Good afternoon RSL Family!
Dealing with weather and sniffles up here so we’re a little late on the Week 10 wrap-up up here. Quite an eventful week for Rocky Shore Lodge!
You know how we and everyone else on the planet call weather guessers weather guessers? They deserve a standing ovation over the course of the last 3 weeks up here. They have been pretty darn spot on, and if they call for rain……buddy its gonna rain! And if they call for lots of wet stuff falling quickly you would be wise to just park the boat, deal some cards, or watch a movie. Case in point, I let some of our guests know there was a pretty big cell with good potential supposedly starting around 3:40ish I stated. It was Saturday so you know how everyone first gets up here and are super excited to get out on the water and start catching. Well these guys just finished shore lunch after a great morning of hauling in eye after eye when they told me that’s what rain gear is for. I bid them ado and to just watch for the storm front because it was going to come in we were pretty sure. Well low and behold it came, and all but three boats were in when 3:40ish came. It was closer to 3:20 when the front moved over us, and the skies opened up. While I was standing in the bait house watching an Olympic Kayak trial river develop down our lawn I looked out to Manotak Island and could vaguely see a boat on the other side of Manotak reef going slow, and it appeared to be Jim, Brian and Todd and it was. So hard was the rain coming down they couldn’t make out the two rocks until they had already passed them by a couple hundred yards (safely as they were parallel) they turned around slowly, retraced where they had come from turned to port and headed in. They made it back safely but there wasn’t a dry stitch left on them, or now me. Our musky hunters on the other hand were split between Whale Rock area, and the Twin Islands area. Jay who rarely if ever wears a lifejacket yelled at Joe to get his life jacket on as the boat was being pushed toward the Twins. Fortunately, the anchor finally found a spot and they stuck. Jay was not impressed with the storm and when they got back to shore, I’d say they were happy to be back on wet land. They other 2 saw the front coming and raced to Hopeless Bay anchored all the way in the back and after Jack yelled abandon ship they jumped out and climbed up into the forest to wait out the storm. Both boats were awfully happy when they got back to camp. And yes we still have dryers here available. Let’s just say the fishing was amazing this week but there was a lot of rain gear on rain gear off type of days!
We had 3 newcomers Jim, Jim, and Steve is how Harvey and I named them. Or sometimes the Jim, Jim, and Steve show as we witnessed them coming around the corner in one of our golf carts. Harvey made the statement Steve is sitting in the back of Breezy oh … Steve fell out! I looked out the window and there was Steve getting up and scraping mud (from the rain) and stones from his rain gear. Apparently Breezy’s sides aren’t made for humans to sit on. Who Knew? More pride was hurt than body. Funny how Steve said Jim tried to throw him from the golf cart, and Jim said we wanted him to walk down anyway. Kidding aside we had a lot of fun with those three, and no injuries were sustained throughout the week. Pride is another story!
The Mike Kaster family was up and they invented their own 1st Annual weekly Crayfish racing contest whereas they fished for crayfish and then bet (no money changed hands as it was a kids mostly event) who was going to win. The amount of yelling and excitement would have you believe the superbowl was just won by the Packers! If you are a Packers fan that is. It was fun enough they decided to run another race after the Monday night BBQ.
While everyone had just pulled out to fish and I was up making breakfast Harvey called on the radio and said “Mike a Bear just walked out of the woods by Cabin 6”. So, I stepped out and walked towards Cabin 4 when said bear popped out onto the driveway headed away from the camp. It stopped and looked at me as I was looking at it, and Harvey wheeled up by the Big Barn as we watched it beat feet out of camp like Yogi Bear after getting a free meal. We haven’t seen the bear since, and it was a yearling bear. Still had dog ears for you Bear Hunters out there. We do not have many bear encounters up here in camp. That was literally the second one we’ve seen in the 5 years Steve, and I have had RSL. Nothing to worry about folks. That’s why its important we get garbage out of camp every day.
More from the Jim, Brian, and Todd group. I got an interesting call from Todd as they were out on the sunken island. Apparently, Susan, Gary, and Dee were out sightseeing and as they turned to check out the Perrault Falls instead of stopping and walking to see the falls, they continued down the road to see what was there. I’ll be honest I’ve never gone down that road until this day. As the three sightseers got down to what appeared to be a rutted-out boat launch they got their van stuck. No, it wasn’t 4-wheel drive. We took Steve’s truck and some chain and were able to pull them out safely. Just another day this week it seemed!
The walleye fishing has been just incredible folks! Whether we have new guests, or veteran guests everyone is coming up and catching walleyes! We simply show them on the map some spots they go out and blamo their catching fish! Jay caught a walleye and netted a nice Pike that tore into the Walleye and wouldn’t let go. Nice net job Joe!
Well, we had a beautiful day for a fishing tournament as we kicked off the Week 10 Monster/Micro fish Monday tournament to coincide with our Monday night BBQ. Little chop, and clouds with sun and superb temperatures. Lots of fish were recorded for the prize and a 26-inch Pike was leading most of the day right before the tourney ended Mike Havlicek pulled his boat into the slip and reported netting a 29-inch Musky! Jack had a log flash at his lure on a figure 8 but alas no hookup! Nice musky Mike! Susan Templeton mis measured (I believe) a smallmouth bass. She measured it at 5-inches, but it sure seems smaller on camera! Nice work Susan! Rounding out the day’s competition was Dee Reimund. The walleye contest was probably over mid-morning as she boated a 27-inch Walleye and proceeded to beat that with a 28-inch Walleye! Congratulations newcomer Dee! We had a 31-inch Pike reported Tuesday morning. Congrats to Dillon School! This week we handed out a prize for musky and Pike, but we do not normally do this but it’s my tournament, so I changed the rules this one time!
We had some musky brought in and Mike was the big winner this week and I’m sure Jay is getting his plan together to beat out his brother next year! Nice job guys.
Finally we had an oversold issue last week whereas we rented 9 cabins and have only 8. We owe Rick and Kathy a huge thanks for taking accommodations from Natalie for us. We strive for perfection and this time we fell short. I’d like to blame Covid since that’s the easy thing to throw out there but we plain and simply had a clerical error and didn’t catch it in time. For that we will strive to never let this happen again. Afterall, everyone is coming up here for their vacation and putting their faith in us and our system to keep everything in perfect balance and we will own it.
As we move into Week 11 we’re quickly approaching late summer, and can’t wait to finish out the season strong and anticipate some great fishing yet to come! Tight Lines everyone!
Mark C we will miss your WOOHOO the rest of the Year!
Photos: Facebook messenger, or email to: fish@rockyshorelodge.com.
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