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<\/a> Hot dogs are far from being a favorite food, but I like to keep it simple, less time cooking = less time cleaning = more time doing other stuff, like fishing or relaxing around a campfire.<\/p>\nSo camp is set, boat is launched, and we\u2019re now heading upriver.\u00a0 This is a section of the Mississippi I had only been on once before, my memory of it was good fishing, but shallow and pretty treacherous for a prop boat.\u00a0 The other time I was here I ended up having to walk the boat up through a particularly shallow stretch around some islands, and after studying the area on Google Earth I decided that a different channel would allow for easier passage.\u00a0 Wrong.\u00a0 I have often been in the predicament of trying to get through too-shallow water, when faced with this I will have my boat partner get all the way up to the bow\u2014this will raise the transom up, giving a little more clearance.\u00a0 On this trip my boat partners weigh about a hundred pounds between them, so not much help there.\u00a0 Ended up having to walk the boat up though about 100 yards of knee deep water again, and dinged my prop a few times when I was trying to push my luck.\u00a0 They did offer words of encouragement as I muled the Jon boat up through the shallow riffle. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Besides catching smallmouth, we have one other activity:\u00a0 this section of the Mississippi is one of a few places on the entire earth where a special kind of stone called a \u201cstaurolite\u201d is found.\u00a0 These are also called \u201cFairy Stones\u201d or \u201cFairy Crosses\u201d and you can bet I talked these up to the girls who are all about anything that has to do with fairies.\u00a0 A perfect fairy stone [I\u2019ve only seen pictures of a perfect one] looks somewhat like a Maltese cross. It\u2019s no secret where to find these stones, and as we approached the area I had learned about I could see there were several people in the area, stooped over and intently studying the gravel.\u00a0 I\u2019m no geologist, but I couldn\u2019t imagine why the stones would only be found on one side of the river, and since we had a boat we went straight across from the publicized spot.\u00a0 We found plenty of stones, but I think that finding a fairy stone that looks anything like an actual cross is pretty rare. Our best fairy stones are pretty boring looking at a glance, but it is interesting how they have a diamond cross-section. We also found some nice mica pieces.\u00a0 Once our rock hunt was over it was time to fish.\u00a0 We alternated between drifting and anchoring, and while the fishing wasn\u2019t red hot, the girls each got a few fish.\u00a0 I had come up with a points system where various fish captured would equal dollars to spend at Treasure City.\u00a0 This did cause argument over who got to watch the night crawler rod while anchored, as the crawler was likely to produce fish other than smallmouth.\u00a0 We spent an hour anchored at one spot where smallies were aggressively feeding on damselflies.\u00a0 I have seen this a few times before on my home water, and usually have a few damsel fly patterns on board just in case.\u00a0 I took them out last week while consolidating fly boxes, so we just went through the tackle box, trying this and that.\u00a0 The biggest smallmouth ate a crawler, but most memorable was one Skylar caught on a crankbait she picked out of her tackle box.\u00a0 It was the first time she caught a bass on a lure where she made the cast and set the hook herself, and it while it wasn\u2019t very big, I\u2019ve never been more proud.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the sun got a little lower, the action picked up, but the girls were a little spent.\u00a0 I fished some likely looking shorelines myself and put on a mini-clinic on how to catch smallies on soft plastics\u2014caught about 5 fish and missed a few others before we had drifted back to camp.<\/p>\n When we got back to the ramp we met a gal who was about 3 weeks into a Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico kayak trip.\u00a0 She had the world\u2019s smallest tent, but seemed to have everything she needed, including a pink flamingo for a mascot.\u00a0 She looked just like someone I had met a few years ago doing the same thing, but when asked she replied \u201cNo one would do this twice!\u201d A solar panel on the kayak kept her computer and phone charged.\u00a0 The strange thing to me was that she is from California, and I didn\u2019t get the vibe she had even been to Minnesota before.<\/p>\n Here she is just before I gave her a shove and on her way down stream Our dinner that night was Easy Mac [turned out horrible, turns out you need a microwave for this kind of mac and cheese] and hot dogs.\u00a0 I had foil and butter with in case a walleye or pike was foolish enough to end up in the boat, but our species this day included smallmouth bass, channel catfish, and redhorse sucker.\u00a0 Skylar still can\u2019t quite figure out why we eat some kinds of fish but not others.\u00a0 After our nutritious dinner it was time for a Minnesota campfire classic– s\u2019mores\u2014I even ate one.\u00a0 The following morning was the kind of morning we all hope for\u2014a bit cool, but sunny and glorious in all ways.\u00a0 The girls were delighted that I had hot chocolate fixins, so I made a batch and got the fire going again.\u00a0 To keep the nutrition and chocolate theme going they had Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.\u00a0 I made them wash the few dishes we had while I broke camp, and then it was time to get back on the water.\u00a0 I backed the boat down to the ramp to let some water drain out, and a guy who was part of a party that had just launched a driftboat commented on how much water was coming out of my boat.\u00a0 \u201cWell this boat has seen a lot of use and yeah, it has a slow leak, and because of how I had it parked last night the water didn\u2019t drain out yadda yadda…and it\u2019s only a couple gallons yadda yadda\u2026\u201d was my response.\u00a0 So I launch and tie up to the dock.\u00a0 Then I notice that the driftboat that the three guys had just launched was about half full of water.\u00a0 I pointed this out to the guy who had been so nice to point out how much water came out of my boat, and suggested he put the plug in.\u00a0 Well it wasn\u2019t his boat, it belonged to one of the guys doing the shuttle, and he didn\u2019t know where the plug was, and the yeti cooler on the dock wasn\u2019t going to be much help for bailing.\u00a0 I had a spare drain plug, figured out where it went and grabbed a couple of buckets and we had it mostly bailed out in a few minutes.<\/p>\n By now, my girls were on the dock watching the show.\u00a0 We all got aboard, shoved off and wished the guy good luck.\u00a0 We headed off upriver to where we had caught fish the day before.\u00a0 It was mostly a repeat of the day before, no crazy fast action, but enough to keep everyone interested.\u00a0 They had a double header on at one point, the smallie Savannah had on was the biggest of the trip but it got away just as it got to the boat.\u00a0 Skylar caught one that ate an errant cast that landed 5 five feet from the transom while we were anchored in pretty swift current.<\/p>\n Note the custom pink worm Beetle Spin thing we put together that it ate<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I even broke out the fly rod and managed to get one on a craw pattern.<\/p>\n We were in the home stretch, maybe a half mile from the ramp.\u00a0 The water was pretty clear, and I could see the bottom pretty well in five feet of water.\u00a0 When the conditions are like this I enjoy drifting along, spotting different fish.\u00a0 I was seeing a lot of fish that at first I thought were big redhorse, but I soon realized they were mostly catfish, and big ones at that.\u00a0 There must have been 50 in one short section, most looked to be 5 to 10 lbs.\u00a0 We were out of bait by this time, or we would have anchored up and exercised a few kitties.\u00a0 Next time.<\/p>\n Back at the ramp I pulled the boat up on the gravel and told the girls they should make some casts just below the access, as I had spotted a couple smallies there the day before.\u00a0 When I got to my vehicle, my buckets and drain plug were waiting for me, along with ten bucks\u2014that was a nice gesture.\u00a0 I pulled the boat out, and after I had it strapped down I went to check on the girls.\u00a0 They were still casting, but hadn\u2019t quite made it to the best spot, an area where there was a nice rock pile about 30 feet from shore.\u00a0 I had a great vantage from up on the high bank, and when I walked just a bit downstream, sure enough, there was a nice smallie patrolling the rocks, on the hunt for a well-placed Beetle Spin.\u00a0 I was just about to call the girls to the area when I spotted another fish out there\u2014a muskie!\u00a0 Looked to be in the low 30\u201d range, and would be sure provide a large amount of excitement if it was at the end of a little girl\u2019s line.\u00a0 I had them take turns casting at it, they tried a Rapala and a wacky worm, but no luck, that muskie was having none of it and left for calmer waters. \u00a0Then Skylar had a smallie nose right up to her wacky worm, I said \u201cleave it\u2026leave it\u2026now give it a little twitch!\u201d and she proceeded to jerk it about 4 feet, and Mr. Smallmouth went the same direction the muskie went.<\/p>\n You can’t see it, but there is a muskie 30 feet in front of Skylar<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So now we were left with only one more thing to do\u2014the promised stop at Treasure City.\u00a0 With all their fish they had each accrued $12 to spend, and they managed to spend most of it on knick-knacks.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve never been there, it really does deserve a stop, the amount of crap they have crammed in there is impressive. Less than two hours later we were home again, already making plans for next year. Most of the time if I go camping it is because of necessity, not just because camping is so much damn fun.\u00a0 I may camp out because there just happens to be a campsite where I\u2019m fishing, or maybe I spent too much money on tackle and can\u2019t come up with the funds for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21,16,9,31,7,25,6,10,18,29,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> Finally the fire died down and it was time to turn in.\u00a0 We soon found that a huge emergence of stoneflies was going on, and they were EVERYWHERE, including in the tent.\u00a0 All of my explanations of how harmless they were fell on deaf ears, and the girls would not rest until all had met their demise by flip flop.\u00a0 After my stories of sasquatches in these parts on the way up, it was decided that the safest place in the tent in the event of an attack would be in the middle.\u00a0 Savannah [of course] claimed this spot for herself, and the girls watched a movie on their DVD player.\u00a0 The night was uneventful, no sasquatches, no yetis, not even a woodchuck.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"