Mile14: The Shnide

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

The Shnide

People that know me know that I've watched a few Seattle Mariner games and that guy there used to be one of our announcers and I thought he was great .... but you know those Mariners they're always sending people to another team so they can perform better is what generally happens. So Dave moved onto the Yankees this year and I miss his ' Daveism's ' one of which is the Snide. It was his word for a player or even the team having bad luck or just plain playing poorly . He would use it like this ' Julio really needs a couple of hits here , he needs to get off the schnide'.

Now I'm no pro baseball player but I sure as hell was a pro fisherman and even now I'm at least accomplished and fish at least 100 days a year between Montana and Mazatlan....and....I've been on the schnide since arriving here 5 years ago. I wanna catch white flakey fish to eat and so I've been learning Walleye techniques and Walleye habits and it's been humbling for ol retired guide #003 . We've caught Walleyes, one here, one there but never what we'd call a 'load'. But yesterday that all changed, persistence and desire finally won out and we had a breakthrough.

My buddy Curt was right, the lighter the jig the better as even though you don't feel the bottom so well it sinks slower and kinda flutters into the strike zone. We fished a spot that I had located with electronics starting at oh dark thirty and by 8 a.m. I had caught 7 or 8 perfect sized eaters like this. MP struggles to get the hook into ol slimey but she to finally got on the board , she must have had 10 good chances as she was having a hard time feeling the bite so I'm getting her a more sensitive rod today. Here's pick of the fish box, just carrying one around that big screams of optimism wouldn't you say ?

That trout was almost to much for my 8 pound fluorocarbon. We did lose a couple, one in the anchor line but this one MP battered and fried last night and it was soooo good. And for me and MP filleting all the Walleye for the fish feed that I've been promising and delaying was a kinda ritualistic thing that wasn't missed on either of us.....it's how we've lived and how we've done it all....together, with fun.

We who fish hard call it ' grinding ' when you work and work to get a bite. Well we've been grinding here for sure but what a gorgeous place to do it. After just an hour and a half we both decided we had all the fish we needed and being sure we can duplicate this success now anytime we decided to go for a boat ride. It was easily shirt sleeve weather as we motored 6 or 7 seven miles upriver and onto the lake....absolutely gorgeous as we spotted birds and animals and waved at the fishermen of which there were surprisingly few .

I kinda consider myself an ambassadeur of this great sport and all my fishing friends around the world are part of Team X, our fishing team. F.T.F. friends through fishing. So, I have to thank them all for helping me on project Walleye. So generous with their knowledge and gifts. Keith Holtan made a special trip to bring me Walleye gear, caught 6 or 7 Bass just this morning on a bladed top water that was in his gift bag. Ernie Mills brought me Rapala's and the biggest collection of blades any human has ever seen . Kurt Findorf printed me out a gear tutorial with recommended rod type and sizes, benefits and problems with line selection and we've spent hours discussing the pursuit ' if you find Perch you'll find Walleye' . Dan Stewart showed me how to rig weedless. Don Poole ran me down the lake and said aim your boat at that landmark and tell me what you see on your depth...I said ' I see a hump that goes from 15' to 5 ' ' and he says , ' that's it, throw the hook and catch some Walleye ' ! And all my friends send encouragement .... a big Mucho Gracias and Los Amos a todos.

Speaking of Bass. If I'm not on the big water most days I start on the pond down the road fishing bass from shore at sun up. I generally catch between a couple and half dozen most mornings and they're usually between 2 and 4 pounds.....BUT...I've seen some huge ones swim by and I've been convinced that a new State record could come from this pond as the current record came from Lake Elmo which is very similar to our pond. Well the other day as I walked along a trail thinking I was alone like usual my new friend Zak came along almost running , he was so excited to find me and take his pic. He had forgotten the scale but he said he's caught two like this now....very impressive , this fish might have been 10 pounds. We'll never know, I watched him gently revive it and it splashed away into the lake....wow....Don't worry about our youth to much, ol Zak there is big strong 10th grader who plays football reluctantly. It takes away a lot of his fishing time he says .