FISH CATCHING TRAVEL
It is 4 a.m. and of course I am up. The others are snoring the paint off the walls and I will let them sleep. Hell, they are a bunch of old men and might get tired after 14 days of this. So I thought I would add a few things before todays fishing. As you know from yesterdays report Clyde and John had a good day. He sent me these pictures and I wanted to share them with you. And if they are sideways let me know.
Clyde with a hoss of a smallmouth.
And after Shoedog started catching them on buzzbait John got in on the act.
One good musky.
A pretty fish.
Today we will be headed to Lake of the Woods. 65,000 miles of shoreline, 15,000 islands, it is a monster. You can almost always find a place out of the wind, usually to yourself. Some days we only see a couple of boats all day. It is one of the special fishing destinations on the face of the earth and I look forward to this all year. With the way the fishing is shaping up it looks like this trip may be one for the books, a truly epic time that makes up for all those other days we fisherman have. Today will be lots of spinnerbait and buzzbait with maybe a walleye or two tossed in.
Muskie Bay Resort, with Paul, Chris, and Jake, go the extra mile to keep it fun. Every evening there is fire dockside where folks get together and only the truth is told. But on a more realistic note it is so refreshing here, unlike the coast. It is all not some big secret, fishermen share information and techniques all with the same goal, lets all catch some fish. And a cold one fireside lets you meet the other guests, a nice touch.
We came in Friday while most guest come in Saturday. So when we got to the dock there were a bunch of folks having a cold one and sharing church stories, or something like that. There were some guys from Mtn Home, my old stomping grounds, that Clyde knew and a couple I knew from the old days. The crossing into Canada at International Falls is a mess and one group got turned around and started back into the US after crossing. When he turned around in no man’s land he caused an international incident. So here comes the border guys and they had to go back into the US and turn around and re-enter Canada. Then since he forgot to sign his passport he reached for a pen and ran into the back end of a new $85,000 Ranger and had a new international incident. They finally got back into Canada. So it was cross, re-cross, and cross again. But that got sorted out and they made it without ending up in jail. Great story.
Both Shoedog and Clyde play the guitar and sing and it was cool to lay in bed reading and be serenaded to sleep. Good times shared with friends, much less whacking some big fish, are times we get to share so rarely that you have to appreciate every day, and I do. It is the classic trip every fisherman should make at least once in their life. And speaking of that, Terry are you listening? You need to get your ass up here next year and bring that new boat, we will be happy to help break that sucker in. Plus we need a level head around here to keep these knuckleheads in line.
Time to get those bums up, I have waited as long as I can stand. It is completely light out and the birds are chirping. Coffee is on and I am ready to get after it. So when we get back tonight I will get todays report up. This is always an adventure doing these kinds of trips but this one is shaping up to be one of the great ones.
One For The Books!
Even though you often could not prove it by me, I have always said it is not all about the fishing. And today it wasn’t. Today will go down in my memory as one special day. The great outdoors is just that. So without further adieu!
I saw her and hollered at Shoedog, its a freakin’ bear, and we went towards her.
We thought we saw something else close.
She has a cub! And she was not happy to see us.
OMG! Twins.
I can not tell you how long I have wanted to see a bear in the wild. We first saw her from about 400 yards so we got the camera and headed towards her and then we could see the cubs messing around along the shore. As we idled to her her ears came up and she was not a happy camper. Then she kind of reared up, the cubs came running and off in the woods she went. What an experience! Ontario is a special place and seeing those bears made the whole trip. We had a feeling this would be an epic trip, and it sure is headed that way.
Today we went over to Lake of the Woods for a change of pace. Shoedog and I have fished here several years now and had plenty of places we wanted to try. First up it was a big cove but we struck out. The next cove we started catching fish, and other than 2 places we caught them off and on before the weather ran us off. It was forecast to rain early morning, then clear, then thunderstorms in the afternoon. The problem was it was supposed to blow 25+, and as the day wore on it did, and more, before we called it a day around 4.
We were looking for a few for a fish fry so we kept 2 small smallmouth, a perch, and a nice walleye. For the day we easy caught 40 plus small pike and bass, with one walleye. Shoedog had another big musky follow him to the boat but not hook up. He stayed with a swim jig and paddle tail most of the day, I alternated with jerkbait and spinnerbait. He was reeling the the swim jig in through some reeds in the back of a cove when he had a bite. His luck continues.
This is a flat out monster largemouth for Canada.
The Shoedog is having a fishing trip of a lifetime. He said it can only go downhill from here, but I doubt it. Tomorrow we are off to Stevens Bay for some walleye, hopefully we can put a few keepers in the boat for the folks in Texas. Nothing like fresh walleye, and tonight’s supper was proof of that.
One of the better pike we caught today.
Clyde and John had it a little slower than we did but still caught fish. Lake of the Woods is so big it takes a little time to develop a pattern for the bigger fish, but with 11 days left to go we will figure it out. In the next couple of days we are headed to Bear Bay for smallmouth. Way the hell and gone on LOW, our last spring trip there we caught around 150 up to 5 pounds, it is one fine fishing hole. So the trip goes on. We caught a bunch today and it really has a feel like something great is going to happen, again. After the storm blew through it cleared off and is sunny and cool. After reaching the high 70’s today it will top out at 58 or so tomorrow. Like I said bring it all, the weather here treats you to all mother nature has to offer. And I would like to thank her for sharing the bears with us, what an experience. And look out, cool weather or not, the Shoedog is on a roll and I can’t wait to see what in the hell he does next. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines.
