Summer Vacation 2017

I was able to get a 2 week vacation this year and by the end of it realized I needed a 3 week. I always thought 1 week was too short and that a 2 week would be perfect. It seems you just never have enough time on vacation, it just goes too quickly.
I had a first and a second this year. The first was seeing a black bear while going through Wisconsin. The second was seeing a black bear just as I got through Ft. Francis in Canada. I haven't ever seen a bear on the way home before, so that was pretty cool.
When I found out the whole family was camping the first week, I made plans to go to Rick's cabin in Canada for the first week.
I've only gone across the border twice by myself and only once post 9/11. That being said apparently if you drive for 16 hours and consume a couple Monsters you may be a bit.... wired. That's the only reason they needed to toss me at the border. I'm still waiting for my "I got tossed at the border" hat.
So I finally got across the border and made it to the cabin around 9:30pm. I had something to eat before I left Rick and Beth's. All I had to do was get my gear in the cabin and get ready for the next day.
After I got done playing whack a skeeter for the first hour. I was sitting on the couch enjoying a beverage and watching a movie when something slammed against the window facing the lake. I gotta say it scared the crap out of me. I looked out to see the bird feeder swinging wildly on it's hanger. I continued to watch the movie when I heard a thud on the same window, when I got up to look this is what I saw.

Yep a flying squirrel, they showed up around 10-10:30 every nite

 So the next morning when I got up and got around to start fishing and this guy was waiting on his breakfast.

 Rick didn't want me to feed the chipmunk













 So I told him to bring me peanuts every morning. 😈

and he did.........







This is what I woke up to the first morning.

boy this is going to be a rough vacation

I started everyday in the mid am hunting for my "slotter".  Once I caught him and was assured brunch, I would start fishing for fun.

First Rainy Lake Muskie

























 I wasn't ready for a fish this big so I didn't have anything ready....no net, pliers, tape, nor camera. I wish I was able to get a pic of me holding this guy; these pics just don't do him justice.
He was BIG.

Slow to go but he made it.

 This King shad was one of the four main lures I used to catch many of the fish on this trip.

 I can't believe these guys ate this king shad. As it turns out there were many fish that ate this lure this week, including that muskie

This was my second biggest walleye at 21" on the last day off Kirby's point.

 Everything ate the King shad

This guy was also off Kirby's point

 I did get some top water action when I was up with both the smallies and pike.

 See all the line? I cast my lure into a small pocket that had some wood in the water. I hooked up with this smally, set the hook and popped the line. That was a brand new lure so I got on the trolling motor and got over where the fish hit. I saw the fish swimming around with the lure, saw the line trailing behind him and was able to grab it and get my lure back.

The pike and a couple smallies were hitting this topwater lure, it's kinda a hybrid spinnerbait

 Then there were all the fish that ate my jig/paddle tail combo

I caught some great smallies on this trip....

this is how I caught and culled my slotters

 and a lot of walleye.

this is the biggest bass of the trip

  The weather was really good, only had one partial day of rain which we fished through.
 There was one day I couldn't make it out to fish all day. I did get out in the morning but by mid afternoon it was blowing pretty hard into the bay.

Rick and I finished putting the paneling on a wall in the cabin, and when we were done with that I caught this guy.

You might notice I was pretty happy with him. I ran all the way up the dock and asked Rick to take the pic.
That's the last time I go fishing without my camera at the ready. One would think I would have learned my lesson by now.

The rest of the days looked like this:

  I took a couple hours out of one of the days to go over to tunnel bay.

As I was using the ceiling to navigate through the tunnel I was just hoping that I wouldn't grab a hold of anything furry.

So...... getting over to tunnel bay was the best part about tunnel bay. I thought I would really be able to catch some monsters over there. With the access being fairly limited it looked as though I was the only one to fish this lake all year. Once I got to the other side and started fishing I heard a faint, "hi". I thought I was hearing things because I didn't see another boat when I first entered the lake. Then I heard it again, "hi" I looked around and saw a couple kids in a paddle boat just starting to go back through the tunnel. With my hopes dashed of this being a "virgin" lake I started casting the wind blown shore.

This was one of my "go to" lures of the trip (not the perch)

Someone put alot of work into cutting a hole through this rock, under the railroad tracks to a body of water that grows some of the smallest fish.  I bet they were disappointed when they started catching fish there too. 😭

My two biggest walleye were caught in "awesome bay", I'm going to call it that because it was an awesome place to fish. I caught most of my fish on this trip there.

My biggest was 25"

this was my third biggest at 19"

 I caught both of these fish on that lure from the pic at tunnel bay, it was one of the all-stars of the trip.

There were a pair of Loons that kept me company in awesome bay

This years all stars

As with everything all good things must come to an end and this week was no different. I had an awesome week and the weather was perfect. The fishing was great and Rick made it up for most of the week which I really enjoyed. Rick would say the fishing was horrible (by his and Canadian standards he would be right) but for me it was awesome. I ate walleye every day, took a nap most days and caught a lot of fish; many of them were huge.

Thanks Rick, I had an outstanding time.

By the way.... remember that lure I got back after the line broke? I was using it on my last day in the last minutes before heading in for the night and had a smally hit it and broke my line. I was just a couple cabins down from Kirby's and lost that lure. I docked the boat and briefly saw the fish with the lure securely attached to him swim away. So if you can catch that fish and get that lure don't use it anymore it's cursed and will only make you cry.

Next it was back to the states and spending some time with Mom and Dad. For the second year in a row when I got to the house no one was home. I just don't get retired people, do what they want when they want even when their son comes home to visit.

Anyway once I broke into the house, and man what a beautiful house, I waited for the fam to get home. Turns out Dad was shooting and Mom was out playing mahjong. When they got home we started to make plans for the week.
Wednesday Dad and I went to Gander to look around for some deals. I found a camo knife set that was the first in the cart. Dad pushed that cart around for the next hour as we found crap to fill it up with. Then we paid for said crap (no exchange and no returns) and loaded it into the van and headed home. Once we got home and I started unloading the crap my heart sank as I noticed the camo I had selected was pink.  Neither Dad nor I noticed that it was not green camo but pink. I tried to sell them to my Mom but that didn't work.  I had Jason wrap them up for Dad for Father's Day..... that didn't work either. So I hit every Gander on the way home and finally found one that had them and would exchange them.  Oh Happy Day

Thursday we went up to Reg's cabin and fished the latter half of the day. Dad and Reg caught a couple walleye, crappie and pike.
I caught this largie, a keeper pike and a perch.

caught a nice bass at Reg's lake

 Thanks Reg, I had a great time.

I think we had the get together on Friday, everyone showed up. I had some lures for my Uncle Dave and since I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to make it out on the big lake. I gave him the lures I got for him. That's when he mentioned going out on Sunday morning weather providing.

Saturday Corey had the walleye tourny he fishes every year. The last time we fished it was 4? years ago we weighed a fish but didn't place. This year we fought hard all day to catch fish trolling stickbaits, then finally started dragging bait and put some fish in the boat. The biggest (a 16incher) came with only minutes left to make it to the weigh-in, after we measured it we knew it wouldn't place. So we packed in our gear and headed to the landing. It was another great day of fishing and we had a really good time.

Thanks Corey, maybe next years our year.
Shout out to Addy for cutting my hair..... Thank you.

After I got back to the house we went over to Diana and Jay's for Father's Day supper. They live right next door to Mom and Dad it was the first time I was in their new house. They also have a beautiful house then when we were done eating they came over to get the tour of Mom and Dad's house. Mom and Dad just moved into the house themselves not too long before I got there. Dad and I actually had to put the futon together so I had someplace to sleep.

 Sunday morning the lake was calm and the wind was from offshore so I called Dave and he said, "it was on". So I made it down to his boat and got it set up to fish before he and his son Peter along with Pete's two kids showed up. Once they got there it was game on. We steamed out onto Lake Superior and started setting lines. Dave had been out the day before and got into some silver so we headed to where they were catching 'em. It took a while but we finally had a rigger fire. Dave grabbed the pole and gave it to Isaiah to reel in.

Isaiah and Lilly with the first laker

 The next to go was a board line we figured that would be a Coho, but it was fighting really weird. I couldn't feel any head shake.

Yep I caught a stick

Then we had another board line fire and that turned out to be another laker.

Then when we were pulling lines Dave popped the rigger and was letting it drift up, when he got slammed by yet another laker. So that gave us 3 lakers and a stick for the day, not too bad.

Thanks Dave, keep those grand kids fishing.

When I got back home it was time to start packing up and getting ready to head out. I was on my way over to Jason's when Mom called to let me know Chris was at the house. So I turned around and headed back to the new house to see him and his kids. Then back over to Jason's before I had to go to bed and get some sleep before the trip back to IN. Anyway, when I got up the next morning, Mom did a walk through to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything and then it was time to hit the road.

So let me just say THANKS to everyone for letting me impose for the couple weeks I was home. I really enjoyed seeing everyone and spending time with you. And if I missed you this year start planning for next year, if I have my way it will be the same two weeks. Hopefully in the same order of events so until then, take care, lotsa love, and be safe.