Nobody could have predicted the amount of big fish that have been caught in the past week! The fishing has been utterly amazing. Big fish are being pulled in the boats left and right! The old record of 211 trophy fish in a season was surpassed at the end of August and now there is no end in sight for the soaring trophy count! The fall turnover has come and gone and the walleyes are on a feeding frenzy. They are all gorging themselves in hopes of fattening up enough so that they may spend a very lethargic winter! The girths are expanding daily and the pictures are going to be dynamite! Stay tuned as the final count will not be known until October 4th. Our bold prediction of 250 last week is now yesterday’s news. Can we hit 275???

Here is a wonderful letter that we got from Mrs. Linda Williams. She had organized a trip for her husband, and she could not be happier with the result! “Lorraine, Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that our trip could not have been better!! Thank you for your help and organization. The Staff was wonderful, the fishing was great, food was outstanding (we have, in our group, made a couple of the recipes that were given to us). All of the Williams’ just could not be happier with our Aikens Lake experience and we want you to know that. If we can be of any service to you, please let us know. We would be happy to be a reference, if you are ever asked for one. Again, it was perfect - Lyle will always remember his 60th Birthday present. Regards, Linda Williams” ps - Look for a description of Mrs. Williams’s trophy walleye in our “Master Angler” page!

The fishing continues to be red hot as we are now at 226 “Master Angler” fish. The majority of these have been walleyes (which need to be 28″ or better to qualify!). The walleyes are feeding voraciously on the deep lake drop-offs right now. At last report, most were being caught between 25-35 feet. You can expect the walleyes to go deeper as the end of our season gets closer. Depths of 40-45 feet for good schools of walleye is not out of the question. As for the pike, they are moving back into the shallows as the cold nights have cooled down the water temperatures significantly. The lakers are still in the deep water but have not been active lately.

Here is a report from ex-guide Rob Jounot, who was up at the lodge this past weekend to lend a helping hand (ed. note… dinkers = small walleye, horses and pigs = huge walleye) “Didn’t get to fish as much as I woulda liked, but overall was very good. Friday we fished all day. Lots of dinkers at Bear, South Shore, South Gull, and South arm. 2 Trophies at south arm within 15 miunutes around 5:15 PM. Mine was 28.5 and older looking. Was still healthy though, unlike some other south arm fish, and had a very nice girth. Meg’s was very young and a little over 28. Fought like a trout and headed straight for 45 feet of water. I though she had a trout. Her luck is unbelievable…48″ pike last year, record breaker trophy this year…gotta love it! Got up early on Saturday and caught dozens of dinks at bear, marked huge. Fishing in 32-40 feet all the time. Headed to Middle gull and marked nothing but horses and pigs. It was like a freakin farmyard there. Caught nothing but slots between 26-27″. One was 28. That lasted only about 30mins (caught maybe 6 in total) but was great, and then dinkerville moved in. Saddle held nothing, much like the previous day (Chris’ corner either). On Sunday I hit the saddle (after another dinkfest at bear) and marked plenty of small fish. Must’ve caught about 50 walleye (no joke) in an hour. Only one slot though. Was still fun…90% of the time your jig wouldn’t make the bottom, and the walleye were crazy aggressive. Looked for trout in the afternoon but didn’t mark one. I shut off the engine at Chris’ corner and just drifted aimlessly with our jigs about 20 feet off bottom. Caught 2 slots. Still marked nothing. Went to south gull and caught 1 there (25″) doing the same way. Interesting technique. At night, Brownie, Dev and I headed to the saddle. Caught about 4 slots, quite a few dinks, and AB got one huge pike that fought like mad. It was just barely 41″ but must’ve had 3 walleye in its belly. Brownie could barely hold it up…will have some very nice pictures…right at sunset too. So that was the extent of the fishing. Sorry but no pix yet…gotta get a digicam! Weather was nice, water is extremely low and still warm, pike are slowly moving into the back bays, walleye were caught in 21 feet on Monday afternoon so the water must slowly be turning, and the nights are cool. Saw the best northern lights ever on Sunday night too…it was almost freaky. Oh yeah, and the lodge is out of JackDaniels.”