Brute’s Bleat July 13, 2016

After last week Tuesday’s rain and wind storm I didn’t think fishing would be any good on Wednesday, but I had promised my brother, Lloyd, a mess of sunfish so I went out anyway about 7 a.m. I could have slept in until 10 a.m. when the sunnies started to come to life. By then I had put on the smallest jig I had in the tackle box and fished with just a smidgen of leech which worked. The sunfish were biting extremely light, but seemed fascinated by the small jig which floated down nine feet in the 11 feet of water we were fishing. The sunnies didn’t give me much of a hint, but if the tip of the rod moved slightly it was time to set the hook. I tried some artificial bait, but that day leeches were the ticket to a good catch. It didn’t matter if the leeches were alive or dead, the result was the same. I had 17 in the live well by noon and threw back one nine-incher, a practice Daryl Hennen and I developed a year ago. . . Saturday evening I was visiting with Jack Treadwell at Bill and Ellie Tuffs 50th wedding anniversary. Jack is nursing a foot operation back to health and commented he hasn’t been able to get out in a boat this summer, or for that matter, purchase a fishing license, but hopes to by fall. A friend of his, Don Bower, showed me a photo of Jack and Mary Johnson and the Bowers with a string of walleyes they had caught a year ago up in Ottertail County. They looked like great eaters and Jack commented they threw back everything over about 15 inches as a conservation effort. The Bowers live on Rush Lake and the conversation eventually turned to panfish with Don commenting he enjoys fishing panfish on Rush Lake and has several spots marked on his GPS. If they don’t hit at one spot he moves on. Apparently, conservation runs in his blood and he commented they are in the habit of releasing the sunfish over a half-pound. Perhaps it’s time for anglers to practice conservation big time, if they want quality fishing to continue.
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I’m seeing more young turkey poults this year than I’m seeing young pheasants which doesn’t bode well for the pheasant population. I’m hoping the disparity is just because turkeys are a larger bird and the young ones are easier to see than pheasant chicks. Vanna and I got a closeup of three Sandhill cranes that seem to like the environment of Ney County Park. Their population seems to remain constant at two or three in the park each year and last week they were feeding in one of Potter’s hayfields just off the township road. Other things about Ney Park is the abundance of wild-flowers this year. The brown-eyed susans dot the landscape in groups with their yellow blossoms. There is another flower I can’t identify by name, but it is a smaller cone-type flower with a brilliant violet-colored blossom which tends to grow in groups. No, it’s not a thistle, but even some of those bring color to the park. . . on the down-side, the deer flies are a bother to hikers, dogs, and horses without nose netting. I finally broke out my bug hat which makes walking with Vanna much more tolerable. . .
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Maple Lake’s Lakers pulled off a “Frank Merriwell finish” Sunday afternoon in the bottom of the ninth when they were down 3-1 in their game with Delano to win 4-3. . . Laker fans will be in for a treat on July 30th when the Laker “Old Timers” take the field at 4:30 p.m. In a second game that night the present Lakers will host Jordan. Watch next week’s Messenger for a roster of the old timers and mark your calendars for that must-see game, July 30th.
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The Sunday morning rain, anywhere from .6 to 1.5 inches, was extremely timely for this year’s corn crop which is just about ready to tassel out. It will also green up the lawns and anything else that needed a drink of nature’s finest. Any early hint for the South Dakota pheasant population came Sunday from Don Curtis, Mitchell, SD, that a preliminary count shows the population of birds there will be about the same as last year. With the mild winter I would have suspected there would have been an increase, but it sounds like that may not happen!