Welcome!

Spence Petros is one of North America's most versatile and well-respected anglers. Author, fishing educator, tournament angler, tackle designer and veteran of over 125 television shows, including three years on ESPN's national show "the Outdoor Writers".

In 1989 Petros was inducted into the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, and is listed among the "Living Legends of American Sportfishing", a book authored by Larry Colombo profiling 100 of the top people in the sportfishing industry.

Spence was editor of Fishing Facts magazine for 22-years and now writes regularly for some of the top fishing magazines in North America which include North American Fisherman, Bass Pro Shop's Outdoor World, Fishing Facts, Bassin', Crappie Magazine and Musky Hunter. He also appears regularly on ESPN's North American Outdoors and North American Fisherman TV shows, along with being a regular on Midwest Outdoors and North American Fish and Game TV shows.

Spence's career has been dedicated to "teaching fishermen to catch more fish". On this web site Spence shares some of his "fish catching" knowledge, with you, through his Articles and Tips. We hope you enjoy the site and come back often as we add new fishing information.

Also, don't forget to check out Spence's Fishing Classes. These are truly an in-depth learning experience that is guaranteed to make you a better fisherman. The 2008 classes are now forming and we invite you to come and participate.

A Day to Remember!

"Here we go again", I thought as my partner Mike Zielonka put his third musky of the day into the net. Minutes later I finally connected with a nice fish. We were on our annual Lake of the Woods fall musky trip to Monument Bay Lodge and Mike had seriously "big fished me" the last three years. Each year he has boated at least one fish over 50-inches, culminating with a 55 ½ inch monster in October of 2005. All the big fish came on the outside lines; the ones running over deeper water. To troll safely and with the most accuracy with our tiller-operated boat, I face the shore to read the structures correctly and to avoid rocky out-croppings. I could move the boat out a little deeper and put myself on the deep edge, but my partner would have been over generally non-productive open water. My feeling is to make good trolling passes and who ever catches the fish catches the fish. It’s a team effort.

Generally on Lake of the Woods we run a 9-inch Grandma crankbait on the inside line, and a 10-inch Jake on the outside line. The Grandma runs deeper than the Jake, which gives us more space between our lures than if we were running the same lures. If we want deeper running lures, then the combination becomes a jointed Lindy Big M and a Depth Raider. Our line-counter reels are spooled with 80-pound test SpiderWire Stealth. A 3 to 4-foot braided wire leader that prevents the line from cutting on the rocks completes the set-up.

Day two started slow with me catching the first three fish, all under 37-inches. Then it started! The next was a chunky 44-incher, quickly followed by a 52-incher with the girth of a small barrel. It wasn’t a true 40-pounder, but a good-sized cisco would have put it close. About an hour before dark a 40 ½ incher slammed my Grandma. What a day 6 muskies, including a fat 52-incher. I completed all the trolling runs I wanted to cover and decided to try a new area that looked promising. I hadn’t gone 100-yards when a hard strike doubled my rod. Within seconds wide sweeping head shakes and a lot of weight told me another big musky was on the line. The cold water, stiff trolling rod and no-stretch line quickly sapped the big fish’s strength. Once in control I slowly slid the big fish into our large Beckman net, which Mike held quietly just below the surface. A quick measurement showed 50 ½ inches. What a day seven fish with two over 50-inches!

While this was our best day, the rest of the trip wasn’t too shabby. The two of us ended up boating 26 muskies and about 15 pike to 39-inches in 5 ½ days. It was a good trip but certainly not a fluke. In the 10 years I’ve making a fall trip to Monument Bay Lodge we’ve boated around 240 muskies in 77 days. October is a great time to go, because the trolling bite is hot and it’s a lot less tiring than casting during the long hot summer days. Monument Bay Lodge can be reached at 1-877-875-4710.