Appleton report
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:33 am
Went to Appleton about a week ago. Woke up at 5am to dark clouds to the west, and thought about cancelling, but the radar showed only a tiny blob of precip, right over me...
Got to the launch during a heavy downpour, which is typical of my outings. If I plan to fish, its going to rain.
By the time we launched, the rain had pretty much quit, and the water was like glass. We worked out way up some shoreline spots that we like, and had little to show for it.
We ended up just past the hydro lines and had maybe 3-4 fish to show for our hard work, nothing picture worthy. Just a two weeks previous, I had a five species outing there (Pike, Smallie, Largie, Crappie and a Walleye), but this week was the Largie outing, and we had only largies caught until on the last few casts, my buddy hooks into a respectable smallie:
We left around lunch as I had volunteered to pickup some furniture from a store for a family member in the afternoon, and we watched a lad pulling his boat out of the water. Now the water was high, but the Appleton launch is generally shallow. This guy had a 14 foot lund, 20HP Yammy, and his pull vehicle was a new Dodge Ram 4X2. Well, this guy back so far into the water, that I can't see the load guides on the trailer, and he hops out of his truck into waist deep water to crank the boat on the trailer. I mean, amazing, just simply amazing. We chatted a bit when I got to shore, and he said he had gotten stuck at Pakenham a week earlier.
On that note, I'm shopping for a new tow vehicle, and was wondering if anyone had any issues with 2X4 trucks, or is it worth it to spend the extra 5k and get a 4X4. My last truck, a 2005 Envoy had 4X4, and I loved the security of knowing i could get out of anything at any time.
Got to the launch during a heavy downpour, which is typical of my outings. If I plan to fish, its going to rain.
By the time we launched, the rain had pretty much quit, and the water was like glass. We worked out way up some shoreline spots that we like, and had little to show for it.
We ended up just past the hydro lines and had maybe 3-4 fish to show for our hard work, nothing picture worthy. Just a two weeks previous, I had a five species outing there (Pike, Smallie, Largie, Crappie and a Walleye), but this week was the Largie outing, and we had only largies caught until on the last few casts, my buddy hooks into a respectable smallie:
We left around lunch as I had volunteered to pickup some furniture from a store for a family member in the afternoon, and we watched a lad pulling his boat out of the water. Now the water was high, but the Appleton launch is generally shallow. This guy had a 14 foot lund, 20HP Yammy, and his pull vehicle was a new Dodge Ram 4X2. Well, this guy back so far into the water, that I can't see the load guides on the trailer, and he hops out of his truck into waist deep water to crank the boat on the trailer. I mean, amazing, just simply amazing. We chatted a bit when I got to shore, and he said he had gotten stuck at Pakenham a week earlier.
On that note, I'm shopping for a new tow vehicle, and was wondering if anyone had any issues with 2X4 trucks, or is it worth it to spend the extra 5k and get a 4X4. My last truck, a 2005 Envoy had 4X4, and I loved the security of knowing i could get out of anything at any time.
