I love fishing. Not the way my friend Phil loves fishing. He lives to fish. I just enjoy fishing. I always get out for one trip every year sometimes I'm able to go out for an additional day trip. My annual trip is up to Northern Wisconsin to a little town called Cable. It's about a half an hour north of Hayward.

I've been going to this area for about 23 years now. I was first introduced to the area by my ex-wife Lore when we were dating. We went up there with her parents and her twin sister. Once their parents were older we started going up with just the three of us. My wife's sister and I became fishing buddies while my wife just enjoyed the solitude.When we first started going north we fished on a much larger lake than we do now... Lake Namekagon.

At the time it was a well rounded fishing lake with a wide variety of fish. The water is stained and can get very rough. In my opinion, they've ruined the lake now by turning into strictly a muskie lake. I enjoy fishing for muskie, but that is not the only fish I want to catch.

To show you how important fishing is in my life, I've been divorced now for over two years and separated for three years prior to that. And, we still go. It's not that my ex-wife and I still have any feelings for each other it's just the fishing trip. The first year we skipped it and it nearly killed us. We tried to go separately the second year. I couldn't find anyone that could/wanted to go and my ex could only find her sister and a friend. The one stuck was my ex-sister in law because she lost her fishing partner. The following year we made the decision to try the old group...my ex, my ex-sister in law, my daughter and me. We found that as long as money wasn't discussed we were fine.

So for the last three years now I've been back to being able to take my trip with few problems. My ex-sister in law, Leona, and I are extremely compatible when it comes to fishing. We both like morning fishing when the sun is just coming up and the birds and animals are wandering around without the fear of running into humans.

As much as the fishing we enjoy seeing the deer, otters, loons and especially the eagles. Last year we saw a better fisher person than we could ever hope to be. We saw an eagle swoop down right in front of us, stick his claws in the water and pull up a fish. We also saw a family of otters, eight in all, playing along the bank. We stopped fishing for a while at that point and just watched.

For me, though, the main reason for the trip is the fishing. The lake, Lake Owen, is not a great fishing lake. It is a good one though. The lake is clear. You can see 15 feet down easily which makes fishing a challenge. You can see the fish, but they can also see you.

We get a lot of bass, some northern and a few walleye. There are some trophy size northern and walleye in the lake, but we would rather catch a few good size ones rather than wait all day for the big one. The bass you see in this article were caught in July of 2004. In 2004, we had a great year for bass. They were all around 16 inches and feisty. This year was good, but the size wasn't there. Most of our bass were around 14 inches.

We can also have all of the pan fish we want. There is a bay that is so full of crappie, blue gills and perch that you have trouble getting your hook in the water before all the little ones jump on your hook. We go there later in the morning when the big ones have stopped biting.

When the trip is over we always come back with enough frozen fish for about two or three fish fries. No, I am not a catch and release person. I enjoy eating fish and as long as we are eating what we keep I am alright with keeping my catch. I don't think I would ever mount a fish. That seems like a waste and frankly I don't have anywhere to put the fish up in my house. To date, though, I haven't had to make to make a mount or not to mount decision, but like all fisher people...hope springs eternal.