2009 fishing at Anglers Kingdom

[kgeary]

I realize it's a bit late but as they say better late than never. Besides now is the time when more people have the time to enjoy a fishing report. I posted some of this on another thread to answer a members question.

The 2009 season started with a foot and a half of snow. I was one of the few able to get out and plow. The town and highway people had all their equipment put away. So I spent about 14 hours plowing streets and even the highway. Then did Nungesser road and the landing. I have a great picture of Mike shoveling snow out of the boats. It LOOKS absolutely beautiful. It is always nice to ad an extra day or two of work when your so busy getting camp ready. It’s a lot easier to joke about it now.

Even with the cold weather Big Pike were caught each day. Jay Brooks caught his biggest pike ever, a giant 47 inch beauty took a dead bait presentation just 20 minutes into his fishing trip. “My legs were shaking, what a fish, the fish of a lifetime.” said Jay. However the next day jay caught another 47 inch pike. It would have been his biggest ever if he hadn’t caught his biggest ever the day before. Actually Jay had caught a 46 inch pike just 5 minutes into his day of fishing with me on his first trip to Anglers Kingdom two years ago.

Jay has learned the secret to catch truly giant pike. Patience. I can remember when jay would come back to camp and tell me he’d fished here and here and here and you get the idea. I told Jay what I’ve told literally thousands of anglers over the years. Rule number one, go where the fish are. And then fish for big fish.

“FISH FOR BIG FISH” This sounds like a simple statement but it is critical in your success if what you want is a giant pike. What I mean by this is don’t just run into a spot, slosh around in the shallow weeds and chase out a few little hammer handles, then head to the next spot. Set up where the big fish are and wait them out. Sometimes it takes 10-20 minutes sometimes it takes several hours or even days. There is one gentleman who has been fishing Nungesser long before I built Anglers Kingdom. He has always stayed at another lodge but we get a chance to chat now and then. He knows exactly what I’m talking about. He has a few favourite spots and he waits for the big girls to show up.

It would take quite a bit of time to describe all the potential places that hold giant pike. When guests are at camp I sit with them and point out spots on the map. I draw little detailed diagrams of the exact spot where I feel they will find what they want. Sometimes I’ll just take them to the spot. I also guide as much as possible but it seems like I have less and less time for that.

I recall a guest back in 2006 who told me all he wanted was one giant pike. I set him up on a spot and by the end of the third day he had a 49 inch pike. He told me it was well worth the wait. He had been fishing Canada for over 30 years so 3 days was a short wait for the biggest fish of his life.

In August it took just 5 minutes for Roger Dahlager to catch the biggest pike of his 25 year quest for a Giant pike.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

The first week of 09 was remarkably good considering the major snow fall and cold front it started with.

We were catching big walleye and big Pike. The big walleye were even more surprising as many of them hadn’t spawned yet.

Rick Puig and his son were up for his first time ever fishing walleye or pike. They both landed walleye over 28 inches and pike over 38 inches. I think they are “Hooked”.

The second week was more of the same. The warming water got the Pike more active and they started hitting stick baits worked slowly. Larry Siebenthal and his son caught about 20 big pike, biggest was 44.

They had several doubles which says a lot for their prowess. They are musky fisherman and perhaps had the patience needed to make it happen. I drew out one of those little diagrams of about 5 spots and they worked those 5 all week. Sometimes one or two a day, some days all 5. On the days they fished all 5 they caught less fish. That is a common thread I’ve found on any lake any time of year.

Ted Beran and the guys were back again for the fourth straight year. Lynn Anderson couldn’t make it and we all hope is doing well. Lynn is the gentleman that carved the big pike for us. Teds group did well, had some doubles on big pike.

Mike Fliss reported catching 30 walleye over 30 inches. All I can say is WOW.

Well that is a start. I’ll try to get a report done for June and especially September which was awesome this year. All in all it was a great year of fishing. I started a blog and have a bunch of photos and the start of the reports on there as well. Just learning so please excuse the mistakes.

OKAY IT LOOKS LIKE I GOT THE BASICS FIGURED OUT

WILL POST MORE PHOTOS ASAP.

THANKS