Jodi, Steve & Scott are in Minnesota on vacation; getting away from the heat of the southwest for a few weeks and we are happy to have them with us for some of that time.

Fishing is good and we have been out to the lake to take advantage of  it.  On Monday, Steve, Scott & I fished the outside of Pine Island during the middle of the day; caught a limit of nice eaters and released that many or more. We were drifting in eight to fifteen feet of water using a spinner with a shiner. Pink and hammered gold seemed to be the best colors. Wednesday evening after the Take-a-Kid Fishing event; Jodi, Steve and I went to the lake and fished from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the same general area using spinners, shiners and some crawlers. We kept nine nice walleyes, three saugers and released several small ones. Jodi, however, had the hot hand. She caught and released walleyes of 19″, 21″, 23-1/2″ and 31″. I’ve had that old boat a long time and that’s the largest walleye that’s ever been in the boat.

Jodi with her 31″ walleye; a beautiful fish

Scott with a nice 16″ walleye

Willard and I tried pulling plug again on Friday for a couple hours, and except for a real nice 27-1/2″ walleye Willard caught on the outside of Pine Island fishing with plugs wasn’t good. The fish we  caught were small and we kept one walleye and one sauger.

Willard with a nice 27-1/2″ walleye

It should be the time of the year when pulling plugs is an effective way of getting a few walleyes, but I don’t think that we are quite there yet. Willard and I have been out a couple times this week and pulled plugs around Four-Mile-Bay and on the outside of Pine Island with limited success. Neither time have we got a limit to bring home, but we have gotten some nice eaters. The first trip out Willard caught one in the slot and I caught a nice small mouth bass.

I understand the hot ticket is to be out in front of the Lighthouse Gap about four miles anchored up in 30 feet of water using jigs tipped with a minnow. Zipple Bays is supposed to be good, also.

Willard with one to big to keep

A nice smallmouth bass

Jonathan, Allison, Rachel & Britta are here for a nice long weekend and they brought great weather with them. They got here and were able to meet uncle Noie and Janice before they left for home. Thursday evening Noie, Janice, Jonathan, Rachel and I fished by the mouth of Baudette Bay for a couple of hours. I was pleasantly surprised; we must have caught twenty walleyes and saugers; most of them small and were released, but we kept a few eaters and Janice had one that was 17″. Rachel caught her first walleye; it was small and she had no trouble releasing it. On Friday morning Jonathan, Allison, Rachel and I fished the same area for just over an hour. Rachel caught two northern in the 20″-25″ range that we released and two walleyes; one 18″.   But, it gets better. This morning the four of us fished the river for about an hour with Jonathan catching a eater and Rachel catching a small northern and two walleyes; a nice eater and a dandy 21″ that she released. On one of the northern she caught the previous day she said she needed help, but we didn’t give her any; she hooked and brought in those fish all on her own. She handled that new rod that we made her this past winter just like an old pro.

Rachel’s first walleye

Rachel with a dandy 21″ walleye

My uncle Noie and his wife Janice are here visiting from Michigan’s U.P. Everybody knows that we are not having summertime weather, but we are dodging some light rain showers and fishing the river in the late afternoons. Tuesday evening we caught about ten walleyes and saugers, but kept only three eaters. The excitement came, however, when Janice hooked and with Noie’s assistance, they caught a 45″ sturgeon. Wednesday we caught eight nice eaters in a couple hours before dark.  We’ve had a nice fish fry and are looking forward to the next couple of days.

Noie with the 45″ sturgeon that Janice and he caught

Janice with a nice Rainy River walleye

Daughter Julie took a break from work and all those daily family activities to go with Diane to a 8oth birthday party for Diane’s mother in ND. They have returned to Baudette and Julie will be here for a couple of days before flying back home.  It gave Julie and I a chance to go fishing together. We both tried to recall the last time that just the two of us went fishing and came to the conclusion that it was a long, long time ago.

Thursday, after lunch, we put the boat in and went up river and anchored in about 15′ of water. There was a cold front coming in and the weather was changing, but it was nice for the two hours or so that we fished. For the middle of the afternoon the fishing was quite good. We were using spinners with shiners; hammered gold seemed to be the color that worked best. We caught about 15 walleyes; kept a limit of nice eaters and released the others. Julie kept track and claims that she caught eight. That’s the story of my life; the women in my family always catch more fish than I do.

Julie with a nice walleye