MARKS LAKE
May 31, 2006

Myself and James got out again today to take his little guy Jordan out in the boat, and hopefully to get him on some fish. This time out Jordan was a little more realistic in his estimation of how many fish he was going to catch, unlike the other day at Hazelwood where he said he was going to catch 100 fish, today he said he was going to catch 18 fish. Unfortunately he still came up short of his goal, but he had a great time on the lake while trying to catch his 18 fish. To start the trip off Jordan received a gift from his father, James had picked up a new Abu Garcie rod and reel combo for Jordan, a big kids rod! Jordan liked his new fishing gear, and it didn't take him long to figure out how to cast it out.

The day started off pretty slow, we anchored in an 18 foot hole expecting the fish to be deep in the hot windless weather. Unfortunately the fish didn't think the same as we did and none of them were there to bite our hooks, so we headed across the lake to another hole just inside a weed bed. This is where Jordan got to reel in the first fish of the day, a small pike, we threw him back. Shortly after the pike was caught I hooked into the first Walleye of the day, it was a decent size for eating, so we kept him. Jordan threw his line right into the same hole that I had just pulled the Walleye out of and within seconds his bobber was pulled beneath the surface, the hook was set and Jordan reeled in his line to find another small pike at the end, we kept him long enough to get his picture taken and then we released him. For the next little while the action stopped, we moved around a bit, explored a bit, and James eventually hooked into and landed another small pike. We decided to head across the lake again and try some trolling, and then it would be time to head home. We trolled along the shore in 18 - 20 feet of water, snagged a couple of 12 foot humps, but didn't catch anything. After trolling the deep water we started to troll a little shallower, about 7 - 8 ft of water, and thats where Jordan got to feel the strike of a Walleye. Jordan set the hook, very well, and the fight was on. I reeled up my line to grab the net, and as he pulled his rod tip up I was able to net the fish, good thing for the net because just as I got him in the net he spit the hook. We continued to troll up the shore line a bit further, and as we came to a shallow area James set the hook and watched as the fish that just hit his line broke the surface and did a nice little dance for him. I grabbed the net and we successfully landed a nice 16" Small Mouth Bass, we kept him long enough for a photo, and then we released him back into the lake. By this time it was almost time to go home so we ran across to the other shore for one last kick at the cat before we left. We managed to find another hole, and we managed to find a couple fish, but they managed to take our minnows and not the hook. That was it for today, we headed back to the launch to load up and head home. On the way home we got to see some wildlife, we spotted a Ruffed Grouse in the trees, and then we seen a Bear a little further down the road, he didn't give us any time to take his picture, but we all got the chance to see him. Until next time... ...maybe next week.

CLOUD LAKE
May 30, 2006

Went out to Cloud Lake with my wife today, fishing was slow, but the weather was nice. We hit the lake around 3:00pm and fished the shore lines for some bass, we managed to hook into a couple and the largest was 16 inches. We left the lake around 6:00pm to go and visit a near by friend, but we did return to the lake around 7:30pm. By this time the wind had died down and the black flies were out in full force, we didn't last very long on the lake the second time, our sun burns from the afternoon were killing us and the black flies were eating us alive, so we decided to call it a night. On the way home we decided to go the back way and just as we crossed a bridge I heard a rustle in the bushes and turned to see a Moose standing on the side of the road. I stopped the car and grabbed the camera for a few pictures when I noticed a little one coming out from the ditch, this had to be the smallest Moose I'd ever seen. I was able to get a few photos before the Cow and Calf made there way across the road and into the bush. So, we may not have caught a lot of fish, but it was definately worth it to see the very young calf and it's mother out for an evening stroll.

HAZELWOOD LAKE
May 27, 2006

Went out fishing this morning with James and his son Jordan, we took Jordan to Hazelwood lake in hopes that he would hook into a few fish. He had high hopes when we first arrived, he said he was going to catch 100 fish, it would have been nice but it didn't happen. We did manage to get him hooked on 2 fish, the first was a small pike that got off the hook right at the shore and the second was a small perch. He also missed one early in the day, didn't lose his minnow but it sure received some war wounds. While we were there we came upon a snake making it's way through the trees, I was able to get a decent picture of it as is remained motionless in amongst the pines. We are planning an outing next week with the little guy, hopefully we can get him on the 100 fish that he wants to catch... ...you never know.

May Long Weekend 2006
Brightsands River
hardcorefishn adventure 2006

Well, another May long has come and gone, this year we had 6 in our group, 3 that have been out on a Hardcorefishn adventure before, and 3 newbies. The ride up to Brighthsands wasn't looking to promissing, for weeks prior to our departure I kept hearing horror stories about the condition of the road into Brightsands, and how bad it would be to attempt the 93km trek. We had even decided to head back up to Majata, but on the day before we left I got word that the road had improved and that they would be spending the day on Friday grading and repairing the road for the opener. SO BRIGHTSANDS IT WAS. We left saturday morning around 11:30 am, the weather was off and on rain, but it kept clearing up. It wasn't until we were half way to brightsands when we realized how terrible the weather can be on the opener, we hit a snow storm while travelling on the highway and the snow continued off and on straight through til Sunday. It was terriblty cold when we arrived at the lake and started to unload our gear, it was even colder travelling across the lake in the boats, but that was nothing compaired to how cold it was at night. We headed across to a large Island where we decided to set up camp, hoping that being on an Island meant that there would be no bears, and there were none that we seen. Shortly after setting up camp we headed out on the lake to where we had done good in previous years, unfortunately with the early spawn and the cold front the fish were not as easy to catch, and the were not where they were the years previous. We moved around and eventually found the fish, we were able to catch enough for a good fish fry for dinner and decided to call it quits as I couldn't feel my feet anymore. We headed back to shore and built a tarp covered fire pit area and had a nice shore lunch, fried Walleye in beer batter and beans, nothing better than that! When I got up the next morning, I exited my tent to find a blanket of white stuff on the ground, yes snow, it was cold enough over night that the snow actually stayed on the ground. Sunday was a cold and windy morning with a fairly decent afternoon and evening. We fished all day, kept a few for a shore lunch, and then headed back out in the evening to catch some fish to take home the next day. Between the four of us that were leaving in the afternoon on Monday, we kept 12 fish to take home, we figured that we should have no problems catching the remaining four in the morning. Two of us, myself included, decided to stay out past dark for some late night lunker fishing, we had our head lamps and flashlights to find our way home. We stayed out until just before midnight and had only caught 3 fish in the dark, the largest being a 20 inch Walleye, we released them all. We were half way back to the camp when all of a sudden my outboard died and a big puff of white smoke came billowing out from the engine cover, what happened I'm not sure, but I did know that we would have to paddle the rest of the way back to camp. By the time we got back to camp, everyone else was getting ready for bed and I still had to clean the 6 fish we had caught earlier and we still had to make some dinner, so we didn't get to bed until 2:30am. The next morning we woke up a little later than we had anticipated and we were a little cramped for time as we wanted to be home by supper time. We decided that myself and Pete would head out for an hour or so to see if we could catch the remaing 4 fish we needed for our limits, we succeeded, but it took longer than I thought. When we first got out on the lake we fished the same flat that we had been fishing the night before, except today was sunnier and warmer, the water temperature had even risen by 2 degrees. So we ended up trying some deeper water and they were there, we caught a few more decent size Walleye in 26 - 32 feet of water. Once we had our 4 fish we headed back to camp so that we could pack up and head home, wouldn't you know it, the day we have to leave is the only nice and sunny day with tempuratures in the double digets, oh well... ...there's always next year.