Long Lake Yarns

Long Lake. August 2011. A gentle breeze. Moderate temperature. A good day for finding clouds that look like a man with sideburns scratching his head (over to the far right). And best of all–those sunbeams.

This is April 3rd on Hillman’s Long Lake. Geez. We checked our logs. Last April 3rd we had just gotten the dock into the water.  Ice out occurred about two weeks earlier. On April 3, 2010 we were paddling in Ghost Bay and I saw a giant pike spring out of the big weed bed. [...]

Our young neighbor Zach says the walleyes on Hillman’s Long Lake bite most frequently through the ice at twilight.  They are probably so distracted by the beautiful sunsets that they lose their sense of self-preservation and just decide to nibble those tasty minnows after all. Steve caught this nineteen-incher a little before sunset, on a [...]

Just when you think that this lake can’t come up with another “best of…,” it surprises you. This is not photo-shopped. This fake-looking sunset is real. Just like my eyeballs saw it. The dock is out of the water. The kayaks are packed away. Summer people are off doing whatever. The lake is quiet. The [...]

This was October 10th on Long Lake, paddling back from Ghost Bay in the morning.That’s me near shore in my yellow kayak. I was checking out a tangle of sunken branches at the water’s edge that sometimes shelters schools of rockbass. They weren’t there. The trees are at peak fall color. The motor boats are [...]