More on Mille Lacs: The curses have not completely stopped. Got my truck stuck out about 80 feet in the lake in the Sand off Malmo. The other guy got his boat off the trailer, why can't I? Stupid. Not too often the tow truck guy's wife takes pics, embarassing.

Oh well, we've also caught some fish. Trying to cut it up and figure it out.

Firsts of 2006:

First Suick fish
First figure 8 fish
First Jig fish
First "Big" fish (48")
First musky caught alone

If you fish long enough you'll get your chance sooner or later. Mine came on Cass lake in mid-September.

My Dad was supposed to come on our fall trip and couldn't make it at the last minute, so I'm by myself for 3 long days of fishing.

Day 1: Lost my new map, very windy, no confidence in any of my spots.

Day 2: Still windy, just wears me out. Screwed around for half a day and decided to head across the lake to a big weedbed I'd fished before. On the way, happened to run into a sand break that didn't look anything like the map. Stopped to fish, didn't see anything at first. I kept an eye on that spot. Lots of people fished it, but only about halfway out. Well I had no other good spots to try so I go back and decide I'm spending my last hour or so of light there. I fire a cast up on the sand break, engage the reel, and the water explodes. The musky was BIG and must have hit it running. Right away, out of the water. Reminded me of marlin or something that dives out of the waves 3 or 4 times in row. The fish had a huge head and she was shaking it the whole time in and out of the water - I could see my bucktail stuck in her massive jaws. After she stopped porpusing she shot out toward deeper water. I probably should have changed the angle of my rod but she was going so fast I couldn't keep up and she was gone. I was heartbroken and it was dark.

Day 3: Most people left on predictions of bad weather, which didn't pan out until late. 3rd day or strong South winds with weather coming in - they GOTTA go sometime today.

I keep working my same spot peridocally, watch other boats pull up and quit halfway through the spot. I'm fishing in the afternoon and come to find there is a nice little weedbed on the end of the break right where it intersects another break, forming a T.

In a kind of anti-climactic way, and nice fish nails my bucktail halfway out. I'm pretty excited as it's nice fish, definitely a personal best. I had my net extended at my feet, go to dip her, and don't quite get her all in. Of course, my bucktail hangs in the net, a couple flops later, and she's gone. WOW. It can't get any worse.

I fish a few other spots, then back to it - I know there's other fish here. About 6:30 that night, the girl I hooked the previous day follows me in. I'm positive because of the size of the fish and she had mark in the corner of her mouth where I hooked her the day before. (Sidenote: after catching my PB 48", this fish was much larger.)

Needless to say that got me pumped up. 5 minutes later, I get another nice follow, not a 50, but a quality fish that turns away at the boat. Not 5 minutes after that, I get a close fast follow. This fish was a real tanker, a fat pig. It all happened in slow motion. The boat was moving along at a good clip since it was windy, so casting at the front of the boat meant I was bringing my bucktail in from the rear of the boat parallel to the side. Right in front of me, this fish eats my bait from the back. I'm thinking "Don't forget to free spool." Unfortunantly, I was too surprized to get a good hookset, which I would have been in perfect position for. Instead, I kept leading the fish, who now had my whole bucktail in her mouth. She followed my rod tip right out of the water and splashed down inches from my trolling motor. I don't think I've ever been so dumbfounded in my entire life. In the last 24 hours I had lost 3 of the biggest fish I had ever had up.

Day 4 brought the weather we had been waiting on, but I learned my lesson. Cass lake owes me and I'll be back on my spot next September to cash in. What an amazing lake.

What I learned:

Set the hook first and foremost.
I am my own worst netman.
Pay attention to rod angle (back toward the fish).
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS search out a spot - there's things there that will surprize you.

Bad things that happened at Mille Lacs this year:

1. Almost lost truck and rig in the lake.
2. Broke roomates hand on trailer crank when I slammed on the breaks to prevent #1 from happening.
3. Lost glasses after jumping in after a rod fully clothed with phone and wallet in pocket. Dropped keys in lake at the launch.
4. Launched at the WRONG place and ended up breaking ALOT of ice to troll all day without catching anything.
5. Drove 1 1/2 hours to Garrison only to have a partner freak out at wind and waves when we got out on the lake - left after making 3 casts.
6. Friends trailer poped a tire on the way up - spare was flat. Left us with 3 hours to fish.
7. Backed my trailer too far in and fell off the ramp, had to get wet and loop a rope around the bottom of the trailer and lift up while it was pulled out.

Good things: PB 48 inches on a "different" spot that most people don't fish. Maybe the Mille Lacs curse is broken for 2007.

I've come to the conclusion that nobody around me really cares to hear my obsessive ramblings about musky fishing so I'm glad I finally found a place to put them.

I moved to Minnesota almost 2 years ago to fish muskies. We've always vacationed up here and since I was 10 I knew I'd live here someday. It's awesome to be here.

Biggest event in my life so far was getting my own boat back in August. Alumacraft Magnum 165 - perfect condition. I've got alot of thoughts to organize and get down - more to follow.