Anglers catch a break
Weather perfect for fishing opener
CABLE It’s sometimes said “perspective is everything.”
Without debating the aphorism’s all-encompassing value, this much I know is true: It certainly helped broaden the smiles on the faces of organizers of the 52nd Governor’s Fishing Opener, with activities held Friday through Sunday on and around Lake Namakagon.
“We’ve got open water on the lakes and the only ice will be in your drinks,” said Deb Sterchy, manager of the Wisconsin Indian Head Country tourism bureau.
And seldom does any trait allow such a stark, satisfying contrast.
Four years ago, the same event on the same water was challenged by a winter that stretched into May. No
boat landings were open and the main lake was covered with 18 inches of ice.
Gov. Scott Walker was unable to attend due to snowrelated travel difficulties.
In true Wisconsin spirit, however, the festivities continued. It provided many of us with our first opportunity to ice fish on a Badger State lake in May.
And the area’s cross-country ski trails were in better shape than anyone could recall for such a spring date.
Still, attendance at the annual event suffered and many area resorts stayed shuttered until the lakes thawed later that spring.
But when the 2017 Wisconsin general fishing season opened Saturday, soft waves lapped on the shores of Lake Namakagon. Common loons, not tip-ups, bobbed from the surface.
Green grass sprouted from banks and the boat ramps buzzed with activity. After a foggy dawn, the sun dominated the sky from 7 a.m. on, glittering off the lake like a billion diamonds. Dozens of fishing boats dotted the scenic bays of Namakagon.
This was chamber of commerce stuff.
“There’s your postcard,” said Joe Weiss of Spooner as puffy white clouds drifted through a blue sky over a pinestudded point.
This year marked the fifth time the 3,369-acre Lake Namakagon was the site of the Governor’s Fishing Opener. None had better conditions.
Feeling optimistic after a report of yet another increase in the state’s $23 billion tourism industry, Tourism Department Secretary Stephanie Klett at Friday night’s banquet promised a “fish on every hook.”
The banquet was held at Lakewoods Resort and Lodge in Cable.
Walker highlighted the role of fishing in the state’s economy and culture.
“There’s no better way to go into the summer season than being right here,” Walker said.
Klett’s prediction was prophetic for Walker and many anglers. The governor landed two walleyes on a jigand-minnow in a couple hours of fishing Saturday morning. Both fish, under the 15-inch minimum size limit, were released.
I fished with Weiss, 65, who served as a volunteer fishing guide for the event, and the father and son tandem of Steve and Bill Henry.
Steve, 85, lives in Chippewa Falls and Bill, 58, lives in Cadott.
Steve Henry is a living embodiment of the history and essence of the Governor’s Fishing Opener.
He is the former head of Wisconsin Indian Head Country tourism, the long-time organizer of the event, and was a friend of Gov. Warren Knowles, the head-of-state who started the tradition in the 1960s.
Henry is also former executive director of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, a retired television newsman who for many years hosted a weekly fishing show in Eau Claire.
He also has been a prolific outdoors writer for decades and currently writes a weekly column for the Chippewa Herald.
“Very few things are as good for Wisconsin as fishing,” Henry said.
Weiss piloted his boat from Lakewoods Resort into a section of Namakagon known as Garden Lake. We fished with light jigs tipped with fathead minnows in 7 to 23 feet of water.
Steve Henry was the first to connect, reeling in an 11-inch black crappie at 7:30 a.m. Steve and Bill then caught several more of the thickbacked panfish over the next hour; all were from 9 to 13 inches in length.
Next Weiss caught and released a 13-inch walleye, and I did the same with a pair of similarly sized ’eyes about 10.
At 11:30 a.m., we motored to Garmisch Resort for a shore lunch. Most of the other fishing parties reported mixed catches that included walleyes, crappies, yellow perch, northern pike and smallmouth bass.
At 2 p.m., when I left to file this report, it was 57 degrees in Cable under sunny skies.
With no wind chill and low humidity, the weather station reported it “feels like 57.”
On behalf of those of us who were here in 2013, I’d beg to differ: Saturday afternoon felt like a warm embrace from a grandmother, made all the sweeter by memories of harsh weather that accompanied a previous fishing opener.
The company of good friends, and state and regional officials who continue the early May tradition in the scenic Northwoods, was the icing on the cake.
Let the record show none of us walked on water at the 2017 Wisconsin fishing opener. Buoyed by experience, we flew over it.