Bry emerges as the 2013 fishing champ.  He boats the first three days in a row, lands the most walleye, and shares the titles for biggest walleye, most pike, and biggest pike.

Dan's bid to repeat as fishing champ falls short.  His slow start creates a deep hole that his strong finish cannot overcome.  His effort to overtake the bass lead falls one catch short, even after an evening stop at "Bass Alley".

Matt builds a big lead early with the biggest and most bass on the first day, boating fish with whatever he has on the end of his line.  His success returns to earth for the the rest of the trip, but hangs on to win the bass champoinship.

John keeps his heavy-action topwater jitterbugs in his tackle box in favor of the more popular bottom-bouncers and floating jigs.  The combination proves to be a winner, leading John to an award winning bass and a tie for the biggest walleye.

Overall fishing results

Most Bass: 8 (Matt)

Largest Bass: 18.5 inches (Matt)

Most Northern: 1 (Dan and Bry)

Largest Northern: 24 inches (Dan and Bry)

Most Walleye: 21 (Bry)

Largest Walleye: 19 inches (John and Bry)

Much to everyone's surprise, Dan's trolling motor mount works superbly throughout the trip.

Our second trip to Lake Windermere (our first ever repeat).  We're learning the lake somewhat, and it doesn't seem as big anymore.  No new colors flying on the bra tree.

The matriarch (Darlene), anticipating our success, packs enough wine for two fish dinners.

Dinners: Bry's somewhat soggy Mexican lasagna (what? no Teriyaki chicken?),  bass and walleye plus leftovers, John's steaks and perogis, bass and walleye plus Dan's ziti, bass and walleye again plus Matt's rice.  Never had the chance to have Matt's chili and brauts.

The group lets Matt pick a spot, and he does not disappoint.  Three fish on the lines at the same time?  We need more net men.  Looks like we found Walleye Way.

In pursuit of the big catch, Dan, Bry, and Matt head up the Windermere River.  Dan and Bry both boat 24 inch Northerns.  It's a tie for the biggest and most pike.  Dan protests the ruling on the grounds that his pike looks like it swallowed a squirrel.

Dan, Bry, and Matt try trolling  with deep-diving Rapalas (which is the method du jour of other groups at the camp).  Never can tell if were getting the lures deep enough.  STOP THE BOAT...Matt is snagged.  Never mind, it's coming up.  Must be a big stick.  No, wait, it's a pike.  Dang, he snapped the bill of the lure and swam away.  Probably should have waited for a net man instead of trying to haul it in unassisted.

The skies clear before we reach the bridge, making 18 holes on the way up possible.  The early word that a tee time at Crimson Ridge would be "no problem" proves false.  Scrambling to find an available course, we settle on The Mackinaw Club (John and Matt's first choice).   Matt repeats as golf champ, winning the evil 666 round-robin format proposed by Dan.  Results:

Matt:  8 points

Bry:  6 points

Dan:  4 points

John:  0 points

Once again the weather forecast is off.  Rather than overcast in the high 50's, it's sunny in the low 50's.  Good enough for 18 holes at The Mackinaw Club on the trip home.  Dan wins round 2 of 666.  Results:

Dan:  11 points

Matt:  8 points

Bry:  7 points

John:  4 points

The boat motor sounds funny and loses power.  After adding gear oil and power steering fluid it sounds much better...until the next day.  After much inspection and discussion, we conlude the problem is water in the fuel tank or a fouled plug.  Nothing too serious.  The boat sounds great as we start our evening excursion to Walleye Way, but our max speed quickly drops by 40%.  As we approach the bra tree...BANG..."Cut the motor"...billowing smoke...metal chunks and oil fill the bilge.  Passers-by offer a tow back to camp, which we decline in favor of trolling the nearby shore.  We quickly decide this was another "not-too-smart" decision.  We jump at the next offer for a tow, which takes is to the jug buoy near camp.  After trolling around the buoy until dark we decide to head in; but by then the trolling battery is almost dead.  Thank goodness we had a spare battery.  At least we made one good decision that evening.

Given a decent weather forecast, we rent a boat for the final day.  It's a late start, so we take our lunches with us.  After one more trip to Walleye Way, we stop for a shore lunch at a remote beach.  Dan spots a big walleye patrolling the shore, but cannot entice it with a jig lunch.  The backside of the island is blocked, so we reverse course and take the long route to Wayland Bay.  Where did that rock come from?  Bry joins Dan in the Prop-Killer club.

The wolf pack has moved on, clearing the way for a lone fox that roams the grounds looking for a easy meal.

No need for a spare trailer tire for this trip, but the same is not true for the truck.  Our hosts take the punctured tire to town for repair, but the tire's still low the next day.  Matt drives through puddles so Bob (our host) can find the leak.  Bob finds and plugs the puncture, which is still holding today. 

Bry retains his title of "Chinese-Rummy-Trouble" Champ by default.  After reeling in all the lunkers, we were too exhausted for evening board games.