Grouse Hollow Journal for July 4, 2013

Grouse Hollow Journal for July 4, 2013 by Greg Koelker

Everyone left us.  We felt sort of abandoned in camp.  Tom and Jane
left Thursday; Gordie and Curt and the folks from Monroe took off on
Friday morning; the Ross family boogied on Friday Afternoon.  What
could we do?  Just quit whining and fish!

On Friday, the weather was supposed to be threatening, but it turned
out to be one of the nicest days all week.  We pretty much had the
lake to ourselves.  That morning, Ellen hooked a 17 ½” smallmouth in
Beaver Bay.  We both caught some decent smallies and huge perch; I
caught and released another trophy crappie.  By noon, we had filled
our limits of perch and walleye.  We had a freezer full of 100 perch
and 8 big walleyes for a future fish fry or two.

I often get asked why not just walleye and panfish at home and save
all that money.  Well, I suppose that makes sense in a way, but if one
stays home all the time, the dog will need walking, the lawn needs
mowing, the garden needs tending, bills need paying, emails and phone
calls need answering, bathrooms need cleaning, and laundry needs
laundering, and more needs that are in front of you need to be done,
and all this gets in the way of fishing.  Why drive all the way up
north to Canada?  Well as someone once said, getting there is half the
fun.  The preparation of the truck, fishing gear, meal plan, packing
clothes and gear, and what new thing we might try builds the
anticipation of the adventure.  El and I enjoy the drive.  A pickup
cab makes for a quiet place where we can just talk.  We also enjoy
listening to books on CD and stopping for breakfast and coffee and
lunch and sight seeing.  (This trip we have been listening to a really
good spy novel called Legends.) We always find something new and/or
interesting on the trip, like the huge new frac sand facility north of
Eau Claire.  It looks sort of like a water park, but with rows of
train cars and wannabe beaches piled up waiting for a ride somewhere.
Crossing the border is always interesting.  This year we got across in
short order, less than 20 minutes on Friday afternoon.  Once in
Canada, things are just different.  People are friendly like at home,
but they do end their sentences with, “eh.”   We have whitetails, they
have moose along the roads.  We have seen wolves in Vermillion Bay.
The mosquitoes are bigger there - we practice wing shooting on them
off the dock at night. The grocery stores are modern, but filled with
products with French and other labels.  You can buy Cuban cigars.
When Ellen has been on walks on Camp Robinson road, she has seen
bears, moose, deer, and even a wolverine.  Gasoline was $3.79 at home
when we left, while Gasoline is only $1.42 in Canada - that’s per
liter so you do the math (It‘s hard to believe nearly $4 gasoline is a
good thing.)  There are no water skiers or personal water craft on
Cedar Lake - any time of the day.   In June, the sun hardly sets in
Canada, or so it seems. Driving up to Minocqua is nice, but it is not
an adventure.

Back to fishing.  Friday evening we went out for one last time this
trip.  For some reason, we both felt a little odd going out to fish
knowing we would release them all.  I have never been big on catch and
release; catch and cook, now that I can relate too.  Anyway, we
motored to a spot called “the mounds,” area of, well, mounds under the
water where huge rock formations  drop off to deep water.  While there
had been thunderstorm warnings all day and even some thunder in the
distance, it was beautiful, cool and pretty calm. I baited up the same
small pink jig that Ellen had caught fish with the day before and all
this day, with a chunk of crawler and she dropped it in.  Before I
could even pick up my rod, she had set the hook.  This was different,
but something that was big and putting up a real fight.  I got a net
and Ellen continued to try and get the critter to the surface.  The
area was only maybe 5-feet deep, so that probably helped Ellen rather
than the fish in the battle.  El would reel and the fish would come up
and then take some line.  Once she got it to the surface, we could see
it was a nice musky or northern.  Ellen was using an ultra-light pole
with 6-pound test with and 1/8 ounce jig. We laughed and wondered what
we would do when we got the fighter in the boat - if we got it in the
boat, that is.  I missed the fish on my first try with the net.  The
northern - we could see that now - must have seen the net, and with a
toss of its tail, Imade a terrific run.  Ellen battled it back.  On my
third try, I was able to net the fish and get it into the boat.  The
jig was hooked in the soft side of its jaw instead of in the mouth
full of razor sharp teeth.  With some difficulty, we got it measured
in at 33 ½ inches long.  It weighed 8 1/ 2 pounds.  I got my fingers
raked when the fish flopped while I was holding it under the jaw and
my fingers slipped up into the sharp gill area.  Ellen was able to
hold her trophy with the fish scale for a photo op and then we revived
the fish alongside the boat.  It looked like it wasn’t going to come
around, but then it flipped its tail and glided away.  We high fived
and laughed some more.  I barely got my jig in the water before Ellen
had another big fish on.  This one was a 23-inch walleye!  Another
photo op after a battle on the little jig that could.  I took a
picture of the jig and retired it after this fish.  The jig was so
bent and twisted and there was little of the original pink paint on
it.

Anyway, we both caught lots of walleyes, some more big perch, and I
even got another 14” crappie before we said goodbye to the mounds and
Peephole and motored in to pack up for our trip home.

The worst weather all week was on our trip home near Duluth when it
rained and Lake Superior was shrouded in fog, perfect for finishing up
the spy novel after we had our traditional Dairy Queen Blizzard.  We
saw gasoline as low as $3.52 in Duluth, but we didn’t need any at the
time.  Rats.

Until next time, get out - thanks to all our friends who made our trip
so successful: Scout and Gypsy’s sitter, Jake; Deb Ekern for her
thoughtfulness and the gift of two Shell Lake mugs when we stopped in
to see her; the Bear fans who rescued my expensive smart phone;
Gordie and Curt, for the stories and new fishing towels and the bacon
wrapped walleye bites and the Crown Royale; Mike Shields for
pre-fishing the lake for us and emailing tips; Owen Miller my night
crawler salesman; the Ross family, for the Ross’s Famous Brats and the
fishing tips; Jane and Tom Downs, our roommates for their company; and
of course our hosts at Keystone Lodge, Leanne and Dave Frostiak.
Enjoy.