Since Granny and I left Victor, Idaho (the Jackson Hole area) we haven’t had any friends from our old homeland visit us yet. Undoubtedly it’s because for most of them, leaving the Tetons for the flatland dairy state of Wisconsin is unthinkable. Why would I spend precious vacation time in WI? Well, while we miss our friends and hope most of them find their way eventually, this kind of thinking does make us smile.
Longtime friends from Jackson Hole, Paul and Jean Bruun however, have been around. They’ve seen the country and Paul has done a few trips to Wisconsin. They understand why we’re here. This week we have the pleasure of showing Paul and Jean around Hayward while they’re on their way from winter in FL back to Jackson. Today Bob Butler and I took Paul fishing for a mixed bag of warmwater treats.
The weather the last few days has been cool and rainy. In the last 15 hours we picked up over an inch of wet stuff and more came today. During our few hours of angling we had a high of 64°. Its good because we need some cool temps and moisture here in the Northwoods but it did make things a bit brisk on the water to start.
Fishing was productive though. Bob’s little gem of a lake is loaded with both smallmouth and largemouth bass, yellow perch, bluegill and crappie. There are also walleyes and musky but both of these fish are elusive here.
During this session we caught a mix of smaller bass but most our catches consisted of bluegill and crappie. This lake provides chances for a trophy bluegill of 10” or better. While we nabbed some nice ones, including this one here, the 10-inchers kept their lips tight from grabbing the tiny poppers.
We landed a few perch. Funny, I don’t remember catching perch here but I must have. This one here would have been perfect for tomorrow being its famous Wisconsin Friday night fish fry but today we were fishing entirely for fun not dinner.
The highlight fish of the day was this crappie caught by Paul. The bragging size for a crappie in my book is 13”. This one was so close it called for the measuring tape. It was just short at 12.5” but a memorable one nonetheless. Paul thought it was probably his personal best. That’s pretty awesome when you consider Paul has been fishing seriously all of his 81 years.
As I’ve mentioned in past blogs with Paul, Paul is a mentor of mine. We’ve been fishing together since the late 1980’s. He wrote the foreword to my first book and I’ve improved my personal writing skills from reading his Jackson Hole News column for 30 years. I’m delighted to say Paul and I have had four days on the water together over the last six months (Dec 9, Feb 10, Feb 11 were the others). Its always so much fun. Here’s to hoping there are many more to come!