An Outdoorsman‛s Journal: Up north bluegill fishing and camping trip

Hello friends, I met Paul Bucher, owner and publisher of the Cumberland Advocate, about 25 years ago when I stopped at his office on a marketing run. We literally have been buddies since day one and have shared a heck of a bunch of outdoor experiences and became family friends on both sides. This past weekend I headed up to Barron County to camp on a lake on some county land and to do some serious fishing for bluegill.

Saturday, June 3 — High 88, low 61 We all know about the heat that has been kicking every man, animal and corn crop’s tail end. Last night I got here with an hour of daylight left; it had just rained, which is rare these days; and Paul Bucher and I had three trips of about 200 yards each to get my camping gear to a hike-in only site. The mosquitoes were brutal and that is an understatement; a good cameraman could have had some excellent footage of two guys losing lots of blood until we got a good smoke fire burning. This would be a day of hardcore fishing on a Barron County lake in intense heat and nothing came easy, but two buddies who have both had some huge challenges over the last 350 days really did not care. Paul likes to work the shoreline. He puts his trolling motor on spot lock, and we used bobbers and ice fishing jigs tipped with either a worm, wax worm or leech. What did not happen in numbers, as for the most part we were working deadfalls in the water, we made up for in size. Each deadfall would yield us one to three sumo bluegill, and I am serious when I say 8.5 inches was the smallest we would keep, with most over 9 inches. One year ago this weekend, I attended a surprise 55th birthday party for Paul that his wife Sarah had at their rural Cumberland home and it truly was a dandy. Five nights later, I would lose the queen of my life, Michelle Chiaro, in a surprise attack from sepsis that would literally destroy the best part of my day-to-day life. At about the same time, Paul, who could be a model in a magazine, started having problems with his heart and it required major surgery to fix this past February.

I believe it was last fall that Paul’s dad Craig Bucher, who was very well known in the area, passed away. My point is that since the last time the two of us did something together, we have both been put through the ringer.

The heat was intense today and we stayed in Paul’s 17.5 Alumacraft “Competitor” all day, but two old buddies kept 33 beautiful bluegill and ended the day with a bluegill just under 11 inches and one at 10.5, which we happily released. After cleaning our catch, we sat by my campfire until late in the evening. I cooked pork steaks over the campfire and we had a very good handle on the mosquitoes.

The following day I broke camp early in the morning, was consumed by many blood suckers on the treks out and then drove the “Chevy Hotel” over to Polk County by myself. As seems to be the norm during the open water season, I had my canoe on the racks. I fished in a very casual way, watching good people enjoying summer at their cabins, and put a serious hurting on the big gills.

Just before dark the old truck made it home and home is a good place to be. Live like there is no tomorrow!

Sunset

Mark Walters