My First Bass

Back in the 70s I was on Ft. Stewart in Hinesville, GA. At Ft. Stewart they had lots of tanks trails and some of these trails went by ponds. On a early Summer evening I drove my car on one of these trails until I found one of those ponds and decided to try my luck at fishing. Up to this point, the only fishing I had done was when I was small and as a family, we would go deep sea fishing out of Tarpon Springs, on a head boat. The only fishing gear that I had with me was a basic rod, a Zebco 101 reel and a few plasic worms. I grabbed my gear and started walking into the water. I was wearing jeans, t-shirt and a pair of sneakers. I walked far enough to where the water was about 4 1/2-5 feet deep. Off to my right was a small cove type area. At the furthest part of this little cove was a dead log laying partially on land and the rest in the water. I put a plastic worm on my hook. My first cast hit and landed on the top the log. I thought to myself...Damn, now I am going to get hung up on that log. But I gently pulled the plastic worm until it plopped into the water right next to that log. The next thing I know I was pulling in what I thought was a submerged log or a bunch of submerged vegetation. It felt like dead weight. I pulled the weighted thing towards me. When there was only about 3-4 feet of line out, all of a sudden their was this huge splash and a big tail disappearing back into the water. It all happened very quickly and scared the heck out of me. I though I just had some plant or something on the end of my line but as it turned out, it was an almost 8 pound largemouth bass. This was the first bass that I had ever caught. Just goes to show you, you don't need high dollar equiptment to catch fish.

Canadian Vacation 2008 - Homeward Bound

Veronica and I woke up at 3:00 AM this morning so that we could make our 4:45 AM flight to start our journey home. Below are pictures of the airport in International Falls, MN. It is the smallest airport that I have ever seen. there is only one gate and Northwest is the only airlines that goes there. There were only 6 people, including Veronica and I, on this early morning flight. We flew to Minneapolis, MN. From there we flew to Detriot, MI and from there onto Norfolk. We arrived home around 1:30 this afternoon. It took us forever to get everything unpacked and put away. Then there was 2 weeks worth of mail to go through, loads of wash to do, emails to answer and it continued on. The usual after vacation stuff to catch up on things. Now we start all over again and start looking foward to next years vacation, which will be during the first 2 weeks of August. A long ways to go. I hope that you enjoyed us sharing our vacation with you. I guess now it is time to get back to real life...what a bummer!!!!

Photos of the Falls International Airport in International Falls, MN

The road leading up to customs at the Canada-U.S. border...entering the U.S. from the Canadian side at Ft.Frances leading into International Falls, MN.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Last Day

This morning we awoke at our regular time. We had breakfast up at the lodge and then said our goodbyes to all the guides and folks at camp. We checked out I said my final goodbye to Dakota for the year. Then we went to Dryden and did what laundry we had left so that we wouldn't have to do tons of laundry when we returned home. We then drove down highway 502 to International falls. Going through Customs was a piece of CAKE only one car was ahead of us.
We were able to check in early in our beautiful super 8 hotel room ( not). Put gas in the rental car yet again.
This afternoon we will be having an early dinner at our favorite restaurant the Chocolate Moose.
We will be going to bed super early tonight since our flight leaves at 4:45 a.m. tomorrow.
This will put us into Norfolk at 11:54 a.m., then back home we will drive finishing up yet another great vacation to Canada. I will summerize my thoughts about our vacation upon returning home. Until then I wish you tight lines and huge fish.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 14

This morning we woke up to another morning of rain and wind. Veronica decided that she wanted a day off from fishing and she went to visit a woman in her 90s that knew her grandfather and grandmother. I went out fishing for Musky again I had five Musky that followed my lure to the boat. Three were very interested in my lure but just wouldn't take it.

So for this vacation the Musky sandbagged me. Final Score Rick 0 - Musky 25.

Tomorrow we are going walleye fishing and will be having a shore lunch. More pictures to follow tomorrow. Tonight is Fish fry night for the entire camp and then we will be going over to Veronica's grandparents old lodge and cabins for some pictures. Above are some pictures of the leaves changing here on Eagle Lake. Until tomorrow, I wish you tight lines and huge fish.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 10

Well, today was a rather slow day on the fishing front. I only caught 2 Northern Pike today. This morning it was really cold out and windy but by the afternoon it had warmed up and there was no breeze at all...the water was like glass which is not good for fishing. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Tonight Veronica and I helped out by cooking dinner for what few guests were here. There are only two guests ourselves and two guides along with one dockhand. I grilled steak and Veronica handled the rest of the meal. We are in the lodge now and are the only two here along with Dakota the camp dog. We turned down all the lights... seems surreal. Most of the new guests will not be coming in until tomorrow.

It is kind of interesting meeting people from all walks of life here. The majority of the people you meet here are very friendly. I would like to give a " shout out" to Taylor Linkous of Blacksburg Virginia. I hope you guys made it home safely. Taylor works for Linkous Auctioneers. Visit their link here http://www.linkousauctioneers.com/ .

Below are some photos I took this morning at around 6:30 as the sun was just starting to come up.
Until tomorrow I wish you tight lines and huge fish.

Part two of our shore lunch

Here is part two of our shore lunch. Scroll down and view part one first.

Thanks Rick

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 7

Today we did our usual routine and after having breakfast we met with our guide, Mike, down by the dock. Fishing was very slow until about one p.m. today.
We were out Musky fishing using what is called a Sucker Rig. A sucker is a type of fish like a smaller version of a carp. The suckers we were using were about 15 inches long and the sucker is attached to a rig which is used to catch Musky fish. I had a 51 inch Musky take the sucker and I set a really hard hook set on it but unfortunately after fighting the fish for five seconds, the musky sheared off the rear treble hook, so I lost that fish.
I lost a 45 incher on a similar situation also today. We had about six of the Musky follow our lures to the boat but they were just window shopping and wouldn't take the bait.
Tonight was Fish Fry that the camp has every Wednesday night for the guests. Tomorrow we will be going on a road trip to Corner Lake with our friend and guide Cal.
So, until tomorrow I wish you tight lines and huge fish.


Here is an outside view of our cabin # 8 our favorite.
Down at the docks this morning.
The boats are being taken out of the water for the season.
Found this wood pecker outside our cabin this morning.
Fishing lures we used this morning. We had these lined up and ready to use.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 5

Veronica and I woke up at 6:30 this morning. After washing up and preparing our lunch for the day, we headed up to the lodge for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns, bacon, toast, and apple juice. We then headed back to our cabin to get our gear and met our guide up in the parking lot. Today we went to a remote lake called ORD lake. We caught 78 Walleye by noon, had shore lunch and then did Musky fishing in the afternoon. We had 7 follow up to the boat but they did not take the lure. One of those was a 50 inch fish. Veronica hooked a 42 inch Tiger Musky but it got away when we were trying to net the fish. On the way back to the dock we saw the deformed deer ( please take the time to view the video below). We then drove home, had Walleye we had caught today for dinner, did some laundry and spent the rest of the night relaxing.
Overall a really good day. So good that we have changed our schedule next week so that we can go back with Andy, our guide, two more times.

Here is Veronica at the Shore lunch campsite. It was really cold today. Canada's Bald Eagle. You will find many everywhere you go in Canada.

Here is a picture of the deer in the video below.
A huge Inuchuk in front of Bobby's Bait Shop in Vermilion Bay. Veronica the proud owner of a squished fish...... Actually Veronica does not like touching the fish so it ended up in this position.

One of the 78 Walleye we caught by noon. We only kept four of them for dinner.
Rick is the proud owner of this huge walleye. You can see the pride in his eyes.

A place we stopped for Veronica to use the ladies restroom ( aka the tree). This area is also where Shore Lunches take place.

Canadian Vacation Day #3 photos

Below are various pictures that I took between 6:30-7:00 AM this morning. I hope that you enjoy them.
this is a picture of some building art that is hung up outside of the boathouse.

This is a picture of the fish cleaning house and the baithouse.

I thought that the angles of this portion of the wooden walkway leading to the docks were kind of sharp, so I took a photo of them.