Lake Michigan

Well I went up to the big lake this week. I really wasn't going to go up til next month, but I noticed the weather was going to be perfect so I thought I would give it a shot. I called a couple guys from work to see if they wanted to go but no takers. I woke up at 1:30 am and couldn't sleep, so I got up and started to get around. I packed up my 3 poles and set out at 3 am.
I got to the dock and met Mike, the charter captain of Brother Nature, and he said they have been catching 'em out by the wreck. Good enough for me,  I ran the 8 miles to the wreck and set lines.
This is my mom's kind of fishing, just look for all the boats and go there. There were plenty of boats around and the radio had people sayin where, what on, and how many they were catching. I was at a distinct disadvantage with only being able to put out 3 lines.
My first taker was around 9am, a nice coho. I thought my luck was changing and I will be filling the cooler.


A couple hours after I caught my coho I started switching up and doing some radio fishing- that's what its called when you go where they are catching 'em and by using what they are saying they are using.

A couple hours after that I was still struggling, I was switching lures and depths regularly.

Then all of a sudden it happened, my right rigger pole started bouncing like it had a fish on it. I jumped up grabbed the pole and started reeling in the slack and I was right, there was a fish on it. After realizing the fish was on the line I neglected to pop the line out of the clip, and before I could snap out of my daze, he got off.  Just that quick from a hero to a zero.

I think this is one of my better drawings... what do you think?

 I kicked myself the rest of the day for this - take an idiot fishing day - moment.
After giving it alot of thought I figured it was a steelhead that took the orange spoon on the slider off the main line. That's why I could feel the fish and not have the line pop out of the clip, I'm guessing it was a steelhead because they LOVE orange.

Anyway I lasted til 6 pm just trolling around the Lake and marking bait balls and many fish. I'm not sure why I couldn't get them to bite but that's why they call it fishing and not catching.

It's ok though, I had a great day anyway

What I did for Summer Vacation

I went home to MN for vacation this year. Sarah and I left on Tues. morning a made it home Tues. night. While we were home we stayed in Mom and Dad's camper- very plush accommodations.
Since I only get home once a year my mom has the family over one of the days so I can see everyone. I  also went to Gander,Marine General and the local sporting goods store. I did find some stuff I couldn't live without.
I even went out for some pizza with my best friend from the Falls, Steve. Thanks for a great catch up session and pizza, by the way next year I get to buy the tips.
After all the shopping and visiting was over with, it was time to go fishing.

 I went out to Eagle Lake twice, with my Dad and Uncle Reg. My Uncle Reg has a cabin on the Eagle and knows all the hot spots.

As always I went fishing with my cousin Corey. We went to Fish Lake and drifted for some walleye.

Then the last trip I went on was with my Uncle Rick, who has a cabin on Rainy Lake on the Ontario side. I was only able to spend a couple days, but still had a great time.

I had to split up the movie I made of Rainy because it was too big unfortunately the end product turned out a little grainy. 
PART 1

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PART 2

After all was said and done we had a great vacation. I want to thank everyone that made that happen, especially my wife who let me stop at Cabela's on the way home.

Got Rain????

This was from one downpour today, it rained hard for about 20 mins. I don't think I have to say anything else.

  I was on the computer and remembered I parked on the street to get the truck out today. The muffler was completely underwater but the inside was still dry when I moved it. It did start up with no hesitation or problems.

Monster shrooms

On Thursday I went back down to Mississinewa where I found the first batch of shrooms. I had some trouble finding more but then they just started to appear.

 

 

 

Then I found this monster, it's the largest of my career.

 Well they were getting close to done (kinda dried up) so I decided to try further North (for some fresher shrooms). Bad idea, I looked for a couple hours but couldn't find another shroom on any of the other 2 properties I tried. Well if I go next week I'll stay closer to home and try for some.

2011 Turkey season

 After weeks of waiting turkey season finally arrived and it went a little something like this:
                     Approx.-2 min

 Well as you can see my Mississenewa hunt didn't go well at all. Since I had such a bad hunt this year I will not ever put in for a draw down there again.


I did get a couple no show draws at Mongo and my mood was lifted dramatically.  My hunts there went a little something like this:
                   Approx.- 6 min

 

Well that was last week, and since it was turkey season, and the weather has been sooo wet. I let my yard work kinda pile up, so I have worked my butt off to get caught up. I got all my yards mowed and even trimmed some bushes, and yanked some others.

 The last couple of weeks the weather has been cold and rainy. Then yesterday summer showed up, at a sweltering 89 degrees.
Needless to say I still made it out for my first day on the boat. It's a huge relief to be able to get the outboard to fire up and push the boat across the lake on the first outing.
I went to Max. and caught a couple smallies off the beds. Then moved to Winona and caught a largemouth from under a dock.