Journal of a Minnesota Angler

Date: 7/4/2010
Time: 6:45pm-8:45pm
Body of water: Lake Demontreville
Location: Lake Elmo, MN
Weather Conditions: overcast with threat of rain

I took off for a new lake last night with my rod and reel, tackle, camera, a towel, swimming suit, and swim shoes. The Minnesota DNR lake map didn’t show a pier, so I decided to take Sybil Smith’s advice (bullet #9) and not be tied just to the shore. I intended to do some wading. Surprisingly, it gave me a lot more freedom than I expected.

When I got there, I changed into my swim shoes and headed to the boat launch. A father and his son were on the boat launch dock, so I walked to the left where I saw a path through the tall grass. It had rained the night before, so the path was very muddy. But because I had my swim shoes on, I didn’t much worry about getting my shoes dirty. It allowed me to walk a lot further down the path than if I had regular shoes on.

I went as far as I could and started to cast with (what else) a bubble gum fluke from shore. With that yielding nothing, I switched to a white spinnerbait. I could feel the spinnerbait almost dragging across the bottom. It was obvious I wasn’t getting into deep enough water with my casts.

The shore was full of muck, but I could see sandy bottom just a few feet out. I decided to try walking out. The muck wasn’t as bad as I thought and I was able to get passed it easily and walk out about 20 feet. I threw a few more casts and then heard a big slash. A fish had broken the surface of the water about 50 ft from me. It wasn’t just a surface nip because the shape was a large oval rather than a circle. I immediately reeled in and tried to hit the spot, but it was just out of my casting range. I kept trying to cast into the area, but whatever made the splash was gone.

It was about this time that I decided to get on my swim trunks so I could venture out further off shore. I went back to the car, changed in the backseat, and decided to try the other side of the boat launch. There was a bunch of lily pads on the other side of a private dock, but since it was private property, I couldn’t wade out there. I stopped short of the dock and this area was more promising than the other side of the boat launch because I could only wade out about 10 feet before walking into a lot of muck and weeds. I cast a bubble gum fluke, white spinnerbiat, white rattling jig, and scum frog. The rattling jig hit a lot of weeds in the area, which is why I switched to the topwater scum frog. Unfortunately, none of my lures got hit. I decided to go back to where I started.

I walked back to my previous spot and this time I was able to wade out about 50 ft when the water just started to get the ends of my swim trunks wet. I threw a super fluke, white spinnerbait, and scum frog for another half hour or so before giving up. The whole time my feet were in the water, I could see sunnies swimming all around. In fact, near the end of the night, one about the size of my hand was pecking at the back of my leg. Recalling what happened at another local lake outing, I almost put on a small hook just to say I didn’t get skunked.

Alas, the stink stuck, but it was fun wading around. It gave me a bit more freedom and allowed me to get out into some deeper water. I was able to wade out as far as my first casts were thrown, so it allowed me to get twice as far off shore than if I didn’t get my feet wet. I could have easily gotten wet up to my waste if I had the gumption and gotten out much further. Maybe next time.

This was a nice little lake. My brother is flying in at the end of the month, so I might take him out here so we can both use our float tubes around the lily pads I saw on the right side of the boat launch. I’m sure there were some fish there waiting for an easy meal.