An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Mark Walters sponsored by

Hello friends, I met Paul Bucher, who is the owner and publisher of the Cumberland Advocate about 25 years ago when I stopped at his office on a marketing run. We literally have been buddies since day one and have shared a heck of a bunch of outdoor experiences and became family friends on both sides. This past weekend I headed up to Barron County to camp on a lake on some county land and to do some serious fishing for bluegills.

Saturday, June 3 High 88, Low 61

We all know about the heat that has been kicking every man, animal and corn crop’s tail end. Last night I got here with an hour of daylight left, it had just rained, which is rare these days, and Paul Bucher and I had three trips of about 200 yards each to get my camping gear to a hike-in only site. The mosquitos were brutal and that is an understatement. A good cameraman could have had some excellent footage of two guys losing lots of blood until we got a good smoke fire burning.

Today would be a day of hardcore fishing on a Polk County lake in intense heat. Nothing came easy but two buddies who have both had some huge challenges over the last 350 days really did not care. Paul likes to work the shoreline. He puts his trolling motor on spot lock and we used bobbers and ice fishing jigs tipped with either a worm, wax worm or a leech. What did not happen in numbers we made up for in size while, for the most part, working deadfalls in the water. Each deadfall would yield us one to three sumo bluegills and I am serious when I say 8.5 inches was the smallest that we would keep with most being over 9 inches.

One year ago this weekend, I attended a surprise 55th birthday party for Paul that his wife Sarah had at their rural Cumberland home and it truly was a dandy. Five nights later I would lose the queen of my life, Michelle Chiaro, in a surprise attack from sepsis that would literally destroy the best part of my day-to-day life. At about the same time, Paul, who could be a model in a magazine, started having problems with his heart and it required major surgery to fix this past February.

I believe it was last fall that Paul’s dad, Craig Bucher, who was very well known in the area passed away. My point is that since the two of us did something together we have both been put through the ringer.

The heat was intense today and we stayed in Paul’s 17.5 Alumacraft Competitor all day. But two old buddies kept 33 beautiful bluegills and ended the day with a bluegill just under 11 inches and on one at 10.5 inches, which we happily released. After cleaning our catch, we sat by my campfire until late in the evening and I cooked pork steaks over the campfire and we had a very good handle on the mosquitos.

The following day I broke camp early in the morning, was consumed by many blood suckers on the treks out and then drove the “Chevy Hotel” over to Polk County by myself. As seems to be the norm during the open water season, I had my canoe on the racks. I fished in a very casual way, watched good people enjoying summer at their cabins and I put a serious hurting on the big gills.

Just before dark the old truck made it home and home is a good place to be. Live like there is no tomorrow!

Sunset