DULUTH, Minn. _ A green frog burped. Somewhere down the lake, a loon wailed. Duluth's Travis Kaai winged another cast into a flotilla of lily pads.
Kaai, 31, and his bass-fishin' buddy Joe Ranua, 19, both of Duluth, were flinging soft plastic toads and salamandery creatures into and atop the dense mat of pads on this small lake south of Duluth. It was a recent Tuesday afternoon, and they had the place almost to themselves.
Kaai brought his passion for bass fishing north with him when he moved here from Oklahoma four years ago. Ranua picked up the habit when he started fishing with Kaai.
The anglers fish bass often on several largemouth bass lakes in the Duluth area. Yeah, they know that walleyes rule in this neck of the woods. Ranua chases them on the St. Louis River, spring, fall and winter. But now, in early August, the two focus on chunky largemouths that live in the pads, or coontail vegetation, or along the edge of rushes _ anyplace a bass can ambush an unsuspecting bluegill or crappie.
Already, they have a 4-pound bass swimming in Ranua's livewell. Ranua had caught it not long after they began fishing in late afternoon. They saved it only for a group photo later in the evening, assuming the fish would have some company.
