This morning we started our day saying goodbye to two of our meal mates and fishing buddies. Kim and Todd were heading back to Ohio. We had great conversations about fishing, temper tantrums, trucker convoy’s,
This morning we started our day saying goodbye to two of our meal mates and fishing buddies. Kim and Todd were heading back to Ohio. We had great conversations about fishing, temper tantrums, trucker convoy’s, insurrections and the right to bear arms. We will miss them for sure. Brimming with anticipation and confidence we headed back out on the lake, for a bright, hot sunny day. I was DETERMINED that today would be the day! Chris caught a 19 inch walleye on his 2nd cast, this strong start to the day was pretty misleading, because after that first catch we fished, and fished and fished to no avail. Apparently fish don’t bite when it’s hot. Or when it’s cold. Or cloudy. Or when we are around. Something exciting finally happened. Chris saw 5 eagles in the trees and Max steered us so we would drift under the eagles and get a close up look. Once we got closer though we could see they were all seagulls. No complaints though, this 5 seagulls were the highlight of morning. We went to the point on Cemetery Island and Chris caught a pike! My pic makes it look like the fish is better at smiling for the camera than Max.
We went back to the waterfall (which we call Pee Island, because no one does that off the boat anymore!) and Max’s first cast hit the reeds. He complained his line had a knot up by the pole. We were so busy looking at his pole we didn’t realize he caught a fish! A 16 inch walleye. Two fish for the freezer today!! This was quite the place to fish because I had my first catch! Now, it wasn’t a fish or anything but I caught a fishing line! I wanted to do my part to clean up our lakes so I started pulling the line in the boat. And pulling and pulling. It was nice braided line and there was so much of it. I had lots of it pulled in then Max got a snag. Chris tried to help him sort out the snag and I just kept pulling and pulling. Max then realized I caught HIS line and I was pulling it straight off his reel and leaving it tangled all over the boat, around my feet, my fishing pole, tackle box etc. I figure a couple more minutes and I would have caught a Max!
We were so hot we headed back to the lodge with a couple of unfruitful stops along the way. Our dinner mate Rob caught 4 trophy fish today. AHHHHH! We figured out we needed help so we booked a guide for tomorrow and asked the owner Eric where to fish tonight. He gave us very clear directions. Chris took us out there with his navigation app and Max was reading the paper map. The whole time Max was telling me “we are going the wrong way mom, it is over there to the left”. Being the amazing host he is, Eric met us on on the water and redirected us to exactly where Max had been pointing to! Max just smiled and nodded and didn’t say a word. It is so great that he didn’t need to prove to anyone but himself that he knows how to read a map. We trolled between 2 islands and Max and I saw a huge fish jump right out of the water and twist in the air. It was spectacular. Chris wanted to head in but I insisted on trolling our way out of the channel. And it happened!! At first I assumed I got a snag (I had a lot of experience with snags by this point and it was all I knew) but then the snag moved and boom- there was a fish on my line. There was a lot of excitement. By which I mean screaming. I scream a lot when there are fish close to me. A little something we all learned on this trip. We were all standing in the boat, Max had the net in the water and I had a giant walleye. I got it right up to the boat and… my line snapped. We were all beyond words, totally crushed. We just stood in the boat in silence. I can’t believe I lost my first fish!! It was so nice that Max and Chris were as disappointed as I was, it took some of the sting out. Once we collected ourselves Max took over at the helm and took us home.
As I wrote this blog a very tired and frustrated Chris was re-stringing Max’s rod.
Donated to the lake: spoon, floating rapella which dove to 6 feet, Crankbait lure, 5 jig heads with plastic worms, two steel leaders, and a deep diver. (In my defence- I fished a lot today and that comes at a cost).
In case you are still keeping track, Cathy still has not caught a fish.