Journal of a Minnesota Angler

I went to my dad’s cabin in Northwest Wisconsin this weekend and started off the weekend early. I got up at 6:15 Saturday morning to get my float tube in the water by 6:30. Apparently it was too early because when I sat down in my float tube, I went, “Ah!” when water went down the back of my shorts. I had brought my old float tube (due to space constratints) and it sits several inches in the water. That, in combination of forgetting to buckle the shoulder straps of my waders allowed water to sneak in and make for a wet arse. I decided not to waste time going to change and just dealt with it.

Being a calm morning, I decided to start with a scum frog. Several minutes of no action caused me to quickly switch to texas rigged speed craw. I watched an angler in a boat creep in front of my dad’s place and lose a bass right at his boat. He was using a chartreuse spinnerbait, so I switched to a chartreuse buzz bait. That was proving difficult to retrieve when I was so low in the water, so I swtiched back to finessing with a Berkeley power worm. I now started to exercise some patience as I bottom bounced the power worm all the way back toward my place, passed my neighbors and almost into the channel to the next lake.

With no action, I tried a speed craw and Northstarbaits jig + trailer as I moved to the shore on the other side of the channel. It felt much warmer there so I hoped the fish would be congregating there from the wamrth. If they were, they showed no interest in what I was tossing.

I switched to a smaller Strike King jig coming back along the shore and in one retrieve, I felt something odd that must have been a fish because it messed up the skirt of my jig.

With the jig messed up, I put on a texas rigged Slurpie worm. When I came to a tree overhanging the water near my dad’s place, I dropped the worm just under it and let it sit, dead stick style. It felt like I let it sit there for about 10 seconds, but it could have been 5. I don’t know who flinched first. Either I lifted my rod tip and felt a tug, or felt a tug before reacting, but I felt something and set the hook. FISH ON! She fought hard, but I knew I had a good hook set. I finally had a good battle on my hands unlike the wimpy landings I’ve had the past few months. I pulled her in and found a 15″ chunker. She looked so fat, I suspected she hadn’t spawned yet.

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 15″
Lure used: Slurpie plastic worm

I continued back along the shore I started the morning with and felt another tug like the one that resulted in the porker above. This time, it didn’t move and turned out to be a log.

A few minutes later, I cast into some lilly pads and felt some movement on the end, but I was turned sideways and didn’t react in time.

A little ways further, the shore takes a turn to form the opening of a bay. I sent a cast parallel to the shore, and before I could reel in the slack, I saw my line move. I quickly reeled in the slack and set the hook. I felt some movement, but wasn’t positive it was a fish until I felt the movement after the lure had left the lilly pads. This guy was a 14.5 incher, but not as fat as the first.

Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 14.5″
Lure used: Slurpie plastic worm

I decided that was a good way to close out the morning since my Slurpie worm was all messed up. Not to mention I had to pee. I started kicking back to shore when I realized it would take more than a couple of minutes and it would be time wasted if my line wasn’t in the water.

I trolled back with a speed craw and I couldn’t believe it, a 40″ muskie hit the craw! You shouldn’t believe it either. Nothing hit my craw. I got back to shore untouched. But it was still a decent morning, especially when this guy decided to come by to see what I was doing.