Monster Northern

The big generator has been repaired and the camp is running on full power again. We weathered more thunderstorms last week fortunately without incident. The guests last week did some traveling on Red Lake, but were able to find several walleye in the 24" - 27" range. See pictures below of Terry, Dean, & Kari. The big catch of the week was a 46.5" Northern (above) caught by Phil Krohn.

Hot Colors

Fishing continues to be productive and it's time to narrow down the top 5 colors of the season. This is based on our experience trolling lindy rigs and input from guests, but let us know if we missed your favorite color.

5.) White - I'm always partial to this color ever since I hooked a 50" musky while walleye fishing. Sure the fish was blind in one eye, but I like to think the white beads caught it's "good" eye.

4.) Combinations of the top 3 colors - Whether you buy them in the store or build your own, don't be afraid to try color combinations. Solid colors are reliable, but with experience you'll find color combinations that will trigger bites on a slow day. A couple of my favorites are yellow and red along with yellow and white.



3.) Orange - Worm-thieving perch also really like orange, but if you don't mind the occassional tat-tat-tat, pack some orange beads.

2.) Red - Always a favorite. I have had more personal success this year with red rigs on overcast days.

1.) Chartreuse (Yellow) - This is my go-to color. Always seems to produce and I usually only switch to other colors when I'm out or my boat partner is slaying fish on another color.

Mid Summer Report

Hello Everybody.

I have been majorly slacking on my end of the blogging world. Travis has written one too many if you ask me. Well, I decided to put an end to that.

Out at camp we are pretty much at the halfway mark for this season. I can't believe it. Time has gone by really quickly this year! Cosmo has managed to maintain his weight so far this year which Travis and I are really happy about. Nothing like having a starving puppy face watching you cook all day long. As much as he watches me I think Cosmo could pretty much take over KP duty if I got eaten by a monster Northern.

Cosmo had a special visitor last week. My grandma, Barbara Vestal, from Marshfield, MO came up as a guest last week. We had a lot of fun fishing and hiking out at camp. She also got to go to Red Lake's Norseman Festival which was this weekend. You can find out more about this event in Red Lake by clicking here. Below you can see that she enjoyed being out on the water and had some success of her own catching Walleye, Northern Pike, and Perch.





I am in town today (on Sunday, which is extremely unusual) to pick up my other grandma, mama, and two cousins, also from Missouri. I'm sure we will have some more pictures soon of all their fishing adventures.

Until next time...

Night of the Rock Bass

This is for all the rock bass fans out there...





That's right...two rock bass in one night. A pretty successful outing if you ask me.

Fish Photos!

Don't forget to send pictures from your trip if we didn't already get them! We love to see pictures of fish, wildlife, the camp, and all the great scenery. Email them to eaglefallslodge@yahoo.com or mail hard copies to us at Box 224, Red Lake Ontario P0V 2M0.



Here is a picture above of Tracy Mack's (yeah, that's my dad) 26" walleye caught in the falls at the back of Parker. He caught it on a yellow Creek Chub Darter that doesn't go more than a foot underwater believe it or not!



Above is Shawn Burns with a nice 40" Northern.



Check out Larry Andris with a huge 41.75" Northern.

Below are some of last week's guests - Brian, Zach, Rolly, & John with a nice stringer of fish from Parker.



I know a few of you enjoy exploring and many of you probably know there are several abandoned gold mines in the area. A few guests visited the Red Summit mine which is accessible off the Mt. Jamie road by a trail on the north end of Martin Bay. This is one of the older mines in the area. Unfortunately there aren't any building left at this site, just some racks of core samples, a bulldozed pile of lumber, and a large spoils pile with some quartz. Below is an old truck on the trail that couldn't quite make the trip back. That's all for now from the north. Until next time!

Wacky Weather

The weather has been wild this past week as you can see from the photos below. Rain followed by sunshine followed by more rain.









Fortunately, even with all the fronts moving through the guests still managed to catch some nice fish. See Scott Nelson's walleye below.



We also has a bonus visitor in camp this week - a baby bird which Carrie promptly named Chipper despite his grumpy outward appearance. Luckily Cosmo decided to not make Chipper an afternoon snack and after a couple sniffs, Chipper was allowed to bumble about the camp. After two days he flew (I'll use that word loosely since he was still pretty awkward) off into the Canadian bush. Maybe he'll visit again.

Power Struggle

Greetings from the north! Judging by the title of this post, most of you probably thought this blog might pertain to who is actually in charge out at the lodge. Even though Carrie and I (Travis) both own the lodge, everyone knows that I'm the one in charge. Everything usually runs smooth too, as long as I do what Carrie tells me to do.

Speaking of running smooth though, we had a little excitement this past week and unfortunately it was the wrong kind. Our generator that powers the camp was hit by lightning and the computer inside wasn't too happy about it. We do have the camp running again on a backup system so no worries if you are getting ready to make the trip up.

There has been plenty of the good kind of excitement too. Enjoy these recent photos of some trophy catches - Bob Gouge and his 42" Northern.



Annette Ragsdale and her 36.5" Northern



Matt Dillon with a healthly 34.5" Northern.



Happily, all fish were released! Also Jeff & Andy Zwieg have managed to locate a new eagle nest on Parker near the old one that many of you probably remember. Here's a shot.



The walleye are moving to deeper water on Red Lake with most of the fish now being caught in the 12-20' range. The fish are Parker are still being caught near the weedlines and steady wind has produced great numbers of fish the past week. If you have questions or comments about a specific area on the lake please write. Until next time...

Surprise Smallmouth!

Time for another fishing update. The last couple weeks have yielded some terrific fish. Congratulations to Jared Oehrke for a surprising 18" 3 lb. smallmouth caught on Parker! Smallmouth are a rare catch so that makes this fish one to remember. Also congratulations to Dennis Meyer for his monstrous 29.5" walleye.

Slate Bay was a go-to bay last week for the guests and Martin produced well when the wind was blowing. Parker Lake was absolutely on fire on Thursday last week which provided a great end to the week. The low point came when a guest lost a new fishing rod on Parker, but another guest managed to snag it later in the week!

The Northern Lights were visible quite clearly last night. It looks like we're going to weather a bit of rain early this week, but so far rain levels are much lower than last year which is nice. Until next time!

We thought everyone was probably ready for a fishing update!

We are starting week 3 and things are going quite well. Last week we told you about the awesome Lake Trout caught on Red Lake by Dave Wein, and we were able to snag his pictures before he headed home. Check it out below!



Travis' brother Carson has been up as well right now and he was out at the beginning of the month on Parker fishing solo when he single handedly hooked, netted, and documented a 42.5” Northern Pike. What a monster catch. I might be most impressed by his photo skills in the boat while wrestling the fish.



Also congratulations to Mary Jane Owen for the biggest walleye catch of the year so far. She caught a 28.5" walleye night fishing on Red Lake.



The weather has been pretty good and is considerably warmer than last year at this point in the season. However, many of you might be thinking that could be bad for the fishing conditions. So far the guests have only suffered a couple afternoons of full sun and low winds, and there have been enough intermittent showers and windy days to keep the Walleye happy and feeding.


Also, we have been busy with some projects around camp, as you see Cosmo has been an excellent helper!

Big Laker & 1st Fish Fry

Hey everybody!

We are about halfway through our first week and things are going great! The guys this week have had much success on both Red Lake and Parker Lake. Due to some wet weather most guys have been fishing fairly close to camp and have had fun catching fish in both Young's Bay and Martin Bay. One of the week's best catches so far was a 35" Lake Trout hooked and released by Dave Wein. We finally saw some sun yesterday after a rainy first three days. Camp operations are going well, my only complaint is that everyone comes in at the end of the day and talks about their daily adventures while I get to listen. Wish I could be out there catching the fish too! That and all the new grass seed has pretty much washed away. Travis took some new guests out on Parker and that really broke his heart to have to go out there. Yeah right!

Cosmo is ready for the weather to clear up, but he has enjoyed some time by the fire. He has yet to be late for a meal and has quickly warmed up to everyone in camp. Those sad puppy eyes can be pretty convincing. Last night was the first fish fry of the season. Travis & I battered all the fish and didn't think we'd come close to eating all of it. Of course every last bite was eaten. Nothing beats a fresh walleye fish fry!

Until next time...