Friday, August 22, 2008

Under the Lowry Bridge

When the county closed the Lowry Avenue Bridge, they may have inconvenienced some people. For river anglers, though, it's made for much quieter and more peaceful fishing.

Even on a slow night--and I've had a few lately--you can usually fool a smallie or two there.

August skies



Monday, August 11, 2008

Dog meets catfish



Last night, Daisy was intrigued by Hesler's channel cat. We caught a handful off John's dock.

Yup, another chicken liver caper successfully perpetrated on the mighty river.

For the first time in a couple of years

I kept and ate fish I caught on the Mississippi. I thought the meal turned out pretty tasty but Hesler, my fishing companion on the outing, only sampled it.

Can't say for certain if that was due to my cooking or his concern about eating fish from polluted waters or some combination thereof.

Fortunately, River John, who did not share those worries, stopped over and split the feasting duties with me.

RIP, big walleye


Lily and Lucy conduct a burial service for a big, freshly dead walleye that washed ashore at the Hines place August 7.

Camping


J and I camped for two days in late July. We tramped around a good stretch of northeast Minnesota.

The first night we stayed on the St. Louis River, just north of Floodwood. The next day, we fished a small rapids under a nearby bridge. I kept two smallies and a walleye, which we cooked that night after a mighty search for another suitable camp spot. In the end, we found a pretty little wilderness lake in the Chippewa, Cottonwood Lake. We had the place to ourselves.

We managed to stay dry despite a wild late night thunderstorm. The next morning, we zig-zagged our way to Cass Lake, mainly on Forest Service roads. I shot the lillypads on a little trout lake on the road from Blackduck.



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!