Some people when you ask them why they fish will tell you it’s not about the fish at all. They like to be outdoors in the fresh air and the scenery. I don’t know any of those people. I’m in it for the fish.
When me and my good friend Mike Mason haul his red Lund to the Chippewa Flowage like we do every May, we do so because we hope the crappies will be in shallow and in the mood to gulp our jigs.
On this trip, spring was way behind. The hardwood leaves had barely unfurled. When you looked out across the flowage, all the new red and orange leaves on the maples and oaks reminded you of autumn. At our island campsite, we watched the yellow-rumped warblers feast on insects among those tender leaves.
On account of the cold, the crappies weren’t where they were supposed to be, so we visited an old eagle’s nest. This year who but a great horned owl had moved in. You should have seen the fuzzy owlets hop around that capacious nest under their mother’s watchful eye.
By the third and last day we were just eking out a living crappie fishing. We anchored on the edge of one of Mike’s favorite weed beds in Musky Bay. As luck would have it, something about this weed bed pleased untold numbers of hungry crappies. I glanced away from my bobber long enough to see a sleek brown body emerge on the shoreline, and it was followed by five others. A family of otters had also lucked into our honey hole. One of the parents had a delicious crappie in her mouth. You think she fishes for the scenery?
I’m Chris Fink and that’s my perspective.
