Thursday, July 20, 2006
July 2006 Trip to Lake Michigan at Sheboygan, WI
Mel Anderson, Tom Tidemann, and I traveled to Sheboygan, WI and fished for King Salmon. We also caught a couple of really nice Rainbow Trout that went about 10+ pounds or so. Our hosts were Herb and Jane Tyler (Mel's brother-in-law). Herb has many years experience on Lake Michigan and was nice enough to share his boat and his expertise with us. We caught fish in 40 to 120 feet of water and were anywhere from 1 miles to 6 miles out. We arrived on Sunday and fished Monday and Tuesday morning, then drove to Sioux Falls Tuesday after we got off the water and our stuff packed up. The schedule is like this: get up at 2:50 am, drive out the edge of town where he stores his boat, hook up the boat,drive to the lake, on the water by 3:30, set up the down riggers, and sit back and wait for the action to start. Off the water by around 10 am, prep the days catch, eat breakfast, take a nap, eat dinner, go to bed and do it again the next day. Monday afternoon after our naps we went to Herb's Sportsman's Club and he gave us some pointers on shooting (which we all needed). Then we moved to the rifle range where Mel sighted in a rifle with Herb's help. Mel is preparing himself for his first deer hunt this fall in Gregory county, SD. (that outing I am sure will be reported here at a later date)
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
July 4, 2006 - May GOD BLESS the Good Guys.
Hail to the Good Guys of the World, and Happy Birthday America!
What better way to celebrate the 4th than to go fishing? I picked up Mel Anderson at 5:50 AM and we headed off to Lake Alvin with our fly fhishing tools. By 9 AM we're back in town at Boomers enjoying their $3 Special breakfast. Can it Get any better? Well it just might, cuze in about 10 days Mel, Tom and I head East to Lake Michigan in search of King Salmon. More on that trip after it happens (I guess that would only make sense.)
Lake Alvin, near Sioux Falls, SD
This is Lake Alvin. It is about 20 minutes South of our house. There are a few houses around the lake, all are set back some distance with none directly on the lake shore itself. Not great fishing but does hold some nice Bluegills if you are here at the right time of the year. As it turned out we weren't there at the right time but it was a beautiful morning, 59 degrees when we arrive and warming to 70 by the time we left, 0 wind, and blissfully blue skies. The perfect conditions to try my newest adventure, with my friend Mel Anderson. Float Tubing!
Getting Ready To Have Fun
Rod and Reel put together, float tube inflated, waders on, and then comes the flippers on the feet. (I dare you to try walking with all this stuff on) After all this I am ready for a nap.
TUBE'N IT -- Another New Adventure for John
Good thing that I had cut some weight, max capacity of my vessel is 250 pounds. Not real sure how you navigate this thing when the wind comes up. I don't think that I will be able to kick hard or fast enough if there are white caps. Donna asked last night what happens if your hook gets caught on the tube? I said that I didn't want to think about that!
Look Closely - that is NOT a lure, it is a real Bluegill.
Well it is at least a fish, although it may have been just born last week. I wasn't totally "skunked", caught this big'n and only two weeds this morning. I was more excited about not catching more weeds than I was to catch the itty bitty fish. I would guess that I made in excess of 100 casts or so, and at least 6 of those casts were pretty good. Not a great batting average, but it is getting better.
I witnessed 'a hatch' this morning, utterly amazing. We arrived at about 6:20 AM, just a little on the cool side, with no wind at all. We checked around for any 'signs', but there was no activity from bugs or fish. So I started out with a small popper, then went to a black ant, NOTHING. Then all of a sudden I look along the edge of the water again and there was an abundance of small tan colored 'gnat looking guys' flying around, they had not been visible when we first arrived. I tried to 'match the hatch' and tied on a fly that was as close to what was hovering over the water as I had in my little fly box, and on the third cast, caught this smallish fellow. Had a couple of others on - but wasn't able to pull them in. Within half an hour all the little bugs were gone, and so were the Bluegills! Fascinating!! (Oh Yeah, they are really tough to filet at this size - just kidding!)
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Finally! I scored an illusive Trout using my trusty fly rod and on a fly that I had tied!
I traveled to NE Iowa again(check out my earlier posts from March)with Mel Anderson and Tom Tidemann. We stayed at Tom and Vickie's "cabin" which is near Spring Grove, in SE Minnesota. There are wonderful trout streams in NE Iowa which is only a short drive from their place. We fished Waterloo Creek, and Big Bear Creek where both Mel and I caught our first trout on our fly rods. (On our March encounter we had some swipes but no landings.) So this being our second attempt we were eager to score! We fished until 9:30 PM Thursday evening, Tom caught and released three, Mel and I were successful in catching thistle plants and dill weed plants some of which were in back of us and some were in front of us. Thursday evening Mel found out what happens when you forge a stream that is about 24 inches deep but you are wearing only 20 inch high boot waders. He said that his feet were cool the whole evening.
Friday morning was a different story. We both "broke Through" and landed Rainbows - not huge ones but they were certainly frisky. Don't laugh till you have tried this type of fishing. I had a couple of others "on" but they got away.
Mel's First Trout with his fly rod.
Mel caught two Rainbows using his fly rod. He then annouced that he had mastered the art of fly fishing and changed to his ultra-lite spinning tools and hauled in another one! What a talented guy!
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