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| Should this site be used for fishing reports?
Purple Skeeter |
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Location: Menasha, WI | I enjoy the reports and I try to do my part. I haven't posted much lately because I was fishing in MN and the honey-do list need some attention. I'll be on the water Sunday morning. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | I wa out tonight from 2 to 7 pm. We boated 27 walleyes anywhere from 12 inches to 23 inches. We had several Saugers anywhere from 14 to 17 inches and of course the usual goats and great whites. We are runbning our #5 Shad raps 75 feet back, and #7 shad raps at 80 feet back. I also was running CD5 Wally Divers at 50 feet back. We are running at 2.0 MPH. I have boated 152 walleyes since Wednesday morning. I have never seen these fish so active before. I did have one fish that was pretty badly covered with "The Virus". I will try and post a pic, hope it works.
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| AXL,
I also got one 18 inch Walleye on 6/13 that looked much like yours. It was the first Walleye that I got like that, but had one Northern in Poygan that had much of the same markings. I put both of them back in the water. Don't know if that is the right thing to do ? |
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Location: Neenah Wi | Just a hint to some who may have second thoughts on keeping these fish.I would think it would be in the best interest of the fishery to NOT throw a suspect fish back into the water to infect other fish.Yes it is here but why help it along by throwing these fish back?There is nothing wrong with eating these fish as we have probably been eating them without even knowing.This is not some NEW virus only new to this area.If you have reservations about eating them then bury them but I would think it would not be wise to put them back. |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | I would like to know which fisheries biologist diagnosed this fish with "The Virus"? I've handled and looked at many fish with similar marking to these over the last 10 years. Just because it looks suspicious does not mean the fish suffers from VHS.
There are way too many on-the-water biologists out there reporting walleyes with VHS. I listened to Channel 68 yesterday while I was out and I'm guessing I heard reference to VHS as it relates to caught fish at least 6 times in 4 hrs. If everyone was catching fish with VHS, don't you think we'd be seeing hundreds to thousands of dead floating walleyes with VHS?
It's time to stop and think for a minute: don't call every fish with suspicious markings on it a fish with "The Virus". |
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Location: Neenah Wi | Jerry Here is all I was saying.Why put a fish back that is a suspect fish that MAY have the virus?And this virus will kill fish when the waters cool and the fish are under stress.This is according to the reading I have done.An infected fish Is going to be a carrier of the virus weather it dies or lives on and can and will infect other fish.So you tell me should we be throwing a suspect fish back to possibly infect others or keep and eat it?I would vote for the keep and eat it myself.Better safe than sorry.I know you can not be sure a fish has this virus without testing it but would it not be safe to say this fish in the picture has the outward appearance of the virus and would be one for testing or eating?This virus is going to run its course and the fish will build up immunity over time but I hope it will not be as bad as some predict.Sorry PS i should be putting this on another thread.
Edited by Risor39 6/17/2007 8:37 AM
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| I have been on the water every day since june 9th, I have had at least 1 fish every day with these "markings" on them. Either there are a lot of "injured" walleyes in winny right now, or "the virus" is a problem. Some fish when handled, the blood is dripping off of them. I am not a fish biologist, but my understanding is that when the water temp. gets cooler this may be a problem. Guess we will find out if they start floating this fall or in spring. These fish are also losing there scales in the "infected" area, that is not good! Ihave cleaned several of these and meat looks just fine, no blood in the meat, must bleed just through the skin. |
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | DNR says they are good to eat. Per the other thread, please do not waste them by burying them. Remove them and eat them. Unfortunately no one knows how much help this will be but one less fish to infect others can only be a good thing.
I agree that we will find out if they start floating this fall or in spring. If what has happened on other lakes is an indication, I'm not as worried about the walleye population as I am with the baitfish. But I'm just another layman worried about the fisheries.
As I have indicated in prior posts, some may speculate next year that it's not as bad as it appears because although we may see massive die-offs in the spring of sheapshead and other species, fishing may actually be unbelievable because of the lack of forage and/or competition of forage. But again, that is just one person's possible scenario. I truly hope that I am wrong.
Edited by Sunshine 6/17/2007 9:06 AM
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Location: Neenah Wi | Ok this is my last post on this thread.As sunshine has said the baitfish die off would be a real killer for us.And as I read the reports the fishing is just fantastic which leads me to believe this may be happening already.Granted there are alot of fish in the system right now but could it be happening now?Earlier this spring while fishing off the lighthouse I noticed more sheephead kind of floundering at the surface.If the older ones are dying what is happening to the younger ones we don't see as easily?And as they die the eyes are eating these infected baitfish.The more I see and read the worse it looks.Time will tell and the fish will still be out there for us to catch again. just maybe not as many. |
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Location: Chilton, WI | I'll say the reports help me out, and others that can't get out very often. I usually like to find the fish on my own or find my own fish to catch away from the pack because its a lot more rewarding than just "following directions" so to speak. But this summer I'm only able to get out on the weekends so its nice to be able to see if the patterns change over the week. When I give reports to most people I try to teach them something to make them a better fisherman- like how to recognize a pattern to find and catch fish in a similar situation whether its a different lake or next month or next year, versus telling them where and how to catch fish tomorrow. It really agravates me when someone fishes the same coordinates time after time because it was hot there one week. If they would take note of various circumstances they might be able to find active fish when that spot fails.
PS and I shared lots of info last summer. I always told him in deatil what, where, when, and how because I knew he was knowledgable enough to figure out the pattern and adapt. |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | Risor: My comments were not directed at you. In fact, to be honest, I didn't even take the time to read what you wrote.
My comments were directed towards Axl with the picture of the fish. My comments should not be taken as negative, only to point out that it's nearly impossible to identify a fish by it's markings as one with "The Virus", as Axl did in his post.
As for reports: keep 'em coming everyone. My time is being dominated by things other than fishing and I enjoy EVERYONE'S reports. Axl, Purple Skeeter, and Risor......thanks for the great reports.
Here's mine: I took twin 16 year old sisters and their 15 year old brother out for my first trip on Winnebago this year. One of the girls won a trip with me that I donated to Walleyes for Tomorrow. We had a great outing trolling cranks out in the mud. Top producer was a Daves KABOOM Deep Nitro Shiner in black/gold 45' back. Next best was another Deep Kaboom in purple prizm, 38' back. The kids had a great time as did I. |
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Location: McFarland, WI | Risor39 - 6/16/2007 7:02 PM
Just a hint to some who may have second thoughts on keeping these fish.I would think it would be in the best interest of the fishery to NOT throw a suspect fish back into the water to infect other fish.
Maybe these fish with lesions are the recovering fish. How many truly sick creatures actively feed when they are in the acute stages of infection. They may have lesions but they are recovering from the infection to the point they are back on feed. They may become the immune population. In biological systems, things are never as simple as they may seem. We need a fisheries immunologist to answer this one. I would like to see these fish tagged or finclipped, and returned to the water and we could see if they are ever recaptured. I don't think removing these individuals would impact the disease in the overall population because it is such a small percentage.
Larry Strelow |
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| Ok so here is my weekly fishing report.........
The mud bite is hot and it is no secret. There are a lot of fish out there and you can basically catch them on almost any type of bait right now. This past week, we boated over 250 walleyes and 20-25 saugers. I have no clue how many whitebass and sheeps were in the mix as well. I did however find it kind of cool to catch a couple crappies while trolling, that does not happen too often.
We are using a lot of different baits right now including harnesses and Scootchie Rigs with a 1/8 oz in line weight 30-50 feet back at 1.0 MPH, but most of our action has been coming on hard baits. We are running the following types of hard baits and havin great success with them:
#5 shad rap in the walleye pattern 50 feet back
#5 shad rap in fire tiger pattern 75 feet back...(hottest bait this week for me)
#7 shad rap in the purple color that was made for Fleet Farm a few years ago at 100 feet
#5 Berkley flicker Shad in Hollywood color 75 feet back
#5 Berkley Flicker Shad in Blue tiger color at 75 feet back
Shallow running Storm Deep Junior T-stick at 100 feet back in the blue and silver tiger
We have not been able to keep all six rods in the water, and we had several doubles and triples this past week. It has been great fishing. We are generally trolling about 2.5 to 3.0 Miles out of Calumet County Park at 2.0 MPH, and I am running to two different waypoints and having great luck. If you are interested in the waypoints, let me know and I can E-mail them to you.
The reefs were on the slower side for us this week as the winds really died down. We did not spend a lot of time on them, but several reports came to me that this was the case. We did try the reefs on Wednesday morning with both leeches and crawlers and had no bites. We then went trolling, and the rest was history.
There is a nice school of active walleyes just off the mouth of the Fox River and there seems to be good action here as well. Most are pulling harnesses and this is producing some real big fish.
There are a ton of boats on the Outer Bar right now in the morning, but the size of the fish really seems to be on the small end. Most here are slip bobbering for them.
Winnebago Point continues to do well for some good eaters either by dragging jigs or by slip bobbering with crawlers.
It seems that the last few weeks that the fish have really turned to crawlers instead of leeches. Earlier in the year, I could not get to many fish on a crawler and now it seems it is the bait of choice. This is good to see, as I have like 4 flats of crawlers in the fridge.
Gehrkes Reef close to Oshkosh is producing fish, but there is a lot of people going to this popular place right now. The fish seem to be a little nicer here as well. I have seen mostly slip bobbers here too. I really like to troll in this area in the deeper water on the edges of the reef. Not a lot of people do this, and you would be amazed at some of the fish you can pull of this reef while trolling around it. Try it, and let me know your results.
The south end of the lake continues to produce Walleyes in the 13+ foot depths. Fish tend to be deeper in the water column, and we were running shad raps 50-75 feet back in 13’ of water. The best colors were blue and purple this week, along with orange fire tiger. There are large amounts of floating weeds near Fond du Lac, making trolling more difficult, but conditions improve drastically north of Wendt’s. The key area this week included the mud northeast of Long Point, and center of the lake.
3rd Reef. Some perch are starting to show up here, but still very spotty. Perch are also present near the lakeside west river entrance.
Emerging weed beds: Some walleyes being taken on weed beds casting cranks or little Cleo’s over the beds.
That is all I have for a weekly report so see you all next week with another installment. remember, this is what I know has been working for me and several of my friends. I know there are other things working as well, but I am just reporting what is happening with us. Your feedback is welcomed and I look forward to it.
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | AWESOME REPORT AXL!!!!! Thanks again!!! |
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| Nice report axl!
Good Luck
Tyee |
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| Axl,
I showed you every one of those spots in just 1 day last week and then you go and report on them... that is the last time I take you fishing... and now look what you have done, you have ruined Lake Winnebago by personally inviting a hundred thousand fisherman from all across the Midwest to cover Bago from one end to the other with their boats. And I also heard, you were the one that invited the Powerboat Association with the helicopter last weekend. And just one last thing, why did you bring VHS to the Bago chain???
Purple Skeeter
ps... nice report... I have to work all week and I'm jealous.
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| P.S. Speaking of Power Boats I saw them go dangerously close to some of
the boats near me. I wonder if they had any complaints on this!! |
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Location: WI | Never mind. I did not need that.
Edited by Utts 6/18/2007 3:41 PM
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Location: Berlin | The forage base is a huge concern with me as well. Not as much of a concern as Axl posting all these reports and bringing VHS into this system but a concern none the less;) I have to believe the forage base is down just because of the huge numbers of actively feeding fish right now. I am probably wrong but I have never seen a bite this last this long. Probably nothing and I am sure the DNR has it under control but it is something I am going to keep an eye on. |
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Location: Berlin | "Did anybody here fish Friday morning? Let me know how you did. I fished out of
CCP but did lousy. I thought I was a good troller. I may have to give up."
Sounds like you may have turned left instead of right. A very easy and common mistake. Just keep turning right but not to tight or you will look like a dog chasing his tail.
Edited by Rich S 6/18/2007 3:26 PM
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| Guest,
I was fishing on the East Shore late last summer and was about the only boat I could see for miles around on a flat calm day. Out of Oshkosh I see this big Speed Boat aiming right at me and with the sun going down, I was beginning to worry that they did not see me.... They kept getting closer and closer until they were less than 300 yards away still at full speed, then 200, 100... finally at about what seemed like 100 feet (it was close to my outside board)... they turned sideways and there were 5 naked girls on the back of the boat flashing me. Once I read the name on the back of the boat I understood.... "Bean Snappers"
Purple Skeeter |
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Location: Kaukauna WI | purple skeeter.......your posts continue to make me jealous!!!!!!!!!! |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Purple Skeeter,
I thought I looked up the number for the Powerbait Association, my bad! I did not mean a helicopter either I meant to order some chopper blades, I guess next year I will have to clarify that better. I also told them I wanted them to tape us in VHS, not BETA. Guess that backfired as well. Guess the whole event was poorly planned out.
I always had a good time fishing with you and I am sorry you no longer want me in that purple thing, you call a boat. I am thankful though that I always had my handheld GPS in my pocket, and really no longer need you. Although, next week I will be posting pictures on here of some of those awesome harnesses that you have.
I only posted some of the spots we fished, I kept the top 10 or so for myself, so please be curteous and avoid those special places.
I am also not responsible if you are missing your 2007 lakemaster chip.....FYI
Have a great week at work, and I will be thinking of you my friend.
AXL
P.S. WalleyeFirst Special of the week: I have a 2007 Lakemaster chip for sale, But please E-mail me me for details. No other info will be given on this chip otherwise.
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| I just realized that that's a picture of me.. well.. sort of me... minus the missing tooth and the tuffy hat.. and the fish shrunk...
I reconized the purple seat in the background
Purple Skeeter |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | I don't know why you are so confused prple skeeter, think it looks just like ya' LOL! |
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Location: Orland Park, IL | I try to help when I can and dont mind. So, who's gotta winnebago report. Neighbor says they are still rippin... |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | I went out from 10 am to noon today. No time to think as I had to work tonight. Went straight to the mud off of Stockbridge. Pulled cranks for the 1st half hour. Nada! Was running one board off each side and a long liner straight off the back. Had to do something quick as I only had an hour and a half left to fish. I hate that. Reeled in the long line and put a crawler harness with a Mack's Smile Blade (purple) on it and a 3/4 oz snap weight. Slowed to 1.3 mph and dropped it straight down until it hit bottom in 19 fow and locked the bail. Wham! They wanted meat. 18 incher. Set it back out and started pulling in the boards to change them to harnesses also. Set the first board out with a holographic bait fish colored Colorado Blade. While the board was being let out, I started to reel in the other board. ZZZZZZZZZ back went the board that was on it's way out. All in all a great hour and 45 minutes on the water. 2 17 inchers and an 18. By the way the other two harnesses were set back 75 ft and 95 ft with a small split shot. Hope this helps. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | I blew my knee out riding my kid's skateboard and will be out of action for a few weeks  keep the reports coming so I can fish vicariously through your experiences.  |
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| After reading the reports of good fishing I thought I'd give Winnebago a try last weekend. We only caught 1 19 inch fish that we kept.. the rest were all pretty small. I heard a troubling report from a woman at the campground where I stayed tho. She lives on the east side of the lake and says there are lots of dead fish floating up on the east shore. Has anyone else seen that? I hope this great fishery can survive the virus.
Good luck fishing.. I'll give it another try sometime soon.
Ron
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Location: Neenah, WI | This is only a rough guess because I really don't keep track. I think my boat has caught about 400 walleye this year along with a dozen or so sauger. I have yet to see a fish with any symptoms of VHS. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's my understanding that the Virus manifests itself in cooler water temps. I live on the shores of Lake Winnebago and currently there are NO dead fish on my shoreline. (I'm on the west shore). According to the local bar room talk, there are dead fish all over. I haven't seen it. This fall, when temps cool, could be a very different story. |
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| Viking - 6/25/2007 10:29 AM
I blew my knee out riding my kid's skateboard and will be out of action for a few weeks keep the reports coming so I can fish vicariously through your experiences. :o
Well, I guess you kinda deserve that, Viking. Trying to copy the Extreme Boarding on the half pipe, or whatever they call it!
I'll be out on GB the next week, and will be thinking of you nursing your knee. Heal quickly! |
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Location: Neenah, WI | I live on the west shore also, south of Blackwolf. I haven't seen any dead fish on the shoreline for well over a month. Just heard a report on the radio yesterday that the VHS virus isn't as bad as they expected by this time. Could be the warmer water, but who knows?
As for a report, I haven't been out for a week, but they were hitting on tsticks & shad raps a week ago. Had to care for my wife who's been ill and hospitalized, but she's now home. Hope to get out soon. I'll post a report, as I do read the valuable reports from everyone, and appreciate all comments. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Shep,
I wish I had been doing some cool trick, at least my kids wouldn't think I'm such a dork. As it happened, I was just putzing along at about .2 mph put my foot down to stop and my knee gave way.
Thanks for thinking of me, good luck up on GB next week. I hope you and all the WFers do well at the FWL League event there on the 7th. |
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Location: Oshkosh | I was out Saturday out from Quinney in the pack of boats that was there. Action was pretty good early on junior deep thundersticks tipped w/ crawlers- blue/chrome and purple prism 20 to 40 feet back, 1.8 to 2.2 mph. Got four nice ones (20, 18, 17, and a fat 15) in about 90 minutes, along with tons to sheeps and whities. Once the waves laid down, the walleyes quit for me. Tried shad raps on one side, I can never seem to catch anything on a shad rap unless I am in Poygan! Pulled out some spinners toward the end, with nothing to show for it but rough fish.
I had the wife out with me for the extra 3 lines, but that was about all the help I got! (chase lounge chair, tanning lotion, books, extra snacks, water, soda, radio, change of clothes for a full 3-day expedition... oh, and the kitchen sink!) Makes for an interesting day on the water! But it beats sitting home mowing the lawn... good to get back out there. Will be back out Saturday again, but I traded my wife for my brother this time!
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Location: Oshkosh | Successfully traded my wife for my brother today... started out about 5 miles north of long point, trolling spinners north. Very calm and BUGGY in the morning, but managed to catch 4, biggest was 19-1/2", smallest was 16". Here I also caught 2 saugers, one was a fat 18" and the other a healthy looking 16". The 16 had the last hook on my snell in its gullet, and it started bleeding profusely. I cut the line, but it sucks that I couldn't legally keep this fish, as it wil most likely die.
Lots of sheepies, no white bass.
Moved about 10 miles north and trolled south again with spinners, scratched-out one more eye. Then the wind picked up, and we switched to cranks. The fish really went on a tear, as we trolled east toward garlic island and caught 5 more eyes and loads of white bass and sheeps. I lost a really nice eye a couple yards back from the boat... it was plowing water with its huge mouth and then a bigger wave went across it and it was gone. Would've easily been my biggest fish of the year (previous was a 24" in Poygan in May).
Set-ups were as follows- Cabelas #5 spinners in chartuse/silver scale pattern/chartruse beads on 3/4 o snap weights, 50 foot lead, and varied 10, 25, and 50 feet back from the board. The 25 foot setback was by far the most productive. Cranks were DJ thundersticks in metallic rainbow trout and gold/black/red bill. 40 feet back was the best for me, at about 1.9 to 2.3 mph. My brother ran hot 'n tots, his best let back was 25' on a gold/black/red bill. All cranks were tipped with crawlers. It was fun getting soaked trying to go back to Oshkosh parallel to the big waves!
Lots of boats out in the morning, they seemed to congregate due east of Oshkosh in the mud, but by 11:00 everyone was scattered. We couldn't seem to locate a definitive school of fish until the end of the day due east of Garlic. Still, we took home 8 nice eyes for our efforts.
And by the way, none of them had any suspicious markings on them, at least not until my filet knife got to them! 
Mark |
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Location: Orland Park, IL | Fished yesterday evening with the 6yo outta calumet. Walleye divers 40 to 65 feet back. Darker colors, ie gold/black, etc. He got his biggest this year, a 20 1/8. Got 8 fish yesterday, 12 to 20. Kept 4.
Fished this afternoon for a few outta pipe. Pleasant, no flies. Trolled for a while, but got some smaller fish. 2 legals. We decided to jig a reef for a few. 6YO gotta a 14 inch smallie, and a chunky white bass. Thought the smallie was gonna pull him in.
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Location: Menasha, WI | Great pictures Mark -- well, except for that Bears jersey, that's almost as bad as a Packer's jersey 
Keep the reports coming -- after 8 days my knee is still as big as a cantalope so it will be a while before I'll be able to fish and the reports are helping to keep me sane. |
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Location: Orland Park, IL | Was thinking about you yesterday Viking. Boy wanted me to try his skateboard in the pipe parking lot. Had a flashback to your episode. Plus with the brewers game this weekend, we had a full agenda. We went fishing in the 2nd inning, after that 9 run fiasco, got some fried chicken, powerade (.99 at pipe express) and a couple of big cookies for desert.
We had 6 boards out, and the boy is getting the hang of it. |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | I think the smiles in these pics say it all. I had a Great weekend. Nothing like fishing with my 6 yr old and my 4 yr old. The other two guys are Ralph and his friend Bob. They are 79 and 78 yrs old respectfully. I had a blast with these guys. Sorry, I got to resize pics. Will be up later.
Edited by Horshak 7/2/2007 5:01 PM
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | As promised, here they are.
(Dad,Ryan,Kyle,Walleye1.jpg)
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| Good stuff there Mark. I knew you would get into them this weekend. Gotta love that yard bird. |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | Great pictures Brother Otis, Mark, and Bob!!!! It looks like a good time was had by all!!! There's nothing better than getting kids involved in hunting and fishing. |
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