I first met Dr. Heltne when my father was having aortic valve troubles some number of years ago. Carl does wonderful work, my dad is alive and kicking today. Carl was joined by friends, Peter, Howard, Paul, Dan, and another Dan!
We traveled on the Chairman II with a Sand Bay Island destination. The wind was strong out of the northwest with 10-15 mph westerlies for Friday and Saturday. We went up the Kettle River and fished Hale Bay, we found good numbers of walleyes in 22-26 feet of water. Dandy smallies were active in 6-12 feet of water.
On Friday we went back to Hale Bay for more walleye action and of course, keep some for a tasty fish lunch. Our second Dan drove up for lunch and really enjoyed it, so much so that we said you have to fish with us after lunch to replace the ones consumed at lunch.
On Saturday we fished the main lake for walleyes (slow death in the morning) trolled for pike and jigged nice eyeballs in the afternoon.
We left Sand Bay Island at 5:00 AM for base arriving at 7:45 AM. Sunset is beautiful but I don’t believe there is a prettier time than predawn and the next couple of hours. We said goodbye and John Balski drove to our vacation rental home to pick up the Palmer family for another day on wonderful Rainy Lake.