# Lake Windermere report



## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Stayed at the Happy Day Lodge outpost last week and can't say enough about what good people Bob and Sondra are. We had trouble with the trolling motor motor on the boat we rented, probably a bad contact, so we ran back to the lodge and they immediately swapped out our boat with another and gave a us a free tank of gas. No time wasted trying to suss out the problem. I had expected to lose half a days fishing and the whole process took just 1 1/2 hrs when we would have just been lounging mid-day. There was also a heck of a wind, more on that and fishing later, and a good size branch fell on my car and dented it. Bob took pictures from all angles to help with an insurance claim and went above and beyond to make it right with me. Great, great people. If you are looking for a lodge give them a shout. The Outpost is booked but I had them put me on a waiting list and got in the first year due to a cancellation. I've already re-upped for next year.

The fishing was good as always. We hit the water on arrival and thanks to steady warm weather just crushed them on Saturday night. First stop it was fish after fish on jigs. What color was hot? You tell me; we were getting them on chartreuse, brown, peanut butter & jelly, white, green and yellow. Casting and vertical jigging were equally effective anywhere from 8' to 25' on the point. The average size continues to increase, too. Very few fish under 14", tons in the 15"-18" slot and more fish over 18" than we have caught before. We didn't get any over 24" but marked many larger fish in water deeper than 30'. I choose not to fish that deep so we didn't try them. As the water cooled though they began to move shallower and I don't doubt the group that is there this week is lighting them up. Thursday morning my son got a 22" that had a Burbot in its mouth. We also hammered the smallmouth when we targeted them. Plenty of fish in the 16"-19" range that were willing to hit jigs and crankbaits. Probably would have had a good topwater bite if the wind hadn't come up. As it was my son got some every night wading around the cabin.

What can you do about the weather? Dress for it and take what it gives you. We continued to do well through Sunday as the wind picked up but Monday the temps had dropped 20 degrees with strong winds and a light rain. The fish scattered and we had to search out smaller schools that would fish out in less than an hour. Planning strategy is half the fun of walleye fishing, right? Once we got on a school we would catch 10-20 between three guys and a lot of spots had slim pickings, only producing a half dozen or so. The fishing improved as the cold front held until Wednesday afternoon. The water dropped from 68 to 60 in the strongest wind but climbed back to 64 on Thursday. I had the best luck fishing aggressively while my son was tattooing them on tube jigs. Next year I'll bring more of those. He caught a nice pike but gill hooked it and it died boat side. It was in the same spot where the night before I had a bite off as I reeled up to net another fish. When we cleaned the pike my jig was all the way in his stomach. Guess he wanted it. 

We only saw three other boats the entire week which may be because of the weather. Normally we see about one a day. If you are looking for a near fly in experiance at half or less the cost you should check out Happy Day and get on the waiting list for the outpost. They do have some openings at the lodge too if that suits you but they fill up fast with repeat customers. As we were leaving we spoke with a couple who had been there since mid-July and would be back next year.


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## Mike Borger (Aug 3, 2014)

Sounds fantastic, glad to hear your trip went well!


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## JJJSDAD (May 16, 2007)

kzoofisher said:


> Stayed at the Happy Day Lodge outpost last week and can't say enough about what good people Bob and Sondra are. We had trouble with the trolling motor motor on the boat we rented, probably a bad contact, so we ran back to the lodge and they immediately swapped out our boat with another and gave a us a free tank of gas. No time wasted trying to suss out the problem. I had expected to lose half a days fishing and the whole process took just 1 1/2 hrs when we would have just been lounging mid-day. There was also a heck of a wind, more on that and fishing later, and a good size branch fell on my car and dented it. Bob took pictures from all angles to help with an insurance claim and went above and beyond to make it right with me. Great, great people. If you are looking for a lodge give them a shout. The Outpost is booked but I had them put me on a waiting list and got in the first year due to a cancellation. I've already re-upped for next year.
> 
> The fishing was good as always. We hit the water on arrival and thanks to steady warm weather just crushed them on Saturday night. First stop it was fish after fish on jigs. What color was hot? You tell me; we were getting them on chartreuse, brown, peanut butter & jelly, white, green and yellow. Casting and vertical jigging were equally effective anywhere from 8' to 25' on the point. The average size continues to increase, too. Very few fish under 14", tons in the 15"-18" slot and more fish over 18" than we have caught before. We didn't get any over 24" but marked many larger fish in water deeper than 30'. I choose not to fish that deep so we didn't try them. As the water cooled though they began to move shallower and I don't doubt the group that is there this week is lighting them up. Thursday morning my son got a 22" that had a Burbot in its mouth. We also hammered the smallmouth when we targeted them. Plenty of fish in the 16"-19" range that were willing to hit jigs and crankbaits. Probably would have had a good topwater bite if the wind hadn't come up. As it was my son got some every night wading around the cabin.
> 
> ...


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## JJJSDAD (May 16, 2007)

Do have any information on Happy Days other location Parrie Bee Camps. Thanks you can pm me


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Never been but heard good things about the fishing and the cabins; lots of smallmouth even by the standards of St Clair fisherman, lots medium size walleye. 6000 acre lake with 4-5 cabins on it and I don't believe you can camp on the crown land anymore. Would love to know more about it myself as it seems like a good change of pace spot if I can ever manage to go twice in one year. I think the owners are great people and run a top notch camp. The fact that it is hard to get a reservation confirms that. Here's a link to a report from another site and you can find more there.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=399713&highlight=prairie+bee


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