Wanderer

Nice bag of fish there Duff! I was out for about an hour and a half last night and managed 9 bites; 4 bass and 5 pike. Only 1 bass and 2 pike made it to the boat though. Horrible conversion rate. The bite is still on reaction baits for me. Buzz bait, spinner bait, rattle bait, jerk bait. Nothing on plastic which is usually my go to. It’s been weird with all the short bites lately. I’ve had very few fish that have crushed the bait. Earlier I figured it was a food thing - they were just too well fed. I’m hoping that’s still the case cuz those bass have DEEP bodies on ‘em. I’m starting to wonder though if the pressure is getting to them. We’ve had a noticeable uptick of new fisher people in the area. The side action: Had a couple turkeys glide by and up to their roost next to me about 10 minutes after watching a nice 10 pointer stand up out his bed. Yawn, stretch, [PoorWordUsage] and watch me fish for bit before wandering off to feed. Bad photo but better n nuthin.

Guess what I saw at Fleet Farm.

No pics but it did happen: I smoked corn on the cob for the first time last night and it was a hit with everyone. I know it’s not cutting edge grilling but definitely something I plan on exploring a little more. I just pulled back the husks but left them attached. Pulled the silk and popped them in @ 275 for 45 minutes. Butter, salt, pepper to taste after. Very simple. I’d even consider less time in the smoker

The Miss in my area has been junk all year overall. When people get on fish it’s been a “spot” thing rather than a pattern. I’m hoping the next couple months will be salvageable. I’ve just done some small lake pan fishing aside from my muskie trip to Canada in June. The panfish have been going really well. I’ve learned to get away from my typical mini tubes and fish micro Rapalas for better success on larger crappies and gills. The summers just seem to get busier or shorter. We’ll have friends at our place this weekend so maybe a little barge fishing off the toon. I don’t expect anything too serious until I hit Ely later this month. Sad thing is (for fishing anyway), my mind has been on duck hunting most of the summer. New gun for this fall busted the sporting clays up pretty good last weekend. Got a pintail to grass out yet and just got an invitation to Washington State over the winter for sea ducks. Really looking forward to that one. Just gotta slam a few good smallies and I’ll be fine.

Sounds like you need more snakes! Sorry, couldn’t pass that one up. But seriously, maybe the vole population is the reason they’ve showed up so heavily. I have a couple acre yard/field at my place and have some gophers living in it. The foxes will try digging them up on occasion making the mowing a little rough. Had to ask myself at one point, do I shoot the foxes for digging or kill the gophers so they don’t have anything to dig for?

Thanks Minky. I hope you have a great hunt! I’m going to apply for the second season again even though my chance of hunting is slim. We have a project at work that’s gonna peak through the month of October and end with a full weekend of work on THAT weekend. So the schedule says.

I keep magnets on paracord with my spearing gear. The magnets were salvaged from computers the IT department was scrapping. They’re small and strong enough to pull a spear back up off the bottom. They didn’t work on my buddy’s cell phone though! Otherwise I don’t blind fish with em and thankfully haven’t had to use them much! The last thing I fished out of the lake was my wife’s e cig with a rubber mesh landing net during memorial weekend. I knew I had one chance and dug deep for it. Brought up a bag full of mud and weeds but by god it was in there. See dried it out and fired it back up. 1 motor smoker saved - for better or worse!

Dang!!! That’s some big hail. Glad it didn’t come north! We got some damage last week from hail pretty close to that size. Yard clean up has been a bugger.

I get it that some people don’t like them but those are really harmless. As others mentioned, more beneficial than a nuisance. They’ll thin out as they disperse and probably not be so prevalent next year. I know, I know, that’s not a plan the wives are usually happy with. I won’t even let any of my family kill bull snakes on our property. Good mouse control.

Going off your description I think you’ll be fine leaving a small dock in over the winter. Anything that would happen shouldn’t be a major disaster. Keep the deck above the water line.

Dang... I just passed through Ely on Sunday and glanced at the store, thinking about him. Quite the character. No more rides in the Pope Mobile. Rest in Peace Sir Maki. Thanks for posting @leech~~

It didn’t sound like his pond was much of a “waterway” but I get your point. There are actual dock guidelines/rules published by the DNR that should be referenced. I’m pretty confident he’d be OK.

Is the bottom content firm or soft? If it’s firm and you’re feeling industrious enough, you could crib it. Our dock in Ely rests on cribs and is in a slow part of the river. Haven’t had a problem since we put it in about 8 years ago. Haven’t even had to re-level it. You’ll probably be fine with posts too if the bottom is softer but might have to mess with the leveling a little.

One more REPRESENT. Too hot for the hoody. The winds got up on Erie too much to make a good run to better water but we still wanted to fish. We hung around the breakwalls and got sheepies and smallies. No matter what we caught was going to be C&R for me so a bunch of these were fine. And a quick shot of the falls. That water is moving incredibly fast! Almost done with the loop. I’m coming back on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. There are some really beautiful areas up here. BTW, the section of NY State from the Allegheny Mountains to Buffalo made me feel at home. Very similar to areas of MN. I guess that’s why people like it so much!

So did Minnesota! 24,060 troops if I remember the number right. This is where General Lee threw in the towel on July 4th. This 24 mile road tour is pretty amazing. Glad I stopped. Just a shot to the left of the High Water Mark.