PETE
RIEDESEL

Just Fishing

Weekend Report

Sun, May 13, 2012

This weekend was much more standard. Or at least as standard as weekends can be. My daughter was 19 yesterday. You’ll have to trust me whan I say that makes you feel old. The wife was taking her shopping at Macys. Cam and I decided to hit shabbona. This was our first trip here for this season. After catching 70 or so bass last weekend, we were ok with chunking around for muskies again. We’ve mostly got it figured out and usually catch them AND the weather was going to be nice. Friday night I did my walk with my wife in shorts after dark. That hasn’t happened too often this year. The chance of rain was only 30 percent.

As we pulled away from the house there was lightning out to the east. Great! Was the weatherman going to be wrong again? Cam and I had packed shorts as the weather was suppose to clear and warm later in the morning. The wind was blowing around 10 mph. That was suppose to be about as high as it would get for the day and the sun wasn’t up yet. We continued watching the lightning. And it started to drizzle. Air temps were in the high 40’s. I didn’t have a lot of the warm gear as it was still in the laundry pile from last weekend. We were going to wish we had that stuff. The drizzle as we launched was getting us cold pretty quick. I got about halfway to our first spot when a horrible thought crossed my mind. I HAD PULLED THE DRAIN PLUG for the ride home that started in a down pour last weekend from up north. I hadn’t put it back in! I spun the boat around and headed back to the launch. I then just decided to pull up my sleeve and reached in and jammed it back in. Cam hit the bilge and we just sat there a while. I opened the many compartments and they were all soaked. What a start.

After I got done scolding myself and I squeezed the water I could out of my sleeve, and a few of the things we pulled out of the storage area, we got down to fishing. We liked the overcast and that not many people were out yet. They probably had gotten a more accurate weather report! The first hour passed quickly and shortly after Cam shouted those magic words, ” GOT ONE”.

I looked back to see a nice muskie already thrashing on the surface about thirty feet out. Besides throwing water this ski was also doing a death roll. I went for the net while I encouraged Cam. The fish started pulling hard to our left and he steadily pulled drag for about ten feet. I could now see that the fish only had one hook left in his mouth and the line was wrapped around his head and gill. The fish then suddenly shot under the boat. I yelled to Cam about holding the rod hard away from the boat out over the water. He was grunting as he encouraged this wild fish out from under the boat. I told Cam we didn’t have long and that he needed to lean back and see if he could turn the fishes head to me. He did this and all in one motion I got the net under the muskie. He exploded in the net and drenched me and unhooked himself. We celebrated. And then got a picture. As I handed this fish to Cam I couldn’t believe how thick it was. It was only 36 1/2 inches but I’ll bet it was ever bit of 14 pounds or better. The fish in this lake are usually health but this fish was a mutant.

 

 

We happily put on the rain gear as the rain picked up. Both our boots had been soaked when I forgot the plug so we had to stay in our gym shoes. Over the course of the rest of our trip that would make us both extra cold when our shoes soaked through. We hoped for more fish but that wouldn’t happen. We began bouncing around trying to run into another ski. The rest of the morning passed without so much as a follow.

Cam was wearing out and getting real cold as we plotted for the end. We needed to get home and spend some time with the birthday girl anyhow. Before we left I had to make one more run across the weedbed that had produced Cam’s fish. It was the right call as I leaned back on a fish. At first I thought it was a bass as it didn’t feel that big and wasn’t fighting much. Then it realized it was hooked and got angry. This time Cam slipped the net under my nice little ski.

 

 

How about my look with that hood up? All I can say is I have more brain cells than it appears I have in that photo!

 

We were happy to trailer the boat and put the heater on in the car. I don’t think the temps ever got above 52 or so.

 

We knew with today being Mother’s Day we wouldn’t be away from home much, but figured a quick trip to LaSalle for a couple hours before everyone was up would work. Ellen gave it the ok. Wind was blowing hard and again it was chilly. The bass haven’t been to cooperative out there but usually I can find them. It was tough but we did find 10 or so including one well over 4 pounds. We tried to get a pic with both of us in it as we hadn’t done that in a while. The wind made it super tough and this is what we got.

 

 

We called it before nine and then headed for the launch. Wind made it super difficult and I wound up on top of the river guide again. After some serious monkeying around I finally got it on the trailer and we headed home for church. The rest of the day has been about celebrating mom. Gotta go. Time for our walk. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there. I hope you had a special day.

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Like a box of chocolates…

Mon, May 07, 2012

Previously I mentioned this past weekend was going to be about fishing. It was. The discussion as the week began was on the fact the the northwoods was opening fishing season for many of its gamefish. This first weekend is something I did with my father many times and Cam was quick to bring up maybe we should go. Ok, he didn’t say maybe. The weather report up there was for good fishing conditions as of Monday. I started getting excited. I hadn’t committed to going by Wednesday but knew I’d need a hotel soon if we were going to go. The weahter report was worsening. I decided to make the call and do the long run north. By the time we got to the end of the week we were already packed up and ready to fly out the door. The weahter now looked pretty iffy. I’m not much for cancelling and Cam has no experience with unfishable weather. Now he does. But we didn’t know that as we flew north. We got up Saturday full of anticipation. The 3 previous days had been warm but storms were moving in and the temps were in the upper 40’s. It said the high would be 59. If it got there it was very short lived. Fortunately the weahter held most of the day with east winds around 12 mph. Our plan was to fish a bunch of lakes but we traditional start at Lake Tomahawk on the Minocqua chain. We began looking for largemouths.

Cam hooked the first fish on the second cast and landed a nice 15 incher. After all the work to get up there and the worrying over being rained out it was great to have one in hand. The fish it turns out were pretty fussy though. We got one here and there but nothing consistant. The other thing that was noticeable was the boat traffic. Openers aren’t always crowded but the lake was pretty busy all day. Not all the traffic was fisherman as many were tooling around in pontoons, prehaps just getting them in for the season, but there were lots of people out and lots of people in town.

After a couple of hours we decided it was time to switch over to smallies. No big secret to this. We went from emerging weeds and wood to rock. We would get a fish here and a fish there. And we were thrilled to be fishing. My rule of thumb is to fish more than you drive. You can do this on a weekend dash if you fish like crazy. That was the plan and it was working. The forecast had said rain was 50-50. So far so good.

After floating around eating lunch we headed off to try some new spots. And we found them. A bunch of smallies was sitting just off a rock shelf at the first break. Using a suspending jerkbait you could get them to attack if you could fish slow enough and make the bait tantalizing enough. We started putting fish in the boat. The weather was cool but fine and we were having a ball. Most of the fish were in the 13 to 15 inch range and we were fine with that.

 

After we got a few they would shut down and we would re-drift and throw small grubs and tubes at them and get a few more. As the afternoon wore on we decided to move to another area of the lake and see if the largemouths were going to turn on. The water was in the low fifties and we knew they had been sluggish in the morning so we went real shallow. We explored a little cut where some people have docks for houses just off the water and Cam started screeching as he was looking down at dozens and dozens of fish. Small bass and bluegills were everywhere. Cam tosses his senko in and fish ran to it. He was pretty excited and pulled the bait away a couple times but they had to have it and he hooked a bunch of little bass.

 

 

As the fish got wise they started to get a little tougher to catch. But we kept moving and catching for quite some time. It seemed like a lot longer than it was when we worked our way back out into the lake. We floated around enjoying the experince and had our dinner. We were discussing running around to other shallow water spots when it began to drizzle. We hadn’t really noticed but the clouds had thickened and the temps which weren’t warm to begin with had dropped. We were a long ways from the launch so were decided to spot hop back and hope the rain would go away. We went back to catching smallies off the rocks but the rain kept coming. At that point the cold starts to remind you you’ve been going pretty hard and this was getting tough. We tried to hang in but the rain kept coming so we said uncle around 6. We were pretty wet when we got back to the hotel. We hung out and began to relax for the evening.

The next day’s weather was the next order of business. The radar told a sad story. It was horrible out west and coming right at us. We only had part of Sunday to fish but we wanted to use it. For this kind of quickie run it was necessary to make the trip worthwhile. We had dodged trouble on Saturday till the end and now we just needed a little more help to have a spectacular weekend. It wasn’t going to happen.

I was up early and putting on the coffee when the computer popped on to the weather. Massive storm clouds had been around most of the night and were just beginning to cover the entire northern half of Wisconsin moving in from the west. The air temps were around fourty degrees. This was the worst case senerio. Cam got up as I was having breakfast and I told him the bad news. We were now on weather watch. It was pouring. Fast forward a couple hours. It was still pouring. A glimmer of hope did appear though. There seemed to be a small break in the clouds before a massive cell would move over the area later. While we watched Cam decided we should go swimming. This is something I would normally never consider. Then I looked his way again and could see he was ready for some kind of fun and it didn’t have to be fishing. We didn’t even have suits. We made due.

 

Cam jumped right in and as it turned out he struck up a conversation with the only two kids in the pool. They were two girls, one a sixth grader and her seventh grade sister. Within ten minutes they were playing like they had known each other for a long time. I wish I’d have had my camera. I chatted with the only two adults in the pool area. We hung out in the hot tub. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the room. The weather was breaking and we headed to the lake. It was cold but we were glad to be out. It was already 11 and we didn’t have long till we’d have to be on the road. Cam wanted to check for those little largemouth. It was fun to see that many fish in such a small area the day before. Of course they weren’t in there much with the weahter change. Fortunately a man at the hotel was bugging out and asked Cam if he wanted the nightcrawlers he wasn’t going to use. Cam had them and I switched him over to a small hook and bobber and he whacked bluegills for a half and hour.

 

Time was short and we moved out of that area to try for smallies one more time. It was windy and cold. The waves made it hard to feel the bite but I did get a couple and missed a couple more. Then it started to drizzle. We put on the rain gear and soldiered on. But remembering back to the radar pictures we had seen earlier we finally gave it up. It was raining pretty hard by the time we got back to the launch. I shot a couple last pictures before we made the long trek home.

 

 

What else could we do?

 

 

It was raining sideways with the wind blowing over 20 mph as we started home. The single lane roads were clogged with other vacationers heading south. The last I looked the entire state was practically engulfed in rain. Was this going to be a long trip. I called home after a half hour to let my wife know we were on our way and to check the weather. She said it should get better as we go and that behind us was a huge strom. We pretty much knew that part as we were still dripping wet and very disappointed. By the time we hit Wausa and hour into the trip the rain stopped. By Steven Points a half hour later the roads weren’t even wet. By Madison the air temps were in the mid-sixties and the wind dropped to nothing. And in our little piece of paradise it had been as rotten as it could be on one of the very worst days for us. All together Cam and I figured we may have just gotten in 12 hours of fishing for the 12 hours of driving we were now going to complete. Missing 8 hours or more on Sunday made that trip crazier than it already seemed.

 

Today I’m resolved not to get that crazy again. But with the passage of a little time for the disappointment to fade, along with the difficulty of going like nuts for 48 hours, I’ll probably be looking for my next opportunity soon.

 

At some point I’ll probably be considering offering a trip to this area as part of my guide service. Anyone who wants to talk about learning that area can call me.  Fishing Friend Guide Service 815 433-6109

 

 

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Blogging ??????

Tue, May 01, 2012

Where was I? Wow. Life sure had a different set of challenges for me there for a time. So then I think, should I catch up? Does anybody really care? I’ve always typed as if some out there want to hear what I have to say. So, continuing that line of thinking, here’s what’s been going on since my last post.

I was saying that I had a client who wanted to bass fish. As you remember, I was searching around during the week for bass. I wasn’t finding them. And then came Friday. It was a miserable day that surely was going to send the fish down to the bottom with a bad case of lock jaw. So I did the only thing I could do. I talked him into taking the long trip down to Spring with me. He wasn’t so sure, but he agreed.

After Les got to my house after having gotten up at 4:30, we began the next portion of the long journey down to Spring. It was fun for me as our conversation regularly turned to the many things he was observing on our trip through the heartland. When you take that trip as often as I do, you just take for granted all the enjoyment you can have observing the countryside going by. The time passed quickly.

As we launched the air temps were in the mid-forties. At that point I’m sure Les was having his doubts. Add to that an hour and a half of casting without a bite, not to mention having to pull weeds from the plug on almost every cast. Then I hooked up with a nice little ski. We were on the board. About 40 minutes later Les hooked up. He had a blast hauling another nice little muskie to the net.

 

The weather while not nice was getting a little milder as the morning wore on. About an hour later he hooked up again.
Muskie number two. And then 20 minutes later another bite, another battle, and another smile.

 

 

Along the way we also got a few small bass. And then after lunch I landed this nice one around 3 pounds.

 

 

A few more fish and we were working our way back to the launch by 3:00. My client was tried but happy. He had never caught 4 muskies in one outing. Given the challenging conditions I couldn’t have been happier.

 

And that was just the beginning of life’s little surprises. Cam was waiting for me when I got home. I reported our catch and he made me promise we’d return the next day. Actually I didn’t want to as the conditions were going to be worse and the front was gonna really take hold but he insisted. Rather than a blow-by-blow lets just say it was tough. I wasn’t feeling good. I suffer with migraine headaches and that weather had started one up during the night. I was medicating but not happy. Cam was fine early but started to complain mid-morning. He said it was his shoulder and the pain was pretty intense. He stopped fishing. I kept going and did catch a couple skis but Cam seemed worse so that was a regular conversation. At that point we thought maybe he had just slept funny. He still didn’t start up fishing. I started asking if he wanted to go but he insisted otherwise. Finally I decided we needed to go. The wind was really howling as we pulled away. I didn’t feel good but Cam was worse. He was now feverish. I stopped in Pekin to get him some medicine. I got it in him and he conked out. At home we took his temp and it was 102. We wouldn’t be going to school the next day. The plan was to take him to the doctor at 9AM. Unfortunately, I got the brillant idea that he was getting better on his own. My wife ahd told me it was strep and go get him meds. didn’t happen. Cam was fairly comfortable so we waited. Wife wasn’t happy when she got home from work but let me have my way as I wanted cam to fight this germ on his own. My daughter Emma was home the next day due to state wide testing of high school juniors. Being a senior she didn’t have to go but now had to watch Cam. Again he wasn’t great but the fever was going away. The next day with some motrin we sent him off to school He made his day and seemed better but was still complaining about a sore throat. When he woke up Thursday morning still complaining I took him to the doctor. Yep, you guessed it, strep throat. Jeez did I feel stupid. It doesn’t get much worse as a parent when you’ve let you kid suffer unnecessarily. But it wasn’t the first time I was dumb and surely won’t be the last. And Cam is now better. So that part of the story is over.

While spending this time at home I on and off was in the garage in the boat. I realized there was a bit of a list of things that needed to be taking care of. I called Cabelas in Hoffman Estates about bringing it over there Saturday. I took it over but unfortunately most of what needed work didn’t fall under warranty. Doesn’t that just figure! The boat is 13 months old with a bunch of 12 month warranty issues. Oh well. They were nice and spent the morning with me trying to figure out the locator, the live well areator, the batteries, and some cosmetic damage to the back of the boat. In the end they only charged me an hours labor but at 108 that stung a bit.

By the time I got home my daughter was in full prom mode. My wife had taken on most of the burden of getting her ready for the big day. As a dad, besides worrying I spent a lot of time reminising about one of my fishing buddies passing this huge milestone. Here’s an image of an earlier times that kept running through my head.

 

 

Where does the time go?

 

Even as she’s gotten older we’ve still managed to do a little fishing together and have done well at times.

 

 

But now its school and friends and boyfriend, and last Saturday prom. My little girl all grown up! I’d burst if I were any more proud!

 

 

Sunday morning got here and Emma was home and all was good. Unfortunately the weather still sucked but rather than stay at home I walked the pond for a couple hours. I got a couple stupid bass that didn’t get the don’t bite memo and some seriously cold hands.

 

And that about catches me up. I feel like I should invite you all over to see our home movies, but that’s just another practice that dates me to an age gone by. Next weekend is definately going to be about fishing.

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