Sandy Point Lodge
Lake Kabetogama
Kabetogama, Minnesota
June 1-6, 2013
Hosts: Jennifer & Gordon Gelo

My fiance Stacey and I made our first fishing trip together to Sandy Point Lodge up on Lake Kabetogama. I had done some research over the long winter we had of lakes that held good numbers of both smallmouth bass and northern pike. I came across an article in the Game & Fish Magazine of the top 10 super smallmouth waters in Minnesota and Lake Kabetogama was one of them. Not only are the smallmouth and pike prevalent, but this lake is a famous north-country walleye destination and they also have huge crappies.

Weather for the most part was cold at the beginning of the week but got warmer with each passing day. We had hired a guide name Travis Carlson for our first day to help us navigate the lake and learn what works best for the time we were there. We learned to use the buoy system to navigate and Travis was able to quickly get us on top of fish. We primarily jigged with 1/4-3/8 oz. jigheads tipped with fatheads. We caught lots of walleye and pike, and was able to keep 7 walleyes and 4 northern to take home. My personal highlight with our guide was casting a 3/8 oz. H2O Precision Jig with a 3.25″ Pulse-R in chartreuse orange core color and landed a 18.5″ fat smallmouth near Cutover Island and 21.5″ walleye on a sandbar by Three Sisters Island. The last three days I spent time studying the lake map and took Stacey to the Grassy Island Group where we caught several nice pike and a 17″ smallmouth. Had another smallmouth follow that was around 5-6 pounds! Stacey landed her personal best walleye at 18.5″ on the same sandbar I caught my best walleye on our guide day. She used the purplecracker 4″ Moxi worm. This was one of the best Minnesota fishing trips I have been on in a long time!

Our hosts Gordon and Jennifer, and their staff took good care of us and made us feel at home. We were on the Voyageur’s Special, which gave us the freedom to enjoy the beautiful area. Price included our accommodations in their lodge, boat, motor, gas, bait, and three meals/day. Jennifer made gourmet-style food and it was delicious! We really enjoyed our stay and looking forward to coming back!