The Journey Home

Headed out Monday morning at about 8 AM for home. I didn't really plan on stopping anywhere along the way, but we passed through a few places worth noting.

The first was Blackduck, Minnesota - we were fishing in that area when I was very young. They have three large ducks around town, here's one of them:

We stopped in Bemidji, Minnesota for a quick pictures with Paul Bunyan and Babe:

We stopped in Itasca State Park, and I really want to know when the Mississippi headwaters became a huge tourist attraction:

When I was a kid, we visited it them, and there was no gift shop that I can remember, no crowds, nothing. Just a pile of rocks, and a log for crossing the river:

It was difficult to find a nice, quiet picture spot to get a picture of the lake:

And me standing in the river, just downstream from the headwaters:

And that's it. There was a lot of bad weather coming back through southern Minnesota and Iowa, so I didn't get home until about 10 PM. The fish I brought back stayed frozen though, and I'm looking forward to cooking them soon.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 10:59:34 AM CDT ) Permalink

Fishing Day 3

For day 3, Tim was our guide, on boat #3. In addition to my dad and myself, there were 4 other guests on the boat. We spent the entire day downrigging, something Tim said they do not normally do. It was a lot different than yesterday though - Larry did all the work of setting the poles and maintaining everything. Today, Tim let us do everything ourselves. After a quick lesson on the equipment, we were doing everything and it was a lot of work. For the entire day, we brought in 1 fish shy of our limit. The morning was slow, but the afternoon was incredible.

The water was like glass the entire day:

Here's the final pile of fish that were left after lunch (we did the short lunch again, so a few disappeared):

Couple more pictures from the boat on the way back:

Here's the boat we went out on:

And here's the end of the day picture of my dad and I, along with Tim:

(The fish were primarily from our boat, with a few from a second boat.)

The sunset that evening was really something to see:

One last picture of the three boats we went out on during this trip:

For all the complaining people do about mosquitos in Minnesota, the trip really wasn't the bad. In fact, the only one I saw on me the whole trip was this little guy that landed on my big toe in the cabin:

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 10:47:32 AM CDT ) Permalink

Fishing Day 2

Larry was out guide for the day, we were on boat #2 with three other guests (a father and his two sons, one just out of high school, the other just finishing up his military service). This day started out far better than the first day:

And here's a look back at the main building at the resort:

Here's the boat we went out on, felt a little smaller than the first days, but with only a total of 6 people, it wasn't bad:

I caught three walleyes in the morning. In the afternoon, we were downrigging, and caught a lot of walleyes and a few saugers.

Lunch was interesting. The first day, we had sandwiches on the boat, and that was it. This day, we did a shore lunch. Four of the boats from Ballards pulled up on Garden Island to a beach with picnic tables. Everything else was carried on the boats - grills, food, etc. The first from the morning were cleaned, and grilled. Being mostly a non-fish eating person, I was really not looking forward to this - but after trying a couple pieces of the freshly grilled fish, I don't think I've ever had a meal that good.

Here's the four boats that participated:

Here's a look back at the area where we ate lunch:

Me with the guide, and a walleye I caught:

The fish at the end of the day:

This is part of the Ballards group of boats headed back to the resort at the end of the day:

Another picture from the back of the boat, and one of the downriggers we used:

The ride to and from the area we were fishing in was rather long, a little over an hour each way.

Wild rice growing along the river, on the Canadian side:

And that was pretty much it for day 2.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 10:32:18 AM CDT ) Permalink

Fishing Day 1

Scott was our guide, my dad and I were on boat# 1 with 4 other guys. Unfortunately, one of them was extremely hung over from the night before and spent the day either puking over the side of the boat, or sleeping down below. Not many pictures, it was raining off and on much of the day.

I caught three sturgeon that all needed to go back. Minimum size of 44", and you need to have a sturgeon stamp in advance of catching them. Not really a good day. There were a few other fish brought in by others, including my dad catching some flat fish that the guide didn't even recognize.

Picture of Scott holding one of my sturgeon, with my dad:

The boat we were on:

Scott was a good guide, but the day just didn't go well.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 09:50:34 AM CDT ) Permalink

From International Falls to Ballards

We stopped by Smokey Bear Park for a quick picture with the giant bear. There's a picture of me by him when I was a little kid, so this will go nicely with that.

Here's a couple pictures of Rapid River:

And a frog that was watching me while taking the pictures:

Dinner on Thursday evening was here:

Willie the Walleye in Baudette:

And here's the room at Ballards Resort. It was really nice, the view from the windows was towards the river:

After getting checked in, and getting the Jeep unloaded, we took a drive up to Canada. Here's the view from Canada back towards the bridge that returns to the US.

Maple leafs everywhere. This is a picture of the floating dock I walked out on:

Found these guys out in a marsh:

Me with a giant beaver, holding Kassi, the younger of the two dogs my parents have:

And that was it for the day. We returned to the US, and started to get ready for three days of fishing.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 09:32:37 AM CDT ) Permalink