4th of July in Northern Minnesota

Tom Harris headed north for the holiday from Chicago to Northern Minnesota with kayak on the roof and a car full of fishing rods. With sights set on monthly team-limits of northerns and some trophy walleye fishing, he arrived at the cabin between two lakes and spent the better part of a week carrying his kayak through the woods to remote lakes, and exploring new water. These are some of his experiences:

Navigating a bog with channels made and kept open by beavers for use in winter to swim between lakes.

Tom spent much of his time chasing Northern Pike and Walleye on a number of lakes which he carried his kayak into. Small lakes that don't feel much pressure due to lack of easy public access can make for big numbers. Some 40+ fish outings were had casting for Northern Pike.

Releasing a Northern Pike on a sunny afternoon. Over 100 Northern Pike were caught from this kayak during the 4th of July week.

Tom also targeted Walleye on some of the larger lakes in the area, night can be a very productive time to target Walleye on some of the big, clear, spring-fed lakes in Minnesota. A personal best 30.25" walleye was landed on the 2nd of July, just after sunset. The fish was measured for Kayak Wars, photographed, and quickly released.

The 30.25" Walleye caught just after sunset.

Team Trout Mafia continues to dominate all divisions of Kayak Wars 2015. With the inland species currently being limited out on by Tom Harris and Daniel Byrne, and the Great Lakes species being consistently caught by Mark Rasmussen and Kalvin Sabel our lead continues to grow. The dog days of summer tend to be our most difficult times to produce big numbers of points, but this year has been the exception. We plan to hold strong as we head into the big points months of September and October, when 40 salmon limits sometimes come in a single weekend for our team.

Team Trout Mafia, handily holds the first place position in the Worldwide Freshwater Division (as well as all other divisions).

Salmon-A-Rama is currently underway and Kalvin and Mark are currently in prize position, Tom and Mike plan to get out in the coming days to hopefully make the top five full of Team Trout Mafia.

Kalvin Sabel and Mark Rasmussen in 2nd and 3rd place in the early days of the week long Salmon-a-Rama tournament.

We will have an update on Lake Michigan Salmon and Trout fishing after the tournament concludes. Until then, tight lines to everyone, stay safe while out on Lake Michigan this week.