Paddling the River

Knock another item from my bucket list, I finally was able to fish and kayak the Mississippi river.  This is something that my son and I have talked about for a couple of years, even going so far as looking for fishing kayaks on Craigslist.  This whole adventure has intrigued me for awhile and quite honestly, I am not sure why.  When my son and I visited the Sportsmen Show a few years ago, we chatted with a company who was giving away a fishing kayak and who also offered rentals for daily fishing trips.  We spent quite a bit of time at their booth and came away excited to experience a trip like this.

Move forward a couple of years and a chance visit to Groupon and before you know it, I had a coupon for a 6 hour trip from the very company we talked to, Clearwater Outfitting, www.cwoutfitting.com, located in Clearwater, Minnesota.  It was going to be a bit of a drive for us to get to the store, but we found out that it was well worth it.

We checked the weather prior to leaving and it looked like we had selected a fairly decent day.  A bit of a breeze but no rain so off we went.  It was a little over an hour drive to the store and as we pulled in, both my son and I were more than ready to ditch the car and spend a day on the river.  Now we are not big river people in fact neither of us had spent much time fishing or even floating or boating on the river.  My wife was a bit hesitant on us going from a safety point of view.  Our summer and especially the month of August has been quite wet with most areas receiving 5+ inches of rain for the month.  Since we didn’t know anything about the river, she was concerned that the flow would be fast and the depth would be deeper than normal.  We did come to find out that this was far from reality.

Once we arrived, we checked in and needed to go through a safety briefing, which turned out to be a video on what not to do when out on the river.  There was another couple in our safety briefing who were heading the opposite way of us but were also going to be spending the day on the river.  After the video, we were fitted for life jackets and then given a briefing on fishing the river and where the fish had been biting.  Another perk, which we didn’t realize how great this was going to be, was that lunch was included, and what a lunch it was.  More on that in a bit.  We signed out the equipment and down to the river we went.  By the way, the people working in the shop were fantastic.  Very friendly and you could tell they were very passionate about paddling and were intent on ensuring we had the best experience possible.

As we stood by the shore, the person helping us gave us some final pointers and off we went.  Initially, due to some bridge construction, we needed to go upstream and towards the middle of the river so that we could get around the construction obstacles in the water.  Not sure if it was the combination of going upstream, the wind blowing and me not really feeling comfortable on the river, but the first few minutes of the experience were a bit shaky to say the least.  My son and I maneuvered our way around the construction stuff and settled in on the side of the shore where the wind was minimal.

Once we moved into the shore area, we began tossing our lines in hopes of landing our first smallmouth bass.  The individual who was helping us did warn us that the bottom was fairly rocky and that if we happened to get our lures stuck, that to release the lure, we would just need to go upstream a bit and then tug it free.  I moved a bit ahead of my son and saw him head towards shore.  I waited for him as I wasn’t sure if he had landed a fish or what the deal was.  Much to my chagrin, he actually had hooked a tree limb so once he was free from that we moved downstream little by little.

Now since we were new to this whole river paddling thing, one item we needed to figure out was the timing.  We had a map of the river, but what we didn’t have was a good idea on how long it would take us to paddle and fish.  We did know that a lot of smallmouth had been caught near the end of our trek so we knew we wanted to save some good time for that.

About 30 minutes into our trip, my line went tight and both my son and I were waiting to see our first smallmouth.  I pulled in the fish and we were soon treated to our first Mississippi river northern pike, a very disappointing fish, fun to catch but disappointing from a species point of view.  We continued paddling and looking at the map.  We knew the area we wanted to have lunch so once we saw the spot, we focused on getting there as our stomachs were grumbling a bit.

What we didn’t realize about the spot we picked, was that the river and wind were going to be a bit of a challenge.  We paddled and worked our way to the sand bar and once we had beached our kayaks, we were more than ready to dive into lunch.  We ripped open the bags and to our amazement, the sandwiches packed for us looked amazing and tasted even better.  We both inhaled them, the chips and the cookie and then my son commented, “that was the best sandwich I have ever had”.  Not sure if it was because we were hungry or what, but I totally agreed with him.

We climbed back in the kayaks and continued our journey down the river.  A bit while later, my line went tight again and this time I was able to pull in the first smallmouth of the trip.  A lot of fun catching it and once it was in the boat, both my son and I hoped that it was a sign of things to come.  As we paddled down the river, both of us were enjoying the scenery around us.  The landscape around was very wooded and sparsely populate or at least that is how it looked.  Another item to note, most of the river in this stretch is very shallow.  In many areas, we could have gotten out and walked in the water, not at all what we had expected.

As we approached our landing spot and the spot which we had been told many smallmouth had been caught we both agreed we would take our turn through this area.  The current had picked up in this area so that presented a bit of a challenge for us, OK me more than my son.  You see, I actually got myself hung up on a rock and without my son’s help I may have ended up tipping the kayak, and yes I had this very vision in my head.

We cleared the faster flows and settled into a spot that was calm and was calling out to us that this was a hotbed for fish.  My son’s line went tight and I paddled back upstream to see what he had caught.  He landed his first and only smallmouth and used his GoPro to record the event.  A lot of fun to see him catch something and to be so happy to finally land a fish.

This was the last fish we caught for the day as we climbed out at our landing spot and waited for our ride.  Both of us had thoroughly enjoyed the day, I mean how could you had not.  We helped the load the kayaks on to the trailer and on our way back, our driver told us about a fishing contest they were hosting in October.  I had a couple of thoughts float through my head and could almost read my son’s mind.  We came to our senses and decided we were going to have to wait for another year for that.

On the ride home, we both talked about what a fantastic day it was.  No, we didn’t catch a stringer full of fish, but sometimes that isn’t what fishing is about.  Sometimes just spending time with your son in the outdoors weighs more than any fish you can land.  I highly recommend you give kayak fishing a try, I know my son and I are in discussions to experience this again.

The Next Experiment

For all of you outdoor enthusiasts out there, I know the topic today may strike a chord with you.  It is one of those topics that many wives or better halves dread when it starts, “think I need to upgrade our XXX or I want to try out a new lure or think our boat electronics could use an upgrade.”  Most of us know that once that conversation starter happens what comes next are the spending of dollars on something that might be a passing fad or something that takes our outdoor enthusiasm to the next level.  And of course, you won’t know the end result until you spend some of that hard earned money and give it a whirl or upgrade your equipment.

Now my son is a master at being one of those people that lulls you into a false sense of security when he wants to try something by starting off simple and then before you know it, you are in a couple of hundred dollars on a new sport or a different take on a sport.  Now don’t get me wrong, I want to give him all the opportunities in the world to be active in the outdoors and try out new things.  But some of the ideas he has had are good, he might just have a problem following through once in awhile.

His latest quest began at the end of last summer when he got an itch to try out carp and muskie fishing.  Now we are avid fisherman now and pretty much focus on bass but him seeing a couple of guys last summer trying to bow fish for carp, may have triggered this new interest.  So in his spare time last fall, he researched equipment for this new quest and came up with that he needed some lures and a new reel which would be able to handle the larger fish.  Now to his credit, he does a great job researching his items and when he asks for something like this, he tries his hardest to make sure that he isn’t going to ask for specific equipment for each species of fish, but instead he works it out so that we only have to buy one type of equipment that will handle both species.

So on his Christmas list was a new reel and his hopes were that one of his current rods would be able to handle the added weight.  On Christmas morning he opened his new reel and at that very moment, I saw the wheels turning in his head envisioning the monster fish that he could catch with his new toy.

Well last weekend, our plan was to drop our boat into the water and try out our newer motor and at the same time give him his first opportunity to try out his gear.  Now the plan was to fish for carp and because he didn’t have stink bait, don’t even want to know what that is, he improvised and pulled some chicken off of a carcass and kept it in the garage so that it would get good and gross.

Our plans were modified at bit due to the weather, but after coaxing him a bit, we decided to give his new toy a try from our shoreline.  He opened his container of “bait”, and I immediately knew that I was not going to tough that chicken, in fact he wasn’t going to touch it either.  He somehow figured out a way to get it on his hook without touching it and before I knew it I heard the clicking of his reel and in the water went the bait.

Needless to say, the weather prevented us from spending a ton of time at the cabin, but he at least got to tryout his new reel and even catch something.  Yes I had to put that picture in just to show you what rotten chicken thrown in a lake will catch you.

Well I know this is just the start of this adventure with him as his grandmother recently purchased some real carp bait for him and he is no doubt looking forward to hooking that bait on to his line and seeing what adventure it will create for him.  It should be a fun summer and I can’t wait to see how successful the young lad will be with his new adventure.  And if he scores success with this, my wife and I both know that it will spurn another chapter of fun and requests for something new.

 

June Fishing

Our first full weekend at the cabin, wow it is only the 2^nd weekend in June?  Have to love it when the graduation party invitations are minimal and the weather cooperates, (at least what they report on TV).  Anyway, we loaded the family up in the van, hooked the boat up and headed off to the family cabin for a weekend to celebrate birthdays and hit the water for some fishing.  The plan was for my wife and I to rise early on Saturday morning to fish for a couple of hours and then head back to pick up my son once he crawled out of bed.

Did I mention the weather guys had told us it was going to be a fairly nice weekend?  Maybe I missed the first part of the weather forecast?  Well, whatever happened, I awoke on Saturday morning to humidity and a light mist in the air.  I headed into the cabin to visit with my in-laws and to sip on coffee in hopes of the weather clearing.  Two hours later I was still there and by now my son was up and ready to rock.  We decided to drop the boat into the water to try our hand at some fishing.

Our intention was to try some new spots and lures instead of heading for the spot we knew we could land some fish.  Now the reason for this approach is that my son is dying to try his hand at a bass tournament.  Now it just so happens that on our chain of lakes, they host a bass tournament each July as a fundraiser for the lake association.  This is a target of my son’s and our response has always been that we will enter the tournament once we start catching bass on a regular basis.

Anyway, on this day the luck of the fishing gods was not with us.  We worked a new spot on the lake and as we were heading off to another location, the motor on our boat started acting up, OK that might be an understatement.  The motor actually choked itself out and after a bit closer inspection, was leaking gasoline which meant that it was headed for the shop.  My son and I headed up for some lunch and a break from casting and after a bit my wife, daughter, son and sister-in-law headed off with the trolling motor to pull the boat out of the lake.  I headed over to the boat ramp to pick them up and once there realized things were not going well for them as I watched a pontoon boat pull them over to the ramp.  Note to self:  trolling motor batteries last about 5 hours.

So after admitting that I was restricted to the dock for fishing, I threw everything imaginable into the water but to no avail.  Finally, after about 30 minutes, the line tugged and I reeled and at the end of my line was……my first northern pike of the year.  And with that fish, I moved into first place in our family fishing tournament.

Oh yea by the way, my wife scored a sheep head on the way to the boat launch.  Not a great weekend for fishing or for boat use.

Not The Weekend I Expected

The plan was for us to hit the cabin for a weekend of fishing and fun.  Of course, that was dependent on my son completing his Eagle Scout project and if mother nature was going to cooperate.  So on Friday night, a group of hearty Boy Scouts gathered with my family and knocked out the project, very happy to have that done.  That part of the puzzle was completed and now we just needed mother nature to cooperate and by looking at the forecast wasn’t sure that was going to happen.

On Saturday morning we woke up to a chilly morning and a good wind coming out of the north.  My wife and I made an adjustment to the plans and decided we would head down to the cabin later in the day and since Sunday’s weather was looking better, we would get up early and then take the boat out for its inaugural voyage of the year.  We left the house around noon and arrived in early afternoon.  My son and I gathered up our rods and headed down to the water.

With a stiff wind out of the northeast, our casting was pretty much limited into one direction.  The other issue we had not accounted for was the weed situation.  Now for the folks in Minnesota, most of you are aware of the lakes in the southern part of the state and how with farm runoff and the warmer water temperatures, there is an issue with algae and weeds.  In most normal years, after about June 15th, the water turns very green and has excessive weed growth.  What that equates to is limited time swimming in the water and constant cleaning of your lures when fishing.

After about an hour of casting for bass, my son went old school and dug up a couple of worms and went bobber fishing for sunfish.  10 minutes later he landed a very nice fish and seemed to gain some confidence from his catch.  After a couple of additional fish, he called it quits and left me to continue my quest.

Now the other thing that kicked off this weekend was our family’s summer fishing contest.  This is a fun little contest we do each summer more for bragging rights than anything else.  I am the reining champion and with my son’s catches of the day, the “smack” talk began of him overtaking me for the year.

Our plan for Saturday night was to take our boat into town for gas and prep it for our Sunday day on the lake.  As we began to get ready for the trip into town, a thought popped into my head.  The hitch that I needed to hook the boat up to, was laying in my garage at home.  Hmmmm, that was going to make pulling the boat a tad difficult.  After explaining the issue to my son and dealing with his disappointment, we covered the boat and headed in to play some card games.

We awoke Sunday morning to the wind blowing and the sun out, which meant my son and I headed down to the dock to see if we could get some fish landed.  My son reverted to a Texas rigged worm and I went to my buzz bait.  Minutes later he landed a bass and his first comment was, “guess the guys at Field and Stream know what they are talking about.”  Evidently, he read some article in the current issue about bass fishing using this setup for this time of the year.  Funny how he didn’t mention anything about this.

That was the only fish we landed on Sunday, much to my dismay.  So after weekend #1 of our fishing tournament, my son has a commanding lead and I need to figure out how to catch something.

One last thing, immediately upon arriving home, my hitch was tossed into the van so that I will be ready for our inaugural voyage on to the lake.