Well, we’re still hanging onto the baseball theme. And the theme of one smashing at bat followed by another with struggles at the plate continues as well: our fifth group hit it out of the park and our sixth had most of their drives blown back onto the field. Here’s the box score from late June and early July.

Our fifth group in camp came to bat at the top of the third inning. They entered the park at the peak of a vicious cold front, probably the deepest cold front we have ever seen at this time of year, but that savage nor’easter that made the fishing so tough for our fourth group finally moderated. It also seemed like the fish, after five days of hiding in deep water, got used to the conditions and started to roam the field again. Or maybe they were just damn hungry. For whatever reason, the fish responded to the pitches of the new team. Throwing flies, spinners, plastics and plugs, on Day 1 our anglers had a very solid whack at the fish, landing 43 trophy fish, including one monster pike of 49.5” taken by Kurt Vincellete. For Bill and Kurt those big ones were just the frosting on the cake. Together they tallied a cool dozen trophy pike on their first day. Also on Day 1 Bill Williams and Mike Waltrip landed 45” pike.It was a very good day for all our anglers. Mike Demyen, our MC for the nightly trophy announcements, was busy. Before the top half of the third finished, the sun and nice weather returned and Mike was even busier; many more big pike and some big trout were scored.

The list is almost too long but slugging like this deserves an accounting. Pike of 45 were abundant: John Green got two; Debbie and Bruce Kozlowski each got one; Rob Petty, Andy Nardo and Paul Klenk also stretched their guide’s tape to the supersized length. Bruce and Debbie also had a day with a dozen trophy pike. The next set of bleachers up, the 46ers, was crowed. Brent Laing may have a record, getting three 46” pike in a five-day trip. His fishing partner, John Green, got one too as well as Paul Klenk, Bruce Kozlowski and Andy Nardo. Only one angler, Velon Herbeck, was sitting in the 47” section. Day three was particularly productive with 50 trophies announced that evening, just about two for each guest. There were some very nice trout taken as well. Andrew Troop lead the trout parade with two 35s, a 38 and a massive 44” laker. Andrew and his fishing buddy, Gerry O’Brien, pulled off the hat trick (it’s hockey I know but it still fits) by getting the Trophy Triple hat for their trophies in the pike, trout and grayling categories. The grand trophy total for the group—a very robust 152, over 30 a day. It was a very good week without even mentioning all the bear and moose sightings and the spectacular shore lunches.

And then there was the bottom of the third—group number 6. Talk about bad luck. There was for most of the group’s time on the water a huge wind blowing from the outfield; it blew a lot of long fly balls right back into the park. While most of the group did get out on the water most of the time, the conditions were tough. It was both windy and cold, not a good combination. There was only one-half day of sun and pleasant temps. That was the morning of Day 2 and on that day a very respectable number of trophies (35) were landed. That turned out of be nearly half of the 80 total trophies logged in for the group. Historically, week 6 has been on of our very top trophy producing weeks, but not this year; it was just plain tough fishing. The guides, due to rough water, just could not get to all their favored spots and some guest opted for the warmth of the main lodge for lunch and some breaks from the wind. To date no one has landed a big fish in the main lodge. The big fish count dropped from the prior week as well, but there were some highlights. Russ Geseme had a trip he will not forget anytime soon. He brought to the plate two 45” pike and two 47” pike. Those are big numbers for any week. His fishing partner got cramps in his finger taking all those photographs. Harold Goble, Bob Nettune and Ed Reisdorf landed 45s and Dale McCormick late on the last day got a beautiful 46.5 pike. Big trout were taken by Joel Mitchell (37”) and Dale McCormick (39”). Jason Andrade got the Trophy Triple hat. Was it a terrible week? Of course not. Guests were fishing, having great shore lunches and dinners, relaxing and catching more fish on a slow week than most have ever caught before. As it’s been said so many times here, fishing is all about the weather. Next season .  .  .