MIxing things up

I went out to Lake Ballentine near Madison Lake about a week ago. I'd heard good things about the action out there, both for bass and northern, and was interested in giving it a shot.

My fishing partners for the day were Danny Williams, a former standout athlete at St. Clair who is know going to school for golf management at Arizona State University, and his older brother Mike, who happens to have a pretty decent collection of newspaper clippings and photos of some pretty impressive fish.

One of those newspaper clippings happened to have a 15 pound striper, which was one big fish.

Mike Williams likes to fish bass, so naturally, we expected to get on top of some serious fish between the two of us. Danny Williams likes to get sun, and fish on occasion.

While pitching docks, locals would come out and tell us the big ones were "out there." One fella told us to work the weeds for northern.

We did all of that and then some, but Danny was the only one who actually caught a bass — two, as a matter of fact. Yours truly missed two fish. The first one, a fat hawg that boiled the water next to the boat, ran deep and snapped my line — operator error here; I set the drag too tight only moments before.

The second I missed on a scum frog — again operator error as I set the hook too soon.

The boat traffic, according to the locals that day, was the busiest they'd seen in a long time. The small public landing was full for most of the day, and the lake definitely was abuzz. Mike Williams blamed the boat traffic for our slow day, and was already making plans for a weekday trip where he could "enjoy" the lake.

The trip to Ballentine came on the heals of a trip to Lake Francis, which fell through. That trip, however, will take place tonight. We'll shoot for bass and northerns, but, as always, all fish are fair game.

I'll post a fishing update from Frances later.