2002 FISHING REPORT - NEWS AND VIEWS.
WHAT A YEAR! The final count on legal muskies out of this Lodge is again high (35 in 2000, 47 in 2001,42 in 2002). The list looks longer as we continued, and will continue, our philosophy of FISHING IS FOR FUN. If you enjoyed catching it, we invite you to put it on the chart. People often ask about the current agitation to raise the "legal" size to a trophy level of, perhaps 40". Our succint reply is that our guests release almost 100%, except damaged fish, and that humankind's definition "legal" is irrelevant to the musky's sex life and their well being! We advocate two categories recordable (30"-45") vs. trophy of 45" or larger.   So, we intend for our musky chart to list the fun you had!

May - saw less catch that usual
June - saw a few more
July - saw fewer musky (perhaps all our guests were golfing in July 2002 as the resort had the biggest month of July yet for both Lodge and golf!)
August - was average,
September - was best in years (even without the big day of Sept. 10/11 when there were twenty guides and ten extra boats, and we needed traffic cops and valet parking for guide trailers!)
October - was disappointing earlier but later the fishing turned excellent, especially for walleye..

STORIES, STORIES, STORIES.....I am happy so many of regular, repeat superb fishermen were successful. The Ott family and Bob and Pat Altergott in September. Young Mike Wilson was as enthusiastic (fanatic?) as ever and Granma and his guide, John Myhre, had a hard time keeping up. Joe Schart was successful in June, boating his 25th, and also remembering those now dead he had fished with for those 25 fish: his father, Bert Hardenbrook, his guide Ken Eck - but also enjoying being with his own son, who now fishes with Dad, golfs with Mum, and photographs the Lodge in its many moods on his own (when the web page gets updated for 2003, most of those pictures will be Jody's). 
 
In 2002, we all mourned Ken Eck's passing - a legend of fishing and of fishing stories, both by him and about him. His name is to be in the Fishing Hall of Fame here in Hayward.

AS USUAL, SOME WEEKS JUST EXPLODE when you aren't expecting it: this year they were June 21-24, JUNE 29-30, Aug. 11-13, Sept. 4-7, Sept. 15-18, Sept. 26-28.
AS USUAL,  there were constant reports of musky right off the dock, or very close in where you didn't need a boat, except to chase it. No musky went after bait under the big central dock this year. However, there were a couple of stories where the musky favored your arrival day and seemed to like the smell of the car still on the line, before the suitcases even got unpacked. Moral of the story? Settling-in can wait - go fishing immediately!

However, the bigger talk around here is twofold: the BASS fishing has provided a lot of fun, mostly small-mouth but also large mouth. The other chatter in the area, and at our local Happy Hooker bait and tackle store, is that FLY-FISHING for musky is on everyone's tongue. If you want to try it, we can get you guides for this as well as conventional fishing. The Orvis dealer down the road is very involved. 

"The big day" was Sept. 10, when one corporate customer at the Lodge put thirty boats on Teal, Lost Land and Teal River, (20 of them guides) for one grand tournament. This unique and wonderful day was totally catch and release, the musky being released immediately under Muskies, Inc. tournament rules, and other categories being kept in live wells, brought in for weigh in and then released. They offered equal prizes for the top three fish in five categories: musky, northern, bass, walleye and crappie.    It meant that the usual emphasis of the fall was not preoccupied with musky, and many musky guides were lured away by these incentives! All categories brought in substantial fish, so it was a wonderful measure of "one moment in time." 
Top prize winner in each category were:
Musky: 42"
Northern Pike: 4.9 lbs.
Bass: 2.4 lb.
Walley: 2.3 lbs.
Crappie: 15 oz.

Teal Lake is well and very happy!  Thank you for this terrific moment, to measure what is today against "how it used to be."