Open water in Sunset Country and my first FLW Tour Top Ten!!!

Things finally clicked for me in an FLW Tour event a couple of weeks ago at Lake Eufaula, Alabama when I earned my first Tour top ten finish, landing in fifth place after four days of fishing.  It was certainly a fun event, especially since my Dad was down to practice with me and fished the tournament on the co-angler side.

I got on a good topwater bite that lasted throughout the day.  It was fun fishing.  Unfortunately I lost a couple of heartbreaker fish on the final two days that hurt but still it was a great tournament.

I caught most of my fish on the new Jackall Binksy topwater lure and the old school Pop R.  Here is a shot of the new Binksy...it's pretty cool!  

Here are a couple of nice fish from practice...

 

Back at home the ice is out and the water has been warming quickly, already into the 60's on Lake of the Woods.  Before I went to Eufaula I had a great day of bass fishing with some clients from Southern Ontario.

This week fishing has been good for everything, crappies are shallow, walleyes are still relatively shallow (8 - 12 feet) and bass were starting to make beds already in some of the shallow bays.  I love fishing this time of year!  
Remember there is still plenty of time to book your dream fishing trip to Ontario's Sunset Country!  Visit www.ontariossunsetcountry.ca to find all the information you need to book your trip!  
If you need any fishing or hunting gear or outdoor clothing for your trip, visit www.krugerfarms.com for all kinds of great stuff and GOOD deals! 

Late ice and Bass travels

While I was home between the Smith Lake and Beaver Lake FLW Tour events I got out around home and had some fun on the ice, in the boat and in the woods.  Always lots of good stuff to do in Sunset Country! 

My buddy Sean McAughey and I got out on the ice one last time and shot a TV show for my program Fishing with Gussy, catching burbot on Lake of the Woods.  We caught some nice fish and even cooked up a few out on the ice.  It'll be a good show!  

We were catching them on a Northland BuckShot Rattle Spoon tipped with a piece of cisco belly meat.  Good times! 

A few days later, Jay Samsal and I were in the boat, on the Rainy River, catching walleyes.  We filmed a good show there as well, it's such a fun place to fish when these big walleyes load up in April.  We caught our fish on a new Northland jig that they are going to introduce later this year, a great jig for river fishing.  

I miss having the time to do a lot of shed hunting in the spring because it's one of my favourite things to do but it was nice to get out for one day with my friend Brian Talling.  

We found a few sheds and this skull, likely from a wolf killed deer earlier in the winter.  

After the tournament at Smith Lake I left my boat in a storage locker in Nashville.  When I got back to Nashville I had to pick up the boat late at night and make the 9 hour drive over to Roger, Arkansas and Beaver Lake for the next event.  

The Beaver Lake tournament did not go quite as well as I would have like unfortunately.  I caught some nice smallmouths in practice and focused on fishing for them in the tournament but unfortunately I was not able to figure them out during the tournament.  I managed to put together a limit each day but it was not enough and I ended up in 80th place, not good.  This photo was from a delay on the morning of day two due to some bad weather.  

During practice at Beaver I played around with a new camera mounting post that some friends of mine have designed.  It is great for using with sports cameras like the GoPro, iON or Shimano cameras.  A great, innovative design for filming your fishing experiences.  You can view them online at the EZCam website:  http://ezcampost.com/

Ice fishing and FLW Tour stop #2

Between some ice fishing around home in Sunset Country and traveling to fish the FLW Tour, it's been a busy past few weeks.  Things have been going good though, it's been fun!

I love this time of year because the weather is so nice and the fishing is so good.  Great time to be on the ice.  Here, Chip Leer and I hold a nice lake trout that we caught while filming a recent episode of Fishing with Gussy.  

Our friend Nicole Smith with a nice walleye!

Now is the time of year to catch big pike!  This one fell for a Northland Predator Rig tipped with a large, dead cisco.  

My pal Eric Naig from Northland Fishing Tackle with a jumbo pike!  

Chip Leer with the big trout of a recent three day trip...this one was close to 20 pounds, caught on an Impulse Tube. 

Northwestern Ontario is the top ice fishing destination in the World.  It's a great place to visit throughout the rest of the year as well!  To plan your dream fishing or hunting trip, visit www.ontariossunsetcountry.ca 

After ice fishing for a few days it was back on the road to Lewis Smith Lake, Alabama for stop #2 on the FLW Tour.  I fished a tournament at Smith Lake a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it...would love to go back again at some point!  

Smith Lake has a great spotted bass population and I decided to spend my time chasing them during the tournament.  I had a great practice and caughts several fish over four pounds, most of them on suspending jerkbaits. 

Smith also has a great population of big striped bass like this one.  They are a workout on the lighter bass tackle.  

This was a five pound spot from the last day of practice.  I ended up having a decent tournament, finishing just inside the prize money (top 60) with a 56th place finish.  Unfortunately I did not get my hands on any of these magnum spots during the tournament, but I managed to put together enough fish to cash a cheque for $10,000, so I'm happy! 

I caught just about all of my fish last week at Smith Lake on a new Jackall jerkbait called the Dowzvido 90 SP.  It's a nice bait, with a lip to help it get a little bit deeper.  It's going to be a great bait around home this summer.

Next up on the Tour schedule is a stop at Beaver Lake, Arkansas, a lake we've visited in each of the past two years.  I've had a couple of decent finishes there so I'm looking forward to going back there.  In the meantime, I'm still ice fishing around home and hoping to hit the woods in search of some shed antlers.  Always lots to do in Sunset Country! 

Wolf hunting and ice fishing

It's been a busy past month for me around home.  I spent a good part of January guiding wolf hunters and slipping in some ice fishing here and there.  It's a great time to wolf hunt in Ontario's Sunset Country Region - conditions are great right now.  Our deer population took a big hit over the past couple of harsh winters but the wolf population is still strong.  With fewer deer the wolves seem to be hitting baits a lot better than they have in the past.  Hunting was great this year, most of my guest were successful.  

Bret Amundson from Minnesota connected with a beautiful male in early January. We have to tag our wolves in the nose in Ontario. 

Jake Hoffman from Minnesota with his second wolf in two trips.  

Cory Anderson from South Dakota with his first wolf.  

We hunt our wolves over bait which we try to freeze into the ice so they can't drag it away.  I use deer and moose scraps left over from the fall hunting season for bait.  

Pete Hill from Ontario with a nice lake trout he caught on Lake of the Woods. 

Here is a nice limit of walleyes with a few perch mixed in...good eats!  A great afternoon on Lake of the Woods!

This is the biggest perch that I have ever caught...a 13.5" monster that fell for a 1/4 oz Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoon while I was walleye fishing.  

Hunting in December

December was a busy month that just seemed to go by like a whirlwind.  I spent the first weekend at the St. Paul Ice Show helping out some of my sponsors - Frabill and Northland Fishing Tackle.  It was a good show as usual, good crowds and some great deals for shoppers.  If you are big into ice fishing, this show takes place every year on the first weekend in December and it's great.  All of the manufacturers are there and quite a few retail outfits set up and sell fishing gear as cheap as they will all year.  
After the St. Paul trip I spent a week moose hunting with some friends near Red Lake, Ontario.  We go every year in December, at the end of our season in Ontario.  We had a pretty good hunt this year and were able to tag two moose, a young bull and a nice cow.  

Here is the young bull...it actually dropped one of its antlers when we got up to it.  

The cow was the first moose for my buddy Darrin Tacknyk.  These animals are awesome!  They are so big, it's crazy...beautiful critters.  They are great eating also!  

We get around in moose country on snowmobiles.  Thanks to the cold start to the winter that we had we were able to even get out on some of the smaller lakes to access some of our hunting spots.  I put on about 100 kilometers per day on this trip, it was fun! 

I have been on the ice fishing a few times but I haven't been taking any pictures...just catching walleyes to eat!  But we'll have some fishing pictures posted on here pretty soon!