Fireside Lodge Fishing News Report 8/23 to 8/29 2003

Fireside Lodge Fishing News Report 8/23 to 8/29 2003

Hello to all fishing friends from Fireside Lodge in Northwest Ontario. We are in our last week in August and signs of fall approaching are evident. The Sand Hill Cranes have started flying south, which is always the first migrating bird to arrive in the spring, and first to leave when fall starts to show itself. This magnificent bird, with a very distinguished call, is a true indicator of seasonal fluctuations. Our weather has stayed nice, cooling down a bit but temperatures being pleasant and still above normal.
A group which has been with us three times before, was back again to enjoy what Fireside lodge has to offer. Brothers Gary and Wayne Kuechler from Addison, IL., and Beamsville, Ontario, Mark Stock from Blaine, Mn., John White and Greg Pusch from Schaumburg and Buffalo Grove, IL., and Steve Vieth from Menasha, Wi., were all here to enjoy great wilderness fishing. John, Greg, and Steve were all newcomers to the group. This group had great fun catching mostly Northern Pike and Muskie. They had a terrific 1st day catching a bunch of Pike and one Muskie, 28 to 34 inches, and brother Gary and Wayne both caught Master Anglers Award Northern Pike, Gary's being 40 inches which jumped completely out of the water, and Wayne told his brother that his Pike was to big to jump, as it was a huge 42 inches. You have to love this brotherly competition. Also on this day they saw a 10 point buck feeding along shore. This group had several other days like the first day, catching a lot of Northern Pike and some Muskie in the 30 to 38 inch range. Steve and Greg were the less experienced of the group, and on two consecutive days, while fishing together, caught a lot of Pike. On the first day they came back so excited to tell their stories they were the only ones not complaining about the high winds. Steve had caught his first Muskie ever, and beauty at 33 inches, and Greg caught the biggest fish of his life, a 38 inch Northern Pike. Not bad for rookies. Mark loves Closs Lake an ended up fishing with different partners in Closs on three different days. He ended up catching come nice Muskie in the mid to upper 30's, and had few shots at some monsters. Another great shot was the one of a great big Moose swimming across Closs Lake. What a great sight to see. John also had a ball catching a lot of nice Northern Pike. In all this group had a great time and hated to leave. Thanks for returning to Fireside Lodge to make your dreams into long lasting memories.
Tom and Jennifer Born came all the way from Arlington, Tx., to enjoy our fishing and wilderness atmosphere. Here for four days the made the most of their time fishing as they were fishing before breakfast every day, and fished until dark. They also really enjoyed coming back to our dining room for breakfast and supper. On the very first day Tom caught a Master Anglers Award Smallmouth at 18.25 inches, and that set the tone for the rest of their trip. They really enjoyed catching Smallmouth and Northern Pike, and we have a great picture of Jennifer catching here first ever Muskie, look for this one on our website in December. On that same day they also caught a bunch of nice Smallies. For these two it was not all about the fishing, but also about seeing a variety of wildlife, enjoying the ecosystem of Muskie creek, hearing the rushing water and seeing the magnificent sight of twin falls, and just being together and making wonderful memories together in a fabulous wilderness setting. Thanks for choosing Fireside Lodge, and hope to see you both again.
Fathers and sons Larry and Will Hafner from Slayton, Mn., and Marshall and Jacob Isder, from Fulda, Mn. were at Fireside lodge for their first time. They found out about our fabulous fishery through an article published in the Mid West Fly Fishing Magazine. They were only here for three days and since we happened to have several windy days it did limit their fly fishing opportunity. Being flexible they used other techniques, and on their second day ever on our lake system caught 80 to 90 Smallmouth Bass. What a GREAT day fishing. On their final day Larry and Marshall teamed up to catch about 40 Smallmouth, and Will and Jake landed some nice Northern Pike, had loads of follows and lost a bunch of fish. Larry and Will both ended up being Smallmouth Bass Master Anglers landing a 18.25 and 18 inch Smallmouth. It was a great three days of fishing, and upon their departure they were already asking about planning their next fishing trip to Fireside Lodge.
Father and son Bob and Chris Sackett, from Pella and Des Moines, Ia., were also at Fireside Lodge for their first time. After a day of getting familiar and developing fish patterns, on their second day they caught a lot of Smallmouth, and also had some big toothy critter follows while fishing for Smallmouth. The next day they fished more for Northern Pike and Muskie, and did very well catching 18 Northern Pike between 28 and 35 inches, landed a 38 incher and lost a bigger one. They also said they enjoyed a lot of other action in the way of lost fish and follows. The next day they fished from Smallmouth catching 25 to 30 nice fish, and on their final day fished for long fish and caught 19 nice size Northern Pike and on this last day of fishing Chris landed his first ever Muskie. Congratulations to Chris in catching his first Muskie, and to both Bob and Chris for taking the time away from their busy lives to spend time together making father and son memories.
Another father and son that have made many memories fishing at Fireside Lodge are Bob and Andy McCrosky, from Kalamazoo, Mi. In fact this was Bob's second trip to Fireside Lodge this year. Having caught a lot of numbers of fish before, on this trip Bob and Andy decided to concentrate on the hunt for BIG fish. The first two days they caught less numbers but had some very big follows, landed some good size Northern Pike and Muskie, and saw some monsters. In fact Bob had a Monster Muskie on just for a few seconds, only to be denied. A highlight day for these two was landing 30 plus Northern Pike, and 2 Muskie with Bob catching both Muskie. Besides the fun these two had fishing, was having some father and son time spent enjoying the wilderness, good conversation, playing cards and chess together, and reading a good book in the lodge at night. Thanks for returning, and looking forward to seeing you in 2004.
Return group consisting of Hugh Flack and Dave Kuczwara from Johnsburg, IL., father and son Joe and Mike Wetzel from Crystal Lake, IL., Paul Steger and Jim Reichard from Huntley, IL., and Tony Battistella and Gene Simpson from Calumet City and Grayslake, IL. This group was after BIG fish and were trying to keep up their streak going from last year. Well, there were no disappointments in this category as Hugh started them off catching a nice 35 inch Muskie on their night of arrival. The first full day of fishing Hugh and his fishing partner Jim caught a lot of Smallmouth, and Hugh came up big again landing a 18.5 inch Master Anglers Award Smallmouth. In fact the whole group did great on the first day catching a lot of Smallmouth and Northern Pike, and Dave caught the biggest fish of his life, a very fat 38 inch Northern Pike. On the second day Hugh and Jim went to an out lake and caught 20 Northern Pike and 20 Walleye between 20 to 26 inches, Dave and Tony caught a lot of good size Smallmouth with Tony scoring in the Big fish category landing an 18 inch Master Anglers Smallmouth , and Joe along with Gene took the BIG fish honors with Joe catching a GIANT 45.5 inch Master Anglers Award Muskie, and Gene a 18.5 inch Master anglers Award Smallmouth. What a terrific fishing day. Another day Dave and Tony went to a portage lake and caught a lot of Northern Pike, Hugh and Mike caught some nice Pike, and Hugh caught a Master Anglers Award Northern Pike right at 40 inches. Joe also landed another big Muskie measuring a fat 41 inches. Hugh the next day caught a gigantic Master Anglers Award Northern Pike measuring at 43 inches, and on the last day Joe also caught a Master Anglers Award Smallmouth right at 18 inches. This group had great fishing and great fun amongst friends and family. Thanks for choosing Fireside Lodge as your Big fish, and never ending memories destination.
The trio of return guest George Marshall and good friends Steve and Rick Stewart from Sparta, Tn., and Crofton, MD. were here to have George show Steve and Rick the Canadian Wilderness for their first time. George was here last year for the first time with his wife Glenda, so Steve and Rick had a definite advantage as first timers, coming with George. George wrote me a very nice email after getting home from his trip, and since I am always putting peoples catches and experiences at Fireside Lodge in my own words, I decided to let George tell of his experience a Fireside lodge just as he wrote in his email. It read
"ALAN & AUDREY, Just a quick note of thanks...We had a wonderful time as expected, even though I found the fishing a lot tougher than last year. Rick and Steve still went away with great memories of the entire trip, not just the fishing. We still managed around 115 smallmouth-25 of those great fish- and 3 over 18". The pike fishing got better as the week went on as we ended up with around 40-5 over 30"- and the biggest being 36". We had our chances at muskie, but they won this year. We hooked 2 and had plenty of follows. I'm sure most of the dozen or so big blow ups we had were muskie and sometimes that really is as much fun as actually catching them. This was Rick's and Steve's first trip north and the beauty astounded them. They loved the loons, bears, eagles, otters, deer, and beavers. The northern lights were great one evening and the many rainbows were an added bonus. Wait until you see the pike picture with the rainbow in the background. As if God was looking down...As always, your operation is first class and your young helpers speak volumes of you both and of your success. Well I gotta go...God Bless You All !" That sure does tell it all, and there is no better felling for us to receive a letter like this one. Thanks George, and looking forward to seeing you and Glenda again in 2004.
Newly weds John and Jennifer Rodio from Mentor, Oh., were at Fireside Lodge to enjoy the wilderness and fish. Well, the enjoying the wilderness came right to their door step, as on their first evening after enjoying a great supper in our dinning room, they had a black bear in a tree only 10 feet from their deck. Carefully Jenifer took some great photos of the bear as it just hung in the tree at eye level, as it seemed to be posing for Jennifer. She said she would email us the great pictures, and look for them on our website some time at the end of the year. This was not the last they, or others, would see this fury friend as it hung around all week, giving a lot of our guests some great photo opportunities. John and Jennifer also did a lot of fishing, catching some nice Northern Pike, and several of their days they had very good action. Another wonderful thing they saw was the northern lights on several different nights. Also we have been able to view Mars very clearly as we have been getting some very clear nights. We want to thank John and Jen for choosing Fireside Lodge as their first vacation destination as a married couple, and are proud to be in the beginning of their memory log as a married couple.
Good friends Brian Karnatz and Brent Franck, both from Mt Prospect, IL., decided to give Fireside Lodge a try after fishing for numerous years in upper Wisconsin and catching two Muskie during that time period. Well, after getting familiar with our lake system they not only caught Muskie but managed to catch two on their second day, both in the mid 30 inch range, and have 4 two Muskie days, with three two Muskie days in a row. They also caught some very large Northern Pike in the mid to upper 30's, and the largest being a 39 incher. Another day they kept catching large Smallmouth on Big Muskie baits, and Brian actually caught a HUGE 19.5 inch Master Anglers Award Smallmouth while Muskie fishing. A highlight day was when they dragged their boat over the very shallow creek of Cedarbough Lake, and both landed over 40 inch Muskie, had lots of action, and lost 4-5 other Muskie. What a fabulous day Muskie fishing. It seemed as if these two while hooking a lot of BIG Muskie, Northern Pike, and Smallmouth, also got hooked themselves on fishing at Fireside Lodge. They said they are definitely returning to BIG fish hunt. Thanks.
Well, that's it for this weeks Fireside Lodge Fishing News Report, so until next week "Keep On Fish'n" Alan