The Competition was Fierce on the Cobham this week!

This past week I flew the Brad H., Brent C., and Micheal B. Party into Daniels. During their orientation, Brad proceeded to present James with a card stating that he was a member of the 40 inch club. James and Brad are the only members, and this is a pretty exclusive club. The holder does not have to do dishes and other various chores around the camp! The others in the party thought that it kind of sucks since they all have had Northerns that have measured 39 inches in the past! They also have a plaque for the largest walleye and northern. This year Heath took the walleye award with a 24 and 1/2 incher, caught in the first hour, and Peter had the largest northern measuring 36 inches. The Northern prize was a heated competition, with the lead changing hands many times, but Peter held on for the win. They will be back next year looking for their "40 inch Club card"





I don't mind Spiders but these monsters give me the Willies!


This Little guy I took to Jeanette the other day was Really excited. Him and his brother were swimming before I left while Grandpa got the fishin gear ready. It has been good swimming weather lately.



This is how you should pack!! Brent C. flew from Chicago to International Falls and had everything in one big suitcase(which he left in Red Lake cause it weighed 14 pounds) and repacked his clothes into a smaller bag before going on the Otter. Not his first trip thats for sure! Most people wear the same clothes almost all week, only changing underwear and socks(I hope) so you don't need too many changes of clothes.

Pictures of a Cherrington Gator!

Here are the pictures from the last group who fished Cherrington.

This one speaks loudly for itself!



Adam made sure the old girl was in good shape when she went back.



The Cutest teacher in Wisconsin, she could out fish any guy!!



The Northern who bite his tail like a dog!



Here is a nice Lake Trout.

Springpole Football Sized Walleyes

Today the weather was perfect! About 75 degrees with a nice west wind and a few clouds. I had one milk run today, Shearstone and Springpole changing over and people were smilin.

Springpole had a nice young family in there this past week and they were very impressed at how heavy the walleyes were compared to some other lakes they had fished in the past. Everyone who goes in there seems to notice how thick and fat they are. The food base in some Lake Trout lakes is very rich. A regular 22 inch walleye will fight and weigh considerably more than in most lakes. Jerry P. and his 2 sons caught an amazing amount of walleyes, the largest being a football shaped 28 incher! Many caught and released between 22 and 24 inches as well. They found that the majority of them were in 12 to 15 feet of water with some good numbers of smaller ones still in the rapids where the Crowmarty river flows in. Northern fishing was also good up in the river, the water is still quite high so getting up there is fairly easy yet. Largest Northern was 38 inches.

Shearstone lake water levels are normal when everywhere else is high. Kind of weird but that is fine with me. Phil P. and 3 of his buddies were there for the past 4 days and had a blast! Walleyes seemed to be on every windy point and sometimes right up against the weeds. Biggest walleye being a 25 inch and largest northern 39 and a half incher. They tried but could not stretch it to 40 inches.lol

Newsletter Emailed Out Yesterday

Here is a link to our latest newsletter that was sent out yesterday. If you did not recieve it and would like to get it in the future, please sign up on the right. Check it out!
2008 mid-summer newsletter

Another Huge Northern!

The Sanders Family have been fishing Cherrington Lake for a very long time, since Rena and I used to live there back in 1996. Adam was only 7 and Kimmie was 11. They are both adults now and very seasoned fishermen. (Sorry Kimmie) Still fishing with Mom and Dad every summer. Their oldest son Mike is getting married and was not to happy that they were up here having fun and he was at home working. Poor guy. He brought up his fiance Abby last year and they will return next summer! I am sure Kim and Adam will not rub it in how good the fishing was.

Now for the fishing report. I tell many guests that the more time you spend on a lake, the bigger the fish you will generally catch. This was true this week. The Sanders said that of all the years they have fished Cherrington, this was by far the biggest on average they have ever caught and way more northerns than usual. 25 inches was the largest walleye but there were an absolute ton of 23 to 25's. A number of them coming from the depths of the Big Lake in 60 feet of water! They were lake trout fishing and caught a couple nice trout but caught way more walleyes than trout. Scott said they almost looked like another species of walleye they were so fat and wide across the back. He said his forearms were getting really sore from bringing up those monsters from the deep!

Another funny story from this week was when Adam was bringing in an average 31 inch northern he went and jumped right out of the water, which makes for some excitement in itself. But this crazy fish decided to go and bite his own tail in the process! He bit it hard and could not let it go!

The fish of the week was caught by the Big guy who foots the bill! Kind of fitting I think. Scott and Adam were casting for Northern in Walleye Alley and came up Big..... "46 inch Big" They said it was an absolute crazy big fish. I hope to get a picture or two of that Hog!

The weather is very nice so far this week and hopefully it will stay that way for awhile. The water levels are still a little high and we could use some dry weather.

What were you doing at 5:15 this morning?

The days are definitely getting shorter now. My departure times are usually 5:30 but today I had a milk run on the first trip so I left a little early. There was 4 camps changing, Blackbirch, Vee Lake, The River and Loree Lake. All groups had an awesome time and will be back next year. Joe and his son, who were at Vee came all the way from close to Queens New York. They had never seen anything like this before. More walleyes than you can shake a stick at. And the Miller Party was at Blackbirch, a great group of people including David's Mom who is 84. She is making plans to be back next year and we look forward to seeing them again. Loree lake had Juan and Tim B. Party. Juan is a good friend of another guest of ours who goes to Blackbirch and is very well outfitted for the bush and I noticed on the way in that Henry had borrowed Juan a lot of his gear, because his name was on it:) Henry is due up here next week. Nice to have friends like that eh! These guys came from all over to meet up and go to Loree. Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, and Arizona I think, Hope I got it right. Anyways, they had a lots of young guys and they had a Blast. Making plans for the next trip.

Some old friends went to Vee today. Rob and Diane. Diane unfortunately broke her leg a few days ago and was bound and determined to make the trip. This is Rob's second trip, usually he goes to Loree where he entertains some clients from Denmark (where I am a celebrity apparently) :) I ended carrying Diane from the Otter to the picnic table. She was much lighter than a Propane tank. Rob commented that she should not expect that treatment all week.LOL But she was impressed how flat and level it was there and she would have no problems with getting around.

The best story today came from the Cobham River. The McDaniel Party was in there for 7 days and had seen it all, weather wise and fishing wise. They had 5 big Northerns come and attack fish that were already hooked. Landing just one of them but getting pictures of several still in the water.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Remember to click on them to enlarge them. The first 3 are from this morning as I gave Balmertown its wake up call. Nice sunrise today.



So smooth this morning I went all the way to the water on Blackbirch with out touching the controls, keeping her straight with only the rudder and trim.
Here are the Pictures from the River Boys

It sure is Amazing how fast the Summer goes!

Well... it just seems like we were opening camps and here we are at the beginning of August. Only a little better than 2 months to go in our season. Time flies when you are busy!

Today was another good day for flying and another bunch of happy fishermen. The S. Arnie Safari came out of Findlay Lake this morning after 7 days of good times and excellent fishing. The only thing missing was, Arnie? He was not able to make the trip, but his buddies had his share of fun in addition to their own! I am sure they will be rubbing it in a little when they get home. At one point they caught 207 walleyes in 5 hours down by the one tree island. There was way too many walleyes over 20 inches but the most notable one was a big 26 incher caught in the best spot on the lake, right where the river comes in on Russell Lake. The bigger fish are really turning on in the deeper water they reported. One guy had quite a morning one day too, he had 2-23's 2-24's and a 25 inch Walleye. That is pretty hard to beat. Needless to say, those dates are not available for next season!

Here are some pictures from a group who fished Vee Lake recently. I wrote about Anthony on July 24th and here are his fish. Way to go Anthony! Beautiful fish. Dad looked as happy as him.

Vee Lake Catch and Release Specialists

Here is a picture from some comical guys who returned from Vee Lake today. Walleyes were caught right off the dock and here it shows that they were true catch and release specialists, putting them back in better shape than they found them.LOL



Art and Jim did catch some Dandy fish though. A 26 inch Walleye shown here and also had a Huge Northern up to the boat but since they fish without a net, they released him without even bringing him into the boat.



They also said that in one spot for 3 hours it was non-stop fish after fish after fish.... At one point Art put 2 rods into the water and 2 times he had walleyes on each. Technically this is illegal to fish with more than one line but in this case he was not even able to keep up. His words were "what do I do" and Jim replied, "fish with only one"




We just took some people who travelled all the way from New York, I hope they do well. They should with the advice given to them by yours truly and mostly Art. A well marked map and even some extra jigs and tails from Art and Jim. This is the second time this week that I have seen departing fishermen giving tackle to the in-going ones. It is truly nice to see that people who had such a great time sharing information and doing their part to ensure the next people fishing our lakes do good as well. We appreciate that immensely, I know where the fish usually are but your best fishing report is from the people getting on the Otter when you get off. There are so many fish that people are not stingy with their spots like in some over populated lakes.

Until next time......