July 22nd, 2011

Last year Kirk and Sally treated Michelle, Jon, Caleb, Trent and I to a guide assisted trip into the Boundary Waters.  We went with Rob who is the proprietor of Ely Fishing Guide Company again.  I knew what to expect this year and was very excited for our fishing adventure.  We met Rob at the Timbertrail Lodge at 7:00 am sharp.  We then drove to a lake, put the boats in said lake, drove the boats across the lake, portage the boats through an island, drove the boats through another lake, portage the boats across an island, then presto, you’re in the boundary waters.  We had another guide, Mike, with us this year to help with the second boat.  Having another person made the portages much easier.  Once we were in the boundary waters, there was fish to be caught.

Caleb caught quite a bit of good sized walleye.  I think he caught 6 total and Rob deemed him Caleb Walleye.  Caleb actually pulled this walleye out of the water, but Rob had them put the fish back in the net for the above action shots.  Me likey.

Michelle thought she got her fishing line stuck on the bottom of the lake.  It happens.

Boy was she wrong.  She caught a 28 inch walleye.  Fish that size you should let go, it helps the fish population.

So we let her go.

The fish we ended up keeping.  This is not including the fish we let go because they were either too big or too small.  Apparently it’s a story much like that of goldilocks, we wanted the fish that were just right.

We then headed to an island to clean the fish (a job that Mike took) and have a shore lunch.

Rob cooking and Mike cleaning.  A girl could get used to this.

Caleb and Jonathan discovered this huge prehistoric looking snapping turtle.  What do you do when you find one of these things on shore?

Feed it some fish guts.

Rob’s delicious shore lunch! 

Fantastic day in the boundary waters.  Thank you for being so pretty and hosting so much wildlife.