A GREAT DAY ON THE WATER

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Little did I know when I took the booking that it would be one of my more memorable and in lighting two days of guiding that I have experienced.

Steve had called me and requested two day in the second week of June, he said he was from the Milwaukee area, was in his 60's, and his son Bob was in his 40's, and that too many years had slipped away since they had spent some quality time on the water together. As soon as I hung up the phone my mind was racing ahead to the second week of June, this should be prime time for Smallies, might even be some on the beds at that time if we would have a late spring, and the Walleye will have recovered from there spawning and will be on the feed!.This can be nothing but two days of the greatest fishing, exactly what Steve was looking for right?

As I headed for the local coffee shop on the first day of the outing, I tuned the radio to the weather report, partly cloudy skies, south west wind at 5 to 10 m.p.h, and high temperature of 71, you could not ask for better weather conditions. The back table at the coffee shop has a gathering of Business men, retired Game Wardens, State Troopers, local Law Enforcement officers, a Doctor, a Judge, and several of my guiding buddies. Although many world problems are solved here, the usually conversation is fishing or hunting, and this day was no different. After comparing notes with my guiding cronies it was time to pick up my clients.

When I parked in front of the sport shop, Steve and Bob were already there waiting for me, we got some bait and headed to the lake. On our way to the lake Steve was saying how he and Bob had been looking forward to this trip so they could take a break from their demanding work schedule and get a couple of days to just relax and enjoy the north woods, and I'm thinking catch a lot offish also!

The lake has a good population of bass, and gets a lot of fishing pressure, especially at this time of the year. Today would be no exception, as the parking lot was almost full when we arrived. We launched the boat and headed out on the lake, although there were a lot of boats on the water I didn't think there would be a problem, as the lake is rather large, and has a lot of structure that holds fish. There were still some bass around the beds, but most had moved out already, and there were quite a few boats working this area, I decided to move out to the rocky drop off adjacent to the area.

The tackle I use for smallmouth bass is a 6 1/2 foot medium action spinning rod and reel, with 6 pound test mono. A leech on a #4 plain hook, with a small split shot 18" up is a dynamite technic, another great lure for early smallmouth is a tube jig. We started using both presentations, we worked the drop off for about 30 minutes, getting four bass all about 14", not really what I was hoping for. One of the patterns the develops early in the seasons, and especially on this lake, is that the bass relate to the docks. The first dock we tried, Bob hooked into a heavy 19" smallie, and the action never let up. By lunch time Steve and Bob boated, and released 42 smallies, the biggest one a dandy 21".

We loaded the boat and headed to town for a quick burger and then to a lake that I had been having good success on walleye. I had been on the lake two days earlier, and had found the walleye relating to a area of submerged timber. We were using 1/8 ounce timber jigs tipped with a minnow, it wasn't long before the first walleye was landed. The lake has a slot limit, 14" to 18" were protected, with one over 18", and a bag limit of three. The first half dozen were in the slot, which made for good "rod bending" action. The day ended up with six keepers just under 14", there were two fish over the slot that were released. Bob had been keeping count and said the total was 28 walleye.

As we were headed back to the bait shop, I was thinking 42 smallmouth,28 walleye, not too shabby!, before I could suggest we repeat the plan, Steve said that tomorrow he would like to go to a lake that didn't have a lot of other boats, and one that was quiet. The area where we were getting the walleye was near a highway, and traffic noise. I told Steve I knew of such a lake, but was not confident of producing fish, they decided to give it a try.

We were the only boat at the landing, so far so good, and I knew there would be no traffic noise, the only road is the one leading to the landing. This is a very pristine lake with no shoreline development. As we started across the lake, in a tall pine sat two large Bald Eagles, Steve grabbed his camera and took several pictures. We started working a rocky shore line for bass, no bass but six curious otters were checking us out, and Steve was shooting more pictures. Our next area was timber for walleye, no walleye, only a Doe with her twin fawns that had come down for a drink. We pulled up on a island to eat our lunch, we had two small walleye to show for our efforts. While we were eating our lunch, Steve got several pictures of a Mallard hen and her recently hatched young that were busy hunting insects along the shore line. The afternoon was not much better, producing two more small walleye, and one small northern. As we moved around the lake, Steve was busy with his camera, getting shots of Osprey, Canada geese, Muskrat, and 5 Sandhill cranes.

As we were loading the boat and getting ready to return to the sport shop, I'm hoping the conversation on the way back centers around the success of the first day. As soon as we started down the landing road to the highway, Steve turned to Bob and said "wasn't this the greatest day we ever spent on the water together"!!

Remember the next time your on the water, whether the fishing is great or maybe sometime not so great, don't forget to enjoy the display that nature puts on every day.

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