The Milwaukee Post

10 • Milwaukee County Post • May 12, 2017 Here's the 2017 winner of our Be Kind to Animals Week Cutest Pet PHOTO CONTEST! Cutest Pet PHOTO CONTEST Sponsored by: Sponsored by: Pet's Name: Ollie "This is Ollie, our 10 month old miniature Australian Shepherd. He loves long hikes and belly rubs" Owners Danielle & Emmanuel •Full Service Grooming •Full Line of Supplies & Gifts •Vet Recommended •Evening & Sat. Appointments •30 Years Experience Making The World a Happier Place, 4 Paws at a Time! Located in Layton Mart Mall 3068 E. Layton Ave. www.casualcaninepetgrooming.com free medi bath or toy (limited selection) with purchase of full grooming service Casual Canine Pet Grooming 3068 E. Layton Ave • St. Francis • 414-744-6930 Located in Layton Mart Mall With this coupon. Not valid with other offers or prior services. Gift Certificates Available Vendor/Craft Fair & Bake Sale Saturday, May 20, 10am-3pm Cudahy Library 3500 Library Ave. Cudahy 15+ Vendors, Raffles Bake Sale and more!!! All proceeds benefit the kitties! Visit our website at secondhandpurrs.org Second Hand Purrs Cat Shelter 255317112 For the last few years, we've taken a family trip down to Florida over spring break to chill out, do some fishing, and visit my dad and my stepmom, Winnie. This year was bittersweet because my son, Hunter, made the varsity baseball team as a sophomore, which was cool, but spring baseball meant that he'd have games over the vacation break and couldn't come (which wasn't so cool). It was his choice to stay back and I let him make it on his own. We did have some additional company for part of the trip. My brother-in- law, Glenn, and his wife, Dana Lazich, of Mukwonago, and their kids, Macie, 10, Grayson, 12, and Autumn, 14, joined us for the first leg of the journey. The first few days were spent fishing mainly on canals that were adjacent to the home we were rent- ing. I had done some research and figured out we'd have a reasonable chance at catching redfish, snook, catfish and maybe some sheepshead right in our own back- yard. We didn't catch anything overly big, but we had action from each of the species mentioned above. In fact, catfish were easy pickings by just putting a shrimp on the cork and letting her float. We ran out of shrimp one day, so I cut up some hot dogs and put a gar- lic and salt dry rub on them think- ing that catfish usually aren't that picky and will eat anything that stinks. After soaking the hot dog for a couple minutes I watched as Grayson patiently waited for movement on the bobber and soon enough the bobber slowly descend- ed and started up to the canal. "I got one," Grayson screamed. "It's big." While I had some pretty high- tech St. Croix rods and Shimano reels along, Grayson had hooked his cat with gear the rental had on the property, and the fish was doing its best to melt the nylon gears the reel had and break the composite rod with the broken-off tip. Grayson did well, initially. He was reeling in the beast as the fish stripped off drag. I coached him up a bit and let him know that if you reel when the drag is going out, all you're doing is twisting the line. I told him he needed to let the rod do some of the work and only reel in when the fish was allowing it. He caught on quickly. Glenn ran to grab the net and after about five long minutes net- ted the fish. The people enjoying cocktails across the canal from us watched the entire show and gave Grayson a standing ovation and cheers as we netted his biggest fish to date. Like the catfish, Grayson was now hooked. In fact, all the kids got in on the action. We caught a bunch on my ad-hoc catfish bait and it was easi- er than messing with the shrimp. Score one for the freshwater Yankee! We then moved on to fish around the Englewood area around man- groves and clam beds. My dad drove his center console and we hit various spots with jerk baits, swim baits, grubs and some live bait. Wind made it tough for boat con- trol and high water made fishing some of Dad's "A" spots impossi- ble. Still, one particular clam bed was getting blasted by wind which meant baitfish would likely get pushed up on it. Dad eased me in and just worked the trolling motor for a little bit allowing me first cast to the spot. As soon as the lure hit (a lure Dad gave me for my birthday the day before) it was crushed. Based on the power of the fish, we were thinking a nice red or snook, but as the fish got closer to the boat we realized it was a speckled trout — a very large one. "That might be the biggest one I have ever seen caught," Dad said. "They get bigger, but that's the biggest one out of my boat." We released the fish. Dad esti- mated it to be in the upper 20-inch category. What amazes me every time I go down there is how violent the fish are. I mean, even the small ones strike with vengeance. One day, we got in the middle of a small feed- ing frenzy of snook in our canal and I was literally a little bit scared of what would happen if I fell in. But I wasn't so scared that I didn't tie on a topwater bait and watch it get crushed. I'm already looking forward to another trip, I just hope Slinger's baseball season switches to sum- mer ball so Hunter can come, too. (Dan Durbin writes an outdoors column for the Post. Call Durbin at 644-7940, or email him at ddurbin@bastdurbin.com if you have a story idea.) Sweet but salty spring break trip DAN DURBIN OUTDOORS

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