More Chippewa Flowage 2009 Photos

Top Left - this Eagle is watching the shoreline for spawning panfish the way it looks. He really didn't appear to mind at the time that we were watching him. This Eagle in the next photo on the right saw us coming from quite a ways away. There's been Eagles in this nest for the 10 or 11 years now that we've been going up there.

If you look carefully you'll see three Blue Hurons sitting in their nests in the top left photo. The picture was taken with a Canon Rebel with a 300MM Lens as most of the wildlife photos. This Loon was in the Crane Lake area and we believe she had a nearby nest because she really acted strange as if she didn't want to leave the area, but kept calling for her mate that was quite a ways away. The area we are in was always good for Bluegills.

The first picture you'll see the Blue Huron hunting as the Turtle is just laying there sunning himself. After the Huron flew away I grabbed a picture of the Sand Turtle. Shortly after the photo was taken he must have figured we were getting too close so it went into the water.

I believe this is the day we had a high temperature of 49 degrees. Later on in the day it got a little windy too.

The sign speaks for itself. This is one of the postings in the cabin. Friday night after a burst of rain we were presented with this rainbow that appeared to come right out of the middle of the Lake. The picture really doesn't do it justice. This young Eagle on the above right watched us for a while when we were getting some photos of the Hurons in the Nests above. Once we got too close, it left the scene.

Since these are still taken with the Canon - I left them in sequence. Mona is running the Movie Camera for the reality movie we plan on releasing next year (just kidding). In the 2nd photo she is looking out the cabin window and Brew has me covered from outside in the lower right.

As in the past - Click on photos to enlarge.

Our Blue Huron Visitor

One of the highlights for John this year was the day we had a visit from a Blue Huron. The visit was mentioned in an earlier post but as I got a little bit of time I was able to go through the nearly 600 photos we took and sort a few out. (There will be more posts coming.)

This is a sequence of some of the photos I took as they occurred. (You can click on any photo to enlarge it.)

The first photo is when our visitor enters the picture. The red boat on the right belongs to the Resort owner Terry, and the grey one is ours. I've been taking pictures of this guy for some time starting in the front window by the dining room and following him along the shoreline. These photos are taken from the bedroom window facing the lake. The day before this the water behind the boat motor was filled with small bluegills. I assume this guy knew that.

He's reaching out his foot here to climb in to our boat. Probably to get a better look at his prey just over the back of the boat.

Once inside the boat he starts to look around and make himself at home. My thoughts at this time are I sure hope these photos turn out and I hope he doesn't decide to take a dump. I've seen them do it while in flight and it's not a pretty site. It almost looks like one of those dive bombers you see on TV.

He must not have found anything of interest so he decides to exit the scene. Notice in the last photo that he's standing on my trolling motor. From here he jumped out of the boat along the shore and stared into the water. There must have be a twig that he liked so he picked it up in his mouth and flew away with it. Perhaps to replace a twig from it's nest and perhaps he wasn't a he?

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.

You Leave My Old Fashion Alone!!!

Pictured here is Brew eyeing up my Old Fashion. Evidently he has a heavy head already because he's resting it on the window ledge.

Don't you think for a minute that he got a taste of it either. Actually he has a habit of resting his head in the window ledge to look out the window.

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.

Where is the Chippewa Flowage anyway?

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