week 4 wrap-up

Good morning RSL Family! Week 4 Wrap-Up and what a fun week of catching fish and telling mostly truthful stories of the one that got away. My dad was able to make the journey up with my brother-in-law Chris and friend Rod. At 90 it sure is a thrill for me to see him getting around as good as he does, and he still loves to get out on the water and fish. Camp was full and the beach house dock got plenty of work this week. More on the beach house dock a little later.

The Original Rich Award winner this week goes to the entire Cabin 2 crew this week. Brent and the gang decided after Saturday to cook fish outside the rest of the week. Why do you ask? Well according to the fire triangle when you start warming up grease on the stove with a lid on you might want to remove the lid before the grease gets too hot otherwise is could spontaneously combust once oxygen is added to the equation and it did. So, we had our first grease fire since Steve and I took over from Mike and Chris. Fortunately, quick action from Mark kept what could have been a disaster into what we can all talk and laugh about, and the crisis was averted. Mark did get a burn on his thumb and foot, but it didn’t stop him from fishing. All in all, other than some scrubbing no damage was done other than pride once again. It’s just another short story in the annals of Rocky Shore lodge lore. I’m not trying to make light of a potentially bad situation as this can actually be a teachable moment also.

The Walleyes are on the move. Transitioning to the humps which seems a tad early but with the warm weather we are having so far this season it makes sense. Wind swept shorelines are still catching fish in the 4-to-7-foot range, but 12 to 16 foot is where the schools are starting to congregate.

Congratulations to my Brother-In-Law Chris with his 1st 30-Inch Walleye! What a great fish and my dad was able to witness the catch! Glen from Cabin 2 caught 42 Walleyes with 36 minnows and that is quite a feat if you ask me. I took a picture of the Brag Board so take a look at it. This weeks crew really took advantage of the board and it made my memory not have to be so sharp. Cabin 1 Lee told me he’s tired of catching walleyes over 20-inches! Laurie was there as proof that he said it. I looked at him and he said it didn’t exactly come out right. Lee did land a 29.75-Inch Walleye, but it wasn’t quite big enough. P2 brothers Mike, Mark, and Craig had a great week and said it was the best year they’ve had catching walleyes. Plenty of fish fries were had. Cabin 2 crew boated 65 Walleyes in 3.5 hours one day. Newcomer Ryan in Cabin 5 caught a 28 and 29-Inch Walleye. The P1 gang were boating lots of big walleyes, and their only comment because I can’t call it a complaint was that they had to let a lot of 20 plus inch fish go in order to get their eaters. What a week for walleye fans!

We had quite a few muskies, and Pike caught. Although Musky didn’t open until this Saturday there were a lot boated and released this week. Dillon from P2 caught 8 if my memory serves me. Lots of nice Pike for the frying pan were brought in. Bob from P2 on Thursday was in his boat fishing the beach house dock and had a 6.5-Inch Walleye take the bait, and after that a 38-Inch Musky grabbed the walleye. The walleye came off the hook but stayed on the fishing line and the musky was lipped and boated. They videotaped the fish and from what the video stated at the end after they netted the musky a bigger musky came up to hit the 38-Inch musky. So in other words it appears with photo proof we now have a couple muskies hanging around the beach house dock.

Bass were caught with ease and muskies were caught while throwing lures for bass.

Week 4 Monster/Micro Fish tournament results: Sunday's tournament was a huge success as we had some excellent fish caught photo and released! Congratulations go out to Brian (P2), and Ryan (c-5 for landing their 9-inch Bass, and Walleye respectively. Matt from P1 pulled in and released a 34-Inch Pike to grab the top prize for that species, and rounding out the days event was Chris Hammond who Boated photo and released a 30-Inch Walleye adding his name to the RSL 30-Inch Club board! Congratulations to everyone.

There were 3 impromptu Cabin 2 fishing tourneys on the Beach house dock this week, and the peanut gallery including me had a lot of laughs! That about wraps up another truly memorable week up here and I sure hope to continue through this week as well! Be sure to tune into Steve’s Tuesday video Log (VLOG) as he tries to answer questions about road construction, upcoming weather, and other border type questions we receive and try to put out. If you can’t watch it live just grab it on Facebook at Friends of Rocky Shore Lodge and view at your leisure.

It's the first day of Summer and it feels like it up here. Going to get to seasonal temps tomorrow and looking forward for the next week or so. Tight Lines everyone and safe travels on your way up to the Fastest Week of the Year!

week 3 wrap-up!

Good afternoon RSL Family! Week 3 Wrap-Up is being written while we are in a smoke bank all over the area from several forest fires Northeast of Red Lake. On a positive note for Harvey and I it might not get as warm today as it was supposed to. Weather has been pretty nice overall, with little rain. We need rain as most everyone down south does as well. Hope we all get some! With our lower water level we are asking our guests to purchase prop/skag insurance which is $25.00 per boat which usually breaks down to 12.50 a person. If you do damage the prop or skag your cost is only $50.00 vice actual cost. This way we can keep costs down for everyone renting boats. If you want to opt out just let us know when you come in to get your boat assignment.

The Original Rich Award winner this week goes to 2 gentlemen Pete and Dan from Penthouse 2. Of course, when getting ready to head out fishing there are a few things you must remove before hitting the water. Well… according to Pete as he was Captain of his vessel his 1st mate (Dan) (OK those are my words) is in charge of releasing the lines which he did. However, the electrical connection which was charging their trolling motor batteries was not. I’m not sure if Dan forgot or wanted to continue charging the batteries while out fishing but they ran out of cord before they reached their first fishing spot. Nothing damaged and nothing hurt but a touch of pride. I will let those two decide who really was to blame as Harvey and I got a decent chuckle out of their situation. Thanks P2 for keeping us entertained all week.

I’m leaving this paragraph in from last weeks blog as it sounds like someone got fined on Lac Seul last week and the fine wasn’t small. MNR instituted a bait receipt requirement. The premise is to ensure the bait we use on our lake is in the newly minted bait zones they have developed. They are trying to keep invasives out. Basically, we will give all boats a bait receipt in a zip lock bag with a pen so each time you get bait you can simply write down the amount you get each day, and if stopped on the lake by the MNR you can produce the bait receipt. We will show everyone as they come up. Not a big deal, but an additional requirement.

Walleyes were caught sight fishing by Twin Islands last week and some of our guests had a great time catching tons of 20s and also plenty of shore lunch sizes. Walleyes were caught in the normal spring spots, but the Ord River has pretty much been spawned out as the fish are staging for their migration to summer spots. Fishing the 8-10 foot range was the most productive. One boat was catching weed walleyes in 3 to 7 feet. Jim from Cabin 6 attempted to get on the board in consecutive years but just fell short with a really nice 29-Inch Walleye! Fishing has just been amazing so far this season.

Plenty of nice Pike were harvested and we also had several Musky accidentally caught while fishing for Walleye and Pike! The brag board is starting to gain more traction and I’ll be posting an end of week picture each week to let people see what others are writing and catching.

Week 3 Monster/Micro Fish tournament results: Sunday was another warm day after we received a much needed inch of rain and the anglers headed out to win! Jim from Cabin 3 boated a beautiful 36-Inch Pike to beat out several others in the 30 plus range! Brian from P1 was a dual winner this week. He tied Erold from Cabin 2 with a 10-Inch Walleye and Smallmouth Bass! Brian then decided to catch a solid 25-Inch Walleye to take the prize in that category. Congratulations to all the winners this week!

We are trying to procure leeches. Some anglers headed to Red Lake emptied Dutchies, and Ear Falls of all the leeches. Clarks told us yesterday they hope to have leeches in 2 to 3 days so hopefully we will get some soon. We do know those who have contacted us and asked for us to set aside leeches for them and I want to update everyone. Minnow bite is still incredible, but as the water warms we all know leeches become a favorite of the Walleyes on this lake. Crawlers are working as well, but minnows are king right now.

Kirby brought his jet boat up as usual and gave Jerry (we call him Boats) retired Senior Chief Boatswains Mate who was stationed on small boats including jet boats in the rivers of Vietnam and his son Travis (former Navy Hospital Corpsman) a heckuva a ride through the Ord River at high speeds. Kirby only has a 2-inch draft on his boat as its made for rivers and has a half inch of plate steel on the middle keel of his boat so he can take some hits most boats can't. I saw the video but was not able to post it for some reason. It looked like quite a thrill! That’s all for this week! If you have questions don’t hesitate to contact us, and if able check out Steve’s VLOG every Tuesday as he updates all things RSL including Border updates, and road construction. Tight

Lines and Safe travels everyone!

Week 2 wrap-up

Good morning RSL Family! Week 2 flew by as we all understand the Fastest Week of the Year is a reality! We had unseasonably warm weather last week and fans were being used. It didn’t seem to bother the fishing at all as we saw lots of pics of nice hauls, and we caught photo and released our first 30-Inch Walleye this week! More on that later.

Steve has started his weekly Live updates on Tuesday mornings. He will cover any changes to the border crossing, road conditions as we hear from guests, and fishing reports, and anything pertinent to your travel up to God’s country.

As we move into the season, we are encouraging people to consider bringing zip lock bags to store their fish in, or a Food Saver type vacuum sealer. The MNR doesn’t like the freezer paper we use as they must open up to inspect fish. It’s still legal and we will have freezer paper, but we feel your fish will keep better if they’re maintained in the state they were frozen in, and opening the freezer paper can be a bit of annoyance for you if they open up your entire catch for the week. Something to consider.

We are asking everyone to purchase prop/skag insurance this year to the tune of 25 dollars per rented boat. This will help us cover the cost of accidental props and skags being damaged due to the low water levels on the lake. We try and mark all the hazards but you just never know. If you want to opt out of that let us know. I will let everyone know as we go over the boat safety checklist and newer bait receipt requirement.

MNR instituted a bait receipt requirement. The premise is to ensure the bait we use on our lake is in the newly minted bait zones they have developed. They are trying to keep invasives out. Basically, we will give all boats a bait receipt in a zip lock bag with a pen so each time you get bait you can simply write down the amount you get each day, and if stopped on the lake by the MNR you can produce the bait receipt. We will show everyone as they come up. Not a big deal, but an additional requirement.

The Original Rich award (New for 2023) recipient for week 2 goes out to Dave (Bootsy) Maas. He lost his belt and searched all over camp trying to retrace his steps. Now I don’t know about you but I’m thinking if your belt fell off during your walk up the increasingly steep hill (Mike B’s words) you would probably notice, but alas it was found in his cabin room, and we all got a good laugh out of it. One thing to remember before going fishing. Tackle is sometimes good to take. Dave got all the way across the lake before he realized he forgot his tacklebox. Also, I feel like Dave wanted a permanent record of his big fish on the brag board as he chose to use a sharpie marker rather than the provided dry erase markers stationed on the board. Nice try Dave we got the writing off. As Harvey says what happens at Rocky Shore Lodge can and will be used against you!

Walleyes have mostly moved out of the river system as the unseasonal warm temperatures increased water temps quicker than normal. Bill believes they might head back into some extent as we get back to normal temps for this time of year. Anglers are catching walleyes in the 8–10-foot range, and some are finding them in 3- 7 feet while bass fishing. Congratulations to Ralph Holbrook on his 30-Inch Walleye. The first for us at RSL for the season. He told me he’s been searching for his 30-incher since 1969! Charlie Beanish (former dockhand, and guide) did land a 30-Inch walleye on opening day and I wanted to give him a shout out. He wasn’t fishing here but was on the lake near some of our guests.

We had our first Musky accidentally caught this week and lots of mid to upper 30-Inch Northern Pike. The brag board is making a good splash and allows me to keep track of the big fish during the week. Please feel free to provide your nice catches so I can ask you about the catch. Since I don’t get the opportunity to fish I love to hear your stories of the big one that got caught and got away.

Week 2 Monster/Micro fish results. Chuck (Cabin 5) released a beautiful 25-inch Walleye, and Evan (P2) who last came to RSL in 2013 boated a 10.5-inch Walleye for the Micro prize and boated and released a 33-inch Pike for the prize! Great job guys!

We were able to get the new U-shaped dock placed Thursday evening and it’s a good thing considering we have 7 private boats this week. Let’s hope mother nature is nice and allows the anchoring system to get completely buried in the mud in order to keep it where it’s supposed to be. The basic design was

inspired by Kirby Hills who fishes the Ozarks and said many floating dock systems down there use pipes attached to granite for stability and they get lots of wind and wave action down there as it’s a huge body of water. My oldest son Ryan fabricated our on shore granite securing system and I think he did a great job taking my thoughts and putting it to a useful design. Thank Ryan! Time will tell. Hopefully we can take that same style up here and make it a success.

As we charge forward into Week 3 I’m realizing its tough to write the blog early on as the weekend is always busy with getting everyone settled in, and acclimated so I will try and write on Monday or Tuesday. Don’t forget to take pictures of your fish and send them to me please. Take care everyone and from all of us here at RSL tight lines!