Used Pontoon Boats - Father, daughter fishing team
Friday, July 25th, 2008Hi gang, Rick Ostler here from North American Waterway bringing you Used Pontoon Boats along with news and views from the boating industry with a great Father, daughter fishing team.
Lodi - “What do you wanna do?” says Dick Smith, standing at the command center of his 24-foot pontoon boat.
The question is partly rhetorical - we will be fishing, of that there is no doubt - and partly a polite opening for me (no relation) and his daughter, Becky, to offer an action plan. Captains usually make the decisions, regardless of the quality of input by guests or crew.
This is especially true when the skipper lives on the lake.
The comment period closes seconds later as Dick throws the outboard into reverse and motors into his front yard - Crystal Lake near Lodi.
“I thought we’d drift a little, see if can find some bluegill,” Dick says. Good idea.
Dick pilots the boat to a 15-foot-deep flat on Crystal, a 526-acre seepage lake in northern Dane County, and cuts the engine.
The early July day dawned misty and warm with a threat of thunderstorms. Now, in late morning, the sun periodically pokes through gray clouds. A light south wind ripples the surface, perfect for a Mother Nature-aided presentation for suspended fish.
The aluminum-hulled craft begins a slow drift over the lake’s turbid water. We use slip floats to suspend tandem rigs of small plastic grubs and black ant flies at various depths. The lures are tipped with wax worms for added attraction.
After a minute, Becky’s light graphite rod bends deeply to the weight of a scrappy 7-inch bluegill,
which she pulls over the starboard bow and quickly releases. The fish hit a black grub, fished about 9 feet down.
Several minutes pass before my bobber dips below the surface. It turns out to be a similarly sized ‘gill that ate a black ant about 6 feet below the float.
Dick notes the details from his outpost at the stern and resumes fishing.
“Watch out, if we catch another he’ll be casting over our shoulders,” says Becky. “This boat can get awful small awful quick.”
Dick remains silent. His knowing smile - the expression of a contented man who fishes when and where he wants and enjoys some spirited competition with his daughter - says it all.
Dick, 69, is well known to anglers in southern Wisconsin as the longtime owner of Dick Smith’s Live Bait and Tackle in Delafield.
Now retired, he and wife, Nancy, split time between their home on Crystal and one in Florida.
Together with Ron Leys, former outdoors editor of The Milwaukee Journal, Dick wrote “Favorite Fishing Spots in Southeastern Wisconsin.” The book was published in 1989.
Becky was raised in and around the bait shop. She started “working” there at age 6, when she would accompany Nancy on weekly bookkeeping duties. Now 32, Becky runs the business.
“It was work at McDonald’s or at the family business,” says Becky. “For me, it was a pretty easy decision.”
Now in its 25th year, the business is one of a handful of small bait and tackle shops in southeastern Wisconsin that have survived an influx of large chain stores and changing recreational habits.
Becky and Dick arguably form the most knowledgeable father-daughter fishing team in the region.
For Dick, fishing is now complete relaxation. For Becky, who works about six days a week, it’s mostly business. But she does try to schedule some down time on Tuesdays.
“That’s cold-front Tuesday,” says Becky, imbibing an angler’s version of Murphy’s Law. “If you can catch fish on my day off, you’re doing OK.”
Her angling skills overshadow her modesty and sense of humor. After the first hour, Becky has landed three fish for every one that Dick and I bring aboard. The fish are a combination of bluegill and black crappie.
The fish are hitting lightly, often barely moving the float. With a slight chop on the water, it’s difficult to detect the bite. At least that’s what Dick and I claim.
About noon, Dick decides a change in tactics is in order. He powers up the outboard and moves the boat to a near-shore hump in about 8 feet of water, a known largemouth bass spot.
The pontoon boat has an arched metal roof, folding chairs and - as you might expect of a craft equipped by a bait shop owner
- lots of rod holders. The port side is a wall of rods, stuffed into vertical sections of PVC pipe.
Dick’s colorful use of English is reminiscent of Yogi Berra. He calls his pontoon boat a “Chinese junket.” Of his balky outboard, Dick says he “had it Jimmy-rigged.”
We select spinning or bait-cast rods already rigged with rubber worms, jig-and-pig combos or large plastic grubs. Dick steers the boat with a bow-mount electric trolling motor. Over the next 30 minutes, Becky lands a 14-inch bass on a grub and Dick catches a 16-inch largemouth on a blue plastic crayfish.
Crystal is a typical southern Wisconsin lake in most respects
- warm and fertile, dominated by bass and panfish and carp, and subject to heavy angling pressure that limits the size structure of the fish.
It is unique in its origin and its surroundings. The lake started as a marsh, with mostly bullhead and minnow species, and would be hit by winterkill often. A 1970 fisheries survey found very few game fish in the lake. The lake has grown deeper - by 4 feet in just the last 10 years, says Dick - and now is rarely hit by winterkill.
The size structure of fish on Crystal is determined by angler harvest. A 1999 DNR fisheries study found that, of adult bass in the lake, just 8% were over 14 inches - the minimum length limit. Panfish are also cropped off by anglers.
For this reason, Becky and Dick are advocates of catch-and-release, especially during the spawning period.
Like all lakes in southern Wisconsin, Crystal is settling into a summer pattern. The temperature of the surface water is in the high 70s - weed lines have established and algae blooms are occurring. And the bass and panfish have finished spawning.
A few carp still splash in the shallows, carrying out their reproductive urges. “We’ve got one under our house,” Dick says. “Came in during high water a few weeks ago and can’t get out.”
For panfish, that often means schools suspending in deeper water. For bass, that means hanging out on weed lines, underwater bars and along shoreline structure.
We spend the rest of the afternoon anchored in a bay, catching more bluegill on the tandem rigs, and then motor to an underwater ridge to cast for bass.
About 3 p.m., the western sky bears warning that, at least for today, the weatherman may be correct. A black line of clouds is quickly advancing.
But under the one more cast rule, we keep fishing. Becky has a bite and rears back in a strong hook-set. A 14-inch largemouth comes to net.
“‘Bout time,” Dick says, watching Becky release the fish. “It’s good to see you catch something once in a while.”
The timing is impeccable and the sentiment strikes the right note. Dick fires up the outboard one last time, and, under the no-wake rule in effect, we plod back to his pier, just as nickel-size rain drops bang on the pontoons.
Never underestimate the ability of the captain to make the right decision - especially when he has good help. Thanks to ;
JS Online: Father, daughter take the bait
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