Good afternoon RSL Family!
The Week 4 guests had a tremendous week of Walleye, Pike, and Musky catching! With a camp full of long time guests, the fishing and catching was off the charts again. Saturday brought Harvey’s new rechargeable Bubba Blade knife set quite the challenge. He filled over 4 5-gallon buckets of fresh meat for the eagles to feast on Saturday. Sunday wasn’t any slower. We had lots of fish to feast on, and Steve and I didn’t have to cook any of it. One group asked us if we ate fish up here often, and I of course commented yes, but not our own! Thanks to everyone who call us over to become unofficial taste testers! By the end of the weekend cabins started slowing down on keeping fish and started to fill their limits.
We had a visit from our local conservation officers as they went through camp checking out fish counts and licenses. They were also on the lake yesterday. We had zero issues, and want to remind everyone to always be aware of your fish and where you are at limit wise. They were professional and courteous.
Walleyes were caught in the normal spring time spots as boats moved out of the Ord and were boating fish off points, and bays and outside the rivers, and spawning grounds. Ord river fish are still being caught. The fish have been caught all over the lake, and hump fishing will probably start up within the next week or 2. 29-inches was the largest walleye caught this week. The amount of mid 20 walleyes so far this year has been tremendous. We always love to hear anglers tell us we kept catching walleyes in the 20s but had to look for eaters!
Travis Luedtke caught a beautiful 40-inch Northern Pike, and I officially started up the 40-inch club. Steve didn’t remember have the board meeting and vote for approval but I digress. We might as well get another flag to fly! I’m going to work on it for next year! As for Northern fishing we’ve had a lot of great fish being caught, eaten, and frozen of the toothy variety.
Ray and Jim were fishing in Church Lake Wednesday, and Ray was throwing a Beatle spinner with a twister tail (good ol Virgil Ward era fishing lure) around when a large swirl and tug on his line happened! What Ray didn’t know at the time was he was going to go for a ride out of Church and into the Ord River while he battled a Musky with walleye tackle. After 25 minutes they saw their species, and it was huge. They pointed to the 52-inch Musky on the wall in the office and said it was at least that big Thursday morning. It was too big, and they only got a portion of it into the net when the fish popped out the hook and swam off. Ray said he could have used a bigger net, and maybe a better net man! (kidding). The Cabin 2 crew of Brent, Jack, and Mark all netted musky, as Brent boated the largest at 43 inches. They were fishing with jigs and minnows of course. If anyone else caught a toothy one I either forgot or they didn’t mention it to me. Musky season is underway, and we have a couple guys going to look for some this week, just not all week. We shall see.
Bass fishing was slower as no one targeted them, but Cabin 2 found quite a few in Jackfish after it opened. A few walleyes were caught in Jackfish, but it seemed the spawn was over there and most of the walleyes had moved out.
The water level is getting low enough so we’re going to begin tearing out the temporary docks we built on top of the regular docks as there is about 6 inches of air under the top boards as the lake is receding at a nice clip. The first tip of the rock off Manotak reef can be seen now so we only have really high water now. We will deploy hazard buoys this week so we can keep most from having a bump in their rides across the water.
The 105 still has the detour as the Buller Creek bridge is being examined by MTO. Hopefully there isn’t any structural damage, and we can put the detour behind us. We will keep everyone up to date as we hear any changes. I guess I better get back down to the shoreline as the dock isn’t going to rip itself out. Tight Lines everyone! Safe travels as you head up, and don’t hesitate to contact us with questions, or concerns you might have!