End of year totals for 2006

[dan2957]

Well I'm guessing with the cold weather moving in this week the lakes will be making ice before the weekend arrives. This topic was brought up this spring and I thought I would check in and see how everyone did. It looks like Dietz officialy closed the open water season on the board so I guess I will get it started.

My season is not quite done but I know the lake season is over for the year. I need to get one trip in sometime this December in order to fish open water all tweleve months of 2006 in Minnesota. I am pretty sure I can squeeze in a December trip in the next 30 days.

Here is how the year broke down for me. I count only bass over 12 inches.

Jan 2006: 13 fish Smallmouth

Feb 2006: 20 fish Smallmouth, 9 Largemouth caught in Texas

Mar 2006: 0 fish during 1 trip

Apr 2006: 2 fish Smallmouth

May 2006: 19 fish opening weekend

June 2006: 107 Lg/Sm

July 2006: 93 Lg/Sm

Aug 2006: 120 Lg/Sm

Sept 2006: 96 Largemouth only

Oct 2006: 99 Lg/Sm

Nov 2006: 28 Smallmouth

Dec 2006: still hoping to get to the 600 mark

Total:

597 total fish caught during 127 trips for a 5.06 fish caught per trip average. I fished 35 differant bodies of water too. I have my 2006 log on an Excel spreadsheet with some interesting stats plus I broke down fish caught by moon phase if anyone is interested in seeing it. I will black out a few things(honey holes and secret lures ) but if you need some ideas for an easy to use log I can email mine to you.

I was able to crack the 5 pound range five times this year. I am still looking for a 6-7 pounder( maybe I'll catch her in a money tourney next year).

Overall I had a great 2006 season. I can not wait for the start of the 2007 season. I get depressed in October knowing that May is so far away. There is nothing I would rather do than spend an entire day on the lake. I could do it everyday. Just ask Sluggomaster about my marathon fishing weekends where I spend every minute of sunlight drowning a jig. There are evenings when I curse the sun for setting. I have been bitten hard and there is no cure.... I am not looking for a cure.

I learned a valuable lesson this summer. Sometimes, when the fish won't coorperate it is ok to take a day off from the lake.

I would love to read about your bass totals and goals for the 2006 season. here is my email if you guys would like to see my spreadsheet layout danielcarmony@msndotcom

[Deitz Dittrich]

awesome post dan.. fun stuff.. my clicker is on my boat which is in the fixem up shop...

Thanks for the fun post!

[Macsimus]

Dan,

Cool idea to keep an annual log using a spreadsheet. Makes it simple to do totals and analysis. I'd like to see your spreadsheet. Not necessarily the data, but just the layout. Congrats on the great year.

Oh yeah, ditto on the depression thing. A person's able to fish like a maniac until late Oct and then all of a sudden - wham, it gets cold, the days get short, and it gets cloudy and dark. Arghh!

Mac

[dan2957]

Hey Mac,

I posted my email addy so send me a email if you would like to see my log layout.

Dietz I hope your baby isn't too sick. I think I saw your going to be at Cabelas Saturday, I may pop in for a visit and say hi.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Dan- yes sir, I'll be at Ragers sat/sun...

baby will be fine.. LOL, New steering cables, new lower unit seal, new water pump...Lighter check book.

[dan2957]

Hey Dietz,

You may have posted this somewhere but I can find what time you will be at Cabelas this weekend.

[DeBo101]

Well I am fairly happy with how the 2006 bass season went. I didn't spend near enough time chasing smallies but found plenty of the bucketmouths. Only goal I really had was to get a Minnesota 6 - had two at 5lb 14oz (OH SO CLOSE).

I spent a total of 593 hours fishing for all species.

193 of those were spent chasing bass

340 Bass caught LMB and SMB

1.76 fish per hour

8 over 5lbs only 1 over 6lbs

Biggest in MN = 5lb 14oz

Biggest in SD = 6lb 10oz

Caught bass in 4 different states MN,SD,ND,IA

Fished 51 different lakes and rivers total and managed 9 gamefish species.

First one caught on March 11th In Iowa

Last one caught Oct 3rd A lot closer to home

All in all a pretty good bass season. Had a terrible walleye year until I went home for Thanksgiving and did a very good job of padding the stats. Musky fishing - spent over half my hours chasing those critters and I won't be posting those dismal results on the net anytime soon .

Here's a pic of one of the 5lb 14oz. It's kinda of a neat self timed pic cause I managed to get a flock of geese in the background next to my right ear.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Dan- I'll be there from store open on saturday(8am I think) till when I get to tired to stand any more.. usually about 6-7pm?.. and usually take a lunch break around 1-2? Then I'm ther efrom open(10am) till about 4-5 pm sunday? and often dont take a lunch on sunday?` depends on how busy it is... would love to meet up with you!

[Fever]

Very impressive guys... Debo101, I'm guessing we fish alot of the same puddles since your out of Winstead. I ended up with similar sizes on my largies... local of course. 5 lb 12 oz was my best. A few were caught while I was in my waders sneeking out while I was supposed to be painting in the summer that measured around 21 inches but no scale... But all in all a very good year around these parts. We'll have to meet up sometime and swap stories.

Fever

[DeBo101]

Fever,

Sounds good. I'm always game for chasing bass in the area.

[Hodgie]

Well I don't have much for totals but I dedicated my season to catching smallmouth. Before this year I had never caught a smallmouth. I ended up with 3 right at the 5LB mark also many 4lbs and bigger. I caught 3 largemouth in the 19in range. All in all it was a very successful Year I cant wait till next year. I think I will keep track of the fish. It seems like a good way keep track of the fishing trends based on the collected data. Its going to be a long winter. Here are my 3 biggest

[dan2957]

Holy Smokes those are some toad Smallies!

Great job Hodgie. Looks like you figuered them out pretty quick. Good luck next season and Thanks for sharing the pictures.

[SluggoMaster]

Unless I get another trip on the river for smallies, this is what I've got thus far:

324 - largemouth bass - 2.33 lbs avg - 15.65 inch avg

129 - smallmouth bass - 2.05 lbs avg - 15.53 inch avg