Fish

Serial Bluegill Slayer

The Reader may have noticed that I did not keep this blog current during our annual Spring U.P. fishing trip. We have plenty of excuses - the fishing was too good, weather too nice, it's easier to dump stuff on Facebook, blogging interferes with my nap regimen, yadda, yadda, yadda.  

First Cast - Moments after arriving June 9

In an effort to redress this mistake, I am backfilling posts for the trip but doing it by topic rather than a proper chronological journal. This is the Fish Compilation Post.

The nature of fishing at Big Shag Lake changed when northern pike were illegally introduced into the lake some years ago, and it changed again last year when the DNR finally recognized that fact and eased restrictions on taking pike. So now we treat shovelnose like panfish. Net net - we catch many bluegills, many pike, not too many bass. Stay tuned for the Food Compilation Post.

First Pike & First Stringer (6/10)

6-11 We find a killer bluegill hole...

 

About an hour's work for the Bluegill Slayer

Soon we were back fishing for pike...

6/13 Catch

6/13 Catch

We also took the Tin Can out to get into our favorite bass spots (6/15) ...

That didn't work so well - so back for more shovelnose...

Beautiful evening on the lake as we fished until dark - which, at this time of year, is 10:30 p.m.

On four consecutive passes trolling the same stretch, we caught a pike every time. At one point both dad and I both had 20+ inch pikes on the line at the same time. Landed them both. This is beginning to feel less like fishing and more like an invasive species eradication campaign... Which it is.

I am not complaining but I was fileting fish until 1:00 in the morning.

Over three days we compile a "surfeit of shovelnose..."

6/18 Catch

Walleye Contributed to Fry (6/20)

Jonah catches a shovelnose. He hooked 4, we kept one. The old man got skunked this circuit...

6/23 Catching Dinner For the Last Fry

Around 8:00 Wednesday night we decided we wanted one more fresh fish dinner before leaving for home. Problem being, the handful of panfish in the live well was not going to be adequate to feed this crew. The solution was obvious - Catch more fish. Now, it should be noted that in previous years we have also attempted to implement this obvious solution to an imminent dinner problem with limited success. Which is to say, when we really need the fish, we're almost always skunked.

This time, we launched an armada - 4 fishermen, 2 boats - Harlan and Jonah in the Tin Can fishing for blugs, Dad and I in The Papa going after shovelnose. Long story short, an hour or so and a dozen fish later, the Fish Fry was underway (see "Food" compilation post).

Thursday the 25th was clean up day at the lake house, but we had to take the pontoon boat around the lake for one more troll. As we were heading back to the dock...

The last fish of the spring trip...

Last Fish  - 6/25

"Days Like This" - The first day of summer in the U.P. was a doozy

You don't expect to see articles about the Upper Peninsula in the Huffington Post. But..

The Upper Peninsula Is Underrated, And We Have The Photos To Prove It

"In Marquette, a remote Michigan beach town further north than some parts of Canada, the only thing more enchanting and boundless than the views of Lake Superior is the sky above it. Most of the year, the northern coast of the Upper Peninsula is too cold for the average person to sit for hours marveling at the scenery, though weather won’t deter locals and hardy adventurers like Marquette's own nature photographer Shawn Malone.

And when her city does get its few months of warmth, coinciding with increased hours of daylight, Malone rarely strays from behind the camera, even to sleep. She's determined to capture all of the beauty the North Country has to offer. That’s how she ended up documenting the spectacular variations in the sky over Lake Superior in one 24-hour period last month, catching bright stars, moody clouds and the vibrant colors of both the Northern Lights and a double rainbow."

The article references Shawn Malone of Lake Superior Photo and an album she posted on Facebook "Days Like This..." featuring six remarkable photos of the Michigan sky, including a spectacular dawn, rainbow, and northern lights, all shot on 6/22/2015.

The cool thing is that while Shawn was shooting these pictures over Lake Superior, we were also mesmerized by the U.P. sky and shooting pictures over Big Shag Lake.

Our Big Shag Lake 6.22.15 "Day Like This" started with a spectacular sunrise...

Finished with a gorgeous sunset...

But the best was after dark, when, forewarned by internet alerts, we observed a spectacular Northern Lights show when the planet was hit by a mega solar storm.

The display was augmented by a power blackout at the lake that eliminated virtually all light pollution. My GoPro efforts to capture the display were a waste of time, but Harlan has a real camera and the mad skillz to capture it all:

It turned out to be one of the bigger solar storms of recent years:

"On Sunday, the summer solstice, a major explosion on the sun propelled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth at about 4 million miles per hour. It then swept up two smaller, slower coronal mass ejections from last week, creating one big smorgasbord of geomagnetic exuberance. The whole mess reached Earth Monday afternoon with a bit more energy than expected."

Quite the show, quite the day. After seeing one small Norther Lights display during my first 50+ years of  Shag Lake sojourns, I've now seen two full sky displays in the last 3 years. When you pick the right day in the U.P, there's no place like it on earth.

Sort of Live Blogging Greywalls Golf Course

Cousin Matt set us up with tee-time on the Greywalls Golf Course at the  Marquette Golf Club. Love this course.

This was my second time on the track. Thought I would be able to live blog the round as I did in '09. T-Mobile had other ideas, deciding to put data roaming limits on my "unlimited" plan. When I live-blogged my previous round in 2009 I was on the Verizon Network then. There is a difference. I'll just have to update with more pics later. 

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

UPDATED: As promised - more pics...

Panorama from the practice green on the first tee.

Matt is a tree hugger.

I forgot which hole this was....

In case you were wondering why it is called "Greywalls"

My favorite hole - the 190 yard Par 3 6th. I parred it in '09 and again today. 

He got out. Eventually.

Matt says the course plays easier on the back. He is lying. 

Yooper Course. Yooper Beer. Yooper Logo Ball. Cuban Cigar. It works 

Ball Go Far.

I had HOPE that I would better my 2009 score of 106. My HOPEs were dashed. I blame Obama.