THE SUMMER OF UNCERTAINTY
It has been the strangest summer anyone can remember. For one thing, the weather has been inconsistent all summer long. In the end of July we went from temperatures in the nineties one weekend to the low seventies the next weekend.
In part, because of the weather, fishing has been the worst we have seen in the last fifteen years. When we normally had thirty five fish per person a day on bass lakes in northwestern Wisconsin we now are totaling thirty five fish for everyone in the boat on a good day.
Doug Hurd with a twenty inch bass; biggest bass to come into the authors boat this summer.
Then there has been the Coronavirus with the pandemic. It has changed everything. Wearing masks and social distancing with frequent hand washing has become our norm. The pandemic exploded in March although it might have been with us much earlier. No one knew what to expect. There was some thought it might be gone in the summer once we got warmer weather. That didn’t happen and now we are facing a lot of questions without answers for the fall and winter.
The COVID19 has affected almost every aspect of our normal summer life. Being in a crowd has become cause for concern. Most shows, summer festivals, concerts as well as many gatherings of people have been cancelled. County and state fairs are cancelled. Sports, both pros and amateur, have been cancelled or significantly altered due to the virus. Many church services are now being held outside to take advantage of social distancing and the therapeutic value of fresh air. Even weddings and funerals during the summer have been called off or rescheduled.
My wife and I, have been very cautious of going out to eat. We generally go out for breakfast when we go fishing simply because fewer people are out at that time of the morning but if we see a restaurant, bar and grill or café filled with people we pass it by and search for a quieter place.
We wear masks everywhere. Most stores require masks be worn. Restaurants and bars also require masks. My barber requires all his customers to wear a mask. My neighbor, Lisa Szumilas is a registered nurse working for the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Minneapolis and she tells me masks make a huge difference. That is a good enough endorsement for me.
Becky Yurk with a bass taken with a drop shot rig.
Those are just some to the changes we have seen because of the virus. There are many more subtle affects, with no end in sight, which have transformed our summer. Adding to the bizarreness of the summer we have also dealt with massive social unrest and the politics of an upcoming national election. It just couldn’t get much weirder.
SUMMER STARTS COLD
Summer started after a long, cold spring. Winter never seemed to really go away. A couple weeks after the beginning of the Wisconsin fishing season Rod Ellner and I fished at Deer Lake in Polk County, north of our homes in Hudson. The day was cold and windy with black clouds drifting across the skies. It looked like it might snow. We started with wacky worms and after a while switched to crankbaits.
Rod and I were in winter jackets. I had on a down jacket and insulated bibs. Even with all the clothing we still felt cold. It wasn’t suppose to be this cold this late in spring. I reached in the pockets of my jacket to find two pair of fingerless gloves. I gave one pair to Rod and I pulled on the other pair. It made huge difference and was glad to have them.
We picked up a few bass but the fish were sluggish. The water temperatures were in still in the high forties. “I’m putting on the ugliest bait I have,” Rod said as he attached an orange and gold crankbait. A few minutes later he pulled back on his spinning rod and the rod tip was bouncing as the fish raced off, splashing on the surface of the water. After a short fight he hoisted in a fourteen inch bass. We ended the day with a dozen fish but it didn’t snow. We wouldn’t have been surprised if it did.
Crappie were active and aggressive later in the season as Mike Yurk shows off a crappie caught in mid June.
CRAPPIES REMAIN ACTIVE
As spring finally and grudgingly eased into summer, panfish remained active and in the shallow water longer than normal. By mid June we still found lots of active and aggressive schools of crappie. Normally they would have finished spawning and moved into deeper water by then. It looked like they had a much later spawn due to the cold water temperatures which followed into early summer. It was a nice bonus and great fishing. Bass fishing, however, remained spotty.
Doug Hurd of Eagan, Minnesota, joined me for a early summer day in Polk County at Long Lake. We found crappies in about eight to ten feet of water. We fished small black and chartreuse tube jigs and caught and released about seventy fish by early afternoon. We planned on spending the rest of the day chasing bass.
Within twenty minutes after trading our ultralight panfish rods for spinning rods with wacky worms I heard Doug yell “big fish.” I swiveled around and his spinning rod was doubled over, looking like the fish wasn’t moving. Then it took off. The fish made a couple runs before Doug got the fish alongside the boat where he reached over, grabbed the fish by the lip and pulled it into the boat. The fish measured twenty inches and as of this writing at the beginning of September it is still the biggest bass to come into my boat this season. We continued to work shallow water with wacky worms and by the time we headed back to the landing we caught and released over two dozen fish. It looked like bass fishing was looking up.
Two days later I returned to Long Lake with another friend. The crappies were still in the bay in eight to ten feet of water and we caught a bunch of them. But the bass were a lot tougher to find and we caught only three. This kind of inconsistency has been the way this entire summer has gone.
Summer started cold as Rod Ellner shows off a early season bass. It was a day to wear gloves.
Weather has played a major roll this summer. It has been as erratic as the fishing. Water temperatures have been bouncing around as well. In
late June water temperatures suddenly shot from the mid seventies to the low to mid eighties within about a week. It threw the fish off and took longer for them to recover than for the water temperatures to rise. There were lakes in east central Minnesota that had fish kills due to the rapid rise in water temperatures. I hadn’t heard if it happened in Wisconsin but wouldn’t have been surprised if it did.
One of the other consequences of the pandemic was more people than ever were taking to the outdoors. Boat sales sky rocketed as did other purchases of outdoor equipment such as fishing gear and camping equipment. People were getting out and participating in outdoor adventures in numbers not seen in years. With sports like youth soccer and softball cancelled, families had time to do family outdoor activities like fishing, boating and camping. Families were taking vacations again. More people participating in the outdoors is always good.
DROP SHOT RIGS AND WACKY WORMS
In late summer my wife Becky and I fished Deer Lake. It was a hot, steamy day with bright blue skies and few clouds. We tried for fish in shallow water with wacky worms but caught only a couple small bass. I finally talked her into going into deeper water with drop shot worms. I positioned the boat in fifteen to twenty feet of water as we cast to what was probably eight to ten feet of water in front of weed beds.
Within ten minutes I felt a pop on my line and then just weight. I set the hook and a fish took off. It put up a strong fight, eventually rising to the surface, attempting to vault out of the water. I pulled back on my spinning rod to stop the fish from flipping out of the water and when I got it to the boat, pulled it in. It was a plump, foot long bass. It put up a great fight as fish do when they come from deeper water.
For the rest of the day we steadily caught fish from deep water with drop shot rigs. We caught and released about twenty bass when I head my wife yell and saw her spinning rod was bent in half. The fish was rapidly rising in the water and when it thrashed on the surface we saw it was a big fish. The fish made a couple runs but Becky stopped them, turned the fish and eventually got it coming to the boat. Once she got it close to the boat I reached down to grab the fish. It was a full bodied seventeen inch bass and the biggest of the day. We ended the day with close to fifty fish, all but four were taken in deep water on drop shot rigs.
Even in late summer bass were found close to the bank where shade covered shallow water.
A week later Becky and I were again back at Deer Lake. This day temperatures had dropped ten degrees from what we had a week earlier. I thought we would still find the fish in deep water but Becky talked me into trying shallow water with wacky worms first with a plan to move out deeper if we didn’t find fish shallow. It was another bright sunny day with few clouds and light winds.
Becky caught the first fish. It came out from under a dock to attack her wacky worm. A few minutes later I cast into a shaded area between the docks and immediately a bass hit my plastic worm. From there we continued to follow the shoreline. We found bass in shallow water anywhere we found shade and under docks and around boat lifts.
At one point I flipped my wacky worm into a small triangle of shade against a rocky bank and a corner of a dock. It looked like there was only inches of water. I saw a swirl in the water and set the hook. The fish held fast for a moment before it burst for open water. My drag gave out line as the fish dove. A couple moments later I pulled in a stocky sixteen inch bass. The fishing was nothing short of fantastic from beginning to the end of the afternoon and we ended the day with over sixty fish.
I would have never believed finding fish in such shallow water. My guess was they would have been in deeper water we could only reach with drop shot rigs. Instead and contrary to what we found earlier and my guess for the day, we found bass all over the shallows, not just around docks. Almost anyplace we found shade we found fish and many times it looked to be in only inches of water. It just highlighted the strange and weird summer we have been having.
As you are reading this, it is after Labor Day and we are quickly approaching fall. In early August we have seen trees starting to turn color already. It seems way early for this. Is this a sign fall and ultimately winter is approaching early?
A couple fishing buddies recalled some twenty years ago we had a similarly strange summer when fishing was exceptionally inconsistent as we have seen this year and that fall we had great fishing.
This has been a summer of uncertainty. Fishing will hopefully get better this fall but the other things, such as the pandemic and social unrest along with a national election cycle which have put our lives in such upheaval is going to stay with us for a while. We are all in this together and will get out of this together. Wear masks, practice social distancing and treat everyone like we would like to be treated and this uncertainty may go away sooner than later.
EDITORS NOTE: Mike Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625.