"Unlucky" Friday the 13th!

[hanson]

"Unlucky" Friday the 13th

Seams like just fishing on Friday the 13th is a risky endeavour. Couple that unlucky day, with really low water levels, and you'd think we were asking for trouble.

Darren (Dtro) and I hit the river this weekend hard in hopes of turning up a good pattern. It was early on Friday night so we had the cutbaits out for awhile hoping to tag an early channel cat or two. And guess what? We did!

Booyah! This channel cat just flirted with the 14lb mark on my scale. Who says you have to fish the Red River to catch channels like this. Wow! I've said it before... lucky bastard.

The cutbaits were getting some pretty good action although they weren't fully committing to doubling over a circle hook. A few played with my bait, a couple came close to hooking up, and then I got a thump with a real, real slow load on my cutbait. Darren yelled "He's there!" Dang right he was and it felt good! After Darren pulled in his 14lb channel, I thought there was no way we were going to get another nice one. And I was right, we weren't! Flathead! And a solid one on top of that!

Here's my 16lb, daytime, cutbait flathead. We're breaking the rules now.

As dark approached, we fired up the grill, and I missed plenty more action on the cutbait. I was really close to hooking up another 5-6 fish right before dark but it just wouldn't happen. Oh so close! You gotta have patience with the circle hook and I guess I didn't have quite enough.

After we had eaten our grilled chicken breast sandwiches, MMMMMMmmmmmm!!

Darren hooked up with another fish on cutbait, another nice little flathead too!

That was about all she wrote for Friday night, "Unlucky" Friday the 13th! It was late, and it was a painfully slow ride back upriver. Low water and LOADS of wood equal a careful trip, and we made it in about 3am.

Even "Unluckier" Saturday the 14th

A good morning's sleep, we're regrouped, and back on the prowl. Unlike Friday night, we decided to cook a little earlier Saturday night. And it was a grand slam!

Just check out these New York Strips. Yummy!

- Its always a good idea to protect the boat carpet with your cutbait cutting board!

Thats super secret flavoring there! LOL! Rachel Ray ain't got nothing on us!

Not too long after we finished the steaks, the channel cat action took off for me! In a big way!

13 1/2 lbs right off the bat! That fished just upped my MN River personal best by 2 1/2lbs, which I just upped last week too!

That would not be the end of it though... 3 more channel cats found the boat with this 10 pounder being the next biggest.

All in all, not too shabby of a weekend! Wish we could have found more flathead action but its hard to complain when you put 3 channel cats over 10lbs in the boat when you aren't fishing the Red River. 10lbs from the MN River is a very, very nice fish!

It was a dilemma for sure to keep fishing that cutbait rather than switching to live, but it worked so we stuck with it!

[Shack]

Once again, very, very, very nice fish guys!

[DTro]

So at what point do we admit that the chicken and steak were really what we were using for cutbait?

Actually that $20 bill in steaks almost turned out to be cutbait when we ran out of propane. We got lucky and they were done just perfect as it ran out. Good thing too cause I don't have Hank Hill on speed dial.

Fun time Hanson!

[rushing]

This is how we do just about every night we fish.

[harvey lee]

Boy, the heck with fishing and lets go eating, that looks good Rob.

[Lowblazah]

Rushing,

After seeing that, I'm quite eager to take a trip to your neck of the woods and do some fishing "mankato shore style"!!!

My brother in law lives in Eagle lake anyway...we need to hook up soon.

[rushing]

Yeah we'll have to hook up here soon.

[aanderud]

Oh man, after working til 915 tonight and basically skipping supper, I want to go fishing with Rob. I should have driven South instead of North after work.

[Shamu]

Wow those are some awesome fish and meals. I will have my boat ready for August first I hope.