Three bearded guys in a boat.

So we went up and spent the day with my parents along with my aunt and uncle on Goose Lake.  We had a great time hanging out, showed off my new motorcycle (a 2008 Yamaha Raider) to my parents.  Both seemed genuinely impressed.  For Easter dinner, dad worked his magic in the kitchen and made his great fried fish.  A huge serving of crappies along with the various salads made for a great feast.

 

photo provided by Trails.com

Afterwards, dad and uncle Keith and myself went out on dads boat and headed over to the crappie spot to see if we could replenish what we ate.  They handed me this thing called a spinning rod.  It was missing at least four feet of length and had this funny kind of real called an open face real.  Sure can't fly fish with this, especially with that slip bobber thing and crappie spinner jig at the end.  Dad assured me that the rod was the right length and to start fishing.

 

Luck was not on our side.  All that was caught was a bass in the first five minutes.  Dad claims that made him the best fisherman in the boat.  I countered that he was the worst since he caught something we were not targeting.  Uncle Keith shook his head and chuckled at the two of us.  I think he was just happy that I had taken over his anchor duties...something about he'd kept forgetting to bring it up every time dad wanted to change locations.  They had been fishing the previous two days with same amount of luck we were having, only with some added anchor drama.  The debate over who the best fisherman in the boat continues.  At least until we go fishing again.

A couple of hours on the water and we headed back to the dock, fishless and happy.

 

Weather:

a little breezy,

a little cool,

lots of sun, and

good fun.

 

Lake:

a little stained and in the 50's.

www.critters-corner.com

Duluth couples weekend

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and I apologize for that. Since my last post I've been out to Montana and fished the DuPuy's Spring Creek as well as the Big Horn River for a two week vacation.  Jen and I have been out fly fishing a couple of times chasing bass and pan fish.  We both acquired a bicycle and fly rod each.  Mine is still be built as of this post.  We've also had a lot of weekends with family for both good and not so good circumstances.

On our latest adventure, we booked a weekend with Chad and Sarah in Duluth, MN and had a lot of fun.  Friday we packed up our stuff in our new 2005 Toyota Highlander that we bought on Monday after too many repair bills on the Tahoe with no end in sight, and headed up to Duluth.  A quick two hours later, we jumped out of our SUV, and into Chad's with his boat ready to go.  We stopped for gas and then launched for nice evening cruise on VERY calm waters.  The view from the lake was spectacular.  You couldn't have planned better weather then what we had for the ride.

Saturday morning the four of us headed over to the Brule River Canoe Rental for a bit of kayaking on the Brule river.  And boy were they busy, as a couple of large groups had showed up on thier doorsteps pretty much wiping out all their canoes and kayaks.  Luckily Chad had reserved our kayaks the day before.  It had been a few years since I've last kayaked, but got back into the swing of things pretty quickly.  The scenery was nice, and again the weather was very cooperative.  We were greeted, or rather scowled at by a couple of eagles in the trees above.  And then we had some close-up contact with a couple of does.  I think the black flies must have driven them out as they really didn't care that we were only a couple of paddle lengths away from them. 

Further down stream we floated by an odd scene of five women doing yoga on their riverside dock.  And along the way was a C.O. that scared the crap out of me sitting on a rock stream side.  I think he was counting canoes and kayaks.  At least that would explain why he had a table in his hand that he was looking at as we passed by.  The girls ended up ahead of us and that worked out okay for us to just chat and catch up with each other.  The trip was supposed to be 4 hours, but we finished in 3.5 hours, even with the flow of the river being low.

To reward ourselves we headed back to Fitgers Brewery and dived into some great wild rice burgers smothered in mushrooms & cheese, sweet potato fries, and frosty mugs of Big Boat Oatmeal Stout beer (of which I ended up buying a growler of to take home with me).  I love that beer!  We wrapped up the day with a few other activities and then checked the weather for the next day before going to bed.

Sunday we slept in a bit.  Jen and I hadn't slept well in like five days, but the spare bed in Chad and Sarah's house fixed that both nights.  We slept very well and it was hard to tell ourselves to get up and not sleep the day away.  Eventually, we did get up and get going.  Today's agenda was to add a couple of miles to the bicycles on the Munger Trail.  Which, coincidentally, ended right at the house.  The rain had stopped, the sun came out along with a light breeze.  Another perfect day for our plans.   I recommend taking a ride/hike/run/walk or what ever on the Munger trail.  It was very nicely groomed, and if like looking at scenic views or going through what feels like old woods without too much effort, this is a must do.  The very curvy drive up to our drop off spot was fun scenic too. 

Over all it was a very relaxing time, which Jen and I really needed.

www.critters-corner.com

Fishing on the lake with Kate

Weather: Sunny to Partly cloudy
Air Temp: mid to high 70's

Water Temp: 75 degrees

Wind: 15-25mph

A couple of weeks ago Kate and I decided we needed to set a day to go fly fishing together. With the memory of my last hot day of fishing in waders, I thought it be best to hit a lake. So today we went up to my parents lake home to try our hand fly fishing for bass and sunfish.

Kate arrived at my place at 9am, we transferred her stuff to my Tahoe, hit the gas station for a Snickers and Mountain Dew breakfast, and headed North. Along the way we may have gotten a little too into our conversation and we may have missed our exit. So with a couple of extra miles added to our commute we got to the parents house, loaded the boat and hit the water.

We found our first spot sort of out of the wind where we thought something would be on the north west side of the lake. It didn't take long for me to realize that I left a gear bag in the truck where my seven or eight boxes of bass flies. We fished for a little while with a lack of any activity we swung back by the house to pick up the bag-o-flies.

We returned back to the North side of the lake in a different lilly pad area that felt like it should have had something. I was sure I was on to something with three other fishing boats scattered about the area. But after an hour or so of nothing, we headed south to a connecting lake to try our luck.

We anchored at a spot that I have had a good history of catching bass and pan fish in. We started fishing and I got a hit. I pulled in what I thought would be a sunfish and it turned out to be an ok sized crappie. Score, I am no longer skunked....but wait, now Kate needs to get something. I landed two more crappies, when Kate delivered and landed a very peachy pastel colored sunfish. Very pretty specimen I thought. Kate lost a couple of good fish that were biting off her flies. We were having good success with dark colored (browns, blacks, etc) weighted Woolly Buggers fished deep at the bottom of the six feet of water that were in.

Then we had some excitement. I had switched from my 9 weight rod to my 6 weight rod with a brown bead head woolly bugger. I saw a flash of fish smash my fly and take it to the bottom. Some excited words jumped from my lips and Kate got excited! I carefully played the fish back up to see what it was as I was lazy and hadn't switched my leader on this rod setup to my lake leader from my 6x leader. I was sure that whatever this was, it would win. When it came up we saw that it was a very nice sized walleye. My fear of losing my catch fell to half of what it was. Yes it still has teeth, and yes I am still using what ever light test line a 6x leader is, but at least you can wear out a walleye a heck of a lot quicker than a pike.

He came up, and then went back down several times. I think we danced for close to four or five minutes, giving Kate plenty of time to reel in her line and get the net out from being tied into my vest at the bottom of the boat. With a successful landing, we measured it and it was my 2nd biggest walleye to date that I have caught. It came in at 22" and a mean toothy smile. We snapped a couple of quick pictures and returned him to the water. With only 15-20 seconds of reviving him, it took of to the deep water.

Who does that? Who goes fishing for bass and sunfish in shallow water and catches crappies and a big walleye...well, obviously "THIS GUY" does. That was well worth the overall slowness in fishing action we had. And I think anyone who knows me knows my opinion of walleyes does not match those of most Minnesotans, and I am still pumped about it anyways!

We fished a little bit longer, getting a couple more hits and losing a few more flies before we decided to head back to the dock and hang it up for the day. We had spent 5 hours in total out on the water, watching birds, cranes, pelicans, tons of dragon flies and damsel flies. Kate experienced her first time fly fishing out of a boat, and I think she walked away not afraid to try it again. Dad was awesome, not only did he let us take out his boat for the day, he fixed my weed whacker and barbecued hot dogs for us for luppper (late lunch/early supper).

I did get a lot fried today, I have applied lots of layers of Aloe, and we are not done yet for the day. Remember the flies that I left in the Tahoe...well, the 50 SPF sunscreen was in there too, but I guess that wasn't at the forefront of my mind. :)