Posts: 258
Location: Mayville, WI | When we last left, our intrepid hero was in disbelief as his world burned around him. What’s next in store? Will he recover? Will the checked specter be brought to justice? Find out in this next installment of “As the Prop Turns”...
It has been a long, cold 5 months since that fateful day in late November. Five months of rebuilding, rebuying, restocking, and plain old recharging my batteries. The new garage is bigger and better than ever with space for all the toys. The diesel Grand Cherokee is resting in the new stable, ready to ferry the flame-washed red X-190 to any pool, pond, lagoon, or puddle where muskie dreams can be turned into reality only to be released back to the depths.
In between starting the new chapter of christening the new craft with a fresh coat of slime I spent my time wearing through the soles of my shoes, rubbing my knuckles raw, and twisting arms while bending ears to any sportsman, countryman, or statesman that would listen (and may have kissed a baby or too). Why? To bring back better times and rescue the dying fishing industry in our great northwoods; it was time to breathe some life back into the kickers and get trolling back on the menu.
The sportsmen, to say the least, were not receptive. Stuck in tar with their heads in the sand, afraid of endless parades of boats and boards on their lake with no room to cast. ‘Swimmers would get tangled and drown, just think of the children!’ My words were venom to them.
Countrymen, oh the countrymen. Visions of a parade of boats and boards danced across their eyes like a line of chorus girls to seamen fresh off the boat on leave. It would save their resorts, diners, and shops and bring the family back to rescue their lake. My words flowed like milk and honey to them.
$tate$men were the easy part. Shake some hands, grea$e some wheel$, and get them to do what they do best: meddle in things beyond their elected knowledge on their lakes. My word$ meant nothing to them.
In the days leading up to the April, Spring Conservation Congress Hearings I had been confident in my efforts, but a storm was approaching. The sportsmen had been doing the same as myself, but gathering a mob and wearing out the sidewalks, I know I’m out numbered and wouldn't have a dog in this fight except for a few notes taken from the Chicago politicians: If you can’t beat em, buy em.
So buy em I did! With the help of a called in favor from a cousin who owns a bussing company. We gathered up some downstate guys where mechanically pulling baits is legal and shipped them up here (with the promise of a couple Big-macs along the way) to tilt Lady Justice’s scaled in our favor.
The night of the Hearing went surprisingly well. There was the usual grump form the sportsmen about “Little Johnny” and spat between them and the countrymen, all the while my travelling band of trollers sat quietly and filled and the ballot box with ‘yes’. It was clear it was going to pass.
To celebrate I snuck out to enjoy a Cuban that’s been stashed for such an occasion. But as I waltzed through the doors a familiar sight met my eyes. There, propped up against a light pole was a familiar checkered sight, surrounded by a glowing aura of cigarette smoke as he puffed away. His fedora slightly askew, as if to shade the fire burning in his eyes from me. There was a slight tremble in his voice this time, trying to temper back the eruption within.
“You just [edited] don’t know when to call it [redacted] quits do ya! As surely as I stand here today, this will be your [removed] […] [one more time] time anything happens again! These are MY [profanity] green carp in MY lakes!”
He inched closer.
“BLAAERRGHHERHHDGHGH!!!!!!!”
In a flash, he stumbled at me in a wild, blinded rage with a hurricane of fists.
My heart palpated as my eyes flashed around, looking for an escape, but my feet too frozen to move when my hands clinched in my pockets around a cold metallic object. Keys! Keys to the bus! Against all my intuition I sped at him, at the last moment leaving his jock on the pavement with a move Sweetness would stand in awe at.
A cold, pleather bus seat had never felt so good as I slammed the doors shut and rumbled the behemoth to life. There were only two things in the way of my path to freedom now, his Roadmaster and my right foot. I was not about to let a rusting relic from the 80’s stop my journey. Stomping with all my might, the bust lurched forward, peeling the bumper from his wagon in a shower of sparks, lighting the open road ahead. He was left to choke on a diesel-induced fog, cursing to the heavens.
I figured it best to let things settle down before I return to my home waters in Vilas. Ditching the bus and making an escape to retreat on the hardest working river in the world and fish some backwaters and sloughs in search of solitude and a couple green submarines south of 10 in the Central Sands, prepping me for a return to finish out my yearly allotted time on the water roaming the lakes in God’s country. So as I sit at the ramp, waiting for the clock to strike midnight and ring in a new season of anticipation, success, backlashes and heart break, a stranger approaches.
”I see the transom is barren. You know, it’s bad luck to fish from a boat without a name.”
I thought for a second, stood up and simply replied “Phoenix”.
Rise.
Shortened version of where I’m fishing & when
Period 1 April – not fishing in Vilas Co
Period 1 May – fishing on the WI River in Portage/Wood Co
Period 2 June- Sept. 15 – Vilas/Oneida Co.
Period 3 Sept. 15 – Vilas/Oneida Co.
Bait Time Periods
1) Stealth “Hulcano Harness” regular size 1 & 3
2) Stealth “Hulcano Harness” large size 3
3) Suick 9” – yellow perch 1
4) Suick 10” weighted – black 1 & 2
5) Manta – Chartruse/tiger 1
6) Pacemake – 8” black/glitter 1 & 2
7) Hawg Wobbler – husky, black 1
8) Bucher BigFoot Mag Tinsel – goldielocks 2
9) Bucher BigFoot MagTinsel – black/black 2
10) Mepps Marabou – black/silver 1
11) Bucher 6” Shallow Raider – sucker 1
12) Drifter Triple D – glitter shiner 2
13) 9” Grandma – silver/hi-tech 1, 2, & 3
14) 13” Grandma – silver/hi-tech 3
15) Legend Perch Bait – golden sucker 3
16) Bondy – pearl 3
17) Mag Hardhead – sucker 2 & 3
18) Magnum Bulldawg – black 1, 2, & 3
19) Super-mag “pounder” Bulldawg – cisco 2 & 3
20) Super-mag “pounder” Bulldawg – blk/orange 2 & 3
Rods & Reel Combos Period
1) St. Croix – Big Nasty w/ Saltist 20-HW 1, 2, & 3
2) St. Croix – Sling Blade w/ Saltist 20-HC 2
3) Sling Blade (same as #2) w/ Calcutta 400d 1
4) St. Croix – Bid Dawg w/ Saltist 20-HC (same as #2) 3
5) St. Croix – Premier Glass 8’ H w/ Convector CV-30D 1, 2, & 3
6) St. Croix – Premier Glass 8’ H w/ Convector CV-30D 1, 2, & 3
|
