New Smallmouth Leader! 20.25"

John Mott caught a nice 20.25" Smallmouth Bass on Mille Lacs over the weekend! The fish weighed in at 4 lbs and 6 oz. You can tell by the second photo why these fish are such strong fighters, look at that giant tail. Compare that to the next Largemouth you catch. 

Also to add is a Josh Foust with a good smallmouth catch. Josh said he didn't measure this one but it's still a nice one to add to the board.

New Crappie Leader! 13.75"

Matt Rabe caught quite a few nice Crappies over the Memorial Day weekend. This was the biggest of them at 13.75" which takes the lead! This fish was caught right off the dock at his cabin in northern Minnesota. I've seen quite a few up shallow over the past week too. Who knows how much longer the shallow bite will last with these warm temps.

Crappie on the Board!

This is not a giant by any means but it's on the board! I caught this while out fishing a local lake with my son. This was caught on a small 3" Keitech swimbait and a 1/8 oz jighead. 

I hope everyone has hit the water by now! Just a reminder to put a tape measure and something with the word on it in your boat. I was actually out on Mille Lacs Monday and caught a really nice smallmouth. The bump board in the photo above doesn't go beyond 16" so I wasn't able to measure it. So remember to get that stuff in the boat!

Good luck all!

2018 Contest Underway!

Here we go!

We are ready to kick off the 2018 Big Fish of the Year Contest! The primary and secondary fish species have been selected and you should have been sent an email with those species listed. I'm going to leave them off the website for now because there are still a few interested people that I'd like to refer to the website but per the idea of the contest I'd like them to commit before knowing the species.

Word of the Year.

The word of the year is supposed to be a random word but we usually pick a category and then ask someone to name something in that category. This year the category was saltwater fish. The fish named was Mahi-mahi which is now the word of the year! Remember to put something with the word "Mahi-mahi" in your boat or tackle box!

Rule Changes

There were a couple of minor rules changes this year. All rules can be found by clicking above for clicking this link. One was how the species is selected. In the past the previous year's species was removed from the lottery selection process. So for example last year's fish species was Walleye, so walleye would be removed from the lottery. This year we decided to include the previous year's fish species but with reduced odds. So this year walleye was included in the lottery but only had half the odds as the other species. We did the same for the secondary species. This gave the odds that we would not have a repeat species but with the possibility it could happen. We felt this was a good option, but I am always interested in feedback if you like this idea or not.

The main rule change this year was to include Wisconsin as a legal fishing for the contest. We have a number of people who have cabins in Wisconsin and we appreciate participation and I just don't really see any downside.

Good luck!

That about wraps things up. Remember we are always looking for more participants in the contest, so if you know anyone interested feel free to pitch them on the idea. Remember we like to keep everyone in the dark on the species until they decide to participate so people don't just cherry pick their favorite species. 

Good luck this season everyone!

Congratulations Mark!

 

Big congratulations to the 2017 Big Fish of the year winner Mark Marah for this giant 27.25" Walleye! This fish was caught on Mille Lacs in late May / early June. It was the bigger of a pair of nices ones caught. Mark was fishing a bottom bouncer in 24 ft of water. This Mark's second win in the contest.

The bonus fish winner was yours truly with a 30.25" Northern Pike caught while prefishing a bass tournament on Chisago Lake in early August. The fish  bit on a deep diving crankbait off an extended rock point.

With the conclusion of the 2017 contest it's time to think about the 2018 contest. As usual we will take the next month or so to round up all interested contestants. Once we close registration we will pick and announce the 2018 fish species and bonus fish. We will also take this time to consider any changes to the contest, opinions are welcome. Please contact me if you have any ideas.

Thanks everyone for participating