Archived Posts
September 20, 2024 – A Very Warm September!
Hi All,
Well, the strange weather patterns of this summer have continued through fall. At the beginning of the month we had an unseasonably cold snap that saw frost with temps down to the low 30's. The next day warmed right back up and we have seen over 80 degrees daily. It's hard to believe we are this close to October and we are having warmer days then we did through a lot of the summer. This week we did have a couple of large storm systems work through that fortunately just missed us, and today marks the start of what looks to be a little more typical fall weather. Lows are forecasted down to the mid 50's and highs are just up over 70, much better than the sweaty last couple of weeks.
Surface temps on the lake are still north of 70 which is incredibly hard to believe. Fishing has been very spotty with all of the heat and bright days absent of any real wind. Walleye are being caught in the usual fall locations; large reefs and structure adjacent to very deep cold water. The western arm of the lake seems to be producing well as that is where the deepest water is found. Fish are being caught out as deep as 25-30' or more, and are being marked near large schools of baitfish, likely cisco's. This abundance of a good food source and the less than ideal fishing weather has the fish staying out in the deep water and feeding sluggishly. Fish are being caught of course, but it seems the active ones are caught right away. Then despite marking fish, they aren't hungry and a move is required to find more that are actively feeding. We are hopeful the cooler weather in the forecast will get them stirred up and active again, and get them chasing baitfish up onto the reefs in shallower depths as the water starts to cool off.
Last weekend was particularly busy as it was time to finally swap out our oldest generator for one we have had sitting in Ignace rebuilt for some time. The gen coming out was a 1996 and is all original, aside from the occasional fan belt and alternator change. It has an estimated 60 000 hours on it and has never been rebuilt. It's safe to say it was finally time to have it done before it blew up and wasn't worth doing at all. We are very fortunate to have some close friends in helpful industries and I had two of them out to help with the job, one being an electrician to handle the wiring change and the other manages a road construction company and was able to get us access to and operate a backhoe. Everything went according to plan and despite having fairly low clearances to move the generators in and out of the shed, we had them swapped and online by 9:30 am.
I would like to give a big public thank you to the guys for helping me out! It was a big job done and a stressor we no longer need to worry about. When completed we doubled down on having the backhoe here and dug a new trench up at the dump, and with the extra man power we were able to get a lot of miscellaneous work done around camp. Our two new docks are also completed and we are just awaiting delivery and we will have those installed as well. It's been a busy fall but it has been very nice to get a lot of necessary improvements and maintenance done.
It's hard to believe we only have 4 more weeks left this season, it seems every year goes by faster than the last. Tomorrow marks the opener of archery season for moose and our first hunters arrive. It won't be long and we will be moving truckloads of stuff back to town and getting ready for hunting season ourselves. I'm going to try to get at least one more post up before the end of the year with some last fishing and hunting updates, and then we will be gone on a bit of a hiatus chasing whitetails for a few weeks through the end of November. Sadly we realized a nightmare I have been scared of for a long time this summer, and lost a deep freeze full of game meat and other food in our garage. It failed, and by the time we realized it, everything had rotted. It was devastating to lose everything, but there isn't much to do aside from clean it all up and move forward. And now, try to get some more venison and moose this fall to replenish. A challenge we are eager to take up.
Ryan
September 3rd, 2024 – The Final Montana Hunting Journal, Pt. 7 – Days 17-19
Hi All,
Like normal I had high hopes of getting this wrote sooner, but other obligations took priority. I'm happy to be back typing away and getting the last instalment put together to tell the last of our story, Just in time for this year's hunting seasons to start opening up!
We woke up early on the morning of day 17 to head back in to the same old spot that had been getting very familiar to us over the last couple of weeks. We didn't head straight back in to where we had been spiked out, but instead headed around to a glassing vantage that provided a better view of where we had been seeing elk, and the area surrounding it. A little farther from the action, but with a much better view. It was a nice cold morning and we glassed for the first couple hours, not turning anything up we decided to make a small fire to warm up while we had a coffee and breakfast.
After we had something to eat I decided I wanted to drop off the backside of where we were glassing from, into another spot that looked good when e-scouting. We couldn't see most of this area from where we were, and hadn't been into yet, so I was hopeful it was relatively undisturbed. Linds decided to hang back to continue to glass the same area we had been with the comforts of the fire, and I headed out with a plan to meet her back at the truck after dark.
I dropped a few hundred feet of elevation off the backside of our knoll and worked my way over to a series of connected parks that spread across a couple miles of rolling fingers coming off of the main ridge. I immediately started seeing game sign of various ages and could tell that a lot of elk like to use this protected slope to feed in. I began side hilling my way across slowly keeping my eyes open along the tree line edges for any animals that might still be on their feet feeding, but was pretty sure that most would be bedded with the warm midday sun beaming down. I worked my way around for a little over a mile and found a spot that provided me a good vantage over a lot of area and decided to sit it until dark to see if anything was going to feed out of the pockets of timber, some burned and some still alive.
With it being the hottest, brightest part of the day I figured there wouldn't be too much action and laid back for a quick nap. I woke up about 20-30 minutes later with 3-4 more hours of daylight left, and got comfortable so I could start really paying attention and glassing around to try to pick up any movement. In less than an hour, and earlier in the day then I expected, I could hear a small herd of cows and calves mewing back and forth as they were working their way through the burn in front of me. It didn't take me long to start picking up some bodies and moving legs in between the sparse burnt timber a few hundred yards below me . It was difficult to make out how many elk were actually there, and as luck would have it a heavy fog began rolling in totally obstructing my view of the elk. I used the cover of the fog to work my way closer towards the tree line with only my rifle, leaving my pack and unnecessary gear behind. The fog was moving fairly quickly and the conditions continued to cycle from totally fogged out to almost totally clear and back again. In the pockets of visibility I would quickly glass around trying to keep tabs on the elk and to figure out how many there were. At my best guess there were 7-10, all cows and calves. The fog was really messing with my rangefinder as I was trying to get a decent idea of how far out I was from the closest elk. I couldn't ever get a true read, but knew I was inside 250 yards (probably closer to 200), so I abandoned the rangefinder all together.
Now this is about the point where my inexperience hunting such open country would be my downfall. Between the fog moving in and out, and the elk mostly having their heads down feeding in the brush, I thought I had enough cover to be able to close a little more distance across the very open and exposed hillside that I was crouching and crawling through. Well, not thinking about how different it looks when you are the elk in the brush looking out at the open hillside, vs. when you are on the hillside looking into the brush, I got spotted. I had kept a very close eye on the wind and it was blowing perfectly for me, but I got a little too cocky with my movements and the elk started to sort of trot together grouping up and heading in the direction they had been feeding, but at a much faster rate.
The elk weren't totally spooked but they knew something was up and continued making their way at a trot. Recognizing the situation, I sat down and got very still hoping they would calm down and I could continue the pursuit. In the tail end of the herd was a lone calf that appeared almost suddenly in front of me at 150 yards broadside in the open between 2 trees. Without thinking I immediately flicked my safety off and shouldered the rifle resting my elbow on my knee. I lined up on the calf to find one small stick obstructing the vitals exactly where I wanted to put my bullet. Looking back I am absolutely certain that the 200 grain bullet out of my .300 Win. Mag. would not have been affected by this one small dead stick that close to the animal, but in the moment it made me hesitate. My mind was racing to make a decision abut whether or not to shoot, 50% playing it safe for fear of that one stick, and 50% greed that there were bigger adult animals in this herd that I might still have an opportunity on. I decided to not shoot and the calf hurried off to join the rest of the small group. They moved out about 800 yards through a thin dispersed finger of burnt trees onto another open hill side where they stopped to feed.
I gave them a bit of time to calm down and then started crawling my way over. I knew I had to make it to that slim finger of trees being very exposed along the way. Then I would have some extra cover and would just have to work through that finger to the other side of it, and should have a shot at one of the elk inside 300 yards. Well, about halfway through the finger of trees, just as things were starting to look promising, I was greeted with an elk hunters worst nightmare, the alarm "bark." One of the cows picked me up crawling through the grass and timber and let out a loud bark, I knew the gig was over but to my surprise they didn't take of running. All of the elk were on high alert and were looking in my direction but were still there. A few seconds passed and she barked a second time, and then a third. Having read about this behavior in the past, I figured she had seen me but hadn't yet caught my wind and didn't know what I was. She continued to bark looking for a response in case I happened to be another elk and not a predator.
Now we typically elk hunt well after the rut is over when the elk have become far less vocal, so I don't carry any calls with me, nor am I versed in using them. Figuring I had nothing to lose I mustered up my best vocalized mew and called back. Hoping I could convince her I was a lone elk that had gotten separated from the herd, and not a hunter. She would bark, and I would mew in return. We must have done this 4-5 times and I thought that just maybe they were going to actually calm back down and by some miracle I hadn't blown this stalk for a second time. Well, I was wrong. Finally, they had had enough (likely of my terrible elk calling) and took off running over the rise in the hill and out of my view. I took a walk to see over that rise just in case, but as I expected they were gone for good this time. With a couple hours of daylight left I headed back to my pack to go sit and watch until dark. My tail between my legs, but excited at the encounter that I just had and already reflecting over the things I did wrong and the lessons learned. The biggest being how little credit I gave their eyesight as I was stalking in without cover. I should have just hunkered down and not moved until they worked through and then got behind them and caught up to them feeding.
I sat back down to have a snack hopeful that since I hadn't shot or made any real noise that there was still a chance to see something else in this clearly busy area before the day was over. Well, with about an hour of daylight left, that hope was confirmed as I could hear what was clearly two bulls talking back and forth while working their way up out of the tree line towards the same hillside that the cows had stopped to feed in. In the following picture you can see what I was working with. The cows had stopped to feed on that hillside just beyond those trees, and from the sounds of it that is the same place the bulls were headed.
The bulls weren't full on bugling, but I could tell from the change in the vocalizations and the pure raspiness of their calls that they were bulls. I knew they were getting close so I started really picking apart the fairly open, burnt timber and was able to pick up a rear end, and then a shoulder, and some other fading glances as they were shifting around feeding on the grass right on the far edge of the tree line. Not wanting to blow this opportunity and knowing I now had a chance on a bull, I decided to just stay put to see if they would feed out onto the open hillside where I could get a better look at the pair and make a plan.
Well after about a half hour of waiting I only had another half hour of daylight left, and a bit of ground to cover to get within range. The elk hadn't really moved, and I decided I better start working in if I was going to make a play on them. Knowing they couldn't see me from where they were I was able to move decently quickly into the finger of timber. The elk were on the right side of the above image, on the far side of those trees tucked into a sort of corner where the tree line rounded up to the fading little arm you see in the photo. I headed into the trees on the left side of the photo, uphill from the elk, hoping to get across that thin line of trees undetected where I could pop out on the their side a few hundred yards up from them and set up a shooting position.
I made my way across and got amongst the trees, but to my surprise I looked up and saw the two bulls now feeding across the same hillside the cows had been on. Where they originally were I figured I would be about 200 yards from them when I could see them, but now they were over 300 and feeding slightly quartering away. They didn't seem spooked at all, so I don't think my moving bothered them. It seemed as though they staged up on the timbers edge until it was almost dark and they were now finally comfortable moving out into the wide open. At this point I only had about 5 minutes of legal shoot light left. For the first time I got a very good look at both bulls between two trees about 100 yards from me, and the elk were about 250 past that. Both were very respectable bulls, not huge but both looked to be 6x6 frames, I would have been absolutely thrilled to take either one!
I could see both elk through my little window in the trees in front of me and it dawned on me that if they took a few more steps I wouldn't be able to see them any more and didn't have enough daylight to try to move or reposition, it was now or never. I pulled my rangefinder and grabbed my data, they were at 350 yards. I adjusted the turret on my scope for that range and took a deep breath to calm down a bit. The grass was too long for a prone shot, and I had left all of my gear back where I had been sitting so I didn't have a pack or anything to shoot off of. I sat down and rested an elbow on each knee and found the elk in my scope. I lined up on one of the bulls with no intentions of shooting yet, I wanted to see if I thought I could even get steady enough. The rest wasn't perfect but I felt confident I was holding the crosshairs within the vitals of the bull.
In this time however the bull in the rear had fed up and was overlapping the other bull in my view. Knowing I couldn't shoot until they separated I used the opportunity to double check my range and my scope adjustment. I got the exact same data as I did the first time, so I was confident everything was correct. Just as I looked up from double checking my scope the lead bull took a couple of steps forward and was now completely out of my sight window. I had one lone bull standing at 350 yards and about 3 minutes of daylight left. Less time really, because when he decided to follow in two short steps he would be out of my sight as well. I brought the rifle up and found the elk, took one last breath exhaling down to an empty lung and started squeezing the trigger.
The shot broke and I immediately felt good about it. Despite not having a perfect rest, especially for that range, I felt controlled through the whole process and it felt good. What didn't feel good was watching how seemingly unscathed both of the elk were after the shot. As soon as my rifle went off both bulls wheeled around and sprinted back in the direction that they had come from, neither one appearing to be hit at all. Not a problem I tried to reassure myself, a lot of animals don't behave hit for the first few seconds and go 100 yards and fall over. I took 15 minutes or so to calm down and to let the elk either run off or bed, and headed over to where they were when I shot. Knowing they ran at least an easy 200 or more yards to the tree line, and then who knows how much farther, I wasn't too worried about potentially bumping them if one was hurt and bedded. To be sure of this I circled wide and came in from above so as to not potentially pressure them further.
To make a long story short, I grid searched in the dark for a couple of hours and never found even a pin drop of blood. I began my long hike back out to the truck with about every possible emotion running through my head during the nearly two hours I had to myself to think about it. Disappointed I missed what could've been my first elk, extremely happy it didn't seem as though I had wounded it, but further disappointed that I even took a shot that could have had that result, and finally just a lot of excitement for the absolutely crazy afternoon of elk hunting that I had just had. We got back to camp late so I slept in a little and returned the next morning in the daylight to do some more searching for blood to really rule out any chance of a wound.
I didn't find any blood, but what I did find was that the window I was shooting through, wasn't nearly the window I thought it was at all. In the very low light, and with my focus on the elk out 250 yards past the trees, what I didn't realize is that I was shooting through a lot more brush than I thought. The following picture shows the area I was shooting through, in the low light I could see the vertical trees, but when my eye was focused on the elk much past them, I didn't notice all of the horizontal limbs.
Now I want to make it clear I'm not trying to make excuses. I think it is more likely that I just flat out missed trying to take that long of a shot with an insufficient rest, but it is also possible I touched one of those branches and my bullet deflected a long ways before the animals. Regardless of what happened, I was losing daylight and was rushing to make a decision, and I made the wrong one. Hindsight is 20/20 but I wish I had never pulled the trigger at all. Not because I missed, we have all been there, but because I took a shot that wasn't good enough and could have wounded the elk. And on top of that, I completely blew what could have been a great opportunity. It was too close to dark and things didn't go to plan, I should have just backed out quietly a while after dark and continued to hunt that area for the remaining two days of the season. Once I had blown out that whole hillside with gun fire the already heavily pressured elk were nowhere to be found. I blew my best lead on elk and we were running out of time.
After spending the morning of the second last day confirming that I didn't hit the elk, I picked a vantage point overlooking the same area and sat it until dark hoping (but not too faithfully) that I would get lucky and see some more elk passing through there. Maybe a new group that was unaware of the transgressions of the previous evening. No such luck. I hiked back out to meet Linds at the truck who had been glassing from the same spot she had been the day before, also without any luck. We headed back to camp with a new area to try on the last day of the season for one last final effort.
To wrap up this post the last day was pretty uneventful. We hiked 10 miles or so total working into a completely new area sort of still hunting and glassing through what looked to be really nice country, but not turning up any elk or any real sign to speak of. We had one close encounter to a whitetail doe and her fawn that never clued into us being there so we watched them for a while on our hike out. When we got almost back to the truck with about an hour of daylight left we cut fresh elk tracks in the snow that had crossed our boot tracks from going in that morning. At some point during the day a small herd moved through, and as luck would have it on this trip, we just missed them. As a last ditch effort we followed the tracks through the woods as they were headed to a clearing I could see on the GPS. Thinking it was possible they would be feeding on the grass up there we pursued them working as quickly and quietly as we could to get to the meadow before dark. When we did, there wasn't an elk to be found. At this point it was dark and the season was over so we headed back to the truck.
Although I was a little disappointed with my own choices at the very end of the hunt, we learned a TON of valuable lessons. On this trip we were able to hunt a lot of new country and found a lot of elk doing so. We still haven't got one on the ground but we are learning how and where to find them and are really enjoying the process along the way. We had a great time sharing another hunting camp with Jake and everyone came home with a good mule deer. We had 4 close opportunities to shoot an elk this year, 2 were spoiled by circumstance, and 2 I managed to spoil for myself. That's elk hunting and why the harvest success rates are sub 10%. Sooner or later we will be coming home with one, and until then I couldn't be happier hiking up and down the mountains until we do.
To close out the last hunting journal post I'll leave you with a picture of our tent from one of the last nights there, and our final tent footprint picture we like to take whenever we leave a spot. This time for the year as the season was now complete!
Ryan
August 13, 2024 – Hard to Believe How Fast the Summer Goes By!
Hi All,
Well, we are into the second half of our season by a couple of weeks, and like usual it is hard to believe how fast it is going by. It has been a very busy summer and we are very grateful for it! The water level has remained up through the summer and is still around average or maybe even a little high for this time of year. Guests have still been able to get up into Hut Lake and general navigation is still really easy without any extra hazards or challenges. It is definitely a nice change from the very low water levels last year. Currently a 100' of extension cord should get you to the end of our docks, but if you are still to come to camp I would bring 150' just to play it safe and to account for the water dropping a little farther yet as the year goes on.
Fishing was slow through a lot of July, and we have attributed that to some strange conditions this summer. The mayfly hatch seemed to last almost a month, which is about 2 weeks longer than normal. We also had a couple weeks of very hot, still weather. Basically the polar opposite of what you are looking for for walleye fishing. Surface water temps were averaging around 75 degrees and I heard in some spots it was up as high as 78. All of these conditions made it tough for a while, but the last 10 or so days have seen very steady improvements. Everyone were still able to find fish when it was slower, but the gut buckets have definitely been heavier the last while, and we have been seeing more entries on the bragging board in the fish hut. Here are a few of the pictures we have had sent to us over the last few weeks:
We have put a deposit down on two new steel framed docks we are having manufactured and delivered, which will be replacing the two worst docks out front. Those older docks will be patched back up as good as we can get them, and will be moved over to the campground to replace the pile of old derelict docks we desperately need to get rid of. If all goes well we are planning to replace 1-2 of our oldest docks with these upgrades for the next couple seasons.
Otherwise not too much is new around camp, we are in a bit of another heatwave which looks to be lasting the next week or so with temps in the mid to high 80's. Hopefully we will have a bit of a breeze to help keep everyone cool on the lake and keep the fish active. The mosquitos and black flies have slowed down quite a bit, although they can still be pretty active in the cooler air of first and last light. I would still plan on bringing some spray and a Thermacell or two just in case. In their place is a fairly healthy population of ankle biters, horse & deer flies, which despite biting a lot harder are a little more tolerable. We should see them start to slow down a little more in the weeks to come.
Ryan
July 24, 2024 – Montana Hunting Journal Pt. 6, Days 14-16
Hi All,
I have been meaning to tell the rest of our story from last fall and decided I needed to make it a priority and get it done (about time, I know). I only have a couple more entries to go to conclude our adventure and they are a bit of a rollercoaster. So, stay tuned the next little while as I'm going to try to get them all done.
We woke up early the morning of day 14 and started our 45 minute or so drive to where we were going to set up camp and begin hunting. On our drive through some very open ranchland we saw a mess of whitetails and a few herds of antelope. Being from Ontario, antelope are such a foreign animal to us so we always stop to watch them for a while whenever we see any.
We arrived at our spot an hour or so after daylight and got camp all set up. We stockpiled a little firewood so we wouldn't have to worry about it in the dark later that evening, and while we were completing our chores we heard a 4-wheeler approaching us. We looked up to see a man on an ATV with a dog or two on the back rack. When he arrived next to our tent we realized he actually had 3 dogs on the back of the bike with him, and he told us he was a ranch hand out looking for 50 or so head of cattle that had been grazing in that area and wandered off. We had passed through a large chunk of Block Management land (which is private land with open hunting access) on our way to our campsite on the national forest, so it wasn't a surprise to see ranchers working cattle in the general area. We told him we hadn't seen ay cattle and chatted a little bit before he loaded the dogs back onto the bike with a single command and was off across the flats at a good 25-30 mph. All three dogs standing tangled amongst each other on the back rack, seemingly unphased by the speed of travel or rough terrain. It's so amazing watching dogs that are trained for a specific purpose working with their handlers, they knew the program well and were not risking missing their chance at a ride when he told them to load onto the bike!
After we were all done our work we set off deeper into the national forest out of the flatter prairie and into the foothills at the base of the mountain. We started by heading into where we had seen elk last hunting season, but all we turned up were a couple other hunters out hiking around. Knowing that area was covered we decided to make a big circle around the open hillsides to gain some elevation for a better vantage point and to see some new country. We stopped on a nice glassing spot about midday to glass around a little and to eat lunch. While we were eating Lindsay noticed a bunch of ravens landing a few hundred yards from us, and upon further inspection realized they were landing on what appeared to be a dead, whole elk. We finished our lunch and took a walk to investigate, bringing a rifle but leaving our packs behind as we weren't going far.
A few minutes later we were standing over a dead calf that appeared as though it had been shot and for whatever reason, hadn't been recovered. It seemed to be reasonably fresh, although was definitely starting to stink, I suspect it had died within a few days. It happened to be thanksgiving day, so we called Montana FWP and left a message, not expecting to hear back immediately. As it would turn out, we would never hear back from them despite leaving a couple of messages on a couple of different voicemails - well, we tried.
While out for our stroll I decided I wanted to climb this little knob near us to see what sort of visibility we would have from the top. Of course like dummies we had left the bulk of our gear behind and were continuing to get farther away from it. We reached the top of the glassing knob and really liked our view, so we decided to sit there until dark. Well, we would sit there after I got back from a quick 1/2 mile or so run to grab both of our packs - haha. Once I returned with my pack on my back and Lindsay's strapped on my front, we settled into our new spot and glassed until dark. We didn't turn up any more animals and saw a couple more hunters off in the distance. Between the number of hunters we were seeing, and the clearly shot elk we found, it was beginning to paint a pretty clear picture that this area had been hunted out pretty hard. We headed back to camp at dark a little skeptical about whether or not we were going to see anything alive in our new spot.
The next morning we decided to head straight back to that same glassing knob as it offered the best view of the surrounding area. We arrived before daybreak excited to glass at first light, but were met by a dense, heavy fog that reduced visibility to basically zero. Knowing there wasn't too much we could do we built a fire in a nice little ring someone had made before us, and settled in to wait for it to break glassing in whatever short windows we had between clouds.
About midday when the sun began warming up the air, the fog finally began to lift and we could begin glassing. After a couple hours of not turning anything up I decided to take a little hike into some country that we couldn't see too well from where we were, to snoop around and to check for any sign. What I found was another elk carcass (this one had been harvested in it's entirety) and some relatively fresh sign, likely from earlier that week. That was all the proof we needed to confirm that the area we were in had seen a lot of elk moving through it, but they had already been hunted hard and I think the pressure had drove them out of there, likely onto the adjoining private land. We decided to glass the rest of the day until dark since we were already back there, and as expected we didn't see anything.
On our hike back to the tent that night we discussed what our plan would be as the season end was fast approaching; we had four days left. We checked the weather back in the area that we had left, and as it turned out the forecasted storm that drove us out never actually happened. Thinking that it was relatively quiet back there (less the one other hunter we had seen) and it was a big area with a lot of elk we decided to go back and give it another try as it had a chance to quiet down for a few days. We would spend the night where were and sleep in a little to be well rested before tearing down camp and heading off back the way we came. It was a little frustrating that we had left at all considering the past couple of days were unsuccessful, but we made the right call instead of risking get caught back there if the storm had come. By early afternoon on day 16 we were all packed up and heading out, leaving behind our signature circle imprint from the tent.
We set up camp just after dark by the time we got back to the first area, and settled in to get some sleep as we were off to hunt hard the last three days we had left. Stay tuned for an exciting last couple of days filled with action, heartbreak, and lessons learned!
July 11, 2024 – The Heat Has Arrived!
Hi All,
Well, until this week we have had a very cool, wet summer. The weather patterns and wind directions have been very volatile and it seemed like it was raining almost daily, sometime while the sun was still out - haha! All of the rain has been exactly what the lake needed to get our water levels back up to normal and to keep them there, but has unfortunately come at the cost of a very heavy mosquito hatch. This has been a very bad year for those little buggers so we definitely recommend lots of bug spray and Thermacells. The fishing has generally been good all summer, but the fish's feeding patterns have been disrupted frequently with the changing weather, and it has made them a little more scattered than usual. We have generally been hearing that the fishing is slow until about Tuesday morning each week when groups start to find them and figure out their patterns, and then it's business as usual.
This week has been a break from the constant rain we have been having, but at the cost of very high temperatures. Every day this week has broken 85 degrees I believe, and today we saw over 90. We had a hard mayfly hatch the past three weeks or so that began to die down last weekend and is about all but over now. The hatch paired with the bright, hot, sunny days we have had this week has made the fishing a little bit slower. That being said, now that the weather has stabilized for more than two days in a row, the bite has been getting better every day this week despite the less than favorable walleye fishing conditions. On these really hot and calm days I like to head for the current of the English River either North or South to find active fish in the cooler moving water that provides a bit of a sanctuary from the hot sun. On the days with more favorable conditions (or in the cooler mornings and evenings) walleye can be found on the usual humps and structure that they like this time of year. 7 Pine Island, the humps out around Red Rock, the Flats, etc. are all producing fish if you find a reef with an actively feeding school.
Currently the water levels are normal or even a little bit on the high side. 100' of extension cord should currently be more than enough to reach the end of the dock from the power posts. Currently the boat launch isn't too banged up and is relatively level, and we would like to keep it that way so please refrain from power loading and unloading your boats.
There have been changes to the rules regarding bringing a pet into the US and that includes bringing your own pet home if you bring them out of the country with you up here. Below is a little summary I copied from a post Lindsay shared on Facebook with the information we currently have:
June 6, 2024 – Sorry for the Wait!
Hi All,
Well I need to apologize for taking so long to get an update on here. To say it has been a busy spring would be an understatement. At opener the water level was very low, but during opening week we got hit with a 36 hour storm that produced 4.5" of rain and wind gusts up to 50 mph. Prior to the storm, temperatures were in the 60's, but by the end of the 36 hours they were down in the low 30's and the rain turned to snow. Fortunately all of that rain (and the rain that has followed since) was enough to fill the lake back up and I would say we are at about a normal water level currently. For the first two weeks of our season we were puling the docks up nearly daily, and twice already we have had to have the entire camp pull all their boats due to potential storms. Fortunately we haven't had any major damage and have been able to get everything back together and up and running.
The fishing has been strange so far this year on account of the constantly changing weather and water levels. Generally speaking it has been really good, the fish just aren't where they would normally be found this time of year, and it is taking groups the first couple of days to locate them. Once found, numbers have been really good and we are still hearing very consistently that groups are pulling out great numbers of walleye over 20". Lots of fish are being caught in the English river whether it be upstream towards the Old Bridge or down stream toward the Rock Gardens. The Narrows is still producing some fish as are your standard windblown points, rocky shorelines, and weed edges in depths ranging from 6-10'. We haven't seen any huge walleye yet this season but have seen lots in that 25-27" range. As usual in the spring and early summer we have seen very good numbers of northern 40" plus being caught weekly. If your trip is nearing, I would expect to take a couple days to find the fish and don't be afraid to try spots a little different from where you would normally fish. It's always good to learn some new spots and to do a little exploring anyway.
We have the second Wi-Fi system up and running, and have internet access available in all cabins now. Needless to say that has been very well received! Starlink has really changed the game for those of us who live remotely and need fast reliable internet service. The new upgraded boat and motor packages have been in high demand as well, and have been highly regarded by those who have ran them so far. Having a slightly wider, more feature rich boat and a more capable motor has been very popular. And the gas savings with the 4 strokes is more significant than I would have expected.
The road was pretty rough at opener but the local logging company actually got a grader on it for us last week. The operator was fantastic and did a great job and the road has been improved significantly. Of course it is still a remote old logging road and will always have some potholes etc. but it is leaps and bounds better than it was. Everyone who has come in since the work was done has been raving about how good it is!
Well I think that's all for now! Now that we are open and getting over these big storms and back to our usual operating routine I am hoping o get updates on here a little more frequently and to get my hunting journal from last fall finished for those who have been interested and following along.
Thanks,
Ryan
April 28th, 2024 – Moving Up to Camp!
Hi All,
Well, we took a truck load of stuff up to camp yesterday to double check road conditions before starting to move up. Today we have been packing and cleaning up around the house, and tomorrow we are off to camp for a few nights to get started opening up. Currently the road is a little wet in a couple places that we will inevitably rut up a little bit. They're pretty isolated though, so hopefully we can get them cleaned up and levelled back off once the water drains. Otherwise everything at camp looks to be in good shape. The water levels have come up a bit since we were in there last but are definitely still very low, and a west wind pushed the broken up ice into our bay pushing the docks up on shore. There doesn't appear to be much damage to them so hopefully the wind will get the ice out of our bay and I'll get the docks straightened back out soon.
As it turned out there was a bit of a mix up with the new 25 hp motors we bought this spring. The previous owner had told me they were short shaft motors which we require for our rental boats. After getting the motors home and giving them another look, they just seemed a little too long to me so I measured them and sure enough, they're long shafts. When I broke the news to the previous owner (another lodge owner upgrading their own fleet of rentals) he offered me a very good price point on three of their boats that don't have cut out transoms like mine do, and will work with the longer motors.
The boats are 16' Naden's, just like our current rentals. However, they are a little wider across the back, have a built in wooden flat floor, and split second row seating for easier moving around in the boat. We will post some pictures once we get the new boats and motors up to camp and together. Since these new boats are the only boats compatible with the 25 hp motors, we will be offering the 25 hp rental as an upgraded boat and motor package. Previous pricing would have been $160.00 for our standard boat rental, and $300.00 for the 25 hp motor totaling $460.00 for the week. Pricing for the upgraded rental boat and motor package for the week will be $500.00. For anyone who has already booked an upgraded motor rental for this season we will be honoring the original agreed upon price of $460.00, and you will get to enjoy the slightly upgraded boat this year on us!
We may be a little bit slower returning emails and calls over the next couple of weeks. We apologize for any inconveniences ahead of time, and please be patient as we will get back to you. Spring is just a crazy time for us and we will be on the road between town and camp a lot and will be very busy getting operations up and running. That being said we will have the Starlink system at camp with us so we should have the phone and email operational while we are up there.
I will be sure to update again soon once we get up to camp and get rolling a bit.
Ryan
Updated Vacancies – May 8, 2024
Current vacancies for the 2024 season:
August 31 - September 7 - Cabin 1
September 14 - 21 - Cabin 6
September 28 - October 5 - Cabins 1, 3, 5, & 7
Otherwise we are booked solid for 2024, but keep an eye on here and Facebook for any cancellations that might pop up.
As a reminder in September we drop our minimum occupancy requirements and the strict weekly rentals charging $50.00 per person, per night. Please call or email for specific availability.
April 14th, 2024 – Montana Hunting Journal Pt. 5, Days 11-13.
We woke up early on the morning of day 11 and left Great Falls for the trailhead that had been growing pretty familiar to us. The logging roads in were pretty icy so we stopped to quickly throw the tire chains on our rear tires and finished the drive in. We had all of our gear and enough food for three nights in our packs putting our pack weight at an estimated 70 lbs. each. To our surprise the heavier packs didn't slow us down too much and we were at our selected camping spot maybe 15 to 20 minutes later than we had been on our daily hikes in and out with the lighter packs. We arrived mid morning and spent about an hour or two getting camp set up and unloading all of the gear out of our packs that we wouldn't need with us while we were hunting. Satisfied with our set up we hiked up the last knoll to our glassing location and settled in for the afternoon to try to find some animals.
The afternoon didn't yield anything, however that all changed in the "golden hour" before dark. The first elk we saw was a lone cow that wandered into the same micro meadow that we had seen several animals in, near where Jake and I had set up on the herd just a couple days previous. She seemed to be by herself so we watched her feed for a little while before she bedded down, and we didn't see any more animals join her. I wandered about 100 yards from where we were sitting glassing to gain a different perspective of the country down below us, and within a few quick minutes of glassing turned up a very large herd of cows, calves and spikes abut 1200 vertical feet below us in a valley near a private land boundary. They were currently on the public land but we didn't have enough daylight to try to navigate down to them so we watched them until dark. Some were up and feeding but most of the elk were bedded and didn't seem like they were going too far, so we headed back to camp for the night planning on heading down to them in the morning if they were still there.
We were camping in a meadow in an old burn so firewood for our stove was plentiful but there wasn't too much water near our campsite. Fortunately there was enough patches of snow that we could collect and melt on the woodstove in the evenings to ensure we had enough water to rehydrate our freeze dried meals for dinner, and to get us through the next day. Once we were done our nightly firewood and water chores we settled in for the evening and had dinner. We hung our boots over a tripod with our small power bank powered boot dryers so they would be nice and dry for the morning and crawled into our sleeping bags for the night.
When we woke up in the morning we grabbed our food for the day and begun our wonderful 11 minute walk to our glassing knob, which was a lot better than the 2.5 hours of driving and hiking we had been doing each morning previously. Feeling very rested from getting a few extra hours of sleep than we had been getting, we settled in to start looking for the herd of elk from the night before. After about the first hour we weren't having much luck turning them up so we made boiled some water for coffee, tea, and breakfast on the mountainside. We enjoyed our morning sitting there glassing but hadn't turned up a single animal, so I decided I was going to go for a couple mile hike around to a different glassing point that would give me a better perspective on the valley below. Linds decided she was going to hang around camp to collect more firewood, read, and relax a little.
When I arrived at the new spot I settled in to start scanning the broken terrain below me to search for the elk. I wasn't able to turn them up at all and figured they must have migrated the rest of the way off of the mountain out onto the private land over night. I was however, able to watch Linds collecting firewood trough my spotting scope thanks to her blaze orange vest. I snapped a couple quick pictures of her working away while I was glassing and went back to panning around the hillsides and valley floor until dark.
I didn't see a single elk until it was almost too dark to see, and again that lone cow came out in the same micro meadow and bedded down. My new vantage was 2 miles from camp in the opposite direction from the meadow, so making a play to get in on her was out of the question. It was nice to know that she had a bit of a pattern so I packed up at dark and hiked back to camp thinking I would work my way to that meadow slowly and quietly in the morning and just sit it until dark in hopes to see her or some other animals.
Back at the tent that night while we were melting more snow and having dinner we used our InReach to check the weather forecast, and it looked like we were going to get quite the dumping of snow the next day. Although I was very intrigued by the possibility of getting that cow, the roads in already had a fair bit of snow on them and we worried about getting the truck off the mountain if we got the 12" or more of snow they were calling for. Hiking back out to the truck wouldn't be an issue in the snow, but we didn't want to risk getting buried or potentially sliding off the road on the way down the mountain. So, we made the tough call to play it safe, we would wake up in the morning and tear down camp and head out. We had a back up location planned about a 90 minute drive to the south, where we had seen some elk last year and figured we would go down and check that area out.
The next morning the clouds were rolling in and it looked like the snow was coming so we packed up and headed for the truck. We decided to head to White Sulphur Springs which is close to our new hunting area, so we could grab a room for the night. In the morning we were headed back into the field to set up camp in the AM and to get out hunting that afternoon. We had 6 days left of the season and were hopeful we would be able to make something happen!
April 5, 2024 – Spring is in the air and our season is quickly approaching!
Hi All,
Following our very strange and mild winter has been, well, a strange and mild spring! A little over a week ago we got hit with our biggest snowfall of the winter over three days, that totaled over a foot of snow with quite a bit more in the drifts as it was windy. Since then our temps have climbed right back up above freezing and have even been 45-50 degrees on the sunny days. In the last few days we have seen a very significant amount of snow melt and things are beginning to look quite a bit like spring. We still have snow pretty much everywhere and there is still plenty of ice to go ice fishing, but if conditions stay the same (which they are forecasted to) then it won't be too much longer and all of that will change. We haven't been up to check on the road into camp yet. It always takes a little longer up there for the snow to melt being a little farther north, and mostly shaded conditions on the road itself. We are hopeful that we will be able to get into camp early this year though and get a jump on opening up.
We were down in the Toronto area for 2 weeks visiting family in late march, and got home just in time for a big family Easter. Since getting home, we have been hard at work getting our annual newsletter and calendar ordered and in the mail. The last few years we have been sending out our mailout in the spring instead of earlier in the new year as it works a little better with our schedule (stuffing nearly 1000 envelopes takes a bit of time - haha) and this year we are even a little later than normal. Well, better late than never as they say and we are hopeful to get everything back from the printers next week and will have them in the mail shortly after. Thank you for the patience, and hopefully receiving the letters in the spring will get everyone excited for the season to soon come!
We have some pretty exciting changes ahead for this season! We talk about these changes in the newsletter as well, but since we are a little late with those I want to let the cat out of the bag so to speak, on here as well. For starters, we ordered a second Starlink system and some mesh nodes so we can get WIFI service directly in all of the cabins. This has always been something we have wanted to do, but historically haven't had reliable enough internet to make it work. Well, thanks to Elon, we finally have fast and reliable enough internet and should be able pass that along to all of the cabins.
Secondly, as of yesterday Press Lake Camp is the proud owner of three 4 stroke 25 hp Yamaha outboards equipped with electric start. They will be available for rent this summer on a first come first served basis as an upgrade from our standard 15's. Although they are slightly heavier than the 15's, they should push our rental boats quite a bit faster, will be quieter, and will be more fuel efficient not requiring mixed gas. We are asking $300.00 a week to upgrade to the bigger motors (up from $160.00 a week for a 15) and if you are interested in upgrading your rental please let us know asap as I expect these to rent out fairly quickly.
Lastly, we are planning on building at least one new dock this season to replace the worst dock in our cabin fleet, so we can then move the old dock into the campground. Some of the cabin docks are beginning to show their age and the campground has been void of anything resembling a decent dock for a few years, so that should be a welcome upgrade. We will likely do a new dock a season for a few years until all of the older docks at the cabins are replaced and we have a nice fleet of docks in the campground again. We do still have plans to upgrade the bathrooms on cabins 2 and 4 as well, but have been struggling with finding a contractor. We are also incredibly booked up which is an absolute blessing and we are very grateful for, but it makes scheduling renovations a little bit difficult.
Generally we up our price by $10.00 a year to account for inflation. It's a small increase that no one seems to mind, and it helps us keep up with the times and to invest in some improvements around camp. Well this year we are going to have to up our price by $20.00, still not a huge leap but we like to be transparent about our pricing structure. We are fortunate enough to now be out of all of our debt incurred during Covid, but unfortunately we are operating in an entirely new landscape with significantly increased overhead. Our business insurance has increased 2.5 times in the last 4 years, and as of this season, our wonderful government has imposed another Carbon Tax increasing the cost of fuel. You can expect slightly higher gas prices this summer (we mark up gas prices very little as they are already pretty high and we try not to gouge) but our cost for diesel to run the generators is also increasing. We have big plans to improve things around camp in the years to come and of course the cost of materials and labour have also increased significantly. We are also looking at eventually hiring another staff member as well and will have to cover another salary, so we may have to continue $20.00 a year increases for another season or two, but it won't be forever. As always we really appreciate everyone's business!
Well I think that is all for now, I will try to update more once we get a look at the road and can get into camp!
Ryan