Green Trout

[JohnF]

A very short while ago I posted a plea for some chances to fish with new faces in new places. I was amazed at the response. I thought everyone would figure me for some kind of oddball but it turns out I’m not the only one who likes meeting new friends. So among the many pm’s I received was one from Hometown Handyman offering to show me around his own fishstomping ground. He immediately followed up with a phone call – “Hey. Instead of fishing the Grand, why not drop in on Garry2RRs. He’s up in the northwoods and has a bassboat.” Bassboat sold me.

 

I immediately pm’ed Garry and invited myself. It occurred shortly thereafter that I might have been a tad presumptuous but it was too late. Garry promptly answered my message with a gracious (very gracious considering I’d really put him on the spot) invitation to come up for some fishing. He apologized for already being committed to some paying fishing customers for the bass opener but would be happy to take me out on Friday to try for some Musky. He wanted to have a look at some of his local favourite spots to see if they were ready for his paying customers the next day.

With great relief I learned on Tuesday that due to a scheduling error I was to address a group of neophyte realtors on Thursday morning, not Wednesday as I’d thought. I say great relief because I was really feeling uncomfortable about putting Garry on the spot. I contacted him right away to let him off the hook, but he was having no part of that. “Then come up on Thursday instead. We can still get in a day of fishing. I’ve got lots of room here.”

 

So what could I say but “Uh, okeydokey. Sounds great.” but now I’m feeling better about the whole durned thing.

 

Well, I loaded up my wife’s car, it needed a run to clear out the carbon, and hauled butt right after my little speech was over, with a quick stop at the wobbly pop store. Figgered the least I could do was show up with a few of those little amber peace offerings. Garry’s directions were perfect except that the last town he mentioned only exists if yer driving north to south. In any event I found his place late on Thursday afternoon and hauled my highway weary butt up the steps towards the sound of wood sawing, and a grumpy sounding voice saying words that are generally unprintable. Stepping out of the trees that line the steps to Garry’s place I’m greeted with “You must be JohnF”. It’s Hometown Handyman waving a saw at me. After a quick sawdustyhandshake and a whispered admonition to “tread lightly around Garry. He’s not in a great mood.” We head into the house, tripping over a big golden bear that sounds just like a dog and sidestepping a little springwound furball that was determined to trip me. Their names, Buck and Vu. Many of you already know Buck from Garry’s Arizona reports. Vu is a whole other story that Garry tells better than I ever could.

As I stepped cautiouslythrough the door the first thing I see is an expanse of very new woodgrain, and Garry’s buttcrack peeking out of his jeans. With Albert’s warning still fresh in my mind I hang back while Garry turns the air blue for a few more seconds, fitting in the last piece of flooring.

 

I was glad to see I’d timed things perfectly. With the work obviously done I figgered I was safe in asking “So what can I do to help?” Grumpy the Wannabee Plumber (judging only by the view from the rear) just snorted but HTHM was quick with “GO TO APSLEY FOR BEER.” He actually shouted it. He musta been thirsty. I ran, not walked, to the car for the box of bubblies.

 

Well, six of those little bottles emptied themselves as if by magic, and then Garry, now in a much better mood, decided it was time to troll. With a little advice from Garry’s neighbours, and a scribbled cell number in case we got stuck at the boat launch, we were off to the lake. I have no idea what it’s name is, something like Punxatawneyphil or Beenalongtimecomin . Who the hell names these lakes anyway? If it isn’t something boringly functional like Flat, Long or Rice Lake, it’s at best unspellable if not impossible to pronounce.

 

So we got the lake and they went into their routine. Garry nips into the boat, still on the trailer, while HTHM slips behind the wheel of the truck and backs Garry and the boat into the lake. Next thing I hear is the 150 firing up and churning water and see HTHM heading to a parking spot. The whole thing happened in less time than it takes to tell.

 

 

We clamber aboard and Garry heads out on the lake. Okay. Garry’s boat is pretty fast. This is good. I like fast. I tried the rapper look with my hat (not that stupid halflock thing, but the rear facing bill kind, hardly becoming on a portly sixty something) but even then the wind threatened to take it away. The boat ride on it’s own was fun. But then we had to spoil it by fishing.

 

 

That night we were trolling, ostensibly for walleye but an incidental musky would not be refused. I was running lures that Garry first picked out of my tackle box and later those he provided after he’d decided that nothing I had went deep enough. We got skunked save for a few errant Green Trout that couldn’t resist our large economy size offerings. I was particularly embarrassed because I only hooked three. It wasn’t that I only had three, it was that not one of them was hooked from inside his little fishy mouth. I mean, who knew the Green Trout on this lake backed into lures, or mayhap they were ex football type fish, throwing crossbody rolling blocks at my lures? It’s not like I was trying to snag the little guys on purpose. I felt bad and apologized in advance each time I streamed another lure behind the boat.

 

Finally, after a few brief rain showers we decided to head in. We knew the beer was awaiting, as well as those nice ribeyes that Garry had marinating.

 

The good thing about this first venture out with the brand new baitcaster setup was that I learned to set it up and got used to the feel of it just trailing lures behind the boat. Tomorrow would come the fun part, chucking lures with it.

 

None of you need to hear the details of our evening at Garry’s place. All the beer went to wherever used beer goes, but it served admirably before departing. Garry’s steaks were great, along with the boiled potatoes (my wife and the doc would have cringed to see the amount of butter and salt Garry used on them but damn, they were good). I made certain my wife knew we also had steamed broccoli. We even had a brief campfire in the kitchen but Garry calmly decided he better put it out before the neighbours called the fire department. We talked late into the night, Garry regaling us with tales of fishing lore and Arizona. HTHM, probably due to his youth and lack of training in the art of beer consumption, crapped out early on us, shortly after midnight as I recollect, but Garry and I persevered to the last drop of Lakeport Ale. I slept very very well, if all too briefly, and awakened to the sound of the bear and the furball taking their morning drainer. After a quick cuppa Earl Grey we were off to a different lake, this time to cast the day away looking for muskies.

 

 

Let me tell you about Garry’s boat. I can’t imagine a much better way to fish than from this platform. It’s fun to rush from spot to spot and so stable and spacious that the three of us were easily able to cast, even with us all standing on one side of it. The durned thing hardly wobbles. Garry’s got enough rods and lures hidden away beneath the different little bits of hinged flooring to keep a dozen guys fishing, if there was room for them on the boat. I thought my brother in law had a lot of tackle. Garry’s got literally dozens of boxes of lures all neatly labelled for whatever their purpose. The front and rear platforms are huge and the freeboard is low so it’s not a stretch to scoop a fish out of the water.

 

 

 

So, out on the water, that’s where my lessons began. The evening before the two of them had given me a crash course in Baitcasting 101, the setup part. Now we settled down to actually learning to cast with it, and how to retrieve the different lures in different ways. Needless to say my first tosses taught me a little about birdsnests but soon we started to get past them and put the lure more than twenty feet from the boat. Garry was great, explaining how it worked, and making little suggestions for fine tuning my settings and my cast/retrieve methodology, as well as hints for what works best in each given situation. It was like having a living Baitcasting For Dummies book right there. I won’t say I reached an outstanding degree of proficiency but I learned a lot about where to put what lure how, if that makes any sense at all. More importantly, we had a great day together.

 

Well, we worked our way all around this lake, poking into each little bay, working every dock, raft and weedbed we came to, listening to Garry’s tales of what size bass or musky each dock and bay has produced. I felt just like those guys who do the fishing shows, chucking lures into inside corners and letting them drop for a second or two just in case Big Boy was lurking nearby. It was pretty cool. We didn’t catch any Muskies but we sure got a bunch of Green Trout. We weren’t targeting them, honest. Garry had us using baits that even frightened me with their size, but the stupid bass ... errr ... Green Trout wouldn’t leave ‘em alone. I caught one Rock Bass who was shorter than the lure he hit, no kidding.

 

I was a tad discombobulated when I first realized that they were making me cast from the centre of the boat. I’ve always been a side caster with my spinning rods. I have more control and accuracy that way. I hate overhand with spinning rods and was prepared to totally hate overhand with the baitcaster. Besides, I’d seen the tv fishguys skipping stuff under docks side arm and thought it looked pretty cool. So there I was with Garry on one end and HTHM on the other and no room for sidearming. I had to go over the top. That’s when Garry stepped up and gave me a really important piece of advice “Aim for a treetop or a cloud.”

 

“Right, and leave my supply of spinners hanging from the neighbourhood pines.”

 

But I tried it, and be darned if it didn’t work fine. The problem came when I tried to stop the lure just short of a shoreline or dock and the lousy mono did it’s stretch and spring back routine leaving me ten or fifteen feet short of my target. I learned to let the rod tip sink slowly and thumb the spool just as the lure hit the water but I’m gonna be loading braid before another trip out with the baitcaster. The birdsnests thankfully were fewer and fewer as the day went on, as long as I paid attention.

 

What did I learn? Let’s see:

 

• Aim for the sky when I cast

• Push that stupid button before the cast

• Time the release and stop the lure with your thumb

• Use two hands on the baitcaster (no, I didn’t throw away any rods)

• Use braid on a casting reel. Stretchy monofilament sux.

• Use heavy enough test to haul the lure and the fish through or out of the weeds

• Match the rod to the fish targeted, but also to the size of lures used

• Have several rods loaded and ready so you can switch baits easily and quickly

• The value of a fishfinder and bottom sounder

• Learn to use the brake settings for different lure weights

• Spinner baits are almost weedproof

• Get some deeper lures for my arsenal

• Bigger is better in lures

• Bounce lures off docks and let ‘em sink

• What a figure 8 is

• Sometimes a skunking is not such a bad thing

 

Unfortunately we couldn’t do pics of the Green Trout because they looked so much like bass and we don’t need any more pictures of non-record Rock Bass so the only pics I brought home were of Garry and HTHM and Garry’s nifty boat.

 

My experience with fishing guides and instructors until now has been limited to my intro to flyfishing with Bill Parker. This day with Garry reaffirmed just how important a knowledgeable and eloquent guide can be to making the different kinds of fishing experiences good and memorable. I was interested, although not at all surprised, to learn that Garry has decided to put his knowledge and his boat to good use by offering his services as a guide and instructor. It’s a natural for him. After a day spent with him on the water I can see how it’s well worth the modest cost. Garry’s too unassuming to truly appreciate what his kind of expertise is actually worth to guys like me. Hey, I’d pay just for the fun of going out on a real live kickass bassboat for a day. Having someone who can teach me how to do it right is just a bonus. A bigger bonus yet is having the benefit of local knowledge to put me on those spots where I’m most likely to catch fish. I have a suspicion that as word spreads about Garry and his new enterprise he’ll do well with it. Those who spend a day with him once will be spreading the word to their friends, and will for sure be calling on his services in the future. It only makes sense for those of us who aren’t likely to invest a lot of money in the kind of boat we all want but are only really going to get to use a few times each year. The extra cost of insuring and licensing the boat plus the cost of trailering and running it more than justifies paying someone like Garry to provide the water transport and some local knowledge. Garry’s boat is obviously well-used and he knows it’s every quirk. Nothing shiny and new about it. It’s a fisherman’s boat, and a damned nice one at that. I’m looking forward to getting out with him again, this time when bass are in season so we can take some pics and do a bit of bragging here.

 

 

So, my thanks to HTHM for planting the seed, and to Garry for his hospitality and generosity. I could write pages more about these guys but maybe I should leave a little for you to learn about them on your own.

 

Later

JF

[Musky or Specks]

Nice report John. Think of it as a good thing you didnt catch any musky. You'll now have a lot more money in your wallet. The day you do catch one and you get hooked on it kiss your cash goodbye.

[Spiel]

....I've met Garry and I know he's a top shelf kinda guy. While I've never experienced sharing a boat with him nor the hospitality of his home I know some who have and they always refer to it as a fantastic time with a wonderful host. I'm glad to read that you also have had a chance to share in his generousity John

[maybe]

Excellent report, John! Sounds like you 3 had a great time. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us - I really enjoyed the read.

 

I didn't know you'd turned pro, Garry - congratulations!

[HTHM]

John's report is fairly accurate, however there is one inaccuracy in the report. I did not crap out due to lack of beer consumption training, but rather due to the fact that I had laid over 300 square feet of laminate that day and fished for 4 hours. IMHO I was allowed to be tired, yes?

John, when you go fishing is it usual for you to foul hook fish??? (Not that there is anything wrong with that.....)

I have to say that I very much enjoyed the time we spent together and hope to do it again soon.

[ccmtcanada]

This cant be right...

 

It's an actual fishing report from John...and it's not a made up story....hometownhandyman has authenticated it....LOL.

 

Great report John....the first of many this year I hope!

 

Sounds like you guys had a great time out there.

[Clampet]

Wow, what a read.

Sounds like a perfect time was had by all!

[JohnF]

Sounds like you guys had a great time out there.

 

More to follow. Garry's boat was fun. I've always wanted to ride in a bass boat, just cuz I like go-faster toys. Now I've done it. It was even better than the little six-pack we used to dive off in Mexico. It had twin 225 Mercs but it was somewhat bigger than Garry's. Picture a grey cloth pool table with ten inch freeboard and a hole for the driver. That's Garry's boat. Very solid platform for the three of us to wander around on while we were casting and retrieving. When he put the hammer down it got a little wet inside but it was sure fun.

 

I didn't bother with bass opener today. The weather was crap and the creeks around here were chocolate milk. Besides I caught enough Green Trout, and some Bronze Trout too (they're the ones that look a whole lot like smallmouths) to tide me over for a day. Naturally they all went back in the water without even a picture being taken. Hopefully tomorrow will be better conditions. I've got my rods all ready, and the lures selected. The plan is to hit the creek with the spinning rod for some bass and then later go back with the flyrod to see how that works. I've got a whole whack of bass type patterns tied by SingingDog that he was kind enough to ship to me. Hopefully that will be a better report with some fish pics included. I've got some pictures of the various lures ready. We'll match 'em up to the fish pics. He didn't tell me their names so I'll just have to invent some. We'll even make a contest out of it. Anyone who wants to enter will have to identify the one and only fly pattern I tied myself. I call it the Salamonster.

 

Marko has suggested that he might get down here on Monday so we might do a bass/carp combo day. Sounds like pic possibilities there.

 

I had a great time with HTHM and Garry. They did a good guy/bad guy routine on me the first night, getting me initiated on the my new baitcaster, then Garry took over as the primary tutor on Friday and really showed me some great stuff on casting. Once I was able to get the lure in the water with a minimum of tangles, he then delivered an opus magnum on fishing for muskies and bass on his lakes, showing me how to work around docks and rafts, weedbeds and dropoffs, plus an ongoing flood of tips and critique on my casting technique. It was quite an experience.

 

And did I mention I got to spend the day on a very cool boat? I've never outgrown my go faster mentality. I love machines built for performance, and though there are bass boats out there with even more power than Garry's, it still felt pretty damned fast to me when he lit it up to move to another spot.

 

JF

[JohnF]

Wow, what a read.

Sounds like a perfect time was had by all!

 

I've already started sucking up for another invitation. Sure be nice to target real bass instead of those damned Green Trout, and we'll be able to take pics this time.

 

JF

[Greencoachdog]

No fish in the pics, so I didn't read the words.

[JohnF]

No fish in the pics, so I didn't read the words.

 

Getcha next time then.

 

JF

[misfish]

Garry was the first OFC,ER I met personally and fished with.Got to be 8 years ago. He,s a real stand up guy and I am looking forward to heading up to take a spin in his new toy.

And yes,he is a mean chef,thats forsure.

Glad you enjoyed your time John.

[Garry2Rs]

Thanks for the kind words guys...Blush...Blush.

John and HTHM, I'm glad that you had a good time.

I look forward to seeing you two again and doing some Bass fishing.

The last two days have been outstanding!

Perhaps I should explain the Green Trout reference.

When my neighbour, his 8year old daughter and I were Crappie fishing in April we caught the odd oos Bass.

The little girl got really excited and in that high pitched child's voice that can be hear for miles, was shouting "Garry's got another Bass!" etc.

I was afraid that some cottager would think we were targeting Bass and call the Cops...grin.

So I suggested to her that until June 28th we should be calling them Green Trout.

[Victor]

Great read as always John! Lets see some fish pics next time!

[JohnF]

Great read as always John! Lets see some fish pics next time!

 

All we had worth photographing were those damned OOS bass .... errr ... Green Trout. I might get together with Garry again in a couple of weeks. We'll have pics then fer sure.

 

I'd hoped to have some from my own home opener but the weather gods rained on my parade, literally I mean, we got washed out. I went out to the river, donned my wading gear and was standing toe deep in muddy water when this canoe shot by.

 

 

Discretion being the better part of valour I decided to live to fight another day. In short the river sucked.

 

JF