Notes from the spring opening.

Some items of potential interest to family visitors at the lake house for the 2014 season. In no particular order:

The Barnetts are still reliably delivering wood (with venison sausage bonus). The two new cords in the shed will burn but are still a bit green and there are only a few old dry logs left on the rack.

The Fishing Wall of Fame has been restored to the entryway.  I like it. Your mileage may vary.

The window bird feeder is re-installed for the season in the Den / Media Room with an insect proof duck tape seal:

The birds found it a lot quicker this time (at least the chickadees did).

The shed was cleaned (sort of) and little red wagon battery hauler was repaired (thanks to Brian):

Since we now have more batteries to charge... this will be helpful.

The spin filter is discolored but should still be purged by every visitor.

I tried to consolidate all the various manuals/documentation for camp devices in a single hanging file box.

It is currently sitting in the lakeside (sunrise) bedroom closet.  Open to suggestions on where to put it.

I left the big ladder in the back bedroom to accommodate any needed roof inspections.If you want to remove it, it is easier to take it over the balcony rather than down the stairs.

The remote control drone fishing boat battery is kaput and needs to be replaced.

Pontoon boat key is hanging in the usual key hanging place.

Somebody should build storage shelves here:

After cleaning the shed, I started a metal debris pile behind the shed in the hope that "free pickup" metal debris guy would pick it up, but ...

... he never returned my call. So it's still there. Somebody should figure out a way to get rid of it.

There remains a limited selection of  Matt's generous contribution of localish craft beers in the refrigerator. To whit:

Post by Michael Wallach.

The ones that are left are mostly flavored brews. This selection helped to confirm and reinforce a personal bias. Excepting aging in bourbon barrels, I just don't like flavored brews. Not coffee, not chocolate, not honey, not flowers, not fruit. Not in my beer. Not even in high quality craft beers.

No offense. It's not you, it's me: 

I do not like flavored beers. 

I do not like them far or near.

I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like flavored beers.
I do not like them far or near.

Finally -  I will be sending a separate post and/or email on the operation of the new/old pontoon boat. That is all.  [UPDATE: Pontoon Boat Operation Orientation video linked HERE]

Last Laps

Before buttoning up the pontoon boat in preparation for our departure, we took her out for a couple of laps around the lake.

 We fully exercised the "hybrid" aspect of the boat - first lap was mostly with the electric trolling motor, second lap was all gas. This time lapse using my droid powered by the pontoon boat cigarette lighter / USB port:


We also determined that, despite earlier concerns expressed on this blog...

...it is possible to catch fish from the pontoon boat.

Name that arachnid

 This was cleanup day at the lake house. Generally that leads to pretty boring blog posts.  So instead, we'll feature some of the local denizens which which we share our living space on the lake house.   Looking for arachnid identifications in the comments. For extra family credit - identify the exact spot where the photo was taken.

Why it's important to read the Michigan DNR fishing regulations.

Your loyal blogger has been on the receiving end of some commentary implying that something unseemly or even illegal was going on with the catch displayed in yesterday's post. This is why it is important for fishermen (and blog commentariat) to read the fishing regulations. I'm not talking about skimming the regs, but actually reading them in detail. Every year.

This is a lesson that I should have learned a few years ago, when I carefully read the regs in detail before fishing the Laughing Whitefish, while the DNR officer who wanted to bust me for fishing there apparently had not.

The Reader may recall that Dad and I (as well as other family fishing at the lake Memorial Day weekend) were catching then returning undersized pike to the lake. We thought the 24" minimum size limitation was still in effect. Here is the regulation we should have read. The regulation that only Papa out of all the fishermen in the family finally did read:

Table 1 - General Hook & Line Regulations, Note 7 Muskellunge & Northern Pike, Page 18:

Relevant quote:

"Waters where up to 5 northern pike of any size may be taken with only 1 greater than 24" allowed in the daily possession limit (in combination with other species as indicated in Table 1): ...Marquette: Shag Lake (Big)..."

The rules have changed. It is the dawn of a new fishing era at Big Shag Lake.  Let us take a moment to look back for a little historical context.

The northern pike is an introduced (invasive?) species for this lake. The DNR did not introduce the pike into Shag Lake. Apparently some random fisherman decided 20 years ago that he wanted to fish for pike in this lake and took it upon himself to plant the shovelnose. It hasn't been the same since.

 I first noted the pike and the changing nature of the lake in the Camp Journal on June 23,1996 saying "There are monsters here!":

 However, that wasn't the first mention of the pike in the historical record. Katie's August 1994 entry offers photographic proof that Roy was the first in the family to catch a pike in Shag Lake saying - "Roy caught a 15" Musky!"

Typical. Roy has to be luckiest fisherman in the family, but he doesn't even  know what he is catching most of the time. It wasn't a muskie. It was a northern pike. He made a similar misidentification a few years later when he caught an undersized 35" muskie (legal size is 44") and claimed it was a lunker northern pike.  But I digress.

Once pike are introduced into a lake they are well nigh impossible to remove.  In California, an entire lake was poisoned and drained in an attempt to remove introduced pike.  So... it does beg the question of why there was a size limitation on the species in Big Shag Lake if they don't belong here.  There isn't any question anymore.

Welcome to the new fishing world at "Shag Lake (Big)":

Last year these were undersized pike that the regs required returning to the lake.

This year, they are one day's legal possession limit. The day's catch ranged from 9" to 19".

Fileting the smaller ones was a challenge. There just isn't that much meat on on a 9" northern pike - maybe four or five bites. We used about a 3rd of the catch. for our dinner.

We went with the same recipe we tried last fall:

Tasty Northern Pike
4 Tbsp butter
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 Green onion (finely chopped)
Parsley (chopped)
1 tsp Tarragon
2 northern filets
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice

In pan, melt butter add garlic, onion, parsley, and tarragon. Simmer for 2 minutes. Season fish with salt & pepper. Cook gently in herb butter sauce until fish flakes. Remove fish to serving plate. Add lemon juice to sauce heat 1minute pour over fish.

Our modifications included increasing the garlic (of course), using more olive oil than butter and adding white wine while the garlic, parsley and onion was simmering. Pretty quick and relatively easy.

And good. Really, really good.

Fish is back on the menu.

Rainbow over the bay -  a good fishing omen?

As noted in a previous post, we have been frustrated with our lack of fishing success this trip. As much as we enjoy the new/old pontoon boat, we have yet to have break the code on how to catch fish from that platform. Not satisfied with our one single fish fry on Memorial Day, we decided to seen if our luck might change fishing from the more familiar aluminum skiff - the Tin Can. 

Over a couple days that decision proved correct.

 Our best luck for bass and bluegill was found in the structure along the west side of Mitchell lake on Tuesday.  No keeper bass, but dad brought one to the boat on his fly line.  I just missed netting it before it threw the hook.

Northern pike were on a ferocious bite between our bay and the Aho's camp Wednesday morning. I'm now calling this route "Aho Alley".

I caught five pike in less than 40 minutes trolling a Mepps #4.

Grilled Bluegill was our Wednesday dining choice. This is a preparation of my invention and requires gutting, finning and scaling the blugs vs. fileting them. You need to leave the bone in for the fish to hold together on the grill. Even so - they requires a light touch with the tongs and careful monitoring of their progress on the fire.

 Accompanied by Papa's tomato onion salad, a garlic brown rice pilaf, and a very nice Coppola Sofia rose'...

... a satisfying finish to a good day on the lake.

How are the mosquitoes?

No problem, as long as they are on the other side of the screen.

We've been getting this question a lot. After the long hard winter and late wet spring, all U.P. critters great and small are in a panic about getting on with it. Meaning - getting it on. Meaning- eating and breeding and making more critters before the next winter. For mosquitoes - this means blood.

Harlan predicted that after a couple of warm days, the mosquito hatch would be "biblical". Presumably on the order of the plagues visited on the pharaoh. Well. we had three hot days, then two days of warm rain - optimal mosquito conditions. Is it indeed "biblical"?  Hard to say, that is kind of a qualitative term. I though it would be more useful to attempt to quantify the mosquito onslaught.

This is an image of about six square inches of a representative window screen. There are five mosquitoes in our sample, which, by extension, gives us 10 mosquitoes per square foot. If we assume a similar density per inch of air extending beyond the screen we arrive at 120 mosquitoes per cubic foot of air surrounding the lake house. My observation is that the density increases as we get closer to the lake, but lets go with the 120 mosquitoes per cubit. On average a human breathes in about 1/4 cubic foot of air per minute in about 20 breaths, so by my calculations we can expect to breathe in 1.5 mosquitoes per breath walking down to the dock. Biblical.

The local news outlet has some badly written and edited advice for dealing with the mosquito plague:

"With warm, and wet weather comes mosquitos. In some wooded areas they're out in full force. "It's biting me. It got me. There it is," said Todd Kauppinen, Wilderness Sports. Choose your defense against those pesky mosquitos. In fact using bug spray is one of the most effective ways to keep them from biting you, and there are a variety of repellants for under $10. "Aerosol sprays, there's the liquid pump sprays. There's the wipe on that you just wipe on your skin. It comes in like a moist towelette. There's actually a wristband that you can put on that help repel insects," Kauppinen said.

When it comes to choosing the right spray, there's some specifically for clothing, others for your skin each with a different amount of Deet inside. For those who don't like Deet they also have sprays with natural products. If you are going to be outdoors for a long periods of time try some netting. Whether it's fishing or gardening you might want to try a full bug suit which comes with pants, jacket, and even a field hat with some netting."

Pretty lame. Perhaps it would be more helpful to show a short video clip of the mosquito and tick abatement defenses we have implemented on the deck: