Other Bellyboy experiences

(Animated gif courtesy of Joel Anderson of Mahtomedi, Minn., nephew, fisherman and computer expert.)

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Monday dawned in a cloudy pall. At 6:45 we met our guide, Jimmy Gouch, who's been fishing Reelfoot all his 63 years. I say all because his daddy was a Reelfoot guide and grandpappy was too. Like many of the locals, Jimmy is totally focused on fishing -- must be why he didn't bother putting in his teeth. Nonetheless, by 7:15 we were behind other jon boats threading their way through the cypress trees out into the lake. A half hour of rigging poles later (we were using nine poles, each with a two-hook crappie rig) we were ready to rake the lake. Bites were few and far between but then a miracle occurred.

The wind died and the sun shone. Suddenly bobbers were diving two or three poles at a time. Tiny crappie were hitting so lightly that even though the bobber was a foot below the surface a setting tug would pull the minnow right out of their mouths. We moved to the middle of the part of the lake we were on and began working at about 4 feet deep between two stumps. As the air warmed up so did the fish, and we did score a few of the classic Reelfoot giants. By quitting time at 3 we had 30 keepers in the cooler and had probably thrown 20 small ones back to grow up. Crappie was the only species we say, except for two drum that looked suspiciously like Doug Nelson. Jimmy said the famed plate-sized bluegill wouldn't be active for another couple of weeks and the bass lived in another part of the lake.

Jimmy didn't offer to help with the cleaning. Jon killed, I cut and Linda clicked with the camera. That night the wind came back up, the lack of anything other than fishing to do in that part of the country came back up and the lack of broadband access came back up. So we packed up Tuesday morning and headed home, stopping for shopping in Arcola's Amish shops.

A summer's day in Minnesota

In the long, cool summer (usually a time for lawn mowing and forced vacations to waterless places) some Bellyboys have the luck to fish. Don Frost and family took their annual two-weeker on the Whitefish Chain, Pequot Lakes, Crow Wing County, Minnesota. And, having joined the digital photography age, he sends us this photographic evidence of his prowess.

"Unhappily," Don writes, "this denizen of the deep, this northern pike upon which I practiced CPR (catch, photograph, release), was as big as they got. But what do you expect for August fishing, even in the wilds of the North Woods?

"Caught a more noteworthy bass later, but I was alone in my boat and had no one to photograph it for me. Both beasts succumbed to me on Lake Bertha on the chain not far from our cabin on the shore in the background of the pix.

"And they fell victim to the Zip Lure. It does work, tho not nearly as well "as seen on TV." In fact, I had more action on the Zip than any other lure, including giant minnows.

"A splendid trip, as always, despite lousy weather -- rain, temps in the 60s -- the second week."

Well, it's more than most of the boys did all summer, with the exception of Gary, who tells us he's been killing them on the Fox River. Of course, he has never sent a photo of a single fish, but would a Bellyboy lie? We'll watch him closely at the Winneconne outing beginning Oct. 7.

Hard water, easy fishing

The winter of 2002-2003 finally saw ice form on the lakes and backwaters of the Chicago area, and the Bellyboys took advantage of it in January of 2003. Most of the boys treated the annual ice fishing outing in the usual way: They stayed warm in the casino and then lost money in the poker game, too.

But this time Gary (left) and John (right) actually augured a hole or two in the old mill pond in Batavia and angled for bluegills. As Bob Jones's photos proved, their work was not in vain. Although the other boys say the number of fish increased in each telling, Gary and John swear that 40 to 60 fish were brought into the cold air that afternoon. Dirk is mum, letting his images tell the story.

The fun began at the Mexican joint in downtown Batavia and continued at Dirk's house after ice fishing and gambling. In attendance besides Dirk, Gary and John were Jim Masek, Jim Olsztynski, Chris Rauser, Bob Rowley, Paul Bauer and Tom Cosgrove.

Dirk's basement rec room was the site of pool, poker and pizza. Fullboat Bob, the boy who took the boys for all they had the spring before, got his comeuppance that night, but still came on subsequent trips.

Jeff won a few bucks at the Aurora casino and was kind enought to spring for the pizza. Don, the oldest of the Bellyboys, got a special dinner from Dirk to assuage the pain in his recently repaired choppers.

Caught in action at the gaming table are, clockwise from left, Jim Olsztynski, John Lux, Bob Rowley and Jim Masek.

Don Frost has made a regular summer trip to the Nisswa, Minn., area for some years. Here is his story of the latest one.

Minnesota in 2003 was splendid beyond measure in all regards except gaming and fishing. We "donated" $200 to the Ojibway Indians and fed fish and gulls beaucoup dead minnows, artificial lures having very little appeal to our piscatorial friends.

Weather was hot (14 days without a drop of rain - phenomenal), which may explain the lack of vigorous fishing action, particularly in shallow waters, 12 to 14 feet, normally productive depths.

One morning cousin-in-law Bill Perry and I ventured forth to Lower Whitefish Lake, intent on drifting The Fingers just off Big Island with big honkin' minnows. We used steel-cabled Little Joes, the same rig we used in Ontario. Guides bring tourists out to The Fingers to hunt walleye, but big northern are more common there in August.

Using hand-sized minnows requires nerves of steel, for even the aggressive northern pike likes to play with them before taking the hook. So you feel the tell-tale bump, bump, bump and you give the fish line. More bumping. More line. Bump, line; bump, line; just like those pain-in-the-butt walleye. Finally, you mentally cross your fingers and slam him back. The bad boy pictured was just like that. You don't expect to nail a 2½-pound bucket mouth 20 feet down and two miles from the nearest shore, but there he was.

He's still there, in fact, growing and awaiting my return in 2004, which, if all goes as planned, will be for four weeks instead of two.

(Photo for the Bellyboys by Bill Perry)

The winter solstice

Look closely at this picture, and try to figure out just what the heck the boys were doing on the winter outing at Bob Jones's place in Batavia that resulted in Paul's having that stain on his pants -- and a smile on his face.

Dirk threw one terrific bash in February, 2002, the highlights being two: (Linda Bauer, don't read the next eight words) Paul's astounding victory against the odds in Aurora and Dirk's excellent cooking at home. Additional fun was had shooting pool in the basement and playing poker around the kitchen table.

Talk centered around the amazing speed with which children grow up (as 12-year-old Jon Jones breezed through, just avoiding the top of the doorway), and the even more astonishing pace of their dads slowing down.

Plans for the spring trip were firmed up, and subsequent events have shown a pent-up demand for fishing, or at least getting the hell out of the day-to-day routine.

Jim Olsztynki had the answer to why the Bellyboys now make sure the last hand is dealt before midnight: Breakfast is the highlight of the trip and we want to be well rested for it!

Go west, old boys

On Sept. 14 and 15, 2001, half a dozen Bellyboys headed out to Paul Bauer's house in West Chicago and the Fox River for some poker and fishing. On Friday night, the players consisted on Don Frost, Jim Olsztynski, Chris Rauser, John Lux, Gary Van Moffaert and Paul. After breakfast Saturday, Gary, Paul and Don headed over to the Fox at the I-88 bridge, where Gary promised two-pound bass would be waiting. Don, pictured here wearing his kick-ass Donald Duck T-shirt, tells what happened:

"The two-pounder turned out to be one (1) 12-ouncer, conquered by moi on a green, yellow, and orange shad rap. This was the same deadly lure that caught the fancy of a couple of walleye last spring in Winneconne. The twin of that bass shook the same lure 30 or so minutes later. And that was all she wrote.
"However, Gary was bested by "the one that got away." I leave that telling to him. The Fox outing was worth it, tho Gary was right on when he advised waders. Paul and I were restricted to bank fishing while Gary had the whole river to wander at will."

Gary picks up the story:

"Indeed, my favorite shad lure in the fox is a chubby green guy with a bright white belly. Catches bass like crazy. Flipping to the bank and dragging out, hooked a guy that bent the rod, took line and I blew it! I wanted to make sure that I had a good hook set and tugged again just as he changed direction from running to me, to running away. Zingggg. Gone. Probably a shitty knot.
"I have not had a pole bender in the Fox for 7 years. The river was running very fast and not the best day for fishing that section of the Fox. Needed to be on River Island in Batavia where we could get some protection from those islands.
"Oh well. Back to Fox River Sports for more lures."

THE FIRST BELLYBOYS excursion of the millennium was our annual ice fishing trip to Kenosha County, Wisconsin. Following a tradition established three years earlier, the boys saved a lot of time and trouble by not actually doing any ice fishing during the outing.
Six of the seven boys are seen here on Jan. 29, 2000, after a mostly victorious afternoon of betting on the doggies at Dairyland. From left are Paul Bauer, Jim Olsztynski, John Lux and Bob Jones, with Jim Masek and Bob Rowley (the newest Bellyboy) kneeling. This was the last time Rowley was on his knees the entire weekend: He proceeded to clean out the old boys at poker, winning the most ever taken by a single player in a BB game (OK, it was only $75, but to get back at him we told his wife it was $750). Not pictured is Gary Van Moffaert, who must have fallen through the ice or gone to the can.
Overly dark photo for the Bellyboys by Dairyland clubhouse waitress Lisa.

Slovak delights

The only ice encountered by the Bellyboys during the Y2K ice fishing trip was found in the cocktail glasses at the Little Europe at Timber Ridge restaurant run by Miroslav Gono and his wife, Bozka, natives of Bratislava, Slovakia. The food was hearty and well prepared, and the owners wisely kept the Bellyboys mostly away from decent people during their meal. Here Jim Olsztynski, Bob Rowley and Bob Jones waddle out of the place on Saturday night. We returned Sunday morning for breakfast, altering our menu choices only slightly.

(Bellyboy photo by John Lux)

Lambs to the slaughter

Heaven only knows why these six boys are smiling: On Saturday night, Jan. 29, Bob "Full Boat" Rowley snapped this picture in the middle of his single-handed destruction of the boys at poker. Bob Jones said the night would go down in history as The Rape of Non-Kings. Gary Van Moffaert is at the head of the table, and the other boys are identified in the picture above. Paul organized the January trip, securing a party room for the poker game as well as comfortable motel rooms for sleeping off the effects of the beating.

(Bellyboy photo by Bob Rowley)

To give us some perspective on what kind of Northern a real fisherman can pull out of Lake Geneva (see ''Plunking for Pike'' below), Bellyboy friend Bob Fila sends us this picture of a fish taken on Sept. 15, 1999. Bob, a veteran of pike and walleye fishing in Northern Wisconsin and Ontario, took this beauty out of 53 feet of water. He and fellow Tribune photographer Frank Hanes spent a day with Tom Billing before going off on their own. Fila says he was surprised at the depth the fish were holding at for the time of year, but Billing told him the pike don't come into the shallows till much later. Bob and Frank returned in early November when Tom was on an Alaskan cruise, but they had little luck. (Tribune photo by Frank Hanes)

On Aug. 29, 1999, Bellyboys Steve and John took Evanston friend Mitch Work out on Lake Geneva with guide Tom Billing in search of northern pike.
Despite the tough conditions, we did pretty well, catching nine fish (alas, none like Bob Fila's) in 3 1/2 hours on the water.
Mitch (left) and Steve show off a couple of the victims.

Bellyboys photos by John Lux

Jim Masek battles an average-sized Wisconsin bluegill at the Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward. The tasteful museum exhibits are perfect examples of the overall sophistication of the Badger State, and one of the main reasons the Bellyboys are comfortable there.

Photo for the Bellyboys by Kathy Williams

In January of 1991, Ski invited the Bellyboys to his condo at Eagle Ridge near Galena. The four boys who went showed an interesting mix of smarts and dumbs: They were smart to go enjoy Ski's cozy place; they were dumb to leave it to go ice fishing.
It was one of the coldest weekends in memory. On the left, even the exercise of drilling the hole in 16-inch ice isn't enough to make Ski unzip his parka. At right, Dirk works at the seemingly endless task of clearing skim ice from the hole.

Well, probably because women don't. In these pictures Dirk succeeds in drilling yet another hole in the ice while John, who had just cheated death after a month-long battle with infection in Evanston Hospital, shows the splendid result of all the effort. It's a bluegill a child would have been ashamed to boast of. (John resisted the temptation to have it mounted for Ski's living room.)

Bellyboy photos by James R. Masek

Don Frost joined John and his brother-in-law Paul Anderson for a half-day guided fishing trip on Gull Lake, between Brainerd and Nisswa, Minn., in the early 1990s. The guide knew what he was doing, as evidenced by the number of largemouth bass. We also caught some walleye that day. The guide was a member of the famous Nisswa Guides League.

Bob Jones went South to catch two of the biggest bass a bellyboy ever caught, at Disney World in Orlando in 1996. Keeping fish was strictly forbidden, but despite this hint Bob swears the fish weren't animatronic.

Polaroid photos for the Bellyboys by the guide.

One spring (probably 1996) Gary organized a trip in a houseboat on the Illinois River near Ottawa. Here Jim Masek demonstrates how hard you have to work if you're not the guy who has to maneuver the boat around 100-ton barges steaming relentlessly toward you. That job was shared by Paul and Don because, after all, they are both ex-Marines.

The Fox River in downtown Batavia is an unexpectedly beautiful place to pause for a little bass fishing. Here Jim Masek wades way out in his blue jeans, casting for smallmouth. On this outing he caught two on a crankbait pulled slowly against the current. Bellyboy Gary is always touting the great fishing in the Fox, most of which apparently happens when only he is there to witness it.

For Gary's advice about fishing the Fox, turn to the guestbook.

John caught this particularly nice Fox River smallmouth on May 15, 1994 behind Mouse House, in Silver Lake, Wis. Mouse House, so named by John's daughter Claire because of its interior wildlife, was a weekend getaway cottage co-owned by the Lux family until the middle '90s.
The Bellyboys often spent a winter weekend at Mouse House, using it as headquarters for ice fishing, or, if they were lucky and there was no ice, for dog racing and poker. One of the best ice fishing weekends in memory, according to Ski, consisted entirely of the Kenosha dog track, bowling, a supper club steak and poker, followed the next morning by a breakfast burrito and an Old Style.
Ah. Few have reached the epitome of Bellyboyhood the way Ski has.

Bellyboy photo by Paul Bauer