Wissota Wonders: Quiet companion shares sights of Wissota
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By MARK GUNDERMAN
mark.gunderman@lee.net
Saturday, August 2, 2008 8:46 PM CDT
I first spotted the swimmer by a dock, poking its head up, then diving and looking up again.
“It looks like we have company,” I said to my wife, Judi, pointing to the swirls. “There’s an otter swimming around over there.”
“Oh!” she said when she spotted it too. I had often told her about encounters with otters while out fishing, or preparing to go. Near opening day I found a pair of them sticking their heads up near the dock, wondering what I was up to. But more than once I have found an empty minnow bucket hanging off the dock when I had a couple of dozen minnows the night before.
Yes, those furry thieves can figure out how to reach inside that trap door.
“It may swim over here to check us out in a minute,” I told Judi. “They’re curious critters.”
It was the morning after the full moon I described last week. Despite how late we were out, Judi encouraged me to go fishing the next morning, and I had an itch to anyway, despite the short hours of sleep.
For years, Judi talked about coming with me some morning, not to fish, but observe. As I wrote in the opening to this series of columns, I took to describing to her the wonders I saw while out fishing, and she thought of coming along, just to enjoy.
She finally answered the early bell and was up with me just after first light.
I actually didn’t want to first head over the Reiter’s Bridge area I have described so often here. I wanted to target Jake’s Bay a few hundred yards to the west. But that Bird Bar I described before was often the subject of my reports to Judi, so I headed there first unprompted, to show her what I was talking about.
There were a few ducks around and gulls, but nothing exotic. Then the otter showed up.
I continued to fish, running crankbaits and an artificial leech along the ledge, and also taking time out to drag a muskie lure around in response to a couple of rolls. I wasn’t getting much action, but Judi watched that otter disappear under the water, then re-appear a ways away. It worked its way more than halfway to the opposite shore of that bay where we saw the full moon come up the night before.
I pulled up and headed for Jake’s Bay, but didn’t stop, instead going further on to another favorite spot.
We were at a bay opposite High Shores when Judi spotted an otter again, and I offered the opinion that it was likely a different otter. They are common on small Lake Wissota. We saw reflected light dancing on the trees, songbirds on birch branches, and wondered what was causing all the ruckus among the crows.
Judi was quiet companion during this excursion. She sat at floor level and observed while I fished in the fashion I normally would. She didn’t talk much at all, respecting the silence of fishing and not breaking my concentration. Besides having to step around every now and then to move to the back of the boat, she was never in the way. Precious few non-fishing companions don’t end up in the way.
But we would each comment on the things we saw, and she gained a firsthand appreciation for the wonders of the lake I had described for her, and more of an understanding that catching fish was only part of the reason that I did this. The beauty, the peace, and the wonder sink deep and refresh the soul.
Sure, I caught fish on the trip, but it wasn’t important. My beloved wife, my beloved hobby, and some furry fellow fishermen made for a perfect morning on Wissota.
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