George Palmer and I got in several hours of fishing on Rock Lake Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to about 3 p.m. and found some hungry crappies and sunfish in the shallow water. We were doing fairly well with fly rods, but when it started to drizzle we switched to conventional rods and reels. We tried several different areas, one in particular just in case the sunfish had started spawning. We didn’t come across any spawning nests and all we could catch were small sunfish there so the water temperature must have been too cool yet to trigger the sunfish spawn. . .
We ended up with 20 fish in our mixed bag, about the right number when it comes to filleting them. Jim Peterson and a grandson were on Rock too and Jim said he had been kept busy taking off fish and baiting his grandson’s hook while they were fishing on the south end of the lake. Peterson was on the public access dock getting his boat ready to load unaware that Palmer and I were within shouting distance. Anyway, to make a long story short Peterson stood up and stretched only to have his short pants slip down to his ankles before he could grab them. . .
I think he’s do for a pair of suspenders! A hint for Father’s Day. That was mild compared to the domestic that took place in a boat on Little Maple Lake two weeks ago when a couple were at odds. It was apparently serious enough for someone to notify the Wright County Sheriff’s Department. Voices carry well on the water and their shouting was picked up by lake residents who had fun making comments on facebook. Steve Loch said he and his diving buddies plan to see if they can retrieve any of the items that were thrown out of the boat during the squabble. I’m guessing the lady was catching more fish and that sparked the disagreement!
. . . Nick Pawlenty, right, who fishes Sauk Lake, in Sauk Centre, has come up with two nice sized walleye on successive Tuesday evening. This one was on May 22 and measured 25 inches. He’s hoping to keep up his one walleye per Tuesday evening, and hopes they will be larger. . .
Mike Muller fished for walleyes with a buddy, Peter, from South Haven early Wednesday morning on the Horseshoe Chain and where they boated fish. Muller said he threw back the first three he caught and they finished with seven keepers, smaller than the three he released. Assuming he filleted them, I’ll probably lose that job when we go to Lake of the Woods on June 2! . .
Wanting to see if the sunfish were spawning I launched my boat Friday morning on Ramsey Lake. I never did put the outboard down, but used the trolling motor along the shore on both sides of the access dock. I found some aggressive sunfish and gave Daryl Hennen a call at the Lumber Yard and suggested he grab his fly rod and join in the fun. The orange belly males were guarding the spawning nests well and hitting the fly moments after it hit the water. Hennen may be the owner of the lumber yard, but it’s hard to get him to break loose, especially at this time of the year when his contractors need him. . .
On Tuesday morning I helped Mike Muller launch his boat on Maple Lake where he planned to do a shake down cruise in preparation for a Lake of the Woods. He has a couple of new gadgets and figured he needs to familiarize himself with the remote control on a new MinnKota trolling motor and a Hummingbird Depth Finder. . .
Messenger Design Editor Don Dittberner nailed a 25 inch Walleye, his largest while fishing over the Memorial Day weekend in Ottertail County. He said it was a great weekend when it seemed everything was biting, except the Northerns. He had sore hands from the catch and release activity on panfish which is about as good as it gets.
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Memorial Day is again history and the program at the Community Park drew a large audience of patriotic people. It was a hot day, but a stiff breeze was a life-saver. The temps hit 85 degrees at parade time and it was 98.6 later in the afternoon. Lt. Col. Jill Jensen was the main speaker and reminded the audience of the sacrifices the servicemen and women have made in recent conflicts as well as World Wars I and II and those before.
A list of servicemen who were killed in action was read by Charles Stoppelman; and Tom Mooney read a list of veterans who have passed away since the 2017 Memorial Daily.
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