Outdoor adventures: Hunter's guide to coping with an Indian summer

But sure enough, there was no typo in the forecast, and 80 degrees is what we got.

I knew as soon as I read it that I would be spending the day in the boat and not in a tree. So to the river I went, and what an awesome day of fishing I had.

Big slab crappies were the highlight. We weren’t getting them left and right, but fairly steady throughout the day. All in all, we must have brought some 50 crappies to the boat, keeping about 35.

But what really got me excited was some of our kicker fish – the resurgence of the ring perch, to be exact. Not since the days of ice fishing in the late-80s and early-90s have I seen good numbers of good-sized ring perch.

Well, if this week has been any indication as to what the future holds, I’d say they’re back. We landed about 15 of those pretty little bad boys, a dozen of them real good size, too. They were hitting my minnow-tipped jigs with authority and putting up a scrappy little fight. For their size, anyway.

Then there were the two rogue northern pike I hooked. These toothy critters really like to get it on. With light gear, you’re talking some serious fun.

Trying not to give too much or take too much is a tough thing to do. The whole time you want to pull them to the boat, you’re worrying about straightening out your small hook. So you give more line the whole time, yelling “Swim this way, stupid!”

Seems like they rarely listen to that logic, either. But it’s just a ton of fun battling good fish like that.

On the day we brought not only these three species of fish to the boat, but many others as well. Catfish, bluegill, bowfin and largemouth bass also fell for our offerings.

The doggone channel cat dang nearly ripped the pole from my buddy’s hands as he jigged, waiting for a small panfish to bite. We were unsure what he had until the fish got to the boat. We just knew it was a strong fish. No surprise it was a channel cat, though.