Awesome Angling: Stouts Island Lodge

Part 2: Awesome Angling

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Stouts Island lodge is not your typical lakeside lodge. It is located on an island.

 “Because we are on an island, everything is by boat, you will come here by boat, your luggage will be brought here by boat and then taken to your room.”

Trevor Granberg is executive chef of the island lodge. And while he is new here, he is enjoying his experience so far.

 “I am absolutely excited to be here. I’ve been here for about two weeks on the island now working getting my kitchen ready to go and I’m loving every minute of it.”

Part of the reason he loves his job is the opportunity to harvest locally grown vegetables, herbs and spices. He uses these in  his drinks and dishes bringing in that farm to table aspect.

 “As a chef, that’s a really exciting thing that I can serve a guest on this island something that comes from this island.”

Besides the locally grown food, the lodge has a lot of history behind it Many of these historical features become obvious once you walk through the front door.

 “It is incredibly impressive. The beams across the ceilings in some of these rooms alone are upwards of 6,000 pounds. How did these people do this one-hundred years ago?”

The lodge was built around 1901 and then rebuilt again a few years later out of cedar imported from the west coast. A wealthy lumber baron form Chicago named Frank Stout initially built this retreat  for his family.

 “As time went on, he built a home for each one of his children across the island along with other amenities such as a clay tennis court and a bowling alley. “

Since then, the lodge has acquired a lot more amenities for the guests to enjoy when they arrive for their getaway.

 “We have water bikes, we have tennis, we have bocce, we have wind boards.”

They have canoes, paddleboats, kayaks, anything and everything you would want to do for watersports as well as yard games, and a great room filled with books and board games.

But if you came here to do some fishing, Red cedar lake which spans 1300 acres has plenty of fish for you to catch.

 “You can expect off of the island easily catch croppy’s or bass off of the docks. If you get out on some of the pools I believe is 52 feet, you can definitely pull walleye, northern, stuff like that.”

With all these activities, you can expect to be busy. But of course, the island staff’s main goal is to make sure everyone has an enjoyable stay.

 “This is a retreat. You can come here and you can disconnect. You’re on an island. You’re isolated. If you don’t want to talk to anybody or do anything other than hang out here, that’s all you have to do and to me that’s a beautiful thing.”

With photojournalist Nathaniel LeCapitaine, Gino Recchia KQDS FOX 21.