The Lunge Lodge: August 2007

Wait 'till next year!

This trip is over and Sid is still in search of his first musky. But, there's always next year, and the musky shows, and the pictures we took of this fantastic trip to keep us pumped!

We caught fish every day and now we're packing our things and getting ready to hit the road early in the morning, just as the clouds are rolling in and the winds are calming down -- oh well, that's how it goes.

Musky Madness is the week after next. My son and three of his buddies will be competing again -- if the posts we can make this year are half as good as the ones we did last year, look out!

See you next year...

Photos from the Meric's recent trip

One day left...

We continue to catch fish - we also figured out how to work the self-timer on the camera and snapped this triple-header of largemouth bass.

This evening's fishing was very relaxing. The high winds stopped completely, the river reflected the stars, and all-in-all it was a mellow time on the water, until Sid tied into this pike. It was quite a commotion for a fish of this size!

There's still about 12 fishable hours left in our trip; you never know what can happen tomorrow...

Camp News

Routine catches are being reported by the guests in camp. Most of the musky fisherman are experiencing follows.

Bass appear to be the most common catch, with walleye a close second. Dave, with the DuPree group, with another nice smallmouth caught in the exact same spot as the one posted Monday.

Don DuPree hoists a hefty one too!

Still working on his first musky

Sid's still got two days left to hook into his first musky; he's been casting like a champ all week and is catching fish, just not the species he seeks!

Sid with a nice largemouth that hit on a jointed Bucher Depth Raider.

A walleye caught on a musky-sized bucktail.

The two of us brave the elements Wednesday evening pursuing our quarry.

The O'Neill's go fishing

Liam O'Neill with a nice French River northern.

(Can you see that Mike's sleaves look a little wet?)

That's because he leaves nothing to chance in his efforts to land fish for family & guests:

Ideal musky conditions...

The weather today appeared ideal. The morning began with light west winds, a slight chop, and slightly overcast skies. Sid and I watched two muskies roll on the surface, practically in front of us, just at daylight.

We stayed with it all day and fished all the right spots, but a musky wasn't in the cards for us today. Sid did have two follows, in what looked like the 34-36 inch class. One of them made a half-hearted attempt to take his Chatterbait at boatside, but there was no hook-up.

Two other guys in camp had big ones on that gave them both an aerial display, but broke their hearts by letting go of their baits.

Dave Bosso, of Cleveland, did score on a 9 lb (34") musky, his first, early in the afternoon.

Count on it, we'll be back at it tomorrow...

Fish hard or fish smart

The strong east winds continued into the morning hours, followed by even stronger west winds later in the afternoon.

Bluebird skies and tough conditions in which to control the boat sent the message that musky fishing would be difficult, at best.

So we did the next best thing, we went bass fishin' in the lilly pads!

We had a ball casting plastic frogs into the thickest stuff and waiting for the water to explode.

The results were a riot! We lost 10 times as many fish as we caught!

The best was this 4 1/4 pound bucket mouth:

Tomorrow's forecast calls for overcast skies. Guess what we'll be looking to do tomorrow?

Weekly update

Four more guests arrived today and the camp is now full. All levels of experience and interests are represented.

Don DuPree's friend, Dave, with a nice smallmouth, caught on a tube jig.

Marv Ostopovich, from Kingston, Ontario with a French River 'Redfish' to go along with a bunch of walleyes caught while drifting jigs and Erie Dearies.

Winds from the east, fish bite least...

The all-day Saturday rain was followed by a Sunday morning with moderately strong east winds. The conditions didn't keep us out of course, and we hit it hard the entire day. Several pike (this 4 pounder the only one we photographed) and some rambunctious smallmouth that thought they could eat our musky lures, kept us going into the late evening hours.

The full moon arrived at 7:32, and with it, two blowups on my Maas Marauder, but unfortunately, no muskies to report today.

Stay tuned, we'll definitely be back at it tomorrow...

A rainy day story...

We got a late start this morning due to intermittent showers, but as my wife Caroline always says, "things happen for a reason".

The reason was my third musky this trip! A juvenile 26" fish, but a musky no less.

The pike were cooperative throughout the all-day rain; this 7 lb. specimen being the best picture opportunity.

Everything's soaked, and the power was out for a few hours before dinner, but it's supposed to dry up tomorrow. We'll find out and let you know!

What a way to start!

Sid and I got in late Thursday, but managed to get about an hour of "practice" in, anticipating the next day.

We started out early Friday morning, with Sid catching this nice smallmouth.

Around noon, I hooked into and landed a fat 45 incher out on a main channel shoal.

As luck would have it, after dinner I hit on my first ever double-header, a feisty 37 inch fish, caught on a Top Raider.

After watching a beautiful sunset,

the evening closed out with this nice 34" northern.

Can't wait 'till morning...

Wildcats Hockey group

COACH JIM BLACK'S FRIENDS ARE IN CAMP THIS WEEK AND HERE ARE SOME OF THEIR PHOTOS

THE KIDS SPORTING THEIR "I SURVIVED LUNGE LODGE ROCK" T-SHIRTS

CODY BLACK WITH A NICE BASS

"THE HEAT OF THE BATTLE". CODY IS BEING PULLED AROUND THE POND BY A 40+ INCH PIKE.

DAN HUBERT WITH 25 INCH WALLEYE

IAN WOOD WITH A 17 INCH SMALLMOUTH HE CAUGHT FROM THE DOCKS

LAST BUT NOT LEAST MICHELLE AND DIANE WITH A MONSTER MUSKIE THEY CAUGHT WITH A PINK BARBIE ROD?????

Lodge News

We are moving into Mid-August and the Muskie fishing is Heating up!

Ben Rohde with a 38" muskie caught on a top water lure.

This weeks guests landed 9 muskies. The largest going 47"

Photos to follow! The Mariano family caught one and lost a "Monster" while fishing main river reefs. The water temp. remains in the mid 70's. There has been little rain this summer and the river is down about a foot. We have had a great fishing season and I fully expect a great muskie season.