07 Fishing Season

Howzit all. Our summer-fall fishing season was alot of fun, even without a boat. We caught a bunch of smallies, northern pike, channel cats, largemouths, crappies, carp, and bowfin, along with the usual host of bullheads and sunnies. Thank you Lord for creating all these for us! We also landed some walleye in the fall, including one 21 inch-er. We mostly fished the Dam (aka the "Dam Fishing Spot") and some along the River. We catch and release, and were even blessed to find a DNR science curriculum for home-school designed around fishing. Guess what Dad taught for science this year!

Here are the hi-lites. Dad is not a blogger so in typical Dad fashion, it is being crammed into all one post.

Here is Josiah, "net man" at our favorite spot. He landed the first 5lb., 24" bowfin (dogfish) after a good fight and jump. The second one is a bit smaller. Bowfin are not a game fish but are fiesty and fun to get on the line.

These next shots are Siri with her first Rock Bass, and then her first Smallmouth. These were the first of the season for them. Siri loves fishing but doesn't like to hold them, so she gets Josiah grab 'um and pose.

Here is Josiah's first fun-size smallie at 1.8 lbs. from the rapids just below the Dam.

Siri caught the first large-mouth out of all of us off Uncle Chuckie's dock.

The summer catfish action was fun. They love them sucker and fathead minnows, and give you a good run when "fish on!"
Dad wrangled in a bunch of 5-10 pounders, and Josiah dragged in the biggest of the year at 26", 12 lbs.
We love the toothy Northerns. They hit hard with attitude all the way to shore and a number of them got away right at the end (one with a fav lure). Josiah landed his first at 21', 3.5 lbs, and Dad had his share throughout the season averaging 3-7 lbs. Not bad for our spot.

We got some decent crappies and Walleyes when the water got a little cooler. The biggest was a 11.5" crappie and a 21" eye. Here is one of our crappies. Josiah was also stoked to get his first Wally at 15", 1 lb.

The day at Twin Lake dock was blog-worthy. We got the usual bass, sunnies, crappies. Then ... ... we accidently hooked a good-sized and grouchy snapping turtle! We managed to free him without losing any fingers or toes, but he hung around for more minnows, so the kids named him "Snappy." Siri got this shot after we let him go.

That's it for fall/summer. We may do the ice-fishing thing, ... If we hit the big one, it will be the next post.

Peace and Aloha.

Possum Rock

By Josiah:
This fish is a Small Mouth Bass. It was about 15 inches. This time we were at Possum Rock. We call it Possum Rock because an Opossum was hiding in the rocks. This is me and Dad holding the Small Mouth Bass.
By Sara:
This is the same Small Mouth Bass as the one Josiah is holding in the other picture. I didn't want it to touch my clothes so I sort of did a pose like that.