Is bad medicine ever good for you?
By Ron ScharaIs bad medicine ever good for you?
Well, if you're an angler, the answer is an unqualified yes. I even know an attorney, Jim Fetterly, who'll swear before any piscatorial judge and, with a straight face, declare that bad is good.
So begins a fishing story about a day on Bad Medicine Lake.
First, you can hardly get there from here on a straight road. The lake is tucked in a corner of Minnesota's Becker County in White Earth State Forest. If you find the lake, that's good.
| “ | My fishing rod is gone. ” | |
| — Ron Schara blurted at Bad Medicine Lake. But whether it was a bad thing or a good thing remained to be seen. |
It was Fetterly's idea to find Bad Medicine. He said his buddy, John Joy, of DL (that's Detroit Lakes, Minn.) would act as a guide.
He said Joy was a skilled fisherman, although, he said he'd never admit that to Joy.
"What's so good about Bad Medicine," I asked. (Actually, I didn't really use that clever question, but I insert it here as editorial license insofar as I do have an attorney by my side.)
"Trout," Fetterly said. "It's a wonderful lake for trout fishing, rainbows of all sizes. When Joy and I go there we almost always catch a limit."
Fetterly wasn't under oath, but I believed him.
We arrived in good shape at Bad Medicine to a public access busy with boats going in. "This is nothing," Joy said. "Usually the parking lot is completely packed."
Clearly, Bad Medicine's trout fishing is no secret. The DNR turned Bad Medicine into a trout lake in 1977, following an explosion of native crayfish that eliminated the vegetation used by bass and panfish.
Roughly 16,000 rainbow trout are stocked annually, including Kamloops and Madison strains.
A lake 4 miles long with a maximum depth of 84 feet offers plenty of fishing space. Joy pulled into a spot he'd found rainbows on an earlier trip. A dozen other boats were drifting around the same spot. We anchored in about 40 feet of water and prepared rods with livebait rigs, tipped with No. 12 salmon egg hooks.
Fetterly opened a jar of Berkley trout Powerbait and rolled a gob into a dough ball. He buried the tiny hook and lowered his corn-colored offering into the depths.
Joy reached for a plastic sack of canned corn, hooked two kernels and dropped it to the bottom.
Let us pause here. Frankly, I've never figured why a respectable fish, especially a trout, would inhale corn like some Iowa hog. But they do.
"Got one," Joy said.
By the time Joy caught his second plump rainbow 13 to 15 inches long, I opened my mouth and said something I thought I'd never say in a fishing boat: "Pass the corn."
Soon, everybody was catching rainbows, including Fetterly who refused to lower his fishing bait values to corn.
And then the strangest thing happened. …
I was helping Fetterly unhook his slippery rainbow when, suddenly, we heard a splash and wondered what made it?
"My fishing rod is gone," I blurted, in disbelief. Actually, it wasn't mine; the outfit belonged to Fetterly's son. Fetterly was quick to point out it was an expensive rod and reel.
I hurried to cast a heavy spoon in hopes of snagging the lost fishing rod when Joy, fishing on the opposite side of the boat, said he had a fish on. Well, sort of. Joy pulled up to reveal that my lost fishing rod and reel was tangled in his line.
It was a good thing that was about to get better.
Joy grabbed my wayward fishing rod and shouted, "There's a trout on your line."
Indeed, there was. The largest trout of the day, 21.5 inches long.
So, now you know why Bad Medicine is good for you.
Ron Schara may be reached at ron@mnbound.com.
Schara's new 250-page book, "Ron Schara's Minnesota Fishing Guide" (Tristan Outdoors; $19.95) is available by clicking here or by calling (888) 755-3155.
July through September 2003, Ron Schara's show "Backroads with Ron & Raven" airs at 8:30 a.m. ET Sundays on ESPN2, while his short feature of the same title runs Saturdays on ESPN2 at 7:55 a.m. ET. Click here to view this week's show descriptions.
