DAY 1:
We are fishing this year with our good friends Randy and Dawn Larson, along with 3 of their kids (Josh, Jeremiah and Chance). We left Casper Saturday morning and arrived at Jan around Noon Sunday, May 30th. What a cold day!!! About an hour from our destination we were in 32º weather with significant snowfall. We hit the water around 1pm and shivered as we hit Harpers Island for our first adventure of this year. The walleye weren’t as cooperative as the northerns this afternoon, but we got our bearings for the season and will be hitting it hard tomorrow!
DAY 2:
More torrential rains today. Erik, Michelle and Randy headed out on the water around 8am. The others didn’t want to get drenched and freeze. The fishing was tough, it took us a while to find a spot that was worth sitting on. In the end we ended up with some sunny skies and a not-so-amazing day of fishing. But, we had enough in the live-well for a great fish fry back at camp!!! It was still a great day of vacationing on Jan Lake!!
DAY 3:
The good Lord ALWAYS watches out for us!!! This morning Larson’s rented a boat. Randy and 12 year old Chance jumped in and followed the rest of us, heading for one of our favorite spots for the day. After hitting the big water, Josh and Jeremiah realized the smaller boat was no longer behind us. We stopped and stared back for a moment and noticed they were stopped and facing sideways. As we headed back we realized, with heavy hearts that the boat now only contained one passenger. Upon approaching the vessel we found Randy in the water with a life vest under each arm. It was a very close call. Randy was unable to swim any further and if it were not for young chance keeping his head and making sure to get life preservers to his father….
After this harrowing experience we all made it to the narrows and had a great day of fishing. There were many firsts for the Larson family today. And many blessings for all of us.
DAY 4:
After a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, we headed strait for the narrows. It was a magnificent day. The weather was perfect, and we were catching walleye one after the other. By noon we were quite ready for a feast of fresh walleye!! We approached one of our favorite islands for shore lunch, we found the remains of a black bear that had perished the previous fall. As this was one of our yearly spots we know this was a fall death. After searching the remains and sharing versions of how he may have died, Michelle found the sure answer. A glint of green caught her eye and a jacket from a bullet was lying within the piles of bones and fur.
After lunch we stayed in a bay near the island and began throwing spoons for northerns. It was a spectacular afternoon for pike! We caught more than could be counted.
We finished the day in the narrows and caught walleye until we could fish no more.
Back at camp we enjoyed some bbq chicken on the grill.
DAY 5:
We decided to split up for the morning bite today. Josh and Randy went to the narrows and the rest went to Harper’s Island. It took us a few minutes to figure out the wind and the fish, but we were quickly catching walleye consistently.
Today we saw a black bear that was alive! There were two actually. At first Erik heard a strange sound and found that two black bears were fighting at the back of Harper’s. One chased the other off and 10 of 15 minutes later the first emerged and began feeding for some time along the shore.
Near lunch time we headed North to find The others in the Narrows. After meeting up we discovered neither group started keeping fish for shore lunch. Only in Canada can you make that mistake and rectify it within 20 minutes!!! 8 fish later we were at shore lunch enjoying another morning’s catch.
I have a video clip of the bear somewhere…
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