A Bum Match Indeed

It wasn’t even her tenth cast in the Milwaukee river on a late October day when AC felt the bite as she set the hook. A perfect set as she leaned back preparing for the fight....

LADIES, ladies, ladies AND and and GENTLEMEN gentlemen gentlemen. WELCOME welcome welcome  TO to to WWF. Women's World of Fishing is proud to have in this corner. Weighing in at 115 lbs, 5feet and 2 inches, known to wear wading boots too big for her because of her incredibly petite feet, Feared by all boulders, The baker of the Northshore where sugar is a main food group, Known as the rock skippin queen of Duluth, the tent pitching bitch of the North, Where one minute she struts her stuff in BCBG down the office hall and the next she is knee dip in some river adorned in her Simms waders, the keeper of a thousand bandannas that decorate her backpack like some Aerosmith lookalike and enough tees to rock your world, Brandy eat your heart out this girl has all the sailors hearts singing. Let’s hear it for…..AAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCC!

And in this corner. Weighing in at a little over 32 lbs, but we’ll say 34 because all fishermen lie, known as the migrating son of a fish, from Chile to Norway, he’s high in omega 3 fatty acids and served in every Japanese restaurant across the US.  Feared by all those with high cholesterol, Known to throw a grizzly for a loop, dubbed the leaper of the East, where it’s famous relatives are known among the elitist of the celebrities, like Larry KING and Jerry SPRINGER. Let’s hear it for….THE SALMOOOOONNNNNN!

Oh this one is going to be a real Barnburner. A catch weight yes, but that salmon has quite the chin on him. Able to throw punches, she’s never seen before. It’s a tight lined match indeed. He throws the first punch. Ohh, that was a close one as she avoids the hit. He goes for a second punch, leaping out of the water. Ahhh, she survives that one. She goes below the belt as he pulls her deeper into water. Farther and farther down river he pulls her, taking out line and working side to side as if taught by Cus D’Amato himself. And this salmon thought he had a bum rush on his hands. Oh no mister Saturday night special, this fisher lady is going nowhere but to the net with you. 

She’s down for the count, she’s down for the count. Rod bent, knees planted, will she over come too? Get up Get up! Net it! He fakes left, she sends her line right. He’s throwing her feints up and down, pulling her down stream. 1st round, 2nd round, will this match ever end? He’s pulling out line dodging side to side. And here comes her haymaker, the wild reel, she reels keeping her rod high. Can she make it? Will she survive this second round? She makes her jab, reeling and pulling, reeling and pulling. She is on the ropes, she’s on the ropes.  That fish has one mighty peekaboo face. She can’t see what he’s going to throw next. Oh she allows the rope a dope. That’s it, tire him out. 15 seconds to go in the round. Oh how she wishes she had skinned those gloves beforehand. Her freezing small fingers grip the rod, praying for the strength to fight on. Don’t you dare take the dive you salmon, don’t throw this match. And that's it, a sudden last reel and she nets him.  Salmon goes down Salmons goes down. Ac beats salmon...

32 lbs Salmon

:) Sorry we had to pull a boxing theme. It was just time. After AC's salmon catch she released her back in the water to let her eggs live to see another day. Shout out to Dad who helped AC chase the beast for a good 20 minute fight...

A beautiful late October day in the Milwaukee river

Dad found a salmon left to die with some live baitmen's stringer

Always the gentleman, he set it free! RiverBum Karma!

Be on the lookout for our BRAND NEW BLOG launching in 2 weeks just in time for the worst fishing season :)

Cast away,

AC and Dad

A Reel Good Fishing Partner...

A fishing partner is a good find. A good fishing partner is hard to come by. A real good fishing partner is rare. 

You may think you know you're friends and family. But, it isn't until you are stranded in the wilderness with a tornado at your back or a bear at the point or a foot caught in a sink hole, that you realize just what they are made of. A great fishing partner, a true wing man is not just suddenly born. He or she is groomed through the travails of life. Overcoming obstacles of colossal stature with dignity, passion, and pride. Learning to be loyal from their first sandbox encounter with the juicebox kind to their dying day. A real good fishing partner is truly a rare find. 

Of course, defining a great fishing partner is the key in discovering one. The credentials vary from fisherman to fisherman. But no matter what, the criteria should include the following three...Determination, Assets and Compatibility. 


Determination: This encompasses skill and passion for the hobby, nay the sport of fishing. And because it is a sport, having a good team on your side is key to winning the game. You don't want just anybody on your team. Think back to your dodge ball lineups where you were “forced” to choose between Tray, the 6 foot 3rd grader with arms the size of tree trunks or Riley, the premature brainiac with arms the size of twigs. Your answer would be Tray. However, in the long run, I'd choose Riley. Because we may lose at dodgeball, but groom that young, loyal smarty pants and you've got yourself a life long friend. Riley will find new and cool spots to fish, calculate river specs for you to benefit from and of course, buy lunch cause he’s just a nice guy. Tray most likely will go on to be some college drop out with an alcohol addiction who moves back to live in his mother's basement selling weight lifting equipment on the side to pay off his parking tickets. Sorry Tray. 

As for the passion, your fishing partner should have at least the same amount of fishing skills as you and enjoy it just as much. Someone who can keep up on the river in either blazing hot conditions or the blizzard of the century. Work a boat, rig a line, tie a lure/fly, wield a weapon (and well), carry his/her weight (and yours at some point). Can hide like Schwarzenegger in Predator, and fight like Rambo from 1, you know what we mean. The kind of passion that comes honking through your driveway at 2:30 am with a fresh cup of brew and a car loaded with gear screaming, “Get in slacker, the fuzz buster is on, the joe is hot, and the river is callin…” A devotion so strong to fishing, that if you were both captured by spot steeling river pirates along the banks of the Milwaukee river that your partner would chomp on the cyanide pill you hide in the bottom of your rod before ever giving up the best spots. 

Assets: So if you haven't figured it out already, fishing is an expensive sport. Waders, boots, rods, reels, lures, boats, weapons, gas, gas and more gas. The only reason we work is to fuel our fishing needs (duh) and therefore work is a given in any fishing partner. Unless of course they are a trust fund baby and then you're good for life or until the third wife comes along and takes it all. So it's crucial to have someone who can use their car every other trip, pitch in for half the gas, cover half the hotel or pitch half the tent and need no bribe for supporting the lie to everyone at the local tavern that you caught a 6.3 lbs. smallmouth when in fact it was a blood sucking red fish you foul hooked and will eventually go home and photoshop it into a bass. We're not saying your fishing partner needs to be rich. He/she just needs to be able to say half the time, "dude, I got this." Like any good partnership!

Compatibility: And finally, the most important piece. The holy fish spirit completing the trinity. Being comfortable with that person. Think about it. You are spending hours in the car and days in the woods with this person. You better make sure they have...1) Good taste in music, 2) be able to drive at odd hours of the day and night, and 3) turn out not to be some creepy backwoods serial killer. That would be bad. You don't both have to love the same exact songs, just the same genres. Although something new will come along and spark your interest. Ok, yes Dad! The Moody Blues and the Blues/Country line of the Rolling Stones rocks. You were right! Having each other's backs is key in compatibility. AC prefers to hit a spot for longer periods as her optimism and ability for catching a fish after 60 casts or so grows more intriguing every trip. So, Dad takes his time wading, making sure not to leave her miles behind for safety precautions. And AC is a both a morning dove and night owl. She can drive in the dark like nobody's business so she takes the helm when Dad needs a breather or can't see through his Benjamin Franklin 5th addition bifocals. And of course, when AC isn't out meeting new people and making friends in the hotel lobby, gas station coffee machine, camping beach site, local piggly wiggly fresh foods aisle, rafters entrance at most every river, and bikers bar (she had to pee, walked in with a full bladder and walked out with some college biker's phone number, which was quickly destroyed by Dad) then she is spending time with her biggest and baddest buddy, her dad. Getting lost looking for camp sites, getting stuck in the car during a rainstorm, playing poker in the tent on a windy Canadian hill on the side of the road, or stopping to shop local antiques shop as she forces him to reply to stuff like, "Oh isn't that cute?" or  "Wouldn't that look adorable in my house?" Yep, compatibility is everything, of course you can't both like all of the same things ;).

So why bring this topic up? What made us want to start talking about fishing partners now? Well, maybe it was the 95 degree heat. Or it could have been the fact that we ran out of water by the 7^th hour and still fished 11. Perhaps it was the abundance of fish that seemed to magically find our lures at every cast. Whatever it was, some mystical force happened upon us just 2 weekends ago in our favorite of rivers that shall go unnamed. Because just after a cock crowed half past 3, Dad turned to AC and said, “You’re the best fishing partner a guy could ask for.” Had the stars suddenly realigned? Had the second coming arrived? Surely it was sun poisoning or early onset Alzheimers.  Wait, who we kidding? Definitely not early onset, he’s too old for that. AC had made it! Reel good fishing status. Her dream of ultimate fishing partner was half complete. Because despite Dad being a great fishing partner, someday she will have to find a new one. Some lucky guy out there to complete her wading duo, her other bum half, her river soulmate. And these credentials just may come in handy. But for now, she'll stick with the old man. He's still got a few good casts left in him...

Top Water Action

Twist and pose...works every time!

Slowmo Release

Off the flats

A Bass spit up a mole...holey moley!

We didn't make it in time, but we couldn't pass up a good fishing sign!

So when you stop to think about the best fishing partner you have ever had. Ask yourself this one question. Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?

Until next time, we'll see ya on the other side of the river...

Cast Away,

AC & Dad

Go Fish

Not everyone can recognize a good thing when they have it in their hands. They don’t realize something was special until they’ve lost it. And lost it for good. Like your near perfect girlfriend storming out of the apartment after she has maxed out all your credit cards and “maybe” flirted with your best friend as she slams the door behind her screaming, “I’m the best you’ll ever get”. 

And then all of a sudden, you fall to your knees and start weeping because she was wearing your favorite Aerosmith t-shirt that had a resilient ketchup stain from a hot dog you had after your 4^th concert and all those special memories of that shirt and how it kept you company the nights she was out partying, the days off cruising the strip blending in with the bums, and the those mornings spent watching Saturday morning cartoons (admit it, the thought still excites you) guzzling down a gallon of milk and a carton of fruit loops in front of that silly yellow sponge fella on the tube. “Oh t-shirt, I should have appreciated you more.”

Yep, once something that special is gone, it most likely stays gone. Creating an empty void that follows you around like that depression cloud from those Zoloft Ads. Honestly, someone needs to blow the stalker whistle on that thing, it is creeper to the max. You know the ad. The one that asks... Are you stressed? Always busy? Working hard? Do you get sad sometimes? Can't get enough sleep? Ummm, yes, I'm alive, duh!

That’s why it’s important to cherish what you love most for as long as you can. Take our secret river for example. Tucked away in a far off land of bears, wolves, and eagles. Guarded by the finest of Wisconsin’s wood and brush known to man. Stocked with epic smallmouth bass hiding in between perfectly placed fallen trees and glacier moved boulders drawing the ultimate diversion for an angler from the bulldoze of the world and it's petty drama. A place where we find silence, serenity, and satisfaction in a world unfamiliar to society. A place where we wish we had remembered to bring paper and pen as our minds wander to fresh ideas and thoughts that would not otherwise have been thought of had we not entered such a divine place of fishbeing. Our special, one-of-a-kind river that runs free like our hearts yearn to run. No worries, no bills, no problems.

Except, there is one problem. One day the fish will leave this river, the water will dry out, and the trees and boulders will begin to wither away. Someday, this once rare beauty, will be just a valley where even our wader boot imprints will have disappeared into the hardened soil and all that's left is a cutout of where and angler's dream use to lay. Alright, now I need a Zoloft, I feel a frowny face cloud coming on.

Cheer up folks! We're just thinking of the worst case scenario, that and the possibility of Dad dropping his freshly lit cigar in the water, oh the horror! Which is why it's best to enjoy the special things in life while you can. So, we headed to this so called fantasy river to appreciate all it has to offer and of course, cast till the sun goes down. After all, we can't let a good thing go to waste, especially when that good thing has a tail...

Twisty Bass

Ac caught this beauty at the end of our fishing trip Sunday afternoon around 4:30 pm. She waded over to the far side of the left shore and did a quick bounce cast under this tree. Turns out the fish was calling her name, because it hit her lure the second it dropped...

Lunker of the weekend caught under the fallen wood

AC admiring her catch

Dad reeling one in on the flats

Can you guess what this is?

Snapper

Got something special? Good. Cherish it as mush as you can. Because you never know when you're going to lose it. That t-shirt may just get up and leave, the fish stop biting, and the only thing you will be left with is memories. So make em good and go fish!

We're off to the UP this weekend. Wish us luck as we join the Uppers in the Escanaba and Ford rivers...

Cast Away,

AC