You know the saying...

..."Lucky at cards, unlucky at fish."

Since we were skunked on the lake today, we thought we should test to see if the corollary is true. Sure enough, we took $180 from the tribe tonight.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Hurricane Jonah has left the building.

As well as the rest of Grif support team, leaving only some dogfood and transmission fluid behind. Hopefully there is more than enuf left to get them home quickly and safely. Godspeed. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

One match - Jonah lights the campfire

Just what we need. Another pyro in the family.

At least in Jonah's case - the fire is just a means to an end:

Jonah prepares and serves perfectly prepared S'mores

It is too hot to do anything beside sitting on the deck.

So we have asked Jonah to gather wood for tonight's campfire.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Gearing up...

... for a lil' camp fishing expedition on the river.

Weather is hot, and the river is beautiful.



Unfortunately, there are apparently no longer any fish to be found in this river.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Olive Palooza - The Movie!

After the spectacular blog traffic success of the "Olive Palooza" posts last year, we are once again going back to the well. Reviewing the images downloaded from the camera, I discovered almost no still shots, but a lot of video clips. So this year... Olive Palooza - The Movie:

Dinner is served.

And quite the feast it was. - abalone (really calamari steaks), lamb, green salad, Emy's famous fruit salad, corn on the cob, and brown rice pilaf. Accompanied by a 2001 Hafner from HDW's wine cellar.

Almost dinnertime...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Our special guests have arrived!

OliveCam is on the air.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Feast preparation is underway

Abalone smuggled from California* and lamb imported all the way from Wisconsin.


*Note to California Department of Fish and Game. Just kidding. These are really calamari steaks. Really. Trust me on this.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

It's super-bass-tastic here!

Dad landed two more keepers, and shortly after taking this picture I caught another as were entering the bay heading back to camp. One circuit of the lake - three nice bass.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Grilled Blugs and Escanaba Pail Ale Bottles #16 and #22

We lost count of how many bluegills we caught, cleaned, prepared and ate. At least two dozen. Among them was the beauty on the top of this post - almost 9". Impossible to say for sure whether Dad or I caught this one, but I think it was me. Jonah contributed a Shag Lake Blue, as well as a rare long neck speckled river bluegill.


Once again we continue to develop the technique for grilled bluegill. Full documentation in the form of yet another Fish Fry Grill Video will be forthcoming. Consider this excerpt a preview of coming attractions:



Dinner included baked potatoes and fresh green beans.


With such a fine repast, we decided to break into the stores of the EPA, and as per Matt's instructions - "Drink it up this summer!" started with the Rea allocation.


Matt traded his Shag bottle for the one we consumed in SF during his visit, so I drank his. HDW chose to drink Kirby's bottle #22. This was HDW's first sample of last fall's home brew. His review:

New Bluegill Expeditionary Team

Testing equipment and heading out.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Watching Obama's Presser

Since this was his first Press Conference in more than a year, and based on his performance possibly the last one he will hold during the balance of his administration - we thought we should catch this very rare presidential event.

We watched on a video feed on the laptop while on the deck. It was good to learn from the President that both the administration is in charge, and that BP is in charge of the gulf cleanup. It was also good to learn that the President would personally hold everyone in the administration accountable, but had no idea that Birnbaum had been fired until the morning of the presser.

Bak to fishing.

Dinner

Our special guests (who have chose to remain anonymous) had a longer and more difficult drive due to some car problems. But they finally made it and we all sat down to some homemade herb and mushroom spaghetti sauce accompanied by Papa's traditional vegetable medley salad.

Our special guests have arrived!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Bluegill Condo

We took the boat over to Teal Lake, and in the clear water found this amazing concentration of bluegill beds. Perhaps this is common, but I've never seen this many beds this close together before, so it was unusual to me.

Big blugs. Easy fishing.

Note to self...

... always check this radar map before heading in to town and leaving the iMac/ShagCam out on the deck. Always. Even if the sun is shining and skies are clear.

We walked out of Larry's Grocery in Gwinn to see dark black clouds and flashes of lightning across the parking lot - it looked like it was sitting right on top of Shag Lake.

After a mad dash back to camp, got the iMac off the deck just as this was starting:

Tiger Swallowtail Convention

In the mud flats in front of camp. This kept me entertained while I waited for the dock guys to arrive.

Dock extension project underway done

The same, but different

The project is underway -

And live on ShagCam!



UPDATE: Nevermind. It's done. I forgot I changed the blog settings to update e-mail posts in draft mode, and this did not post when I sent it.

Dock is done now, and is still - Live on ShagCam!

UPDATE II: Added some pictures.

Papa properly inaugurates the new doc.
Even though it is a bit on the warm side.

-- Some of this sent from my Palm Pre

Put a steak on the barbie for me.

Dinner is almost ready. Steak marinated in red wine with Tuscan herbs, baked potatoes, grilled peppers, onion, roasted garlic, fresh green salad, and Monte Antico Toscana 2006. Its not fresh fish, but it will do until we catch some more.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Report from Mitchell Lake (among other locations)

Mitchell Island has new and grander beaches

The Reader requested more expansive reportage of water level conditions around the lake. This morning we decided to fish for bass at some favorite spots in Mitchell Lake. The Mitchell Lake Channel Report:

We didn't have much luck fishing - some small pike while trolling to Mitchell. At Mitchell, much of the cover that made it a great place to fish for bass is now on dry land. Also, the far side of the lake is now so shallow the tin can cannot get close to the shore. Mitchell Lake is now dead to us. But elsewhere around Shag...

I noticed this dock ornament...
and thought we should get something similar. Perhaps a Jobosian figure with feet dangling in the water and ecstatically playing with an iPhone.

While trolling we noticed these girls on the Swedish flag pontoon struggling with this anchor line or buoy marker or something....

Dad insisted we go closer to see if we could offer any help. They didn't need any.

The new dock segment has arrived.

It does not look like much of dock.

We'll be assembling tomorrow.

We are going fishing today.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Shag Cam Configuration

Given that I cannot figure out how to get Ustream to recognize the iMac external camera, The Reader may be wondering how we are getting the current shot on Shag Cam. Here you go. 

We are going fishing for a couple hours. Shag Cam should be fine as long as there are no surprise thunderstorms.

Or... No wandering yoopers who decide they would like to take home an obsolete iMac.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

First pike

We waited until things cooled down before trying our fishing luck again. We each caught a pike in the bay at dusk. Both were undersized and went back in. This one was hooked badly and will probably wind up as eagle food.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

unbelievable

When I drove by Marquette Mountain yesterday, piles of snow were still to be seen.  

This thermometer is sitting in direct sunlight, so the 98 degrees is suspect, but the conventional thermometer in the shade of the wall opposite is reading 89 degrees. So the real temp is somewhere in between, but north of 90.  

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Fish Fry Grill

Dad's bass was not the only fishing success on the day. He also upped the bluegill count to 10, crossing the threshold for a fry - so our dinner plans were set. The bass was filleted and frozen to wait another meal - another day.

Before moving on to the blug story, let us first complete the usual over-documentation of his fine opening day bass.

The blugs were cleaned per my usual preferred methodology, by gutting, de-finning, and scaling the small fry rather than waste anything on "one bite" fillets.

Blugs on death row awaiting execution

A blug-eye view of the executioner

Dad was worried about eating fried bluegills (No... really... he was. I know.) So I thought I'd try an experiment. The blugs were breaded as per my new preferred methodology (dust with flour, egg dip, then coat with Italian bread crumbs - coincidentally the same technique I now prefer for abalone). Five were fried in oil as usual. The other five were lightly sprayed with oil then put on the grill.

The verdict?

"Excellent. You can taste a difference since cooking in grease adds some flavor, but it is not a big difference and - to the tell the truth - I prefer the grilled." - SJW

A perfect grilled blug fillet - filleted after cooking, by simply lifting out the bones.

Rail House IPA, garlic rice, baked potato, blugs.

A fine repast.