We left Peoria at 3:00pm Friday afternoon and drove all night. We arrived at Red Wing Resort at 8:30am Saturday morning. We waited in line at International Falls for an hour to cross the border. There were trucks pulling boats as far as the eye could see behind us waiting in line. We hauled in and unloaded all of the groceries and our other essentials, had lunch and the guys went out to fish.
Debby and I drove back into town which probably has about 300 population and picked up a few small grocery items and then stopped at the liquor store to buy vodka and rye whiskey for Kevin. We bought a 1.7 ltr of vodka for $57.00 so needless to say we will NOT be having 'cheap' drunks while here. We started back toward the lodge and had to stop on the road to let a tiny little black bear cross the road. He was so cute and chubby and he was just hauling ass across the road. Didn't see mama on either side of the road so don't know where she was. We were telling the maid here at the resort about seeing him and she said that they had 3 bear literally tear off the back wall of their garage and when they got inside they destroyed everything. She said they had to kill them to stop them from their coarse of destruction. Anne who owns the resort with her husband Mike, told us the bear and timber wolf have been terrible this year around this area. They always tell everyone here at the resort to not put out any garbage until early morning when they come around to pick up.
The owners have bird feeders out everywhere and yesterday we saw the tiniest humming bird that I have EVER seen. It was probably less than an inch long. It was feeding at the feeder and it was hard to believe it was a bird and not just a big bug!
Red Wing Resort Morson, Ontario, Canada
Sunday June 5, 2011We fished most of the day today and caught our limit during the day. We came in at 2:00 and had lunch then went back out. I think we caught 3 walleye, a perch and a northern. When we came in we fried fish and they were just absolutely WONDERFUL!!! We had rain off and on while out fishing but it wasn't too bad and would quit and then start lightly again.
Their was a perfect rainbow tonight when we were out. The end of the rainbow looked like it went right into the water. It was really beautiful. We met a guy and his wife who are both veterinarian's from Wyoming last year. I found out in talking to them last year that Terry is a brother to Bill Kreager, a guy I worked with at Cat for years. He and Julie, his wife, are here again this year and was asking us if we saw the rainbow. A lot of people return year after year on the same week but so far there is only about 4 cabins rented this week. The weather has not been good for fishing here in the weeks past so that may have something to do with why they don't have a lot of people this week.
Monday June 6, 2011
Today was absolutely beautiful. Probably reached the high 70's and the sun was out all day. Terry(the Vet) told us this morning that we would really have to work at catching fish today and he was right! We caught several small walleye but only 3 walleye big enough to keep and Kevin caught a perch again today. Larry caught a really nice walleye and Debby caught 2 medium size large enough to keep. I had a really nice walleye on my line and got it all the way to the boat and it got off. Otherwise all I caught was little buggers that did nothing but steal my bait. Pretty much the same with everyone else. We came in at 3:00 and decided to cook fish and potatoes for our lunch rather than wait till tonight as it ends up being pretty late by the time we cook after going back out in the evening. Debby and I opted to stay home tonight but the guys went out around 6:30. Tomorrow and Wed are suppose to be rainy and cooler but may be our best fishing days!
Tuesday June 7, 2011
Rainy and cold is the word this morning. Black clouds and still raining some after it rained last night. Larry and Kevin scheduled Lenny, the camp guide, to take them out for walleye and muskie. Debby and I could go for the same price but we decided having to pee in our bucket in front of Lenny was not an option. The guys left and I went up to the lodge to talk to Anne for some ideas of where Debby and I could drive to shop. She suggested Bemidgi, MN which is 135 miles. We got ready and left around 10:30am. We drove about half way and stopped in Black Duck, which is on Red Lake, to buy gas. The lady at the station told us they had horrible storms there this morning with high winds and hail. She also said that the weather forecast was for more bad storms later today.
When we left, I .took over driving and as we drove a little farther we had a deer come out to the roadside. I slowed down and gave him plenty of time to decide where he was going. Luckily, he choose the woods.
We arrived in Bemidgi at about 1:00. Anne told us how to find the Paul Bunyon Mall--please note--I am using the word MALL loosely!! The 'mall' consisted of maybe 15 stores which is 15 more than Morson has. They did have a Hersbarger's, which is part of the Bergner's group. It was basically exactly like Bergner's and we actually found several bargain's. I found Ruff Hewn Carpenter Jeans for 50% for Larry and lightweight sleep pants and a shirt for summer for lounging around the house.
Anne had said there were shops down by the waterfront also so we drove down there. The only thing we found was a boutique that was also a furniture store. The boutique had some very cute dresses that Debby and I thought would have been very nice for Leslie's wedding trip. I was thinking of buying one for her and then I ask if it could be returned and the lady said only for exchange. Oh Well----guess you just lost a sale--probably their only one for the week since we were the only people around.
We came back to mall area and stopped at Gander Mountain to buy a new real for Debby, since her's is screwed up. We found the real then ended up buying Larry and Kevin some zip-off pants. We found a couple of shirts on the clearance rack that we also bought.
We went to Penney's and I found about 7 shorts and tops for Morgan and about 4 short outfits for Addy. Everything I bought there was on sale and when they totalled it up the sales clerk informed me I saved $218.00--WOW---I only had to spend $201.00 to save that amount! Some of Morgan's will be part of her birthday gift and Morgan happens to have grown out of all her summer cloths. Addy has plenty of summer cloths, however, I enjoy buying her new things now and then.
We both called our kids while we were in Minnesota. I got to talk to Addy two times. She is so sweet when she talks on the phone. After I talked to her Taylor got on the phone and asked me if I heard what she called me. I said I didn't notice and she said Addy called me Grandma. Normally Addy calls me Mama but when I was there babysitting in May, she was calling me Grandma now and then. I love hearing her say Grandma. Morgan use to call me Mama also until she was about Addy's age. All my baby's are growing up so fast. Morgan will be 7 in July, which is so hard for me to believe. I'm looking forward to Pete and Leslie getting married and making us grandparents again. I think my wishes are probably over for Taylor and Kyle to have anymore. I feel so blessed with the two I have. There is nothing as wonderful as grandchildren!
We finished our shopping spree and headed home. We came back across the Canadian Border at Baudette and had no issues . Last year Debby and I went to Baudette and the Canadian Border Guards searched the truck from top to bottom when we came back . We stopped at the grocery store in Rainey River and picked up our sweet treats--homemade pastries. We did not get back to Red Wing until almost 9:30pm.
When we arrived back at the resort, Kevin showed us a picture of the 46 inch muskie that he caught today on their trip out with Lenny. At this time of the season, all muskie's have to be released. After the third week of June you can keep the muskie if it falls into a certain slot.
Kevin's MuskieBen, the resort owner's dog is a buddy to all. He has really latched onto Kevin as his best bud. He is a Polar Lab and is totally white. Anne told us he weighed 98 pounds and he is like a big teddy bear. Everyone in the resort loves him he loves all the attention he gets from everyone. Anne asked us not to feed Ben as all he does is eat. She feeds him and then he muches off all the camp guest. It is hard to say no to Ben as he is such a beautiful dog and so gentle.
Kevin and Ben playing fetchWednesday June 8, 2011
Well another morning like yesterday except the wind must be blowing 40 mph. We again decided it was not a day for us to fish. We gathered up our laundry and headed to Baudette to do our laundry and to look in the shops in town--which is a grand total of TWO! We bought some sweatshirts for all of us and a long sleeved shirt for each of the guys. We went to the Laundromat and did three loads of cloths and it took us probably an hour and a half to dry them. The place was a rip off as one washer did not spin the cloths out well, which meant more money to dry them. We met a guy in the Laundromat that was a hunting guide and a part time fishing guide. He has a house near Red Wing Resort. He was Canadian born in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario. He was very interesting to talk to and he gave us his card in case the guys were interested in his guide services.
We finished our laundry, refueled the truck and headed back to resort. We had to stop once again for our pastries at Rainy River. I will weight 300 lbs by the time I reach Peoria as all we do is eat wonderful food. We got home about 6:30 and Kevin was frying fish. We had dinner and sat and looked at the lake and talked about how calm the water was. It is so changeable here--this morning the whitecaps were terrible with the wind and now tonight the sun is shinning and the lake looks like glass. Much like when I lived on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan as 15 minutes was like a whole different season with the weather.
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Thursday June 9, 2011
When Debby and I got up the guys were already cooking breakfast. WOW that was a surprise but I'm sure the reason for that was they were wanting to get out early fishing. We gathered everything for fishing and packed lunch items so we would not have to come in for lunch. Debby and I put ham and beans in crockpot for our dinner tonight. We were out I think by 9:00 this morning fishing. We ended up catching our limit but had to work to catch them today. Larry is the hero of the day as he caught a 26" Walleye and it weighed about 6.5 lbs. It looked huge and it fought him tooth and nail getting him in the boat. We caught a lot of Walleye but threw most of them back as they were small. Debby caught two Perch today; one this afternoon and one tonight when we went back out fishing.
Larry and his 26 " WalleyeWe ate lunch in the boat while fishing and didn't come in until around 3:00. When we came in we had several beer and the guys cleaned the fish while Debby and I played with Ben. Anne came out and was throwing a stick out into the lake for Ben to swim after. She kept trying to make Ben jump off the dock to fetch the stick but instead he would run back to the yard and go down the side of the dock to swim for the stick. We had such a good time watching Ben. He is just a gentle sweetie. This morning Kevin gave Ben a plate of sausage gravy, biscuits and an egg so Ben has been hanging tight with us most of the day. Larry gave him a piece of ham this afternoon when we came in and later Debby gave him a very small portion of ham from our dinner. Anne had asked us not to feed him as he is getting so fat but Ben just has the saddest eyes and has us all wrapped around his paw(??) I guess you would say. Debby went up and asked Anne if Ben could have the ham bone out of the beans and Anne asked us to wait till tomorrow morning to give it to him so we have it wrapped and waiting.
Anne trying to get Ben to jump off dockWe talked to Terry Kreager this afternoon and he told us about the black bear that visited the resort last night. He said it walked right up where they were setting outside around 9:30. He yelled at it and chased it off toward the cabins on the other side of the lodge. Anne said there are 5 guys staying in cabin 11 next to the lodge and one of them walked right up on the bear and almost filled his underwear. He was talking on the phone to his wife and he yelled so loud his wife kept yelling over the phone wanting to know if he was ok. Two of the guys in cabin 11 are big bruts and are both policemen. We were all still up but didn't hear anything other than Debby heard Ben barking.
We went back out fishing around 5:45 but only caught one walleye and a perch. Hardly worth the effort but we are trying to get enough fish to take home. Came in about 7:45pm from fishing and had our ham, beans and cornbread. They were fabulous1 If we have done nothing else this week we have had plenty of good food to eat. Most of the time I feel like my stomach is so full I can hardly breath!! Time to go home and slow down on the food before I gain another 50 lbs!!!
Friday June 10, 2011
Catch of the day at Lake of the Woods
Today is our last day at Red Wing Resort. We had a huge breakfast and headed out to Garden Island. This is where we fish most of the time and have had our best luck. Yesterday Larry caught his 26 inch Walleye just off the point of Garden Island. We were there less than 20 minutes and Debby pulled in a 26 inch Walleye. Everyone was amazed that we caught another fish of that size. Less than 10 minutes later I had a 'hit' on my line and it felt like a whale. I kept reeling it in and it was fighting pretty hard. Believe it or not Larry actually dipped it with the net without loosing it Last year he lost a huge fish I had on my line because he put the net down too soon and the fish saw it and broke the line. My Walleye was a little short of Debby's at 25 inches. So we have caught three big Walleye in almost the exact spot in two days. We all were catching Walleye today. A lot of little ones but several \'keepers'. We probably caught our 8 fish in less than an hour. We kept catching 'keepers' but kept measuring which were the largest and throwing back the smaller ones. We came in around 12:30 and took our pictures with the fish and then the guys cleaned the fish to freeze for home.
We went back out to try fishing for Northern, since we have our limit of Walleye to take home. We tried fishing near the reeds with bobbers. Larry and Debby tried casting but none of our attempts were fruitful. We came back to cabin and packed and loaded the truck and boat with everything we could do without tonight. We are ready to hit the road early tomorrow morning.
We all walked up to lodge and chatted with some of the guys that were here last year that are from near Gary, IN. We also paid our bill and made a reservation for next year starting June 2. Anne talked to Debby and I for awhile and told us she was so proud of us for the fish we caught. She is just the greatest person I have ever known. She is so jovial and makes us laugh a lot. She is diffently the 'PR' person for Red Wing.
The guys are packaging fish for the trip home. They have to be marked for taking across the border. We are having pizza tonight for dinner as we still had two frozen that we brought with us. We did very well on our food supply. Debby and I do a very good job planning our groceries. We rarely take much home.
