Brute’s Bleat: August 13, 2014

 

A week ago Tuesday it was a matter of moving around trying to find a school of feeding sunfish, kind of like hunting and looking for game. George Palmer and I didn’t find them in spots where there were fish previously, but other spots seemed to hold fish. It took a lot of sorting and we felt fortunate to put 28 sunfish in the live well. It was a warm day and we got off the lake before it turned hot on a day with little breeze. We were fishing in 13-14 ft. On Friday I paired up with Jim Lemieux, again in the early morning. It was a day when the sunfish didn’t cooperate at all even though we tried different spots. We struggled to find Lemieux a meal of sunfish, but it’s still fun to be out there.  Listening to his experiences while fishing Maple Lake with former locals, most of whom are doing their angling in the hereafter, was interesting to say the least. It’s fair to say Lemieux and his buddies have boated a lot of fish. Besides the sunfish I had some fun Northern action. I boated a four-pounder, lost another one when I neglected to retie my sunfish hook which apparently was nicked.  We were continuing to fish sunfish when another fish (apparently a Northern) bit and stripped my sunfish jig off, an example of poor knot-tieing.  I had another small Northern on, but not large enough for the frying pan.  We called it a day around 11:00 when the heat was starting to get to Vanna, and us as well.  Vanna’s not a dog that does much barking, but she tuned up when the Northern was flopping around in the boat.  Lemieux commented on Sunday that filleting the Northern told him he was rusty in that department and it took him some extra time to get the job done.  I’m inclined to try a different lake the next time out.
We spotted a doe and two fawns next to Ney Park’s south boundary off County Road 8 Friday afternoon while northbound. The fawns still had their spots and apparently were feeding on grass on the Goelz property. It’s also neat to see wildlife that close and I was surprized the fawns were still sporting spots.  On Sunday two sand hill cranes were feeding in a meadow just south of the Hank Potter farm when I was taking Vanna out for a walk. I’m still hoping to see a covey of pheasants, but it hasn’t happened yet!
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Sunday’s final baseball game in Region 12C was between Maple Lake and Loretto which the Lakers won 7-4. The Lakers defeated Loretto 4 zip on Friday to remain the only team undefeated in Region 12. Fans saw a great pitching effort by Jeremy Schmidt in that shut-out. Laker first baseman and manager Chad Raiche drove in the first Laker run and Todd Fuller had two rbis on his double later in the game. Schmidt was awesome in the final two innings when he apparently could smell a shut-out win.  Loretto defeated Howard Lake 8-4 on Saturday to match them again with the Lakers for seeding rights. Playing three games in three days took a toll on the Loretto pitching staff and walks pretty much determined the Sunday outcome. Pitcher Mitch Wurm gave up only four hits if memory serves me right. Luke Fobbe, at short, was kept busy with six or seven assists.  Besides the Maple Lake wins, the fans also set a record in attendance with over 2,300 attending the Region 12C games. 
The next step for the Lakers, who have a first-round bye in the state tournament, will be at Jordan on Friday, Aug. 22, in a 7:30 p.m. game with the winner of the Hanska-Sobieski game. Other North Star League teams have games as following the first week of the tournament: Friday 8/15 at 7:30 in Belle Plaine (C) Howard Lake vs. (9B) Montevideo; Saturday 8/16 at 5:00 in Jordan (12B) Loretto vs. (3C) St. Benedict; and on Sunday 8/17 at noon in Jordan (12D) Delano vs. (13B) Luverne. 
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On Monday morning the noise of road construction equipment jarred me out of bed when Annandale’s Hot Mix started delivering bituminous to my end of Linden Ave. North. The plan is to lay down the first coat of blacktop this year and put on the final wear coat next year and I suspect all of the blacktopping will be done in the city before Saturday’s Gear Head Day. 
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A local shopper commented Monday that Walmart has already put out some of their Halloween products.  Where will it all end?

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