Tyler and I made the trip up this weekend to do some camping and fishing even though the forecast didn’t look promising as far as the wind was concerned. We had a strong tail wind followed by rain on the way up Friday evening, but the rain stopped when we started setting up camp and the wind died to nothing. Once everything was squared away at camp I was looking out on the lake thinking where we should go that evening. Well the decision was easy to make once the wind started howling from the north. It took no more than 30 minutes for the lake to turn from flat calm to heavy 3 footers rolling into shore. We decided to stay at camp, build a fire, and eat some smores. That idea put a big smile on Tyler’s face.
The next morning we woke up to 34 degrees and the wind was still ripping from the N/NW. We drove up to the Red Door and put in at about 7 a.m. It was cloudy and there were flurries!!! We ventured out to the bottom side of the break and fished in about 21feet of water rigging red hooks a leech on 7’ snells. On the first drift I was starting to thinking to myself that that I was nuts to be out in these conditions; 2 footers not far from shore, 34 degrees, and flurries!!! Did I mention the flurries? We made a few drifts with nothing to show, but we could see the clouds were starting to break. At about 9 we headed back to the resort to warm up in the truck and have a cup of hot coffee. After warming up we headed back out to the east. We fished until about 12:30 p.m. with only a jumbo that Tyler caught. At that time we decided we’d had enough putting the boat on the trailer and drove back to camp on the south side. Once back at camp we had some lunch, took a nap, and walked around the camp. As the wind was supposed die down on Sunday and change to the south I was expecting the wind to slow at dusk, but it never really did. So at about 6:30 p.m. I needed to make a decision to either build a fire and enjoy more smores or to hit a nearby reef to do some corking. Well we decided to head out on to the lake once we swapped out the 15lb. navy for the large Waterspike. Not wanting to go too far I opted for the nearest reef to the boat ramp. After some messing around trying to get a set where I was happy, we were fishing at about 7 p.m. We fished for about 30 minutes without a bite so I pulled anchor and moved down the reef to where two high spots on top of the reef created a saddle and we set the anchor. About 15 minutes into the new spot Tyler put on a clinic for the next 2 hours boating 5 fish and missing a few more. After his second fish and missed fish I changed out my white glow jig to a blue/white glow jig like Tyler’s. Once I changed jigs I still did not get bit, but Tyler boated another 2 fish with one being the pictured 24 incher. We had identical setups with the exception of the bobber color. I was starting to think Tyler got into BK’s stink bait and smeared some on my rig. Well Tyler pulled his fifth fish we started talking about heading in as it was about 9:30 when I finally got a bite. The last fish of the evening was the 24 incher I am pictured with. It was a great night we will not forget even though I spent the evening working around the boat floor trying not to fall out due to the waves. Final score: Tyler 5 – Dad 1.
Sunday morning we broke camp and hit the Cove Bay access on the way home at about 10 a.m. with the hope of catching a few more. It was a beautiful morning compared to the previous 2 days and we were able to shed all of the layers of clothing down to our jeans and sweat shirts. We rigged for about 3 hours working transition areas near shore. I picked up one 19.5 incher and that was it for about 3 hours of fishing. We loaded up the boat at about 1:30 p.m. with intentions of hitting the DQ on the way home and called it a weekend.
The fish didn’t cooperate as well as we would have liked them to, but we had a lot of fun along the way and we are looking forward to doing it again soon.
I would imagine, you pretty much had the lake to yourself on saturday…. I have only seen the lake rougher one time since 1991. that wind just would not let up. I was actually up to go turkey hunting, but I think my blind would have blown away, with me in it 
and lots of SMORES !!! 
