Traditions and Tom's on the 4th

The 4th of July holiday means many different things to different people. Fireworks, picnics, yet to me it usually means the opportunity to fish with my 2 great friends the Tom's, Mr. Emmons and Mr. McAtee. These two guys are the the reminents of a once great company, CPT, where I had the pleasure of meeting both of them in the early 80's. I would bet the mature combined weight of us three is at least 200 pounds greater than it was when we met! Both Tom's are excellent electrical engineers with one recently returning from a long stent in Austin Texas while the other is hopelessly tied to South Minneapolis and hates Kool Aid. As you see in the picture Mr. Emmons is much more outgoing where Mr. McAtee is still the shy young school boy. We usually get together for a Christmas vacation ice fishing adventure or a day at Mille Lacs on the 4th of July. This year we met at noon and headed to the pond. The surface was like glass as we headed for the first spot to cast for smallies. 5 minutes convinced me we needed to move. My strategy was to deep troll #11 tail dancers and reef runners in the mass expanse of nowhere land. Trolling in the deep waters off the 4 mile gravel for about a mile produced nothing. There was still nary a ripple on the water so I headed to 3 mile reef for some sight seeing. The water is incredibly clear and the view of the reef was nothing short of spectacular. The house sized slabs of rock looked like an underwater ballroom. The reef was full of smaller smallmouth bass and we caught a number of them on tubes including the 17 incher above. Leaving the reef we once again headed for the deep to endlessly pull the lures exactly 150 feet back of the boat. We did land 2 more walleyes then settled down to bobber fish while getting ready to watch the Garrison 4th of July fireworks. What seemed forever waiting for both a bite and the show to start it was decided that we had enough. Back to the landing and on to Hardee's, we called it a night. Certainly the fishing could have been better but the company was as good as it always is.