The 2023 Spanish River Fishing Trip took place from May 27th when myself and Paul Rauch arrived in camp to embark upon a week of fishing ahead of the large group of Schabell’s and Ryan Shelton’s group descended on camp on June 3rd, to celebrate my 76th birthday and finish out the trip on Week Two through June 10th. The water was down about a foot, which caused us a few issues getting to some of our spots, but the fish didn’t seem to mind. Bright chartreuse grubs and other assorted plastics were the top choices among our anglers. Mark caught a 45 inch Muskie on a four-inch Yammamoto grub. The conditions were ideal for surface bait fishing and the youngsters had a ball fishing with Whopper-Ploppers. Each boat managed over 20 fish per day over the side, and about an equal number of fish got off before being landed. Every fish that we caught, with the exception of walleye, which went in the box for dinner, were released unharmed.
Big Pike were the order of the day in Week Two. Above Andy shows off a trophy Northern Pike, while the picture at lower right is Jackson who was fishing with me when we landed his 32 inch Northern.
Not to be outdone, Jackson displays a Smallie Double. The ones on the right succumbed to his trusty Whopper-Plopper.
A Schabell Boys tradition is a visit to Lucky’s Snack Shack for a helping of authentic Canadian Poutine
Andy and Eric both demonstrate the health of the smallmouth population with a doubles each
Ryan Shelton has been coming to the Spanish River since the late nineties when he and Nathan Seiter fished out of a 14 foot boat. Ryan has improved his lot in life over the years, now fishing out of a bass boat with high speed capability and the latest in electronics. He is an excellent fisherman who fished tournaments for years with the Kincaid Bassmasters.
