The Good, The Bad And The Ugly- not very duck related

TimJ

TimJ

Well-known member
The only ducky part of this is the moisture. Not that I'm complaining but it could come a little slower.

The Good; (might be the ugly but just ignore the idiot behind the fish)
Went fishing for a couple days and while we managed a few eating sized pike I also caught my personal best. While not overly fat but she was just shy of 40 inches. Bummer, I want a 40" pike badly.
Saw her cruising by while casting a spinnerbait for bass in ultra clear water. She gulped it in once and I jerked and saw the bait pop out of her mouth. After a few other casts and finally seeing her again I ran the spinnerbait over her, she turned and inhaled it. This time it struck true and after a quick fight she was netted, photoed and released.
pike1_zps89bb3759.jpg


The Bad;
If rain can be bad when a drought is just ending it has been the last few days. Many roads have been washed out locally and there are a lot of fields that have been packed hard by running water. One lake that was only half full is nearly filled up now and another that was full completely blew over the dam.
Closer to home the creek 100 yards away came up ten feet or more after a wide area of 8 to 10 inches over Saturday and Sunday night.
It looks odd to see a bucket with 9 inches of water in it and think of all that rain in just a couple days. That is about 1/4 of our yearly precipitation in a couple days.
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A teenager made the mistake of getting too close to the raging creek and fell in. He was lucky that someone who knew not to just jump in and try to save him happened to come along and they got the right people there for the job. He had a good hold of a tree and from the time 911 was called until he was in the rescue boat was 17 minutes. Amazing for some small town volunteer emergency response.
I can't imagine trying to hold on to a tree in that current... and this is after it had went down a couple feet. He was lucky.
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More Bad;
The neighbor who called 911 for the youngster had been out looking for his horses all day. The water had came up so fast that he could not get two of them moved in time.
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You can see how much higher it was on the gate.

They found one a couple hundred yards down stream standing behind a house. The other is likely dead and under water as they can't find it and it would have been seen by now if it was alive. Too bad, they have some nice harness racers.

The Ugly;
On Saturday night while away in MN fishing I was getting reports that hail and heavy rain was moving through. With the added heavy rain on Sunday my garden and new pond took a beating.
The rhubarb was trashed.
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The plants in and around my pond have seen better days, hopefully the sun will come out for a few days to let them grow out of this.
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Its too depressing to take photos of the veggies. I think most of them will grow out of the damage if it dries up a little.

Looks like more rain is coming tonight and like for most of the center of the country strong storms are a strong chance on Wednesday evening.
I have to admit it is better then not enough rain.

Tim
 
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Tim,

Too bad about your weather related damage. We have been getting semi continuos rain here also. The town hall building in town is being used as a relief shelter for folks from a neighboring town that have been displaced by flood waters. More rain in the coming days forecasted.

Nice Pike you have there. Good thing he/she was one of the dumb ones and gave you a second chance. ;>) ;>) Where abouts in MN where you fishing?
 
Nice northern, Tim. Glad she gave you that second chance. As for the "Bad", we'll take some for sure. Sorry to see the hail damage but as you mentioned most of it will recover, as will you and the pond!
I'm sure there are quite a few people that are happy that the lakes have filled up once again.
Al
 
Dave,
If the drought monitor shows much in SE SD or in nearly all of Iowa after this last week there is something wrong. Lots of water standing here so the soil is finally getting saturated.
I was just across the border about 30 miles from the Iowa Great Lakes. Not very far north at all. It seems like 90% of the fisherman in that area do nothing other then troll for walleyes. If you are willing to cast or jig you can find a lot of overlooked fish in southern MN.
I've seen a couple of those big fat northern MN pike in person and at nearly 40" they would weight 50% more then this one. They just don't do as well in these shallow southern lakes.

Al,
Yeah, I'm not really complaining about the moisture just the rapid timing. It did rain some more overnight. I hope this rain starts developing back farther to the west.

Clint,
You think I wasn't being honest when I picked my avatar? I'll need to start carrying a foot with me so I can recreate it.
Guys down by you would have been shooting it with their "magnums" and taping the mouth shut. Calling it a "900 pounder".

Tim
 
Wow Tim. That's a great fish. Purdy too. How big is "eatin size" for pike? The big black drum down here is said to get "wormy" after they reach a certain size and aren't good to eat after they get that way. Is that the same sort of thing up your way?

Bummer to see your garden looking so poorly because of the hail, hope it does recover. Glad we don't get much hail down our way.

Dani
 
Awesome pike Tim. To many bones for me but sure love to catch'em.

Saw an ag extended weather forecast for June and July. A lot of rain in the forecast. Mississippi is still out of her banks here. It was an august flood in 1993 the last time we had this weather pattern.
 
Thanks Tom.

Ed,
It has been more humid the last few days then it was all last year. I sure sign that at least for a while the rain will continue. It's raining right now but not as hard as they had predicted. Doesn't bother me if we keep getting rain. I can manage around that easier then not having any rain.

Dani,
The only reason I let that one go is that it was a little bigger then I feel right eating and it was the first pike I had ever seen in that lake. We fish it a lot and didn't know there were any in there. That one would have tasted fine and had I been in an area known for bigger pike I might have kept it.
This is the size that we usually keep, about 3 1/2 to 6 or 7 pounds.

keeperpike_zpsf7f480b2.jpg

Yes that crappie my brother caught was a hog.

Like Ed said there are a lot of bones in them. To be able to get good boneless meat they need to be big enough to cut the Y bones out of. They are a bit of a pain to clean but if it were easy they would be much rarer. To me they are as good tasting as any freshwater fish.

Here is what those boneless chunks look like on a plate with some sweet potato fries and beer battered onion rings. :)

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Tim
 
Tim, the fishing looks great - water not so much!

Those pike fillets looks great. We we in NY for our annual Memorial Day perch jerking trip at my folks place. We were kept off the water by the wind for the first 3 days, but were able to get out the last day - 40F and clear in the AM - but they were chewing, so we got a few pounds of tasty fillets. Gus caught some on his new spinning rod - he graduated from closed face and can cast like a pro - a pro that wants to cast short distances. :).

We came home to some damage to the garden, but nothing like what you had. At least 4-5 inches of rain, Jen's transplants were pretty battered, but most will be fine, the garden was like a pond judging by the pattern of floating debris accumulated. New bridge looks like it was over the flow, so that is good. All in all pretty minor.
 
pike are good eats. though tough to clean. pickerel are good too, we just steam them and run them through the grinder twice and make fish cakes.

the bass guys hate them as do the trout guys. which makes me like the pike program even more
 
the bass guys hate them as do the trout guys. which makes me like the pike program even more


Surprised to hear this. Pike--and especially muskies--have done a real number on brook trout and landlocked salmon fisheries here in Maine. But most of the lakes where the pike have been illegally introduced seem to still be quality bass fisheries. Of course, the bass aren't native either, and for that matter in most of these lakes neither are the landlocked salmon. (They're native to only 4 watersheds in Maine, plus Champlain, Lake Ontario and maybe a few other New York lakes.

Give me a remote pond with brook trout and maybe some blacknose dace as the only fish species, and I'm a happy man!

For pickerel recipes, don't forget chowder. Poach a skinned of filleted pickerel in a little wine, flake the meat and pick out the bones, then add the meat to your favorite fish chowder recipe instead of cod or pollock. YUM!

Don't see why it wouldn't work with pike too--but you'll need a bigger chowder pot and a lot more potatoes.
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People dont understand that most game fish are non native. As are quite a few game animals ie pheasant. So its never realy bothered me too much that pike eat our bass and our stocked trout.

I would rather eat a carp from the ct river than a stocked trout
 
Al they were soooooo good. Mmmmmm.....

Tod,
Good to hear that Gus was getting in some perch jerkin'. They are some good eats too. You will need to get that boy a flyrod and a baitcaster in a the next couple years.
Glad your garden is going to survive your rain. I'm hoping it dries up for a couple days here so I can get some weeding done. Amazing how hail can damage the plants you want and the weeds just grow like nothing happened.

Paul,
I've tried that way but it didn't work as well for me as this way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfsxHSvX7HE But I'm much slower.

Chris and Jeff,
Here Pike, Perch and Walleyes are pretty much the native fish. I hear a lot about pike wrecking lakes but I haven't seen it. Maybe in a couple lakes that winterkilled and the pike just got too thick for other fish to come back.
I've seen too many good bass lakes with some pike in to worry about that. The only thing that ever bothers me about pike is that they always seem to hit when you have the most expensive lure on in your tackle box.

btw Chris I almost lose my South Dakota membership card when I say that pheasant habitat should be the last consideration when it come to conservation here. I like pheasants but when "native cover" is planted here it should actually be geared towards natives.

Tim
 
Al they were soooooo good. Mmmmmm.....

Tod,
Good to hear that Gus was getting in some perch jerkin'. They are some good eats too. You will need to get that boy a flyrod and a baitcaster in a the next couple years.
Glad your garden is going to survive your rain. I'm hoping it dries up for a couple days here so I can get some weeding done. Amazing how hail can damage the plants you want and the weeds just grow like nothing happened.

Paul,
I've tried that way but it didn't work as well for me as this way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfsxHSvX7HE But I'm much slower.

Chris and Jeff,
Here Pike, Perch and Walleyes are pretty much the native fish. I hear a lot about pike wrecking lakes but I haven't seen it. Maybe in a couple lakes that winterkilled and the pike just got too thick for other fish to come back.
I've seen too many good bass lakes with some pike in to worry about that. The only thing that ever bothers me about pike is that they always seem to hit when you have the most expensive lure on in your tackle box.

btw Chris I almost lose my South Dakota membership card when I say that pheasant habitat should be the last consideration when it come to conservation here. I like pheasants but when "native cover" is planted here it should actually be geared towards natives.

Tim
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Gus does have a levelwind for bottom fishing, but it is going to be a long time before he does any casting with it - I'm cringing thinking about the birds nests (I need one of those smilies with the eyes that bug out!). He is a pro at dropping the bait down and thumbing the spool, though. I'll be very interested to see how he does this summer in AK, I hope we can get him on fish in a way that keeps him interested - hopefully he can at least catch something pretty.


Hope your cover is good this year with the rain, but I don't think there is a chance to get out there this year to chase upland birds :(.
 
People dont understand that most game fish are non native.

Not where I'm going to be for the next week! A whole host of ponds with nothing but brook trout and a handful of native dace species. A couple of big lakes with lake trout. Truck is packed for early am departure.
Click to expand...
 
People dont understand that most game fish are non native.

Not where I'm going to be for the next week! A whole host of ponds with nothing but brook trout and a handful of native dace species. A couple of big lakes with lake trout. Truck is packed for early am departure.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


Good luck, pics on return please!!!!!
 
That's my wife's department. She's generally more interested in the moose and loons than getting good photos of my brookies, but I'll tell her you made a request! If we get any lake trout, there will be photos. Dee Dee loves togue.

But the weather is not with us--the hot snap probably has the togue headed for the depths. Often they are still at the surface in early June.
 
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