Although a little chilly and rain on our second night, we couldn't have asked for better weather. The fishing was excellent in both quantity and quality. There were numerous 17- to 19-inchers and 4 over 20. We finally started throwing the 16-inchers back ... something that's never happened before!

Our 3rd day was "explorer day". Since Randy and Luke had basically never been beyond Cobble, we decided to boat all the way down to Little Boulder (see marker "G" in southwest corner on map) and then fish a few spots on our way back. Our first stop was near the entrance to Little Boulder. Only 2 fish were caught, but they were both "career" fish ... I latched onto a 26-incher, threw my jig back in the water, and within a few minutes caught a 28-incher ... my biggest walleye to-date. We returned the next morning and Luke caught a 21.5-incher ... his first ever. This spot is now known as "Trophy Shelf".

Despite my big walleye, perhaps the most memorable catch was at the last spot we fished on our last night ... the big island near our cabin. Luke and I were jigging for walleye while Randy was casting for muskie using a pole that a 28-inch muskie had broken the tip off of the day before. Luke and I hadn't had a bite and we soon found out why ... all of a sudden we heard a commotion in back of the boat and Randy yelled that he had one ... and it was a big one. It took him nearly 10 minutes to land and measured in at 39 inches ... it was a monster fish!

It appears that each year is getting better and better. While I'd like to think we're getting more skilled at finding/catching bigger fish and it would be nice to take more fish home, the recent changes in limit regulations -- 4 fish of which only one can be bigger than 18 inches -- seems to be paying off ... there seems to be more bigger fish around to catch. If we can get more people to practice CPR (catch, photo, release), there will be even more for the future.

Here's to hoping that next year will be just as good ... if not better!

:-)