Temp: 72
Weeds: Beautiful cabbage, milfoil, and grass. Also some sandgrass. Vegetation abundunt down into 16 FOW.
Clarity: 8'

9/3

First time fishing this beautiful lake. Launched a little before 7 am and met up on the water with Chris Musselman and his friend. (Sorry – I forget your name!) Chris gives me the rundown on the lake and I tell him maybe I'll just follow a few hundred feet behind him. So away we go. I had a bass buddy of mine along with me, so he got busy throwing a small rattle trap. I heard the clang of double 10's from Chris' boat, so I decided to go with the Pounder. 10 minutes into it, and I had the biggest fish I've seen in person come from underneath the bait as I was ripping it straight up by the boat. She came right up on it until the tail tickled her nose and just came to rest right next to the side. She just layed there for about 2 or 3 seconds as I circled around her with the Pounder, and then slowly sank down under the boat. Mike caught a couple Large Mouths, and then lost a mid 20's Pike. It had the 'Trap deep in its mouth, and when it turned away from the boat, his mono got cut. We finished off the day with a couple of Brats grilled up by Chris. I tell ya – Having a little portable grill on the boat and eating some hot lunch on the water is hard to beat! Thanks, Chris, for everything!

9/4

Decided to take the family out for a couple hours to try for some panfish, or ANYthing that would bite small lures and crawlers. Halfway to the lake, my son says, "Dad, there's a lot of black clouds behind us". Well, sure enough, I look in the mirror, and there is a storm coming from the NW. *&#!@. We kept driving and when we got to the launch, we waited out the rain. The launch area was only packed for a few minutes until EVERYONE came rushing in. The lot emptied out pretty quickly, then! [smilie=biggrin.gif] Well, with all the wind from the NW, and the launch on the SE end of the lake, I was a little hesitant about launching with 3'+ rollers. I did it anyways, and almost fell in the lake trying to tie up. We were the only ones out in the windstorm, and started our drift. We only fished for about an hour before all the kids had enough. No fish, wet clothes, wet seats. Blah. Not the peaceful day on the water with the family that I had envisioned. So, we headed back to the lauch. Well, the waves seemed even bigger by the time we got back to the dock. I decided it would be easier to tie up on the wind-blown side, even if it did mean a couple scratches on the boat. This was tough…. The wind got a hold of the boat and tried to swing the front end around, but I managed to keep it somewhat straight. I didn't want my 7 month pregnant wife doing anything but sit in her seat, so I was trying to do this myself. Luckily, a jet skier was waiting for some other skis to come in, so he helped grab the boat. I jumped out, and asked Amy to hand me the rope. As she bent down to grab it, she lost her balance, and caught her shoelace on a bass crankbait that was attached to Ethans pole. Then, the hooks got caught in the rope as well. So, I'm standing on the dock, holding onto the boat, with Amy trying to get the hooks out of her shoelace. Not happening. 2 of the barbs were buried. My youngest starts to cry, Amy starts to get frustrated and SHE starts crying. I tell her we only have 2 options. Get the rope free, or she has to hang onto the boat since I'm the only one to back in the trailer. So, she takes off her shoe and sock, and is desprately trying to hold the boat from being smashed into the concrete landing. The boat is literally going up and down 4'. Rediculous. The 2 people on jetskis come over to help, and it takes both of them, and me to keep the boat straight enough for me to crank it up the trailer. I kept the trailer out much farther than I normally do just to keep the boat from blowing sideways, but with the waves being so tall, it didn't matter. We finally got it on board just a little crooked, and breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled it out of the water. Needless to say, the girls said they never wanted to go fishing with Dad ever again. Amy said she would, but only to little lakes like Campau. And Ethan was already talking about the next time we're going to go!! All in all, an exciting trip. Wish the $4 crawlers would've done us some good. Can't control the weather, though. Guess I should've stuck with the original plan and gone the the "Quiet Area".