Getting Started

Well, despite the best intentions it has taken me this long to start a blog. I have intended to use this forum to document the fishing and other activities I've been up to, while not filling up everyone's inboxes with often unwanted fish porn. While fishing and other outdoor stuff takes up a big part of my life, the family remains the number one priority and it would be impossible for me to exclude them.

I have enjoyed quite a few fishing trips this year, ranging from numerous local excursions, to some long distance forays. Unfortunately many of the trips weren't as successful for me this year as last year, but there was still some good fishing to be had. As I get around to it I'll begin trying to post some of my more memorable trips in chronological order, and hopefully by the end of winter, I'll be caught up and I can begin updating things as they happen.


This year saw my return home to Australia for a few weeks to visit family and try my hand at the barramundi fishing around Burketown. That was an awesome trip with highlights that transcended just the fishing. Without a doubt, that was my favorite trip of all time and I'm sure I'll enjoy jotting down the highlights here from the more detailed journal I kept. Just prior to the Australia trip saw a successful pink (humpy) salmon trip to Minnesota's north shore and a king (chinook) salmon trip to South Eastern Wisconsin in which we encountered tough conditions but still touched some fish. Crossing the Pacific back to the onset of winter took some getting used to but I managed a reasonably successful trip back to Southeastern Wisconsin for some Lake-run brown trout and coho (silver) salmon fishing.

Although it needn't be said, all of this piscatorial embellishment barely registered in light of the year's true highlight - the birth of my son, Pierce Mark Wilkes on August 15th. Now, in collaboration with his big sister Natalya and my wife Jessica, the pull of the rivers and lakes meets forceful resistance at home.

As I write this the land outside is changing. The fall runs of fish have all but ended and the fish that are entering the tributaries are doing it under a ceiling of ice. The lakes and many rivers are freezing solid and we should be walking on them in no time. Even the deer have finished rutting and are slipping away to feed up and recover from the rigors of breeding, and perhaps ponder the season of plenty that has just passed. The weekend saw our first decent snow storm of the year dumping around four or five inches of snow and sleet in our part of the state and around twenty inches of snow up north. Temperatures have been well below freezing for weeks now and this morning the temperature registered two degrees Farenheit as I drove into work at 7:30am. If this isn't winter it sure feels like it.

As for me, after shoveling the snow, I've been sitting by the fire and tying flies for one last tributary trip that we had to cancel last weekend. Now I'll just have to focus on the flies I'll need a bit later. In two weeks it's my daughter's birthday and we'll be heading up to an indoor water-park in Duluth. Although it is almost impossible I'm hoping for a miracle and somehow be able to slip away for a couple of hours and try to catch an elusive (for me at least) looper but it will be hard to pull myself away from Natalya's joyous screams and birthday revelry.