ISA Road Trip 2023 is On!

[ericg]

[ericg]

[ericg]

Blue sky fish is my first ever 20” smallie, other one is a 19.5

ericg

[Terry Dodge]

8 hours ago, ericg said:

Blue sky fish is my first ever 20” smallie, other one is a 19.5

ericg

Congrats! 

[Ben K.]

Had a wonderful time fishing, relaxing, and conversing at tinkers dam this year. My highlight was landing two 19.75 bass on my own flys. Strongest fights I’ve had in years and one nearly bent the hook straight after running into heavy current. We had some fantastic weather and got a mix of passing rain, a starry night with a bright meteor, and rapid electrical storms that didn’t make a sound. As Ken mentioned we had a hot streak before a front that was really fun. It’s always a pleasure to fish with Ken from his boat. It was also great to hang out with Scott, Eric, and Kevin. 

[Paul Trybul]

Hey Eric, we found your egg maker and Larry took it with him since he lives closest to you. Congrats on your first 20" , looks like a think healthy fish. 

Great pics and reports from the week 1 crew. I can tell you my wife and I had a great time relaxing at the cabin and have drinks by the campfire. We also explored the local parks, waterfalls, kayaked and did some fishing. You guys left us plenty of food too. Fishing was great, It was never on fire but it was steady and I caught some giants. I got a 20 3/4" within view of the cabin and a 20" about 1/2 mile upstream. I caught at least a 19" all 4 days. I can out up some pics when I'm not so slammed at work.

[ericg]

thanks guys.

 

[Tom L]

Glad to hear that everyone was doing well on the trip. I was a part of the first group, fishing 3 days from Sat 8/5 to Mon 8/7 with John L and Alan from my GE. We all did well caught plenty of fish. My highlights were 2x19.5”, 2x19.25”, 3x19.00, 3x18.75”, and 3x18.5”. Thanks my cabin-mates for making the trip even more memorable.

 

[Tom L]

[Tom L]

[Paul Trybul]

Looks like a lot of quality bronze was caught this year. This was my 4th year staying at the Tinkers Dam and it was one of my better big fish years. I had to fish after all you experienced ISA anglers just pounded the area for the past week.  The fish still have to feed and I had nice low water levels for my wading and kayaking. The boat guys might have struggled to navigate if you came week 2. Like I wrote earlier, I got one a little under 21", a 20" along with a handful of 19's. The two Brutus class fish came on topwaters. Jason told us about Mr quackers and my wife was out there feeding it every day. Turns out Mr quackers is really a Mrs Quackers and she is a domestic duck called a khaki campbell. We drove down the road to buy some fresh farm eggs. The owner of the small farm raises all kinds of birds including ducks and they were missing one. Perhaps she will find her way home as a domestic has little chance of surviving a northwoods winter on its own. It did feel like something was missing this year. Yes, we were missing Mike. I was looking forward to having a few drinks with Mike by the campfire but it didn't happen...maybe next year. The weather was great, bugs weren't an issue and there are some great trails to hike and waterfalls to see. Until we meet again, I will miss you Northwoods.

[Kev-mo]

Quick recap from me. The magic 20 mark eluded me this year but that's okay. I had enough 18's and 19's to keep me entertained for the week.. Had an absolute giant lazily following my plopper Saturday night. Wish that one would have hit. Maybe next year... caught several pike around 24 inches and a few walleye including an 18 that was delicious! Learned a bunch about boat control and approach this year. Friday Aug 11 was my best day. Started out dry and then some rain forced me under the canopy at the shore. Picked an 18.5 when it let up. Then some more rain and another canopy. The skies cleared after this and I hit another 18.5. I then proceeded to lose 5 fish of which a couple were big. Hooked up with another fish  and managed to land this one which was my biggest at 19.75 (pictured). Had one more fish swirl on my plopper. Possibly the biggest swirl ever for me. At this point it was time to make for the ramp as it had been thundering for about an hour.   Got pretty wet loading up but it was worth it.

Great to see everyone! Appreciated fishing out of Ken's boat a portion of the week, Congrats to Eric on his first brutus! We had a bunch of heat lightning after the storm had passed. Took some video of that and upon review found that I also captured a meteor.