pretty much I have discovered a lot of what I already knew. I still feel pretty confident in my abilities catching whatever fish I want besides catfish. Some might think that is a pretty pampas thought or comment, but really it’s my hobby and something I do a lot so I would hope that I would be learning something over the years from what everyone has taught me.

Ice fishing went well this year. Cory Conrad and I both purchased Aqua-Vu cameras and it really increased our fishing production. I hear you all sigh right now and say to yourself, “no kidding, you can see the fish”. What you don’t realize is that it’s more than that. We used it at first for this reason, with mixed results. When we experienced the most success is when we concentrated on the factors that were a precursor to the end result of catching fish. We looked at structure, depth, and zoo plankton. Yes, zoo plankton. We mimicked the actions and tried to match jigs and weights that would best mimic the plankton. We did pretty well after that.

Spring fishing is going as it usually goes; I try and catch whatever is biting. I would give the spring season a B so far. I have had some serious opportunities to catch some nicer fish, but not a whole lot of luck after that. My crappie fishing prowess is getting a lot better. Nagle always told me to stop setting the hook like a bass, and I think my ice fishing practice helped a lot. The bass fishing has been slow, but it is starting to pick up a bit this last weekend. We had a cold snap a couple of weeks ago, you can tell by the layers in the walleye picture, so I am sure that hurt the water temperature a bit.

So far nothing big………….

Up at the Lake

Well as much as I wanted to update everything daily, we are catching way to many fish and it has been trying to find some time to eat. My Dad, Uncle Dave and I have been fishing since we got up here on Thursday and we figured today was a good day to take a break for the morning. We have been using a lot of plastics and really motoring around to try and find a pattern to help find the fish.

We have really been fishing hard and using a lot of baits to try and find one the fish can’t resist. One of the things that we have noticed is that the fish are not chasing anything. They are looking for an easy meal and we are trying to match the lure up to try and suit this. We came upon this pattern by trying crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and swimbaits and not catching anything. We switched to something slow like a plastic worm or a senko and have had a lot of success. It really seems to make a difference the slower you go the better.

We have also been trying a lot of depths and structure with some different success. The fish are not in the deeper water, the 10-15 feet range, and have kind of been in the mid-level depth of 5-10 feet. They also have preferred to be in kind of medium thick structure as well. They have just wanted to be in a cabbage type weed or the reeds. The big fish my dad is pictured with was in no cover just a sandy bottom and some reeds.

I should have some more pictures and stories in the next couple of days. It looks like it has been in the 90’s back home and some storms so I hope everyone is safe and using their air conditioner. I will keep enjoying the northern Minnesota weather; I think it is going to be sunny and 80 today. We have caught a lot of fish and some really big fish that are pictured. I haven’t mentioned but I probably should that I am fishing in a bass tournament up here on the 4th of July. I really feel like my team is going to win it, we have really figured it out up here and I feel like we have a great chance. Keep tuned for more pictures and the results.

Tight lines,
Pat

Some Light at the End of the Tunnel

Today my Dad and I went up to Clinton to try and see if we could catch a bass or two. I really don't want you to think that we had a good day because of the pictures, we caught 3 but we really had to work hard for them. We went for about 4 hours with out a bite. We were trying everything that we had in the tackle box to try and find something that worked. We ended up finding that a senko pulled over the weeds really slow, and then when the bait hit a pocket of open water we let it sink. The fish that is pictured came out of no where and inhaled the senko. I got a chance to watch the whole thing, it was really cool. It was cooler than actually catching the fish. I am going to try and post some videos here in the future with some guest anglers from Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. I have already got a couple of people lined up and I should be posting them in a new video link called tip of the week. Hopefully this will help get the word out on a couple of new ideas and help everyone become better anglers. In the mean time the above boat ride is kind of a test for this. This is just a video of our boat going through a stump field at about 50 mph in about 2 feet of water. This is kind of a first hand look at what it is like to go through these backwater areas on the Mississippi. Next update should be from Minnesota. Tight lines, Pat

Slow Days on the Mississippi

Well it has been a couple of weeks, but I am back with a couple of updates and news. I have been busy with school wrapping up and making sure everything was in order, as well as a fantastic wedding last night. Congratulations Brian and Nicole that was a really good time.

On the 6th my Dad, Doug Smith, Joe Hannsen and I headed up to Savanna to do a little smallmouth fishing. If you all haven’t figured out by now, the smallmouth have been tough to come by all year. This day was no different. We fished all morning in a steady downpour without a smallmouth. My dad was able to hook up with a 2 pound largemouth with a giant scar on the top of his head. Not a minute later Joe hooks up with another one on a chatter jig. He gets this one to the boat and it has a giant scar on the top of its head. The fish must have been hungry and not very smart to be fooled by two different bait about a minute apart from each other. We decided to move up to Brown’s Lake, which is a catch and release area of the river. We got into them a bit up there, catching about 7 or 8 smaller fish. The fish were stacked up at the end of the lake and were biting on senko’s with a 4/0 hook. There wasn’t a whole lot going on that day, besides the rain. We came off the river pretty wet, but Joe got to use his new bait caster and did a great job with it.

Today my Dad and I headed out to the river and we did not catch a thing, not even a bite. We fished the LeClaire pool where we have struggled the last couple of weeks. My Dad and I have talked about this for a little and we really can’t figure out what has happened to the fish. We have caught walleyes and northerns, but we just haven’t seen the bass that we have grown accustomed too. We have fished this section of the river for 15 years now and we know it really well. There have been a lot of changes on the river recently due to floods and whatever else. The pool could be transitioning due to the changes, but hopefully sometime soon the fish will come back so we won’t have to drive or go for a boat ride to find some fish.

Congratulations are in order to Dwayne Goodtime, Corey Conrad, Josh Graham and Jessica Gibson for winning fish of the week. Also Conrad is currently in the lead for fish of the week with 2. Congrats Conrad, keep up with the good fishing.

I will be heading up to Minnesota sometime this next week. I am going to try and give daily updates on my fishing, along with a story or two. I am really looking forward to meeting up with Adam Panther who is a friend of mine from home. He is a good fisherman and will be up on Woman Lake the week after 4th of July. Also Jess will be up on the 4th of July, hopefully it will be nice enough where we can get out and catch a couple of fish.

Keep sending in those fish of the week pictures. I will try to post as many as I can if they are worthy off posting. Hope everyone has a great week and check in and see how the fishing is toward the end of the week. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share.

Tight lines,
Pat

Stinking it up on the Wapsi

Well it has been another great week of weather here in Iowa, which means another great weekend to fish. Saturday morning I met up with my friend Corey Conrad in Eldridge and we went out to the Wapsi for a little cat fishing. Conrad and I launched the boat early and were immediately attacked by gnats. These gnats were everywhere! Luckily Conrad kicked the mercury into high gear and we took off from the boat ramp. We didn’t get 100 yards off the ramp when we ran into Dennis Heintze and Buck Biddle. I have been hunting with these guys for as long as I can remember, and I know Dennis is a catfishing MACHINE! So if we I took away anything besides a good laugh was the fact that we were at least in the right place.

We went to our first spot and caught a couple of small ones, but nothing of any size. We then kept going down the river, stopping and fishing at random spots catching more of a sun burn than any fish. We both kind of made the decision that the main river wasn’t working for what we were doing, so we headed back to the back waters to see if we could do any better. We tried fishing close to the channel and then worked our way deeper into the backwater. We did this with the thinking that the river was going down, and when the water starts to get low or even disappear in spots, the fish like to find an area that is still out of the current but safe enough to not get stranded or landlocked in an area. If they were to stay in the area, they might be easy pickings for a predator or even suffocate when the water runs out of oxygen.

Luckily for us the backwaters really produced for us. We caught a lot of 1-2 pound fish, as well as some smaller catfish. Conrad decided to change it up a little bit and tied on a stink bait noodle with a heavy sinker. He had bought some stink bait in a tube, and was trying to pipe it in the tube liberally and we were trying to figure out how long is lasted in the water. He filled it a couple of times, and realized he was getting a little low and was getting a little irritated with the amount that he got of the money. No sooner did we start discussing it, he noticed the unmistakable stench rising from the floor of his boat. He was squeezing the tube the wrong way, and the tube broke on the backside and half a tube of stink bait lay on the bottom of his boat and his shoe. So there he sat, smelling like blood bait, and trying to figure out how to get this stuff off the bottom of his brand new boat. Luckily he was able to scoop it up and toss it over the side. We decided at this time is about time to head in. It was a great morning of fishing and really just a great day to be outside. If anybody was still wondering Dennis and Buck caught 30+ catfish, far exceeding our total.

I would like to thank everyone for their fish of the week contributions. I have been bombarded with pictures so it is really hard to narrow it down. A personal challenge has been set by my girlfriend Jess. She really wants to be fish of the week, so I told her that if she catches the biggest bass sent in this week she gets fish of the week. So everybody better try to out fish her or I will never hear the end of her “fish of the week” title. Keep sending them my way, unijudkins@hotmail.com


This weekend is really exciting because it is free fishing in Iowa. Anyone is able to fish for free and see if they like it. Go out and try your luck. It doesn’t look like a great weather weekend, Saturday morning looks like the best time to go. Good luck to everyone!

Tight lines,
Pat

Weekend in Wisconsin

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Jess and I headed up to her parent’s place near Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the weekend. We met up with her mom, Diane and her dad, Steve as well as her Uncle Greg and Aunt Shirley. Greg was able to bring down his boat so as much fishing as he was willing to do, I was going to try and be in the boat as well. We had only one obstacle standing in our way, the weather. There was a chance of rain Saturday and Sunday and we were hoping that it was going to hold off long enough to log some good fishing time.

Saturday came along and we decided to sleep in, so we didn’t starting getting ready until 10 or so. We also were unfamiliar with any of the lakes in the area so we really didn’t know where to start. Steve suggested we head to Lake Puckaway, which is a lake down the road that he thought he heard had some fish in it. We decided to give it a try, so Jess, Greg and I headed off down the road as the skies started to turn darker with every mile that we drove. When we launched the boat and headed to a shallow point that was close to the ramp. Before I put a bait in the water I looked out across the lake and it was black. It was only a matter of time before it started misting, then a light sprinkle, then a straight down pour. I gave my rain gear pants to Jess, and we fished on. The first point turned up nothing, so Greg started moving toward a strip of emergent grass in about 2 feet of water. By now the rain is really coming down. My jeans are soaked, the raingear I gave Jess is now absorbing water, and Greg’s Frogtogs are taking on water. This is really bad! I was really worried this would be the end of our day, but all of sudden Greg sets the hook and immediate says to grab the net. The anticipation was hard to beat as this fish tore through the weeds. This fish was big. After a couple of minutes the fish surfaced and all I saw was a flash of gold. I immediately shouted, “It’s a walleye!” Greg got it to the boat and I netted it. It was a 26 inch walleye. From then on it was every other cast, big walleye after big walleye. We would catch the occasional northern and some really nice bass. Jess even caught a 5 pound catfish. As the skies cleared and as we dried out, the fish kept biting. It was one of the best days I have had on the water. We would have spent more time out there but we had to get to dinner. Eating always seems to get in the way of great fishing, and as a lot of you know I don’t miss a meal. You might also notice the small fish that I am holding in the pictures, it is called a warmouth and it is a cross between a largemouth bass and a sunfish. It looks exactly like a sunfish, except for its bigger than average mouth. They are really aggressive. I caught this one on a 7.5 inch power worm, which is a couple of inches bigger than he is.

I was really excited to find a bunch of fish like that stacked up in a 100 yard area. I have never seen anything like that before. I also learned that a walleye in 2 feet of water fought just as hard as a really big bass. I have a lot more respect for the fish now that I had a chance to catch them like this.

Special thanks goes to Shirley for cleaning all of our fish, I know my mom really appreciated the fish. We wound up with 11 over the course of the weekend. It was a blast; I can’t wait to head back up and do it again. Thanks again to Greg for carting me around Wisconsin fishing this weekend.

Conrad and I also went out and did a little cat fishing. Conrad once again proved he is one of the best cat fishermen I have come across. His technique was flawless and his boat maneuvering was second to none. Up and down the Wapsi we went, Conrad pulling a catfish from every spot and me just setting the hook and missing. I could not catch anything to save my life. I displayed no patients and as much as Conrad coached me I couldn’t get it done. I got skunked. I hope that if Conrad takes me out again I can at least catch one and work my way up from there.

Thanks to everyone that sent in pictures. I tried to post as many as I could. If you all have anymore send them my way and I will post them up. Also I got a suggestion about adding a link or two about how to fish for the different species of fish found in the Midwest. I am going to start to get to work on that and try to have that in the next couple of weeks.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and enjoy the beginning of summer.

Tight lines,
Pat