Gone Fishin'

I can't believe that we're past the halfway point of summer, and I've only been out fishing twice. Including this past Sunday.

Mary and I decided to take a drive over to Juda (Monroe) and visit with our friend Pete. He's in the process of cleaning up his woods on 75 acres he recently purchased. He's putting in a bunch of trails, mowing down all the weeds, cutting wood, [All the manly stuff us guys love to do!] in hopes of building a house out there in the future. Oh! And lets not forget about his nice Pole Shed for his toys. :-)

We figured we make a day of it, so we brought Mallory's new Red Rider Covered Wagon, her stroller, a cooler of beverages and snacks and the fishing poles!

My plan was to see Pete's land, get the tour from him hoping the bugs didn't carry Mallory away first and then go somewhere and get our poles wet.

We, or I should say "I" pulled Mallory around Pete's land walking on his trails. Mallory loved the bumpy ride.

Later we drove over to New Glarus State Park. Mary and I had been camping there, gosh...I bet it's been 4 years ago already.

If you know anything about New Glarus State Park, you may already be thinking, "Where can you go fishing there?"

Yeah...somehow, someway I was convinced that park was near "water." Well it's not. It's amazing how the mind will go. [It is possible I had too many beverages the last time we camped there and I imagined it being near a lake]. Honestly, I think I was confused with Yellowstone Lake State Park near Blanchardville. Which as you can tell from the name...is on water. Duh!

Anyway, we noticed a nice lagoon off of Hwy 69 in Monticello and thought, "What the heck? Let's fish there."

It's really nice. I was impressed. There are several benches under shade trees. The water is clear. There were a ton of small bluegills who are very good at stealing the worm! Mallory was content sitting in her stroller eating her "baby fish" crackers, how appropriate, while Mommy and Daddy had some fun catching and releasing a ton of little bluegills.

It would have been nice to get some "bigger" fish to take home and fillet, but I never mind fishing, when the fish are bitting. Regardless of the size. It's a lot of fun.

Later in the afternoon, I moved us over to another side of the lagoon out of the wind a bit more and noticed 2 very large bass. (Small mouth or Rock?) I set up two poles while Mary was feeding Mallory some food. Sure enough, I hook a monster blue gill! O.k. it was one of those dang little jobbers, but again, it's still fun catching them. When suddenly, the other pole I had resting on a 'Y' shaped stick in the ground, about goes in the water. I yelled to Mary to "Quick! Grab the pole!"

Mary caught a nice 18 inch Bass. Biggest catch of the day, and her biggest fish ever.

We put it back in the water for you to catch some day.

It was a nice way to wrap up a weekend.