This is a two day report and a hard one to rate. Based on the overall weekend experience it should be rated a 5+. Rating the weekend based on the fishing alone is a challenging also, if this was any other lake I would rate the fishing a 5 but being that we were fishing Potholes I think that a 3 is more appropriate. Although we hauled the boat along it wasn’t really a fishing weekend. It was the multiday Skagen End of Summer Bash. The weekend was all about sunshine, fast boats, an ongoing beach party with a few hours of fishing here and there. The event is staged out of MarDon’s Resort with unscripted events held at both MarDon’s and across the lake at Sand Island (Smith Island?). We camped on the beach and had front seat viewing of all the daylight happenings and the beach concert on Saturday night.

We didn’t end up fishing as much as I had planned and there were no crack of dawn departures but we did get out on the water. We fished Saturday morning/early afternoon and then again for a few hours Sunday morning. I had managed to forget the plug box so Friday night we picked up a few essentials from a well stocked MarDon’s tackle shop. Our general weekend game plan was to catch and release Saturday then hit the walleye hot spot Sunday morning, catch a few for a fresh walleye dinner and then head back to the beach to break camp and head home. Saturday morning we started out on the edge of the high spot out in front of the state park. Trolling perch pattern plugs we were having our way with the smallmouth but I was after my nemesis, the walleye so we moved towards the dunes north of the State Park.

Now generally I consider myself a good fisherman, hitting every trip more than prepared for a given species with a backup plan or two tucked away in the back of my head. For some reason my walleye catching skills have always been a hit or a miss. I love fishing for them and certainly like to eat them but I struggle in executing my walleye plan. After our move Saturday morning we started a slow pick on the walleye with a few additional smallmouth mixed in but darn it I wanted to kick some walleye butt. Maintaining our trolling speed at approximately 1.0 mph we tried different depths, locations and lure presentations but the hot fishing for walleye Potholes Reservoir is known for was evading me. It is funny, I should have been happy because we were enjoying steady catch and release action for different species (including walleye) and it was fun to see what we were going to catch next but I wanted walleye. Anyway, enough whining… The sun and heat were getting to Karen so our fishing was done for the day. We headed in having caught 25 or 30 fish on perch patterned plugs; including smallmouth, bullhead, crappie and walleye all released to swim another day.

Sunday morning we had a bit of a turn of events and my plan for a walleye dinner was dashed. Ultimately it was a blessing, one I will never forget. Camped next to us was a family with a little boy who was blind but had some contrast based vision. He took a liking to us and I offered to take him out fishing Sunday morning. In wanting to assure that he caught some fish I made another trip to the store and picked up a container of night crawlers and a couple spinner bait worm harnesses. Sunday morning rolled around and wind was blowing up a big dust storm but we were on a mission so we headed out in search of anything that would bite our gear.

I hadn’t really thought the plan through and to be honest didn’t know what to expect. What I did know is that I was going to find some fish for our new friend. Our first fish was a smallmouth and after we netted it I said what a beautiful fish. He looked at me with a question on his face and I described the fish to him as he explored it with his hand and fingers. As the morning progressed we found ourselves naturally transitioning to verbally describing everything we saw and our surroundings. To help him enjoy everything we did, we really had to think about what we were seeing, almost as though we were experiencing things for the first time. For me the experience was incredible, I felt like a kid as I verbalized our adventure for him. After the smallmouth we lost a few more fish and then…it was walleye time. It was a great takedown and a short but intense battle as he fought the fish. In the end he was one very excited little boy. He even knew that the fish was different than the last one; it smelled different and was slimy... At that point the wind was really picking up and he wanted to show off his fish back at the beach so it was time to go. Back at camp you would think that he won the lottery, he was so excited to show off his walleye. After it made the rounds I took it and filleted it so he and his family could enjoy a couple walleye fillets for dinner. As excited as he was, Karen and I were the ones blessed. We got to share in his excitement and our point of view was realigned. In our adventures we get to see and experience many wondrous things but rarely really thought about them. Yet in our short time with him we truly saw the wonder in having to verbalize the experience.

A great weekend came to a close. The intensity of the jet or drag boats good friends and fellowship, a band on the beach, a little fishing and time shared with our new friend made for an unforgettable trip to Potholes.

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