Just got back from a week fishin' "Up North" ...just south of Duluth,MN and west of Hayward, WI. The weather was mixed...as is common with Lake Superior influenced weather. "Warm" some days (in the high 70's ...low 80's)..."Cool" some mornings...as low as 48 degrees. Some rain...some sun...lots of wind!
The best night was Tuesday. My Son came up with our Grandson William and Grandma watched William while Andrew and I did some evening fishing. We landed over 50 Largemouth...and a dozen or so small Northern Pike and some dandy bluegills. I did well on the Do-it wacky jig and a a 4.5" Freedom Fry (purple)...and Andrew got his on a popper on the flyrod. We split the catch pretty even for the night but Andrew got the biggest bass at a tad over 4 lbs on the 6wt fly rod. He was pretty happy!
My largest for the week went 4 lbs on a Do-it Arkie jig...but I caught the most on the Arkie jig rigged on a Chatter blade. The small pike and largemouth loved that bait! Most on all white, but one cloudy and raining morning I did well on a green/blue (bluegill) colored skirt.The really keyed on that bait on the drop.
A couple of the highlights of the trip was a battle between an Osprey Eagle and a Bald Eagle over a fish....the Osprey won. I also had two Trumpeter Swans fly over the boat one morning....they are REALLY big birds! We had a little run in with a black bear and the trash can....the bear won and I got to clean up later. The other highlight was hearing a Whip-Poor-Will a couple nights. I haven't heard one of those in a long time. Thursday evening it was sitting on top of the cabin doing it's thing.
The area had over 150" of snow this winter...and non stop wet weather ....so the State Bird (the Mosquito) was out in full force. Black flies had already done their thing...driving the Loons crazy resulting in a 80 percent abandon rate on their nests. Tuesday the Deer Flies attacked...and my legs looked like I had taken a couple shotgun blasts! They don't care about Deet...I swear the must drink the stuff! But Tuesday am was the only bad day.
All in all...a good week...and all my Bass and Northern Pike were caught on Do-it plastics and jigs that I made. Gotta love that!
Andy
