Occasionally Fishing Plans Go Awry

Every once in a while, a fishing plan goes awry.  My usual Wisconsin fishing buddy, Bob Butler, came by the house to fetch me with his fairly new Lund to get on one of the big lakes here in the Hayward area to target some pike.  As I was loading up my gear, he went to trim his motor.  No response.  Bob’s battery was dead and the excursion was over before it started.

Obviously, both of us were disappointed.  This was a day of exploration because I’ve only been to this lake once.  Exploratory days are the best.  Bob of course was annoyed with what turned into some faulty wiring.  But in an instant, I offered the use of the blue bathtub for a much less glamorous trip to one of the tiny lakes near my house.  After he dropped his boat off for repair, off we went.

Let’s just say, being on the water took a lot of work.  While the weather of northern WI has been beautiful of late, even this morning, today’s temperatures plummeted to the high 40°s, the wind picked up and clouds blocked early glimmers of the sun.  Naturally we still gave it our best but it was a chore to row my wind capturing boat to stay tight to the lily’s.

We worked the water over for about two hours.  While we didn’t get skunked, it was close.  I landed one tiny pike on a jig fly and this chubby little bluegill on a wooly bugger dropper.  While we were both happy that we at least made it out on the water, we weren’t sad when we agreed to pack it up and be home by 2 pm.

There was a highlight.  I saw my first big snapping turtle of the year.  He didn’t mind the cold.  Probably because the water wasn’t too bad.  He was a curious oversized turtle and he made his way over to the strange big blue object in his territory.  He was looking good until he released some air which fuzzed out the picture of his head with bubbles.  You get the idea it was a pretty cool close encounter!

That’s all for my local fishing for a couple weeks.  Tomorrow Granny and I start a journey to Belize.  We are headed to see our dear friends, owners of the famous Belize River Lodge.  And I do suspect there will be some hardcore fishing to go along with!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing