Some Days You Just Have To Fall Into The Water

First weekend in October we packed up our things and headed to my husband’s family cottage up in Star Lake, Wisconsin. And when I say up north, I mean like 30 minutes from the UP of Michigan. It was cold, the kind of cold where you can see your breath in the morning. We had planned to target some Walleye in a nearby lake. In this particular lake, the best time to fish during this time of year is close to dusk. So,

during the day we would hike around the beautiful Northwoods, visit surrounding towns, do a little leaf peeping, and take naps. We love naps.

My father in law and I worked on rigging up our fishing poles to get ready to head out around 4:30. My father in law had helped and guided me on picking the right tackle for the walleye we would be fishing for. We had rigged up some lines with slip bobbers with normal barbed hooks that we could cast out with some sucker minnows to watch while we would jig for walleyes with a purple jig with fathead minnows. We suited up and drove out to our fishing spot. Threw out our slip bobbers with the sucker minnows and started jigging with the smaller fathead minnows. Seeing as this was my first time using waders while fishing from shore, I wanted to “test the waters”. It was fun being able to try out different spots in the area where we were fishing. We really did not have much luck until the sun started to drop below the horizon. My father in law got our first fish, a perch, then I noticed our slip bobber went down, so I set the hook and reeled in a keeper Northern Pike. From there on out, we were catching tons of smaller walleye and we were able to keep at least one! In the midst of catching all these fish, I had failed to do the #1 thing while wading, stay upright. Yes, I had fallen in the water. Completely soaked my hands, water IN my waders but I had dressed warm enough that I had not been too cold! We packed up our things after the fish stopped biting and drove back to our cottage. Changed into dry clothes and helped clean the Northern and Walleye I caught.

Day 2 brought more leaf peeping, hikes and we picked the apples off the trees. We also drove to Manitowish Waters and checked out the cranberry bogs. We made our way back to our cottage and as 4:30 rolled around, we packed up our vehicle and headed out for our last day out on the lake. We threw our slip bobbers out again and started working our jigs. We enjoyed the beautiful cloudless night and watched the gorgeous sunset as it fell behind the fall colors. As the sun fell below the horizon, the fish started to bite. We caught more tiny walleye. No keepers this time. My husband had watched a slip bobber slowly dip into the water and he set the hook. As he was reeling, the fish was thrashing and jumping; sadly the hook must not have been set well enough, and the fish had enough, spit the hook and swam away. My husband thinks it was a large Walleye, which is a bummer! My father in law ended up catching our only keeper fish that night, another Northern. After the fish stopped biting, we packed up our things and headed back to the cottage and I was much drier this time! We cleaned our only fish for the night and tossed it in the freezer with the others.

As I write this, I look back on a successful fishing trip up in the Northwoods. We were able to catch the fish that we were targeting. Even if they were smaller than we hoped, it was still a sense of accomplishment. Falling into the water was a humbling experience as it taught me that you should never feel complacent as well as the lesson of not giving up when something goes bad. After I fell in, I could have quit and went back to the cottage, but I stayed out and that is when the fish started biting. As well as learning to actually use a jig and figuring out what works for me and learning what a bite felt like. I am looking forward to my next fishing trip up to the cottage and hope we are able to catch some bigger walleye when it gets colder and later in the season.