4th of July 2012 Part 4: Wolf River

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Ellen

Nice morning dive with a few members of the Deep Six Dive Group. Happy boat and crew.

Winneconne Fishing?

Our friend Jeff called us to let us know the walleyes were really hot in Winneconne. Since we didn't catch any fish last weekend and the boat was already loaded and ready to go, we hit the road and met him up there. Based on the number of boats in the water, and people fishing off of the bridge, we were sure to catch some - right? Well...

We started fishing at 5pm and with no bites by 8pm we docked at the Fin 'n' Feather for dinner. After dinner, we headed back out, hopeful that we would catch something other than a sheephead or white bass. At midnight, we were exhausted so we dropped Jeff of at the launch and tied the boat up for the night. (Thank you Dan, again for putting the generator on board! We were warm and cozy for sure!)

The only boat on the water with HEAT!

Jeff texted us at 4am to let us know that he fished off the bridge, and he and his brother caught their limit of walleyes between 1am and 3am. We were very happy for him, but we were happy we didn't waste our warm snuggling time standing on a bridge in the middle of the night. We gave it a shot again after breakfast, and ultimately ended up taking a boat ride back up to Chico's Landing. Again, we're not that serious about our fishing, but we're serious about our fun!

Someone forgot to move their house.

Here we are back at Chico's Landing again!

Wet happy dog.

Special thanks to Jeff for the inspiration and to Gary and the usual suspects at Chico's Landing for welcoming us to the docks once again.

p.s. No walleyes in the box yet!

2012 Boating Season Begins - Wolf River Fremont, WI

Once again, the Wolf River underwater cameras got us going and motivated us to get the boat all cleaned up and stocked for the season. We have been watching the cams (see: wisconsinfishporn.blogspot.com) like crazy and could clearly see that the walleyes were running so we loaded her up and made our annual trip to launch at Chico's Landing in Fremont, WI.



For the first time, we ran up river past Fremont. We wanted to try a new part of the river, and also wanted to find the infamous Nipple Beach. We have heard this is a great place to anchor the boat for summer fun. And, what the heck, we may as well try to catch a couple of fish along the way. The whole river is beautiful, and this part is was really interesting and different for us. The river twists and turns and narrows quite a bit in a few spots, but we didn't have any trouble navigating it. On many of the outside bends, there are fishing shanties lining the banks. Many of these shanties were quite elaborate with heat and potties, and we could tell that the occupants clearly have a good time while they are there.


As always, we spent the night on the water and even though the temperature got down in the mid 30's, we were toasty warm. Thanks to Dan for putting the generator and heater onboard, and convincing me to thow another sleeping bag in. Nutty as we are, we sat in the warm and cozy boat and happily watched our fish cam.

Just because there are fish down there, doesn't mean they are biting!

In the morning, we headed up river, anchored the boat and started fishing. After a few hours and no fish, Dan broke out the grill and started making breakfast. We loved the look on the faces of all of the guys in their boats when they caught the smell of bacon cooking. A few of them offered to trade us bacon for walleyes!

Packing the boat at the beginning of the season always takes a bit of work, and no matter how many lists we make, we seem to always forget something. This time, it was fuel and forks. We try to keep track of the fuel, knowing that each tank holds 18 gallons. The gauges aren't always reliable so we keep track using the Huminbird and with a grease pencil on the front windows. I assumed Dan knew there was fuel in the tanks and off we went. After breakfast, we decided to check to see how much fuel we had and needless to say, we were a little low. We were on a remote part of the river where there were no fuel docks, so we had to turn around before we made it to Nipple Beach, but vowed to make it back in the summer with a full load of fuel.

Here are some more pictures from the weekend:

We made it through the whole weekend without a wet dog. We're pretty sure we need to document this because it will probably NEVER happen again.

Did you notice I didn't mention a thing about catching any walleyes? That's because we didn't. We love the fish cams, but man is it frustrating when you can see them, but can't catch them! Admittedly, we aren't as serious about our fishing as most of these guys, but we make up for it by having a blast while on the boat!

Great scenery from inside the boat. This is near the cut.

Links:

Chico's Landing

Gala Resort & Campground

Han-A-Lula

Wisconsin Fish Porn

Birthday Week Celebration - Minocqua & Two Rivers Fishing

In celebration of birthday week (Susan 8/5, Dan 8/9) we decided to take a trip up north. We usually visit this neck of the woods when the water is HARD and we can snowmobile across the water, so exploring Minocqua Lake and Lake Tomahawk provided us with a whole new experience.

Minocqua Lake has plenty of spots to push the boat up drop our chairs in the water. Beer Can Island (Yes, that is the official name of the island.) turned out to be our favorite spot and we spent most of our time here meeting new people and giving boat tours.

We LOVED Beer Can Island simply for the fact that Gretchen could run around freely and we didn't have to worry about where she was or what she was doing. As always, she did what she does - RETRIEVES!

At around 4pm every day, the eagles started to fly. This was a sure sign that the fishing was good. Another sign were nibbles we were feeling on our legs as we stood by the boat. Dan supplied the girls - who are half our age and had arrived to help us celebrate our birthdays - with drop lines and minnow heads and we started catching blue gills left and right. We had a blast with these girls and really wish we could remember their names. They were a whole lot of fun. We highly recommend hanging out with chicks half your age on your birthday.

Three hot chicks, half our age. Happy Birthday Dan!

Even the fish were partying on our birthday!

We spent the night on the boat next to the railroad bridge where we rode snowmobiles last winter. It was a cool quiet night with no mosquitoes! We love sleeping snuggled on the boat, especially in perfect weather.

The next day, we explored Lake Tomahawk and tried a little bit of fishing. The weather took a bit of a turn but with the storm quite a way away continued to fish away until my fishing rod started making an odd noise, and Dan saw my hair standing straight out. There was actually enough static in the air to cause her hair to stand on end. Dan snatched the rod out of my hand and we made a beeline for shore to wait out the storm. After the worst of it passed, we crossed the lake and waited the rest of the storm out at the Lakeside Bar & Grille.

We spent the last day of our trip exploring Minocqua Lake and doing anything to avoid the inevitable. We will do almost anything to avoid the end of our trips.

Here's Dan at Albee's Yacht Club Bar & Grille,
just before we loaded the boat and left town.

But WAIT, there's more...

On Monday, we met up with our friends Jim and Terry for a fishing trip on the big lake. I drove the boat so the guys could focus on fishing. We found a lot of fish with the Huminbird and ended up catching two nice coho salmon. We had a great time with the guys and can't wait do head out with them again.

Terry, Jim & Dan the Great Lakes fishermen!

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EAA by Water

This year we decided to go to the EAA Airshow by boat! We walked the air show on Saturday and ran into our friend Ralph and watched Sean Tucker perform his amazing stunts in the middle of a HUGE wind storm. On Sunday we closed out the show at The Streich. Here we are late in the day on the last day of the show where we met our new friends Mary & Chris and introduced them to Rum Chata.

We closed up the weekend by floating to the seaplane base and visiting with the last remaining volunteers. We look forward to taking the boat to the airshow next year!

Lake Winnebago North

We spent another weekend on Lake Winnebago exploring and enjoying the northern half of the lake. We kicked off the weekend at High Cliff State Park and met our friends Bob and Doreen at the High Cliff Golf Course Restaurant at the Club House. Dinner at the restaurant was fantastic and the after dinner entertainment was the icing on the cake! Cookee's Folk & Fun was the best guy with a guitar sing along entertainer (besides Susans dad) that we've seen in a long time. We had a blast listening and singing along and watching Dan get the whole bar dancing. (Yes Sweetie, you brought out the Pee Wee, but everyone loved it!)


After Cookee was finished for the night, (and after he invited Dan to every one of his shows) we headed back to the harbor, sat by the boats and enjoyed Doreens tequila while listening to some good old George Strait.

On Saturday, we headed up to Waverly Beach and enjoyed hanging out in the water with about 50 other boats. The weather didn't completely cooperate with isolated thunderstorms and bizarre wind shifts so we headed for the Menasha Marina. We love the Marina and Diane the harbormaster is a fantastic lady. We all agree that there isn't another person who knows and loves the lake like Diane. She really has a pulse on all of the happenings on the lake, and everyone who knows her loves her! We took her recommendation and hired a taxi to take us to Georges Steakhouse and Piano Bar for a nice dinner.

Bob & Doreen on the Crown n' Water

Rain at Waverly Beach

(Notice the silly people who didn't get out of the water. Duh!)

All tied up at the Menasha Marina. Thanks Diane!

On Sunday, we decided to go exploring up river and take the boat through the Fox River Menasha lock to Little Lake Butte Des Morts. We followed the river all the way to the dam in Appleton, and on our way back stopped at the Appleton Yacht Club where we met the lovely Paige and had a few marina cocktails. The people at the Yacht Club were really nice, and we all decided that we would definitely put them on our future visit list.

After making our way back through the lock to the marina, we parted with Bob and Doreen and headed back to High Cliff. We decided we were hungry and the lake was really laying flat so we made way back to Waverly Beach and moored the boat within 50 yards of the beach. We found two spots at the end of the bar and met Joe and Sophia who were "just friends". Sophia was so sweet and proper and Joe was a riot and loved hearing our boating stories. He was so much fun and even walked us back to the dock to see us off. We had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again soon.

The lake was flat as glass on the way back to High Cliff, so Susan took over driving the boat and then practiced docking the boat in the harbor. After 4 - 5 tries she finally got it, and then finally docked the boat at the launch! Just another step toward her goal to being able to completely handle the boat herself!

It was another fantastic weekend on the northern part of the lake, and we look forward to spending more time on the lake, sucking up as much of the summer as we can.

Next stops, EAA Airventure & Birthday Week!