Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee, June 2008

June 19 finds us at Pam and Dave's lovely home on Old Hickory Lake, in Nashville, Tn.

"SummerTime, and the living is easy...the fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high.." (my favorite version of this classic is by Janis Joplin). The fish are literally jumping out of the water. I suppose they are jumping for the water bugs, but it is an amazing sight to see. There are plops and splashes in every place that you are not fishing in.

Check out pictures and video clips at:

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z2/donndavidson/Pam%20and%20Dave%20June%202008/

Also visiting are Tuk, Brian, and 7 year-old Victoria. First time fishing for her! We brought her a pink Disney Spincast outfit, and Grandpa David showed her how to cast. First, she caught him on his pants. Next she threw the rod into the lake. Finally, she got the hang of it and caught a nice Blue Gill.

After that, she said "I want to catch another fish!" She was hooked! She caught a big striper, that broke the line when we pulled it up, followed by another Blue Gill, and then another striper!

I caught a striper, and a Blue Gill, but mostly I was busy pulling fish off of Victoria's line. After about an hour, she's way beyond the little Princess rod, and is ready for the Ugly Stik that I brought along!

Thursday evening, we had grilled salmon, with a Jack Daniel's sauce, skillfully prepared by Chef David. Delicious!

On Friday, we went for a ride in the new pontoon boat, a real beauty! Rods in the water, we're trying to catch fish. My Cabela's rod tumbled into the lake, probably yanked in by a rebel fish. Gone for good.

After we got back to the house, we were all out fishing again, with Victoria doing the catching.

Friday night finds us in downtown Nashville, at Demo's Spaghetti House, followed by a walk along the main streets of downtown. Lots of great music going on, inside, and outside. We saw a Blues guitar player on a street corner bottle neckin' like crazy. (how do they do that?)

Saturday morning, Victoria catches more fish. Chuck, Lisa, and Cami arrive for a visit. We gave Cami a little pink fishing rod, like Victoria's, and we went fishing. Cami is 3 years old. She drops the line, and needed help pulling it up - because there's a fish hooked on it! A nice large mouth!

Cami said, "I want to catch another one!". Oops, she's also hooked! (so my work is done here - I got my two great-nieces hooked on fishing!). When Cami was asked later how big her fish was, she spread her arms as wide apart as she could, and said, in true fisher-woman style ,"This Big!".


Sunday, we were fishing off the dock. It's David's turn to catch fish. He caught two Whiting fish (from Whiting, IN?). From his neighbor's party deck, he caught a Large Mouth Bass, and a Blue Gill. Nice! We spent the day relaxing and fishing, while Pam had to work a double.Sunday night, and we're all trying to catch something. We had some night-crawlers, and Pat had a lot of worm-eating bites, but no catches!

Monday, and it's time to leave. I went to the lake for a few last casts, and on my last cast, I finally caught a nice sized Large Mouth Bass! I quit while I was ahead!

The fish count was:
Victoria - 6 fish
Cami - 1 fish
David - 4 fish
Donn - 3 fish

Lake Gogebic - Spring 2008

Lake Gogebic - May 30, 2008. Jack invited me to come up to the Spring trip!

Pictures and movie clips are at:
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z2/donndavidson/Lake%20Gogebic%20May%202008/

It's 480 miles from home, 8-9 hours, but well worth the drive. Jack, Brian and I drove up in the SER Friday, listening to the greatest Cubs comeback in a very long time! We arrived around 8:30 or so, and unloaded our stuff. Saturday arrived early, with Jack tapping me on the foot at 5am, rarin' to go! We rigged my two rods, and walked around enjoying the morning. After Ben brought back eggs, we prepared a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, potatoes, and toast.

Sam arrived, and immediately went shore fishing at the "point", and landed a nice walleye, but a throwback. I cast and caught and lost a nice something.

Soon we were involved in putting boats into the water, pulling boats out of the water (due to a missing plug), and greeting the rest of the guys as they arrived.

Busy, busy. I had a fine lunch consisting of a beer and a striped mint from the bar. I moved from the young-bucks cabin into the old-bucks cabin.

We wanted to go out in the boats, but there were whitecaps, and it was cold. Finally, Jack and the young-bucks went out in the tin can.

Zig and Tom said they were going out so I hitched a ride with them. Heavy coats, and rain suits were needed. Quick, get some lines in the water. I get a walleye on a minnow, but too small. Boat rocking like crazy, but great fun. I've got my rod rigged wrong. Long sinker line, short leader! But it worked anyway. After about an hour or so, the cold got to us, and we came in. We went to St. Rita's church in Presque Isle, and stopped in a wonderful roadside bait and tackle shop "UP North Sports N' Gifts." They normally closed at 5pm, but stayed open a little while longer for the "church crowd".

This store was amazing, with racks of every type of lure, hook, line, rod that anyone could want! We got some buckets of minnows, and some leeches for Sunday's bait supply. (I could have spent an hour in that store jsut looking at everything!)

Dinner was sandwiches, and then back to the bar for social hours...

Sunday came around, and we're up and ready to go. The day was beautiful! Sunny, and a North wind - perfect for drifting! Things move fast so we can get out. Eat Cereal, drink coffee, wash dishes, get rods ready. I had to re-rig my rods so that sinker line is short, leader line is long.

I hitch a ride this time with Kenny and BG, and we're on the water. Lines baited and dropped.
I get something! Pull it up. It's a clam! And it's a keeper! How the clam jumped on my hook, I'll never know. I bait with minnows and leeches(a first time for me!). I get 3 small walleyes, but throwbacks. After about 2 hours, we return to dock, and go for a delicious breakfast at the Fishtales (used to be the Fisherman) restaurant.

Afternoon suddenly appears, and we decide to go out again. This time it's Ken and me, and we go for a boat ride. We each catch walleyes, but again, no keepers. The weather is great, and we're happy to be on the lake. Jack and Vince came up to us so that we could drift along together and chat. Soon another boat, not of our group, came roarin' up, thinking we were catching fish! (Of course, we weren't). Later on Herb and the guys also pulled up next to us.

Ken optimistically got his stringer ready, but we didn't need it. I got a bite, and as I was reeling in, my reel came off the rod! (rookie mistake). Kenny leaped into action, grabbed it and untangled it, while I was holding the line with the fish on it! He re-attached it, and I reeled in a nice walleye, but still not a keeper. After a while we decided to head back, and as we pulled up out lines, there was a walleye hooked on my line! Still too small, but fun.

Back at the Lodge, Herb comes in with a giant walleye! 24 1/4", 4 lbs 10oz! It's amazing. He entered it into the local contest, and we're all hoping he wins!

We began preparing for the steak and chicken dinner, with Mike doing the cooking! Nice job, Mike! The food was delicious, the company was great, and the beer was cold. Since some of us were leaving the next day, Herb wisely began the accounting process of who owes whom for what. I don't know how he keeps track, but he does.

To end the evening, Herb, Mike and I head for the bar, much to the dismay of Julie, who wanted to go home early. Just as it looked like she would get her wish, the rest of the guys all appeared at the bar. We finally cleared out at midnight, after hearing many fine musical selections by Herb, the DJ for the evening. I would say that Maggie May, and Ina Gada Da Vida where the most played selections of the evening, along with the classic "Dog named Boo".

Jack, Brian and I headed home the next morning, rested and happy. Thanks again for the invite!