week-10 wrap up

Good morning RSL Family! Week 10 Wrap-Up! We completed some projects this week albeit with assistance. The RSL sign down by the waterfront has been replaced with a new stunning scene! So nice we are going to make it the new RSL Logo. Now to get it digitized so we can use it more effectively. I think everyone will agree that its spectacular and embodies everything Rocky Shore Lodge! Thanks Sara! Shawn climbed up on the roof of the Beach house and dragged me up also and in 2 days we got her a new roof! I forgot a pack of shingles weighs a touch more than it did 10 years ago, or so it feels like it when humping them up a ladder. We’re approaching the staining season quickly so if you are coming up still this summer and fall you will probably see Harvey and I slinging stain when people are out catching fish.

The Original Rich Award is being handed out to everyone who unknowingly feeds our resident raven. We had some new guests in Cabin 2 and Cabin 4 this week. Cabin 4 provided Rick, Gary C-3, and I with a good laugh! While the C-4 crew was up playing bags/corn hole we were watching the Raven gorge itself on Red licorice! Rick looked at me and said does that look like licorice? I said holy cow yes it does. I asked the guys if they like Red licorice, and they of course said yes. I yelled up to them the Raven does also! Talk about a RAVENous appetite! Half a bag was left in the boat, and when the guys went down to check all that was left was an empty bag of what was licorice! This morning Harvey was gassing boats and the guys up in P2 unknowingly fed the Raven Cheez its! As funny as this is we hate to see the Raven going from boat to boat and cabin to cabin for its meals so…. Try and remember not to leave snacks in the boats and outside the cabin when you aren’t there as the Raven will and I repeat will find them. I watched a bag of Doritos take flight on Week 2 it was impressive to say the least. We have discovered chocolate is not a desired treat for the Raven.

Steve from Cabin 1 was going to make the Award list as he always seems to be an accident waiting to happen, but I figured sticking a treble hook in his finger was a bit too painful to award him. On a side note he removed the hook by himself while James held his finger and never flinched. I asked how bad it was he said wasn’t bad at all. Not the first time he’s caught himself. Speaking of hooks…

Public Service Announcement: Please do not put hooks or lures into your trash can.

Harvey discovered a musky lure this morning taking the trash out as he almost got it impaled in his thigh. Fortunately, it caught the back of the light on the truck first alerting Harvey it was there. If you are getting rid of a ruined lure, please please cut the hooks and make it safe for disposal. I would hate for one of us to find it the bad way or for a bear to step on a treble hook in the dump.

The Walleyes are hanging on the humps and deeper points. Fishing in the 15 to 20 foot range has been good this week again with the weed walleye in shallower. We had a group of perch anglers up catching walleyes in their normal perch places. Slip Bobber fishing has been excellent, and a simple dead stick presentation have been excellent. Lazy summer days and lazy style of fishing has been providing lots of walleye meals, and take home fish. So good in fact I gave the new guys a couple spots to go to on Day 1 and they caught fish all week without asking me for new spots. I fished last evening a touch with my better half Julie, and family. The leeches worked of course but the crawlers outfished the leech bite. Something to think about as the summer wanes. Minnow bite will be switching back over in the next few weeks without a doubt!

Speaking of new guys! Cabin 2 crew who did well this week lost a fish to a seagull! Dakota caught a Smallie, and it was a small smallie. Micro Fish material from what I’ve been told. He tossed said smallie back into the lake and it struggled a bit on the water when a seagull dove down on the smallie grabbed it and accidentally grabbed Dakota’s line since the bass was right next to the boat. Seagull took flight and Dakota tried to get his line away from the seagull without any luck. Seagull was brought in by now an avian angler and his brother Tanner grabbed the seagull by its leg to free it from its monoline anchor. Seagull (Not Jonathon Livingston) did not care for Tanner grabbing it and bit him. Tanner released the fish grabbing winged bird and it took off again with line around it. They cut the line and freed the seagull to fly again away from the boat and hopefully a tad smarter. No animals were hurt during this event but lots of laughter ensued!

A big thanks to Charlie this week! He is up here for two weeks in a row and his first gang had to leave on Wednesday leaving him alone in Cabin 6. No problem as he volunteered to take out our two seniors this week Shirley and Linda and showed them walleye fishing! The ladies caught over 50 walleyes and Charlie said he was busy netting, and baiting hooks and hardly dropped a line in the water. When we talk about the RSL Family this is what it is all about! One of the ladies caught a 26-Inch walleye as a personal best and got a picture on Charlie’s lap with it. I’m hoping to get that photo for this week’s blog. Charlie has already lined up a Walleye fishing date with both Shirley and Linda for next year! Speaking of Charlie he brought up two picnic tables for one of the shore lunch spots. He took some tools and wood and he and his buddies made one of our shore lunch spots a much nicer place for everyone to enjoy! More to follow next week!

Small mouth fishing easy again this week. As the Walleyes were hanging deep during the midsummer afternoons’ anglers moved in on Perch and Smallies with great success. The problem I have is where those elusive perch are hanging out. It’s different everyday and in order for you to find them you have to do some work and if you find them know they are going to move around, and you will need to keep chasing them in the bays and grassy areas. We had some nice perch brought in and some football sized bass also!

We had a few muskies boated this week from C-1 and C-6 the largest being Bruce with a 38-Inch. Zero dedicated musky anglers this week so not a lot on that front.

Shirley, Linda, Lynn, Una, Erin, Jay, Don, and Brian were chasing Perch this week, and caught some really nice eaters! Jay stated you had to keep on em to get them, but they had a lot of fun this week. They also enjoyed catching weed walleyes while Perch fishing!

Week 10 Monster/Micro Fish tournament results: Another Sunday tournament in the books. We had a lot of Walleyes being recorded today and quite a few Micro seekers! Newcomer Roe from C-6 took the Walleye Prize with a very healthy 25-Inch Walleye! I awarded James from C-1 with a 22.5-Inch Pike but on further review after he sent me the picture on the bump board, I'm thinking the pike grew as it clearly shows 25.5-Inches. I probably heard him wrong, and he did win a hat regardless of such nice job James! Newcomer Tanner boated and released a respectable 5-Inch Small mouth Bass to grab the Micro Trophy! The Beach house was full tilt boogie with zero seats to be had and thanks for everyone with the dishes for the BBQ! Congrats again to the winners!

Another fun week is in the books and we’re full tilt again this week with boats chasing walleyes, Muskies, and Bass. Tight Lines everyone!

Photos can be sent on Messenger, photo dropped on Friends of Rocky Shore Lodge, or emailed to fish@rockyshorelodge.com

week 9 wrap-up!

Good morning RSL Family! Week 9 Wrap-Up! Harvey and I were conversing this morning about the season, and how fast the season has been going! So many fish being caught and so much laughter and bantering back and forth with people (all in good clean fun of course) and it just makes the season fly by! We had some more youngsters up here (Jett and Grady) on family vacation and they became new friends. That is what this place is all about! If you happened to listen to Steve’s Video Log (VLOG) the week prior and he spoke about the chances of rain the weather guessers were correct. We didn’t have any bad Thunderstorms it seemed, but we had waves of rain roll through on several days, and I have to admit most of the guests had enough of the wet stuff by Thursday. With the low water level we need the rain and we need a lot more of it! All in all, we only got 1.3 inches or so, but a lot of the time it was just a slow steady rainfall.

The Original Rich Award was not handed out this week or at least I didn’t see or hear anything worthy of such an honorable mention!

We had a bunch of experienced anglers up here again this week chasing the Walleyes and we had a couple of days of weird wind and rain. Todd from C-2 told us the wind changed direction 3 times in one day and the bait balls were all over the place! The presentation that worked best was either a slip bobber rig, or a simple hook and split shot with very little movement or simply dead sticking. I was able to sneak out for an evening bite with Brian, Celeste, and Jett (Thank you Isabelle for giving up your seat). The bite was on and in a few hours, we caught and released 42 walleyes. The only reason I have the number is due to the fact they have a clicker in their boat. I boated their 200th fish for the week and felt kind of bad since Jett wanted to be the one. If I remember correctly, he caught the 300th fish this week so I’m sure the sting is gone. The fish are on the humps in about 20 feet of water mostly. Youngster Grady from P1 set the hook so hard on a perch the perch flew out of the water over his head and back in the lake on the other side of the boat! I wish I could have been there to witness that set! He was obviously expecting a huge fish on the other end of the line. Brian from P2 would hand Jett his pole for one reason or another and invariably Jett would catch a fish on Dad’s pole, and it kept happening throughout the week! Brian did land a 29-Inch Walleye on Thursday to finally beat out Celeste (wife) for the largest walleye of the week in their crew.

Small mouth fishing was excellent again this week and we’ve got quite a few pictures taken as the days were warming and the bass were being caught all over the lake in the late mornings and afternoons!

We had a few muskies boated this week from C-6 Alan and Dennis. Weed growth has been slower this year and every week our musky hunters say the same thing about the weed beds. Grady also wanted to eat a Pike (he called them dinosaurs) but only if he caught it. He said it was delicious!

Week 9 Monster/Micro Fish tournament results: We moved the tournament this week to Monday since we had a scheduled power outage on Sunday and moved the bbq to coincide with it. Gotta say thanks to Lisa for confirming what Steve and I were talking about and moving the bbq to Monday. We were without power for 11 hours and that would have made things more difficult, but alas on to the winners! Todd from C-2 came in with a 5.75-inch Small mouth bass! Darin from C-4 boated and released a 23.5-Inch Walleye, and Alan from C-6 beat out some decent Pikes with a beautiful 37-Inch Pike while chasing muskies! Congratulations to our week’s winners!

The non named (yet) Fry Shack had a lot of use this week, and it is becoming an excellent alternative to frying fish in your cabin. Check it out when you get here. We built it so you can enjoy the beach house and Gazebo or take your food back up to your cabin. We also have a bbq grill as well for your convenience. Until next week, Tight Lines and safe travels!

The provided recipe this week: Thanks Lisa

Photos can be sent on Messenger, photo dropped on Friends of Rocky Shore Lodge, or emailed to fish@rockyshorelodge.com

week 8 wrap-up!

Good morning RSL Family! Week 8 Wrap-Up! We are enjoying the weather up here as it has been comfortable, and we finally got some rain. The water temperature of the lake has dropped about 9 degrees which is very uncommon for the middle of summer. We reached 75 one day a few weeks ago and since then it has dropped down to about 66. It’s still very dry up here but we got enough precipitation to end the fire ban for a while at least.

The Original Rich Award goes out to Art. What does a downpour and a leech have in common? Obviously, the coating of both on a tiller handle can make it a little slippery! There I was (in my rain gear) waiting for one more boat to come in during a downpour and I saw a boat coming around Duck Island at top speed. I look, and look some more, and alas realize it looks like an RSL boat coming in when suddenly, the boat does a full 360 and comes to an abrupt stop. Thinking something must be wrong I headed to the office and grabbed the binoculars to see that there were two people standing up and looking at each other. After a minute or so they slowly started to head back in, and I asked what happened out there. Art and Chet asked, “You saw that?” They were hoping I didn’t. Long story short in the downpour Arts hands were slippery with leech slime and the rain and his hand simply slipped off the tiller handle and around they went cutting through the water like a knife. No one was injured but once again pride and ego were bruised for our entertainment.

Chasing walleyes around this past week has been a bit inconsistent with the irregular weather patterns and the unusual cooling water temps during midsummer but some nice walleyes were found and caught as usual, but the anglers had to work more than usual. We were still able to catch quite a few mid 20’s fish this week and Patti from C-3 caught her personal best at 27 inches. We had some newcomers to the lake as well and were able to get out there and catch enough shore lunches to satiate their appetites. Bill was up guiding several days this week and he was all over the lake and Cedar showing our new guests good summertime spots! Don’t hesitate to let us know if you’d like to learn some new spots on the lake, enjoy a shore lunch, and hear some of the many stories Bill has while out fishing.

Small mouth fishing was excellent again this week. Mark from P1 always shouted out his trademark (WooHoo) every time he headed out to chase the bronze backs! He brought newcomers up and they caught some very nice Small mouth Bass!

Adam and Moose were up chasing Muskies this week! On their first day out, they had 8 follows in their first 10 minutes of fishing! Adam boated a 48.5-Inch Musky, and Moose boated a 32-Inch Ski. C-3 Patti and Ken were out chasing Pike and Patti boated a 51-Inch Musky! Too heavy for her to pick it up so Ken held it for the photo! Truly an impressive fish! The guys did have a lot of follows this week and missed a few big hookups but saw some very large muskies up to their boat!

Week 8 Monster/Micro Fish tournament results: A perfect drizzly kinda day for our tournament and the anglers were out in force! We had multiple 23's recorded when Patti from C-3 rolled in with a beautiful photo of a 27-Inch Walleye to eclipse everyone else today! Newcomer Bob Ritter caught photo and released a 28.5-Inch Northern Pike to grab the prize and last but not least Newcomer Shannon from C-6 boated and released a 6-Inch Small mouth Bass to wrap up our tourney! Great job everyone, and the Potluck was superb!

Judy's Apple Dapple Cake:

3 C All Purpose flour

1t Salt

1 t Baking Soda

1 C Pecans chopped

1 C Vegetable Oil

3 eggs

2 C Sugar

3 C Granny Smith Apples peeled and cut into bite size pieces

Directions

Combine the 1st 3 ingredients and shift. Place in mixing bowl and whisk

Then add the oil, eggs & sugar and mix again

Fold in pecans and apples

Place in a bunt mold or an 8x8 greased pan

Bake for 350 degrees for 60 minutes

Sauce Alternate Sauce

1 C Brown Sugar Packed ¾ C

¼ cup milk, whole or 2% 2-3T

1 stick of melted butter, cooled to room temperature

Mix all 3 ingredients and bring to gentle boil stirring constantly

Add mixture over cake mixture once cake is cool.

All in all, a relaxing week for everyone and not many funny stories to tell, or at least no one admitted to any. We had a 14-Month old make the trek up here and I can already see an angler in the making! Not many photos that I can find either! My investigative skills must have been lacking this week! Until next time, Tight Lines everyone!

Photos can be sent on Messenger, photo dropped on Friends of Rocky Shore Lodge, or emailed to fish@rockyshorelodge.com