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.

Shakey Boat Ride at Route Lake Lodge

After trolling for Lake Trout one day we tried to grab a video of the side of the Lodge we were on. Here are the results. It wasn't easy operating the motor and the camera while fighting the waves and wind.

We took 3 cameras and a video camera but most everything came from the new camera we had bought a week before vacation.

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.

Ice Racing on Shawano Lake 2009

On Sunday, January 18, Mona and I stopped in at the Fire On Ice races on Shawano Lake on our way to drop of the computer at the computer place in Green Bay. (Our computer is sick again.)

The easiest access to the races is by the public boat launch in Cecil. The landing appeared to be in better shape this week than last week. There were all kinds of cars, trucks, ATV's and snowmobiles out there. Although I don't know much about them, the races have been held on Sunday afternoons again this year. This race was later in the afternoon and appears to only have four cars in it however, earlier races had more participants.

It's a good place to join the crowd and spend a Sunday afternoon. You can even get yourself a brat or hot dog as well as something to drink on the ice. You could even tune in on your car FM radio and keep up with what was going on as well as lap by lap information.

Toward the end of the video you can hear a lot of extra noise. There was a kid on a four wheeler next to me. Another lesson learned for in the future.

John Clearing Snow with the 4-Wheeler

Although Mona had a quick trigger finger on the camera, this is John in the process of doing some of the finishing touches with the snow removal in the driveway with the 4-wheeler yesterday. (If we don't get a chance to try doing it again this year, neither one of us are going to complain about it.)

For the first couple of snow storms this year we couldn't get the 4-wheeler started until John charged the battery and changed the plugs. About three snowfalls later we broke the cable on the winch that raises and lowers the blade on the front. Naturally when you finally get time on the weekend to fix it, that's when the temperatures decide to plunge.

Footnote: The videos on this site so far have been taken with a fairly inexpensive Pentax digital camera that also has movie taking capabilities. The camera fits in my shirt pocket and is easy to operate. Hopefully the quality will improve with a little practice.

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.