2011 Paddler GTG

[Duffman]

About what I expected.

I also shuttered at the 8:00am start time (I'm a night person), but with the forecasted temps it sounds like a good plan.

Anybody else?

Ted and Tom....

Do you two want to bump it up even earlier, 7:00am? Just throwing it out there.

[ted4887]

I'm game for whatever you guys want. I too saw the forecast (90's and high humidity). I'm the exact opposite of a night person. If everyone else is comfortable with meeting at 7, than count me in for that as well.

[PartyWhine]

I won't know for sure before Fri boys .... but it looks good.

So ... I drove over and circled Calhoun tonight.

I trailer my canoe and wanted to scout launching and parking.

South end, at the beach looked like the spot for my rig.

Chatted with the old man at the boat launch / rental joint.

Per him ... A devoted muskie sharpie got a 50 incher today.

I'll be sitting in the middle of a 16' Grummann using a rowing system.

Probably throwing up a rooster tail, maybe towing a skier

Oh ... and my canoe has speakers.

PW

[TooTallTom]

Excellent! So you'll have the boat full of bikinis, right?

I'll be heading up to the northern suburbs to pick up my canoe (don't want it on my truck overnight in Minneapolis) so 7am is a little early for me. But if you guys want to start it off earlier, I'm sure I'll find you. Like I said, I'll be the yayhoo in the camo canoe.

If you all want to email me your cell phone numbers, I'm happy to distribute them to the others in the group. If not, that's okay too.

[ted4887]

Where does everyone want to access at? Duff sent me his spot, and I'm good with that, or anything else. This will be my first time in the area, so I'd rather hear it from the locals.

[MN BassFisher]

Hey guys, I will be down near Rochester for a softball tourney. But I'll be excited to hear how this goes! Maybe someone snap some pictures or some video eh?

[Duffman]

We'll get some pics, and not just of bikinis.

I've sent a PM to those who have commited or almost commited.

[TooTallTom]

Duff's spot sounds like it will work great. He pm'd the rest of us about it. I'll plan on being there about 8 am.

[MN BassFisher]

So how'd it go??

[ted4887]

Well, the storms jacked up a few of the people that were supposed to be there, so it ended up with just Duffman and myself. Fishing was fair, with a few bass, a northern and a tiger musky being caught.

[Duffman]

Fishing was actually pretty poor, we started just after the storms dumped all that rain. I've never seen the city lakes at that high of a water level before. You could see all the stuff floating on top of the water that washed in with the runoff. I'm somewhat convinced that all the runoff contains quite a bit of street and yard pollutants, and that might upset the lakes chemical balance for a while, thus putting the fish bite into a little funk. At least that's what I'm going with.

Ted got to experience the city lakes and some of the silly things that go on. Dodging kids jumping off bridges. And it's fun watching canoers ram shore and not on purpose. He also got to see some of the top-notch scenery that the lakes can offer. And he accomplished crossing off the tiger muskie on his lifetime fish species list, congrats Ted! I had a pure strain muskie take a swipe at my crankbait boatside on Calhoun...36"?

The clouds hung around for a while, or else I think we would've bailed out of there earlier with the poor fishing. But, we didn't get skunked and I'm pretty sure we both had a good time. I'll post Teds mini-tiger pic tonight. We'll have to do it again sometime and hopefully get a bigger group involved.

[MN BassFisher]

Glad to hear you guys had a bit of fun out there!!

[Maximum12]

I miss the fishing & scenery on the Minneapolis chain, it's been years since I dumped the canoe in those lakes. Haven't been following FM too closely, but I'll watch to see if there's another (cooler) gathering this summer!

[Duffman]

Ted taming the Tiger.

[ted4887]

Fear no more people... that monster muskie has been tamed.

[itchmesir]

Fear no more people... that monster muskie has been tamed.

Cool.. for a second there I thought I'd have to call Jeremy Wade...

[ted4887]

Nope, he can continue to catch the vampire fish and wels catfish. Just call me the Musky Whisperer

[ted4887]

Don't know if anyone is interested, but I'm contemplating fishing the chain again this weekend. If anyones interested, PM me.

[TooTallTom]

I'll be out of town, otherwise I'd love to see about getting stuck in a freak traffic jam again.

[ted4887]

Anyone interested in a 2012 GTG?