Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Laker!

Arnie and I snuck up north on Monday to wade the St. Louis River with PK. The fishing there was good--not spectacular, as I have to come to expect--but we caught enough for a nice dinner of fresh smallies.

The next morning, PK took us out on the Gitch, where we managed to fool a nice Laker with a preposterous-looking watermelon spoon. We were trolling in about 30 feet of water off Stony Point.

Jen and I ate that fish last night and it was dee-lish-US!

A grab bag on the 'Sip

My home waters here on the Mississippi were quite fishy the other day. Tropical Bill (shirtless, as usual) rode around in the boat while I harassed smallies. I also managed to land a nice cat in the a.m. As you can see from my full extended arm, I had trouble squeezing the entire kitty into the frame. That's one definition of a nice fish, I guess.

Rock on!

I took Lucy fishing on Cass Lake a couple of times last week. The bite was generally slow--I only had a few dink walleyes and perch to show for my efforts. The exception was the rock bass, which, fortunately, were ferociously hungry.

So I say, "Rock on, you crazy rock bass!"

Friday, July 11, 2008

Here there be cohos


On June 29, J and I paid a visit to PK and Cindy in Duluth. We fished the Gitch, which was uncharacteristically calm. As you can see from the image of PK in the boat, it was downright relaxing. The fishing wasn't spectacular but we managed to land one coho. It hit a stick bait trolled on the downrigger in about 20 feet of water. I think we were in vicinity of the French River.

At first, we weren't sure what we caught. We suspected it was a laker, mainly because that seemed to be what other anglers were getting. A happy dude who pulled into McQuade Safe Harbor as we were setting out had a livewell full of lakers, one of which was enormous.

But our fish didn't look like his lakers and the fillets--freaking delicious, by the way--were bright pink. So I thought it might be a pink salmon. After consulting the available literature in PK's fish library, I finally concluded our finny friend was a coho.

The dog is Sophie. Shortly after this photo was taken, while we were having a bonfire on the Superior shoreline, she scampered across Highway 61. We thought she was gone. She came back about 10 minutes later, but that was the end of her off leash privileges.