Fishing Winnibigoshish

I am driving north through the beautiful farmlands of central Minnesota to relive some memories of times past and to take my father in law fishing again with his grandsons.

My camera is silent during these miles so that it does not record the beautiful towns of Redwood Falls, Sauk Center and Browerville. Nor does it record the numerous dairy farms with their arched rafter barns and the Amish buggies alongside the road.

We will be staying at Grandpa's former cabin. By chance it is open for rental and we have it rented for the week. The cabin is just a stone's throw away from what used to be Judd's Resort. Judd's Resort was sold about 9 years ago to a developer who razed the place and sold the lots.

Whereas it is very beautiful now it has none of the charm of it's former inhabitant. Here is my son Levi and my nephew Jacob at the old winch that was used to haul boats out of the lake by hand power.

 

Even though we were trespassing we went for a tour of the new development and the new homes. 



The grass is green and the lawn furniture is show room new. 







Gone are the old cabins and the thread bare grass. Gone are the station wagons with coolers and boats with 9 horse motors. Gone are the laughing children and the dogs soaking wet with lake water. Everything is perfect now.

The harbor has been rebuilt.The old docks were a hazard of multiple levels to trip up the unwary. The wise walked on the nails because the center of the deck board was weak under foot. Here are a couple of old harbor photos from the 1970s and 80s.



I am the lucky fisherman on the left and Grandpa Ron is on the right. In between us is Larry Oldenburger and Ted LaMar.



Ted scared me to death the 1st time we went fishing. I was young and poor. He was a Oklahoma cattle man and oil man. As we were motoring out to the fishing spot he said in a solemn voice "All friendships are left on the shore, now we are fishing for money."  Holy Cow, I probably had $20 in my pocket and I had to get the Volkswagon Rabbit back to Iowa. He continued " A dollar for the 1st fish, a $1 for the biggest fish and $1 for the most fish." He never made me pay up and I can't tell you who caught the 1st fish.

Here is Larry and Julie with Ron and Ina after a day of fishing.



Now the harbor has been dredged, the old docks torn out and it is now safe to walk to the boats.



Jake, Grandpa and Levi enjoy a little fire at the cabin.



Later we trespassed again and went fishing at the harbor. Jake caught a small northern. None of the new owners of the harbor appeared to be around. Their massive boats sit on their lifts waiting for their owners to come on the weekends.



Levi and I try our luck on the lake side for a northern pike.



My view while casting.



Time to go back to the cabin.



In the morning we head down to McArdles Resort and our date with the past. We have booked the launch for the next 4 days with Ray Nepson as our driver and guide. Ray is 83 and he has been driving a launch on the lake every year since the late 1960s. Ray and Ron are old friends.





Ray and Ron never spoke for several years, they just waved at each other from their boats on the lake. Ron brought his family to McArdles to vacation every year and Ray was a launch driver for Denny's Resort. Time brought them together. Ron bought a cabin near Judd's Resort in the mid 1970s and Ray did some launch driving for Judd's.

Here are some early McArdles memories.

Sue and Sharon with Ron



Fish cleaning and bathing suits



No vacation was complete without a trip to Paul Bunyon and his Blue Ox





Sharon on vacation about a year before we met. Assuming that they got their film developed in the same year as they took pictures of course.




The fishing was kind of slow for us on the lake. Each day we each caught at least one fish, well usually :( . We launched from McArdles Resort



Ray would land the fish with a net and flip them in the boat with a move developed over long years of running a launch.





Ray caught one of the biggest fish we saw on the trip, a 25" walleye.



Grandpa Ron was a very patient fisherman with a loon in the background.





Ron's usual spot was up front near Ray.





Traveling to the next bar.



Luke came up mid week and fished with us. Levi Luke and I went in the evenings and fished for northerns.





Luke actually caught the biggest fish but it doesn't count because it was only a northern.







Evenings are beautiful on the water.







Morning brought some beautiful sunrises.







Luke landed a nice fish







I caught a pretty nice walleye myself.



Cousins Levi and Jacob



Levi Grandpa Ron and Myself




Levi, Ray and Ron



The trip was like a journey back into the past. The West Winnie road that we took to get back to the resorts. It used to be gravel, and full of washboard ruts from all the boats.



The lane through the woods to get back to the cabin.



The cabin was largely unchanged from when Ron and Ina lived there, except the garden was not kept up.







On the inside you could almost expect Ina to come walking around the corner.



We found spices in the cupboard with her name on them and all her old pots and pans.



The last day at the McArdles






Some views of the McArdles for those of you with the memories of the place.








Here is a picture of the pool form years ago.



Most nights we ate at the cabin. Jacob did some wonderful steaks on the grill. But on the last night we went to the Big Fish for supper.





The inside looked the same with the large rough hewn logs for the structure.



The guys



The fish got us.





We had a wonderful time fishing with Ron and Ray. It was truly a trip down memory lane. Some things were different and somethings were almost the same as I remember them form years ago.

I hope you enjoyed this trip to Winnie past and present.

Rich