When crossing the railroad tracks into River of Lakes resort on Friday nights, it has always seemed that the proverbial, “sands in the hour glass”, turn to fine dust and being only half full to start with. These last few days even more so!
This was the weekend that Bret Clark was traveling south to check out my clans new digs and relax a little, letting me be the tour guide for a change. Took a while to get him down in this area for a soft water excursion but eventually the old boy caved and slotted in a few days from his busy schedule.
One slight problem with this scenario……Bret was not going to be accompanied by his good buddy and advisor, Mike C…… BUMMER!!
I was really looking forward to listening in on these two river (B)rats verbally duke it out while being forced to fish EVEN CLOSER to each other. Sadly, Mike has a wedding to plan for and had to bow out. Next time Mike, mabe a nice fall trip is in the cards.
Most everyone here knows that Bret is a true, multi species kind of a guy.
No.#1…. if it has fins, this guy will tangle with it.
N0.#2…. If it has a “PIE HOLE”, then that fish is in for a very bad day.
No.#3….if it’s pure entertainment you seek then share a boat with Clark for a few hours. Heck, it would only take a few minutes before the chuckles start.
Friday night, pressure being off, I did get out to see what the backwaters were giving up. Beautiful evening but something just didn’t feel right. Tossing a variety of baits never revealed a single follow.
The bays remained calm without the normal commotion of a bite being present. The small leopard and awakening bull frogs were dead silent too. What the heck.
After scratching off the bass bite is when I made a slightly slurred late night call to Brets messge box, telling him that the walleyes would be priority.
Getting started around 8 am. Saturday, a long run was made to a chute with clean water and never ending riprap. Usually around the first of June, this area produces good walleyes while casting cranks and flipping the breakline with crawlers and plastics. One problem……the pool 10 walleyes forgot to look at the calendar! Giving it an honest shot produced very little. A few more rock piles were hit with the same results so the tuffy was pointed south for plan B. Talking it over, gills and catfish were mentioned but the backwater topwater bite won out.
Starting off with spinnerbaits and Zara spooks produced the same amount of action as it did the night before….zero!
Getting closer to a weedy flat is when the first blow up took place. The bass were in very shallow, using the thickest patches of moss for cover. The spros frogs and weedless toads were tied on and the action finally got started. Nothing fast but at least we were finally getting bit. Catching a few but missing many was the norm for this school of bass. They just wouldn’t inhale the bait. Time to leave these fish alone for awhile but we knew we would return to check out their mood the next day.
Backwater no# 2 looked very impressive. Turned out that looks aren’t everything. Some pretty good wind made it tough for top waters but the huge amount of early coontail and fresh lily pads made it impossible to toss anything that wasn’t weed proof and resembling a frog. By far the cleanest water we had found proving how valuable natures water filters, the coon tail, really are. A few bass were nabbed and by days end Bret actually had twice as many bass as I. The numbers I’ll gladly omit.
Day two proved to be a better catching day. Hitting the first found school produced better hookups. They were starting to get a little hungrier!
Keeping Bret within casting distance to the heavier mat while staying on the outer edges for my pike hunting spinner bait produced some slower but at least steady action.
Time quickly ran out of course and by late morning we were off the water.
Believe me, I could type until my fingers fall off but not even come close in doing this past excursion justice. Knowing that I just experinced a rare few days indeed with an In-Depth icon and good friend is enough for me.
Hopefully Mr. Clark will add some insight and fill in the blanks on other mishaps and campfire doings.
Thanks Bret, it will not be forgotten.
Great report Jeff
and sorry I couldn’t make the trip. 
And don’t think I wasn’t thinking about what I was missing all day Saturday. 
I talked to the “old boy” last night and it sounds like you guys had a blast but you must have been pretty rough on him as he’s not at work today.
Not at work! And he was telling me and my boys to “man up” all week-end
Very nice report Jeff, I’m glad to see you guys found some active fish. Thanks for the invite and it was nice to meet Bret. He seems like he would be a hoot out on the water. Nice looking pike there, did he go in the pickler? Dan
Great Report Jeff. I like the special touch on the pics.
Send some of that waremer water up theis way would ya?
Bet the bottle bass were going strong after sunset
I just don’t have the heart to keep the pike Dan. Watching the boys catch the same pike 2-3 times through a season is too valuable
On occasion when one won’t recover, I’ll deep fry the best tasting fish that swims
Pickling jars are for white suckers
BTW……you’ll never be the same after Bret has left your boat
Awesome report Jeff looks like fun….sry me and boods couldnt come down saturday night….but Happy B-day uncs
I can’t thank Jeff and Carla enough for there hospitality this past weekend. Thanks for not knocking Jeff on his butt in front of the company Carla
What a treat for me to be able to relax and let someone else do the thinking. There was a few times Jeff would ask me “what ya think, what should we try next?”, to which the response was always the same……..Dude, I’m game for whatever
Of course we all like to be on a fast and furious fish bite, but for me it is all about just being on the water, the fishing is just a bonus
It was a blast to be able to just sit back and get the Pool 10 water world tour.
As Jeff mentioned the bite was tough but every now and then an explosion from the thick weed mats would throw the adrenaline into over drive turning hours of time on the water into what seemed like only minutes, where did the time go
It was great to finally meet Dan Tessmann, birdman and other lukers of the site Saturday night. Brew ha, campfire and laughs are always a great way to finish off a night. It did get a little sad after one story….that poor bird
I also now know I’m hunting down some frog called a Bobby to compare it with the spro, thanks to the tip from birdman 
Thank you everyone from the pool 10 clan that showed up making this one memorable weekend
PS: Hey Jeff, the wife fried an egg on the back of my neck this morning
Pictured below is Captain Jeff.
Big lamprey stuck to Jeff’s toothy pikes face
We had to share the weed mate with this dude who was out fishing us big time
Jeff tossing a big spinner looking for that one more fish of the day.
The wife is being rough on me today with the honey catch back up list
But I’m having a beer and your not Mike 
Happy B’Day Jeff!
Nice report. Sounds like you guys enjoyed a fun weekend of fishing and camping together.
Very nice!