| May 12, 2002 |
| I had an interesting day... it was actually pretty cool and I wound up taking a bunch of good pictures. I woke up around 11, but didn't actually get out and do anything till about 2:30 because I am a lazy motherfucker on the weekends. On top of that I was pretty bummed about not cathing any fish yesterday. I went back out after I did my site update for another 2 hours and didn't catch anything, so I came home a broken and miserable man. Oh well... it seems that nobody caught jack shit this weekend so it's not just me sucking it up at fishing for once. Anyway, I decided to test fate again and try to catch some fish. Today's weather is much improved over yesterday's. The sun was out and there was only a slight breeze; I actually think I got a little sunburned. That's so funny because it was snowing just a couple days ago and I'm sure it probably will again before I move back next week. Anyway, I went back out to Grant Lake first... I spent about half an hour there and didn't catch shit. Figures. So I was going to just pack it up and head home for the afternoon, but for some odd reason I decided to head out to Whitefish lake. I'm sure glad I did, because I wound up getting some great pictures out of the trip. I took about 25, and I uploaded 7, so I'm going to put them on a separate page for viewing. The road to Whitefish lake was an absolute mess which is pretty much the norm this time of year. It was muddy and full of deep shitty ruts that were unavoidable in some places and a just a real pain in the ass in others. Fortunately my car made it through unscatehd; I was kind of worried because I heard it bottom out a few times in those damned ruts from hell. I was suprised to find that someone was actually out there today. He was still at the launch when I got there so I talked to him for a few minutes until his friends arrived and they took off to fish in his extremely nice boat. He told me that he hadn't been doing to well fishing, but the crappied and bluegills were hitting out on the far end of Whitefish. Figures since I don't have a goddamned boat up here to get out there... He also told me why the DNR took out the cool floating dock they had in there way back in the day; the moving bog had it blocked off and the posts were getting rotten... so in typical DNR fashion they just got rid of it instead of repairing it.... bastards. On the plus side they removed the bog... it was all piled up next to the road. I took a few pictures of it, but they weren't exciting so I didn't upload them. With the bog gone the Whitefish backwater is open... fucking-A!!! I've had this long time obsession with the backwater since I was a little kid. I'm glad I had my camera with me because I got back into there and took some nice pictures. See, you never used to be able to get back into the backwater because that damned bog had it blocked off, but now it's open to anyone who wants to try to get in there... (ie me). As I was making my way through the brush and remaining bog to get to the backwater I found a really old fishing plug in the muck... it's actually pretty cool so I took some pictures of it. How old is it you ask? Pretty damned old, all the hooks are pretty well rusted off and it was sitting next to some rusty old steel beer cans... it's been a long time since they made those things! Well, after finding that I got back into there and saw that it would be accessible by boat, but there is one little obstacle. A fallen tree is just a few inches under the water, so you'd probably have to get out with waders and help the boat over it. It would be a piece of cake to get a canoe back in there though! Anyway... I took some great pictures of the backwater. It looked different than it did when I was a kid, and now I realize why. Someone tore out the old abandoned dock and pontoon boat that used to be sitting back in there... I'm guessing the DNR did it when they dredged out the bog. Oh well, I remember that rickedy old thing being there way back when I was a kid. Probably a good idea that someone got rid of it because most likely the dock was all rotted to hell and the boat would have sank as soon as you stepped onto the deck. It was just an accident waiting to happen really. I was very suprised to find a dead beaver farther back in there... I wondered why it had died and then found the culprit... an empty .22 shell box laying on the ground. Someone had plunked it off while it was swimming, and not too long ago from the look of things. That's shitty because beaver is A... out of season right now, and B... worth some money. Whoever shot it apparently doesn't realized that this just hurts the rest of us hunters and trappers. I did do some fishing at Whitefish... I walked out as far as I could on the floating bog. Let me tell you, walking on bog is dangerous, you never know when your ass will fall through into the water because it's just a bunch of floating muck with grass roots holding it together. I also didn't feel comfortable because tons of critters tend to live in bogs... I was just waiting for some vicious muskrat or beaver avenger to come and tear off one of my limbs while I was trying to keep my balance and cast while standing on that soggy shit. For my troubles I was just rewarded with nothing... I didn't catch a fucking thing there either. I decided to hit Little Buzzel Lake next, because it's on the same road as Whitefish, so all I had to do was go back the way I came and hit the little fork in the road about half way back. Unfortunately I was coming as another car was leaving and the road back to Buzzel was one lane... fortunately my sharp wit and expert driving skills quickly laid that problem to rest and tragedy was averted (this actually means I just pulled off into the ditch as far as possible and let the car go past). When I got down to the Buzzle landing, a boat was pulling out and leaving. The guy said they'd caught a few nice fish on the far end of the lake.... figures again because I have no way to get there! So I just walked the bog again and tried my luck... and was smacked in the face by fate again. I did take some nice pictures while I was there, and saw some beavers working on a beaver house... After that I decided I'd had enough and it was time to come home. I also decided to come the back way home and was rewarded with several nice close pictures of some deer. I didn't think they were going to get out of the way, but they did and ran off once my car was about 20 yards from them. After that I just came in, sat back for a bit, then decided to do this update. I'll probably hit the sack early tonight because I have my first final tomorrow... oh fucking joy. That's all for now. |