Category Archives: Long Lake activities

Jeff’s Big Fish, Chapter 8,947

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jeff_smallmouth_lowres

Jeff caught this big smallmouth bass on Saturday morning, October 10th. He caught it in the southern part of the upper lake. We happened by in the pontoon just as Jeff was reeling him in. His pole was almost bent in half. The fish was jumping as it neared the boat. Definitely a pair of worthy adversaries.

This bass measured 20.5 inches. Yipes!

Jeff releases the big guys. They go back into the lake and hopefully grow even bigger and then he has a chance to catch them again.

You know you are a great fisherman when you have a pet sea gull. Lately one has been hanging around Jeff’s boat begging for minnows.

This amazing Long Lake

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It doesn’t get much better than Long Lake in the fall. The sunsets can be dramatic or, as here, peaceful. The weather lately has been great. A bit warm for late September–into the high 70’s and even hitting 80. Cool nights. The mosquitos are gone. This is a wonderful month for napping in the Adirondack chairs.

But this was the lake last Saturday afternoon.

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On Saturday morning, Nick braved the rains and winds and was skiing the lake. By afternoon, it was raining at one end of the lake but not the other. The waters were looking mean and green. And the sky. Well, the sky was what you see here.

Pure Michigan, for sure.

Starry, starry night

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The weather has been amazing for the past week or so. Perfect temperatures in the 70’s or low 80’s, with clear skies at night. Steve headed out to the end of the dock to capture the night skies. The Big Dipper was clear, even though the glow of sunset hadn’t yet faded.

From the end of our Long Lake dock’s vantage point in the Milky Way, here’s our galaxy. It’s framed at the earth-end by the trees of our bay.

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The night skies give a different sense of “up north,” with an emphasis on the “up” part. Humbling.

Long Lake Carving

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How cool is this! This is a topographic carving of Hillman’s Long Lake. Tom ordered it special for us from Backwoods Carving. Every depth on the carving is the equivalent of 10 feet for real.So the deepest places are 90 feet, just north of Belly Button Island.

The carving even includes the little island in the south part of the lake.

Compare from the Michigan Fishweb site:

mapWe’ve had a little printout of the fishweb site map framed and hanging at the lake for nearly ten years now. We show it to people, complete with a little house drawn on the map so visitors will know where we are on the lake before they head out to kayak.

The wooden version has now replaced our little paper map. Beautiful! (Our 294 acre lake and now our carving of it.)

Fishing on Long Lake

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Jeff is one very serious fisherman. Here he is on Long Lake, near his favorite pike spot. Last October, Jeff caught a 38 inch pike near here. A few days ago, Jeff caught a 33 inch pike at the same spot.

Shelly, Jeff (and Julie’s) Great Dane, is also one very serious fisherdog. This is no “I bet when you go fishin’ you keep on a wishin’ the fish don’t bite at ‘yur line” look. Shelly is pure concentration and loving every minute out on the water.

Here’s how the American Kennel Club describes Shelly’s breed:

The Great Dane combines, in its regal appearance, dignity, strength and elegance with great size and a powerful, well-formed, smoothly muscled body. It is one of the giant working breeds, but is unique in that its general conformation must be so well balanced that it never appears clumsy, and shall move with a long reach and powerful drive.

Shelly is a Great Dane with a great loud bark. We tried to capture that bark for you, and as soon as Steve put the microphone near Shelly she went silent. This dignified dog does not bark for show.

What a great day to be fishing!