LOTW Trip 2011 (w/ pics)

[MTCOMMER]

Well, we got up to Zippel Bay on Sunday around 12:30 and we got everything settled in the house and we were fishing by 1:45 and the frenzy started.  The fishing was GREAT throughout the whole trip, we were put in 19FOW, while most houses were a little shallower in 16-18'.  We caught about a dozen keepers the first night and had a nice meal, the next morning the bite started again at sun rise, slowed a little during the day hours with a decent fish every 30mins or so, and then the frenzy started again around 3pm.  We ended up taking home 25 fish between 4 guys, with all the saugers being 14"+ and the eyes 15"+, we threw back anything smaller than that for the most part.  All in all we caught probably 150 fish, about a 50/50 fix of walleyes and saugers and then I caught 1 loan Jumbo 12" perch, biggest eye was 23", and then 22" - those were the only slot fish.... that we landed (We missed quite a few decent fish.....   )
We would jig into the evening and we ended up catching a few more keepers, but maybe 1 or 2 over a couple hours.  Mostly it was the pout that would bite - we caught probably 12 pout ranging from 22-27", kept 2 to eat and it was pretty good, boiled with melted butter.  We kept the rattle reels down most of the night, but after too many   I got sick of horsing them in, so I started to just cut the lines, and then I realized I could just not have them down anymore!  

It was a fantastic trip, the weather was great, the company was awesome and the people are Zippel are some of the nicest folks you will run into - always accommodating!

[Fawkinnae]

Nice trip!

[The General]

Looks like a good time!