My family and I were looking for a fishing guide for a day while camping on the Minong Flowage. I…read morecalled a local bait shop ahead of time, they recommended a guy that was out of state but recommended Johnny at Fish Crazed Guiding. Well, I got on the phone with Johnny and right away I could tell he was the perfect fit. My goal was for me and the kids to learn as much as we could in one day on the water, and Johnny was so ready to teach that he just launched into answering a bunch of my questions right there on the phone.
We've gotten really into fishing the last couple years but are new to the midwest and have been struggling to catch consistently, especially at the end of summer to early fall. I told Johnny we weren't after trophy fish, but we wanted to catch stuff and we wanted to learn as much as we could. Well, Johnny was excited to teach, but still towed the line and said, "Oh we'll learn plenty, but we'll also catch fish, and big ones."
So then we got to setting up a trip, and I asked if he would be willing to come to the Minong or to a lake nearby, both to lessen the driving for us but also so we could see how he goes about finding fish on a new lake. This is where Johnny really stretched to meet us. He said he would accept it as a professional challenge. During the week before our trip, Johnny texted with me about his lake scouting progress and sent us some pics of big bass caught in one of the lakes.
When we finally met at the boat launch of a lake he had never been to, he was raring to go catch some fish! He re-iterated that, no matter what happened, no one ever got skunked on his boat. So we set about mapping the lake, looking for structure, weeds, the right depth. He talked me through how to read a fish finder and where the fish are, and answered questions about his tackle and presentations. He kept it simple, straightforward, and was willing to share all of it! He is a fisherman through and through, and when me and my kids turned out to be pretty determined in the face of the weather (a windy, cold mid-October day), he really doubled down on making sure we got as much out of the day as we could.
That day I learned how to find fish and use electronics, what baits to throw at what depths, how to scout out a lake, a bit about boats, and, did I mention? We caught a lot of fish! About 30-40, all told, a dozen worth keeping for pictures, big pike and smallmouth bass, and one hearty bluegill on a crankbait. He was patient with the kids, which is nice, 'cause they weren't always patient with him, they seemed to think they knew where to go and what to do next, ha. He was not only patient with me and all my questions, but seemed eager to answer every one.
By the end of the trip, we had learned a ton, caught a bunch of fish, spent a day on the water in weather we wouldn't usually be out in, and loved every moment of it. And no one got skunked on his boat.
The real clincher is the confidence he left us with. We got back to camp, and my 9-year-old son just couldn't stop, he started fishing right off the campsite beach using his new tactics and the chatterbait Johnny had given him, and he caught the biggest smallmouth of the whole day! Then the next morning him and his cousin were out in a canoe together fishing in our little inlet, and he hooked a northern pike, his 7-year-old cousin at the front of the canoe netted it, and the boys brought it in for a picture, got the hook out, and released it... ALL BY THEMSELVES.
Thanks, Johnny, for the leg up in the world of fishing.
