NOTES FROM THE DOCKSIDE: Key West comes to Deer Lake

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It is about two thousand miles or so from Key West, Fla., to Deer Lake, which sits in Polk County in northwestern Wisconsin. Now that is some distance, and almost from one end at the northern edge of our country to the other end at the southern-most point in the United States.

One would think that those two places do not have much in common, but for me they do.

It started last December. My wife, The Bass Queen, and I were there for a week. When we arrived some of the folks that we know there were complaining that it was a bit chilly for December in Key West. We never noticed it. When we left home temperatures were hovering around zero. Now that is real chilly. We were walking around Key West in shorts and T-shirts. It seemed fairly balmy to us.

We were having a wonderful time. The seafood was great and we were visiting our favorite restaurants and bars, soaking up the warm, salt water winds and seeing a couple of friends who live there. One afternoon The Bass Queen and I are shopping. You can’t drink and eat all the time down there.

One of the shops I visit is a fishing shop. It has been there for several years and I always take time to stop in.

The store specializes in salt water fly fishing and although I haven’t done that kind of fishing, it is a fishing store so it is always worthwhile stopping in. I am browsing through a large table of salt water flies when I find a gray, hard bodied bait with a lip on it. It had one hook with white fur tied to it. It is some kind of salt water fly but I thought I could cast it with a light spinning rod and it would work on some of my lakes for bass so I bought it.

When I returned home at the end of our vacation to the snow and cold weather in Hudson I put that bait in my tackle box. Now it is summer and we are having warm, summer days and bright sun.

My grandson Max, who is ten, is spending a day with grandpa on Deer Lake. We are fishing for bass and Max is casting his own rod, however, he doesn’t catch as many fish as I do so when I get a fish on I set the hook and let him bring it in.

As we started fishing I put on that bait I got in Key West. It took a bit of experimentation to get it right. I had to reel it much slower than most of my baits or else it would roll over. Once I figured that out I could get the bait to glide over the top of the weeds and it had a seductive motion that I hoped would attract bass.

I fished it for about five minutes when I saw a flash in the water and a fish bolts out after it. I missed the fish, probably because it had just the one hook rather than treble hooks that most of our crankbaits have. I miss another couple more fish when suddenly I feel a solid hit. I pull back to set the hook and my spinning rod comes alive as a fish takes off.

I yell for Max and he drops his rod and runs to the front of the boat. I hand him the rod and the fish splashes to the top of the water. Max works hard cranking the reel and in a moment has the fish next to the boat. I reach over, grab the line and pull in the fish. It is a fat, bright green, foot-long largemouth bass.

A few minutes later I am still fishing my Key West bait and at the end of my retrieve, lift the bait out of the water when I see a muskie shoot up out of the weeds and roll over next to the boat. I know that this bait was designed to be fished on a fly rod for probably large salt water fish but it makes for an exciting moment when it raises one of our largest fresh water fish as well.

Several weeks later I am back on Deer Lake with Bill, an old high school buddy of mine. I again put on that bait from Key West. I flip it into an open spot in the weeds and get two or three cranks on the reel when the bait jolts to a stop. The fish puts up a strong fight as it swirls on the surface, vaulting out of the air. It is another nice bass.

I catch about half a dozen fish with my Key West bait when I decide to change baits. I give it one more cast and as I start retrieving it I see a fish dart out just below the surface, slamming the bait. As I set the hook the fish the fish races for the surface but I pull back on the spinning rod to keep it under water. A moment or two later I pull the fish in and it is about fourteen inches. It is a nice fish to retire the bait for that day.

As I am taking that bait off and looking around at this lake in northern Wisconsin on this hot summer day, Suddenly, for a moment, I find myself back in Key West where the winds don’t blow through pine trees, instead rustling palm trees. The weather in Key West in December and Deer Lake in summer is warm in both places so there is much that is different but also some things the same. The bait that I hold in my hand brings both places together and for that moment Key West and Deer Lake do not seem so far apart.

Editors Note: The Notes From The Dockside is an exclusive feature appearing in the Hudson Star-Observer on the first and third issues of each month.

Tags: sports, outdoors