BMW Rally & Salmon Fishing in Wisconsin

On July 11 under clear skies and cool weather I headed for West Bend, Wisconsin for a BMW rally. It was a great day to ride with the temperatures in the 70's. I went up through Atchison, KS and St Joseph, MO and took US 36 to Cameron, MO. I then took I-35, I-80, I-380 to Cedar Rapids, IA, then on 151 to Dubuque, IA. I followed Wisconsin 11 hi way along the Illinois border and stayed overnight at a campground in Milton, WI on 26 hi way. It cost $19 to pitch a tent and would have been $29 if I wasn't an old poop. It was close to I-90 so I heard truck noise at night but slept fair.


The next day I headed for West Bend which is not far from Lake Michigan. I arrived there mid morning. I set up the tent in a spot I thought looked pretty good and went off to see what was there. Within the first hour I bought a new Olympia mesh riding jacket & pants. The one I was wearing was starting to fade and was black and I wanted this silver one. It is real comfortable and lets in a lot of air so I can wear it in hot weather. There were many exhibits to look at and lots of BMW's. In the evening I listened to Polka music! Not very long though.

I went to bed but there was still a lot of noise and road traffic. I had a hard time getting to sleep and then at 4 AM the beep, beep, beep of a truck backing. I had camped near 15 porta-potties and they were backing in to service them. Then the pump started and I decided to get up and head for the shower, along with many others. They had 4 semi trailers set up with shower facilities but they wouldn't open until 6 AM for some unknown reason. In where the restrooms were there was one shower and 10 people in line so I made it 11. About 45 minutes later and a lot of grumbling I had a shower and headed back for my tent. I layed down for a while but by then others were beginning to get up. I got up and started packing things up. I had one seminar I wanted to attend at 10 AM and then would leave. After I packed everything on the bike I headed to town for breakfast and found a good local restaurant.

About noon I headed north toward Door County. I stayed along the coast of Lake Michigan as much as I could, even taking some paved county roads. I came out at Sturgeon Bay and proceeded north as far as I could go taking 57 hi way. I did not take the ferry to Washington Island. I then came back south on 42 hi way and liked the west shore better. It is really pretty and the cherries were ripe. There were many red sour cherry trees and all were ripe and many bing cherries. I came back down to Sturgeon Bay and found a motel about 5 PM as I wanted to get caught up on some sleep, which I did.

I had made arrangements to stay with my nephew Art & his wife Pam Gerstner and told them I would be there around noon but I think I arrived about 10 AM. Art was going to take me salmon fishing which was a first for me. I was really looking forward to this and it was the highlight of my trip. As luck would have it it was a windy day a we could not go out on Saturday. Art and Pam have two children, Howie 5 and Charlie about 1. This was my first visit to their nice home in northeastern Green Bay. Howie was excited to see me and wanted to play, which I did. Charlie was a cutie. After lunch, Art took me and Howie for a ride to Algoma where we would put the boat in the next day. Many of the charter boats were in with their catches of huge salmon. This made me excited to go and catch some in Art's boat. We went on to Sturgeon Bay and went to the Door County Maritime Museum. Howie was excited to go because they had a pirates display and he LIKES pirates. We spent about an hour going through it. Next Art took us to a cottage along the lake that belongs to Pam's uncle. Art keeps it mowed. We sat out there for a while and had a couple of beers. We then started home and stopped along the way at a cherry stand and I bought two quarts of red bing cherries and a quart of yellow cherries for $10. They were so good and sweet.

Sunday morning we went to church, then came home and Art & me got the boat loaded for fishing. (One thing that was unique about their church was that it did not have kneelers. I liked it because in our church the kneelers are too close to the pew and it is hard to kneel. They stood instead of kneeling.) Art had spent as good deal of time on Saturday getting his equipment ready and it takes a lot of equipment. Art said before church that we should have our first fish on by 1 PM. We made the trip to Algoma, paid the $6 launch fee and launched the boat. The weather was perfect with partly cloudy skies, light wind, cool temperatures and not much for waves. The surface water temperature was 49 degrees which is cool for this time of year. We had problems right off because the kicker motor (small trolling motor) would not stay running and was not pumping water to keep it cool. Art had never tried trolling with the big 150 HP motor but it looked like we could go slow enough to make it work. Art got me lined up and I guided the boat while he put out the lines. First he put out two planer boards, one on each side of the boat, with spoons attached. These run out 30 feet or more to the side of the boat. Then he put out two dipsy divers, one on each side, with a lot of pretty stuff on them. I don't know what all this stuff is called. Then he had two down riggers, one on each side, and put them at a depth of about 40 feet. We were fishing in 60 t0 120 feet of water. Art had one hit one of the spoons but missed it. At exactly 1 PM I caught a rainbow trout. They really jump out of he water. I would guess them to be about 5 pounds. We caught two trout and 4 salmon. We missed several that would hit the lure but we didn't get them hooked.

We really had a thrill when Art hooked a big one from one of the down riggers and at the same time I had one on a dipsy diver. They kept crossing lines and we were trying to keep them from getting tangled. I finally lost mine and I got the net ready to net the one Art had. It was huge and kept trying to get tangled and it finally did. It got in the motor and cut the line. Our excitement ended abruptly! We made a big circle a came back around to see if we could pick up any others in the area and we did. In the next hour we picked up 2 more and one was big. Art got it up near the boat and I wondered how I would get it in the net. I didn't! I missed it and it took off. Art was able to slow it down and bring it back and was telling me how to net it this time. I didn't miss this time and we got it boated. We did not weigh it but estimated it about 18 pounds. It was big and beautiful and I was glad we were able to get it in the boat. We headed back in about 7:30 so we could get in and get the fish cleaned before dark and the other boats came in. We were out about two & a half miles but with the big motor it didn't take long to get in. Art has a GPS and a Garmin fish locater. The GPS shows us where we are and how far out we were. You can also mark spots and go back to the same location. That is how we were able to make circle and go back where we thought there might be more fish.

A guy took our picture with two of the biggest fish. They have a real nice cleaning station with water, conveyor belt and grinder to grind up the waste. It is then used for fertilizer. We cleaned the fish and cut them up, washed them off, and packaged them. The salmon are not native and can not reproduce on their own. When they go up the rivers it is too warm to spawn on their own and they are netted, milked and small fish are raised in hatchery, then released. Salmon live 4 years then die, so those that are 4 and are not harvested are wasted. They were introduced into the lake to control problem fish that were too abundant, dying and covering the beaches with stinking fish. So the salmon were a win - win for everyone. Art says at 3 AM there will be 200 to 300 boats launching at this site alone. Many charter boats take customers out on a regular basis.

Art was a great host and very patient with a first time salmon fisher like me. It was the highlight of my trip. On Monday they were predicting rain and thunderstorms so we opted to go perch fishing on the bay closer the Art's home. We did not catch any keepers but did enjoy a nice day and the birds coming in to see if they could get something to eat. We came home around noon and cleaned out the boat and put things away. I played with Howie and after we ate we went for a walk. So thanks Art & Pam for sharing your home, time and family with me. I really enjoyed it.
I left for home Tuesday morning about 7 AM and arrived in Topeka at 7 PM. It was about 720 miles. The temperature rose to 80 degrees about 11 AM at Cedar Rapids, IA. That was the warmest it had been in a week. Then by the time I got to Des Moines it was 100 and the rest of he trip in he upper 90's. My riding jacket and pants worked well. I rode a total of 1,658 miles and averaged 43.62 miles per gallon. I spent $130 for gas.