Saturday, July 20, 2024. It was the last day at Plummer’s Trophy Lodge, the lodge, and time to capture some of the characters we hung out with all week. Mark is at the far left, then Ina, Brent and Ted. On the right side of the table is Doug, whom we will see in 2025 because he fishes all sorts of species of fish and Mark convinced him he’d catch one particular kind of fish at our lake in Michigan.
As the only two women at camp, Ina and I had to pose with the fishing lures purchased the day before, the same one Jed had used to catch a bunch of fish. The contest between us was one. I wished her well….though secretly hoped I’d kick her butt.
I didn’t see any new birds on my morning walk, but every day on Bear Lake was different than the day before. This was taken around 8:17 a.m.
Plummer’s Arctic Lodges gave each of us a water bottle to use for the week, which was a great way to cut down on plastic water bottles. On the water bottles was their message: “Hug and release.” I think Mark nailed it.
Mark caught this lake trout at 8:50 a.m. He hugged this one before letting it go. Manny did a micro-hug.
At 11:21 a.m. my rod bent like no other time before. About ten minutes later, I had this brute of a lake trout in the boat, a 42-pounder!
This video shows how much effort it takes for a stud like Manny to lift a large lake trout up and onto our laps for a photo. (You may be impressed by the grunting; I was). Manny didn’t let me handle the fish, perhaps because he didn’t want the big brute to fall onto the bottom of the boat during a hand-off, perhaps because he didn’t know I carried four 50-pound bags of sunflower seeds every other week and worked out four times a week, or perhaps to keep me from smelling like a fish…like Mark. This would turn out to be my biggest fish.
We kept Manny busy all morning, with lots of small fish and a few over 30 pounds. My spoon was working really well catching small fish.
The photo to the left shows how fish were weighed. Manny made some pretty impressive grunting noises as he tried to hold up over 40 pounds of fish + net+ scale.
Mark caught this beauty. This fish was 42 pounds.
In the late afternoon, Mark caught this fish. We loved the color of this fish. It was 44 pounds and around 48 inches.
This was the biggest fish of the trip.
I was happy for Mark.
And I wanted to throw him into the lake.
The “Jed spoon” worked all morning and most of the afternoon. I was busy fighting fish. It was our best day on the water.
Still, I had lost the contest to Mark. Sigh.
The lake remained flat calm all day. It was a lovely day on the water.
This was our biggest catch of the week.
When we returned to the lodge, I finally got to add a big catch to the “Hawg Log.” I noticed that Ina didn’t have a big catch, and it turned out she and Brent had had a day like we’d had the day before–frustrating. I felt sorry for her, not catching a big fish all week.
I’ll note here that Matt–shown on the board–was Ina and Brent’s guide, and his 39-pounder was the one caught on our red and black Whopper Plopper…on 10-pound test line…while casting at fish swirling at the surface.
I’ll also share that only Lee noticed the 41.5 next to Mark’s name. At dinner, he asked how Manny weighed a fish within a 1/2 pound. We said, ‘He’s good.” Nobody else said anything. Fact is, the 41.5 was actually 41.5 inches, not pounds. I just wanted to see who was paying attention.
But here’s a lesson learned if you go on a week-long fishing trip: always check the Hawg Log or brag board if there is one at a lodge. And if the guy catching the most big fish will tell you what they used and you can get one of the lures they used at the lodge, do so. Jed caught several fish over thirty pounds using the same spoon. I’m sooo glad Ina and I had asked him what he’d used, and very grateful he’d told us so that I could have a good last day. I only wish the same had happened to Ina.
Before dinner, Mark chatted with the cook staff. They’d made amazing food all week long.
And here’s another tip: if you go to a lodge in the middle of nowhere, ask the lodge if the cook/cleaning staff might want anything. We learned the woman to the right was craving salty snacks. It was the Indian chief of her tribe–who stopped by earlier in the week–who’d brought her such snacks. We could easily have taken a bag of snacks on the airplane.
After dinner, I walked the area one more time, and took more photos of things i hadn’t seen on my previous walks. The plant to the left is apparently a type of myrtle. Above is a series of holes created by small rodents, perhaps voles. The area was about 12 by 12-foot area and poked with holes and tunnels ike this. This video captures the entire area.
Shout out to Ina for taking our photo on the dock. This is one of my favorite photos of Mark and me together. We don’t often do this, but the older I get, the more important these photos become.
Before I wrapped it up for the night, I took photos of the sun. These shots were taken at 12:10 a.m. on July 21. Clearly, I had a hard time wrapping my arms around the idea I was wrapping up my time in the arctic.
