It just doesn’t seem right that I’ve been up here on the pond for nearly a week and I’ve not posted a single fishing report. To make matters worse I didn’t even fish the September full moon. For those that have followed IDA over the years you know that I’m usually good for every other day reports… this year things just haven’t played in my favor. Unfortunately for me I brought a NASTY cold bug north with me and I’ve been fighting like mad to shake it with less than satisfactory results.
Late last week I lost my voice. Completely. I could barely squeek out instructions on how much line to run back… but somehow customers and I managed.
Here’s some breaking news… the walleyes are biting on mille lacs after dark on shallow running cranks.
OK, so that’s not exactly hot off the press, inside scoop type info. 
Instead of recounting all of my trips, I’d like to share my favorite so far this year up on the big lake. It is a trip I shared with a couple young friends and their father on a very cold night last week.
In the boat I had 9 year old Nickala, 13 year old Codey and their father Chris. I was a little skeptical that my young crew would be up to weather the elements that night, with temps forecast in the upper 20’s for lows.
As we started out for the night the fishing tales started to fly and I was soon became obvious that these "kids" were no rookies…. dad had been taking the fishing 2 – 3 times a week chasing wipers down in Kansas for years and both Codey and Nickala had developed their own passion for the sport.
I was more than a little impressed after watching Nickala landed a half dozen 23" – 26" walleyes. All without assistance. And when it came time to hold the fish for the camera, she was completely confident and not once did she let any one of the fish she held that evening fall to the floor. She held on with a vice grip and volunteered to pose with each and every fish that came into the boat, including a fat mid-30" pike.
Codey caught the biggest walleye of the night… a fish that taped out at 28" on the dot. Nickala took the honors for most fish and earned another honorable mention for wanting to come back out fishing with dad after dropping Codey off at the resort at midnight to warm up.
The night didn’t end until 2 AM when the cold temps finally caught up with Nickala’s 50 Lbs. of body weight. I have to tell you… she was quite inspiring. I’ve had 300 Lb guys in the boat that bellyached and whined about fishing in warmer conditions than we had that night.
As for catching… my best bite has been on #10 X raps. Clown on the bright nights. Perch when the clouds roll in. Over the last 4 or 5 nights this little bait has out produced the husky jerks that are the standards in my boat this time of year. Trolling speeds have been best in the 1.4 – 1.7 range. Depths of 7′ – 9′ have been tops.
I’m starting to see more and more fish relating to rock and weed transitions than in the previous week when everything seemed to want to stick tight to the thickest weeds they could find. This move seems to take place every fall as water temps fall into the mid-40’s so keep this in mind if your weed bite takes a nose dive.
The weather this week looks fantastic and I do have a couple of openings for trips. I had planned to do a little film work up here this fall but my voice is nowhere near fit for recording… I sound like the Marlboro man right now… lol
If anyone would like to get out, give me a holler. The fish are biting, temps look favorable.
I’ll do my best to check back in over the next couple days. Best of luck!
Thanks for checking in James. Glad to hear you’re feeling better!
I’m getting a little better each day. I still sound awful but the worst is behind me.
Good report James. We ran into your customers at the perch fry at Hunters. They where pretty happy to talk about the fish they caught. Its good to see young people that excited about catching fish. And to do it in the middle of the night in freezing weather.
to those 2 and there dad.
nIce reoprt James and man those are some TROOPERS you had.
Good to hear you are feeling better!
Great report James.
I had to keep telling myself when I got cold last weekend that Chris’s kids were doing it, so suck it up.
Hope you get better soon.
Hey great too here from you!
Awesome report…the smiles say it all..
Always like to hear your reports! Great job with the kids!
Glad to hear you are still alive Buddy!
Don’t come home until the bug is gone.
Just got dug out of my hole at work. The price I pay for taking a little time off to fish, can be a little brutal. This self employed thing ain’t all it’s cracked up to be at times. Sure, I’m supposed to be the boss, but my customers are the real bosses.
I want to thank James for takin’ me out, even though he didn’t really feel all that hot. Got to sit and watch him go “down hill” as the night went on. Oh, ya we caught some fish. nothing great that night, but good fish all-in-all. I think the biggest was about 26″. We were talking about the usual fishin’ stuff-me asking questions, him imparting his vast knowledge. All of a sudden, he lost is voice. He continued to try to answer my questions, even though he could hardly speek, amongst the squeaks and strains of someone in the troughs of a terrible case of Larengitis. I’m pretty sure he was cuttin’ a pretty good fever by this time, but at no time did he beg off. I finally had to call it off myself, knowing that was the best thing to do.
I want to interject my own experience with that little girl named Nickala. I had the opportunity to hook up with these folks for the Perch outing. Boy, she was something else. Very impressive, to say the least. By the way, she’s only 8. She told me so. You guys who are saying she’s 9 had better look out for over stating her age. You know how women are about they’re age. Well, anyway, she smoked us all on the Perch bite too. She has the “Gift” fellas. She caught way more Perch than any of us guys did. She baited herself, took her own fish off, and had it back in the water at the blink of an eye. Not only that, but she had the obligatory “Oh, gee, look heres another one”, in the taunting tone of a hot fisherman. I loved it!! What a great little gal. You guy’s had better be lookin’ over your shoulder. You have a real competitor for the future.
Chris, you’ve got your hands full there buddy, and you’ve got every right to be one proud Papa.
Gramps
Super report. Thanks for the information to be stored until next falls full moon.
Good fishin’
jorg
James,
Great Report, and hope you are getting back to your old self..
also GREAT to see those enthusiastic young fishermen having such a great time.
Jack.
James thanks for mentioning the kids here.You really made an impression on them by how you treated them so well.They had a great time.I really had a great time also.The information I got from you was enough for Nickala and I to have a great night Thursday night also.We had 10 huge eyes in just over 3 hrs in that roller coaster night on the north shore.Thanks James it made our trip.Chris
Great job James!!
Kids are amazing and after running a 3-4th grade summer Fish Camp for three years I have to say my experiences were 95% fantastic!
I can garauntee you made a lasting positive impression on those kids…not to mention they guys here, like me who just graded your character up over 100%!
I hope I wasn’t the 300# guy that whined?
…well…I used to be well over 300#! 
Lots of vitamin C and much needed R&R!!!