A big thanks to the groups from last week.

Jillian and I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all of our friends from last week. We really had a great time!! It is nice change of pace to have smaller groups, it allows us time to talk, visit and even fish with our guests. It was an added treat to have the Cochrane group here because, as we found out, they live only a short distance from our Kalamazoo home. Always nice to make new friends who live near by, and who love to hunt and fish!! Hunter and I may have to do some rock climbing this fall/winter as well. The week sure did go by fast! The groups last week (like many of our groups this summer) got their share of different weather. They had cold, hot, windy, and rainy all in one week. But that did not stop the boys (and girls) from catching some quality fish. Like the weather, the fishing changed from day to day. On the slow days, big fish numbers were hard to come by. But on the good days, fishing was fantastic! Jim and Jen Anderson have been coming Black Bear for close to 30 years, and they said this was the best fishing they have ever had. They had a couple of days where they caught over 100 fish! Lots of walleyes in the 22-26 inch range with the biggest at 28 inches. Big pike were tough to find again, but finding jumbo perch was not. Even the family and I got a chance to go on the boat for a little while to catch a bunch of perch. We must have boated over 50 perch. Many small ones, but also lots in the 9-11 inch range! Not bad considering we never left our bay.

Hunter and Blake sent an email summarizing their week of fishing...

Total fish caught 144 and landed
65 pike
62 walleye
1 musky
1 small mouth
15 perch

Countless memories.

Here are some nice pics from last week.

Mark with a huge pike.

This is what he caught it on, #10 hook with 4 lb test.
 The piece to the right is what was left of
the actual hook, it broke just as he got
the fish in the boat. 

Another nice shore lunch!