Arcadia Lodge
Big Turtle Lake – Bigfork, MN
June 16-23, 2024
Hosts: The Jones – Steve, Casey, & Kylie

Stacey, Joshua, and I made our seventh family vacation/fishing trip together to Arcadia Lodge up on Big Turtle Lake. We stayed in the Rustic cabin for the fifth time.

We all had fun participated in creating our own tie dye t-shirts! All of our shirts turned out great but I think mine was the best. 🙂 I spent most mornings and evenings fishing alone. Stacey and Joshua spent a few days in the water swimming, diving feet first, paddle boarding, and venturing from one water toy to the next. The weather was cooler for most of the week but Thursday was the warmest in the upper 70’s high. The lodge made and served fresh donuts on Tuesday and were delivered right away in the morning. We ended up ordering 2 large bags of donuts and a complementary kid size. Ice cream in the lodge every day too. Joshua and I played billiards. Our dog Charlie enjoyed his stay as well with a couple of swims in the lake and boat rides to highlight his week. We checked out and went home on Saturday as there was rain the forecast.

Smallmouth and bowfin action was super! The mayfly hatch was starting to bloom and the hot lure was the 5/8 oz. Megabass Sleeper Craw. Jigged and worked slow inside the reeds drove bowfin and smallmouth absolutely crazy! I caught my biggest smallmouth at 21″ (5 lbs., 8 oz.) beast and another 20″ smallmouth (4 lbs., 5 oz.)! Several bass in the 16″ to 18.5″ sizes were also caught.

Check my first full length vlog below for the full action!

We really enjoyed our stay, rebooked again for next year before we left. Counting the days until 2025…