Bolen's Point - David's Blog

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After 15 wonderful seasons, we've
decided to put our cabin on the market.
CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS

DAVID'S BLOG (or go here to read what others have written about our cabin)

2010-08-28

Another fishing season has come and gone. It's always sad to close the cabin down at the end of the year. But the weather was mostly good with temps in the 70's.

On one of the 2 windy days a group of 9 canoes went by our Point. I felt sorry for them as they paddled against the wind. [see video on YouTube (1m 00s)]

We caught plenty of walleye to keep us happy, but no lunkers this trip. Had some muskie action though. The last and most spectacular encounter came when Dad caught a decent walleye and, as he got it to the surface, a nice muskie appeared with jaws wide open and Dad saw it nail the walleye broadside. A brief fight ensued until the muskie finally let go. That's not entirely unusual as we get such hits about once a year. But the rest was unique ...

I didn't get my line out of the water fast enough during the tug-of-war and when Dad finally got the walleye into the boat, my jig was wrapped around his line. Fortunately it wasn't too bad and he untangled it fairly quickly and tossed my jig back into the water. A few seconds later, my line went tight and went under the boat. I tightened up and then a big fish jumped out of the water on the other side of the boat! It was (we assume) the same muskie. I got it back on my side of the boat and brought it to the surface long enough for a good look at its size ... around 36". Then it took off again and grabbed some air a couple more times before shaking the jig loose. What fun!!

On the not-so-fun side ... Katie (the dog) had her first encounter with "Pepe Le Pew" in the woods behind the cabin ... not good, especially since it was right before we were going to bed. Fortunately we had some hydrogen peroxide & baking soda in the cabin and we were able to get the smell out. At least it wasn't a porcupine!

2010-08-01

Returned home this morning after spending a week+ at the cabin. This was a "working vacation" since we had several maintenance chores to do. We did, however, make time to get out on the water for a few hours each day (Forest Lake only). Didn't catch any lunkers but caught plenty of eaters. Best time was after 7pm along the western shoreline in 9-12 feet of water.

2010-06-15

Just returned from opening the cabin. It's always great to get back! Before heading north, the forecast called for dry weather and above-average temps ... but it misted/sprinkled/rained almost every day and was "cool". Good thing we had plenty of appropriate clothes already in the dresser drawers. :-) Dad and I fished a few hours each morning and then did chores the rest of the day. We did pretty good through Thursday. Then the barameter went on a roller coaster ride. On Friday we never got a bite in any of our favorite or backup holes. At first we were going to chalk it up to the fish getting lockjaw but when I lowered my camera into the water we discovered that the fish had simply disappeared ... not one of the holes where we had caught fish earlier showed fish on the camera. It was like all the walleye had been sucked into a black hole! Same thing on Saturday. We left Sunday morning so I still don't know where they all went. Hmmm.

2010-04-05

The walleye opener is only 40 days away and I've started to get the fishing bug!

Can't wait to open the cabin this year. We haven't decided yet when we'll head north ... it will probably be later in the month since the weather is always dicey. But with this year's mild spring so far, who knows what Mother Nature will bring?

Time to start thinking about my "to-do" list ...

2009-08-30

This is our last day of the season. It's always sad to close things down knowing that it's 8+ months away until our next visit. The weather was good this trip, albeit a little cool. Had showers a couple of times in the evening/overnight. Heard that big storms had rolled through every 4 - 5 days about 2 to 4 weeks ago and the fish had pretty much shut down. But they were abundant once we found them. Used my underwater camera to scout the holes and finally found them hanging around humps/rocks in 20+ feet. No lunkers however. Dad's 17.5 incher was the biggest we landed. NOTE: I had a heavy-weight on my line near the cabin that just wouldn't come off the bottom. I'd raise it a couple of feet then it would shake its head and go back down. After 3 or 4 times of this, it shook its head one last time and cut the line. Never did see it but am sure it wasn't a muskie as it never made a characteristic run. I was bummed!!

Can't believe how few boats we saw on the water. The most was 8 one day. Most days we'd see only 4 or 5. Wow! That's a far cry from the couple dozen we used to see just a few years ago. I feel really sorry for the camp operators.

Installed an electric winch to raise Jane-boat out of the water when closing the cabin. It's a 1-ton capacity winch intended for ATVs. Worked slick and sure made things ALOT easier ... is now a simple 1-man job (see video). I should have done this years ago!

COOL WILDLIFE SIGHTING: Dad and I were fishing in Cobble one morning and heard a couple of bald eagles talking to each other. One was nearby while the other was sitting in a dead tree on a point way off in the distance (it was sunny and we could barely see its white head). That wasn't unusual as we often see/hear pairs around our cabin or while fishing. But what we saw a little later was a first for us ... they had left their perches and were flying overhead when one swooped down and snatched a fish out of the water. Then the 2nd one came in and tried to grab it away in mid-air. The two did a few pirouettes before one let go and flew to a tall tree back in the woods. The other fell into the water ... where it stayed (floating!) for about 10 minutes before it finally flew off with its loot to a tree along shore. After a few screeches, a 3rd, younger bird (previously unseen) flew into the tree where they appeared to share the fish. VERY, VERY COOL!!

NOTE: I took some video of the action but the wind/waves made the video useless (I was bummed). However, here's a link to another site showing spectacular pictures similar to what we saw ... except it shows three birds fighting mid-air for a fish!! AWESOME!

2009-07-02

"Sonar" joined me this trip as his dad was with the Princeton men at Nichols' Landing. Had a great time and caught plenty of fish. Most were really shallow. Our best hole was in the mouth of Moose Creek in 4-5 feet along the edge of some submerged stumps/snags.

We installed a pulley system in the boathouse to raise Jane-boat out of the water at the end of the season. Since I wasn't sure how much the boat weighs, this was just a test to make sure the hooks and pulleys (rated at 125+ pounds each) would hold. Used our come-along to raise it and everything looked good. Next trip I'll install an electric winch.

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