Mike Pruett's group arrived on Sunday evening August 26 and headed out on Monday morning August 27th. Jon Balaski, Ryan Schmidt, Matt Shermoen and Kevin Erickson were the guides for the trip. Jon, Matt, and Ryan took sandwiches with them and headed out for the day. Matt drove another party out who were friends of Mike Pruett's.
After getting them tied up Matt decided for some reason to stop at the Chairman II and visit Bernie (the Chairman chef). Bernie was not feeling well at all and Matt made him ride back to base and go to the doctor. I had just arrived back from Brainerd (dropping my son Joey off at marine mechanics school at Central Lakes College). Matt called from Bushy Head Island about two miles from base with his location and eta.
When Bernie hit the dock it was obvious that he was having fairly severe health issues, we opted to take him immediately to the hospital rather than call an ambulance. Time was important. Bernie had a heart attack and after being stabilized by the medical staff at Rainy Lake Medical Center he was life flighted to St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth Minnesota. Bernie is home getting better as we speak.
Our staff is awesome, we all felt bad for Bernie, but as soon as Bernie was taken care of Matt went right back to Chairman II and put his chef hat on for the Monday night rib fest. Matt and Jon got breakfast ready and then took the customers out fishing just as seamless as possible. I did not fish but filled in for Bernie the last two meals, nobody died from my cooking and best of all the fishing was good and everybody had a good time!
I have checked on Bernie twice since he has come home, he continues to make progress on his recovery.
Fishing was good some on jigs, some on bottom bouncers. Jon Balaski has discovered a new cocktail that the walleyes could not resist, he wants to experiment further to make sure that it works every day. Hopefully we will tell you more soon.
We have four more Chairman II trips in September. Jon Balaski is open for trips September 4 - 9. Bill Dougherty has opening Sept 3 - 5 and September 8-9th. We have some availability yet in later September. I will write about options available it is the best possible time to predator hunt, big pike and big muskies along with walleyes, and smallmouth bass.
Chef Bernie Lessard
