Saturday, July 9, 2005

Lies, lies and more lies... Otherwise known as fish stories. Most outdoorsmen stretch the truth a bit when retelling a story, but the tales passed around at dinner tonight at Nightengale's in Sturgeon Bay were mostly true, or so we were leading each other to believe. Tales of 30-pound pike and 80-walleye (all over 26 inches) mornings in Canada's NW Territories. Of quadruple limits of jumbo perch under wardens' noses - the same wardens who didn't know a splake from a lake trout. Of bear cubs and sows shinnying up a tree occupied by a bowhunter. Everyone had a story or two, but the primary bull-tossers were Capt. Bill Luer and EZ Charlie Dutter. EZ, of Cameron, lived in Washburn at the same time I did back in the '70s. We knew many of the same people, but somehow knew each other only by reputation. Charlie is a respected taxidermist and woodcarver who has won several wood-carving world-championships, thanks to a natural talent tutored by Dave Constantine, of Durand, who is hands-down the best wood-carver of turkeys and turkey calls in the world. Anyway, we dragged ourselves away from the sports at the Door County Anglers Shootout to eat, and now suddenly it's time to sleep fast before a 2:45 a.m. wake-up call. Back at the Leathem Smith, word was someone had just registered a 17-pound brown, the new leader. Capt. Bill wants us on the boat early tomorrow - 3:45, he said, so it's beddy-bye and I'm late already. We'll fish for a few hours in the morning, then pack it in and catch the awards portion of the ceremony. Later... 10:30:42 PM    comment [] Door County Anglers Shootout update As of 2:30 p.m. today, here are the leaders in the 1st Annual Door County Anglers Shootout: King Salmon: Phil Pomdenne 20.6 Brown Trout: Keith Waloway 10.4 Rainbow Trout: Brad Reetz 12.36 Lake Trout: Brian Miller 10.13 Only two kings over 20 pounds have been registered. This category, which pays down to 20th place, is pretty crowded at the top. Currently, Mark Smith holds down No. 20 with a 17.35-pounder. There are only 4 browns registered, and No. 4 weighed 5.04, so the next brown registered is automatically in the money. The first three browns on the list were brought in by a boat from Marinette. Doln't know where No. 4 came from. Right now, a 4.5-pounder holds down the number 5 spot for lake trout, so that category is up for grabs. I fished again this morning with Bill Luer on the Nooo Problem, with first mate Eric Tracy and "helpmates" Scott Platta, Mark "Fuzzy" Koenig and Gary Houdek. Tom D'Amico and Ken Zitzke, of Midstate Marine in Fremont, joined us. We motored out to the Bank reef, leaving the Leathem Smith Lodge Marina dock at 4:00 a.m. There were so many boats out this morning, the water was rough in the narrow shipping channel from all the no-wake wakes. We got into fish right away, catching a few small ones in short order. We caught a couple 4-year-old kings up to 17.35 lbs and two rainbows, one of which topped ten pounds on our two scales. When we weighed it back at show, it had lost weight, like those we caught yesterday. I think we need to check our respected scales. I used a Berkley digital and Eric used s brass scale. His was more accurate than mine, tho not by much. Bill Luer and Ross Smilko joined me for lunch at Scaturos, then we came back to the Leathem Smitth to check the leader board. The weather has been perfect, which is not unusual for Door County in the summer. I'll keep you posted on developments. Later... 3:34:14 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 Dan Small. Last update: 8/11/05; 10:13:53 PM.