Detroit Lakes area vacation wk of 6/6/10

My wife, Katie, and I spent last week up in the Detroit Lakes area of NW Minnesota for a relaxing vacation. Weather could have been better, but did not seem to hamper our enjoying the area sight seeing and getting out in the boat when we wanted to. We didn’t even put the boat in the water til the 4th day there.

Being my first time to this area, I was able to get some information from a few IDO members, the DNR site, and local bait shop. Our first lake we went to was medium size, deeep and clear, and was hoping to still find some shallow Smallmouth Bass. Katie is really not much of a fisherman and does not get in the boat very often, but was game to go with me on our vacation.

We started out slow cruising some shallow areas adjacent to deeper water to see if it held any fish, we found a few holding in scattered rock boulder/ rubble areas. Our technique used was the same one I used two weeks ago up on Chequamagon Bay: four inch Senkos with a 2/0 EWG, and small wt for added casting ease in light winds. Katie did very well in learning this technique, and we spent the afternoon locating and catching some nice Smallies up to 17 inches.

A couple of days later, we went to a different lake in search of some panfish for a meal that evening. I quickly found a wind protected shoreline that held some shallow Bluegills and Pumpkinseeds. We used Frank’s (Rodman) ultralight rods with a small hair jig and piece of crawler. We found a load of fish under a large multi-covered dock system, and proceded to catch at least 50 medium to big size panfish up to 8 1/2 inches. I had all I could do for about 30 minutes, was to rebait and unhook fish every 20-30 seconds, and Katie would get back in there for another one.

I was having a terrific time watching her learn more about fishing and she was having a great time doing it. I was able to get a few myself and still handle my unhooking and rebaiting tasks. What a fun couple of hours together, and we enjoyed a nice fish fry that evening with about 10 panfish.

On our last day we checked out and went over the Park Rapids area for a night and half day. ON our way over, we stopped of at a small deep lake known for some nicer SMallmouth, and we thought we’d give it a try. We continued with the Senkos, and again caught fish up to 17 inches. Katie was very quickly learning how special Smallies are, and what a great fighting fish they continue to prove to be.

Again, it was fun watching her catch these strong fighting fish, and most gave us a nice jump during the battles.

We really enjoyed our week in Detroit Lakes, lots of shops, nice downtown, and many many lakes in the area. Wish we had more time to explore the area more. We even got out on the frisby golf course a few times during the week.

Thank-you Dear for the fun week, and for being my Cheerleader.

Jack