I Miss the Apple

It’s July and the weather is hot. Big surprise! 

Lake fishing in July is pretty slow. The fish move to cooler, deeper water. You have to catch them near shore in the very early morning before the sun warms the surface.

Our solution has been to try something different in July. For many years that has been the Apple River in the northwest corner of Illinois.

The Apple flows from Wisconsin through the Driftless Area of Illinois and eventually to the Mississippi. The area, untouched by glaciers, is hilly, scenic, and exposes many limestone bluffs. It isn’t a great place to farm, but it is fun to see.

We found the Apple because Paul had read about it in a fishing magazine. That was over 20 years ago. The cool stream is home to small mouth bass. Smallies are found in other streams in Illinois, but the Apple is remote and not heavily fished.

I wrote in an earlier blog about our first trip there, which was in October. However, the Apple became our go to place for adventure in July. The hot weather wasn’t a problem when you are standing in a cool stream.

The river was low in July, so even the deep holes are not above our knees. Dressed in shorts and big hats, we could easily wade the Apple and avoid getting too hot in the sun. Equipment was minimal and we carried needed tools in our pockets or around our necks.

The trick was finding a way into the river while wearing shorts without walking through nettles and poison ivy. Robert opted to wear waders. The rest of us followed Robert and pushed down the weeds with our feet and fishing poles. Luckily we didn’t get too many scratches.

We would wade about a mile before we got out at the next bridge up the road. The wade upstream in the heat was difficult, but the stunning scenery was in the shade where we would stop and fish the deep near the bluffs. The hardest part was walking the mile back in the heat.

The fishing was relatively good for us. We got bites on Rooster tail spinners and other small lures. This worked pretty well for the first July trip.

Subsequent trips were mainly just Don and me or Paul on occasion. It was on trip with Don that I discovered the crawdad soft bait was the smallies’ favorite. Don found a deep hole just downstream from where we walked into the river. In that deep hole were hungry smallies. We wore out the few crawdad baits I had.  At the end of the day we tried to locate more, but there were none to be found.

After that trip, Don and I stocked up before we left. We had a great time catching fish, and didn’t have to wade very far to do it.

The Apple River trip takes a long drive. Even with longer days, it really takes an overnight stay in a hotel to make the trip worthwhile. The overnight also involves eating at restaurants and or bars.  

All of us are in our 70’s.  Covid 19 has put a damper on all that for this year. Maybe it will be better next July. Maybe. 

Paul Calls Them “Memories”

17 years ago next month, I bought my boat. I retired in July and made the purchase in August. I had looked for quite a while and was prepared to buy a new, but less expensive, boat. I was trying to avoid spending too much money and thought a quality boat, like my Lund, was too much money for me.

Fortunately a nearby person ran a classified ad in the newspaper ( remember them?) and I caught it early in the morning. I called and arranged a meeting, and bought it without negotiating the price. I did manage to convince him to let me have a 2 Hp motor as part of the deal. The 2 Hp could be used where the bigger 25 HP was banned (like Lake Evergreen). I later replaced it for a bigger (still legal) 9.9 Hp

The boat was three years old when I bought it, but had only been used two seasons. The seller had thought he would fish more and hadn’t. It had been used the first season by fishing guide Paul Center, who I knew. Paul is quite meticulous with his boats as they are always resold after one season.

Many consider the Lund brand to be the finest aluminum boat for the average fisherman.  They are extremely popular in Minnesota and Wisconsin and are renowned for  durability and stability in wind. Some manufacturers advertise their welded boats are the strongest. Lund says they use rivets, like aircraft manufacturers where failure would be catastrophic.

My boat is a beautiful dark green with grey trim. When I bought it, it looked brand new. I was able to find only one photo from that first year, and it wasn’t a close up. Paul and I were launching the boat at Clinton Lake.

I was able to enlarge the photo slightly around the decals to show the condition of the boat that first year. With Paul in the photo, you can see no scratches or dents around the Lund decals.

Compare that to this recent photo taken in my garage.

My boat has been on more trips than I can count. We took it to Tennessee, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Texas. We have fished virtually every major lake (except Michigan) in Illinois. I believe it would handle Lake Michigan, but haven’t made the trip.

One thing all of these trips have in common, is the marking of my boat with “memories”. We have hit docks, rocks, stumps, ramps, the  banks, and other boats. Every trip we hit tree branches and I have to remove branches and sticks from the deck. We follow the old adage "If you aren't hitting something or snagged, you aren't fishing in the right place" The Lund has handled them all, but she is showing the results.

This latest "smile" is from a hard hit on the dock on a windy day. It is pretty deep, but it didn't penetrate the hull.

Paul calls them memories. There are so many, I can’t count them. Unfortunately we are getting too old to remember them. I only included a few of the many. Repainting a 20 year old boat is not an option. She is looking kind of sad, but she is still strong.

What’s That Thing?

Every profession and form of recreation has tools that are specialized for that activity. Fishing is certainly like that. Equipment has evolved over the years to make fishing easier. When I started fishing it was with bamboo “cane” poles that my Dad purchased. We had about 5 ft. of line that was like kite string, a cork bobber, a hook on the end and an old nut from a bolt used as a weight. We fished in the drainage ditch near our farm in Geneseo for bullheads and carp. If you got a bite you yanked the fish out of the water.

You never see cane poles these days. Also rare today are the early baitcatcher reels and old fiberglass rods. Even earlier were rods made of steel. My brother, Steve, had such a rod with a baitcatcher reel. The early reels were easily snagged inside in what we call a “bird’s nest”. The usual solution was to take out a knife and cut off line until you reached the knot. I still bird nest my baitcaster reel.

I was fishing with Steve’s rod and reel in the old drainage ditch. I likely didn’t ask him if I could use it. I hooked a large carp, but couldn’t get the reel to work to bring it to the bank. So I improvised, put the steel rod over my shoulder and walked up the bank dragging the fish out of the water. The result was a rod with a 90 degree bend permanently formed.

In college, my roommate introduced me to spinning reels. Open faced spinning reels take a little bit of skill, so he suggested I try a spin cast reel, which has a push button. I purchased one and fished with it for several years. After we were married, Connie bought me an open faced Abu Garcia with a fiberglass Shakespeare rod. I wore that thing out.

I have acquired many fishing rods, reels, and fishing tools over the years. As I wrote before, I am a real sucker for anything that is supposed to help catch fish. Most trips to outdoor stores result in added equipment. Most things I buy get little use.

Some of the tools I actually use regularly are in the photo below. Removing a fish hook often takes long nosed pliers like the pair I purchased in Florida with my Step-Dad Al. The clippers cut line and have a little hook is for clearing bird nests , the file sharpens hooks and the puncher clears paint from the eyes of jig heads. The knife cuts my nightcrawlers in half.

I thought I had seen all the tools you could own. I didn’t own them all, but I could identify their purpose. Then Don showed up with this thing.

Like the guys on “This Old House” Paul and I tried to guess what it was. There was some discussion that it might have a medical purpose, even gynecological. Eventually he showed us what it does when he caught a fish.

So what do you think it is?

Goodbye Lovely June

I will miss you wonderful June. You are famous for June swoon love, for marriages, for graduations, Flag Day, D-Day and Father’s Day. You are the birth month of my first granddaughter and the marriage date of our daughter.

However your famous days are not why I love you. You are the best time of the year for fishing and I enjoy your time the most.  I never actually realized how much you meant to me, until my neighbor, Warren, said “June is the best month for fishing”. Warren was right.

You are not like the fickle March, April or May. They lure me out onto the the lake, which I have missed all winter, but  they keep the lakes cold and the fish down deep. You hit me with 20 mile winds, intermittent rain, and, most years,  hit me with a day like this.

I have fished in all months of the year. I have actually caught fish in most months as well, but June is the best. Most of our fishing trips have not been in June, and perhaps that is why we never caught much.

June brings mild weather with warm days and nights. The chilling overnight lows which keep water temperatures below 70 degrees fade away with May. June water temperatures are usually in the 70’s, and the fish are biting. The mosquitoes are not too bad, the wind is generally moving slowly, and the fish are biting.

July brings high temperatures and lake water in the 80’s.  July brings rapid growth of algae and bottom weeds.  July is hot and humid in the boat and even the shade is uncomfortable. The mosquitoes are biting and snagging weeds happens on every cast. The fish move down to cooler water and suspend off shore. They hide below the “thermocline” which is a mysterious layer of warm water above the cooler water. When they are suspended, they are reluctant to bite.

When fish do bite they move up to the shade and are usually only there in the early morning or late evening. This is also the mosquito’s prime hunting time. Getting up before the sun or staying out past dark are not much fun anymore. Most July’s I just throw the cover on the boat and let it sit.

The only month worse than July is August. They don’t call it “Dog Days” for nothing. September can bring productive fishing, but it is often spotty. Fish tend to stay put in September. October is supposed to be the best time for fishing as the fish load up on food for the winter. However you have fish in coves to stay out of the wind and end up  fighting downed leaves in every cove. I have never caught much in October except for the giant drum I caught in 2011.

This past June was especially productive. We caught bass, saugeye, crappies, bluegills, and white bass. Below are some of our successful June fishing this year and years past. I has been fun, but today the heat index will be near 100. Goodbye my friend. See you again next year.