An Outdoorsman's Journal

   Bluegill Paradise

Hello friends,

   Every late May or early June I head up to northwest Wisconsin, build a camp and fish bluegill, generally in the Burnett, Barron or Polk County area. Last week I did just that with my hopefully pregnant golden retriever Red. Red seems to sleep a lot the last few weeks and I needed an easy trip as hobby farming and a very active life in other ways has been kicking my behind. I hope you enjoy and as always, thanks for reading.

   Tuesday June 2nd
   High 81, low 52

   Before I could sit in a canoe and watch a bobber, I had to do a short portage to the lake that I would fish with my canoe and gear.
  I built a quick camp on a body of water that I had never seen before that is west of Shell Lake and east of Grantsburg. If there is ever an easy time to catch fish, in my opinion it does not get much easier than May and June and that would be proven today.
   My plan was to use ice fishing jigs, wax worms and a bobber. I had rigged 3 poles and would soon find out that all I needed was one.
   I threw out rig number one and was being observed by a flock of about 35 Canada geese and in case you may not know, Canada geese do not mate until they are 2 or 3. Until that time they are juveniles and when you see flocks in the spring you are generally seeing juveniles while the mature birds which mate for life are sitting on a nest which from start to finish of incubation takes about 28 days.
   I had anchored my canoe in about 12-feet of crystal clear water and cast towards a weed line and within seconds my bobber vanished. I caught my first fish of the trip which was a 9-inch bluegill and just like that it was nonstop bobber down with about 1 out of 4 gills being a keeper, which in this case had to be 8-inches which I measured with my trusty tape measure from the former Indianhead Sport Shop of Cumberland which truly was a great business. The 8-inch minimum was self-imposed and next I would like to say something about releasing fish, or should I say unhooking them.
   We all want to catch fish, and everyone wants to catch big fish. An 8-inch bluegill in Wisconsin is 7 to 9 years old and if you unintentionally kill several 3 to 7 year old gills while removing the hook and your neighbors do the same, there will be a lot less keepers. Too large of a tool for the gills mouth such as a needle nose pliars is very hard on the potential survival. Please keep that in mind and please try to teach other people, trout are especially vulnerable.
   So, I am sitting in my canoe and living the good life and thinking I would like to get a limit as I seem to evolve from one species to another. In other words, not much more bluegill fishing for me this summer and just before dark I caught my 25th keeper, paddled back to camp and enjoyed a cold can of Pabst while watching day become night.
   Here is something on aging, I am 64 and in excellent health, no matter what I say or do, for myself 64 is not as physically strong as 50. Portaging my canoe, handling 100-pound bags of feed are true reminders!

   Wednesday, June 3rd
   High 83, low 50

   I slept on the ground last night for at least the 1000th time in my life and I loved it. A sleeping pad and a sleeping bag inside of a backpacking tent that I did not put a rain fly on was just what the doctor ordered for my goal to rest on this trip.
   I literally did not fish until noon and just hung out at camp and watched my world. When I did fish, not only were the gills very hungry but I caught 9 bass of which all but one were 11 to 13 inches and the biggest was 17. I enjoy eating bass. If you ask me they taste a lot like cod, I did not keep any bass on this adventure.
   Tonight the world-famous Paul Bucher came to camp for a bit of a picnic and a lot of laughs. Paul owns and publishes The Cumberland Advocate, and we have been fishing and "picnicking" for about 25 years. Of all the fishermen that I know Paul is the best at this sport and by god he is one heck of a lot of fun around a campfire.
   The next day I broke camp early and in all honesty the rest I felt I needed had been obtained, I had a mess of fillets which I share with friends and family and life is good.
   Seems like a few months ago I was 50, our clocks are ticking, live large!

   Sunset