Happy August, Everyone! Can you believe it’s August already??? We just had a pretty fast-but-furious rainstorm, our second since last night. Last night we had big, big wind and lots of rain with a bit o’ light show for fun. We really need the rain; the lake has dropped visibly in the last week. I thought I was going to have to water flowers but should be good now for at least a few days. We had been quite humid for several days–unusual for up here–so Gruper and I knew we were in for a good thunderstorm.
We were pretty quiet last week. I was able to pick a couple of times as well as catch up on some camply duties. Kevin has already sent some pics from their trip. I plan to share them next week. Fishing was tough but they didn’t give up! It was way too hot, way too sunny, way not windy enough, etc. They were great sports, though, and are planning a 2018 trip!
The quiet week allowed for more project work. Gruper and Mark replaced the floor in Cabin 3’s bathroom and it looks very nice. Staining continues always. Mark has dismantled our cabin’s porch swing and will begin taking a part of the deck apart as well (did you see what I did there???).
We are anything but quiet this week! The nice thing is that we are nearly all used people, so I have only 16 new faces to learn. Fishing results have been pretty good as well: young Aidan released a 21″ walleye and young Caleb released a 25″ walleye (his first ever). We all know the problem with setting the bar that high;) The buckets are showing lots of nice eater-sized walleye and northern, some HUGE smallies and some good piggy perch as well.
I added two bass to our Big Fish page. Sean and Kyle from two weeks ago each released 18″+ smallies! The pics are very nice.
Sean and Kyle were part of Ryan’s group two weeks ago. These guys were fun guests but serious anglers! Jeremy had upside-down lake maps on their shirts so they could consult the map without removing their shirts. They came in with a plan and figured things out during trying conditions. I think North Bay ended up being their best spot but they were exploring and conquering! I have some pics from Jeremy to share (thank you)!
Kyle not only released a big smallie, he also gave a nice northern back:
and caught walleye!
Looks like nearly everyone got into walleye: Mike, Jeremy, Ryan, Ryan…
Ryan found himself a big ‘ol bass
as did Jeremy
These guys weren’t messing around with tiny perch. Check out Jeremy’s pigs among their mess:
This looks like the makings of a nice dinner:
What’s that you say??? Shore lunch featuring northern cakes and walleye!
Hopefully they had room for steaks later!
Sean might be the oldest but I wouldn’t depend on him to feed the troops (btw, I LOVE this pic):
Not to add insult to injury, but the sleeve makes me think Sean caught this as well (?)
It was GREAT meeting all of you! We certainly hope to see you again:)
I captured some nice sunsets this past week. However, I’d rather close with a few nice words about a very nice man. Tall Pines Camp lost a good friend on Sunday. John (The Big O) O’Neill passed away surrounded by his family after a tedious battle with brain cancer. John welcomed us when we took over Camp and always had a smile, a “comment,” or a story to make folks smile. Our condolences go to his wife Nita, daughters Rachel and Tara, grandsons Andrew, Bentley and Charlie, and his siblings including Ed with whom he used to fish up here. Gone too soon.