Two Moon Bay

Not all of our fishing trips were disasters. However occasionally we fail to act our age. Such was the case camping at Two Moon Bay.

Most of our fishing trips begin the same way. Paul says “Hey guys, they are catching … at …. We should plan a trip there.” Almost as often Don says “I was reading about … and the … fishing there is really good. Pat says we should go” Since I don’t have many fishing contacts , rarely read fishing magazines, and am not married to Pat, I rarely suggest any trips. Having said that, I almost always agree to go.

My first fishing trip to Wisconsin was started by Paul. The fish were smallmouth bass and the location was the Willow Flowage in North Central Wisconsin. Paul’s family had, for years, owned a cabin on a lake at Minocqua, not far from the area. Paul knew the area well. We decided to take Paul’s boat and his camping equipment and camp at the state park on the flowage.

We got to the park and selected a camp site on the lake. Paul decided to put in his boat and drive around on the water while Don and I took the car and camping equipment to the site.

We could hear Paul’s boat, but couldn’t see him as the camping area was on a small bay where the creek entered the lake. As Paul was approaching, Don and I decided to greet him as he appeared.  We both dropped our pants and gave him a two moon salute.  This was the first thing Paul saw while rounding the corner of the bay. Thus was born the name “Two Moon Bay”.

Don always calls home whenever we arrive on a trip. However, he could not get a cell phone signal at the campsite. Paul wanted to call too, so he and Don took the car to try and find a better signal. While waiting I became bored, and stepped into the boat to get my fishing rod. A couple a casts later, I caught a monster smallmouth that was hiding under a boulder. I quickly released her, as I did not have a fishing license for Wisconsin.

When Don and Paul returned, I told them I wanted to catch that bass again after I had a license.  We decided to set up camp and go to town. Any trip to the area involves a stop at Rollie and Helen’s tackle shop. They claim to sell the largest collection of muskie lures in the world. We planned to stop, buy our fishing licenses, gawk at the muskie lures and pick up some advice. Unfortunately the drive and setup took too long, and we arrived too late and they were not open.

We did find a bar that was open. In Wisconsin, every business sells fishing licenses, so we decided to buy ours at the bar. The bartender was a little inebriated, as he took our information, and entered into the license system. When he said “Hair color?” he looked at me with my hat on and said “Grey”. I guess that was better than saying “None”, but it isn’t actually my hair color. However, I was now forever in the Wisconsin DNR database with grey hair.

We returned to the campsite and planned an early start fishing. After a good night’s sleep aided by plenty of beer, we all fell asleep.

Early the next morning I awoke to find Paul was gone. I wandered out of the tent, to see him walking up from the boat carrying his fishing rod. He was looking at the water, and didn’t see me. I yelled “You son-of-a-bitch! You were trying to catch my bass!” When Paul is nervous, he stammers and apologizes repeatedly. He started apologizing, over and over. Then I started laughing and he knew I was kidding. However, he continued to apologize.

We headed out of the bay to go fishing. We had to be careful as there were many barely submerged boulders on the lake. Paul negotiated these well as we worked our way out. When were near the opposite end of the lake we began to fish. We had luck right away and landed several nice smallies.

After a great morning fishing we decided to go in for lunch. We had brought food courtesy of Paul and Pat. We had lunch by the tent and headed back out to fish. I had a handheld GPS unit that Connie had bought me for Christmas. I was struggling to work it, as the graphics were not very clear. I didn’t understand how to put in way- points, and was trying to do this as we headed out.

The path to the main lake passes near the shore in a narrow cove. My head was down looking at the GPS, when Paul says to Don, “Did you see that?”  He said “Yeah she was with two guys and didn’t have on a top” I looked up, but didn’t see anything. I said “you guys are fuckin’ with me” They swore they had seen it. Don further elaborated how the guys were smiling, etc. etc. the story kept getting more elaborate, and she had on fewer clothes as we went on. Since I had my GPS, I marked the area as a way-point. I put in the name “Tit Cove”, but I still think they were messing with me. After a good afternoon fishing we returned to the campsite. There was no one in Tit Cove as we passed through.

We went into Minocqua for dinner and returned to deteriorating weather. That night it started to rain. We found that Paul’s tent leaked, right over me. The rain continued into the next day. We decided to pack up and head home. Packing a tent and camping gear in the rain is an unpleasant experience, as is taking out a boat and covering it in the rain. After a miserable morning we left for home.

Paul got rid of his leaky tent. My GPS is in the basement and unused, but it still has Tit Cove and Two Moon bay marked as way-points.