Thwe ice is lookling real good.Yesterday the least I found was 12 inches. I have california on the ice and florida will be coming out of the woods today. There are some active cracks on the lake at this time that A guy has to keep a eye on. The area I placed california has 14 inches. I have prefished a couple of areas . Not pounding them but I have lost a few and landed a couple plus numerous fish that do not want to bite.
Wild Bill may be coming up this weekend and Mike and his son will be fishing my florida houseone night.
Ryan has spent the night out there in his ice castle and has some rattle wheels going off which is great as last year they did not bite much after dark like in years past.

what a difference a year makes. With no snow and cold weather we seem to be making some solid ice this year. The fishing has been outstanding in 8 to 9 feet of water just out from shore. Ole was up for a couple of days and headed home with 4 keepers. Jake and Jenny and gabrial went home with there 12 from a weekend of fishing.I have heard nothing but good fishing reports from the fishermen that have been walking out. Our houses are almmost ready to go and now we just need to give mother nature more time to make another 7 inches of ice to feel safe driving out there

I will be heading out in a bit to wet a line before work. I just do not have the energy to get out after work bouncing around in a tractor takes a toll on tyhe old body, The goal is to get 4 keepers before 830am.

We took our first reservation last week so the reservation book is now open. This year I will be running 4 deluxe houses due to mother nature wiping out a few of my older houses. Idaho has went to another lake so that leaves minnesota with new carpet and siding,montana with new carpet,florida and california. I’ have also added a dvd player to montana and minnesota.
As every year I will not know where the houses will be until the lake freezes over. Last year we had some goood fishing and some not so good but thats fishing i guess. Fishing in such shallow water I did notice that the quieter you could be with the lights turned down seemed to help the fishing.I hope to see many of the same crews I have seen in the past and some new ones.I sure of made quite a few new friends over the years and look forward to making many more.
Open water fishing is not over as I have one more guide job on the books plus I like getting out in the fall when time allows.

Its been quite sometime since I have given any fishing report. I spent the evning fishing with larry,jess,and christian. We managed to land three keepers and missed quite a few. today we will work on teaching them to give them a little line before they set the hook. I have always loved fishing this time of year but I also have to work in the fall for Gary and Dave out at there farms.
my grand daughter ashly wants to bow hunt this year so I will be teaching here all about deer hunting in the next two months and that should be some chersied time. I will be hunting with my recurve while she tries a compound.
I also hope to fish more but after bouncing around in a tractor all day its hard to get out and fish after work.

I have had a couple handfulls of all three this year.
I have also spent a small amount of time trolling cranks any where from 4 feet to 15. Last night pat and I trolled from the river down to my place . On the first pass we landed two small keepers. Our second pass produced nothing so we headed down by the popples where I picked up a small pike . That was it for the 3 hours of trolling. There was a pontoon trollling along the reeds/bullrushes in close and I did see them with the net out once. They kept at it so they must of been catching a few . Lisa and Jeff spent a good part of saturday drifting in a small boat with 3 footers and only managed to catch a perch so they headed home early to fish by bemidji.Oh well it was nice meeting them and they missed a perfect morning sunday. I should of gotten up early and gone fishing before church.

been pretty quiet around here as far as fishing . The wind has kept us off the lake some days. I need to wet a line this week though as we have a family coming up this coming weekend.
saturday the 23rd of july we had a high temp of 56. Crazy state. Hillmens had there 26th annual softball tournament and mud football /tackle.
Still dealing with the high water here and our road down to the lake is quite the mess. The area we have the fire pit and grass has been under water most of the year and never drie’s out. The blueberry’s do not look to thick this year and I will have to check out some others areas today. The rasberry’s are good and will also look at the june berry’s today.

Due to the high water this year and where I store our ice house’s we will only be maintaining 4 sleepers on red lake this year. New york and utah were destroyed from the water and Idaho is no longer avaiable. Montana and minnesota will be getting new carpet this fall.

I had the pleasure of taking Kellie’s uncle Loyde and his gal Zelda out fishing thursday. With the east wind we fished this side of the lake with deccent success.
We ended up keeping 6 release a few to small and a couple to big. Loyde and Zelda had a hard time setting the hook as we were trollling spinners. I landed 7 fish and I was driving the boat. They each should of landed more then they did so the 4hr of fishing we did was really better then the outcome of only 6 fish to keep.
We did not have any guest this weekend but Jimmy was up saturday and landed a 44 inch pike and a keeper walleye with in ten minutes of being on the lake.
We spent saturday at the ribbon cutting at the state park and also climbed the fire tower they put up at the stae park. Wow what a veiw. If your in waskish take the time to go to the top.
I now will have to buy some binocs.
I did get out saturday morning to see if there were any crappies still in the secret spot. When I arrived I was the first one on the spot. A second boat slid in to my right after a bit and a 3rd slid in a bit later. A couple other boats took a look and kept going. A forth boat came in from the east and trolled around us. I spent about two hours working the area and only managed 3 small pike. I never saw any of the other boats land a fish so the secret spot did not produce and with all the boats I guesss its not really a secret spot any more. From what I saw the crappies have moved to there summer hide outs.

With the high water this year the wind has played havoc on my lakeshore. Where I have stowed the fish houses with no problems for 9 years is no longer a safe area .
When the winds pick up the water flood are fire pit on the lake as well as all the grass.
two weeks ago we had wind gustting to 50 miles an hour for 30 hours and the water just kept coming up and coming up.I estimated it came up our road to the lake 800 feet. At one point it was 3 feet high down by shore. The water did alot of damage to my fish houses and alo to 3 that were stored here. The 3 that were destroyed here were pushed 30 yards and smashed into the tree line. I have pieces of fish house scattered in the woods. Minnnnesota and montana are alll dried out now and will be getting new carpet at some point this summer. Utah was allready in rough shape so will be completly tore down and made into a new fish house. new york are days house will become a shed down at the lake for now. Florida and california received no damage. Idaho has left the property so will be unavailabe next season.

Now for a quick fishing report the fishing has been outstanding so far this season. the slot changes next week and we will be able to keep any walleye under 20 inches.