Paddling Biking Fishing Gardening

[fisheater]

I thought it would be nice to keep up with you guys through the "growing season". My fishing season started right after the thaw. I went out for Great Lakes white suckers during their spawning run. While they may not sound like a fish you would want to eat, they are excellent on the table. This was my first attempt at sucker fishing. I did find them to be quite bony, as advertised, so I canned my catch. I did try a small plate fried in butter, and found them to be delicious.

Ten pints of delicious fish patties!

Work, chores, closed seasons, and weather kept me off the water until the last Saturday in April which is the opening of trout season in Michigan. High water and cool temperatures normally mean we don't catch a lot of fish, but my son Nick and I went up to my friend Tim's place for his annual camp. In the small creek behind his house there were no trout to be found. That was disappointing as they are more difficult to catch in the bigger river, I was hoping Nick would catch one or two before we headed to the big river. We went over to the big river and fishing was slow. I caught a nice 15" brown trout, but that was it. Tim normally outfishes me on these rivers. I was counting on him to catch a few so we could have trout and eggs for Sunday breakfast, but the breakfast of kings was not ours this year. Sunday's fishing was slow as well. I managed a 10" & 15" rainbow for Sunday's fish. Dinners were a special treat on Monday and Tuesday. My wife and son don't eat trout.
Last week I finally made it out to Lake Huron. I was concerned when I first started as I hurt my shoulder skiing this winter. The shoulder hurt at first, but loosened up nicely. We launched into Tawas Bay as I had a tip to fish an area where a trib flowed in. A friend and I trolled the bay for a couple hours then trolled out into Lake Huron. We worked up the coast for a couple miles and swung out a hair deeper for the ride back. I managed a skinny lake trout about 30" long on the way back.

Yesterday the forecasted winds kept me off the big water. Friday chores kept me from loading the truck at night. Rain, coffee, and breakfast really had me leaving late for the Flint River Saturday morning. I couldn't tell you what time I launched, I was just enjoying the day. I know it was closer to noon than dawn. I fished down the river a short way before coming to my first good hole. I had not fished this section of river last year, and it was significantly different this year. It was still wadeable, so I beached the canoe and gave it a shot. I worked from the top, and it took a while to find any sign of life. I missed the first fish, then a half dozen or more drifts later I caught a nice 18" walleye. That is a nice fish for this section of river. It seems for the past few years I have been throwing back 3 or 4 walleye at 13" or 14" for every legal 15" walleye I catch. Well, after that 18" fish, I did manage to catch a couple of the short ones. The back of the hole had some overhanging and submerged trees to make things interesting. I managed a few casts that had a chance at fish and did catch a 22" channel cat. It was the biggest one in years. The walleye had been knocked in the noggin and put on ice. I put the cat on a stringer. I figured the cat and the walleye would be enough for fish tacos if I couldn't catch more walleye.

Fish tacos, an old Indian way of saying you didn't catch a lot!

I am enjoying every opportunity to get out into the wilder places this season. I wish you all a happy and healthy growing season. Please consider using this thread to share your experiences in the warm weather.
Cheers,
Bob

[lowangle al]

It looks like your summer season is off to a good start Fish, keep it up. I just took a three day trip looking for rainbows. It was a great trip even though the fishing was slow.

[lowangle al]

I didn't mean to post that previous picture, don't know what happened.

and I don't know why they' sideways

[STG]

Thanks for posting. Appreciate hearing about off-season adventures and hobbies. Fly fishermen may be even more passionate about their sport than skiers? Here in Montana, Montana Backcountry Hunters and Anglers have been instrumental in conserving/preserving fish and wildlife habitat.

Black bear?

[Nitram Tocrut]

I thought it would be nice to keep up with you guys through the "growing season". Please consider using this thread to share your experiences in the warm weather.
Cheers,
Bob

Thank's for asking Bob ... but up here we are still trying to get in the "growing season" and we are not even thinking about warm weather

I am writing that post early in the morning as I had to get up at 3:00 to start our irrigation system to protect some of our crops from the frost...and of course it is the time our pump choose to give me a very hard time to start I can laugh now, but it was not that funny at 3:15 knowing that there was thousands of $ at stakes... But irrigating for the frost always give nice picture...

So far it has been the worst spring we never experienced on the farm. It seems like the best winter of my life has been followed by the worst spring. We are managing to get through because we have greenhouses and other technics to fight the cold but still you got to be a bit crazy to make a living out of farming... But we know that when we will look back this fall we will realize that we made it through one more season. My colleagues know what I am talking about and I have the upmost respect for the small minority of people producing the food for the rest of humanity... They are real heroes Speaking of heroes, I wanted to share this picture of myself with 2 of our employees from Guatemala. I like to share some of our Northern culture and took them XC skiing in the fields after taking them to the Maple shack last year. It was a great experience and we never know, if you see a Guatemalan skier in the next Olympic Games it's because it all started here

Thank's for reading...

[CwmRaider]

I have had some success catching pollock and cod on the fishing rod a few weeks ago. In a few hours in the Trondheimsfjord, north of Frosta, I caught fish which gave about 10 kg of fillet, enough for a month's eating... but I also like to eat other things than fish, so the freezer is a bit full, together with the moose meat from last fall.

Here some pictures of camping, fishing and paddling in the area known as Femundsmarka, 3 hours driving to the south. These were last summer. The area is known for amazing nature but also black flies and mosquitoes. We did not catch many fish, but the perch were decent eating, albeit a bit bony.

Our garden is technically a big hill to the west of Trondheim. We don't do gardening per se (white tailed deer eat any flowers around the house), but we pick cloudberries, blueberries, lingonberries and mushrooms, mostly in August to September.

[fisheater]

Al, thank you for sharing. I usually paddle on the big water of the Great Lakes, or find my self paddling upstream to fish downstream. I rarely use my hand carved otter tail paddle, relying mostly on the power provided by my double bladed (kayak) paddle. I admire your ability to handle a tandem canoe loaded. I go places where I don't bump into people, but I don't get into the wilderness that you do. Pretty cool

Nitram, it has been an unusual spring in SE Michigan, but it is unseasonably cool and rain. We have had a lot of 50 F days and it just keeps raining. I have a building project in an area of Detroit where there are a lot of vacant lots. Uncut grass is already easily two feet tall. Your land is beautiful. Habla Espanol? Es la lingua segunda aqui. However I wish I could speak Francais. Ciao brother.

Roelant, I enjoy greatly posts from Norway, it is truly a wonderful land. When I was a younger man, it was a dream to downhill ski the French Alps. Now I am older, and a winter vacation in Norway has the same appeal. Those perch are very large. Before zebra mussels arrived in Lake Michigan from the Caspian Sea we caught perch like that. Today the Great Lakes do not have the fertility to produce perch that size, however the perch fishing is quite good on Lake Erie. I have never had the pleasure of eating moose. The best venison I have had is caribou (reindeer). My neighbor traveled to Quebec to hunt caribou, it was much better than the white tail deer I am accustomed to.

[lilcliffy]

We have a had a classic New Brunswick spring here in the hills-

Cold and wet.

Though everyone is complaining about the weather- it is certainly setting up my fields and apple trees for an excellent growing season!

We are currently working away at our vegetable garden while being in love with March lambs and May chicks!
The cows and ewes are finishing off the last of our winter hay- anxious to get out and eat some greenery.
With three sows about to farrow any day- Harry is out on his summer range.
Getting close to finishing off a massive amount of curriculum and program review and looking forward to about 6 weeks off of work-work!
All the best to you and yours this summer!
Gareth