Fishing was spectacular, at least for me

 

Here's what mega-fire Red Lake 77 looked like July 6, the day after it started

I was so intent on cabin building that I took little time off to fish; however, Brenda and I were also hungry for some fish dinners. On my first cast from the dock I caught about a 24-inch walleye. That's too big to keep for eating so I kept tossing out my 1/8-ounce Beetle Spin. Pretty soon I had two smaller walleye and kept them for the frying pan. Four or five days later I tried the same thing. In quick order I had a nice eating-size walleye and a northern pike -- all we needed.

After a week I tried again and this time got one pike. We needed another so I got in the boat and headed down the shoreline. To my surprise I caught an enormous smallmouth bass. I think it might have weighed four pounds.  I released it. Then I got the pike I was looking for and headed home. 

Another week passed and I decided to try fishing for pike right where I went daily to get cellphone messages, on the way to Trout Bay. One cast and I had a 24-inch pike -- all we needed. The next time we wanted fish I made a bunch of casts with the Beetle Spin and didn't get anything so I switched to a 3/4 ounce Five of Diamonds spoon. One cast and I had my pike. I started for home but part way back slowed down and thought I would troll back to the dock. I just let out the spoon behind the boat. I was in about 50 feet of water and didn't expect a bite until I got nearer to shore. Almost immediately I hooked something enormous. It was fighting like mad and with the deep water and all I figured it must be a lake trout. When I finally got it to the boat I couldn't believe it but it was a whopper of a walleye.

I carefully measured it without lifting it from the lake. It was 32 inches, by far my biggest. It had bit a five-inch long spoon on a six-inch steel leader. Without a weight to sink it the spoon probably was no more than six feet from the surface in a spot that was 50 feet deep. I let it go, of course, and just to see if this had been a fluke retraced my path and started trolling the spoon again. I was still letting out my line when another fish hit. This one seemed much smaller but I measured it anyway -- 26 inches. 

I only fished one more time after that, again in my cellphone bay. It was evening and the water was still so I tried a handmade jerk bait. I did so reluctantly because every time I have used these lures by Dwayne Kotala, my neighbour in Nolalu, I have caught a lunker of a pike. This time I wanted a smaller pike to eat and didn't want to risk killing a trophy-size fish. I picked a small version of Dwayne's pike-musky wooden bait. One toss and I had my eater pike but I wanted to fish a little more so I cast it out again. Sure enough, I tied into a 45-incher. It would have been over 20 pounds. Fortunately, I was able to release it OK.

All told I fished about four hours last summer and in that time I caught my largest-ever smallmouth bass (also my first from Red Lake), largest walleye and largest northern pike.