Cute Babies

I have to say sorry to all those who got an email from us that was spam.  It didn't do anything bad to our computer so hopefully no one else had problems. 

We finally have baby ducks to admire around the resort.  I missed the baby loon or I would have gotten his picture.  Jim also saw a mother merganser duck with babies on her back  -- missed that one too.   These pictures are of baby mallards and the black and white ducklings are goldeneyes.  They are so cute when they are little.  They have to survive death from above (eagles) and death from below (northern pike). 

Summer is in full swing with all the families pouring into the resort.  The fishing is still good with some huge fish caught last week.  One guest seemed to have the knack -- he caught a 28 and a 29 inch Walleye  -- very nice.  We caught enough fish to have a fish fry for our fellow workampers.  One couple is from Louisiana and had never tasted fresh walleye.  They are still getting used to working at a fishing resort.  She never thought she would be saying --"someone left worms and leeches in the frig for anyone to take". 

Fish on Namakan Lake

 

This weekend started one of our busiest weeks -- 4th of July week.  We work the weekend so it was very long hours.  Now we have a few days off to fish.  We headed for Namakan Lake to fish.  We took a 30 some mile boat ride to the end of Namakan.  It's one of our favorite fishing spots because it almost always produces fish.   We both caught nice walleyes and some smaller eating size ones.  Jims walleye was willing to have his picture taken.  Mine jumped back in the water too quick.  The smallmouth Jim caught was huge.  Almost as nice as the ones we have caught on Mille Lacs, MN and around Sturgeon Bay, WI. 

The resort is very busy with every sort of water toy in the water and many small bodies playing their hearts out on them.  We get a lot of folks stopping by either by car or boat checking out the resort.  They all are impressed with the amount of stuff there is for kids and adults to play on in the water.    They also comment that its the nicest resort on the lake.  We enjoy working here even though Saturdays  are very busy and our Sundays are usually equally busy.  Its all we can do to get out of bed on Monday to go fish.  

Walleye on Lake Kabetogama

We both caught beautiful walleye.  Jim caught more than me and the biggest so he is winning.  I caught the most walleyes in the keeper size range.  You can only keep walleyes under 17 inches.  Of course most of the walleyes you catch are just over 17 inches which is frustrating for those looking for a walleye meal and having to throw them back.  We like to eat walleye but we like catching big fish even more so for us the fishing is great.  We've been using leeches trolling with lindy rigs which works the best when its windy.  We try to tell our guests what we have found works best - some listen, some don't but usually the ones that do catch something. 

It's finally summer weather with the temps in the 70s and now even low 80's.  The kids are playing in the water even though the water temp is only 70 degrees.  I'm looking forward to the water being warm enough for me to get in -- closer to 80 degrees is better for me.

Finally Fishing

We finally got the boat in the water and caught some walleye.  A few were too big to keep but we did catch enough for our first walleye dinner.  It was scrumptious!  While we were fishing we watched the eagle sitting in the tree.  He was fishing in the same area we were.  We didn't see him catch anything.  I had to show off my fish cleaning abilities.  Not a great picture of me but a good one of me in action.

The water temp of the lake is now in the mid 60's so its warmed up quite a bit.  The big water tower and water trampoline were put in the water this past week.  Now the kids will be having a blast in the water until they turn blue.  That's ok though because they have learned to turn the sauna on and go warm up enough so they can go back in the water.   Oh- to be that young again!

Ellsworth Sculpture Garden Revisisted

A group of us workampers and one guest took our first pontoon ride of the season.   One of the new workamper couples that came on the ride are from Louisiana and our guest was from Florida.  The couple from Louisiana have never been this far north and after being here a month had not been on the lake yet.  We also took our Florida guest because the National Park tour boat service doesn't start until later in the month.  He really wanted to see some of the sites on the lake that you can only get to by boat so we took him with us. 

We went to the Kettle Falls hotel and had lunch, then we zipped over to the Ash River and stopped at the Ashkanam resort then we stopped at the Ellsworth gardens.   The ride to Kettle Falls was a little brutal.  It was cold -- in the low fifties - so more like forties on the water- cloudy and windy.  We gave the guy from Louisiana one of our winter headbands to wear that covers your ears.  He had never seen one before and liked it especially since the hood on his sweatshirt wouldn't stay up.  We gave our Florida guest a parka to wear.  We did forget about how wet you can get when the waves are high.   Some hot wild rice soup and a little alcohol helped warm us up while we dried out.

At least on the way back the sun came out and the wind died down so we could enjoy the ride.  We got to see three or four bald eagles along the way.  We managed to enjoy the sculptures without freezing to death. 

The Mighty Little Boat Launcher

Jim and the manager are launching the pontoon boat.  It's the first week in June and we are still trying to get all the resort boats in the water.  When we first came to the resort we were amazed that they used this little Tracker to launch every size boat.  It's also amazing that the boats are connected to the front of the Tracker so that you go forward instead of backward.  It confused Jim at first since he was used to backing boats into the water.
Our boat is in the shop getting a new onboard charger and some new wiring for the electronics.  The truck goes in for service replacing bad seals on the front axles.  At this rate we might get out fishing by July. 

Getting the Dock in Place

The guys worked on getting the long dock put in place.  They actually float it over with the help of boats pushing it.  The dock joins up at the empty space at the end of the dock in the lower picture.   Guests have been piling in and we were almost full for Memorial weekend.  Hard to believe a week and half ago the lake still had ice on it.
We have an otter again this year that swims by the docks to see if any fishermen left any minnow buckets full of minnows for him.  Their little fingers can open them right up.   I'm hoping to get a close up picture of him sometime.  Still waiting to get the boat in the water.  It gets fixed this week so it shouldn't be long now.  The walleye are spawning right now.   Very late but then so was spring.