Special Update

Mona mentioned to me last night that my Sister-in-Law reminded her that I hadn’t updated the site here in quite some time. This posting is specially for her.

Here is a photo of Mona cutting the grass for the last time in 2011. It was taken about two weeks ago. I said it’s the last time this year because right now, most of the lawn is covered with SNOW!  The next time might be me on the 4-wheeler removing the snow from our driveway?

Last Open Water Fishing in 2011?

We went out fishing on Shawano Lake just over a week ago. You couldn’t beat the weather compared to this week. Near 80 degrees on October 9 – can’t beat that.

Mona caught this Largemouth Bass on a spinnerbait after a half hour or so.

If she can do it – I can do it too. I think hers was a little bigger though (not by much). Both fish were released.

Mona Taking it Easy

 

Mona takes some time off playing games on the laptop after shoulder surgery less than a week ago.

Mona's Sandhill Crane Photo

Last Saturday I had a Fishing Club Meeting at the Walleyes For Tomorrow Office in Fond Du Lac, WI. (About 85 miles from Cecil.) There was some pretty good stretches of fog every once in a while so it was a little tuff to see where we were from time to time. Below is one of the photos that Mona snapped in once area where the fog lifted some. It was taken about midway between Navarino and Black Creek.

Mona caught this photo last Saturday morning.

One Way Trip on Shawano Lake on 10/10/2010

Sunday morning we got up and made our breakfast as usual. Hooked up the boat to the van and took off to Cecil to fill the boat with gas before heading out to Shawano Lake.  We didn't want to run out of gas like we did a few outings ago while we were out by the Island. We got on the lake shortly after 8:30 or so. (Click on photos to enlarge)



Mona caught and released this 5 inch Largemouth while fishing for Bluegills.

While heading down the outlet toward the river we spotted a pair of Eagles.

A short time later we came upon another pair of Eagles. One of them flew away before we could get a picture of them.

We fished for about 3 hours for Bass and Northern with little success. Being somewhat bored and needing to put a couple meals of fish in our freezer we decided to fish for Bluegills. Between the two of us, we caught about 20 of them but nothing with any size worth putting in the livewell.

The decision was made to head over to The Lighthouse Bar near the Airport to hit the rest rooms and get a couple cans of soda since the weather was beginning to warm up a little bit. Once returning to the boat we decided that we would head down the outlet towards downtown Shawano. While motoring towards downtown at a no wake speed, John kept on snapping photos of the fall scenery that surrounded us. By the end of the day he had over 150 photos.

After going as far as we wanted we turned around and ran wide open up to the no wake area a few hundred yards from the bridge we go under to go back towards the lake. All of a sudden the alarm on the motor went off indicating the the motor had over heated on us. John shut the motor of right away so that we wouldn't cause any damage to the motor. We had been traveling through a lot of weeds in the water and the motor probably wasn't getting enough water to cool it properly.

We used the trolling motor again to get us over to the marina right by the bridge and tied up to one of their docks and waited for the motor to cool down so that we could head back home and watch the rest of the Packer Game. The motor wouldn't start after several attempts over a period of time. Here we are nearly 8 miles from our van and boat trailer and we can't get the boat started.

Mona had her cell phone so she called one of our neighbors who was kind enough to pick John up and run him back to our vehicle. The marina had a boat launch, however it is not in the best condition. We got the boat on the trailer after a lot of effort but when we tried to pull the trailer out of the water the front wheels of the van only spun and wouldn't move. We had to push the boat back into the water and move the trailer out of the water a little more. The landing has a drastic 6 inch straight down drop that the trailer tires got stuck on.  Now there were no trailer rollers in the water so it was going to be a job getting the boat out.  We were lucky that there was a women who stopped to check out the area for fishing and a guy with a jet ski who wanted to launch showed up. After a good amount of effort from the four of us we got the boat on the trailer and this time the van had no problem pulling it out. (The motor started the next day after changing the spark plugs.)

Time to Make Some More Sauerkraut

It's that time of the year again. Time to make some more Sauerkraut. We made 17 quarts last year and we only have one quart left.

Mona pictured here today cleaning and

chuncking the cabbage so that I can grate it on our

 mini Cabbage Cutter. It's a little small -

 but beats cutting it up with a chef's knife.

We use a big plastic tub to put the kraut in over night.

Here is some of the kraut as we dumped it into the big tub with salt. Yesterday we went to Black Creek (through all the road construction) to get some cabbage. We came home with 9 pretty good sized heads. We wanted to make sure we had enough because we wanted to make more this year than last year. We only grated 5 of the 9 heads and had 43 pounds of kraut. The recipe claims they use a pound per quart so we know we have more than last year.

Tomorrow night (Monday) we will place it in jars and put the lids on tight and let it sit for six weeks. After it has fermented, we dump it all together in the tub again and then pack it back into the cleaned jars with new lids. Throw it in the pressure cooker for the desired amount of time and then we have Sauerkraut.

Another Shawano Lake Large-Mouth

Of course I'm referring to the fish. Mona caught this nice Large-Mouth Bass last weekend on my favoirte spinner bait by Northland. Note: In case you were wondering - we only do C.P.R. on Bass and other large trophy game fish. This one should still be swimming around in the Lake until it grabs another lure.

Chippewa Flowage 2010

Mona keeps her eyes glued to the bobber in anticipation of it going down.

John/Mona and Brewster

John brings the boat to the landing so we can load it up in preparation of leaving the next morning.

Mona with more fish on the "Big Chip"!

Got a little Northern in the basket.

Another little Northern

Time to clean some crappies

Mona Caught Some Big Walleyes on the Chippewa Flowage This Year!

On Suday, May 30th, we went to one of our favorite Walleye Spots

and Mona landed this 23 incher that will go nicely into the frying pan

for a Friday Night Fish Fry once we get back home.

About 20 minutes later she caught this nice 28 inch Walleye on a

minnow with a slip bobber again in the same spot. This fish was

released so that it can help produce more fish just like it for some-

else in the future. No idea how much it weighed but it was nice.

Click on photos to enlarge

Mona measures her 28 inchWalleye. You can tell by the background that both fish were caught in the same place.

Neverman Family Get Together

May 21 through the 23 Mona's Family had a get together at her Brother's place. Pictured here is the "Group Shot" taken before the fire pit was lit and the marshmallows came out on Saturday Night. You can tell by the sun burnt faces on a few of us that the weather did cooperate.

(Click Photo to Enlarge)

Mona Gets into the Christmas Spirit

Right around Thanksgiving or so Mona started getting into the Christmas Spirit slow but sure. Here she is finishing up with some of the ornaments on the tree this year. All that's needed to complete the job is the tinsel yet.

Note the Stockings hanging on the fireplace. They're still empty. St. Nick must have passed us by this year.

What's up with that?

Crappie Time 2009

This is one of our crappie spots in the Chip. At the right time you can catch them as fast as you reel in.

If you look close - (I know it's hard to see on this little screen) there's a white spot in the middle of the screen by the treeline on the other side of the Lake, just to the left of the white spot (actually pontoon boats) is the cabin we stayed at. We kept one meal of crappie for ourselves and one for my Mother.

Crappie Time 2

Mona continues to catch and release crappies.

Mona's Bass Attack

Mona caught and released this Smallmouth Bass while we were fishing around Hippo Rock while at the Flowage.




The Locals are urging people that do catch "Legal Sized Bass" (during the open season) on the Flowage to harvest them. They claim the Bass are harming the Walleye population on that body of water.

I've posted some Bass Recipes on a different site that I manage that were in a WDNR News Release I received. Here is a short excerpt:

"SPOONER - Catch-and-release has caught on so big in the bass fishing world that Wisconsin anglers are only keeping about 5 percent of what they catch.

They kept only 550,000 of the 10 million small mouth and largemouth bass they caught in 2006, according to a mail survey of anglers. In contrast, Wisconsin anglers in the same year kept about 30 percent of the walleye they caught, or 2.2 million of 7 million caught.

In some places in northern Wisconsin, bass are very abundant and can make a tasty meal. Fisheries managers are encouraging harvest on these waters to keep the numbers in balance and to improve bass growth rates. As always, larger bass are less common and anglers should consider releasing them."

Click Here for Bass Recipes

They (the Locals) are saying the same thing about Northern Pike in the Chip. We caught a number of them with the largest one around 21 inches or so. Surely no trophy but a lot of fun to catch.

Opening of Our Fishing Season... May 3, 2009

This is the first time we've been fishing since October, 2008. A very long dry spell. Normally throughout the Winter we get out at least one time to try for some panfish.

Here Mona is taking the hook out of a Largemouth Bass that I had just netted for her. It was caught on my favorite Spinnerbait. When Fleet Farm gets the baits in I normally buy between 5 and 10 at a time. It seems to me that either Fleet is ordering a different model of that version or Northland Baits changed the way they make them. They seem to me to be made cheaper now and they don't provide the action I like.

As with all of the Bass we catch - this was a Catch and Release legal sized one caught on Shawano Lake. I'll try to catch 'em when he grows up more (Ha Ha). Actually, she caught three that day and I only had one miss.

Mona clears a path to the Bird Feeder

Here is Mona clearing a path to the bird feeder in the front yard so she can get the little guys something to eat. We've already surpassed our normal annual snowfall for the season and we've only past the half-way point in January. This is the most we've used the snowblower in several years.

Start off the New Year Right!

There is a place we know that runs a sign-in and every week you go to physically sign in you have a chance to win half of the pot collected since the last winner. In the last 4 1/2 years or so we probably didn't miss more than what you can count on both hands. The day of the drawing, Mona asked if I wanted to go sign in and I said something like: "It doesn't really pay does it?" The Packers last game of the season was about to begin and I didn't feel like taking a ride and missing some of this important game. We went in to the place on the following Saturday for lunch and saw this sign. This was half of the kitty. Happy New Year!

I'll Have a Gallon of Gas... To Go!

Mona returns from her walk to the gas station to buy a second gallon of gas.

(See - Last Fishing Trip 2008)

Last Fishing Trip of 2008... Maybe?

Saturday, October 11th with the weather near 70 degrees and mostly sunny, we decided to try to get the boat out just one more time for the year before we have to get it winterized.

We went out on Shawano Lake at about 1:00 pm and fished for a few hours with no luck except for a couple of bites that we missed. We were throwing spinner baits and crankbaits for Bass and Northern Pike. (If we get lucky we could get a Musky.) We put the boat in at Swan Acres landing and fished on the Cecil end as well as by the Historical Marker on Highway 22. We decided to go across the lake over by the Shawano County Park to hit the restrooms before taking a ride down the outlet on the outskirts of town to the Wolf River. Then we would go past the Shawano Medical Center down to the Shawano Dam. We fished the river near the Dam for a little while and decided to give up there too.

That's when we turned around and went under the railroad trestle that goes across the river and went up that way for a mile or so. When we turned around - we had already logged 26 miles on the boat. We returned to the outlet and started back to Shawano Lake snapping pictures all the way when the motor on the boat died. The gas gauge on the boat doesn't work and we ran out of gas. Fortunately, we were only 100 yards or so from Huckleberry Landing - Downtown. (It was getting to be about 4:30 by now.) John walked about a block and a half to a gas station to see if he could borrow a gas can and buy some gas to get us back on our way.

The women behind the counter said they didn't have and gas cans to lend out (and even checked) but she said we do have some to sell. He ended up buying a one gallon gas can for over $4.00 and then another $3-something for gas.

He also used their phone book to get phone numbers for S & S Marine and The Lighthouse Bar who sell gas right on the outlet near the Lake. John put the gas in the boat as Mona called the numbers to see if they were open and if they would still sell gas. S & S Marine said they closed at 5:00 pm but her husband would be working in the back until about 6:00 - we could hunt him down and get gas.

We wanted to make sure we had enough gas to get there so Mona walked back with our newly purchased 1-gallon can to get another gallon of gas. She returned at about 13 minutes to 5:00. John put the second gallon of gas in the tank and we were off flying down the outlet as fast as the boat would go until we reached the no wake area. When we arrived at S & S Marine it was about 4 minutes before 5:00 and a young guy came out to assist (and collect) while we put in another 5 gallons to make sure we'd get back to Cecil.

Once we got back to Cecil Bay we decided to try fishing for a while before quiting and that's when Mona caught and released this nice Largemouth Bass on a spinnerbait. When 6:00 rolled around we decided it was getting dark enough for us to give up and head for home.

As usual: Click on the photo to make it grow!