Fireside Lodge Fishing News/Photo Report 6/20 to 6/27 2009

Fireside Lodge Fishing News Report 6/20 to 6/27 2009

This week was a repeat of last weeks weather, as we had temperatures from 77 to 85 degrees for highs and only had a few quick thunderstorms roll through. It was just what the beginning of summer should bring, and all guests at Fireside Lodge seemed to be enjoying their time on the water.

Best friends and fishing partners Dan Szkola and Don Landbo from Sugar Grove and South Elgin, IL were back for their eighth trip to Fireside Lodge These two started off right by catching 29 Smallmouth on the day of arrival. First day fishing they caught 72 Smallmouth Bass and Don landed the first Master Anglers Award Smallmouth at 18-inches. Second day was phenomenal as they caught 74 Northern Pike, 24 Smallmouth Bass with Don catching two Master Anglers Award Smallies over 18-inches and Dan also landed one. A lot of their action for Pike was on the surface using buzz baits, and they had countless misses when the fish would strike. Third day was tremendous catching over 80 Northern Pike along with 12 Smallmouth, leaving them a total of 102 fish. Five of the twelve Smallmouth were over 18-inches. WOW! What a great day. Fourth day they caught 44 Smallmouth Bass and 22 Northern Pike with a lot in the 30 to 34-inch range, and Dan caught the largest at 35.5-inches. The fifth and final day was just crazy as they caught 128 Northern Pike and 7 Smallmouth, each landing a Master Anglers Award Smallie over 18-inches. Both had another great stay at Fireside Lodge and reserved their dates for 2010, when they will both celebrate their 40 birthdays.

Dan Moiser from Lincoln, NE with son Nathan was returning to Fireside Lodge for their eleventh fishing season. Day of arrival they caught 26 Smallmouth, each landing a Master Anglers Award Smallmouth over 18-inches within 20 minutes of being on the water. Dan Also lost a HUGE Tiger Muskie, and Nathan lost what looked to be an over 40-inch Northern Pike. Very nice way for the lake to welcome back Dan and Nathan. First full day had them catching some nice Pike in the 30-33-inch range, and Smallmouth Bass. Second day was dedicated to exploring new areas where they caught a lot of Smallmouth Bass and Dan saw a Giant Muskie. Third day Nathan made his traditional lure purchase from me buying a spoon and Blue Fox spinner. At supper Nathan told me that the lure I sold him was defective, and it did not even hold up to a day of fishing at Fireside Lodge. That’s because Nathan caught 80 Northern Pike on the lure and it was mangled beyond use. They caught 133 Northern Pike total and Nathan retired his lure and purchased a new one from my tackle shop. Fourth day they again did well catching many Smallmouth Bass and Dan had a BIG Muskie following his lure, but just could not get the monster to hit anything. Fifth and final day these two finished with a bang catching 122 Northern Pike and a few Smallmouth Bass. Both had a fabulous fishing trip making lasting memories once again.

Father Phil Spahr from Fairborn, OH and sons Brad also from Fairborn, and Tim from Marlborough, MA and good friend Todd McGehee from Helotes, TX returned to Fireside Lodge for their ninth consecutive year. First night out a few Pike were caught and Brad lost a Muskie in the 40-inch range. First full day was fabulous as they caught 157 Northern Pike and several Smallmouth, Todd landing a 17.5-incher. WOW!!! Great first day. Second day was a planned Muskie hunting day and they got results by landing 5, loosing 1, and having many follows. Both Tim and Brad caught two and Phil landed a nice Tiger Muskie, all were 30 to 36-inches. They also caught 12 Northern Pike and 8 Smallmouth. Third day was a crazy Pike catching day as they landed 113. Their last three days they caught 54 Northern Pike with a lot over 30-inches, up to 34”, 15 Smallmouth with Tim catching a Master Anglers Award Smallmouth at 18”, and two more Muskie were caught. Todd caught his first and Tim landed his third of the week. Besides the great fishing this group had, the most important catch they had was just being together as family and friends, enjoying the time and experiences making memories in our wonderful wilderness setting. Before leaving they made reservations for the same dates in 2010.

Al Fishhaber and Robert Delamatre from Northwood and Sandusky, OH returned to Fireside Lodge for their sixth time. First day was a warm still day which is less than ideal when fishing for tooth critters but they managed to catch a few nice Northern Pike, and had a lot of follows from both Muskie and Pike. Second day was a Muskie hunting day and they found a few, having some follows and Rob caught the first Muskie of the trip. Third day these two had a fabulous day fishing and catching Northern Pike. They estimated between 60 to 70 Northern Pike caught possibly more, but said it was honestly too fast a furious to count. Al also caught his first Muskie of the trip. Fourth day had them catching fish all day long at a nice consistent pace, and Al came up wit another Muskie. Fifth day was another unbelievable Pike day as they again caught too many to count accurately so they did not even try to give me a number. What matters is they had a memorable fishing day between two friends. Sixth and final day had them searching for Muskie in the morning with no luck. It was one of those calm sunny days, so they changed there approach and caught a lot of Northern Pike all afternoon. Rob and Al went out for one last shot to catch a BIG toothy critter to no avail, however not without effort right to the end. Both had a great time and intend on returning with a larger group.

Father and son Paul and Tony Capecchi from Inver Grove Heights, MN returned to Fireside Lodge for their seventh consecutive year. First day was great as they caught well over 100 Northern Pike and 25-30 quality Smallmouth Bass, landing 8 Master Anglers Award Smallmouth over 18-inches. WOW!! What a GREAT start. Second day had them catching over 50 Northern Pike and 30 Smallmouth Bass, each catching Master Anglers Award Smallmouth. Third day they did not keep track of numbers but told me they caught tons of Northern Pike. On their fourth day they fished for Muskie and Smallmouth catching about 20 nice Smallies and landed 4 Muskie, Tony catching three, his first being a GIANT 41.5-inches. The last two days were spent catching countless Northern Pike, a few Muskie, and many Smallmouth. At the end of the week it was determined they caught so many Pike they number was impossible to calculate. They caught many Smallmouth including 14 Master Anglers Award Smallmouth between the sizes of 18 and 19.5-inches, and 8 or 9 Muskie with Tony catching 7 or 8. These numbers are great but the real catch is the wonderful time spent between father and son in a wonderful wilderness setting. Before departing Paul made his reservations for the same dates in 2010.

Long time return guests of Fireside Lodge were Father and Son Dave and Matt Moon, John Setzer, Bob Hanewinkel, Tom Wolf, and Jeff Stoyanov from St Peters, Hillsboro, High Ridge, and O’Fallon, MO. First day including the evening of arrival Dave and Matt caught 69 Smallmouth Bass, Bob and Tom caught over 70 and John and Jeff caught 33. A lot of the bass wee quality fish with Tom leading the BIG fish board catching 9 Master Anglers Award Smallies, Bob with 6, John 4, Jeff 2, and Dave and Matt both had 1 over 18-inches. Tom also described a Smallmouth seen by him and Bob by saying it was the largest they had ever seen and could ever imagine seeing. This was just the beginning of what would turn out to be an unbelievable week Smallmouth Bass fishing. That’s what this group targets and if anyone gets off track while fishing with Jeff, he has methods of making sure nobody thinks of bringing a toothy critter in the boat. This group caught so many Smallmouth it was impossible to keep exact tracking of numbers so a conservative estimate of 650 to 700 was agreed upon. Most of these Smallmouth were in the 14 to 17-inch range and they caught a record amount of Master Anglers Award Smallmouth, 18-inches or over, beating their old record. The groups old record set two year sago with 8 people in the group was 43 Master Anglers Award Smallmouth caught in 6 days. This year with 6 people they managed to land a total of 71 Master Anglers Award Smallmouth Bass between 18 to 20-inches. John caught the largest at 20-inches and Matt came in a close second with a 19.75-incher. Fabulous fun was had by all and before leaving were already discussing plans for their return trip to
Fireside Lodge.

The Meyer family of three bothers/fathers each bringing two sons were back for their second trip to Fireside Lodge. Bob with sons with Jake 17 and Mitch 9, Martin with Jordan and Nick both 16, and John with Jack 16 and Mick 13, showed up with smiles from ear to ear ready to enjoy fishing in the wilderness once again. Here for three days of fishing they certainly made the most of it with the first day having fabulous fishing. All caught a lot of Northern Pike and Smallmouth Bass, averaging 75 fishing per boat, and Marty’s boat in the lead with 100 fish. Jack Caught a 19-inch Master Anglers Award Smallmouth along with Jordan’s 19.5-incher, and Jordan just missed a Master Anglers Award Northern Pike by one inch as he landed a very big 39-inch Pike. Second day was a planned shore lunch day so they fished their way to Twin Falls where the water in Little Vermilion Lake is flowing out into Vermilion Lake at 10’s of thousands of gallons per minute. They caught Smallmouth Bass on they way there and back and had an extended lunch cooking over a fire and having the youngsters expend some energy. They had fun in the water, starting the fire, and running through the bush. They also fished at the falls catching some fish, and Marty while reeling in a Smallmouth had a Muskie try to eat the Smallmouth he was fighting. After swimming around with the Smallmouth for a while the Muskie spit it out, then came back and attacked it again. An attempt was made by John to net the monster Muskie, but one look at this 6-footer and the Muskie let go of the bass and swam away. After getting caught in a brief but heavy rain they built their fire larger to dry off. Third and final day was another great day catching lots of Northern Pike and Smallmouth. Also, many more BIG Master Anglers Award Smallmouth were caught with Jack catching another at 18.5”, Jake caught a 19”and 18”, Marty had 6 between 19 and 20-inches, and Mitch at 10 years old came up with the prize landing a GIANT 20-inch Smallmouth Bass. Great fun was had bay all and many memories made between father, sons, uncles, and nephews.

Long time guests of Fireside Lodge, Mike and Linda Lapresi from Tucker, GA. Returned to Fireside Lodge for some relaxing time together while fishing in our wonderful wilderness surroundings. Here for the Smallmouth Bass Mike and Linda did great the first day catching close to 40 Smallmouth, with Mike catching all of his fly fishing, and landing an 18-inch Master Anglers Smallmouth. Second day was almost a carbon copy of the first as they caught 34 Smallmouth. Both days all their fish were caught while fishing with surface presentations, Linda using a Tiny Torpedo and Mike fly-fishing with poppers. Also, many of the Smallmouth were very large, with many between 16 to 17.5-inches. They also had a lot of missed fish as the Smallmouth would either miss the lure, or come off after exploding on the surface. This is common when catching Smallmouth with top-water techniques, but the great thing is that even the missed fish account for great excitement. The third day Linda and Mike decided to catch Northern Pike, and did they ever. Lind caught over 40 Pike herself, and had many missed fish on Buzz Baits, and Mike sticking to fly-fishing caught over 10 Northern Pike and a HUGE 18.5-inch wide bodied Master Anglers Award Smallmouth. Fourth day brought some weather and rain, having very windy conditions by noon with wind gusts to over 30mph, and the heavy rain was coming down sideways. I found them sitting on the lodge porch watching the storm, which drove them off the lake, but not before Linda caught a GIANT 19.5-inch Master Anglers Award Smallmouth. Weather cut their fishing short but both had a wonderful stay, and made another set of memories at Fireside Lodge.

Fireside Lodge guests since 1994, here for their thirteenth trip were Kevin Marks from Hebron, KY, Michael, Muir from Knoxville, TN, Mike Colitti from Matthews, NC, and brothers Andrew and Thomas Hurdman from Chester NJ and Jacksonville, FL, and Jay Lind from Matthews, NC. They had another FANTASTIC fishing and catching trip. This group averaged 55 fish per day per person, which for four days comes out to the unbelievable number of over 1300 fish caught. The majority of the fish caught were Northern Pike, but they did catch a good number of Smallmouth Bass and a few Muskie. Some highlights were, Jay catching two Master Anglers Award Smallmouth at 18 and 18.5-inches, and a HUGE 41.5-inch Muskie, Kevin landed an 18-inch Smallmouth, Mike Colitti caught a 19-inch beauty of a Smallmouth and a BIG 38-inch Muskie, and Mike Muir took top billing in the Smallmouth Bass category catching a GIANT 19.5-inch Master Anglers Award Smallmouth. Brother Andrew and Tom caught some big Pike and had some terrific days on Northern Pike over 30-inches. All had loads of fun, which is a given for this group as they are good friends dating back to their school days. All intend on returning to Fireside Lodge in the near future.

Make sure to go to our website listed below to see the 2009 Photos

Hot Lures of The Week: White Twister Tail Jig, Blue Fox Spinner, Tiny Torpedo, Senko Worm, Mepps Spinner, Buzz Bait
Fly Fishing surface poppers

Catches of the Week: 41-inch Muskie, 39-inch Northern Pike, six 20-inch Smallmouth Bass, and 121 Master Anglers Award Smallmouth Bass between 18 to 20 inches were caught.

Please note that we have a “NEW” email address below.

Well, that's it for this weeks Fireside Lodge Fishing News Report, Please stay tuned for next weeks report. Until then "Keep On Fish'n" Alan
www.firesidelodgefishing.com
www.firesidelodge.com
800-545-0815
Email: fireside@xplornet.com