Summer's Almost Gone

Date: August 27^th

Weather: 88 degrees

Stream: clear, 90’s cfs

Hatch: Tiny mayflies

Beer: The Dancing Man

            One of the saddest parts of the year is when I buy the last case of Dancing Man. It’s a short but sweet run from May to August and you know summer’s almost gone when the D-Man is scarce on the shelves. To make it worse, the trout season closes in a month. It’s almost too much to handle.

            After coming back from the Eastern Shore and some great ocean fishing, I was eager to get out to my old haunts on the Kinnickinnic. Nymphing produced pretty consistently and surprisingly, there were a 

quite a few rises, probably for terrestrials not those tiny mayflies. My hot nymph was a size 14 green caddis pupa. It’s green, fuzzy, and apparently looks delicious to lurking trout witnessed by the hook in the trout’s mouth.

HUGE!!!

            Most of the trout I pulled out were less than 12 inches. A nice fish but not what I was after, especially since fall is coming on and these fish need to pack on the calories. At my sweet spot this year, the trout have just given themselves to me. As I was drifting a nymph, I heard a loud gulp 20 yards downstream. On my second cast, the strike indicator disappeared and a gold flash was on my line. This one made some nice runs and didn’t give up like a smaller trout. I kept the drag lighter than normal for fear of breaking the line. When I finally reeled it into the net I let out some whoops which carried down the canyon. It was huge and its girth was impressive. If I was coldhearted I would have cut it up into some trout steaks but it was too beautiful for that. Its jaw was what stood out; it was developing a kype, where the jaw develops a hook for the spawning season. Trout caviar here I come!   

Out on the Eastern Shore

Date: Mid-August

Weather: Beautiful

Beer: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

            Maryland is an amazing state, I love it. It has it all: the Chesapeake, the ocean, amazing seafood, crabbing, clamming, Smith Island Cake, trim, and great beer. The Eastern Shore is its own world complete with a charming, slow pace of life where stores close on Sunday set in the beautiful countryside.

            Crabbing is just wild. You simply hook a chicken net and throw it out 10 feet in front of you and wait till you feel the line twitch. Slowly pull in the line until it is close by and have your partner scoop up the crab with the net. My first crab was huge and we kept it for dinner. While Dan and I were crabbing, we were also clamming. When you feel a golf ball sized object under your toes in the muck, just pick it up. Steamed up, it tastes like a gamey oyster.

            Late one evening, Dan and I strung up our fishing lines and crab pots and headed out to fish near the 

bridge to Assateague Island. The big surf rods are a blast to cast with four ounce lead weight attached to it. It’s much different detecting a bite in saltwater than my usual freshwater haunts. 

             As the light faded, I felt a big tug on my line and did an over-the-shoulder heave to set the hook. What progressed was a thirty minute battle. The fish was a bull, I had never hooked something this big, and it fought hard to stay at the bottom. As I reeled it within 30 feet of me, I felt the line slack so I reeled in quick but found the line had broken. I drowned my sorrows in some Dogfish 90 Minute IPA.                                        

            Fishing in a canoe out in Maryland is a lot different than the Boundary Waters. I’m sure I blew every Pennsylvanian tourist’s mind when I threw the canoe on my shoulders and tied up a homemade anchor with a rope and rock.  First, boaters have no sense of courtesy in breaking their wake. Second, there are some big fucking fish out here. 

            For a while we caught croaker after croaker, they went through our bait.  The only downside was slicing up fresh pieces of squid; their ink filled the bottom of our canoe and stained the clothes in my Duluth Pack. While we were slaying croakers, Dan had a big bite. Initially, we thought it was a flounder. It stayed close to the bottom and we didn’t even get it to the surface during the first 30 minutes. After many long runs causing the pole to almost double over, Dan hauled it to the surface. Lo and behold, it was a huge skate, at least 30 pounds. We fought it for a while longer but landing a fish like in a canoe is whole other ballgame. I reluctantly cut the line and set it free.

            Maryland is just a sweet, lovely state that I wish I had more time to explore. That’s the sad part about vacations, they end too soon. It was so fun, a great break from school and St. Paul, and just making some great memories. Getting back into the swing of things in Minnesota is little hard now, I wish I was back in Maryland. 

Fight Fish and Drink Good Beer

Date: August 13^th

Weather: 85 degrees

Stream: Beautiful

Hatch: Tiny mayflies

Beer: The Dancing Man

            The last few weeks have been busy trying to get ahead on homework and heading to the Boundary Waters. The night before my early morning flight to Virginia, I had to get out on the river since I wouldn’t be here for a while. Another slow night, I hooked a few small ones on nymphs in my sweet spots. Other than that, it was slow for most of the evening.

            In my best spot I was nymphing a long run with little luck. I couldn’t even get a bit. However, downstream maybe twenty yards I heard rises with some consistency. For the past month there have been some tiny mayflies buzzing around, probably about a size 24. So small, you can’t see it drift and have to set the hook on feel and timing a trout’s bite. I switched to a beetle terrestrial to see what I could do. I worked my way down the stream and cast under a nice run with an overhanging branch. As the beetle drifted, I saw a flash of gold materialize out of the depth, rise slightly to investigate the beetle, angle upward and strike with a splash. It was a nice 14 inch beauty but didn’t even fight that well. 

                Construction update: progress is continuing and it looks like they are laying the structures to span the bridge foundations on both sides. It's been a blessing in disguise because I always have the river to myself which is unknown on the Kinnie. Also, everyone in Pierce County is going to vote Republican because they want to cut big government but they were only too eager for the feds to foot 70% of the bill for this tiny bridge. 

Boundary Waters Bass

Date: August 3^rd

Weather: 85 degrees

Water: Beautiful

Beer: Fresh filtered water

            I need to get up to the Boundary Waters at least once a year to heal my bones. If I don’t, I have an emptiness inside of me that doesn’t have an outlet and keeps me waiting another year. It’s a place I hold dear with lots a great memories. This summer has been hotter than average and the BWCA is no exception, especially in the Ham Lake burn area since there are no sizable trees to produce shade.

            The weather was hot and the fishing was slower than I ever remember for early August. I hit some narrows hard with crank baits with minimal luck. Leeches worked best off of the rocky ledges next to shore. The bass were eager to slurp them up. Northerns were down around 20-25 feet. Walleyes were nowhere to be found but I can’t say I had the motivation to sit in a canoe vertical jigging. The weather was too nice and the water too beautiful to not swim. I caught quite a few nice bass in the 16-18 inch range. They fought great and tasted better.

            Better than the bass were the blueberries. They were everywhere behind our campsite. I picked my fill throughout the whole trip. We had blueberries pancakes and as an extra side for every meal. One of my favorite things to do is get down on my stomach and crawl through a blueberry patch like a snake, plucking the berries off the bush with my lips, snakeman style.