The Lunge Lodge: August 2008

Tony & Sid wrap up

The morning started out promising: cloudy, a good chop, and comfortable temps. We fished hard with nothing to show until about 12:30 when Sid hooked into this nice pike. Shortly after he landed it, I caught one too. We felt things were changing for the better.

Within a few minutes, I latched onto this 3.5 lb smallmouth; it hit a Llungen DC-8 and things were really looking good.

On a main channel shoal, Sid locked horns with his first musky - the fight lasted about 3 minutes before it went airborne, summersaulting and throwing his homemade bucktail, "Skunky", a white and black maribou with a number 8 nickel Colorado blade. I was devastated for Sid, but I managed to catch this picture of him mid-battle.

Then it got really hairy! Casting a 10" Suick, within yards of Sid's encounter, I hooked into my biggest musky to date. This 49.5 inch behemoth battled hard and after what Sid just went through, the only thing on my mind was to get it in the net - and - get it in the net we did - or I should say Sid did, the world's greatest net man!

After the release, we headed to a shoal where we raised a fish earlier in the week.

Sid latched onto another one, only to lose it after a quick tussel - oh well, it happens...

We had one tremendous week and once again, our hats off to Lunge Lodge. Todd, Mike, Linda, Mary, JoAnn, and Veronica - you are the best! See you next year.

Tony & Sid

Virzi-Mariano Update

Nick Virzi landed his second biggest musky to date, this 39 incher was caught trolling a Double Cowgirl just before lunch:

Jim Mariano's 38" caught on a Leo Lure Sunday night:

Nick's camera caught the release of Jim's 51 inch beast. Catch photos will hopefully follow next week.

A great day continues

After dinner we hit a main channel rock shoal and hooked into this 33 1/2" tussler. This fish faught really hard and it took Sid three tries to net it. It obviously didn't want to be caught!

It was a quick and easy release because this guy was feisty.

We had made up our minds to clear the deck before we went out, limiting ourselves to two rods, so we could try our hand at night fishing.

I was slow-rolling a Bucher Slop Master and made my first turn on the figure eight when this 5 lb Walleye slammed it! Tomorrow calls for showers, and possible thunder storms - musky weather for sure!

More pics of our Trip last week

Thanks again to the staff at Lunge Lodge for another enjoyable stay. See you in September.

Tony & Sid days 3, 4, and 5

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were gorgeous, as far as weather goes: bright blue skies and wispy clouds with temps in the upper 70's. But, as anybody who's searched for muskies on the French knows, that type of weather doesn't bode well for the musky hunter.

Not to be outdone, though, Sid and I managed to find pike, with some bass mixed in now and then.

Another guy in camp, Jim Mariano, landed a musky last night in the dark, trolling a 'Wicked Mojo'. The fish measured out at 51", but his camera card can't be read by the universal card reader! Jim works in Shaker Hts. and he promises to get me the pictures so I can post them once I get home.

We're headed out for a nite bite ourselves, so check for a post tomorrow!

Gub's Stringer

Gub Atkinson's been on a work/fish "vacation" at the Lodge for the past 7 weeks. Too bad for Gub, there's more work to do than time to fish, but he got out Tuesday night with Todd and the pair caught this nice stringer of three under and one over the slot. The big girl is 24" long and made for some tasty filets for Gub and his wife Joyce.

Sid & Tony

Saturday, August 23

We arrived in camp before noon, got checked in, ate lunch, got our gear together and headed out by 1pm. Several spunky, jumping pike in the 20-25 inch range attacked our lures throughout the afternoon.

Fortunately, we decided to head in for dinner just ahead of a torrential downpour that soaked the landscape.

After dinner, we hit the area where I had previously caught my largest musky and found her sister in about 8 ft of water. She nailed a Bass Pro Shops jointed Laser Eye crankbait and stayed down, providing some vicious headshakes.

The camera’s flash was somehow disabled, so the pictures came out a little dark and had to be lightened using PhotoShop, but you can make out the 42” gal’s girth.

The fish was still hot when landed and was easily released to battle another day.

Sunday, August 24

Sid and I made our morning milk run, from Lunge Lodge Rock back and somewhere in between I hooked into a 25inch ‘hybrid’ that put up a great fight. It hit the same lure I used the night before.

After breakfast we headed up the main channel to a reef that’s known to hold muskies. Four casts into it, this 44 inch beast inhaled a black Hi Fin bucktail, making two violent surface headshakes along the way.

Like the day before’s fish, this one was netted quickly and swam away after her photo shoot.

BREAKING NEWS !!!!

THE LUNGE LODGE LARGE MOUTH RECORD HAS BEEN BROKEN!!!!

AFTER MANY ATTEMPTS THE "HOOK COLLECTOR" WAS CAUGHT BY JIM BLACK. THE FISH WAS MEASURED AND SEVERAL OLD HOOKS AND A STEEL LEADER WERE REMOVED. THE FISH MEASURED 22" AND HAD A HUGE GIRTH. ESTIMATED WEIGHT 6-7 LBS.

MADISON AND CODY BLACK POSE WITH THE "HOOK COLLECTOR"

A GREAT BEAR PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HUBERT FAMILY

SOME LUNGE LODGE ROCK JUMPING!!!!

LIAM WITH ANOTHER NICE BASS CAUGHT ON TOP WATER

JAY AND ROGER ARE AT IT AGAIN!

Sorry about the lack of new posts. Windows Vista and dial up do not mix well. Thanks to John Tanners expertise we seem to be back on line. The weather remains cool with more rain than usual. The water surface temp. is 74 degrees. The theme of august has been big bass and the muskies are starting to turn on. Walleye fishing has slowed but they can still be caught on the main river reefs. Muskie fisherman, look out if we get some stable weather. Reports of tons of follows lead me to believe that things are ready to explode.