Congrats Dr! that is a beautiful fish... the best catches are the ones that really make you work for it aren't they?

Thank you for this post! I was thinking about starting a similar the whole way home yesterday…I couldn’t be the only one with dumb luck!

Decided to stop at a river on the way back from Northern WI yesterday to try for River or Greater Redhorse…after a bit, success! I had the biggest redhorse I have ever hooked on! What a monster! Since I was standing on a big rock while fishing and forgot the net, landing was going to be tough. At this point I would of even taken some of Tyler W’s netting skills. :) I managed to get the fish into some slack water, about 1-2” deep. That thing was huge and there was no question it was either a river or greater (BIG mouth)! Went down to grab it and as soon as I touched it, that big ass tail began whacking the water and it shot through my legs back into deeper water. I tried to follow with the rod, but with the rod being 7ft and me a little bit shorter than that, no luck. Snap went the line, and the rod just about made the same noise over my knee, but I thought better and smack the water instead. So close!

Second hooked/lost species was a Chinook salmon…I never got 100% ID, but the way it smacked a dipsey rod and then took off on a 300ft run with out ever slowing pretty much says it’s a king. I battled it for over 10 minutes and got a glimpse of it about 40ft back from the boat before the hooked popped out. Ugh!

Third (yep, luck was not with me last week) was a Coho salmon. Did everything but reel the last 30 feet of line in. My boat, my rods, my tackle. I picked the spoon, set the line and after a bit, the dipsey popped and I grabbed the rod. Couple pumps to make sure the fish was hooked, looked at the line counter and 30 ft of line was left to reel in…passed it to the father-in-law who initially refused, but I insisted. Within not more than one revolution of the reel, the fish was at the surface and I could see it was a Coho! It was only about 18” long, so before I could get “give me that rod back!!” out of my mouth, it was at the back of the boat. Although a bit cranky, I still grabbed the net and landed it. The F-I-L also got the first fish of the morning, which was the only other coho we boated.

I’m normally okay with losing fish, but it would have been nice to land these three so I could get closer to my goal.

I went out on Lake Michigan Saturday looking to get 4 species and never caught a fish so I threw in the towel and drank my sorrows away the rest of the weekend.

Jknuth wrote:

QUOTE:
SuperFrog wrote:

QUOTE:
Kidney Stones
Strep Throat
Stomach Flu

'nuff said!

You win!

Certainly wasn't a contest I wanted to win. HA!

I considered adding to this thread with my whiny excuses, but it comes down to me not making enough time to fish this month.
I did get five species, my goal was ten and I failed in that, but I will not give up. I have decided that I will make the ten species a goal for the summer for me. I know that sounds kind of pathetic, but I want to be realistic.

lskiles wrote:

QUOTE:
I considered adding to this thread with my whiny excuses, but it comes down to me not making enough time to fish this month.
I did get five species, my goal was ten and I failed in that, but I will not give up. I have decided that I will make the ten species a goal for the summer for me. I know that sounds kind of pathetic, but I want to be realistic.

One species at a time man! It just flat out takes time and patience to catch some fish. I've sat on the end of a fallen tree for hours trying to float hooks into algae sifting buffalo's mouths many times. But its very rewarding once it finally happens....Good luck with your catches.

I hear the kidney stones. 2006 I had 4 kidney stones. 2 a month a part. For that half a year I was loopier than a crack head. I had every narcotic put in my body. Man I was a friendly person!

Mine has to be the Sturgeon. I've tracked them on the Red Cedar and Chippewa. In one day, I caught 3 small ones. During that same week, Jess locked into 2 big ones. One got off, one she landed. They both fought about the same -- really hard. A few weeks later...I either locked into 3 or snagged 3 all in the same day, minutes apart. One peeled drag off for nearly 5 minutes on 20lb going UPSTREAM against the current. After he settled down again, I pumped him in towards the shore and when I got him into the shallows he was gone the hook came free but was not bent -- all 3 situations were like this.

On the Chippewa, I've went down to my fishing spot to see one with half his body sticking out of the water swimming around and exploring the minute i got there(i was still walking!), then heading back for the deep hole. I followed him with my eyes. A few hours later -- same thing, same spot, while I'm fishing in his general path with every hook and crawler combo I can think of! A few weeks prior to that, mere yards downstream(within your field of vision), I was shown a spot where this kid caught a 61" Sturgeon. The picture was inspirating.

Ah well, at least I'm getting a tan.

Drum. I no longer give them a curteous release. They go splash now. :)