Pine Ridge Resort News & Views

Even though there are a few more guests coming up for the great walleye bite we usually have in October, the 2008 season is behind us.  The season was extremely rewarding for me because there were so many predictions that folks were just going to stay home to avoid driving with the high price of gas.  We didn’t see that here at Pine Ridge Resort. Even with our rainy spring and so many people dealing with the flooding in Iowa and southern Minnesota, we still had full cabins for most of the summer.

Overall, I think it was one of the best summers, weather wise, that I remember since being here at the resort.   July and August normally have quite a few of those really hot, sticky days where even laying around in the lake doesn’t help because the lake water feels like bath water.  Didn’t happen this year.  Water temps reached a very refreshing 75* where it stayed for most of the season.

And every night, the air cooled down so that sleeping comfortably was never a problem. I think I used a blanket every night all summer long.  Past summers there were nights you didn’t even want to have any clothes on it was so muggy.  I don’t think I had anyone this summer suggest the need for air conditioners in the cabins and the one cabin that does have air conditioning rarely turned it on.

And to compliment the great weather, the fishing was probably better this year than any previous  year, with the exception of walleye fishing.  Bass fishing was tremendous.  I have posted lots of beautiful bass on the “Big Fish Pics” page of the web site.  Crappie fishing was good through out most of the year.  Lots of bigger northern were caught and released also.  A few years ago, every northern caught was about 18″ long.  Now we’re seeing fish in the upper 20″ range caught each week.

And this years September perch fishing was just great.   Everyone who came for the jumbo perch caught lots of fish 11″ up to over 13″.  An interested side to the perch fishing was the “extras” that many anglers had fishing perch.  I had several stories of large northern attacking perch on the line just at the boat.  One of my guests landed a 5.5 pound smallmouth fishing perch.  And one guest even had a muskie chomp off his perch right at the side of the boat.
Now we just have to figure out the walleye.  This past weekend, I had a large group in fishing walleye for the weekend.  Four boats went out Saturday morning and boated over 30 walleye which sounds great until you understand that only 7 of those fish were keeper size.  The others were all  under 10″.  The keepers ranged from 14″ to 18″ but there were so many small fish.

I guest that bodes well for coming years.  There is obviously a great year class in the lake that should grow to “keeper” size by next summer.

So, the end of our 17th season here at Pine Ridge Resort.  I don’t know how any resorter could ask for a more wonderful group of guests than ours.  Every year, I talk to other resorters who are so relieved that the season is over.  Not me.  Yea, it’s nice to have a bit of a break, but next May seems way to far away.  Already looking forward to the next season.

Thank you, each and every one of our wonderful guests who visited us here this summer.  Have a great year and we hope to see all of you again next summer.

One final note about the blog itself.  When I first started writing it, I was hoping that it would become a means for not only reporting on what was going on here at the resort, but also, getting feedback from guests.  Over the couple of years the blog has been up, however, there have only been two or three comments posted by guests.

So I thought no one was interested.  And, in response, I didn’t keep writing nearly as often as I had anticipated.  But I have had dozens of our guests this summer tell me how much they enjoy reading the blog and to keep writing.  So now that I know some of you are interested, I’ll try to do better in my postings.

And it wouldn’t hurt if you dropped me a line once and a while.  Take care.  Terry