Devil’s Lake Hike and Kayak.

Last Thursday, I had a day off on my hands. I hadn’t been fishing in a little while, so I got my kayak on top of the car with the aid of the two remaining foam blocks from the kit we purchased for the canoe last year and some pool noodles. I drove up to Devil’s Lake to do some hiking and then some fishing.

The CCC trail is only .3 miles long, but it rises to the top of the bluff, 5oo feet above

Semi-natural stone steps

Looking toward the lake

Straight up. Thanks, tree.

Rock climbers were out in force.

Looking west over the “Baraboo range”, a small chain of very old mountains.

Looking south-southwest. Devil’s Lake is a moraine-dammed body of water the head of a glacial gorge. Wisconsin river in the distance.

Looking across to the next hill.

The author’s shadow

Wild roses were blooming.

Sunset came to the lake just a bit earlier than to the hill tops.

Sun sinking over the ridge from the orchard near the park.

Normally, we hike up the cliff face, along the top of the cliff, and then down and back to the parking area along some old train tracks. This time, I wanted to hike the woodlands on the back side of the cliff. However, I got turned around and ended up on the “Upland Trail”, headed out on a long loop away from where my car and kayak were. Once I figured out how far away I was (a trail spur led to a cliff edge), I ended up doing a little bit of trail running back to the split where I took a wrong turn. All in all, I hiked about 6.5 miles, much of it uphill, and the one mile I ran to get back to the trail split. Then I got in my kayak and paddled around the lake. I saw plenty of bass in the gin clear water, but the only bite I had bit through my fishing line. Neither of my light poles has a leader on it, and I think it was probably a walleye or a pike. By the time I was ready to go home, my feet, legs, and shoulders were all pretty tired.

Weeknight Solo Fishing

It turns out a good way to get stared at is to drag your kayak briefly through part of a park before launching it into a lake, and then be a girl fishing by yourself. Wednesday I was called off at work. The day started cool and cloudy, and eventually a small thunderstorm cell ripped through part of town, dropping hail. After the thunderstorm passed, I packed up the kayak and my gear, and headed to Lake Wingra for some panfish.

Looking north toward my launch point from across the lake

Looking west toward part of the UW Arboretum

Getting there from my side of town is always fun, with the oddball streets and 5-way + intersections on the isthmus, but we’d fished here before with good results. On top of that, this lake is also bordered by Madison’s small zoo. From my fishing spots, I could hear a rooster crowing and the lions roaring. I wasn’t necessarily looking for lunkers- I just wanted to catch something. And did I ever accomplish that.

My first bass, a 12.5 incher, within 5 minutes of my first anchoring.

A nice 6 inch bluegill

And another

And another

My second bass

My thumb all chewed up

 

All in all, I would catch 15 bluegill and lose easily another ten, which would have made for a day limit for one person. I caught a third bass, but didn’t get a picture. None of the bass were big enough to keep. I could have held on to some of the bluegills, but I didn’t want to fillet little 6 inch fish, and literally all of the ones I got in the kayak were 6 inches. I also forgot a stringer or basket for them.

Even starting my fishing trip well before dusk, the fish where biting extremely well. I made it around the lake in about three and a half hours, and then got everything back in the car and headed home.

 

Much More Successful Bowfishing. Less Than Successful Kayak Fishing.

With the way the ends-of-the-month end up playing out at work, I usually end up having the last several days of the month off. The same thing happened this past week, and I got Saturday and Sunday off. I worked Friday night, but was out by about 9pm.

I got home about 15 minutes later, and saw Matt with the truck hooked up to the boat. Bill was there too. I walked over from where I park, and Matt says “Thank god you’re here. We’re drunk. We’re going bowfishing. You’re driving”. And from there it went about how you’d expect. I’d never driven a trailer anything in my life. Plus the tail lights were burned out. Nervous to begin with, it didn’t help when, driving down the road and slowing to cross some rough train tracks, I heard something slam and then begin grinding into the asphalt. I came to a stop and felt a few jerks and lurches. Freaking out, because, hello, bad luck with boat trailers, I’m horrified that we’ve blown out another tire or something. Matt and Bill hop out, but it turns out they hadn’t attached the hitch all the way, and it jolted off the ball. And the winch tower banged into the tail gate. Good thing old trucks are ok being dented. We get down to the boat launch with no further problems, thank heavens. The water clarity was great, but we were rusty. One fish this first night.

So we all go to bed. The next day, I met an old buddy for lunch to catch up, then took my kayak out for the first time. While bowfishing, we saw all the bass and panfish on their beds. Turns out I need an anchor. It was windy, and Waubesa was packed with people and everyone was making huge waves. I was out for four hours without more than two bites, because the wind and wakes were pushing me towards the north shore- my bait wasn’t staying in place long enough, and I was just dragging it across the bottom. I’ll pick up a folding 5lb anchor like the one we use for our decoys.

I got back from fishing and we turned around and headed right back for Waubesa for more carp. The water clarity wasn’t as good, but then it had been pretty stirred up all day. We were shooting better, too.

Four of these are mine.

Bin o’ fish

But our 8 were nothing compared to the haul on some people we helped out. A purpose-built bowfishing boat was stranded, and flashed their emergency light at us around 1am. We towed their (much bigger) boat back to the launch. With our little wooden 14 footer and 3hp motor. They had thirty between the two of them. Obviously, we need to get better at shooting. We definitely saw enough fish.

Checking In.

So, things have gotten a bit haywire around these parts. Work’s been really super busy for Matt, plus work got busy for me AND my summer intensive started on Tuesday. Each class session is about a week’s worth of material, meaning I have a week’s worth of homework/reading every night, 4 days per week for the next two weeks. Plus keeping the house livable, plus my job, plus attempting to remain fairly healthy. Obviously, my time is a bit crunched. But Political Thought in Gilded Age America is pretty damn fascinating.

However, there are some movings and shakings here, too. Monday was my birthday. To mark my inevitable march towards old age, Matt got me a sweet birthday present, which I have yet to use. Hopefully this weekend:

It took me a good three days to find a reasonably priced car carrier anywhere nearby, so I wasn’t able to take it out last weekend. Plus a few days of severe thunderstorms really put a damper on my desire to be in the middle of a large body of water.

Also, Matt got all the fiberglass patching done on the outside of the hull. It’s enough of a pain to ‘glass upside down with sticky, runny resin that all fiberglassing moving forward will be done on the interior. Then we’ll lay the floor supports and go from there. I plan to make a video compilation eventually of all the steps this Spring.

Sweeping

Using acetone to strip oil and dirt from around the holes

Patching the one big crack that probably originally did this boat in.

Gross.

In spite of being busy, I do still have my weekends, but since I’ll be writing several papers already, expect any posts to be pretty curt.