"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!

Another Great Labor Day at Lake Wazeecha

The Labor Day weekend was great this year. Again. And again we went to Lake Wazeecha up in central Wisconsin. The kids are a year older than last time,

In the middle of a wonderful
three days at Wazeecha

which made a difference. They're all strong swimmers now and they're all strong bike riders. So even though my wife and I still keep them on a short leash, they are also now self entertaining and able to mostly think for themselves. Which meant there was time for other stuff besides kids. We brought up lots of boats and bikes and used them all. Usually, half the stuff we bring we could have done without as it went unused.

Having a trailer makes (un)loading much easier

I found a fly rod in my hand which was nice. Caught nothing - but I find the motion and the concentration you need to cast a fly line to be nearly hypnotic.

Perfect evening except for lack of fish. Boats probably not helping matters.

So the lack of fish was the cost of the simple pleasure. Besides with all the boat traffic and warmth, I'm betting the fish were deep and I was fishing a grasshopper imitation near surface.

Our little shoebox dog, Banjo,

Our little shoebox warrior keeping the world safe.

enjoyed herself this time around. She usually does. She has new dirt to roll in and new smells to entice her.

Gas prices have gone down a bit, so maybe the new found meaning of a staycation has lost some of its resonance. Nevertheless, with pleasant places like Lake Wazeecha less than two hours from our door, we are all happy to stay close to home and find beaucoup enjoyment doing little things in local places. Go find one of those spots near you and start enjoying your own pleasant place!

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.