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TR- The Ol' Folks at Home
Took a quick little trip to visit my folks about 50 miles from our
house in Merrill. They live near to a flowage that was primarily built for duck habitat but which does contain some fish, especially species that can survive the low O2 levels found in places of this type in mid-Winter. Bullheads, perch... and northern pike. So on this 75 degree October day we visited for awhile; talked politics, had a bowl or two of my Mom's vegetable soup (cabbage, rutabagas, carrots, potatoes and beef), tossed around a frisbee and wandered around their "estate". http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0697a-1.jpg I'd tucked my 10wt. in the back of the Subaru and, after ascertaining from my Dad that they were catching fish down at the flowage, drove down to the pullout about a mile from their place. Cast there for a while with nothing to show for it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0698a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0699a.jpg My Dad showed up and I followed him over to one of the lake's boat landings. It was sheltered from the wind that had had me ducking my bulky pike flies as they whizzed by my head at the more exposed pullout. My first retrieve along the reed banks lining the landing caused shoals of tiny, silver minnows to skitter out of the water. As they settled back their was a big swirl as something toothy that way came. I had the same thing happen on the other side. The small fish spooked into becoming a too tempting target for the bigger fish lying in wait. This is going a turkey shoot, I thought to myself. It wasn't. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0702a.jpg I got a couple of half hearted swirls as I slowly worked my way through my pike flies. But soon they stopped and after awhile even the minnows disappeared. My Dad got tired of watching and left. I was just about to pack it in myself when I clipped a big Whistler onto my leader and apathetically cast and retrieved it in the lowering light of the early evening. Finally, on a retrieve that was slower than the others, with long pauses between strips, my line tightened and I felt the live weight of a fish on my line. The pike splashed and dove a few times, even taking a little line off the reel. But he soon surrendered and I pulled him up on the drifts of wet duckweed floating on an inch of water next to the shore. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0704a.jpg Not a huge pike (I'm sure the first swirl I saw was a much bigger fish) but a better fighter than many other northerns I've caught. I forcepped the fly free and sent him on his way. After a couple more casts I packed up, drove to the folks house to pick up the boys (who had passed on fishing) and headed home. A great way to spend an Indian Summer day. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0701a-1.jpg hth GeoC |
TR- The Ol' Folks at Home
On Oct 12, 10:38*pm, George Cleveland
wrote: Took a quick little trip to visit my folks about 50 miles from our house in Merrill. They live near to a flowage that was primarily built for duck habitat but which does contain some fish, especially species that can survive the low O2 levels found in places of this type in mid-Winter. Bullheads, perch... and northern pike. So on this 75 degree October day we visited for awhile; talked politics, had a bowl or two of my Mom's vegetable soup (cabbage, rutabagas, carrots, potatoes and beef), tossed around a frisbee and wandered around their "estate". http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0697a-1.jpg *I'd tucked my 10wt. in the back of the Subaru and, after ascertaining from my Dad that they were catching fish down at the flowage, drove down to the pullout about a mile from their place. Cast there for a while with nothing to show for it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0698a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0699a.jpg My Dad showed up and I followed him over to one of the lake's boat landings. It was sheltered from the wind that had had me ducking my bulky pike flies as they whizzed by my head at the more exposed pullout. My first retrieve along the reed banks lining the landing caused shoals of tiny, silver minnows to skitter out of the water. As they settled back their was a big swirl as something toothy that way came. I had the same thing happen on the other side. The small fish spooked into becoming a too tempting target for the bigger fish lying in wait. This is going a turkey shoot, I thought to myself. It wasn't. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0702a.jpg I got a couple of half hearted swirls as I slowly worked my way through my pike flies. But soon they stopped and after awhile even the minnows disappeared. My Dad got tired of watching and left. I was just about to pack it in myself when I clipped a big Whistler onto my leader and apathetically cast and retrieved it in the lowering light of the early evening. Finally, on a retrieve that was slower than the others, with long pauses between strips, my line tightened and I felt the live weight of a fish on my line. The pike splashed and dove a few times, even taking a little line off the reel. But he soon surrendered and I pulled him up on the drifts of wet duckweed floating on an inch of water next to the shore. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0704a.jpg *Not a huge pike (I'm sure the first swirl I saw was a much bigger fish) but a better fighter than many other northerns I've caught. I forcepped the fly free and sent him on his way. After a couple more casts I packed up, drove to the folks house to pick up the boys (who had passed on fishing) and headed home. A great way to spend an Indian Summer day. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0701a-1.jpg hth GeoC Nice story, George, and the pictures (I don't mean to be a wiseguy about this but does this mean imbedded pics are ok on usenet now? being the 21st century and all?) Pike fishing can be really frustrating but I love to tie really big flies, and pretending to go pike fishing is a great excuse to do that. |
TR- The Ol' Folks at Home
On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:39:07 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote: On Oct 12, 10:38*pm, George Cleveland wrote: Took a quick little trip to visit my folks about 50 miles from our house in Merrill. They live near to a flowage that was primarily built for duck habitat but which does contain some fish, especially species that can survive the low O2 levels found in places of this type in mid-Winter. Bullheads, perch... and northern pike. So on this 75 degree October day we visited for awhile; talked politics, had a bowl or two of my Mom's vegetable soup (cabbage, rutabagas, carrots, potatoes and beef), tossed around a frisbee and wandered around their "estate". http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0697a-1.jpg *I'd tucked my 10wt. in the back of the Subaru and, after ascertaining from my Dad that they were catching fish down at the flowage, drove down to the pullout about a mile from their place. Cast there for a while with nothing to show for it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0698a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0699a.jpg My Dad showed up and I followed him over to one of the lake's boat landings. It was sheltered from the wind that had had me ducking my bulky pike flies as they whizzed by my head at the more exposed pullout. My first retrieve along the reed banks lining the landing caused shoals of tiny, silver minnows to skitter out of the water. As they settled back their was a big swirl as something toothy that way came. I had the same thing happen on the other side. The small fish spooked into becoming a too tempting target for the bigger fish lying in wait. This is going a turkey shoot, I thought to myself. It wasn't. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0702a.jpg I got a couple of half hearted swirls as I slowly worked my way through my pike flies. But soon they stopped and after awhile even the minnows disappeared. My Dad got tired of watching and left. I was just about to pack it in myself when I clipped a big Whistler onto my leader and apathetically cast and retrieved it in the lowering light of the early evening. Finally, on a retrieve that was slower than the others, with long pauses between strips, my line tightened and I felt the live weight of a fish on my line. The pike splashed and dove a few times, even taking a little line off the reel. But he soon surrendered and I pulled him up on the drifts of wet duckweed floating on an inch of water next to the shore. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0704a.jpg *Not a huge pike (I'm sure the first swirl I saw was a much bigger fish) but a better fighter than many other northerns I've caught. I forcepped the fly free and sent him on his way. After a couple more casts I packed up, drove to the folks house to pick up the boys (who had passed on fishing) and headed home. A great way to spend an Indian Summer day. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0701a-1.jpg hth GeoC Nice story, George, and the pictures (I don't mean to be a wiseguy about this but does this mean imbedded pics are ok on usenet now? being the 21st century and all?) Pike fishing can be really frustrating but I love to tie really big flies, and pretending to go pike fishing is a great excuse to do that. Thanks. I've been grabbing every opportunity to fish since the close of trout season and pike are the most easily accessible fish. OTOH, the Asian ladybug infestation this Fall is extreme and I have a good friend who fishes the stocker lakes near the MI/WI border that are kept open after the Sept. 30th closer. He uses beetle patterns to very good effect and has been pulling in rainbows approaching 5 lbs.! The lakes he fishes are an hour and a half north of Merrill though, so its hard to justify traveling that far to catch stocked fish when I can go a tenth that distance to catch wild warmwater fish. But the temptaion and opportunity are there. As far as pictures go; as it was explained to me as long as the picture is linked to an outside photo hosting sight it takes no more bandwidth than any other hyperlink inserted in a post. If thats wrong then I'll certainly quit posting the links. Unfortunately since a "picture is worth... yadayadayada " this would mean that my TRs would probably be eligible to be bound in fine Corinthian leather and sold in 5 or 6 volume sets. GeoC |
TR- The Ol' Folks at Home
On Oct 13, 11:39*am, "
wrote: On Oct 12, 10:38*pm, George Cleveland wrote: Took a quick little trip to visit my folks about 50 miles from our house in Merrill. They live near to a flowage that was primarily built for duck habitat but which does contain some fish, especially species that can survive the low O2 levels found in places of this type in mid-Winter. Bullheads, perch... and northern pike. So on this 75 degree October day we visited for awhile; talked politics, had a bowl or two of my Mom's vegetable soup (cabbage, rutabagas, carrots, potatoes and beef), tossed around a frisbee and wandered around their "estate". http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0697a-1.jpg *I'd tucked my 10wt. in the back of the Subaru and, after ascertaining from my Dad that they were catching fish down at the flowage, drove down to the pullout about a mile from their place. Cast there for a while with nothing to show for it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0698a.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0699a.jpg My Dad showed up and I followed him over to one of the lake's boat landings. It was sheltered from the wind that had had me ducking my bulky pike flies as they whizzed by my head at the more exposed pullout. My first retrieve along the reed banks lining the landing caused shoals of tiny, silver minnows to skitter out of the water. As they settled back their was a big swirl as something toothy that way came. I had the same thing happen on the other side. The small fish spooked into becoming a too tempting target for the bigger fish lying in wait. This is going a turkey shoot, I thought to myself. It wasn't. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0702a.jpg I got a couple of half hearted swirls as I slowly worked my way through my pike flies. But soon they stopped and after awhile even the minnows disappeared. My Dad got tired of watching and left. I was just about to pack it in myself when I clipped a big Whistler onto my leader and apathetically cast and retrieved it in the lowering light of the early evening. Finally, on a retrieve that was slower than the others, with long pauses between strips, my line tightened and I felt the live weight of a fish on my line. The pike splashed and dove a few times, even taking a little line off the reel. But he soon surrendered and I pulled him up on the drifts of wet duckweed floating on an inch of water next to the shore. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../IMG_0704a.jpg *Not a huge pike (I'm sure the first swirl I saw was a much bigger fish) but a better fighter than many other northerns I've caught. I forcepped the fly free and sent him on his way. After a couple more casts I packed up, drove to the folks house to pick up the boys (who had passed on fishing) and headed home. A great way to spend an Indian Summer day. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...MG_0701a-1.jpg hth GeoC *Nice story, George, and the pictures (I don't mean to be a wiseguy about this but does this mean imbedded pics are ok on usenet now? being the 21st century and all?) Pike fishing can be really frustrating but I love to tie really big flies, and pretending to go pike fishing is a great excuse to do that.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - I don't see them as imbedded (embedded?)....just links to George's photobucket site. There's a possibility that whatever usenet provider or platform you are using is opening the links in place for you...if so, that sounds pretty nice. But from here, its just a link to another URL. --riverman |
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