An Outdoorsman’s Journal: First winter camping trip

Hello friends, This week I had a few firsts and a very good time as well, please read on and I hope you enjoy! Monday, Dec. 18 – High 38, low 23 What do you do when southern Wisconsin does not have enough ice, if any, to walk on, much less winter camp? You go north and find ice or, in my case, call a friend – Paul Bucher, publisher and owner of the Cumberland Advocate. As always, Paul had good news on both ice and a lake where he and some of his friends had been catching a few walleye. Walleye have a tendency to put on the feed bag in November and early December, and then their metabolism slows down dramatically and they can be very difficult to catch. So I headed towards Grantsburg with my directions, found my lake and began the very large process of hauling loads out to where I would fish and live for the next 48 hours. My excitement level was literally exploding as I worked and watched my golden retrievers Red and Ruby live the good life. Today’s plan would have me using two Beaver Dam tip-ups and a spinning rod set up on a Finicky Fooler. I might add that I had just enough daylight to haul my gear and build a camp. It was well after dark by the time I had everything completed and, other than one very small northern pike, the action was not happening. So, I am sitting in my “Eskimo” shack lit by a propane lantern and heated with a Mr. Buddy heater, a place I love to be. Just like that, the spinning rod/Finicky Fooler that is baited with a large shiner that is over 18 feet of water is hit and I had a huge fish on. For 10 minutes, I could just barely keep the sumo that I was thinking may have been a musky or mega walleye from spooling me. There were times when I had it below me and it just hung there and did not move; then it would just peel line, stop, and say, “You cannot move me.” Fifteen minutes into the epic fight, it became snagged on something and all I could do was rebait and hope for another chance. At 8:30 one of my tip-ups that had a light on it went off and I was tickled pink when I iced a 19.5-inch walleye. I still had 40 hours left on this trip and was very excited. Tuesday, Dec. 19 – High 39, low 27 The pups and I are living on 5 inches of ice and this morning I was walking the ice long before first light and very excited to catch some walleye. Every trip that I go on, I forget something and though it may seem foolish, it is easy to do. On this trip I had two screwups. I left both of my headlamps on my living room floor. That was an unfortunate mistake. My other error, and it was more painful, was that I had brought 1 gallon of water for drinking and it was in a milk jug. Apparently, I did a very poor job of rinsing it out and the water in it tasted like sour milk. In short, drinking water and brushing my teeth was not pleasant on this adventure.

This morning I had zero action in the walleye world and had some concerns. I went exploring and tried tip-downs, tip-ups, jigging and the Finicky Fooler, and did not have any action at all.

Later in the day, I knew everything would be OK as Paul Bucher, Tim Heinecke and Ben Heinecke were going to show me how to catch walleye and quite possibly have a social type of experience on the ice. Folks, we tried very hard, and it is a very good thing that we have the ability to shoot the breeze while waiting for a light to signal us that a walleye might be giving us a chance to catch it. We did not have one bit of action and the next morning I didn’t either. On the other hand, it is pretty amazing how four guys sitting on hard water, in the dark other than a half moon, can have so much fun.

My favorite time of the year is here: no mosquitoes, not a ton of sunscreen, beer is easy to chill and I can put my cabin on just about any lake in the north for free and pay no taxes.

Happy/Healthy New Year to you! Sunset

Mark Walters