There's No Place Like Home

[JBlanck]

After fishing the Eastern area for a few days we needed a fix for the northwest angle area. The bloom down east was bad (and all over the lake, too) so we decided to give the old haunts a try. We called Frank for a report on the algae bloom and it sounded like there were a few places where it was better than where we were so we ventured over for a half day. We stopped by Bay Store for some gas and a few hellos before heading out. The other Flatlanders were about to head out so we got a few reports from them while there. It sounded like the Monkey Rocks area was clear. We worked through a few familiar spots heading up past Johnston Passage and settled in to a familiar saddle that we love to fish. First cast Craig got a strike on the fourth twitch...nice! He landed a 37 incher. We're on the board! 5 minutes later I have a nice fish coming in on a blk/blk dbl 10 and goes around the 8 for a good 30 seconds before sinking out of site. We cast a few times at it and decide to leave for a while to let it settle down. It was chasing but not eating. We moved to a near-by complex and when the thunder appeared to be getting too close, we went back to the saddle. An hour or so had gone by and we couldn't stand it anymore. We moved into the spot, killed the trolling motor and each made our first cast. I had the dbl 10 on again and Craig had his ciscoe 10" Jake on. First cast and the fish had moved about 25' to where Craig casted. It came up under his Jake at boat side and went around about 3 times when I told Craig to "speed it up fast and then pause". The bait stopped at the top of the outside turn and the water parted with a huge head coming up out of the water with the Jake in it's mouth. Craig pounded it home and the battle was on. I had my lure in by the time head was in his second turn of the 8 so I was ready to grab the net. After a half minute, the fish was in the net. On the bump board it stretched to 49.5". Another fish on the boards, and a nice one to boot! We fished that spot for a few more minutes as there seemed to be a few fish on it, but left a few minutes later as we had one more spot to hit before having to be back at Red Wing by 7:00. We motored up to the top of Tranquil to a familiar spot and dropped the trolling motor. Second cast, Craig moved a nice mid 40's fish but no hook-ups. He got a nice pike (if there is such a thing) and we raised 2 more fish before we had to leave. It dawned on us that there may still be a bog in French Portage and if we couldn't get through, we would have to go back by Monkey Rocks to get back in time. We took off. Motoring down the narrows, the portage came into sight. Clear as a bell and another boat was coming from the other way to show it was clear to go through. We went through slow and then raced back to Red Wing, in time to make a few casts on a spot we liked by Boom Stick Island before getting there.

All in all, it was a great trip over and proved that there's no place like home...the Northwest Angle area rocks! The area we fished was very nice but it's not as familiar as the angle where we have over a decade of data under our belts. I love that lake. I look forward to next year. Thanks for the reports Frank. I hope your fall goes well.

Jeff Blanck

[Tim Kelly]

Great report.

Nice to beat the conditions and get some nice fish in the boat.