2010 Newsletter | Black Island

The earliest ice-out anyone can remember! By April 10^th it was gone. Milt Tostrud opened us up as usual, along with Eric Lockington. They were the first guests to ride in “Dock & Load”, the new 27.5 ft. Baha. Sure hope Milt never decides to come in July …that would throw everyone’s schedule off! Eric came up with a suggestion we had never heard…”a nice tossed green salad in the shore lunch bucket…”.

Remember the guys from fall of 2009, the ones who had a little trouble hearing (Roy, “Get the net!” Kenny, “Why do you want a nut?”) Well it’s a good thing they got their act together this summer when Roy Fulsaas caught a nice 40 inch Muskie while Walleye fishing!

Bob Brady & Larry Meyer had the best first afternoon you could ask for. The got the Grand Slam: Perch, Walleye, Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike and a good Muskie. (OK, so they didn’t get a Crappie… they’re tough that time of year) And they were all on the same lures!

So here’s a great fish story. Steve Nash & Terry Lindberg are fishing up in Miles Bay. Steve hooks a nice Smallmouth and the line broke. The Smallmouth takes off with his lure. A while later they meet up with Bob Mueninghoff & Abe Shoemaker. He tells them that if they are headed to fish that shoreline and catch a Smallmouth with a lure in its mouth, it’s his. So, a while later, Abe catches the fish. Not only is the lure still in its mouth, that’s what Abe hooked. He caught one of the hooks not hooked in its mouth. If that lure had not been there, he would not have caught the fish because it missed his lure. So, everyone got their lures back and the fish went back in the lake. Guess we should name that one “stupid”. And the best part is that Abe did the same thing with a Northern that Bob lost his lure on a few years ago! St. Abe, patron of the lost lure…

Early June Smallmouth fishing was great. Even the fish fly hatch didn’t slow it down. Steve Trotter & Curtis Collins caught more 20 inch Bass than they could keep track of. Joe Curtis caught a nice Muskie and a 36 inch Northern along with the literally, hundreds of Bass he and John caught.

Father’s Day was a great day for big fish. Billy Fleming, better known as “Capt. Ron”, got up at the crack of dawn (and that’s early that time of year) and caught a 26.5 inch Walleye; David Seymour got a 43 inch Muskie that first evening; Helen Fisher got a 37 inch Northern on an itty bitty spinner with no leader.

Of course, there was our star guide (Mike) who was out with Jim Kinnard & Joe Macarol, who couldn’t catch squat. However, according to Joe, he did take them to the moon and back. Come on, it was only out to Fadden! Not to worry, Jim became a fishing machine after that and caught a 46.5 Muskie and a 36 inch Northern along with LOTS of other fish. He did let poor Joe catch a few…Joe got a nice 40 inch Muskie.

Speaking of not catching fish…last year was Dirk Seymour’s year. Not this year. David caught all the big ones, a 46 Muskie, and all the little ones, even a 15 inch Muskie! He also caught a couple of nice 19 inch Smallmouths. Dick & Mary Bennett had a little trouble, too. Dick lost a REALLY nice Muskie right at the boat when his line got nicked. Mary caught a couple of nice Walleyes to contribute to shore lunch. We know it’s hard for Muskie fisherman to go after anything else!

Craig and Connor Denney have the magic touch when it comes to vacations. They go on a cruise and the Presidential Suite just happens to be available, for no extra charge. They come to Black Island and have the island to themselves. And even with breakfast at 9am instead of 8am, they were still late! Sleeping in, catching lots and lots of fish, what’s not to like?

The first week of July was another great week for fishing. Flennard Thorpe, Bill Rinesmith & Howard Schultz took a day off from Bass fishing to have Mike take them out for Walleye. They caught 112. They were catching so many fish in one spot that they decided to go somewhere else because it was getting boring! Blair Heller finally got the Johnson brothers up to the island that week. These are serious Muskie guys. They had the most monster Muskies on…and lost…they cornered the award for most seen but not landed. Then, when they were on the boat leaving the dock, Barb noticed that there was a suitcase sitting on the rock that should have been in the boat– suitcase seen but not landed?

another fun filled week! As usual, Ron caught Walleye all the time. Yes, even in the toilet bowl. Mike was out with the Kratzers and it looked like another bad day for the guide. By noon they had not caught much. He saved his reputation in the afternoon when they caught 56 Walleye. Now, Phyllis & Gail may now have caught as many fish as the guys, but when it comes to cards, lookout. Phyllis was the queen!

Cody #1 had the lead on Walleye with a 26.25 incher but Brian edged him out with a 27. Both were good enough for the “Wall of Fame”! Tom got the small fish award for a 2 inch Dace.

Muskie season started really well. Of course, the Smallmouth and Northern caught while Muskie fishing is amazing. Then there are the Smallmouth guys, still catching big Smallmouth and big Muskies! Lots of leaping fish this year! Jeff Olsen was out with Mike and had a Muskie take the lure, leap, throw it, try again and miss it, try again and get it. Jeff gets it almost to the boat and, you got it, lost it! Jeff Olsen

The Duignan’s had a good week, too, especially Linda who got a nice 23 inch Walleye. Pat is one of the most laid back fishermen we know. He likes actually catching one to be a surprise!

The last week of July was an interesting week. Early that week we had a couple of those ”Where are the */#! fish?” days but then the cloud cover came and the fish went nuts. Jason Koch & Lucas Leaon had a tough week. It was even harder when on the last day; Jon & Bob Koch had their record best day for numbers of Muskies and Northern. And then, Bear & Linda come in with the same kind of day. Even George Fleming led Frank Foulk to a 44 inch Muskie! His first! Jason & Lucas did finally get on the board with some nice ones.

The first week of August brought our good friends from Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin and their families. We also had Dorothy Leininger and her family. Dorothy is recently from Fort Frances, ON but originally hails from our neck of the wood in Iowa! It was like old home week for them, too. Dorothy’s sister, Linda, really got into the Walleye fishing and got a 26.5, edging out Dorothy’s 26. Tricia Stenson, who designed our show booth, got a nice 37.5 pike. The girls sure put the guys to shame that week!

We also got started on the renovation of Rockpoint. We got the new windows and doors in, the siding on and the deck built. The inside would have to wait until September. The heat must have gotten to the boys because they started ragging on Jon Millard to shave his head. Finally after they offered $35, he agreed. So not only did Jon get shaved, Jeremy, Joe and both Mike’s did too!

The Flexman’s were also up in August with Connor (the greatest “clean-up” eater there ever was…) keeping the records. Jim had an eventful week catching a 25.5 inch Walleye and as many Rock Bass as he could. He was edged out on the big Rock Bass by Ray’s 11 incher. Since when do we keep track of Rock Bass???

Eric Wicklander took advantage of our BOGO special to check out Black Island with 5 of his friends. His group gets the long distance award as one of the guys came from El Salvador! These guys had really interesting dinner conversations where no topic was sacred. There were also many strange games played, like…”pass the pig”. And, if we ever get around to writing that island mystery, there will be that case of the missing wedding gift…

More interesting dinner conversation was had with Steve Bergman and the guys. We caught up on all the Quad Cities gossip and Pat O”Brien even managed to make the “Wall of Fame” with a 20 inch Smallmouth. Not to be outdone, Christine Zeger (our niece) brought in a 25 inch Walleye. Who said there are no fish in August? Christine Zeger

Speaking of games, Dick Moe of E-Z Dock taught the Hillmans and the rest of us some sleight of hand tricks to entertain you with. We’ll see if we can remember them next summer!

We had a wonderful week bear hunting with Julie and Randy Huizenga. Julie is the first to bring a Wii to the island. She is one heck of a tennis player! And Randy got the big bear of the season, just under 300 pounds. Bear hunting was good that week but fishing was a bit slow. Jim & Terry Colley were finding things a little tough and then Jim landed a really nice 24.5 inch Walleye.

Black Island Resort is going to be on TV! The hunters and film crew from “Hardcore Pursuit” had a great hunt with two nice bears taken. They got some really cool footage. The show will air in the latter part of 2011 on the Sportsman’s Channel. We can’t wait to see the final cut. Should be a great show! You can check out their show now on Fridays at 9pm central time.

One thing we love about our job is helping new fishermen learn to fish. Eric Lockington came back for a fall trip and brought his wife Karen along. This was Karen’s first fishing experience and she did great. She caught a 19 inch Smallmouth, a 24.5 inch Walleye and a bunch of big Crappies. Eric did pretty well, too, for a first time boat driver!

We had some crazy duck hunters from Allied Insulation in Milwaukee. They were out shooting no matter what the weather. Their ratio of shots fired to ducks down was not the best (one afternoon, Mike counted 55 shots fired, 2 ducks….) but they sure had a good time!

Jeremy Romain spent a couple of weeks with us enjoying the bear hunting, duck hunting and fishing. He came up with a new acronym we know you’ll all appreciate – WWMD (What would Mike do?). So from now on, when in doubt, think “WWMD”!

It’s hard for us to judge how well a sport show does for us. This year we got a payoff from a show we did in Chicago 8 years ago. Terry Cailteux now from McKinney, TX rediscovered us on the web and finally got his trip to Black Island done. The airlines lost his friend, Bret’s luggage so poor Bret was stuck with a K-Mart wardrobe to fish in. He managed very well!

Fall always brings us Ron Hoffman for his late season fishing trip. This year, brother Jim, Gary Burton, Steve Plasterer & Stan Oehler joined him for one of the lousiest weeks of weather we had all season. You should have been here the next two weeks guys – it was beautiful! Of course, Stan’s world famous Bloody Caesars helped us get by…

Instead of opening us up this year, Vic Chiaminto closed us up. And one of the last fish tales of the season was Vic’s monster catch. Vic hooked into a big one. He just couldn’t get it up off the bottom. Finally it started to move and come up. Wow, it was a huge Muskie….net! Vic did make up for it the next day with a 25.5 inch, 7.75 pound Walleye and a 19.5 inch, 5 pound Smallmouth!

So another season ends. The Rockpoint remodeling is just about done. Wait until you see it. It is worth the trip up just to see it – new siding, new deck, new windows, new bathroom, new kitchen, new carpet, new everything!

Check out the website for our sport show schedule, specials and Black Island news updates. Sign up for Email! And remember, get your deposits in before the end of the year to hold your “penciled in” reservations and qualify for the early booking discount. If you haven’t reserved your dates you need to give us a call as several weeks are filled already. Have a wonderful winter!

P.S. Thanks again for all the bribes for Barb & Mike, you guys know who you are…the onions, the candy, the wine, the Guiness, the cornmeal mix, the wine, the red lures, “The Bait”, the books, the wine...