Fireside Lodge Fishing Report 7/14 to 7/21 2018

Fireside Lodge Fishing Report 7/14 to 7/21 2018
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The first part of this week started with several windy days playing havoc on boat control and creating challenging fishing conditions. Our guests really persevered thru those two days and then the weather turned around giving them beautiful fishing conditions for the rest of the week and the Smallmouth Bass Fishing turned on.
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Long time Return Guest since 2001, Tony Kujawa from Lansing, IL came with good friend Mike Woolf, Tinley Park, IL for his 2nd consecutive year. Dealing with strong winds the 1st day they had fabulous fishing having tons of action and caught 39 nice size Northern Pike. 2nd day was off to Closs Lake Portage, with the winds still making boat control more difficult; they fished for Muskie having many follows but no takers.
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3rd day had them trying a new technique for Smallmouth Bass and had a very good day catching more than 20 nice fish along with 8 Northern Pike. That evening after supper they did well catching 10 more nice Northern Pike on Spinner Baits. 4th and final day was fabulous catching many Smallmouth Bass & Northern Pike plus Tony hooked and landed a huge 40-inch Muskie. What a great way to end a fishing trip, both saying they had an unbelievable time and were sad to leave already thinking about the next time they return.
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David and Kathie Drake from Terra Haute, IN returned for their 13th visit with us at Fireside Lodge. 1st day was very windy with gusts to 40km per hour, but they did manage to catch about 10 fish. 2nd day started like the first but with showers so they took the morning off, returning to the water in the afternoon catching some fish. 3rd day was excellent weather and excellent fishing catching a Bunch of BIG Smallmouth Bass with David landing two Trophy Master Anglers Award Smallmouth at 18, and 18.5-inches plus many more being just under that, and Kathie caught 5 Northern Pike. 4th day was not as productive as the pervious day but they still caught fish, both Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike and Kathie had a special catch landing a Northern Pike by lassoing it with the leader instead of hooking it with her lure. 5th and final day they had fun catching some Northern Pike and even doubled up each hooking a Pike at the same time and David, seeing that Kathie’s fish was larger, measured his and threw Kathie’s overboard before measuring hers. Both had a great stay and have hopes in returning again.
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Mike and LeAnn Sebade from Lander, WY returned for their 3rd consecutive year. DOA Mike caught some Pike, had follows, and got bit clean off from a big fish while using a very large Fly he uses fishing for Sailfish. 1st day was very good with Leann catching 11 fish and Mike following up with 9 fly-fishing. All year Mike has been haunted by a HUGE Muskie he had following his fly, opening its mouth, flaring its gills, just to slowly retreat and swim away. 2nd day was even better catching about 25 total fish in windy conditions. 3rd day the weather turned around and they had a FABULOUS day catching a 32 to 35 large Smallmouth Bass along with several Trophy size up to 19.5 inches. That same evening after supper they went to Mike’s special location and caught some HUGE Smallmouth Bass hitting a Whopper Plopper Surface Lure. You could just feel the excitement in their voices as they described the crushing Smallmouth Bass strikes.
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4th day they had tremendous fishing catching a good number of large Smallmouth Bass, Leann doing very well on soft plastics while Mike caught most of his fly-fishing until his arm wore out then switching back to Leann’s technique. 5th and final day they ended their trip on a high note catching almost 40 Smallmouth Bass, with most being big, using a variety of techniques including surface lures or flies, Ratl’n Rap, or a floating worm on a jig, which all had their high moments throughout the day, proving flexibility in fishing is important. Both left having a fantastic time not only fishing but also meeting a number of guests during their stay.
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The Klimes family Group returned for their 6th consecutive year headed by Brian & his boys Zach, Tyler, & Jordan from Willow Brook, IL, his brother Kenny from St Louis, MO area, brother Kerry & son Kody from Phoenix, AZ & Geno Dombrowski from Orland Park, IL. 1st and 2nd day was very windy which made boat control challenging, but all persevered having fun with family catching fish. One fishing feat accomplished by Kenny was landing his first Muskie Fly-Fishing. 3rd day, after two days of strong wind, it finally calmed down and good thing because they were having their 1st Annual Eddie Clark Fishing Tournament. Rules were set as winner takes all and the winner being decided by the total length of one fish. The measuring rules were, a Northern Pike was measured straight up, a Muskie was determined by its actual length plus adding two inches, and a Smallmouth was calculated by doubling its length. They all had a great morning catching lots of Smallmouth Bass, some Pike, and Kenny landed his 2nd Muskie fly-fishing it being his first ever Tiger Muskie. Kerry and Kody had a great day catching many Smallmouth Bass, Kody catching an 18-inch Trophy Smallmouth Bass, and a 17.5-incher fly-fishing, and Kerry won the tournament with his HUGE Trophy 18.75-inch football shaped Smallmouth.
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4th and final day Kerry and Kody had a great day with Kerry catching a 19.25-inch Smallmouth Bass along with 14 other big bass, and Kody caught his Smallmouth fly fishing with a popper and a fly that was given to him by another guest. Kenny had a good day fly-fishing catching some bigger Northern Pike up to 37-inches and Brian his boys also did well catching Smallmouth Bass. All left having another wonderful Family Fishing trip full of laughs, and many memories made.
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Dusing Group from Kentucky Made up of Paul, Son Joe, from Florence and Covington, Brother Ralph from Wilder, Father son combo Ton & Kevin Annear from Burlington & Union, Ken Kopp from Burlington, JR Feagan from Verona
& Gene Cochran from Covington were all trilled to arrive.1st day all went out with excitement despite strong winds and all caught fish.
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2nd day Ken and JR did very well catching Smallmouth Bass on plastics and a few Pike, Ton & Kevin said they caught a lot of Smallmouth Bass on small spinners and Ralph while fishing with Gene caught a Nice 31.5-inch Northern Pike. The fish chased a Smallmouth he was catching and swam off, so he threw his crayfish lure back to it in that direction, the Pike slammed the lure and as Ralph said the fight was on ending with a nice picture of Ralph holding his catch. 3rd day they all did very well catching many Northern Pike along with a few Smallmouth Bass and Kevin landed a 32.5-inch Northern Pike to take the lead in the main competition among the group for largest fish caught. As a Group they caught 50+Fish for the day.
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4th and final day all the guns were smoking to win the money pot for the largest fish caught during their stay. And all gave it their best but the winner ended up to be the 80-year old rookie Gene, never fishing in Canada before, catching a 42-inch HUGE Muskie on the last afternoon of their trip. Another special even this group had been a retirement celebration for Ralph who retired after working almost 50 years. All left having a wonderful time making many memories among family and friends.
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Bob Roud from Massillon, OH, son-in-law JP Sexton, Jon Melnichenko, Mark SchoolCraft and Dan Farrar all from the Cleveland, OH area were fishing at Fireside Lodge for their first time. 1st day they spent getting accustom to the lake and did well catching some Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike. Bob caught a nice Muskie and JP caught his very 1st Muskie. Bob also caught a Trophy 18.5 inch Smallmouth Bass. 2nd day all had a great day catching Northern Pike, Mark & JP catching 46 Northern Pike, with 20 bigger Pike caught using a twitch bait technique Mark and I discussed after he purchased a Yo-Zuri from my tackle shop. It worked so well he purchased two more at suppertime. Bob, John, and Dan also did well catching 23 Northern Pike. Bob had the catch of the day landing a big 35-inch Muskie.
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3rd day was fabulous fun all catching many Northern Pike with Bob catching over 20 himself, and Mark caught over 25 being on the leader board for the day. Also Bob caught a Special 19.5-inch Trophy Smallmouth Bass. 4th day they all caught a lot of Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike, no monsters but had fast action and fun. 5th and final day they had a ball catching a bunch of Pike and Smallmouth Bass fishing right to the last daylight hour of their trip. Last night a dinner they told me that they had an exceptional stay with us at Fireside Lodge between our services and the memories made among family and friends.
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Tyler Tennant from Lakeway, TX and Pete Higman from Gurnee, IL returned for their`16th trip with us at Fireside Lodge. 1st day these two got back into the swing by catching numbers of Northern Pike and Smallmouth Bass while searching for larger fish. 2nd day was fewer fish but what they were looking for being bigger fish. 3rd day they had a great day chasing Muskie, having a lot of follows, but also catching their fair share of of Smallmouth Bass and Northern Pike. 4th and 5th days they caught a lot of fish mostly Northern Pike, along with some Smallmouth Bass Tyler saying that most were in the smaller to mid size range. One interesting happening as Tyler was catching a Smallmouth Bass it started to go into a frantic spell and then a Muskie showed up on its tail. Well the chase was on and after several seconds the Smallmouth just went still. The Muskie got closer, and closer almost touching the Smallmouth Bass and then just swam away. So you wonder why we don’t catch fish at times? 6th and final day they had a fabulous day catching fish everywhere they stopped and saw several very large Muskie. Both had another wonderful time making another set of Fishing Memories together.
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Fred Dee from Iowa City, IA returned for his second time bringing Son-In-Law Kevin Gracey and his two sons Harrison and Jonathan from Dunwoody, GA. for their first time. First day was spent catching a few fish and getting reacquainted with our lake system. 2nd day was a great success with Jonathan catching a very large 17-inch Smallmouth Bass plus Harrison & Fred doubled up on Trophy Smallmouth Bass landing a 19 and 18-inch Smallmouth Bass respectively. They also caught some nice Northern Pike in the 26 to 30-inch range.
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3rd day was another good Smallmouth day with Grandpa coming up with another 18-inch Smallmouth Bass and Harrison caught a HUGE 24-inch Walleye. They also caught some nice Northern Pike having a great day making family fishing memories. 4th and final day was great catching lots of fish by noon, with Fred catching a Monster 20-inch Trophy Smallmouth Bass and all had an afternoon rest. They finished up with and evening fish after supper where Kevin and Jonathan teamed up with a great evening fish landing a 19-icnh Trophy Smallmouth Bass.
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All had a FABULOUS time fishing together and making some wonderful family memories. Thanks for choosing Fireside Lodge to enjoy your special family time.
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Make sure to go to our website below to see some GREAT Fish Photos. For Fabulous Fishing Video, Wildlife Events, and Current Happenings go to our Social Sites Below.

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Hot Lures: Yo-Zuri, Ned Rig, Spoon, Spinner Bait, Blue Fox Spinner, Mepps Spinner, Rattl’n Rap,

Flies of the Week: Articulated Fly, Popper, and Various Streamers

Catches of The Week: 20-inch Smallmouth Bass, Many 19.5 to 18-inch Smallmouth Bass, 42-inch Muskie, 40-inch Muskie
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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
http://www.firesidelodgefishing.com
http://www.firesidelodge.com
800-545-0815
Email at:fireside@xplornet.com