H is for Hayward

Most people have never heard of Hayward, much less it being the Muskie Capital of the World. Yep true, even though the picture above shows a smallmouth statue and not a muskie. The second shot, by the way, is Jimbo Meador and a famous Hayward guide Wendy Williamson, at the start of a float down the East Fork of the Chippewa River,a gorgeous little wet spot on the planet. She took us out for a few days and showed us the good places to catch both muskies AND smallmouth. We caught both I am happy to say. Hayward Fly Fishing Company sure treated us right. Good people. Good fly fishing instructors as well. Hayward, like most great places, is hard to get to. It is deep in flyover country, closer to Duluth than any other airport. Remote, beautiful, hard to get to. Don't tell anyone about it.

B is for Birds

Port Arthur Pelicans to be more exact. This is low tide. They are sitting on a sandbar well offshore from Port Arthur, as you can likely see. We went aground on a sandbar much like this earlier in the day. The whole bay was hardly more than ten feet deep at most, and much shallower when the tide went out.

This was part of a project we did with Native Watercraft. Jimbo Meador was the host for a three part DVD we did featuring Native Watercraft-certified guides. Port Arthur was one of the locations we visited. Quite the adventure. Speckled trout and redfish were very nice to us this day.

Canoecopia 2014 version

So this was a year of walking the aisles instead of having a booth at CC. Judging by how far away I had to park, it seems like this was a good weekend for everyone at CC. Packed parking lot and crowded aisles at noon on Sunday. I guess there are a few people interested in paddling..... All the usual players were there for the most part. My favorites were two little guys that I happened across. It seems like there is always one aisle that has all the innovators in small booths packed into it. Does kind of make me wonder why I never see anything innovative at the big booths..... Meg McCall was at the Angle Oar booth. Her idea, company and working prototype caught my eye the most out of all the booths at CC. I thought the idea her engineer dad came up with, that she is pushing out into public was a great one. When I fish from kayak, paddleboard or canoe, where to put the paddle is a constant issue. That was the first thing that came to mind for me when I saw an Angle Oar. Finally a place to "keep" the paddle where it doesn't fall in and float away. All I have to do is let go of it. The other thing I like about it is that I can easily paddle with one hand on either side of the boat. Usually what happens is that if I want to make an adjustment the paddle is always on my other side, so I have to put everything down to get the paddle. With an Angle Oar one half is always available on either side. Very cool. To me anyway. I think to many other paddling fishing types as well. I love to see people that recognize an opportunity and fill the gap. Looks to me like Meg McCall and her Angle Oar device are on the way!!!!!
Angle Oar

The second thing that caught my eye was a portable grill from SLATWORX, (with a singular X no Ks plural!) I think this is also a great idea. Not quite as gap filling as the Angle Oar, but I do think the Slatworx grill does put a fresh new twist on a piece of camping many people do not care for - the existing dirty grill at the established campsite - prior usage unknown. I know the possibility of what the prior camper did to the grill bothers my wife. It bothers me if I think about it too much. The slatworx grill offers an easy alternative. Easy to setup, take down, and package away. Good stuff.
Slatworx

Lake Michigan salmon like fisherman in Ultimate kayaks

I just read through a nice note from Keith Gelhar, a Lake Michigan kayak fisherman who we interviewed for "inland waters kayak fishing". He's been out in his Ultimate this summer and sent me a great article about a kayak fishing run of good luck he had on Lake Michigan. The picture above should take you right to it. Good read.

Kayaks and Redfish along the Gulf Coast

Like peanut butter and jelly, kayaks and fishing go great together. Whether in the Chippewa Flowage up in Wisconsin or down on the Gulf Coast, kayaks are just right for all sorts of places and conditions. People too. Pictured above is Gary Taylor bringing in a nice redfish somewhere in his spot on the far side of Lake Borgne near Slidell, LA.

To the right is Danny Wray our Grand Isle guide and one of the redfish he brought in during the day we spent with him and his wife, Kristen (who I think may have caught a few more than he did...)

Down in the near-tropics of Port Mansfield Texas,
we hooked up with Ruben Garza and two of his co-guides for yet another great day on the water, in kayaks, paddling and poling after speckled trout and redfish.

"inland waters kayak fishing" has been released

After a few months of virtual heavy lifting as well as watching some very talented people do their own heavy lifting while filming and editing, we would like to announce that Quietwater Films' fourth movie, "inland waters kayak fishing" is now available.

Jimbo Meador (front) and John Reinders (back) navigating a stream while poling their Native Watercraft Ultimate kayaks

Jimbo Meador, John Reinders, Wendy Williamson, and Larry Mann provided the paddling, poling, and fishing while we were out on the water. Damon Hennessey and Christina Smith did a wonderful job behind the scenes working the camera and editing our footage. And of course there are the boats. Even though they are inanimate pieces of plastic, those Ultimate kayaks are worthy of thanks for the wonderful job they did floating everyone around on the lakes, rivers and streams of the Chippewa Flowage, a slice of paradise in northern Wisconsin. The two muskies, numerous smallmouth bass, northern pike, along with "all the ones that got away" also made for some nice days fishing as well!

muskie - fly rod - kayak

June in the Midwest finally arrived, and we went fishing for our fourth movie - "inland waters kayak fishing". In Hayward, WI. For muskies. Using fly rods. And kayaks. Larry and Wendy from Hayward Fly Fishing company were kind enough to guide us.

John Reinders on only his 200th cast catching his first muskie

John, in the picture above, was onto this muskie - day one, hour four, location two. Nowhere near the mythical 10,000 casts. Lucky or good, we'll never know, but the muskie gods smiled on him that afternoon. I felt pretty lucky as well, having camera in hand capturing the tail dance of an extremely elusive fish. Location two, by the way, was too shallow for traditional boats. Kayaks were perfect and we had the entire stretch to ourselves. Wendy floats this stretch in her drift boat, which also works well. On this particular day, she traded her drift boat in for one of our kayaks and left her boat in my hands to carry our camera guy, while she tried out fly fishing from a kayak.