Green Lake Association Lake Research Intern Mitchell Busch, left, and Green Laker Reporter Connor Cummiskey kneel behind the day’s catch after a fishing adventure with guide Mike Norton. submitted photo
By Connor Cummiskey
I have never been all that great at fishing.
I usually did not have the patience to sit all day in a boat waiting for a fish to bite.
Though I did enjoy the exhilarating feeling of reeling in a live fish.
Even when I did fish, I rarely caught large amounts or sizes of fish, which was probably partially due to me lacking the understanding of what bait to use and where to cast my line for particular fish.
Which was why I was excited to get the chance to go fishing with not just one expert fishing guide but two.
On Wednesday, June 4, I met with Mike Norton who is one of the local fishing guides.
Norton, two others and I shipped out in the morning and as he was casting the lines out, he began telling me about what each one was and what it did.
Large, shiny rectangles of plastic and metal hung along the lines of the poles.
These were flashers.
Behind them Norton strung small silver spoons.
For the most part these were Sutton Spoons, which were the best bait with which to catch Lake Trout.
There was a story behind how the Sutton Spoon was first discovered to catch lake trout. It was told to me by Stephen Siders, a summer resident of Green
Lake, who often helps Norton with fishing trips.
The story went like this.
“When lake trout were first stocked in Big Green Lake, they were elusive.
Fishermen had tried everything to catch the trout, but to no avail. Until a visiting soldier used a Sutton Spoon while out fishing. That day, he caught fish that had survived over 20 years without being seen by a human eye.
At first, he would not share with frustrated locals what he had used to catch the fish. From that day on, when he would get a bite, the other fishermen would attempt to get close enough to see what he was using.
Every time they tried, he would cut the line so as to protect his secret.
That was until another year when he came back to visit. This year, the local fishermen tried something new. They backed him along a sand bar and as usual, when they approached, he cut the line.
Then once he left, they dug up the sand bar to discover he had been using Sutton Spoons”
Now days, a Sutton Spoon is hard to come by as their production was halted.
Instead, it also works to use other spoons, given that they are thin and silver.
After showing me what bait works to catch lake trout, Norton showed me what lines he was using to catch white bass.
They were Dipsy Divers in front of spinners. The Dipsy Diver was shaped like a thick metal disk with two triangular thumb grips protruding from one side.
By twisting the side, the Dipsy Diver could be set to different depths. It served the purpose of keeping the bait shallower.
The third type of bait we used was running boards.
They were hemispherical orange and white boards that also kept bait closer to the surface of the water.
Almost immediately the fish started biting; it was going to be a good day.
In between reeling in trout and some white bass we discussed some of the problems the lake was facing. Things such as how musky were eating all of the trout before they were caught by fishermen.
Since musky have become elusive over the last few years, the payback the community gets for the cost of stocking the lake every year has become less and less.
Norton and I also discussed the possible solution of introducing another species of fish to the lake, such as Atlantic salmon, to balance out the diminishing lake trout population.
During the span of one hour, we were lucky enough to catch seven lake trout — ranging between 25 and 27 inches and weighing around 7 pounds a piece, along with five white bass.
I doubt we would have been nearly as fortunate if Norton had not been there with his years of experience to guide the boat to the right spots on the lake.
While Norton was cleaning the fish, he reminded us that they had all been in the lake for more than a decade.
He stressed how important it was to remember that.
I drove home excited about how I could cook the fairly sizable amount of fish I had, and how lucky I was to be able to catch as much as I did my first time out on Big Green Lake.
Most days on the lake are not that plentiful.
For my second time on the lake, I seemed to hit the opposite end of the spectrum.
When I tagged along with Dennis Walker and a family he was taking fishing, we caught very few fish.
It was not due to a lack of trying or expertise on Walker’s part.
We studied what he called the graphs on his boat, which showed a sonar image of what was below the surface of the water.
There were very few fish even showing up on the sonar. We could tell because a fish would appear as a blue and yellow blob on the screen when they came close to the bait.
Just because it was a slow day, does not mean it was a bad day. As the eldest son, Billy, pointed out, the worst day fishing is still better than the best day working.
I chuckled at the irony that my work was the reason I was on the boat, but agreed that it was a beautiful day to relax on the lake.
I was honored to meet one of the few WWII veterans left, still able to go fishing with his sons.
His name is Leo Bassetto, and he served in the Marine Corp in the Pacific Theater.
The first catch of the day was his. Walker netted the fish after Bassetto reeled it in.
In total, Bessetto and his sons caught two trout and a white bass, which were still enough to make into a decent meal.
More important, they were able to spend some quality time with each other, and I was lucky enough to be there to see it.
Anyone looking to catch fish or just have a great time on the lake with a guide, the two people that I can suggest personally are Mike Norton, who can be reached by calling 920-295-6462 and Dennis Walker, whose phone number is 920-572-0622.
The Green Laker 