More from Pipestone Lodge..

We're still working on the full report. Here's a few shots in the meantime. Enjoy.

We'll be right back...

Check back on monday morning June 25th. We have 1 week of Canada and 1 bottle of absinthe. Cheers! We are outta here!


Until then....this ought to keep you busy.

A slow night. And a bunch of B.S. from the weatherman.

Last night there was supposed to be some wicked storms rolling thru. Never happened. We thought the fishing was going to be red hot. That never happened either. Seems that the fish knew the weather wasn't going to change that much (ie. no storms) so they never really got too worked up. But Ken and I pressed on for 2 hours while hiking the rocks for over a mile, casting, casting, casting, changing baits, casting, casting, changing baits, casting...you get the idea.
Ken was able to get on a pretty good sunfish pattern and got a bunch of the really big (1/2-1lb) sunfish on a 4" Senko/1/8oz Slider Head Jig combo. He got bit off once by something he had no chance against I hooked into 5 fish total. 2 of which I never landed..one of those was an absolute monster...probably something with teeth. Possibly the same fish that took Ken for a ride. Of the 5 fish I hooked 4 hit a Charlie Megabait. The monster I lost charged a Lunker City Salad Spoon.

All the hooked fish were within 2' of the shoreline in water 2' or less with rock/rubble and weeds.

Here's the last fish of the evening just before we called it a night.

23". Not bad. Now we're shottin' for 24"

So there ya have it. Find an hour before dark. Find a shoreline with some rocks. Throw a topwater or a subsurface bait like the Megabait...and possibly get the biggest smallmouth bass of your life. It's just that easy.

On another note; As you have read many times we fish in some pretty unconventional areas. The following pictures are fish that have been caught out of a ditch. Yes...a ditch. Depth is 1-3' deep. The ditch is no wider than 20'. The ditches we fish are waterways that lead from one lake or pond or river to another. No one would even THINK of fishing them. They look like crap. They are mud bottomed and other than the occasional carp you might see, there's nothing visible that says "fish here!". BUT..they connect waterways...and that's the key. The fish HAVE to use them. They have no choice. When the shad run the bass HAVE to follow, even if it's in a mud bottom ditch that runs under a road.
Ditch fish. Enjoy.

Topwater..topwater..and,oh yeah, um..TOPWATER!

Cast along shorelines. The hour before dark is prime time right now. Zara puppies, Chug bugs, Buzzbaits.
Proof? You want proof? Ok..here's 20 inches of proof courtesy of Wilson swimming in 2' of water about 5' from shore at sundown.


I ran across this ol' girl in my shoreline travels over the weekend. Sad to see something of this size dying, but I guess she had her time and did her job for years and years...all 28" of her.


In other news:
We have 11 days to go til the entire Customfish Team heads north to Pipestone Lake in Ontario. Stay tuned for that report...and hide the children when you read it.
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