"Bad Decisions Make Good Stories"
"Bad Decisions Make Good Stories"
Outdoor writer, retired warden and old soldier Bill Crisp's outdoor columns can be accessed here.
Stories on all types of fishing, hunting, mushrooming and access to great apparel. Bill's articles are almost funny, humor based fiction filled, non fiction stories. If we're lucky there will be tips of the trades and seasonal updates!
I 49:2 I 6:8 P 18:34
River waters have reached Walleye spawning temps! The Fish and Boat Commission has started its pre-season trout stockings.
The Good Lord finds me too useless for heaven and too useful in Hell, so here I wait. In the meanwhile, I may as well fish. The time is here and the road trip is planned. In preparation for this hallowed holiday, I am making maple spritzed deer jerky for the road. (A great excuse to dodge the honey do list!) We are going to hit the head of the walleye run circa sometime on Thursday the 15th. By the time you are reading this, I will be wet and freezing and cursing at rocks on the bottom of the river. I will be ecstatically miserable drifting the river for spawning walleye.
This is an activity deemed illegal in many places. Yet for cheaper than a non-resident license in those places and cheaper than a resident license at home, I will be permitted to stand in the river and angle for fish that are bumping into my legs; if I can stand it.
It is not all chaos out there. Of course, as with all things, boundaries have been provided by the governing entities. To raise money from fines, I mean because they care to protect us poor, hapless citizens from ourselves and/or each other and to protect the resource from both. There are start and finish times, basically allowing us to fish during daylight hours and drink at night. It is still legal to drink while you fish, if you so desire. I should note that it is almost impossible to drink while you fish, your hands are full while you stand in fast current and winds; it would take a real pro. Us amateurs have to take a snort back on shore during breaks. Treble hooks are not allowed either, only single barbed hooks are permitted. After that, it is relatively free for all as long as you are using a rod and reel and I am not sure you need the reel.
Culling? Absolutely legal! The limit is six but you can stand out there and replace them all day as long as the released ones are alive. If you hang caught fish on a stringer from your belt, they stay alive and lively in the current of the river while you fish. Once you leave with six fish, you are done for the day, no second trips. There is a size limit of fifteen inches but since they are spawning walleye, it is a rare feat to catch one under 15, as that is the agreed upon size at which they begin to spawn. The average eye is easily seventeen inches there and often they are over twenty inches. I believe we get into fish pushing thirty inches but they are hard to bring in while fighting that current.
Walleye are not the only fish biting in there; suckers, steelhead, various bass, and catfish get in on the action as well. It really becomes a game to figure out by the fight what kind of fish is on before it appears.
With all those fillets comes great responsibility. We cut their throats when done to bleed the fish out. This makes for clear white fillets that are even tastier. For the fair woke vegetarians, fish feel as much pain as tofu and I’d rather do it that way than by suffocation in a cooler.
There is some “combat fishing” as the shores get lined with anglers trying their luck. However, most of those guys, maybe being Midwestern, are polite and even helpful and we engage in some pretty interesting conversations as we fish. You have to check your ego at the door there because there will be a stretch where no matter how good of a fisherman you think you are, you will not be catching crap while guys on either side of you are reeling them in. That is when you take a break and go get a snort. With the conditions being rather harsh it keeps away the fair-weather anglers who also happen to be the same type to cause a negative atmosphere. As good as I make it sound, the conditions this time of year on a muddy river get pretty rough and uncomfortable so you really have to be a positive person to weather the storm so to speak. So, I will try to fit in and keep a smile on my face even when I am snagging rocks and snapping lines!
See you along the stream.
I have no idea why you'd sign up here, yet. But thoughts wander from hunting, fishing and sports to penny stocks...
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