My mom on Waubay

For the 2nd year in a row, my daughter, Gretel, & I took my mother (Gramma Peggy) to fish in NE South Dakota. Mom is 94. She woke us at 5:45 AM, Claiming it was time to get ready for breakfast. The cafe didn’t open until 6:30, but you could tell she was excited. We visited for about 20 minutes waiting for the Eden Cafe to open. It was well worth it. The small town eating atmosphere, featuring a local farmer wondering why we were in town, brought back memories of my youth. The trip was well worth it already!

We hit Waubay after a short drive, and were on the lake & fishing before 8. Mom had the first hit, a healthy white bass that was easily above a pound. Gretel caught a small walleye & returned it to grow to legal size. For the next 3 1/2 hours, at least one of us had a fish on almost constantly. We caught 32 walleyes & totaled 50 silvers in the slight wind that was supposed to get much stronger by the afternoon. Most of the walleyes were 11″-14, but we did find seven keepers. We kept 15 of the whities that were between a pound & two pounds. We ended the trip at about 11:30 after Gretel landed a smallmouth bass that might have made a pound, and were back packing up to make room for a guy about my age & his grandson. When they saw our fish & heard the totals, they were both almost as excited as mom!
As we loaded the car to begin our trek home, mom told our guide (Dave Pape was filling in for Joe Honer), “You know, if I am still alive next year, we will have to plan another trip next year. This was fun!” But, before you go and get sappy on us, you should realize that she says this Every time we do something fun, and has since she was 70! But…….I do look forward to the next trip!

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Excellent, well done on making some great memories.

Great trip and photos Thanks for Sharing!

Mwal

Those white bass are a blast to catch. Did you eat the white bass that you keep? I’ve often thought about keeping a few to Try. I know some people who drive out there just to load their coolers with white bass to eat. Curious what you do with them. If you eat them how do you cook them? Do you eat the whole fillet or just a part of it? I thought about keeping some and pickling them. I’d think they would pickle well with those thick back straps.

Thumper,

bleed the white bass right away and put them in your livewell. Let them bleed out and then put them on ice if water is warm. Fillet them just as you would your walleye. IF YOU EAT THEM FRESH… its very hard to tell which pieces are white bass.
If you freeze them and then cook later date, you can definitely notice a difference.

Bleed and ice then when you clean them make sure to remove the dark lateral line meat. Myself with the amount of whities aroun I just take the backstrap to eat. Deep fry just like anything else.

That’s fantastic to see your mom out on the water fishing at the age of 94! She must be quite a gal!

Great post Ed, these are my favorite kind of fish stories. And tell your mother, “Atta Girl! Keep at em”

She is quite the lady! And she never slows down. At a casino a few years ago, she walked by my machine & said, “We might as well go eat supper!” As I got up to join her, an older man said, “it looks like it’s tough keeping up with your wife!” As he smiled. I replied, “It is. But this is my mom!” We both laughed. This happened to my brother once, too. I never thought we looked that old, until someone said that it was her that looks so young! As long as she can catch walleyes, she is excited & happy. Anything else caught is a bonus!