Fast and Furious in the Northwoods

Crappie fishing has been excellent during June on northwoods area lakes. Cooler than usual nights and bright, cloudless days have pushed crappies, gills and bass off spawning beds, forcing fishermen to spend more time looking for active fish in weeds.

By mid-June crappies lost interest in minnows, as is usually the case, and have been chasing plastics. Clouds and light wind are fisherman's most welcome when jigging for hungry, post spawn fish.

I was treated to a small surprise this morning when retrieving my minnow bucket. A fawn had curled up for a rest under our dock, no doubt while mom was out searching for breakfast. Less than two feet apart, we startled one another.

Daughter Emily is headed this way from Kansas City the second week of July. Her timing might be perfect for peak fishing as the lakes are running two to three weeks late due to delayed ice out. However, swimming will likely be a bit on the chilly side.

We are headed out tomorrow looking for smallmouth action on a big lake. We should do well provided we get some cloud cover.

Time to Go Fishing

After a career that started in 1969,  I will officially retire this week. I'll be saying goodbye to the great Allied 100 team above and making many changes. Having moved to the North Woods more than ten years ago, Diane and I have had time to find many good fishing lakes. Starting this weekend, we hope to start finding many more.

The boat is in the shop, but should be ready today. After the coldest, snowiest spring on record, the weather is about to break in our favor. The fish will soon be heading to the banks for late spawn.

We won't  fish every single day. There are plenty of other projects to keep us busy. But it's nice to know we could if we wanted to.

The poles have been re-spooled. The tackle boxes have been re-organized. The motor has new plugs. It's time to go! Watch this blog for frequent fishing reports.

Enough Already!

It's April 18, 2013. Last year at this time the dock was in. The boat was out of storage. The snow and ice was long gone. This year, it's still snowing and the ice on our small lake is still close to three feet thick. Our ten day forecast does not have temps rising above the mid forties. It all likelihood, there will still be ice on the lakes come May 4.

Migrating birds are arriving but have little open water. Animals are coming out of hibernation, but struggling to find food. Our bird and deer feeders are overrun with critters.

Sadly, one critter, my guess a rabbit, decided the cedar beards of my garage would do for dinner. I found extensive damage to the bottom of the warm, wet boards on the south face.  Hopefully deer stink spray will discourage further gnawing until repairs are made later this spring.

People up north are suffering severe cabin fever. Few are willing to debate global warming.

The Love Shack has a Rough Night

I discovered last night why our canvas ice fish hut is portable and no one leaves them out over night.

Since my knee is in need of replacement, I decided to leave our portable ice fishing shelter. the Love Shack, out for a few weeks instead of trying to pull it up the steep rise behind our house. After three weeks of sitting there looking good and cozy, an Alberta Clipper came through and rolled it end over end, scattering the seats, scoops and hand axe into deep drifts. I rescued the shelter and pulled it to the bank.

There is a serious flaw with design of this hut. Folded down to escape the wind, the plastic base will fill with snow. Folded up, the canvas is sure to catch the wind and blow down.  I see an opportunity to improve this design and sell an improved weather safe, drift -proof hut. Anyone? I'll take 10%.

My wife of 44 years tolerates my silly joke about the Love Shack. Huddled inside in three layers of cloths around a propane heater, plucking tiny fish from ice water, we are not likely to have a Cialis moment.

Steelhead Fishing By Friend Mark

All of my fishing is done on calm area lakes these days. But during my youth my friend Mark and I waded Ferson's creeks in search of bass hiding under bank bushes, or in the Fox River, then so polluted we knew not to keep the ones that glowed in the dark.

Mark today lives in the Pacific northwest and has moved upscale with his techniques. I thought you would enjoy his report from last week...

I left Sunday morning around 0730. My friend Gary was coming from Seattle, trailer in tow. We converged in Aberdeen, WA, about 2 hours north of here, and spent a few hours there with cameras wandering alleys and streets in a town “untouched by prosperity.” It’s a blue collar working class industrial logging and wood processing place. I’ve driven through it dozens of times but never stopped. It’s a wonderfully awful place. We plan to go back and spend a couple of days devoted to photos. Two hours further north put us on the Hoh River in Minnie Pedersen campground: maybe 15 sites, with amenities consisting of an outhouse, fire pit, and a picnic table. We had plenty of water onboard and a generator for 110 VAC. We brought a bunch of firewood, but evenings were rainy and not conducive to campfire sitting – only 2 fires in 5 nights. To gauge our level of sophistication, here is our DVD selection: 2001-A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, The Bank Dick, and a Three Stooges Compilation. Eh??

Monday we drove the access road and bank fished. At a favorite spot called Morgan’s Crossing (for unknown reasons) I caught a fish is less than an hour. It was a 14-15 pound hen, native fish (not hatchery), that hammered my fly and nearly took the rod out of my hands when she struck. The Dean River fish was probably 18-20 pounds for comparison. It took 5-10 min to bring her into the shallows. No jumps out of water, she just hunkered down in the current like a Chinook salmon. When I moved her inland, I tail-grabbed her and extracted the barbless hook from her jaw. She’s now back out there somewhere.

Tues we put in pontoon boats on the upper river. We floated about 8 miles to take out on a gravel bar near camp. The river level was low, below average, and parts of the float were treacherous. On the upper section we had to negotiate numerous exposed boulders/rocks that would cause serious damage to a boat and to an oarsman. Near the bottom end, the river split in two channels. The right was minimal water and un-floatable, the left looked better. But as I came around a corner I could see that downed trees were completely blocking the channel. I got out in time to avoid a disaster, warned my friend of trouble, and schlepped my boat around the obstruction.  

Weds we did some more bank fishing in the morning, and spent the afternoon with cameras. Thurs was a camera day.

New Propane Powered Auger Rates a Wow!

After ten years my old Jiffy would no longer start. Eager to get out on the ice, I popped over to the local bait store to buy a new one. Luckily, the young salesperson recommended the Jiffy Pro 4. This uses the 1 quart propane tank. Also, luckily they were out of the 8 inch units, so I opted for the 9 inch. Turns out size does indeed make a difference.

The lone drawback to the new Jiffy Pro 4 is its weight. It is very heavy. You won't want to carry it far. Plan on using your sled or driving to your location.

Count on this!

One of my partner's tasks onboard the boat is to maintain our fish count. We seldom keep a lot of fish, but it is always fun to know how we are doing. It also helps us avoid making a mistake and keeping more than a limit. Diane wears a counter like the one above around here neck.

Most days I out catch Diane by a few, buy not always. The count helps me realize when she is doing something right. I am not shy about switching to her tactics.

Big Bass Coming Soon!

The photo above is not me, and that's not my fish...but I caught one very much like it.

Last fall I caught a very nice 22 inch largemouth bass "on an area lake." I had actually caught him a number of times the past few years, but this day I decided it was time to fill the last remaining open spot on the den wall.

I agonize over taking a trophy and have released many. I rationalized last fall the bass was about to pass from old age anyway. This is probably not the least bit true, but it was the best I could come up with.

The normal wait with our local taxidermist is a bit over six months. Why so long? First, deer season has intervened and soaked up a lot of his time. Second, he has a lot of fish because he does a great job. It's worth the wait to get the job done right. That's why I strongly recommed the good folks at North Country Taxidermy Studio in Hazlehurst, WI, They have done three trophies for us so far, working on the fourth, and each has been first rate.

My wife was not 100% onboard with me mounting the largemouth. She said it was because taxidermiy is expensive. But truth is, for the past nine years, her bass has been the largest on the den wall.  In about five weeks her's will have serious competition.

The Essential Slip Bobber

I grew up fising in creeks and rivers, using fixed bobbers to drift baits over holes and to slide them downstream into eddies. I caught a large number of catfish and carp with this technique, but was always prejudiced that it was lazy fishing. Who hasn't seen images of a guy sleeping on the bank over an unattended pole? And who would not prefer the thrill of a cast and retrieve strike on a spinner or crank bait?

Slip bobbers are a completely different deal. In fact, there are many times when they are the only presentation that will take fish.

You can learn everything you need about slip bobbers in the books of Greg Bohn. They are well worth the read.

Be aware that what works one day may not work the next. Or even the next hour. I have seen aggresive fish that one day will hit only cast baits, and slip bobber baits the next. I have no idea why. I didn't get the memo.

I do recommend fishing with one pole at a time. You might be tempted to throw out a slip bobber rig and cast to either side of it. But two things will likely go wrong. First, you need to be ready to respond to the bite on the slip bobber. You may also need to twitch the bobber occasionally to provoke the bite. Take your hand off the bobber pole and you will miss more than half the action. Second, you might, as I have more than once, catch two fish simultaneously. I landed and good size smallmouth bass and a midling northern clentching the second pole between my knees. It was not a pretty site. This is a good way to lose fish and break tackle.

All the Tackle You Need…in the Palm of One Hand

If you are an experienced fisherman, you don’t need this advice. Stay with what works for you and enjoy your time on the water. 

For the rest of you, listen up. We have had great results here in the upper Midwest with a very limited amount of gear. We regularly pass over hundreds of dollars worth of tackle in our boxes for these proven lures: jigs in three colors, tails in four.

Like most fishermen, we vary our presentation based on time of year, water and air temperature, weed growth, and water clarity. 

In April our first crappies fishing starts with slip bobbers. Cold water fish like to study the bait...a small minnow.

In May, we slow fish a jig tipped with a minnow. Most of the lakes we fish are clear to tea colored. In these waters our favorite combination is white jig with a purple creme tube jig. 

In June, as the water warms, we fish minnow-free. The crappies tear up the tubes, so always have plenty on hand.

Size of the jig seems more important than the color. We use the smallest size jig possible for the wind and casting conditions. Crappies sometimes wait for the jig to rest on the bottom, but more active fish will chase down a slowing falling jig. The slower the fall the better.

White jigs and purple tails work well most of the time. Chartreuse sometimes work better if the water is on the murky side. Black jig heads can boost the bite on sunny days. Bass are particularly fond of the black jigs and rusty tails.

It is amazing how many big bass, northern pike and even Muskies we've landed on jigs as small as 1/32 oz. while crappie fishing.

We always maintain a good supply of white, black and chartreuse jigs in sizes 1/32 to 1/4 oz. When you discover what the fish are hitting on, you don't want to run out.

Cleaning and Repacking Tackle Boxes

During warm weather fishing I seldom take a moment on the water to care for the arrangement of the tackle boxes. Lures are trimmed off line and tossed in. Nested items get knocked out of place from drops. This is a testament to both fast fishing action and shear laziness. But once a year, during winter, I dump everything out, sort the items, trim off old line, remove unidentifiable organic matter, and carefully repack.

We have four main boxes:

The Jig Box – Used 99% of the time. Hooks, Sinkers, Slip bobbers. Jigs. Tails.

The Heavy Box ­–  The expensive plugs, spinners, and wiggly things I bought and almost never use.

The Musky Box – The really expensive baits and rigs we almost never use.

The Ice Box – Tiny jigs, depth weights, and spoons. Used when my leg allows me to get out on the ice.

Like most “serious” fishermen, we have hundreds of dollars worth of tackle. Maybe thousands. Yet year after year we end up using a gold hook and split shot, or a jig tipped with a minnow or leach to catch virtually all the fish. More on this in our next post.

The photo above is not one of our actual boxes. But we bet it looks a lot like yours at season’s end.