Little Beaver Lake Trail

We coordinated our weekend off work/ off call together for this weekend, and miraculously the weather turned decent and summer-like. We took our Subaru for a little adventure in the Pictured Rock National Park. Joe definitely had fun driving it on the nice winding road.

We hiked on the Little Beaver Lake trail out to Lake Superior for the first time. The old Indian caves were very mystical with smoke stains, almost like traveling back in time.

Once we got to the beach, it almost felt like we were in Hawaii.... except there were a lot fewer people and no salt water. Trees were wrong, too. The temps were between 75 and 85. The humidity had come down nicely from the previous two days. A very enjoyable beach day! We acquired some rocks for our new Subaru, too.

We actually went out fishing in the morning, though there wasn't much to write about. Fish were not cooperative. So we ended up playing hard all day, from before 8 a.m. and didn't get home till 9:30 at night. We were exhausted... in a very good way.

Catch Up on July

July is flying by... even though we've been quiet on the blog, we were still fishing whenever we could. The above picture was Joe's catch from the 4th of July. The following weekend I caught an 11" brown, which became part of my brunch.

Since, the fish have gotten a lot more picky. I almost emptied my whole tackle box looking for a different lure to try fishing with, yet no bite. One thing stays true: Apple Creek is just as lovely as always.

On the side note, I'd been working on a logo project for our wonderful local treasure, Snowbound Books, now owned by our friend D. We used the store building as a base design, and this is where we ended up with. I enjoyed this creative ride, the fun and the challenge. It's good to get my creative juice going every once in a while....

Kayo's Catch 2

After the excitement of AM fishing on Sunday, Joe asked me if I wanted to try going fishing again in the evening. I said yes. We went to a different spot where I lost a steelhead, bent my hooks, lost a lure, and damaged my fishing rod last time. This time, though, with my new St. Croix rod I was ready! My second catch of the day was a 14" splake (cross between brookie and lake trout). Joe was even excited about the unexpected encounter. At first he thought was a brookie, but its body was more streamlined and lacked the signature dots of a brookie.

The cool thing about it for me was that when I first casted into the sunlit amber-colored water, we saw this huge dark shadow come out and swim circle around only to check out my lure. It looked monstrous, and naturally I screamed with excitement. Then, a few more casts..., but nothing. On our way back I chose a different lure, and yes, it was the right choice. I still couldn't believe it worked. My heart was pumping harder than when I caught my 12" fish earlier. It was indeed a good day fishing!!

Kayo's Catch

June is flying by past us... but fishing has been pretty good. Unfortunately I (Kayo) haven't been able to go out since the last post till this weekend, while Joe and his cousin had some good days fishing.
Last weekend we were in Ironwood and decided to drive extra miles to visit St. Croix fishing rod company in Wisconsin. Joe bought me a new rod and a reel (much needed) for my birthday, 4 months early. Of course, I had to try out the new rod right after we got home, in our back yard. My first cast shot out so effortlessly and went over our neighbor's fence. Oops. No snag. No dog. Today, however, casting over the water for the first time, I actually caught a little rainbow. And after that, most every cast landed where I intended. My new St. Croix rod really impressed me. The bonus was the 12" German brown that I caught. Everything about it was perfect. A little jump and fight that I could feel with my rod.

I should mention that Joe still won the fishing contest with a 12" brookie (he let go) and a 9" brown. But I definitely beat him for the amount of noise I made on the river today.

Too Much Rain...

Only a couple of weeks ago everything was dry and needed rain. We have gotten rain since. A bit too much rain at times. Our trout stream was too high to cross on Memorial Day, though we still got to fish two holes and had our breakfast sandwiches on the bank in honor of Joe's dad. The below picture shows the road we take to and from the river that's been flooded by the beaver dam. This weekend turned to be another wet one, and Joe didn't get out fishing. Possibly the water level got even higher.

On this moist Sunday we mostly lounged around at home. We watched an action-packed movie over a large bowl of popcorn and Jack 'n Coke in the afternoon. For dinner we cured our Chinese take-out cravings with our home cooked Asian meal. Menu: Sesame chicken, Mapo Tofu, grilled garlic shrimp, and Kimchi slaw. It was so worth all the dishes to wash afterwards.

Except Joe's quiet evening was just interrupted by a call for work. I extremely feel guilty for jinxing it, saying he doesn't get called that often while being on call 3 weeks out of a month. I'll have a cold alcoholic beverage waiting for him, because this was not how he wanted to end the weekend, already disappointing not being able to fish.

Fishing & Morel Report

Today we went fishing on Apple Creek. We didn't get an early start, but we probably should have on this warm day. We hardly saw any fish activity, despite the amount of flies and bugs on the surface. It all changed when we got to the sandstone bank. I (Kayo) would have had a successful fishing story had I not lose my fish. Even after my fish splashing the water, a few nice fish continued to hang out where we could see in. That's when Joe caught his 11" brook trout on a crawler. The fun part was even after this we kept teased by a few fish who weren't just in mood for real bites. Frustrating, but fun.

 

In case some of you were wondering about the morels, we found some. On our way back from Mackinac last weekend in the cold (our car said it was 38 degrees out) we checked out one of Joe's secret spots. Since then it's been very, very dry. We do need some rain.

Our Stay-cation

This weekend was perfect for vacation-- sunny and warm, hitting 70's, with a slight breeze. Wishing we were on the Mackinac Island this weekend, we decided to fully enjoy what's around us like being tourists. We checked out our first farmer's market of the season, though our main reason was to have breakfast tacos from Senor. Yummy.
Then we drove out to our island (Presque Isle park) and took a stroll. The big lake was so calm, you almost couldn't tell where the water and sky met.

The trail took us into the wooded walk, and there a mama deer greeted us!

See, we were really pretending to be on vacation....

Back at our home Joe made us Moscow Mule to go with our guacamole snack to have outside. At least till the breeze picked up and gave us goose bumps. This was no Hawaii, but a very enjoyable day.