MW Mobile Blog

For friends, family and the random search engine visitor. This blog started as an experiment in mobile blogging from my Palm TREO 600, 700, Prē, HTC Evo, Samsung 5, Pixel 3, Pixel 6 Pro. Now it serves as a simple repository of favorite activities. Expect bad golf, good fishing, great sailing, eating, drinking, adventure travel, occasional politics and anything else I find interesting along the way including, but not limited to, any of the labels listed here...

Monday, May 29, 2017

Anniversary Day, Memorial Day, Departure Day

Sunday was day two of the Easton Entourage at Camp Shag. We have thoughts of a fish fry but don't really have enough fish for the entire crew.  So back to the yesterday's "scene of the crime" to see if we can catch a few more blugs.  This time we are aboard the pontoon boat, which helped keep all of us safely above the water, but made it tougher to actually catch fish.


We're still dodging rainstorms and did not add much to the catch before beating a hasty retreat from the lake.


 I had to include this picture of Zach icing his knee for documentary purposes. You'll have to ask Zach how this happened ...

Somehow Zach strained his knee after claiming to getting knocked on his ass by Stella,a 20 lb dog.
Yeah, we didn't believe it either.  
This was the one year anniversary for Kristy and Zach, so the newlyweds ditched us for a romantic dinner at the Up North Lodge. This actually turned out quite well, as we really only had enough fish for a proper fry for Wendy, Dad and myself.

Blugs, pike filet, wild rice pilaf, artichoke hearts and Wendy's Portobello avacado salad.

 The lovebirds returned in time for desert and a proper toast.



Monday is Memorial Day and another "too soon" departure day for Easton and his crew.


They have time to write in the book, take a few pictures and then they're gone.




Dad and I only have a couple more days ourselves, so we relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday


Saturday, May 27, 2017

Bass Season Opener - Also Easton


Easton's first visit to Big Shag Lake occurred at 12:30 AM EDT on May 27, 2017 - coincidentally - the first day of bass season. I am sure that is significant at some synchronistic cosmic level. But since Easton arrived quite late (early this morning), he and his entourage were sleeping in. We are going to need more fish if we want another fish fry for this crew, so ...


... Dad and I decided to get out early and go fish for bass and blugs along the west side of Mitchell Lake.


Up until now, we have fished primarily from "The Papa" pontoon boat, mostly trolling for pike. Dad wants to use the fly rod fto get bluegills and bass. We set out in the "Tin Can" to work the sunken logs, brush, and structure in the shallows.


 It's been a cold late spring, no beds visible in our bay or in the main lake. But we are seeing bass beds on the other side of the channel. The blugs were biting. We got a few and some undersized bass. Then some other things happened. My phone and Dad's fishing rod got wet.  No worries. My Samsung 5 survived.


Later, Zach and I went back in the pontoon boat to retrieve Dad's fly rod and do some more fishing.


At which point, I got soaked for the second time as the skies opened up again.



Undeterred, after carefully checking local radar, we were back at it later in the day. In the pontoon boat with Easton on his inaugural boat ride - another first.

 




Zach pulled in a couple more pike, but still not enough for a fry, so...


Grilled burgers, corn on the cob, salad, watermelon and baby formula were on the menu for Easton's first dinner at the lake.


Thought for the day: "No harm, no foul."

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Fish Fry


There is nothing more traditional in our semi-annual visits to Big Shag Lake than a fish fry. Catch a bunch of pan fish - mostly bluegills - clean 'em, bread 'em, fry 'em (or grill 'em) and eat 'em.  However, in recent years, with the invasion of Northern Pike and subsequent DNR elimination of any size requirement to keep said fish, our culinary habits have changed. Undersized pike are easy to catch, and we essentially treat them like pan fish - except - we're being a bit more gourmandish about the preparation. We're as likely to poach the filets with a bar poche au champagne recipe or saute them in a tarragon, garlic, lemon and butter sauce as we did earlier this week with visiting cousins Judi and Hanna.


Today it was back to the future. Dad, Harlan and I are still catching pike during breaks between rainstorms, but decided go old school and pan fry the filets using flour, egg wash and Italian bread crumbs - aka - Lou's North Beach Recipe. It wasn't completely old school. We did include a few abalone steaks imported from California into the mix. Call it fusion cuisine. But the basics don't change...


 Catch 'em






 Clean 'em



Cook 'em




Eat 'em




Life is good.

[Editor's Note: Your loyal blogger is once again seriously behind the curve on this blog before getting around to his first post of the Michigan trip. As is now standard operating procedure, we are publishing a current post, and hope to move both forward and backward in time filling in missing entries. That is all.]