Had another one of those surreal fishing trips this past week and to top it off it was with 4 of the best guys I enjoy fishing with! I have a cabin in the U.P. on the water and have been fortunate enough to be fish up there for 30+ years mainly with my dad who is from the area and retired on the water up there, but since his passing it’s now mainly with good friends!
Each year I work hard at exploring new water that gets absolutley ZERO fishing pressure and this year we found some massive schools of big fish!
We also fish a few smaller lakes and a river or two but I’m spending more and more time out on the Big Water!
This particular trip we landed a ridiculas amount of fish over 5 lbs with several over 6 lbs which is worlds class. Our fish came on gulp with darter heads, zip lures, minnows, jerk baits, spinners, drop shotting,and fishing rock stalker football head jigs. We also caught a few fish wacky rigging plastics on jigs.
I’m going to post a bunch of pictures of the giant fish we caught on this trip so sorry if it’s over kill, I just wanted to share the pics of the trip of a lifetime.
ALL SMALLIES WERE RELEASED! Kept some eyes and crappies for some shore lucnhes.
Just a great place to take a vacation 5 hours from my house!
There’s plenty more pics of 4 3/4 to 6 lb smallies coming along with crappies up to 14 3/4 inches.
A few more pics…
Last few pics, fishing was insane the girth of these fish are like giant gills!! We had fish that were 19 3/4 inches and 5.3 ounces Crazy!
The fish in the bottom left is an average 18 1/2 incher and the one next to it was 19 1/4 but very fat! The majority of the fish we caught were 18-22 3/4 inches.
Thanks God (and my wife) for vacations!
Good Fishing!
Eric Haataja
http://www.wibigfish.com
WOW, is all I can say after seeing those pictures.
Ron
UNBELIEVEABLe!
Same here… WOW … Even if you repeat it, that still goes down as a one in a million trip.
Best looking mess of smallies I’ve seen yet. What dreams are made of!
Holy COW!
Great Job! That certainly is a trip of a lifetime.
FDR
Holy mother of pearl!
Those are some incredible fish….Ablsolutely incredible Eric!
All I can say is WOW!!
Fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
That’s just sick!!
Again..huge fish!!
What was the water temp?
Unbelievable!
Those are some awesome fish! 
ya gotta love that picture with the walleye and the sunset!
the smallies are nothing shy of incredible either
Holy JEE BUS, awesome job and pictures
Holy Toads!
holy super sized bronzebacks!! awesome photos and fish guys!!!!!!!!!!
Eh, they aint so big!
Well, I guess they are. Holy smokes, them is some HAWGS!!
I just picked my jaw off the ground!!! WOW!!!!!! WELL DONE!!
Outstanding fish Eric!
Awesome fish Eric!
Unreal trip.
Thanks guys! The water temps were 55-58 degree’s.
There’s something special about those bronze bass!
Good fishing!
Eric Haataja
WOW!! Eric those are some GIANT SMALLIES!! GREAT JOB!! What kind of forage fish do you have in that lake to get those fish so girthy??? SMELT?? CISCOES?? CANDY BARS?? NICE!!
Everything that swims in Lake superior, hence they are lake superior fish. Smelt, alewives, and perch are the main forage.
Eric
NIce show with gillespie also
Eric:
Do any of those bass have a head??? My Gawd!!! You are continuing to fuel my fire for that area!!! The wife and I are talking about buying our retirement land up there.
Mark
man those are some monsters…
Wooowww!!!! I’ve never seen smallies like that. Unbelievable!!!!
