Tuesday was the first full day of fall and it happened to be a very warm and beautiful day. Gracie wanted to take Little Gracie (our bigger boat) out one last time.
We set out in the early evening and we took along some Sushi that we got downtown and we dined at a spot called Picnic Point.
We enjoyed a lovely sunset and then made our way back to port.
It was a fitting end to the summer.
Gracie has been wanting to see the sights of the Yahara river since last year when we got our other boat. I wanted to as well, but I had reservations. She’s a bit big and because I had never been through this stretch or talked to any locals who knew about it I had my qualms.
After our successful Lake of Pines channel crossing, I knew our fishing boat would have no problem with this journey so Thursday was the day and we set off.
The Yahara river runs into the north end of Lake Mendota from De Forest. The river then empties from Mendota’s south east side at the Tenney Park lock into Lake Monona. The lock has to be a drop of at least 6 if not 8 feet.
We had already obtained out annual county park lock pass and we were ready.
It took about a minute and a half to drop us into the Yahara river at the Tenney Park level. We proceeded through the channel under several road bridges and rail trestles, including our daily commuting menace – East Washington Avenue.
Once through the river we were on Lake Monona and we took a tour around the northern half and followed the continuing path of the Yahara until just past and around the bend from the beltline. Gracie and her bikini even got a shout out from a dump truck driver – well a nice horn blast anyway.
Gracie met a seagull and while I am used to having ducks swim away from a passing boat, these well trained freeloaders swim towards the boat demonstrating that getting handouts is customary.
We returned up the Yahara and back into Monona to finish our tour around the lake. We past Monona Terrace – one of many scenic wastes of money in this county – and then back to the Yahara where we trailed a group of paddle boarders until we finally reached East Washington Avenue.
One of the great joys of our little adventure is that the next time we are stuck on East Wash in the morning or on the beltline we can look down and remember the relaxing afternoon that we had and how we got to enjoy it from a completely different perspective. Our returning voyage did not disappoint as we were able to cross under the East Wash bridge while cars were stuck waiting above us for yet another one of those inexplicably ill-timed freight trains that travel at less than one-half of a mile per hour.
Filling the lock and going back up to the Mendota Lake level seemed to take about four or five minutes and then we headed back to the boat launch. In all, I think the entire trip was just over 20 miles.
It was a lot of fun. Even the fishing wasn’t disappointing, but that is because we didn’t even try to fish.
Next time we will plan for a little bit more time and take the last leg of the Yahara into Lake Waubesa.
One thing for certain – little Gracie would have been much harder to move through the river. There was at least one bridge that would have been hard to clear and based on the scrapes under that bridge, other boaters have learned the hard way that the bridge clearance is very low.
We set out for our favorite camping spot on Wednesday morning with our boat in tow. Having the boat made it so much easier to haul our gear.
From This
To This
Now, I am not going to lie about it, the fishing was pretty bad. Gracie caught a fingerling Walleye. We put it back and told it we would like to have it to dinner in a few years. We marked a lot of fish – and some that appeared to be good sized, but they just weren’t biting. We tried crawlers and leeches and even tried spinners but the big fish were just not that into us.
We stayed out until about 9:30 PM one night hoping for a wave of Walleyes, but alas – pffft!
The good sized fish were on Connors Lake but again, they had no interest and it appeared that people were not having any luck either.
On the other hand, the most important objective of this adventure was to test my theory that I picked the right sized boat for us. Our biggest goal was to be able to take it through the channel that connects Lake of the Pines and Connors.
Success!!
The biggest challenge is the last leg of the trip from Little Papoose to Connors. It is less than 18 inches deep and quite narrow. Our boat cleared it like a champ. Having a trolling motor and hydraulics made all of the difference in the world.
The weather cooperated very well. We had temperatures in the 70s during the day and high 50s at night and no rain.
We have our camping process down to a science. It takes about an hour to unpack and put up and about the same to decamp.
While the fishing could be better we still had a good time and we ate well.
Hopefully Gracie will add her thoughts on our trip. Speaking of trips, Gracie is going on her own adventure to Vegas tomorrow. Poor Gracie.
Gracie and I went fishing yesterday evening on Mendota. We stayed out for several hours and we didn’t get even a nibble. We marked quite a few fish but they had no interest in what we had to offer. We tried minnows, crawlers and suckers. Nothing. I don’t think we were the only ones that went away empty handed. The other fishing boats seemed to be lacking activity too.
On Thursday, they won.
But we still had fun!
On Sunday afternoon we took the new boat to Lake Mendota to give her a sea trial and to try fishing. We have been out on this lake quite a bit with our other boat but we have never fished it.
She ran great and was steady on the choppy lake. Winds were gusting to about 15 mph making the open water very rough. Luckily we had our rain gear so we could stay dry.
Gracie and I rigged up a Lindy spoon with a crawler on a 7′ leader with a bottom bouncer. Gracie got skunked and I caught a 7″ white bass.
Not a bad day at all.
Beyond The C... 