Thanks for a great Bside Bash everyone!

[Steve Foss]

Hey all:

The weather again didn't cooperate, but you all did.

There were a decent number of fish caught at the bash this morning, but the wind picked up and it started snowing and then there were a lot of lookers but not many takers.

Frank (surface tension), capped the biggest fish of the day, a 31-inch 11.75 lb that was caught in exactly the same spot I caught my 12 lb last year on the day after the bash. He and I were fishing there and we were about to leave about 2 p.m. to get back to HQ to load gear and set up the drawing. Frank dumped his minnow bucket and followed the minnows down the hole with his cicada, and this big bubba hit.

First I knew about it was him shouting over to me: "Steve, bring your camera!" It was his only fish of the day, and if he hadn't caught it I'd have heard all about guiding him to a bad spot. Since he caught this bruiser, it's a good spot. You know how it goes.

I'd like to thank all those who donated prizes, because everyone got a prize, and I did a quick count and got about 50 folks at HQ for the drawing after 3 p.m. And some laker rookies found their way into trout, like Harvey Lee and others.

Great time, great people. See you again next year!

Sure wish I could get Frank to smile when he's holding a fish. I mean, what's to be grumpy about?

This is one I caught the day before the Bash. Thought it was a 7. Turned out it was an 8

[Finns]

Sounds like a good time was had. More stories and pics please!!! A balmy 35 degrees here around the firehouse.

Finns.

[Paul Waldowski]

Steve and Frank,

Thanks for the great Bash!!!! Hoping to still get into the fish tomorrow. Do you think -20 will shut down the bite

Might have to rethink tomorrows fishin'

Thanks again guys! Year in and year out you guys do a great job with this event.

[Steve Foss]

Paul, -20 won't shut down the bite, but it does tend to shut down the anglers.

[Great Outdoors]

Steve,

A big thank you to yourself, and all the others that organized,& participated in the Burntside Bash. You gave the town a real financial boost, and Ely really appreciates it. Again, thanks to a great bunch of guys/guyettes that came to the Northland for the weekend.I hope everyone had a great time. Hope to see all again next year!

Jim

[Jim Almquist]

Very nice fish Frank and Steve. I really have to get up there sometime but the timing just has not worked out for me. Sounds like such a good time and a chance to meet some new friends.

[jiganator]

Thanks Steve and frank

We had a great time, weather was tough as was the fishing but no matter. We had good friends, good food and good beverage.

Too cold this morning. We had enough of the ground BLIZZARD, cold and WIND yesterday. We loaded up and headed for home in the early AM

Again, thanks for putting together such a great event

Chuck..AKA Jiganator

[LoonASea]

Thanks ST & STF

I didnt catch any fish but had a few lookers ,,,had a great time (some of it I remember) Good job of organizing this event

See You at the next event

Randoid

[ripstick]

My thanks go out to Steve and Frank. All in all it wasnt a bad day BRRRRRRRRRRRR! Fish are still in the water waiting for the next one. LS you recall enough. But not total recall. Had a great time.

[Wade Joseph]

Thanks to all who contributed. I had a good time with my Dad. Too late in life we all realize how good it is to enjoy moments with family and freinds that may never happen again. He had a good time although he didn't catch any fish. I can say I finally iced one, although had it been an inch smaller, I wouldn't have counted it.

I would like to throw in a few ideas for the organizer(s)....

1) Get the city to authorize a local beer/pop stand or maybe a beer cart like some golf courses have complete with a hot looking beer cart girl to sell beverages shack to shack.

2) Contact the National weather service and get the order in earlier for sunny, clear and 25 degree weather.

In all honesty, it wouldnt be much fun if there wasn't any challenge in it. I had a good time, enjoyed good company, and was able to share a "first" with my dad. That being his first laker thru the ice trip and my first one caught thru the ice.

[Tom Linderholm]

Quote:

---

1) Get the city to authorize a local beer/pop stand or maybe a beer cart like some golf courses have complete with a hot looking beer cart girl to sell beverages shack to shack.

---

Apparently you did not look in the prowler! Mrs. Cheffrey use to do the beer cart gig back in Colorado, and we definately had the stock. At least Friday we did.

Man what a great time. Thanks Chunky, STF, End of the Line, and everyone else who helped put this together. I did manage to pull one trout from the depths of Burntside and luckily it was bigger than the misses otherwise I may not have heard the end of it.

Here is the misses with roughly a 3#'er:

And a little larger one that fell victim to the tip-up:

Let the stories roll.........

[Big Country]

Just rolled into the home base. We left my son with G-pa this a.m. and headed out to Dollar island. My buddy turned out again to be the eelpout slayer. He caught two nice pout, lost two or three fish, then landed a small laker. All on the slender spoon he won! I lost one then iced a small laker off the tip-up useing a Skippers Kid salty smelt. Was very cold on the wheeler ride out, but thankfully no wind. Thank you to all who made the Bash so much fun. My son now sports a Great Outdoors blaze orange camo style ball cap (thanks Jim ). Bd110, the Northern was awesome. You have inspired me to go collect some G-lake small ones for a future batch. Frank, nice fish bro. You rock as always. Great to see ya all! Let's do it again soon! BC

[Nate McVey]

Chefrey.....Man I wish the misses would have out fished you ......nice fish everybody, I will defineatly not miss out next year...

[Capt.Blaine]

Nice fish everyone!! It was nice to meet a few members. To bad the weather wasn’t a little better.

[Powerstroke]

I want to give a huge thanks to all those that helped put this thing together again this year. It was my first time at the Bash and my first time Laker fishing. It was awesome meeting all of you. Its nice to put a face to a name. Cheffrey, I now have a new picture with giant grin to put in my avatar.

Tom (HarveyLee), me, Paul Waldowski and his boy Alex all went back out on sunday. It was only -10*F in the morning with no wind so we decided to hit it again. Went back to the same spot and had a great morning. I caught 2 lakers, 1-25 inch 5.5lb fish and another that came in at 1.5lbs. I missed one other hookset. Wow what a fish. I can't wait to do it again.

[harvey lee]

Steve & Frank, Thanks for a great event. First time ever for myself chasing Lakers and it was a very good time. I will be attending next years event to catch another laker if my luck continues. I missed a couple more on Sunday. Also, Thanks for the great prize.

I was very impressed with how hard those Lakers can pull. Very hardy fish for sure.

It was also a pleasure meeting all the FMers that I have not had the chance to meet.

[Steve Foss]

Glad to see you guys got into some fish today. When I saw there was no wind and it was bright and clear this morning, regardless of it being -15 at my house, I really wanted to hop on the sled and fish again today, because the weather felt like laker weather.

But I had work to do, so I stayed home.

[yukon]

wow looked like a good time. sorry i missed it

[Matt Johnson]

Here's Tom's fish...

Looks and sounds like everyone had a great time up there! Very cool!

[Jim Hudson]

Awesome guys... Glad some newcomers got onto some biting lakers... In all seriousness, Lake Trout are hands down the hardest fighting fish through the ice!!! When you surpass that 10lb range... It even gets better.. Bulldogs I call em..

[ATW]

Thanks again, Steve and Frank!

We had a great time, even with the blizzard on Saturday. We went out on Sunday (it was a beautiful day) and caught a nice 20" four pound laker on a tipup. We'll definitely be back. Thanks also for the nets!

Paul & family

[Surface Tension]

Thanks you all for coming to the Bash, each and and every one of you is what makes these gatherings the fun and successful times that they are. My son and I look forward to the next FM get together and the 6th Annual Burntside Bash.

It was great to see forum friends again and put the faces to the names and posts. Congrats to those that got into their first laker, I hope there are many to follow and those that didn't, well you at least you got a taste of what laker fishing is and will come back even more determined and try again.

A thanks to Babe's Bait, Great Outdoors, JB tackle, Fisherman's Corner, Sportsman's Connection, and Viking Electric for the prizes. Stfcatfish, thanks buddy.

[MooseTrack]

Thanks to all and once again it was good to see everyone haveing a good time...dispite of the weather. My son had a good time and enjoyed his prizes..thanks. Can't wait till next year

[Northlander]

Thanks to Steve, Frank, Chunky. Joel thank your wife for getting the great banners and brew from BUD.

I had a blast even in the cold winds Sat. Fish cooperated for us and it looks like even some laker rookies hooked up.

I think just about everyone but 2 in our party and those that joined us Sat. got at least 1 Laker. We had many missed fish and break offs.

Cheffrey your wife almost had braggin rights buddy. Good thing you had that tip up with!

Hopefully S.T. can put some pics here for proof that even us walleye guys can catch a Laker every once in a while.

Good times everyone. Im sure the Paddle Inn and Wabbit will remember FM for a while.

Oh and a BIG THANKS to businesses that donated prizes. Someone scored a nice laker rod from Scotty and Fishermans Corner and Harvey Lee won a real nice DVD player from Viking Electric. Great Outdoors thank you very much for those big flyers you got me and for the prizes at the bash. Babes Bait thank you as well for the donations.

Its nice to see that people caught fish on the Slender Spoons that were donated as well.

Til next year everyone be safe and tight lines.

[BD110]

Steve (stf) and Crew,

Thanks to everyone that had a part in putting this event together. With the weather the way it was I'm sorry that I was not able to meet many of great people that showed up for the gathering. One other thank you I would like to put out there is to the crew that took the time to cook and share the pork tenderloin with those of us that were crazy enough to hang out for a while after the drawings.

I'm looking forward to next years event. Hopefully the weather will be a little better so we are able to hang out and visit for a while.

[Surface Tension]

chaffmj and crew made that excellent pork tenderloin.

EOLT, great job on the banners.

Northlander with a nice Burntside Laker.

[Ely Lake Expert]

Well, it was a fun yet unsuccessful trip for me. No fish out of my house, but I am pretty sure I was in toooooooo deep of water, 84 feet. I wasn't moving though, of course I get there and my ancient gas auger didn't start for the first time this year. Good thing I found DTRO 100 yards away with a hand auger.(thanks dtro!) We stayed in the fishhouse most of the day due to the cold wind/snowstorm blowing through. I wanted to stop by the group but my buddy that came with was being antisocial. Anyway we had a few lookers but no takers, though it is good to see some of you caught fish. See you guys next time.

Ryan

[Viking]

Good job ST and STcatfish for the fine work putting on the event. Although my report is like many of the others, No fish, just some lookers. Didn't move because of the weather. Already looking forward to next years, will do a little better planning. Joel, how did that wheel house go up the road ? We loaded up and left, sorry did not hang around a meet a few people, but a combination of out of beer, and the cold blustery weather, and out of beer, headed us back to hit the store. We had a good time laker fishing through the ice for the first time. Sorry we did not hook up NL, you were my ace in the hole. It looks like you caught a decent fish. Handsome fish Frank. I was wondering if Stcatfish was implying the fish looked better than the holder ????? . My congrats to all that caught fish. I am Looking forward to a big lake outing this spring, we seemed to have missed that one this year.

[Steve Foss]

Viking, moving probably wasn't the issue on Saturday. The bite was fair the first couple hours of the morning, but when the wind came all the way up and the snow started hitting hard later in the morning and all afternoon, the bite nearly shut down, and almost everyone reported lots of lookers but darn few takers. It was a weather thing more than a location thing.

As for the pictures, the fish almost always looks better than the holder when its one of our ugly pusses behind it. Now, give me a gorgeous babe holding the fish and my attention will invariably be on the holder, not the holdee.

Frank just always looks so serious when he's holding fish in pictures. I thought briefly about pulling my beer belly out of my bibs and jiggling it at him while he was holding the fish, to get him to smile, but I figured the look on his face would be disgust, not humor. He'd have been so repulsed and distracted that he'd have lost his grip on the fish and the gill rakers would have cut his hand, and then he'd have been yelling at me, when all I wanted to do was get a laugh. Plus, I didn't have enough hands to hold my belly and the camera all at once.

There's no excuse for running out of what you ran out of. Haven't you ever mooched a couple beers off some buddies? I know guys who have gone through most of their lives and never bought a case of beer or carton of smokes because of their ability to bum one at a time.

[End of the Line]

No problems with the house getting on or off. Everything went well. I didnt catch a laker but I did manage to catch an eel pout on Sat. evening after the crowd left.