monti FM gathering

[Royce Aardahl]

yup I here walleye is better cut bait for cats than those smallies.

[greggles]

boy I look good holding that 22incher, eyeguys ruler was off alittle. what a great time, perfect weather and the fish were spunky too. the best was the 17 that had me under the boat and was jumping ten feet on the other side. I'm up for seconds.

[river rat316]

you guys got it all wrong the muskie makes the best cut bait. Just make sure you cpr all those cats

[Royce Aardahl]

greggles you would have had a 22 incher if you would have held 2 of those 11 inchers you got nose to nose

[greggles]

hey eyeguy how do you post pics I got an account on the website you said buy I forgot how you transfer the pics

[BigMike]

Wow, what a perfect day for a smallie magnet gathering! The weather was perfect, fishing and talking with other FM'ers is always a blast...oh yeah, the smallies were cooperating and made for a nice touch on the day.

I'd like to present the "smallie magnet" title (on borrow from me until next year ) with his 19incher on Saturday. Great pics of those beauties eyeguy - I'm glad you were able to make it out after all. We are definitely going to have to do this again next year - so that I can win the title back!

As BLB mentioned, we had 7 guys out fishing and another came down to just check it out beforehand (Marblei) to put some faces to the "alter-egos" of FM. It was great meeting all of you and seeing familar faces from some previous outings.

As is the case whenever you get out with other guys who share the same passion, you have stories to tell afterwards. Some of my favorites have been touched on by BLB already - nailing a boulder at full throttle in HT's jet boat, Hawgtide yelling at BLB "SHEET, SHEET, SHEET" (BLB & I thought he was trying to swear, but he was trying to get us to see BLB's score card just fell overboard - we retreaved it, but we were just teasing BLB - no sheet no record of his nice fish, LOL!). All but one guy hooked into at least one 17.5 inch smallie. HT was wild with the buzz baits: almost pierce my ear (milli-inches!) and he snagged the biggest rough fish on the river...BLB! LOL!!!!!! Just kidding BLB!!

BLB & HT - it was great fishing with you guys in the jet - although I am bitter, BLB came in with the "top secret bait" after every massive blowup I had and stole several of my monster bass LOL J/K - you guys are great fishermen! And the list of good stories goes on...

If you can't tell, a great time was had by everyone and I can't wait to do it again. The fishing was off and on all day but when it was all said and done (I reviewed the data sheets) most everyone had solid numbers & quality of fish from up and down the river. Even the guys wading got into a couple of nicer fish. Here is a picture of RiverRat's 17.5" smallie:

It was nice meeting everyone and I hope to see you guys out there again at next year's event! Maybe we could get a river league or something in the years to come.

HT - I left my blue shirt in your boat/storage compartment. I guess that means we're going to have to get out one more time before the end of the season so I can pick it up . j/k. Drop me an email and we'll figure a pick up out sometime. I'm in no hurry - unless you are.

LOL about the cut bait jokes guys - you had to be there...

[This message has been edited by BigMike (edited 08-29-2004).]

[Aquaman01]

Awesome!!! I'm really glad that ya'll had a great time on The Father Of Rivers! Greg creamed a boulder? Ouch. At least the jets ricochet.
I landed an oak dining set and a sofa/sofa pair. Not my best day out...but I wasn't skunked, either

Next year we make it an official gathering. If ya'll want to plan it up and do a fee/prize/sponsor arrangement, lemme know. We can make it happen.

[email protected]

Rob

[Royce Aardahl]

Thanks for the smallie magnet title BM. I'll do my best to live up to the resposibilities that have been thrust upon me. I am really looking forward to defending the title next year! I should have never given up the spot to BLB, he'll probably go up there and spook all the trophys. wink, wink. I like the way we did the 2 get togethers this summer. Informal and cheap. Time for me to focus on the mighty whitetail so the rod and real get about a week and a half off.

[BigMike]

Eyeguy - LOL. And I'll take you up on that challenge. I miss the title already! .

Aqua - I'll shoot you an email in the next day or so just to touch base on a possible next year event. I would love to make this more of an official event. I think Saturday's format went really well. Each man for himself, but partnered up for length verification. And digi-cams for fun pics! Great friendly competition! We had a great time in our boat laugh but still had that competitive drive to catch the biggest fish!

Speaking of some more fun pics, here are some shots from HT's camera (BLB, HT, & me):

My 17.5'' - Note BLB's thoughts on my fish!

The group of guys that showed up (RiverRat, you just missed the picture - sorry man)

BLB with a nice smallie

BLB with another - man it looks like you've got a load in your pants - oh that's right - you did! LOL inside joke!

HT with a solid fish! BLB with his show of appreciation one more time! LOL

You guys crack me up! I had a great outing and look forward to meeting again!

[Mark Christianson]

BM
I "stole" your fish????

Its "River Rules" man!!!
It specifically states in the River Rules, that there are no rules!

All my pigs were legit fish. I am an opportunistic fisherman. If the opportunity is there for ME to catch a fish. I will try to catch it.
I guess I don't have to tell you that though.............

Although, I should at least say thanks for calling up all those fish for me. LOL

[wheelierida]

Hey nice fish,

Did anyone catch any eyes?

[BigMike]

Wheel - actually the first fish in our boat was a nice eye. Of course BLB immediately made a rule that anyone who catches a walleye gets a 2inch deduction from your biggest bass. But that was the only eye we had all day - thank goodness, a 18inch fish might have finally ended up an 8inch fish LOL.

BLB - it specifically states in the "river rules" that BLB is no longer allowed to make up rules! LOL. I had a great time hearing you and HT go back and forth with all the new rules! Great times!

[This message has been edited by BigMike (edited 08-30-2004).]

[Kevin Turner]

Looks Like an awsome day!! Wish I coulda made the trip. KT

[HawgTide]

Kevin, can you tell where BigMike caught that fish? It looks like your 'hood.

BM & BLB(BigLoadBa$$), That wasn't a boulder I hit, it was the bottom of the river! The dang thing is drying up!

BM, yep, you're gonna have to come up one evening or weekend to get your shirt. It will be on my boat on the river.

BLB, you left your rainsuit. Looks like you'll have to come by too.

[This message has been edited by HawgTide (edited 08-30-2004).]

[Royce Aardahl]

greggles, after you paste the properties in the message type in after the address and type in before the address. if all else fails I can pop over and show you.

[BigMike]

HT - LOL - BLB = BigLOADba$$!!! !!! That was hilarious! My plan is working perfectly: leave the shirt in the boat so I have to come up again and pick it up j/k. Thanks HT for the trip and we'll hook up one more time sometime soon to pick up the shirt & some smallies. I'll push when we get stuck!

KT - it was a great outing, maybe next year - we waved as we floated by.

Greggles, I just figured out the picture thing too, it's really easy. Type . To get the webaddress of your pic - go to your site, click the photo you want, right click - open properties, copy web address from properties and then paste in the formula above. Have you had a chance to check out those wading boots yet?

[sakman]

Sounds like a really great day! I had planned on being there until that little puncture wound I got in the river Thursday night nearly put me in the hospital. The medical staff that treated me needs to add an FMer so that there can be some understanding regarding the importance of events like this! Instead they told me rest on Saturday and do nothing except watch baseball and eat chips.

We did get out Sunday though, and boy are you guys lucky I was laid up! My biggest was 19.25 with a total in excess of 20. Is there any way the title can be contested for medical reasons? I don't fish that stretch as often as many of you, but this was by far the hottest bite I've run into there.

Now a word of wisdom for all. If you ever run into anything in the river that results in your being bloodied get out of the water, make sure you are up-to-date on your tetanus shot and clean that sucker. You don't want to have to end up like I did on Friday night.

[BigMike]

Sak sorry to hear about the foot - no contesting the title this time... the "river rules" clearly stat e (for some reason you can't put that word in without being censored - weird)... j/k. Maybe next year.

I'm glad to hear you had a good outing. I think everyone's success may also have been attributed (or at least enhanced) by a couple of reasons: low water conditions and the full moon cycle came over the weekend. Our hottest times were right on with the lunar schedule for Saturday. I suspect the bite will slow down over the next week and then start to pick up again. But who cares about that - if you can get out fishing, a day fishing is better than nothing!

[This message has been edited by BigMike (edited 08-30-2004).]

[EBass]

Those pics are hilarious! BLB with the thumbs down on every fish he didn't catch - LMAO - Typical BLB.

I haven't caught a big smallie in months, oh wait last year! Sheesh - Oh well the fall time is prime time.

Get stories to read to. So who's the one that wrapped fishing line all around this time BM did you leave your mark? LOL

[Royce Aardahl]

BM you gotta spend more time fishun and less time typin so you can catch more and bigger fish than BLB.

[HawgTide]

BM, how did you make your fish look bigger than mine?

Great day of fun. Definitely something to build on. We'll plan early for next year so we'll have a big turn out. Possibly have a party afterwards.

[Royce Aardahl]

Another ? for BM. Where do you get all those lttle smillies?????????

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<>< <>< <>< <>< gotta love the mighty mississippi!!

[BigMike]

EB - those pictures are hilarious with BLB giving the thumbs down. He is just made because the smallie actual took the buzzbait and he wasn't able to follow up with his "secret bait" to steal the fish LOL! We'll get out to hit some big smallies real soon.

HT - those pics came off your camera! LOL. You gotta learn the art of posses with your fish... two ways have always produced nice pics for me: first is thumb your fish and hold him with as straight as arm as possible out in front of you (it makes your fish look nice & big). The other way is to hold it like I did in the last picture and support the belly. The key to this pose is to show as little amount of finger as possible without hurting the fish. And then hold it out in front of you. Those two poses really show off your catch to it's fullest!

I'm already looking forward to next year's event! A BBQ at the pavillion after a good day on the river sounds great. I'm still amazed we had 8 guys show (including marblei). That's a great start! Maybe we could do it a bit earlier in the summer (early july) in hopes that the river will be a little higher and a few more guys could get their boats out. The river is always a gamble, but the way it was on Saturday - it was more of a given you would nail something hard!

Eyeguy - for smilies, when you post a message, to the left of the type box there is a "smilies legend", click on that and it shows you all the codes for smilies

[This message has been edited by BigMike (edited 08-30-2004).]

[Kevin Turner]

Yep, Looks like my camper may be in the backround. You have no idea how hard it is to be 600 miles away, while you guys are pounding MY FISH. LOL
BTW, I didn't know you could catch smallies on those silly BUZZ BAITS. What's up with that??

[Royce Aardahl]

ok, that was easy! I noticed that BLB is getting good at holding the fish real close to the camera

[greggles]

you know guys we could have crashed the 2 year old birthday party and top off the day with cake and ice cream, oh well, I am looking forward to next year and a big ol pig. I was just getting warmed up. hey eyeguy if I can add fish together I am going to put a 16 and a 12 for a new state record. hey now do I win guys.

[greggles]

you guys see a smallie like this before its a 20incher from lake vermillion

its olive phase

[Royce Aardahl]

By golly you are a quick learner! Pretty fish no matter what color! I remember you telling me when we were fishing, and you were stealing my worms how you held a 20 incher out and took it's picture. Must be the one. That was cool when we had the double on and your rod was under one side of the boat and the smally was doing back flips on the other side. Mine was ripping line off up river so at least they didn't get tangled. Good thing nobody was videoing us cuz we musta looked outa control.

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<>< <>< <>< <>< gotta love the mighty mississippi!!

[BigMike]

Greggles - better yet we could have crashed the 2yr birthday party and then crashed the wedding reception... that park was hoppin' on Saturday! Cool 20incher. It sure looks a little different - Sure looks a lot like the exotic leopard bass to me! LOL.

Sounds like you and eyeguy had a great time on the river! That's what FM is about - meeting other guys that share the same passion for fishing. I've said it before - I've now met and fished with probably a dozen guys from FM and had a great time & lots of stories to share by the end of the day! It's good to hear you guys had such a great time.

So Eyeguy, how does it feel to be the smallie magnet. Do you feel the pressure yet? Just wait until next year's event! . I'm taking your advice and slowing down the typing today - only because I'm at an off-site project all day today. So this is my one day hiatus - to bad it's not because I'm fishing

[tinman122]

Okay, as much as it may damage what little reputation I have left (it think it ended in 1972) I will have to admit that I out of all the FMers out that day failed to reach the vaunted 17" mark. However there probably needs to be another Smallie Magnet rule involked regarding using a fly rod. You guys have no idea how hard it is to throw and retrieve a spinnerbait with 1 of those things. And senkos?? Forget it. If you can't work out a length adjustment then maybe using only artificals weighing less than 1/16 of an ounce??

Just needed to plead my case, it was a great time, really enjoyed the company and stories afterward. Riverrat did divulge another great looking spot to try again.

If I can work out the pattern and find supplies I think I'll work on making some of those rod holders as an inducement to attend the event next year - let you know how it going. Need a winter project to carry me through hard water season.