Trophy tales: Fishing from a kayak, angler lands nice northern
June 3, 2015 at 2:28AM
Daniel Johnson, West St. Paul • 28-inch northern • Pickerel Lake
I was fishing for bass from my kayak in Pickerel Lake in Lilydale Park, casting a ⅛-ounce jig and a night crawler. After feeling a nibble, which I assumed was a panfish, I let the line go limp, then set the hook. Despite a tight drag, the fish ripped off yards of line before turning toward my kayak and diving under, snapping my rod. I hand-lined the fish in, and because I never use a net, I gently lifted it out of the water for this photo, then released it. The blood is mine (a cut finger), not the fish's.
NICE TROUT
Dennis Ouyang of Roseville caught this 15-inch brown trout on the Rush River. "As with most of the larger fish on the Rush this year, it's a football — they have larger girths than normal,'' said Ouyang's guide, Ben Carlson of Jolly Fly Fishing.
FIRST CAST
"Much to her surprise, my 6-year-old daughter, Harlow, caught this 17-inch largemouth bass off the dock on her first cast!" reported her dad, Steve Berger of Excelsior. She was fishing Lake Minnetonka using a leech and white jig with yellow twister tail. "We released the fish," dad said.
TROPHY TALES
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None of the boat’s occupants, two adults and two juveniles, were wearing life jackets, officials said.
