This may be a little long so bear with me. Just like that and the game fish season has came to a end. One big thanks goes out to all my customers again this year. Thank you and I hope to see you again next year. Mother nature was a little kinder to us this year when it came to the weather. 13 years of doing this and every year is different. The biggest snow fall so far was maybe 5 inches. I would guess we have had a total of 15 inches for the season so far. The first year I was up here and there was no snow on the lake most of the season. Two years ago and it seemed like it was 20 below every day with 3 feet of snow.
Getting all the houses ready for the final weekend was a little hectic as Rick and Yobee pulled out Friday morning . They fished Montana for two days and did fairly well. Thursday I checked Casey and his crew into North Dakota and Tim and Bradon in to Florida. Wayne also rolled in for old Minnesota late Thursday night. Friday morning after saying good bye to Rick and Bradon Wayne detailed Montana for me while I prepped her for a short move. Chris would be arriving later in the day. Chris won a free night I gave away on Minnesota Outdoorsman MNO. They have a winter and summer fishing contest every year . Its free to sign up as long as you post 10 times in a certain amount of time. I will be signing up for there summer contest as last year I tied for biggest fish and won 40 dollars worth of cabellas gift cards. I also had a few wheel houses coming out to the area I was fishing. My hope was to find a few more elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies. The area had all ready produced a few in the last 10 days. I set up Goose, Bryce and Gary to the east of us right in line with the few that had been caught. Old Minnesota and North Dakota were also in line while florida and montana were to the south west a bit. Chuck and Kathy set up real close to where they had good fishing last weekend. Preston with his 30 foot ice castle set up just to the west of where florida had such good fishing last sunday and Monday. 3 wheel house set up just west of where we got 2 elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies last sunday and they were the big winners landing five for the weekend. Lonnie was just south of them and they also had a group of 3 wheel houses and landed 2. For some crazy reason that little area has produced every single one with none coming south or north 50 yards away.
Florida had good fishing all three days. They were fishing very small jigs tipped with fatheads a inch off the bottom. Montana with Paul, Chris, Danial and Heather just to the west of florida had so so fishing but they were having a good time. North Dakota caught walleyes the whole weekend While the hammer, Wayne and I struggled to land a fish all weekend. Wayne did have a nice run Friday afternoon when he landed a 22 and two 16s in a matter of 5 minutes.
Wayne loves small planes and Jrs corner was having there second annual fly in so we drove down there Saturday to check it out. I never new Wayne new so much about small planes but it turns out he was full of knowledge. I on the other hand. I know nothing about them. I would highly recommend checking it out next year as all those different colored planes sitting on the white back ground of the lake were quite the sight. Looking in them up close I was surprised how small the seating is. It was also cool to watch them land one after the other and taxi into position. I wished we would of stayed longer to watch then take off and I hope next year we can do that. Very cool.
Goose, Gary and Bryce did not do that well where they were at .Goose’s house did the best of the 3. I did see where Bryce landed a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie to the area they moved to sunday for there last night on the lake.
I set Randy, Tammy and Randy’s dad up where we landed the 16 eluisive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies weeks ago Randy’s dad Rich did land one late Friday afternoon but that was it. That area is also a little fishy and I think Randy said they ended up catching 14 walleyes for the weekend. Randy said he will be back for our crappie get together on the 11th of march. As far as I know at this time Buddy Hillmens Highway will be open and he will have a few rentals out there as will I. Tyler at bear paw is also chasing the elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies this year and has some type of guiding deal going on. If you want to increase your odds of finding a few you could also give him a call. Carson, Franks nephew found 14 this past weekend. I also talked to a wheel house that landed 10. Casey on his hunt landed a total of 7 for the weekend. I will be moving all the houses this week a little closer to shore as I’m out over 9 miles at this time. I will be working on the lake every day ,but there will be quite a bit of r and r in old minnesota as its has been a long season