Weather: N5, sunny, 76˚
Water: 8.83 ↓ 79kcfs, 72˚, dingy
Where: mississippi R. pool 7 Big Lake and Lake O.
Caught: Approximately 10LMB 12-19", 3 pike 22-26"
Comments:
Today was a sad day of fishing, on account it was grief day. Fritz my faithful bird dog, hunting companion and buddy could no longer get around very well and life was becoming a burden on him. It is a very hard and emotional decision to end your dogs life, but a person usually waits too long and the dog needlessly suffers.
I got Fritz from my brother Dick when he was about three years old. His first two and one half years were spent with a wealthy family from the Chicago area. I am sure he probably spent the majority of his time cooped up in a portable kennel. Apparently Fritz was too wild for them and they sent him back to the kennel where he came from. Dick knows the owner of the kennel and that is where he came into the picture, he took Fritz hoping he could make a good bird dog out of him. Dick cared for him and trained him for about a year. I took Fritz up to he cabin one week in the fall and we never parted company after that.
I was very impressed by his pointing and hunting instinct; he had drive. Of course we had a few discipline issues from time to time, but we both worked through it. Fritz accounted for lots of ducks, grouse, woodcock, and pheasants. He even hunted coon and one fall and he recovered a bear that I had shot with my bow. Ducks were Fritz's favorite. He especially showed his displeasure when I missed, he would bark and get wild when the duck flew off unscathed.
In Fritz's later years he calmed down enough to make the move into the house from the outside kennel. This move did not happen overnight though, we had many instances where he made himself unwelcome in the house. Once he made the permanent move he was always underfoot or within sight of Karen or myself. Fritzy, buddy you are sadly missed but not forgotten.
The topwater action was pretty good tonight. The frog coaxed a lot of the bass out of their lairs. I did try one of my small mouth spots along the channel over on the Minnesota side but I did not catch a fish.
Observations:
The high water is receding quickly and the rice is starting to stand up. There is a lot less aquatic vegetation this year, particularly the lily pads.
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