[cle]

We started our trip on Friday, Oct. 8th and headed up north. This year we had Chas with us. He was on the muskie hunt and we were doing the moose hunt. We cleared the border with no problems and headed north on 502. We noticed that all the leaves from the trees were gone and that there was no color left in them. We arrived at Evergreen Lodge early afternoon and settled in. Sunday morning we went and did a little fishing and some scouting. The fishing was so-so and we didn't see anything. Monday morning the opener for moose, we left early and headed east. Chas and Larry, a long time friend of ours and guide from another lodge, headed west. For six days we came back empty-handed, only to have Chas and Larry waiting on the dock to tell us what they had caught each day. The weather was too warm and the winds were 20-30 mph out of the west, which was not good. Finally on the seventh day, Chas and I were up early having a cup of coffee, and looked out the cabin door to see a heavy frost.


Mal, my brother, and I headed east while Chas and Larry went west again. We checked out a couple bays and in the 3rd bay we spotted a moose way back in a swamp. We got out of the boat and headed up this point to work our way around the back of the swamp. We got within 170 yards of the moose, and we decided to shoot now because the animal was starting to move away. My brother and I fired and the moose was down. My brother worked his way to the back of the swamp and put his tag on it.




It took us 2 1/2 hours to get the moose out. We had to work out of this little creek.


We towed it to a rock where we could work on it, and then had a slow ride home through the 3-4 footers.
















We finally had a nice bull with a 53 inch rack. We skinned it out the next day.




The grouse hunting was excellent. My brother and I got 13 in about an hour and a half walk.


The walleye fishing was excellent and my brother caught a 28 inch, and the next day Mal caught the very same fish. We new it was the same fish because it was all chewed up.














The small-mouths were like footballs.













Here are some of the pics of Chas and Larry's hunt.





















Chas also caught this huge lake trout on a 10-inch jake.



These are some of the weapons Chas and Larry were using.


Now, this is the reason Chas came up here.












My brother and Mal caught these 2 only 7 minutes apart on a jig and minnow.



These are 3 different falls where we were fishing.




This was our camp pet. He was laying on the stairs of our cabin every day.





Here is a big buck swimming off an island.


Here is a rainbow and 2 shots of an eagle.




Here is a celebration of the last night in camp. From left to right- Myself, my brother, Mal standing, Larry, John, Chas, and Dennis. Dennis is a friend of Mal's who lives down the road. He brought over his muzzle-loader for us to shoot. Chas, my brother, and I all tried it out. It was pretty neat, only you need 2 people (1 pulling the trigger and the other seeing where the bullet went because of the smoke.)


Here is a shot of a full moon as we are loading up to leave in the morning.




We had a safe and successful trip. We caught lots of fish, got a limit of grouse, and a bull moose. Chas got his PB. Many thanks to Mal and Evergreen Lodge.

[DANCES WITH FISH]

Who's the member of the 2 live crew on the left?

Are those gold chains? Is he sleeping?...maybe one too many Labatts?

Congrats on a safe, successful trip! I've been waiting patiently to see the pictures and you did not disappoint! Hopefully one of those roasts will make it's way to my grill Thanks for taking the time to share your trip. Congrats again on your PB Chuck.....that thing is a tank!!

[Jay]

Wow!!!! Great Report and Pics... Congrats to all!!!

[pauleye1]

nice post been to evergreen around 10 yrs ago nice place would recomend it to other anglers nice pics guys

[wsj_outdoorsman]

for the first look, thought you were on the ice.

Cle, thank you so very much for the work in putting together this wonderful rendition of your trip, you know it will be view by countless people just wishing they could have an experience such as yours.

Those walleye's sure were getting wsj's blood going, now was there any shore lunches on the great trip? With Chas PB on the toothy critters gotta believe it did not go to his head and he still remained a trusted partner for the trip.

Thanks again, wsj will be back viewing more than once for sure.

[strobs]

Many thanks for the great report, Congrats on another great trip, another great Moose, quite a few more fish this year, & the new addition this year--The Little Fox ! Way to go Chas !

[tuggs3]

great report, i was looking forward to it. Nice seeing you guys up there again. I finally snapped out of the post trip depression. bad one this time.

[husker]

Thanks for sharing. Looked like another awesome trip for you guys. One heck of a moose!!! Nice fish as always Chas.

[DANCES WITH FISH]

Got a chance to look over the pictures once again and take it all in. Man, you guys had another trip of a lifetime! Just about any one of those fish would make a trip...and you guys caught a bunch of em. A big Bull to boot....I'm sure the smiles are big enough to last through til next year!

[Any Luc]

My favorite report of the year every year Cle.
Certainly looks to be more fun than any man could ever partake in legally.
Congratulations to each of you and thank you so much for sharing.

[Bearsfan]

Any Luc wrote:

My favorite report of the year every year Cle.
Certainly looks to be more fun than any man could ever partake in legally.
Congratulations to each of you and thank you so much for sharing.

I couldn't agree more.

Better a fox as camp pet than a bear!

[Bubbalouie]

Thanks Cle. Always an amazing narration.

Starts with the Moose that looks like he is swaying the tree he’s hanging from. Then the grouse- oh, my gosh- beautiful birds, fat and delicious. Followed by huge fish- walleyes, Huge small mouth bass- can imagine the fight they gave and then the pike and muskie. Even a big laker and cute foxy. The moon shot at the end – Ya got it all- and you relive it every year. God bless ya!

[DOUBLE D]

great post and great pics! i did that combo duck/grouse/walleye and musky trip when i was younger and i loved it. surprisingly it was most affordable. those pictures were great and brought back memories of old friends i haven't seen in years. thanks
dd

[Musky Tyme]

nice to see my friend Mr Fox is still alive and well...I was out there in early August and he came up to me in the middle of the night out of nowhere and scared the crap outta me at first, then he just circled me all night in my lawn chair, eventually "forcing" me to give him some bread...

[Chas E.]

DANCES WITH FISH wrote:

Who's the member of the 2 live crew on the left?

Are those gold chains? Is he sleeping?...maybe one too many Labatts?

... All of the above my friend.


It was a truly fantastic trip for sure. We saw a little of everything. There were days we couldn't even fish, the wind was blowing so hard. As far as the muskie fishing went, it definitely payed off to look real shallow. I was amazed how many fish were burried in the heavy shallow cabbage. I caught a fish on a dbl 10 Spanky, two on a HR, one with ripping a 10" Jake, and another on a pounder bulldawg. There was 4 days were I should of trippled up, but as you know fishing the glide baits is a love/hate relationship. You never know how there going to grab them, while working them erractic. One of the lost fish (A true knee knocker), was a real heartbreaker. After a long dramatic battle which included a couple areo displays, a couple power walks on the surface.. (no matter what I tried to do keep her down), and a breif engagement with the motor, all to have her do one more nasty headshake before the hoop. That was all she wrote. I don't know who was more stunned, me or the fish? If the handle on the net was a foot longer, I think we still could of got that beast, as it layed on the surface behaved like, after it coughed up the Huges River.

I saw an additional 20+ fish, not including the ones that were hooked up & got off. Two fish went around in the figure eight several times nipping at the back end of the bait, to where I started to get dizzy. One of them I blew for sure. The wind was blowing at 30mph, & I thought I saw the fish swallow the bait, followed by me coming right back aross the face of the fish, only to have its head come out of the water with some violent headshakes. At that time I saw i only had the fish barely beaked hooked, byby! Well thats muskie fishing as you know.

There were some days where we didn't even see a fish. One of them was the day where I caught that lake trout. It t-boned a 10" Jake in three foot of water. Just when you thought you saw it all. I'm very thankful for a great trip, with even greater people!

Also, it was very cool to hang out a little here & there with tuggs (Tom) & his buddies. Most of the times we were to tired to keep our eyes open after dinner, as we were out there fishing hard all day. I know Tom & his buddy got some real nice fish too, & struggled (like me) at times, as Eagle can be a very tough lake at times. Thanks cle for a great trip!

[Tom]

Just an amazing report. Jaw dropping.

Thanks for sharing.

Tom

[Valleye]

Great report CLE!

Glad to see that you got some pics of Mal in there. He is a great host at an awesome lodge. It just amazes me the size of the Pike that are coming out of Eagle. To my knowledge I think they enacted a slot and/or size limit to the Pike and from what mal was saying last time I was there the Pike have been getting "gargantuan". Its always a pleasure to read the Eagle rports and pics from you and your son. Great read, I look forward to the pics and stories for next year.



I need to get to Evergreen sometime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Val

[Buckmark311]

wow, what a trip... you guys did it all!

[Esox Tracker]

One hell of a trip guys, once again. Thanks for telling the tale, congrats goes all around!

[Dan S]

WOW!! My hats off!! Congratz on the great trip!!