By John Cross
Free Press Staff Writer
—
For as big as Lake Michigan is, except for major destinations like Milwaukee, getting to the sprawling lake from Minnesota is no easy drive.
Oh, there are plenty of four-lanes and interstate that traverse the Dairy State.
But to reach places like Two Harbors or Sheboygan, hubs of salmon fishing activity along the Lake Michigan shoreline, one inevitably gets shunted from such free-flowing arteries onto the rural roadways that wind their way through the main streets of dozens of small towns and past bucolic dairy farms.
At another time, the passing scenery might have been appreciated, but last week with a destination of Sheboygan, Wis., to hook up with some Mankato anglers for a day or two of salmon fishing, I was less interested in the view than in avoiding slow-moving Buicks and lumbering trucks.
And it didn’t help that earlier in my trip, I received an invitation signed by one of Waseca’s finest for a September court date — not for speeding but for an imprudent and apparently illegal move during a traffic snarl at the downtown intersection of Highways 13 and 14.
I found little consolation in that, even as he handed me my ticket, the other cop working the traffic detail pulled over yet another motorist for the same offense. It was, as they say, like shooting fish in a barrel.
But the sting of that encounter had faded by the time I hooked up with Mark Larsen along with Jeff Berndt and son, Paul, in the hotel parking lot some six hours later.
An hour later, Larsen was tending to the intricate process of setting a dozen different lines using down-riggers, planing boards and Dipsy-Divers from the transom of his 20-foot, 250-horsepower Lund boat as we trolled on a remarkably sedate Lake Michigan.
Earlier in the day, the trio had chartered a captain and his boat to get an idea of where the fish were and what was working.
Our offering that evening included a variety of spoons, flies, a plug or two, usually dropped behind a dodger or flasher.
Larsen, a 20-year veteran of Lake Michigan fishing, caught the Great Lakes salmon fishing bug while accompanying friends to the big water.
He began making the trip with his own 18-foot boat, eventually stepping up to the deep, wide, 20-foot boat he now owns.
“I used to take a lot of water over the bow with the 18-footer but that became a thing of the past with the larger boat,” he said. Not that a big boat is a must.
Indeed, many conventional fishing boats in the 16- to 18-foot range plied the waters around us. We even saw several brave anglers in 14-footers bobbing on the lazy swells.
But on such big water, prudence and common sense remain key. “The smaller boats are okay if they stay closer to shore — the weather can come up fast out here,” he said.
“When we used to come out here on 5-day trips, we’d figure that we couldn’t get out on the water at least on one of those days because of the wind. There are days when even the biggest boats aren’t going to be able to go out.”
But last Friday evening, a compassionate Michigan rocked us with lazy swells — not nearly enough to threaten life and limb but still enough to make me grateful for the motion sickness medication I had taken.
Early mornings and evenings typically are the witching hours for catching salmon and as the sun settled on the western horizon, one of the 8 1/2-foot downrigger rods bounced.
“Fish on,” someone yelled. I lurched for the bucking rod.
The don’t call them king salmon for noting. When one hits, it’s an impressive, violent strike. But even more impressive is how the strong fish will peel off yards of line in its initial run.
I’d gain a few yards only to lose those and a few yards more as the fish made repeated runs. But under the steady pressure of the parabolic curve of the rod, I eventually had the spent fish near the boat where Larsen made a lunge with the log-handled landing net and heaved the 20-pounder over the transom.
“Back in the late 80s and early 90s, the fishing was much better,” Larsen said. “It was nothing for a boat to bring in limits in a morning’s fishing.”
Though limits are tougher to come by, anglers who manage to locate the fish still occasionally box limits. And while fishing had been very good a week or so earlier, a series of passing storms had slowed the action by the time we hit the water.
During the course of that evening and after a storm-abbreviated morning session followed by full evening session the next day, we managed to box six more kings and one rainbow trout.
That we came up short of limits was tempered by the quality of the kings we did catch. Most pushed that magical 20-pound mark.
Larsen and the Berndts planned on hitting the water Sunday morning for yet one more crack at the fish.
However, family obligations had me rolling out of the parking lot at 11 p.m. Saturday for an all-night drive back to Minnesota.
In the early morning darkness, the traffic was mercifully light on the winding route through central Wisconsin that led me past sleeping farms and darkened businesses.
Rolling through Waseca at 5 a.m., I cruised through a green light at the intersection of Highways 14 and 13 unimpeded.
And with nary a cop in sight.
John Cross is a Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 344-6376 or by e-mail at jcross@mankatofreepress.com.
