Diary of a madoutdoorsman from INDIANA: Vacation and this week

Well let's start with this week, this week I didn't do anything. I'm waiting on parts for the boat, I've got to do some work on the engine, and on top of that I woke up Monday morning with a terrible cold. So, I've been doing nothing but sleep and sleep and eat that's all I've done this week.

So let's talk about my vacation...

I left on Monday morning and got to town on Monday afternoonish, I visited with Mom and Dad for a little bit went to bed got up Tuesday. After I got everything situated Dad and I went shooting Tuesday night with the family, I shot horribly. It was windy, I have no excuses I think I got to get my eyes checked. Tuesday there was some some talk about walleye's being caught down on the bay. Dad and I had already picked up Lance's boat, Shout out to Lance for allowing Dad and I to borrow the boat when I'm home.

Wednesday, I went down to Recon the bay and to see if I could catch any fish down there, so I knew where to start when Dad and I went on Thursday.

I managed to catch a keeper walleye

and one catfish

Well at least I had an idea bout where to start.

Thursday, Dad and I went out in the morning and we fished for probably four or five hours and we each caught one keeper a piece and we had a couple throwbacks so it was a really good day. Until we got back to the landing... this is when we found out that we got a ticket for no launch permit. Long story short this launch is in Wisconsin and all improved launches in WI are pay to put. Well I kinda got the gist of that when I was looking up the launch on google maps. The thing was I was looking for a pay box and there was none in sight. So we just went fishing like I did the day before. Come to find out there is a sign that says to pay at a couple different spots including the gas station on the way back to the ramp. So I called to contest the ticket and the ticket lady got back with me and after listening to the whole story she cancelled the ticket. Thursday night I went out on Lake Superior with my Uncle Dave my brother and my cousin Peter. We managed to hook into one small lake trout which Jason reeled in, one Coho which Uncle Dave reeled in, and a mystery fish that Peter got to the back of the boat before it came unbuttoned.

perfect rectangle?

Friday, Jason and I went back down to the bay, we had some newly found intel from Uncle Dave. The trick was to troll perch colored cranks, we started off trolling a little bit of everything else but ended up with one perch color crank on every rod. We not only caught our limit of 2 a piece but we had many throwbacks. It didn't take us all day to get limit, but it was a little breezy so as soon as we limited we headed for the dock.

one more to go

Saturday, I went out to my cousin Chris's place on Prairie Lake and fished with my cousin Corey and his daughter Addy who loves to fish. We had a great time and we fished from I don't know... 4ish until dark got numerous pike, some largemouth, Corey and Addy caught some perch, they also caught a couple rock bass apiece.

This guy crapped on me... hence the face

remember: it takes a really good fisherman to catch a fish that small.

I forgot all about this pic when I was writing this. When we were done fishing, we did the death march up the steps only to find Aunt Renae chillin' at the campfire with the rest of the fam.

Nope no bugs here.

I went to the falls Sunday afternoon, Jason (my cousin Jessie's husband)

and I fished all day Monday on Ontario side of Rainy. I think he was prepping for the Fort Frances Bass Tourney.... (Good luck Jason). I hate to admit it, but he knows what he's doing. It was the most consistent large smallmouth bite I've ever had on Rainy.

All these pics are of different fish, all taken in one day.....

this guy had the lure pinned in his mouth by the front of the lure and the back hooks

Pretty awesome day

Thanks for taking a day off to take me fishing Jay.

Tuesday I went over to the dent shop and got a new battery mom's van. The battery that was in the van was poopy and the owner Steve Joslyn took some time out of his day and hooked me up. After catching up with Steve for a while, I headed across the border to take a look at the cabin.

I heard that Barry had done some work on the place so I wanted to see what he did. He did do some work but nothing worth mentioning. I also wanted to go up and see Lyle, he was one of the guys on the bay that stayed year round. After saying hi to Lyle I headed back to the border and of course the border patrol asked all their questions. Even though I answer them truthfully I failed and they had me pull up to the left and sit inside. Well, they ended up tossing my Mom's van which I found amusing. The saddest part was I looked over and I saw my mom's miniature ironing board leaned up against the van with these two guys going through her stuff. After they had all the stuff put back in the van, the officer that was talking to me but came back in and in a very dejected voice said,"your free to go." As I was getting my stuff together and grabbing for the handle to go back out side I said,"you know my mom's going to giggle her ass off when I tell her you guys tossed her van." The guy looked at me and said," what did you say?", so I looked at him and said in a much louder or more stern tone,"my mom is going to laugh her ass off when I tell her you guys tossed her van." Now of course there's a whole inner story to all this but that's those are the highlights. I tell the truth every time I get to the Border and they don't like the truth, so they want to toss the van or the car or whatever I'm driving....Can't wait 'til next year. 👍 Tuesday afternoon I was on the way home and everything was flooding up in the north country.

These are the pics that I've got of that...

I got home Tuesday night right before the storm really set in. Wednesday I had to run to Duluth to return something from Marine General, Mom and Dad where pretty busy that day also. Thursday I jumped in Dad's truck, hooked up the boat and headed over to Chub Lake, which is only 20 minutes away? I gotta say it was a super fun day, I didn't catch anything big but I was rippin' lips all day.

That wasn't even all the pics.... I just hammered 'em all day. If I went more than 5 minutes without a bite I thought I was doing something wrong.

Friday Jason and I headed out to a lake he likes to fish called Island lake. We had another great outing caught alot of fish even though the weather was a little damp, cold and windy.

Osprey

I was wearing the life jacket to keep the wind off me, I forgot my heavy windproof jacket. We fished around the lake then trolled back to the launch and left out by 4pm? Then Saturday I headed back out to fish with Corey for the day. Once again we had a really good day, we went out early went back in had breakfast and headed back out again until the rain really took ahold.

my personal best on this lake with a 28"? pike

Anyway we had another really fun day on the lake, and after the rain set in we headed in to Chris's cabin to dry off and chat. After we had lupper I had to head out and see their mom before I left, it's always a visit I have to make. When I noticed Renee and Tom nodding off and yawning I noticed it was 11 something and time to get home. I got up Sunday and planted a flag pole in the front yard, at least I thought it was Sunday, anyway I didn't get a pic but I'll get one next year. Then Monday Jason, his daughter Breanna and myself made one more trip to the bay. This was kinda special because it was Breanna's first fishing license.

Then the first fish, PB on walleye 22", and pike 38"