Grousehollow Journal for June 27, 2013 by Greg Koelker
It is a particular pleasure to sleep in some mornings. Particularly
when there are loons calling in the night and the breeze is dry and
cool. Back home on the Mississippi, I usually figure the best fishing
ends by 8 a.m. or after sundown, but on Cedar Lake, it can be all day.
So no early to rise or early bird wisdom needed here, to catch fish
at least.
Retelling the stories is a great part of any adventure. Gordie and
Curt had quite a story to tell on Tuesday afternoon. Curt was getting
something in the front of the boat when Gordie says, “What’s that
noise?” They looked to the back of the boat and watched in horror as
Curt’s newest and very expensive rod and reel slipped over the side
into the drink. Curt had left his bait to soak and something, Jaws
maybe, decided the time was right to abscond with it. So-o-o. . .
Gordie tied on a big Daredevil spoon with a huge treble hook and
started casting it about and dragging it back in the area where the
rod and reel went swimming, with no luck. Gordie considered going
swimming (later lodge-owner, Leeanne, was so thankfull that he
reconsidered because of all the leeches in the water in that area!) or
scuba diving, minus the scuba for the rod and reel, but then the boys
noticed a northern pike surfacing repeatedly in the distance. They
realized it had to be the bait thief, so Gordie tossed his lure over
the fishing line and in a couple minutes had the northern on board
with Curt’s jig back, and with careful tugging and reeling, they
hauled in Curt’s already weed and mud covered rod and reel. The boys
told the story a few times that night at the camp fry. A good laugh,
and a cautionary tale.
The fishing was good and then fantastic this year on Cedar Lake in
Ontario; Ellen and I love perch and we caught lots of perch in Portage
Bay in 3 feet of water. By Wednesday, we and Tom and Jane had eaten
several perch and walleye dinners. El and I had frozen over sixty
sets of filets for a future fish fry. Ellen and I took a tip from
Mike Shields who had been here the week before and drifted to find
fish.
Tom and Jane pulled out of camp early Thursday morning before 7,
heading back to Altoona, Iowa and home. They had the fixings for a
huge fish fry of Canadian walleye and perch to share when they got
home. We had coffee with them, hugged goodbye, and El and I went back
to our bunks for some needed shuteye. (We had all stayed up with our
friends until nearly midnight the night before watching The Dark
Knight - long movie. The sun didn’t set until going on 11 p.m.)
Around 8:30 on Thursday morning, we made fresh coffee and decided on
meal number 1; Ellen fried some bacon sausages and we toasted some
English muffins. I spent a little time cleaning house in the worm
bedding. After nearly two weeks, what was left of our 30 dozen
crawlers was getting a little rank. We headed out for Portage Bay
around 9. The sun was trying to break through a light cloud cover,
but the wind was brisk and made for a rough ride, so I tried to run
down the leeward side of the lake. We stopped at a couple bays we
haven’t fished in a long time and got a couple keeper walleyes and
perch. I caught my second crappie of the week. Crappies are just
starting to populate the lake. I got a 14” crappie later in the week.
In one of our favorite bays - we dubbed it Eagle Bay because of the
two bald eagles that were fishing it again and again one day - we
tossed pink jigs tipped with night crawlers. Once Ellen was reeling
in a small walleye and she could see a musky closing on it from
behind. It followed the smaller fish right up to our boat, but didn’t
hit it, very exciting though. Ellen hooked a 17” walleye and I got
several smallmouths and a northern.
We decide to try Portage Bay again. Our friends from Glenwood City,
Terri and Richard Ross and Rich’s friend Isaac were anchored and
getting lots of bait stealers. We motored to the other end of the
weed line and drifted with the wind. El suggested we anchor by this
downed tree that held large perch the day before, but owned us on
tackle. Her intuition paid off! She has more than once said this is
a different type of year, so let’s try some different places. She is
a wise woman, or maybe lucky. (She has had me for over 40 years, so
lucky it isJ.) Then the fun started with one large perch after
another slipping into the fish basket. Small pink jigs tipped with
part of a crawler was the trick (we went through at least 20 pink jigs
during the week). We set the lower limit at 10 inches on the perch
and later I would put 18 sets of huge perch filets in the freezer,
some nearly 13 inches long.
For meal number 2, we ate the walleyes shaken with Fry Magic and deep
fried while we sipped cocktails. El fixed some boiled red potatoes and
put out fruit.
That evening, Jim and Terri Ross saw a cow moose with two calves back
in Peephole Bay. Curt and Gordie were able to take some closeup shots
of a young bull moose by the Clay Banks.
For meal number 3, we fixed cheese nachos and cold Spotted Cow. We
had some mini candy bars for dessert. Later, I finished off Tom‘s
delicious homemade popcorn mix while we watched Grumpier Old Men
before bed that night.
Until next time, get out: I have to clear something up from last week.
In one part of last week’s journal it should have read: “. . . Ellen
put the cabin in order and I carried our fishing gear down to the
dock.” My typo, but I just had to set that record straight -before I
hear about it from my brother-in-laws and everyone else. More about
our Canada trip next time. Enjoy.
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