Weekend Update

[Chaddjurg]

My father and I had decided to take a long weekend up to the cities for a long weekend of fishing. We stayed at a campground called Bakers Park just east of Maple Plain (near Lake Independence). We left Rochester around 11:30 and got to our destination close to 2. With the tent up, and the boat ready to roar...we decided to head out for a relaxing evening of fishing on Lake Independence. We only fished for a couple of hours...but boy did we have the luck. The fish were mostly within the top 2 feet of water. We each caught some massive bass; some of the biggest bass that either of us had caught. My dad also landed a 6ish lb northern (with the help of my netting skills). Needless to say...we thought that this weekend was off to a great start. Saturday came around and we decided to try the little fishing hole of Lake Minnetonka. This was our second trip up to the cities fishing on these two lake; and the fish were so hard to find on Minnetonka. The views around the lake were a lot better than the fishing. So, in the afternoon we decided to pack up the boat and head to Lake Waconia. There we had a little luck. We each caught some fish at both lakes, but nothing like the night before. We decided to leave the lake around 6....Sunday came with a heavy fog that seemed to coat everything in a misty haze. We both decided that we should try out Independence for the day since we had the best luck there so far. It wasn't such a bad turn out I would like to say. The fish weren't jumping in the boat, but one fish was worth the wait. It was about 10:30 and my fingers were about to fall off my hands because they were so cold....we were geared toward bass again and nailing the shorelines with everything we could find in our tackle boxes. It seemed that the fish like the white spinner baits...so we stuck with them for the most of the day. Well....there was a crane on a dock and it flew over the next area that we were going to fish, something in the water made a little swoosh (neither of us thought anything of it). Well, my dad through his lure between the two docks, and I saw this massive fish make a bee line right towards it. BAM!!! his lure got nailed by this monster and right away...I knew what it was. I huge musky had just engolfed his spinnerbait and my dad was beside himself. I grabbed the net and threw it in the water every chance I got when my dad was able to muscle it near the boat. It jumped in the air twice....and I swear it jumped atleast 3 feet in the air each time. After about 10 minutes of fighting it and pulling it from under the boat..I was able to get half of the fish in the net and scooped it up and placed it in the boat. We took a few measurements, weighed it and snapped a few pictures and let her go. It measured out to be what we could guess to be around 43 inches (the tape only went to 40) and weighed over 20 lbs (scale only went to 20...and the needle was burried). I would like to post some of the fish for everyone to see. If someone could let me know how to do it, I have the pics on my digital camera still.

Lake Independence has been such a great lake to fish, and it's only a couple of hours away. The campground was beautifully maintained. Warm showers, excellent facilities just a wonderful place to relax, fish, and spend some quality time with the people you care about. If anyone would like some more info on the place, I would be more than willing to share my information.

Chad

[Tyler Holm]

Try this link...

How to Post Pictures on FM

Looking forward to seeing the photos. Sounds like a great couple of days on the water. Congrats.

PS. If all else fails on posting your pictures and they are within the forum policy guidelines, you can email them to me and I'll get the posted for ya.

[Dan Thiem]

Nice post Chad. Times like that make memories that last forever. Thanks for sharing.

[Down to Earth]

Baker's Park Reserve is an awesome campground facility. Our family went up there for a weekend in June and really enjoyed it. My time was wrapped up with a half iron triathlon so I didn't get to fish at all. Would like to return next year for a few weekends. Glad you had good success with the fish.

Andy

[Chaddjurg]

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k214/chaddjurg/?action=view&current=DSC01943.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch2

The Musky!!

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k214/chaddjurg/?action=view&current=DSC01930.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch12

One of the bass that I caught

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k214/chaddjurg/?action=view&current=DSC01928.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch14

The northern that was caught

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k214/chaddjurg/?action=view&current=DSC01927.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch15

another bass that my dad caught