Opening Weekend Photos

[BlueRanger]

I posted an album from opening weekend, and there will be more added to it. I took a lot of shots of other boats this time, some from the boat and some from the dock and deck. So if you were there and in the area from Springstead Landing over toward Horseshoe or Blair, check it out and maybe you'll see a picture of yourself and your boat. After putting the boat in on Friday morning, I spent the afternoon up at Saxon Falls near Hurley and have only processed a portion of those shots, then I stopped for some nice pre-sunset shots at Springstead Lake Lodge on my way back. And there are the usual detours and distractions from the drive up and back, including a great encounter with a female Red Fox that was hunting rodents in a ditch.

[mooselegs]

I posted an album from opening weekend, and there will be more added to it. I took a lot of shots of other boats this time, some from the boat and some from the dock and deck. So if you were there and in the area from Springstead Landing over toward Horseshoe or Blair, check it out and maybe you'll see a picture of yourself and your boat. After putting the boat in on Friday morning, I spent the afternoon up at Saxon Falls near Hurley and have only processed a portion of those shots, then I stopped for some nice pre-sunset shots at Springstead Lake Lodge on my way back. And there are the usual detours and distractions from the drive up and back, including a great encounter with a female Red Fox that was hunting rodents in a ditch.

Great pics Blue.......always enjoy your photo albums. Looking at the amount of pics tells me you spent more time with your camera than your fishing rod! Keep'm coming!!

[gdi]

Love the pics I just like them better when they are what I will call regular pics that most take. No photo adjustments.

[BlueRanger]

I always respond to that by pointing out that there's no such thing as an unedited digital photo. The only question is whether you choose to do it yourself, or let the team of Japanese engineers who wrote your camera's software do it for you. I also think that if you're wearing a good pair of polarized sunglasses, the world looks a heck of a lot better in real life than it does in most people's snapshots. Mooselegs, I'm just an efficient shooter. I got in plenty of fishing on Saturday and a little more Sunday morning before heading home.

[kltreklest]

Thanks for the pictures Blue Ranger. Got me ready, coming up for Memorial day!

[REB]

I always respond to that by pointing out that there's no such thing as an unedited digital photo. The only question is whether you choose to do it yourself, or let the team of Japanese engineers who wrote your camera's software do it for you. I also think that if you're wearing a good pair of polarized sunglasses, the world looks a heck of a lot better in real life than it does in most people's snapshots. Mooselegs, I'm just an efficient shooter. I got in plenty of fishing on Saturday and a little more Sunday morning before heading home.

Blue check your message board!

[sureshot612]

All in all the pics Blue puts out are great pics ..We will be up this upcoming week it would be great to have a beer together .

[Musky Mauler]

Speaking of "how it used to be" - - then harken back to, say, 1965. That was 50 years ago. Back then the Flowage was different. There certainly were no 200 HP engines mounted on the stern of slick boats. 9.5 HP was considered to be "at least adequate." 15 HP was considered to be somewhat of a "death wish." Stumps and leaners galore, all over the place!
Even some large log jams down in the big water. It was fun trying to walk on them and success was hard to come by. Best bet was a long cane pole with a rather short line. A walleye could hopefully be lifted between the logs and swung over into the boat.

Back then the CEDED TERRITORY TREATY was a forgotten bit of history, and no spearing occurred. Daily limit every year was always the expected 5 walleyes. Musky had to be 30 inches to be legal. "Catch and release" was considered to be absurd. A decent-sized musky went on the wall. Smaller ones were eaten and their severed heads were nailed to numerous trees around the Flowage. Some were converted into bird's nests by parental-minded birds. None are seen anymore.

"THE" walleye bait was a junebug spinner trimmed with a mud minnow. "Stump-dunking" was done with a full, fat nightcrawler wiggling on the hook. No little jigs tipped with a piece of a worm, thank you. Lotsa hooks lost on stump roots, of course. If you weren't snagging and losing hooks, you weren't doing it right.

And, as mentioned, one was wise to carry a number of shear pins. Nowadays, outboards have "prop clutches" and younger anglers don't know what "shear pin" means. Prudent shear pin changers lifted the outboard into the boat. Woe be to the angler who dropped the prop into the deep while leaning outside the boat to try to change the shear pin with the engine still attached! Of course, these days the Flowage is super clean compared to what it was like half a century ago. I can't help the fact that I still slow in spots and execute wiggles, turns and curves while I still dodge hazards that only exist nowadays in my memory. "Habits are first like cobwebs, but then they become like chains." The guy who coined that phrase knew what he was talking about, that's for sure.

Wolves howled in chorus while ensconsed cozily on the Big Island. It's a very rare sound nowadays in comparison to back then. But, the welcome cry of the Loon still echoes in earnest.

I could go on, but enough of this is enough. After all, 50 years from now THESE will be "the good old days."

Musky Mauler

[DonH]

Aaahhh memories. Back then some guys carried pistols in the boat and large muskies were shot after a battle before being brought on board. This had to be our first year at the TFF, 1960 and my dad and I were on one side of a small island and a boat with 3 guys was on the other side. Out of sight but not out of hearing. Just about at nightfall, they hooked something huge and the battle lasted a while. There was thumping and a racket in the boat and splashing of a big fish. All of a sudden BANG, BANG, BANG. We just looked at each other and I thought I was in the wild west or something.

The very next year we went up there with one of my dad's close friends and his family. This guy's son and myself are best friends to this day and he often joins us on our fall trip to the TFF. He comes in to camp one night that year with a real story. He and his son (ROB) had a couple of 24" or so northerns on a stringer. All of a sudden the boat rocks as a musky grabs the stringer. Al (ROB's dad) tells my dad, Frank, it was as long as the boat. I remember my dad telling Al to settle down. That would be a 14' musky. That fish attacked the stringer several times and finally Al tried to whack it over the head with an oar, but was unsuccessful. To this day Rob and I talk about that fish and he says it wasn't 14' but he does say it was longer than he is tall. An absolute monster.

To be continued...

[timk]

And don't forget the Bears in the dumps too . Some pictures of the Bears , logjam and ' Stump Fishing ' .Attachment 23767Attachment 23768