Finally Gone Fishing with Delilah plus Video Footage

We each packed our packs and loaded up my dad's rusty old truck and headed off to Wood Lake for a day for wilderness fishing.  I hadn't really been on the water yet in any meaningful way and today was going to be a fishing trip / dog test.  I decided to take a chance on messing up what looked to be a perfectly beautiful day by taking Delilah along and having her in the boat for the whole day.  Over the years, we didn't usually bring a dog.  Some go crazy in the boat trying to bite fish and stepping in tackle boxes, others are scared of the water or being far from shore.  There was some risk in taking this little dog, but my dad was on board with the idea, so we decided to give it a try.

At the Wood Lake parking lot, I put a leash on Delilah, put on my pack with an overkill amount of fishing tackle, inflatable PFD, raincoat, beverages, and other sundry items I always have with me when out in the woods. Things like firestarters, matches, a lighter, toilet tissue, plastic bags for fish, an anchor rope with a replacement landing net on one end for my anchor should we need to stop, and two small boat cushions.  I never go without those cushions. You can get a serious case of  "boat butt" from sitting on those hard aluminum seats and without cushions. As a result, you end up MacGuyvering stuff out of available resources.  It's just better to bring along cushions.

I picked up my eight foot guiding oars and small landing net and headed down the trail.  May dad followed up with the rods and his pack.  His pack is the most important as it has the lunch in it.  It's a really long day with no lunch.

Down the trail D and me go, with her out in front matching my pace nicely. We make it all the way to the boats with no issues and it helps that this was not Delilah's first rodeo on the Wood Lake portage.  We were just here a week ago on a possible search/rescue that turned out to be nothing (a good nothing).  

The boats were filled with water from the big rain dump the two nights previous.  I bailed them while I waited for Dad to catch up.  Got everything ready and when he arrived shortly and we loaded up the boat and headed down the river to the main part of the lake.  In the water along the way, we were looking at the lilly pads below the surface.  They all stood at attention waiting to rise up and great the air but they had a ways to go.  Most were under at least six inches of water.   There were very few of them who'd made it to their summer resting places laying on the water in a large green mosaic to tangle with oars and canoe paddles and to feed the moose.  The vast open water made for faster rowing without the pads trying their best to slow us down and enjoy the day by their rules.

Delilah found her spot on the seat in between the motor (me) and Dad in the back of the boat.  So far, so very good.  The little dog was as calm as the day is long enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of new muskeg as everything prepared to grow into the summer season.  You could smell the fresh smells of new grass and tree buds and tamaracks. There was the clean smell of the wind as it travels through a filter of ten thousand trees only to cross the water and greet the trees on the other side.  Delilah was taking it all in like a new day in a puppy's world, sniffing the air, briefly analyzing, learning and getting her ducks in a row for the years to come leading in the role of an adult. 

We finally made it out to the first island and set up to troll through that familiar spot.  Sometimes, the fishing there can be so good that no further traveling is required.  Today, with the slow southeast wind, it was an inactive spot with nobody home.  Or, if they were home, they weren't answering the door like people who ran out of candy on Halloween night.  An easterly wind will do that almost every time.

We continued onward, noticing how slow the fishing was going with some near "hits" by northerns missing our lures at the last second and startling the "bejeezus" out of us.   You never seem to expect that high-speed attack/miss/swirl by the freshwater sharks in northern Minnesota.   Some were small, some were nice sized, all were fast as greased lightning.  When we finally boated a fish, Delilah would do the unthinkable.  This eight-and-and-half-month-old puppy has the wherewithal to back out of the way and observe no matter how much flopping around occurred.  She neither barked nor cowered but instead simply watched calmly.  When the fish went back in the lake or on the stringer, she looked over the side briefly and then went back to doing her thing.  That has never been my experience with a dog in the boat before.  We were both surprised and impressed.

Well, we put distance behind us as I pumped aluminum and picked up scattered fish here and there.  At one point, my dad hooked what appeared to be a hefty walleye.  It wouldn't come up and had a lot of determination to not come into the boat.  Those are always fun.  Here's the video of that :

Yes, I accidentally shut off the camera right when it was getting good.

Here's the rest of the event:

It ended up a really good day on Wood Lake,  We got some walleyes and some really nice perch.

And, here we're breaking for lunch with Delilah:

Late in the day, the wind changed to a south wind and the fishing kicked into much higher gear as we were on our way out.



It was a good day on Wood Lake.  More videos to come.

On the return, it was something to note that a zillion lily pads, only eight hours later, were now  resting flat on top of the water instead of below.  They grew like crazy in just one day and were their juvenile red color instead of their more mature green color to come in the ensuing days of summer.  I have a feeling the brush is going to be very, very bushy this season. 

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