My dad, my brothers and I went for a little fishing trip in Hayward, Wisconsin.  We were going to leave Ottawa at 1:30 A.M. early Thursday morning.  My brothers and I stayed up, playing Wii Tennis and yelling like John McEnroe to the TV.  Good start.

We packed the car and we were off.  It was a long drive and I only got about 45 minutes of sleep.  We stopped for breakfast in a small town about 90 minutes away from our destination.

There were some regulars sitting in their table talking about politics.  We ordered a lot of coffee, potato pancakes, buscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, corned beef hash, etc...  My corned beef hash was great, the potato pancakes were very good as well.  I'm surprised that potato pancakes are not as popular where I'm from in Illinois.

We finished the last leg of our trip on full bellies and we made it to Hayward.  I had the best yawn/stretch of my life arriving at my proverbial uncle's house.  His cabin is beautiful; it's surrounded by woods and is right on the Chippewa Flowage in Northern Wisconsin.  There was a picture of a visiting black bear that eats out of a nearby bird feeder.  I wanted to see a wild bear.

My dad went with my uncle to get our rented boat.  My brothers and I went to our cabin at the Musky Tail Resort and unpacked.  Then, we were out on the flowage by 10:30.  My uncle, Billy and I went with my uncle on his boat.  He knows the flowage like the back of his hand. He has a GPS unit that has 200 plus points where there are great spots for fishing.  We were fishing for crappies.  After finding a good spot for them, Billy was catching a lot of them.  I was having no such luck.  Eventually, I landed a few crappies, a tiny bass, and a perch.

My dad and Ty did okay.

We saw a bald eagle swoop down and get one of our fish that didn't survive being caught.  It was a magnificent sight. Soon, the weather got nasty in a hurry and we headed in.  It downpoured for 30 minutes.  It was one of the heaviest rainfalls I have seen.  After Billy, my uncle and I landed, I tried calling my dad and Ty.  We had no signal whatsoever.  "More bars in more places," hah!

My dad and Ty had rain gear, but they got soaked.  Billy and I met them back at the Musky Tail and we cleaned up for dinner.  I ordered a bottle of wine I couldn't get from Binny's online and had it shipped to where we were staying.  Living in Illinois, having wine shipped into Illinois is now illegal.  It's a joke, but it will save me a lot of money.

We're Chinese food freaks in my family.  I fell asleep in the car on the way.  I was so tired.  The food was really good.  The soup and the potstickers were great.  The meals were huge and delicious.

I passed out after dinner.  The next morning was sunny and warmer. We met my uncle and my proverbial aunt for breakfast.  I got chicken fried steak for the first time ever.  It was smothered in white gravy. Man, was it good.

We hit the water at about 10, crappie hunting again.  I brought a bottle from my Napa trip on the boat.  Heitz Sauvignon Blanc is quite nice.  It was my day. I pulled in about 12 or 15 in a short period of time.

Nothing too huge, but it was a lot of fun.  The weather got ugly again and we had to pull up the anchor.  The skies got very dark. However, I was sunburned on my legs and ears.  (I'm still peeling as I write this.)  We met at the Musky Tail Tavern and played pool and had lunch.

That afternoon we had a lot of crappies to clean.  I was squeamish about the whole thing, but if I refused to clean the fish, I'd be a huge hypocrite because I eat something everyday that has to die.  I came to this realization in the fish cleaning room.  It not an easy thing to do, but I helped clean the crappies that we caught.

We enjoyed our last day of fishing and headed home.  Fishing is a relaxing and enjoyable, especially when the fish are biting more than the bugs. If you have fresh fish, dredge is in seasoned flour or cornmeal and fry it in vegetable oil.