[Sig and Gus Hanson]

Hey Eric,
Yup, I came up with our name based on "Deadliest Catch", great show!!!....three reasons, when my buddy Jim got his boat, we were 'grinders', until we started to figure out the different lakes in the area so we weren't very efficient but we'd keep fishing until we caught a respectable number, secondly I'm Norwegian as is the Hanson family, and thirdI know Captain Sig's brother is named Edgar, but we also like to play poker so I incorporated Gus Hanson ( famous poker player )into our "handle"....lot's of time to think sometimes out on the water obviously huh?

Love the website and some of the tip and tricks I get from the Super Moderator's...

How do I post pic's on this site. Don't have a digital camera but do have my photo's on a CD which is loaded into my PC.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the report! Are you Sig from deadliest catch?? :-))) J/K that show is awesome though!!

[Sig and Gus Hanson]

Got out today without Captain Sig, instead fishing with my brother in law who just bought his first used boat. Hit the water by 6 am, cloudy, temp in mid 60's, water in low 70's, flat calm condition. Picked up one of two smallies in the first 3 hours and then we finally started to get a little breeze and of course the fishing picked up as well.

We'd pick 3 or 4 in a spot and then it would shut down and we'd keep moving searching for a bite that would lead to 3 or 4 fish in a spot and so on.

Did have a, either a huge Northern or smaller Musky attack my tube....whichever it was, it went 35" - 40", broke me off when it did the jump and roll.

Rain moved in around noon, we hid right next to shore for a half hour and went back to a spot with the mindset of either we catch something right away or call it a day. Caught a small smallie, then on back to back casts we each picked up smallies that went over 18".

Ended the day with 11 smallies, 4 LM, and 4 rockies ( all over 10" ).....once the wind started blowing, fish started biting.

[Big_D]

Out again on Sunday (8/2), 5:30 am to ~Noon. Beautiful day... cool early, but warming up into the 70's... Blue skys, Calm early, then wind picked up out of the West late morning. Water temps 72/73F and the algia bloom seems to have thickened, water clarity is down to 1-2' in most spots.

I think most of the check-list components for a tough day on the OC are checked off above.... and a tough morning it was. Managed to scrounge up 4 little smallies, and that was it.

Take Care,

D.

[Sig and Gus Hanson]

Captain Sig and I got out at 4am and fished till about noon Saturday 8/1, cloudy, breezy, scattered rain in the morning...lake virtually empty, think we saw 3 or 4 boats out....

Slow day, picked up a total of 8 SM, 4 LM, and 3 Rockies.....two biggest fish were 18.5 and 16.5 Smallies, both caught in the 1st 30 minutes once we got to our spot. We were concentrating on the large shallow flats early, backed off to working from the dropoffs once the sun started to come out. Caught em all on wacky worms, tubes, and swimbaits.

Had some toothy critter inhale a spinner and ate through the line as immediately as I felt the bite. Line was "scarred" a good 4 inches up from the spot he cut the line. Either it was a blind Northern attacking from the front, or something big enough to get the whole spinner in it's mouth, and no, I didn't have a steel leader on...oops.

[Big_D]

Out again on Saturday (7/25). Fished 5:30am to 4pm. Sunny in the AM, warming up into the 70's and some patchy clouds moved in afternoon and actually dripped a couple drops of rain. Tough winds out of the NW all day... getting particularly gusty in the afternoon. Surface temps ~74F and the water is still pretty thoroughly stained with algia... clarity ~2-4' depending on location.

Morning was really tough. Think I had all of 5 fish by noon, but I stuck with it and things picked up ~1-2pm. Finished with 3 LMB, 15 SMB and a couple of perch. Lots of little guys today, but a few nicer bass mixed in there, including these two 18"ers.

Channel is very shallow right now. Still navigable, but bigger rigs need to keep that motor trimmed up and take your time.

Take Care,

D.

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[Jason]

Big D, beautiful musky you caught there, love the spots on that fish. Good catches......

[Big_D]

Got out with a friend this morning (7/16) ~5:30am to ~1pm. Cool and sunny warming up into the 70's. Stiff winds out of the NW right from the get-go... and getting stronger throughout the day. Water temp (surface) ~74F. Lake was pretty thoroughly stained with algia pretty much all over now. Clarity was 1-2' at best, in most spots that we fished.

Fishing was pretty slow, but we picked away at 'em and ended up with 10 SMB, 2 LMB, a perch, a couple small pike and a bonus 36.5" musky... which made it all worth while. Most of our action came on tube jigs up on the wind-blown side of flats... but as the wind continued to pick up, even that bite shut down. A couple of nicer smallies 18.5" and 19", and the musky pic attached too.

Take Care,

D.

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[Big_D]

Late report from Sunday (7/5).

Fished ~5:15 am to ~2pm. Cool, foggy and calm in the AM, but the sun took over quickly and it was blue skys and hot from there on out, with light to medium winds out of NW building up by afternoon. Surface temps in the mid-70's and weeds are at full summer plumage now. Water clarity was spotty... some spots have been taken over by the algia bloom and visibility = 0, other spots are still fairly clear. Would imagine that a couple windy days and we'll have algia stain, pretty much everywhere.

Fishing was slow in the early morning... then things heated up for a few hours, and then it shut down hard, mid-day. Odd, because that 11-1 window is usually pretty productive for me. Anyway, managed to scrounge up 3 LMB, 10 SMB, a perch and my obligatory Rock Bass, mostly between 8-11am.

Decided to try something new (for me) and brought a dozen shiners with me. Drug one around tail hooked ~6'-8' under a float, with a split shot half way to keep it down. This was good for a couple bass and a couple of thievings.... and everything else came on smoke color tube jigs. Largies came on the breakline weeds and smallies were up on the flats.

Channel is running pretty thin right now, so keep them motors trimmed high.

Take Care,

D.

This post has been edited by Big_D: 06 July 2009 - 03:02 PM

[BigMusky]

After fishing Okauchee Friday afternoon with wife, took father in law out for top water bite on OC....we got a million rock bass, one large mouth and a walleye. I need to go back out during day and GPS the rock on flats because we spent way too much time over barren sand. Memory is not as sharp in the dark.

[Big_D]

Got out on Saturday (6/27), 5:15am to ~3pm. Nice day to be on the water. Warmed up into the mid 80's, mostly Sunny all day. Light winds out of the S/SE in the morning shifting to medium winds S/SW by afternoon. Surface temps were ~82-83F and the weeds have filled in pretty much everywhere and are getting fairly thick. Water had a slight algia stain to it... so would expect the algia bloom is not far away.

Fishing was pretty slow for me. Finished with 8 SMB, 3 LMB, a couple rockies, couple small walleye, small pike and a suicidal 5" perch. Everything caught on 4" tubes with the exception of one LMB that I caught on a topwater popper-style bait in the early morning. The smallies were caught up on the flats, and the largies were a little deeper in the breakline weeds.

Noticed a new tree down in the channel, right after the shallow bend (heading out). It's more of an eye-level hazard than a prop-level, but keep 'em peeled if you're heading out in the dark.

Take Care,

D.

[Eric Haataja]

Nice to see you got into some fish!

Eric

[Big_D]

Was out from 6am to 4pm today. Started off cool/cloudy/rainy, but that burned off ~11am or so and left it warm and mostly sunny for the rest of the afternoon. Light winds from the E/NE in the AM, and shifting to W/SW later in the day. Water temps (surface) ~67-68F and water was slightly murky today. Weeds are really starting to fill in, in many spots on the lake.

Not a barn-burner today, but managed to boat 8 SMB, 7 LMB, a pair of walleye and one complimentary obligatory rock bass por favor. Everything came on tubes today, either casting up onto shallow flats, or working around isolated clumps of weeds on the breaklines.

Lots of scenery today... musky and gar all over the place up on the flats... and packs of HUGE carp-o-saurs cruising all over too.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

LATE report from last Saturday (5/30)... Fished 5:30 am - 12:30 pm with a buddy. Cool and cloudy most of the morning with occasional light rain and light winds from the W/NW. Sun finally peeked out about 11 and the winds picked up considerably. Water temps 61F-62F... that's a sizable drop from last weekend. Weeds are starting to take hold... they should fill in pretty quickly now, if it's anything like past years.

Tough day. Think the water temp drop has pushed the active fish deeper. Manged to scrounge up 1 smallie and 5 LMB all in the 14"-15" range, and all pretty lethargic. Also picked up a few rockbass and 3 pike, including a 27"er. All our action came around green weeds along the breaklines. Bass were caught mostly on shakey-head worms and the pike came on white spinnerbait and tubes.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Got out on Saturday (5/23), fished ~6am to ~3:30pm. Rainy and calm all morning. Sun finally broke through about Noon and brought medium winds out of the N/NW with it. Temps go up into the low 70's. Water temp (surface) have jumped up to 66 F. Water clarity still good and start to see a little more sign of weed growth around the lake.

Tough day for me. There's lots of bass cruising the flats and breaklines, but didn't have much luck getting them to bite. Worked tubes and some shakey-head worms and tossed spinnerbaits for a while too. Managed one 14.5" LMB, a couple of dink LMB/SMB, a couple of tiny pike and 32 Rock Bass... but even the RB seemed shy today. Not sure if it was the weather/fronts or if bass just have other things on the brain with the warming water.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Finally back on the water after a month lay-up to build a new garage. Fished ~6:30 am to ~2:30 pm today (5/16). Partly sunny and cool all day. Vicious winds out of the W/NW/N right from the get-go and getting heavier as the day carried on. Surface temp was 59F and water clarity was good if not for the wind stirring things up. Weeds are pretty scarce around most of the lake yet, but a few clumps of green weeds are popping up here and there, mostly in the small lake area, so far.

Spent the entire day pitchin' smoke colored tube jigs and managed to scrounge up 8 LMB, a smallie, 3 small pike and about 3 dozen rock bass. Everything came shallow today, working piers and shallow clumps of weeds.

River is still at early spring height and flowing pretty fast, so be careful around the launch area.

Take Care,

D.

[Ryan]

OK..I will try this again! I have had the opportunity to get out rather frequently in the past two weeks and here is what I found. 1. The weeds are still green in the areas I fished actually the weeds are quite deep down to 15ft -18ft of water. The water is extrmely clear which makes for an interesting bite. I have caught gills and perch anywhere from 5ft to 20ft. Black or darker colors seem to work better with two spikes. The northern action has been picking up from my last post except no legals have been iced. My 7 year old son caught his first walleye on a tip-up in 8ft of water Saturday night that was 24" and about 4lbs (5pm) he was very happy. I didn't even see the flag since I was packing up and ready to go. Beautiful fish and I will post the pics soon as I get them donwloaded. We had to keep it since it was hooked into the gill and bleeding bad. I haven't found the crappies yet, the gill bite seems to be sporadic all day with good fish being caught (have to hole hop alot) then about 3pm the bite seems to be pretty consistant. The nice thing is in the 5 times out only one other fishermen is in our spot.

[luv2fish]

Nice work Eric....Sweet underwater pic!!!!

[Jason]

ERIC, NICE MUSKYS

BIG D, Beautiful scenery pics. That is a awesome photograph....

[Eric Haataja]

last 2 pics

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