Time line Circa 1977:

We always camped on one of the islands and pushed out from Al's and left our cars there. I am the one who posted the pics of Als wooden boats from 1953 as that is when my dad and uncles started going to the flowage (FYI we still call the flowage Al's place to this day).

Anyway back to the story from 1977 - that year my dad had taken a few extra days so we decided to go all week instead of just the traditional Memorial day island camping trip and we rented a camp spot from Al. The resort was pretty much at its largest then and the only camping left were three spots in front of the bog. The old timers will remember the bog it was a left hand turn when heading to Donners from the Dam and it was where he allowed campers with electrical power.

My brother was standing in the back of the boat (the boat is pulled up to shore with the anchor and bow of boat on shore) and he was casting a flatfish to the bog when a Musky nails it. The fish takes a huge jump and some guy runs out of one of the Als Cabins and is screaming "Musky, Musky, Musky". My brother is also really nerveous as he has the biggest fish he has ever caught (true to this day and he is pushing 60) on the end of his line and this guest screaming Musky and waiving his hands. My Cousin Rodger runs to the boat and is beggging the guy to hand him the anchor as the guy is now standing numb with the anchor in his hands. Rodger desribes the scene as like the guy was in shock and was frozen from action. Rodger takes the anchor from him and pushes the boat off of shore and tells Reid (brother) to just fight the fish and let him deal with the boat and net. The fish made three airborne leaps like a smallie and several good runs.

My brother ended up mounting the fish and it was a story re-told at the Al's Lodge bar for many years.

When we took the fish to the Lodge to get our pictures taken, etc. the news of the fish had already spread over the entire property. Some guy in the Lodge was making a big deal out of the fact that my brother did "not deserve" the fish because they had been up there a week and had poor luck. I got really upset and talked about how "my" family had been coming to Al's every year since 1953 and how my dad and uncles started the site by pump island and really stood up for my brother. Reid to this day laughs about how mad I got at that guy even though I was just a kid.

JR - if you happen to read this maybe you can post a picture of the fish, I don't have one.

Anyway - this is a true story from the shore of Al's place.