To be continued....

So I was to continue my lake trout fishing story last week but I got way too busy.  For those of you that don't know, last week I drove down to Arkansas and picked up my boat.  This weekend was crazy and so here I am now on Monday evening (just in from fishing) going to write some more.

Saturday Todd, Theo, Earl, and I  all decided to go to the portage lake named Mister Lake.  Of course, I end up with Rusty and Todd in my boat.  I don't mind Todd so much, but if Rusty has me troll anymore I am going to pull my hair out.  Todd and I both end up landing some real nice lakers on Lucky Craft jerk-baits and Mepps spinners.  Rusty then decided we should troll for a while and I was able to catch three  more.  After a long morning on the water we decided to troll over to the bay where Theo and Earl were fishing and see how their adventures were going.  To our delight they were catching lots of fish.  They had found a pretty good pattern that morning.  Their pattern was to fish the shore line were the sun was hitting the rocks with the most direct sunlight.  The sun was warming the shallow water and therefore the bait fish were all moving up.  As the bait moved up, so did the lakers.  These guys were doing something that I had asked Rusty all day to do.  But Rusty insisted that we would catch more trolling.  Needless to say, he was wrong.  Theo and Earl were wearing the paint off their lures they had been catching so many fish.  Most of their fish were caught in less than 25 feet of water and some as shallow as 5 or 6 feet.  Theo was throwing a white X-Rap jerk-bait (until it broke) and Earl's choice was a chrome colored Rat-L-Trap.

Now comes the funny part of the story.  While we sat and enjoyed Theo and Earl's stories of horsing in all these trout, our fantastic guide Rusty actually had his first fish of the day on.  Yeah, he had fished for over four hours with nothing.  As Rusty tried to get this fish out from under the front of the boat, I bent down and told him to, "Hang on, I'll get it."  I bent over the bow of the boat to act like I was going to help fish his line out from under the boat, but instead I bit it!  So now his ever so tight rod and line that was jumping about was slack and he looked stunned.  Oh wait, he was for a sec, until he realized what I had done.  Rusty in turn had to retaliate.  What does this ninkumpoop do, you ask?  He threw my and Todd's fishing poles over the side of the boat.  Thank god he didn't let go of them.  It was quite funny - at Rusty's expense, of course.  

So with the day winding down our boat was headed for camp for our afternoon nap.  I couldn't go with out my nap in Canada.  I think somebody on this trip told me it's the air in Canada that makes you feel like you could nap all the time.  I was starting to believe them by this point in our trip.  Neither Todd nor I  could go more than about 6 hours with out a nap. 

(Theo, you weren't far behind us so don't act like you have been forgotten.) 

Saturday was our last day in camp to fish.  We made the most of our three days on the water at Camp Manitou and look forward to doing it again.  Sunday morning we were up early and heading for the landing and then homebound.  In closing, I would like to say a few things to all the guys on this trip.  Thank you very much for making this a possible opportunity, thank you for making it memorable, and last but not least thank you to all that helped make this trip a complete success.  I couldn't ask for better friends in life.  I miss all of you guys, you're the best!  Until next time Fish On!  Stay tuned for many more stories to come.     

We Came, We Saw, We Conquered

Home from my first lake trout fishing excursion to Camp Manitou in Ontario Canada. Where, oh where, do I start? 

I had never caught a lake trout before this trip.  So when Matt Koerbitz, owner of Camp Manitou and Happy Landing Lodge, offered me and a few close friends a chance at ice out lake trout I jumped all over it.  Last week the anticipation of catching my first lake trout almost made me come out of my skin. 

On Wednesday, Todd, Theo, Earl, and I were on our way to International Falls, MN to stay the night so we could get up early Thursday and head for camp.  Russ and Kurt, two of Theo's uncle's, came up later and met us in I. Falls.    

After breakfast we headed for camp via the short stop at the border.  Did I say short stop?  Nothing about crossing the border into Canada is short when you have as much stuff as we did.  Being that we are all good citizens of America, or at least I have been lead to believe, you would seem to think the four young handsome men in our truck would have no problem getting across.  But since Canada only allows you to bring one liter of booze per person across the border we figured we would tell them that we had more like we were supposed to and pay duty.  Just us good citizens, as mentioned before, trying to do the right thing.  Nope, they wanted to run ID checks. Then they proceeded to take everything out of our truck and told Earl to pack it all back up once they found nothing.  Oh, as for our reservations Mr. Authority (jarhead/border patrol guy), they don't send us anything in the mail in case you were wondering, so NO I don't have any info on our reservations.   What would you like to know next?  Do I really have three liters too much booze and two too many cases of beer?  Yep, I sure do and admitted it so I could pay YOU duty and go on my merry way to camp.  But no, you seem to think that is more than four grown men can drink in three days.  News flash, you're wrong!          

After finally getting across the border we were on our way to Camp Manitou to enjoy three days of lake trout fishing and many memories.  We arrived at the launch where we were to be picked up by boat at 11:30.  Umm, too bad we had told them we would be there at 10 cause we weren't thanks to the border buddies we made.  No problem!  Our ride was waiting as we arranged and loaded all our gear into a large boat with the six of us.  Off we went for a 10 mile boat ride to an island on Lower Manitou were camp was eagerly awaiting our arrival. 

Upon arrival, we found very nice accommodations.  We were greeted by Matt and shown to our cabin for the weekend.  Once everyone was settled in we were off to the boats to meet our guide.  Sounds pretty good so far doesn't it?  That's were this story takes a turn. 

Well based on first impression, Henry our guide seemed a little reserved but probably the kind of guy that knew the lake trout honey holes (neither of which held true for Rusty).  Notice the name change.  After only a few hours with Rusty, the nickname was on him, and he had started to ease up.  When I say ease up, I mean he got downright loud - which was perfect.  As time went on, he seemed to be more and more like me and seemed to make a perfect fit in the boat.  I don't think Rusty always thought it was so great, but so be it.  He made me laugh, he made me question all my old fishing techniques, and he made me a whole lot smarter by the end of three days (or at least he would argue that he did).  This man Rusty was one of the most outgoing, loud, and biggest "know it alls" I had ever met, which was a great mirror of myself.  As I got to spend more time in a boat with Rusty I started to appreciate his knowledge and heart, for trying to make sure we enjoyed ourselves and had a great time in camp.  Rusty not only took us to the trout, he cleaned them, cooked them, and downright worked his tail off for us. 

After fishing hard with no luck the first day, Rusty proceeded to tell us about a portage lake and how good the fishing typically is.  We all got a little curious so I asked if he would be willing to take Theo's Uncles in there and give it a whirl.  That morning we all headed out with high hopes and a few new spots to try.  Rusty and the boys headed right for the portage and showed us a spot to try along the way.  On our third pass Todd boats the first trout in our boat and the blood starts pumping.  Shortly thereafter Theo and Earl boat a few trout, and then I got one.  So we are all starting to get the hang of this trout fishing stuff.  We fish a little while longer and they seem to shut down mid-morning but we do catch a few pike. 

Being that Todd was sleeping in the front of the boat and I was already hungry, we headed for camp for some lunch and a nap.  Awaking from our nap the other boys were coming in with fish stories from the portage lake.  I was hearing things like they caught 15-plus trout and lost numerous others and I was excited.  But I was a little confused on the whole "losing fish" thing.  There is no excuse for losing fish that is unless you are using either a rusty hook or a Johnson Century spincast reel - both of which were used by the group that day.    

So back to our guide Rusty - in case you didn't catch it earlier, his real name is Henry.  On the first day when Rusty and I were having one of our fishing conversations he mentioned to me what we should be fishing with.  He even went as far as to show me what to use.  He said, "That tube jig head you're using is too light and won't get down deep enough to catch'em."  So I had to inquire on what size I needed. 

That is when all my faith and trust in our guide Henry went out the window.  He proceeded to reach in his pocket and pull out the rustiest tube jig hook I had ever seen.  And from that moment on he was no longer Henry, but rather "Rusty."  To one up that, when the first fish came to the boat he pulled his pliers out to take it off and it was rusted shut.  If you think he didn't catch any hell from me through out the weekend you are lying to yourself.  Poor Rusty took it like a champ, though.  That was until poker one night when he decided to pick me up and body slam me onto a table in the dining room.  Sorry about your table, Matt.  To be continued tomorrow...

Look Out Lake Trout

Here we come Canada!  Earl, Todd, Theo, myself, and all the rest of the boys (a.k.a. the crew) leave tomorrow for lake trout fishing at Camp Manitou.  It is going to be soooo much fun.   Hope you boys are ready for what's about to go down!  When I return I will have pictures and lots of stories to share.  Until then, Fish On!   

Update on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 8:33PM by Matt Peters

Are you ready eah!

Ice Out!

Today Waconia is officially open.  The wind over night busted up the ice and opened the lake to boat traffic.  We can finally enjoy soft water again.  Fish On!