Memorial Day Weekend : Team Trout Mafia Heads North

Team Trout Mafia (mostly) took some time away from the Great Lakes this weekend and headed to various camp sites and cabins this weekend, some with their kayaks in tow.

Driving into the setting sun in Middle Wisconsin

Tom headed North-West to the waters of Northern Minnesota to chase Northern Pike this weekend. The goal was to limit the team-cap on Northerns in Kayak Wars, which was done in two quick outings on a couple of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes.

A sunrise launch on a small Minnesota Lake

With rising water temperatures and new vegetation growth the Northerns were very active, and prone to take aggressively fished crank baits. Everything from spinners to jigs to x-raps to shad-raps worked, but a jerky retrieve followed by quick pops and long pauses with a rattle-trap was the real breadwinner of the outings, accounting for dozens of fish.

A small northern that fell to a large sized Flicker Shad

Our May recap is just around the corner, we are transitioning from shallow water Coho on Lake Michigan to medium depth approaches to Cohos, Kings, Steelhead, and Lake Trout as well as shallow water Jumbo Perch. Inland lake fishing is only picking up, and Team Trout Mafia is holding a 1000 point lead on the second place team in Kayak Wars. It should be a great June.

The view many of us dream about during those dark winter months.