Late Monday morning we left the dock aboard the Fishin’ Mission with combine operator Don, wife Harriet, probate worker Lisa and two curious boys, ages 7 and 10. Garret and Dillion looked a little sleepy (from taking motions sickness pills) as we headed East out of the irons of Bete Grise, to the green can, then southeast to our starting spot, but we quickly hooked a 2 lb lake trout to start the adrenalin flowing and wake them up. We landed 2 more lake trout while grandma looked on and Don and I had a nice visit in between setting lines. Fish were still a little scattered after our recent wind, but at least we found a few.
We then pulled our lines and headed in to Lac La Belle so the could get a taste of some inland lake fishing. Here we landed 3 small mouth bass before ending our first charter for the day. Here’s a picture of the largest of 3:
The 2nd 1/2 of my day I had deck hand Darlene, my 16 year old daughter and a family from Yorkville (near Chicago), good clients that I brought out twice previously. These Chicagoans love the Keweenaw so much that the hotel workers know them by first name. Target shooters, Mike, Doreen and Dax spend a week or so here every summer and spend their days exploring, shooting and fishing.
In my first “not so hot” spot, we caught one lake trout after a short time, but with very little action after that, Doreen joked that that she might be the only one eating fish for dinner later on, but I assured her that we will catch more fish.
After pullling lines, moving farther out and trolling for a short time we began to locate and catch fish, even with a couple of doubles going. We came in with 9 after loosing a few, averaging 3.5 to 4 lbs… really nice healthy orange meat lake trout! 
Brian Helminen
