Summer wrap up

That's about it for the summer. Unless I make it out again in the next week this will be the last post for a while. I've been dealing with some back problems for the past 18 months or so, with the last 6 months becoming more and more difficult to get out. I'm having surgery on the 16th which will hopefully take care of most of the problems. Fishing will be on hold though, probably until the lakes are iced over.

Chuck and I headed over to the Yahara after school Friday. Visibility was so-so, the water was low, and there are still plenty of weeds. We were both using small spinners, working our way up the river from Lake Monona to Lake Mendota. Fishing was slow, but I managed to pick up quite a few different species. Bluegill, rock bass, green sunfish, largemouth bass, and white bass (+1 to species count for 2009) were all biting. Caught the 2nd largest LMB of the summer at 16". Not very impressive compared to 2008, but I'll take what I can get! We brought home 1 bluegill and 3 or 4 white bass.

2009 species count:
1. Largemouth Bass
2. Rock Bass
3. Smallmouth Bass
4. White Bass
5. Bluegill
6. Yellow Bullhead
7. Black Crappie
8. Freshwater Drum
9. Round Goby
10. Logperch
11. Yellow Perch
12. Northern Pike
13. Pumpkinseed
14. Green Sunfish
15. Hybrid Sunfish (Pumpkinseed X Green)
16. Walleye

Terry catches salmon in Lake Michigan

Cigars and trout

Friday was Terry's birthday, and what better way to celebrate than go fishing and smoke cigars! We picked up cigars at a smoke shop on State Street and then headed over to Tenney Park to see what the catfish were up to. The catfish were no where to be found; all we caught were 2 drum. Cigars were good though, something you gotta do every now and then.

A

On Saturday Chuck and I headed north to a trout stream. I wanted to see some trout before I buy a trout stamp (probably next season), and this trip turned out perfectly. The water was clear with plenty of trout. Chuck caught 3 browns and 1 brook, and had about 6 come off the hook as he was reeling them in. He released all the fish he caught.

Sunday I went fishing by myself at Picnic Point and Lake Monona by the terrace. Nothing was biting at the point, but by the terrace I caught a pretty big drum on a spinner. (PR at 14.5")

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Can't do work, gotta fish

Our linux server at work was down yesterday, which I depend on for my research. I knew it wouldn't be up and running this morning so I went fishing instead. I hiked out to the end of picnic point and had my line in the water by 7am. Feeling lazy, I stuck with nightcrawlers and a bobber, hoping to catch a few fish to bring home. My first cast got a hit and I pulled in an 8" perch. It was pretty fat and went into the bucket. After that... nothing. I switched spots, and after not getting hits there either I began reeling in my line. However, I saw a drum following my bait in towards shore, so I slowed down to let him grab it. That made for an easy catch. At 14", he was a PR for me. After that things really slowed down. At one point a school of small perch came through. I caught 4 or 5, but they were all too small to keep.





When I got home I filleted the drum and perch for lunch. I breaded the fillets with a mixture of Progresso parmesean bread crumbs, extra spicy Mrs. Dash, and garlic powder, and fried them in olive oil. The drum was pretty good, but when I got to the perch - oh man! It was really really good, I'll have to try to duplicate that recipe next time I catch perch.

4th of July in Milwaukee

I visited my friend Terry in Milwaukee for the weekend. We got up at 4:30 on Saturday to go fishing on Lake Michigan. By 5:15 we were in the harbor. We went about 2 miles off from shore to 70' of water where we planned to troll for trout. Terry got the downriggers set up, we got our lines in the water... but when Terry was trying to start the trolling motor he broke a piece on the fuel line. That was the end of that! The big motor apparently can't idle down low enough to troll with, so we had to head back to the harbor.

We had seen people fishing for perch from the rocks around the harbor, so we followed suit and anchored along shore in 15-20' of water and dropped jigs down to the bottom. No perch, but we caught plenty of round gobies. Definitely not the fish we were after, but they were pretty entertaining. +1 to my life list and 2009 list.