An Outdoorsman's Journal: Green Bay for the good times

Hello friends,

This week’s column is just pure crazy and fun. As usual, I am short on space. I love to fish Green Bay and do it in both my canoe and my 18.6 War Eagle. I generally can only fish it once a year because my schedule is full as a tick that’s been stuck in your backside for a week. This year’s plan was crazy. Rain and wind changed my plan twice and the new plan would have me leaving my house at 3:45 a.m. and fishing all day, along with my best buds Ruby and Red. At night I was going to anchor in deep water, fish walleye, cook and sleep in the War Eagle.

The following day I could fish until 9 a.m., trailer my boat, drive from Peshtigo to my Necedah area home, write this column, as it would be my deadline, and then help host a beach party at 4 p.m. in the afternoon for NOAC “Necedah Outdoor Adventure Club,” an organization that I am the president of and that helps to get people outside.

Wednesday, Aug. 7

High 73, low 54

So I am at North Bay Shore Recreation Area, near Peshtigo, which is a super cool campground and boat launch. When I arrived at NBSRA there was one fisherman who has already been out and even though it only 6:45 a.m., he is calling it a day. His boat was bigger than mine, but he told me the seas are too high. We had a good conversation, and I am told that he has been kicking heiny trolling with crawler harnesses in 13 to 16 feet of water for a few weeks, but he got beat up too much this morning.

I spoke with my fearless crew and both Red and Ruby said, “We got this.”

I began our journey to 13 feet of water, about a mile and then started setting lines. The wave action is minimal, and I am in an excellent mood. I ran three crawler harnesses with a line straight back and a right and left planer board. Four hours later I had not had a hit and if I ran in any water shallower than 13 feet it was immediate weed on the harness.

I am confident and believed in my advice. Important information and remember this: Two of my harnesses had floats on them, one did not. I am trolling and loving life and holy moly it looks like I have a fish on, and I did. On Green Bay, you have no clue until you see it and was I ever happy when I caught a 20-inch walleye. Each run that I was doing was maybe 3 miles. On the next pass the same crawler harness, pink with a float which helps to keep it higher in the water column, especially on turns, had another hit and this time it was probably the biggest perch of my life, it was longer than a baseball bat and heavier than my anchor. On that same run I caught an 18.5-inch walleye.

So, I am cruising and catching fish at 1.1 miles per hour. Well into the day, I saw a sight that I will not soon forget and that was at least a 150-pound sturgeon clear the water by a good 4 feet in a spectacular jump. My one meal before I anchored for the night would be a can of fried spam, yum, yum!

So, about 5 p.m., the mood is excellent and my other crawler harness with a green float gets whacked and the fight is on. I caught a 21-inch walleye and yippie yi, yo cowboy was I ever happy. The harness with no float would not get hit all day. Next thing, I get whacked by a sheep head on the pink floater and let it go. The fight of the day came on the green floater, and it lasted a while. I could not tell ... big sheepshead, catfish, walleye, musky? My catch was a catfish in the 8- to 10-pound range, which I also let go.

About two hours before dark I see some rather unfriendly looking clouds to the west heading in my direction. I was having fun and when I looked earlier on my phone there was only a 3% chance of weather. I must admit though that I have had five near-death experiences on Green Bay, twice in my canoe and three times in the War Eagle. A bit later I looked on my phone and saw that there was going to be weather, and it would happen throughout the night.

I just could not see being anchored two miles from shore and calling that an intelligent way to end the lives of my ship and crew. Just before dark I hit the launch, everyone I saw talked about how poor the fishing was. I did my work and started the trek home. Just before midnight I was 10 miles from home and my brain had like a 98% shut down. I was so tired it seemed like trees were falling down and I simply could not think straight.

When I pulled in my driveway, I walked into the house, did not turn a light on, found my bed and fell asleep with the thought of, “there’s no place like home.”

Sunset