Journal of a Minnesota Angler

Date: 7/24/2009
Time: 2:00-3:30pm
Body of water: Bearskin Lake
Location: Gunflint Trail
Weather Conditions: strong wind from West, some clouds

Ken has an uncle that has a cabin on Bearskin Lake nearby. They have a lot of smallmouth bass there and his aunt catches nice size smallies right off their dock. Ken’s cousin was supposed to be at the cabin this week (his uncle was on vacation), so we called to get permission to fish off their dock. He didn’t answer so we left a message and ate lunch.

After we ate, we hadn’t yet heard from Ken’s cousin, so we headed over there anyway. There was no sign of anyone, but we knew they wouldn’t mind if we fished off their dock.

My daughter came with and I set her up with a bobber, split shots, and a leech. I started with a bubble gum fluke and Ken was working on getting some tangles out of his line, but would eventually get going with a white pearl fluke.

The wind was coming strong out of the West (left to right at the dock) and was causing pretty good waves. My daughter’s bobber went right, but the line was being kept taut by the waves.

It started to rain and we huddled in Ken’s uncle’s covered pontoon, but the rain didn’t last. To the right, between our dock and the neighbor’s dock, there were a bunch of boat lifts, but no vegetation. To the left, there were some bushes between our dock and the neighbors.

I cast in all directions and once going left, I felt a good tug, but couldn’t get the fish hooked. Shortly thereafter, Ken got set up and cast in the same direction, but from closer to shore. He got a hit and was able to keep a hold of it. I came to help him and we netted a nice size smallmouth. It looked like the size we needed for the dinner party. We cast for another 45 minutes or so before giving up. It was the only fish of the afternoon.

Ken’s uncle has a nice set up for cleaning, so I cleaned the fish there by scaling it, gilling it, and gutting it. This leaves the head and the tail in tact, which is how we Chinese like to cook fish. I estimated the fish at 14″–exactly the size we were looking for. I had a tape measure along and it was indeed exactly 14″! We couldn’t believe it.

The dinner party was for Ken’s cousin on the other side of the family whose wife was interested in Chinese cooking. My wife was showing her how a few dishes were done including a steamed fish. It turned out great. Perhaps I’ll post how it’s done in the future.