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BOOKED!!! LAST MINUTE VACANCY – May 27th to June 3, 2023

AS OF 9PM MAY 19TH THIS VACANCY IS BOOKED!

 

Hey folks!!

 

We just received a cancelation for May 27th - June 3rd of this year. Yep, that's right, I have room for you NEXT SATURDAY!! To sweeten this opportunity a little more, we are offering this vacancy at a 30% discount, and we are waiving all minimums! This means if you are able to make this availability, it will only cost $250 per person for the week. The cabin available is cabin 7, which is a 3 bedroom each with a double and twin bed.

 

This discount is being offered on this booking, this year only. Full pricing, and minimums on this cabin will resume 2024

Give us a call at 807-934-6911 asap to snag this spot!

May 5th, 2023 – Waiting For The Snow To Melt

Hi All,

Well, we are home from our last trip of the winter. This off season has been A LOT of fun, but it has been pretty busy and we are looking forward to being home now and getting back into a routine. And above all else, we are looking forward to getting back into camp and getting back to work. Between our trip to Cuba and Texas (end of March through early April) we got 3 heavy snow falls, all 8-12" each. I believe that ended up being 50% or more of the accumulated snowfall for the winter, all piled into the end when we are hoping to see it start to melt. Fortunately while we were in Texas through the end of April, a lot of the snow here at home melted. But, of course that was followed by one last winter storm garnishing our lawns with close to another foot of snow, and closing the highways and delaying our arrival home from Texas by a day.

Since getting home about a week ago, the weather has warmed up quite a bit and all of that last snow storm has finally melted off. Here in town there is still quite a bit of snow in the bush and of course there are still piles around town from plowing. The smallest ponds are all open now and the bigger ponds and smaller lakes are beginning to look pretty sad, and the ice is pulling away from the shore. We haven't been up north towards camp yet, but I have been in touch with Roger who has been in and out of Wintering Getaway, and he has informed us there is still quite a bit of snow on the road in places, and the lakes still have a fair amount of ice. He was hopeful we might be able to get all of the way into camp on Saturday, so tomorrow morning we are going to pack up some tools and see if we can get into camp. The forecast looks nice and warm over the next couple of weeks so I think we should see the ice and whatever snow is left melting off quickly. We are as excited and anxious as always to make that first drive into camp!

Texas was a busy trip but we did a lot of fun things! For a quick backstory, one of my best friends and fellow PLC guest Jake and his now wife Elizabeth, got married about an hour South of Austin in Canyon Lake. Since we would be going all the way to Texas for the wedding, we figured we should make a trip out of it and go down for a couple of weeks. We decided to drive down after checking the prices of flights, and needing a rental vehicle etc. and were very glad we did. It was a bout a 26 hour drive but we split it into two longer days and a very short and final third day taking us into Austin for the start of our trip.

We arrived in Austin and started our vacation with a highly anticipated dinner at Dai Due, a local restaurant owned by chef and butcher Jesse Griffiths. Jesse is involved with the Meateater crew, and creates a lot of wild game butchering, cooking, and food preservation content for his own social media presence as well as Meateater's. I have enjoyed learning from his online content for a while now and it was amazing getting to finally eat at his restaurant. Pictured below is a wonderful charcuterie board we shared, and although the pictures didn't turn out the best so I didn't post them; I had delicious dry aged Nilgai steak (Nilgai are the world's largest antelope species and are known for their incredible table fair, which I've definitely wanted to try), and Linds enjoyed some wild boar confit.

The next day we relocated to a very interesting urban campground Lindsay found online that is actually right in the city of Austin. The campground was a gypsy village, but in the best way possible. The property was lined with old trailers and renovated jet stream campers, and the owner has chickens, goats, and donkeys. We also had 8 whitetail run right beside our tent one morning. Anyway, we set up our tent at the campground, and spent the next three nights through Easter weekend there. We even cooked up a nice Easter steak dinner on our Coleman cook stove!

During our time in Austin we checked out a bunch of local bars and restaurants, and we had an amazing lunch of Texas BBQ from famous Terry Black's BBQ. We spent some time checking out a couple of the city parks, and we met up with Jake and Elizabeth for a day of shopping and being tourists. We stopped by the Yeti flagship store and enjoyed a drink at the attached bar.

We left Austin and met back up with Jake and Elizabeth at 4 Amigos Ranch near Eagle Pass, which is a border town along the Mexico border. The 4 of us were booked for a 3 day, 2 night wild hog hunt. Lindsay and I had invited Jake and Elizabeth along with us on the hunt as our wedding present to them, and since we were there, Jake and Elizabeth decided they wanted to pay for each couple to shoot a ram on the ranch as well. We had an absolute blast hunting together and 4 Amigos Ranch was an incredible place to stay and their staff took very good care of us. The hunt starts with your arrival at 2 PM, there is an orientation and everyone verifies their rifle on the range. Then you are dropped on stand around 5 for the first hunt, where you are picked up for dinner a little after dark, around 8:30. After dinner you can go back out for a night time spotlight hunt from about 10-12:30. The next morning starts early as the ride to the stand is at 6:30 and you hunt until about 10. Pigs don't move much during the heat of the day so the afternoons are slow and you can hang around the lodge. Since we were hunting rams as well, our guide Lee took us out during the day to spot and stalk them. Then it was back in for a late lunch, rinse and repeat the two evening hunts as the previous day, and one last morning hunt the last day before packing up and heading out.

While sitting on stand we got to see a ton of the exotic animals that ranches like 4 Amigos have on their property, and really enjoyed watching them all feed and interact. We saw nilgai, oryx, axis deer, buffalo, water buffalo, audad, blackbuck, red deer, white tail, a whole variety of various goats and rams, and of course, wild pigs. The pigs are mostly nocturnal but you will see some just before sunset and shortly after sunrise. Nobody shot any pigs on our initial evening hunt, but during our first night time sit, Jake and Lindsay both filled out their 2 pigs each. In addition to the 4 of us, there were 8 other hunters at the ranch as well, and there were quite a few hogs taken on that first night hunt. The next morning we didn't shoot anything but enjoyed watching the variety of animals coming and going. During that afternoon, Lee took us out to hunt for the rams. Elizabeth shot her rambouillet ram first, and we were able to creep into 50 or so yards of it sleeping in its bed. Next Lindsay was up and she shot her corsican ram about an hour later. We were able to locate it and 5 others in a group and she shot it as they were clearing an opening between some brush. That evening hunt I shot my 2 hogs and lucked into a massive one at 205 lbs. During our hunt there were 24 hogs taken by the 12 hunters in camp and the average size was about 70 lbs, with about 5-6 breaking 100 lbs. I lucked into the biggest of that particular trip, but the biggest hog they have taken on the ranch was over 300!

We were all done hunting except for Elizabeth being short one pig. We were confident we could get the last pig at day break the last morning, so we decided to take the second night hunt off and celebrated (maybe a little too hard) the great hunting we had that day. We had a great time sharing stories with the other hunters in camp and Lee, who was a lot of fun to hunt with and took excellent care of us while we were there. We got that last hog the next morning and loaded up some very heavy coolers of meat. This was the first guided hunt I've been on and 4 Amigos Ranch did a great job taking care of us, I definitely can't say enough good things. And to top it all off, the food was absolutely incredible!

 

After the hunt was done it was off to Canyon Lake to start getting ready for the wedding. It just so happened that while we would be there, Willie Nelson was playing a show on his 90th birthday tour, and opening for him were ZZ Top. So two nights before the wedding, a number of us from the wedding went to the concert. It was a blast! Willie definitely still sounds great despite his age, and his son who tours with him sounds almost indistinguishable. ZZ Top still put on a great show as well, and Billy Gibbons can still get after it on the guitar!

The last few days of the trip we spent with Jake and Elizabeth and their families at the ranch where their wedding would be. It was a wonderful time meeting lots of people and and engaging in the usual pre wedding activities. You know like, beer, cornhole tournaments, beer, campfires, and of course, beer - haha. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and we all had way too much fun at the reception afterwards!

Now we are back home and are chomping at the bit to get in to camp. I took mom to Dryden two days ago for a check up on her arm. The surgeon says everything looks great and is healing well! She is officially out of a cast and in a brace for 8 more weeks, when she will have her final check up and should be totally good to go. She is feeling great and isn't in too much pain, and of course is very happy to not be in a cast any more. Naturally, we are going to be busy for the next few weeks, so I don't know when the next post will be, but I will definitely get a fishing report up some time after opening weekend.

 

Ryan

March 29, 2023 – Home for a Short While Between Trips!

Hi All,

Well we are back from Cuba, and we had an absolute blast! The weather was gorgeous, as were both the ocean and the beaches around Varadero. We didn't have a whole lot planned for this trip, except spending some time with my Mom's brother and his wife, and enjoying some down time on the beach and next to the pool. Well it's safe to say we accomplished just that! We arrived a couple of days before Brian and Marj, so we had some time to settle and to get familiar with the resort. Once they joined us we enjoyed our time visiting and having some nice dinners at the a la carte restaurants around the resort.

After Brian and Marj returned home we spent our last 5 or so days doing more of the same. We did go into Varadero one afternoon for a day trip to do some shopping and to eat at a local restaurant. We had a wonderful cab ride there in a convertible Bel Aire from the 1950's. Unfortunately we weren't really thinking and didn't get any pictures of the car. We did get to see the famous Beatles Bar, which is dedicated to the band. My mom was HUGE fan of The Beatles in her youth so she enjoyed seeing all of the memorabilia. We also had an amazing lobster lunch right across the street from the bar, at a wonderful little restaurant.

Unfortunately on our last day there Mom tripped on a small set of stairs and broke her arm right above her wrist when she fell. The resort had great medical staff but were limited in supplies and facilities so they got us a taxi to the International Clinic in Varadero 15 minutes away. There they were able to do X-rays and confirm her arm was broken, but they didn't have anyone in who could reset the bones. They gave mom some painkillers and sent us off by ambulance another 45 minutes away to Matanzas. The hospital in Matanzas was pretty large at 4 stories and was very well equipped compared to the smaller clinics we had been in. There we met with an orthopedic doctor who would be able to reset mom's arm, but wanted to wait at least another 2 hours before using any sedation, as we were within 6 hours of mom eating and drinking water and they were worried about nausea as the sedation was wearing off. Well, it was already 8 pm, and our transfer to the airport for our flight home was at 7 the next morning, so we were beginning to get worried about time. We decided to have them put mom's arm in a half cast to immobilize and brace it for travel, and we would head right to the hospital in Thunder Bay the next day when we landed around 3 pm. So, they did jus that and we were on our way back to the resort, arriving back around 11 pm. We got mom home safe and sound the next day and got her arm reset and casted.

I brought mom back to Thunder Bay last Wednesday for a follow up appointment Thursday morning, and it was determined that the bones must have moved again inside her cast, and surgery was recommended to make sure everything healed correctly. Fortunately they were able to get us in for a quick surgery Friday, and mom and I came home Saturday. She is at home and settled back in now and the recovery process can finally begin. Despite how crazy it was for a little bit, everything went really well, and mom is doing well all things considered. It has taken some time but she is even getting used to having her dominant arm in a cast - haha.

The weather is starting to feel like spring up here. It's still dipping fairly cold at night to about 10 degrees F, but the days are getting longer, are sunny , and are getting up above freezing. We are off to Texas for a couple of weeks for a friends wedding and a wild hog hunt on April 6, but I'm hopeful that when we return near the end of April that we will have very little snow. Once we get home from this last trip it will be about time to try to get into camp and start getting ready for this season. We are really looking forward to getting back out there and getting to work.

I'll be sure to post again when we get home from our Texas trip, hopefully with a few more pictures than we took in Cuba!

 

Ryan

February 22, 2023 – Apologies for the Absence, It’s Been a Busy Winter!

Hi All,

I apologize for not having posted anything for a while, and for not getting the journal from our Montana hunt done yet. As things tend to always go, it has become a pretty busy winter. Shortly after getting through the holidays, my good friend Jake from Wisconsin came up to visit us for a weekend of ice fishing and visiting. We had a great time and a very successful weekend of fishing walleye and lake trout. We had a nice walleye dinner one night and were able to send Jake home with his limit as well. Linds also caught this beautiful laker that was around 10 lbs:

Two weeks later I was off to Thunder Bay for an annual 5 day fishing trip with friends, but not before Lindsay and I spent 2.5 days making over 100 pounds of sausage with deer and moose from this fall. We made burger patties, jalapeno and cheddar brats, andouille, chorizo, breakfast sausage, summer sausage, and kielbasa. It was a busy couple of days but we really enjoyed it and have been enjoying the spoils of the hard work, especially on the ice.

The day before leaving for my trip to Thunder Bay, I got a message from Jake informing me that he had told his brother in law Adam about the fishing we had while Jake was up here on his trip, and that Adam was now on his way North to do some DIY ice fishing of his own. Now it may sound a little sudden and crazy that Adam would pack up on such short notice and come all the way up here from Wisconsin, to try his hand ice fishing where he has never fished before, all while living out of his truck. However, Adam films and hosts his own Youtube show and social media platform called Free2Prowl, where he films and posts all of his experiences. He has a retrofitted F-150 that he travels and lives in while on the road chasing various wildlife, and hunting and fishing adventures.

Unfortunately I was off to Thunder Bay the next day for a trip that had been planned for months, so I wouldn't be able to fish with Adam and show him around. However, I was able to meet Adam in Thunder Bay on his way through. We chatted for about an hour and I gave him some tips and waypoints and he was off to Ignace to start fishing. We kept in touch basically daily while I was fishing on my trip, and he was exploring the area around home.

We had a great trip in Thunder Bay and explored a few new lakes. It is a relatively new area for us to be fishing, and there are a lot of lakes that we can access, so we have been exploring and learning more and more each year. This year we fished 4 different lakes and caught fish in all of them varying from walleye, lake trout, brook trout, and splake.

I got home with two days to spare before we were on our way down to Wisconsin to visit Jake and his fiancée Elizabeth, for Elizabeth's bridal shower. Adam would be on his way back to Wisconsin to continue his fishing trip the day after us, but in the meantime we were both in Ignace, so I was able to take him out to a lake he hadn't been to yet. We had a blast fishing together and had a good day, catching 10 lake trout varying from around 1-3 pounds. The next day Lindsay and I were on our way down to Wisconsin, and were there through this past weekend, returning home Monday night. If you want to see more of Adam's trip up here or to follow him along check out his socials on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Tik Tok at Free2Prowl.

Now we have a week of downtime to get caught up around the house and then we are off to Cuba with Mom for two weeks. We will be joined by her brother Brian and his wife Marj for one of the weeks and are really looking forward to spending some time with them. Currently we don't have too much planned for the trip and are really looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. So far this winter has been warmer than usual, but when temps have dropped it has been very cold, so we will enjoy a break from it.

We have ordered our calendars and news letters and they should be printed soon. I suspect we won't be able to get them out until mid March after we are home from Cuba, but you can expect to start seeing their arrival then. I'll be sure to get another post up once we get back from Cuba to give another update as we get closer to spring.

Take care,

Ryan

January 11, 2023 – An Unseasonable Warm Winter!

Hi All,

Well despite some colder temperatures and a fair amount of snow through the end of November and December, January has been incredibly warm. We haven't got any fresh snow in a while and temps are swinging between 10 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit. There seems to be enough good ice to travel by snowmachine and to ice fish, but it is definitely not nearly as thick as it should be. Some lakes still only have around 8" of ice and in a typical year we would see over 12" by now. We're lucky we got a bit of cold at the beginning of winter to build the ice or we wouldn't hardly be doing any fishing at all yet. And since we have enough ice to go fishing the warm temperatures aren't all that bad, it certainly beats -40!

So far Lindsay and I have only been ice fishing twice. Both times to a small stocked lake close to town where we can chase splake. They are just little guys but are great pan friers and are a blast to watch come in and hammer your spoon in crystal clear water. This weekend we are planning to get out a little more and will be spending two nights camping out on the ice in our portable shack fishing for lake trout and walleye. We are both really looking forward to our first couple nights out there in 2023!

Mom is doing really well and has been enjoying the warmer winter so far. She is busy as usual volunteering and helping out all over town and having weekly lunches with friends. We are currently in the midst of planning a 2 week trip to Cuba with her over the first two weeks of March and we are all very excited!

We had a very busy, but very fun and exciting fall. As I detailed in a previous post, we didn't have much down time between coming home from camp and going deer hunting, and then returning home for 3 days before heading out to Montana for what ended up being 3 weeks. We were headed to Montana with 2 elk tags and 2 deer tags, so we weren't overly worried about taking a deer during our first trip down to the cabin. We were joined by some friends from Thunder Bay who were looking to take a deer home for some meat, and Matt did just that shooting a nice doe opening weekend. They left on Monday morning and Lindsay and I stayed the rest of the week relaxing and hunting. Despite seeing a lot of deer we didn't see anything that we wanted to shoot, as we weren't planning on taking anything unless it was a really nice buck.

After a very busy 3 days at home, we were headed for Montana. We had an absolutely wonderful trip and spent 17 days hiking and hunting both the mountains and their surrounding prairies. We got hammered with early season cold and snow the first week there and were pushed out of the mountains by about a foot of snow after only 4 nights. At 3:30 in the morning we had a couple of inches, by 6:30 when we decided we should start packing we had about 8-10" and a couple hours later as we were leaving there was a foot or more. Well right before we started packing up camp as were enjoying a quick cup of coffee and getting dressed, it was quite clear to me that there is none I would rather be getting snowed into the mountains with then Lindsay, so I asked her to marry me! After she said yes, and we were done embracing and enjoying the moment, we immediately got to work tearing things down so we could get on the road out of there.

We relocated to a nearby motel for a while until the storm stopped and we could come up with a new plan of where to set up camp. We ended up spending 6 nights at the motel as another few smaller storms and crazy cold temperatures (down to -15 F in November) kept us there longer than planned. We hunted from the motel each morning and I was able to shoot my first mule deer during that leg of the trip filling the 1st of our 4 tags.

 

After the weather stabilized, we decided to head about 50 miles south to change units and to try to get to more accessible roads as we had seen about 30" of snowfall up in the mountains and probably 18-24" down on the flat prairie where the wind was blowing drifts 5' tall in some extreme cases. We set up our tent in the mountains again and decided to try to focus on elk for the last half of the trip, hoping to fill Lindsay's deer tag if we stumbled into a deer along the way. On our first morning of hunting we glassed up a herd of elk and spent all day watching them bedded in a small patch of timber, waiting for them to come out into the open and to feed down their side of the canyon into rifle range. We had lots of time so we decided if they didn't come into range on their own we weren't going to try to force anything for fear of being seen and bumping them out of there - we could always come back first thing in the morning and try again. Well, after watching them work in and out of the patch of timber all day, occasionally almost coming inside our 500 yard limit, they spooked. With 90 minutes of daylight left, and as they were feeding directly down into the area we wanted them too, either us or the pack of coyotes that started howling spooked our 20 or so elk and we watched them leave our lives at a full run, never firing a shot. We were able to relocate the elk that night right before dark, but unfortunately they must have moved over night and were no longer there the next day.

 

We decided to give that area some time to recover without any pressure so with 3 days left of the season we headed to a new area that we thought could have elk and should certainly have deer. After watching a lot of nice bucks move onto a privately owned ranch from the publicly accessible area we were hunting, we decided to go ask permission to hunt the private land thinking we could quickly fill Lindsay's deer tag and then spend the last 2 days trying to relocate the herd of elk. The folks who owned the ranch were incredibly nice and welcoming and after a brief introduction they told us we were more than welcome to chase the deer on their land. Well, like a lot of the trip things didn't exactly go to plan. Despite there being deer everywhere, due to some really unfortunate equipment failures it took us 5 stalks on 5 different white tails over the last 3 days of the season to fill Lindsay's deer tag. But after a lot of frustration, and a lot of crawling through frozen and very flat cow pastures, Lindsay shot a great 8 pointer to fill her tag and wrap up our trip.

For those who are interested I'll be writing a sort of day by day journal of our hunt and will share it on the blog in the next week or two with some more pictures and to elaborate on the hunt and all of the challenges we had.

After returning home, I went for one last trip to our deer cabin with a friend looking for a deer for his freezer, and one more for ours before the season closed on December 15th. Over that weekend Johann was able to take a nice young buck and I shot a yearling doe, before closing down our cabin and the 2022 hunting season just in time for the holidays. While we were gone to Montana, my moose hunting group was able to fill our cow tag at home, and Lindsay's group with her dad and grandpa filled theirs the opening week of the season in October. So all in all we had a great 2022 hunting season, made a lot of memories and had a lot of fun, and have full freezers for the year.

Take care and keep an eye out for the next post detailing our Montana hunt!

 

Ryan

January 3, 2023 – Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

We just wanted to take a quick moment to wish everyone a happy holidays! We have been very busy since closing down camp hunting through November and early December, and then enjoying the holiday season. We have had a great winter so far, and with ice fishing season really taking off we are looking forward to what's to come.

Things are starting to slow down now that the holidays are over and we are getting back to normal so I will be back this week with a weather and ice fishing up date and a post or two to share all of the fun we had hunting this fall.

We hope everyone has had a fantastic holiday season with friends and family, take care!

 

Ryan

November 6, 2022 – A Quick Stop at Home

Hi All!

I didn't have time to write anything before heading to deer camp, but Press is shut down and we are home, although only briefly. We got home from camp on Tuesday, October 25, and were on our way deer hunting by Thursday. We spent 9 days at deer camp coming home yesterday evening, and will be on the road for Montana around 3 AM Wednesday morning.

We had a great fall at camp! The fishing stayed very steady right through the final week of the season, and with the exception of a few days that last week, the weather was really nice and unseasonably warm. We had a slower moose hunt than normal and went 0/2 during archery season and 2/4 during rifle season. Both of our archery groups had cow tags and despite many days in the field and a lot of moose seen (one group saw 10 animals, only 1 cow) neither were able to get in close enough for a shot. Cow hunting with a bow can be a real challenge as our terrain is not overly friendly to spot and stock hunting, and cows don't generally come to calls. Both groups had a great time and saw 10+ moose each, with multiple opportunities on bulls, sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Rifle season started rough as the first few days of the week were very cold and windy with a mixture of rain and snow. Not a lot of animals were seen the first few days but by the end of the week two groups had filled their tags; one with a bull and the other with a cow and calf. My personal group of friends are yet to fill our tag as we ran into the same issues as our archery hunters, we have a cow tag and could only find bulls! Finally our fourth and last group had fewer hunters than normal and ended up going home mid week, I believe a little defeated after multiple days of very poor weather. After Wednesday the weather broke and the rest of the week turned out to be beautiful and temps shot up from low 20's to 70 three days later.

Unfortunately, that beautiful warm weather followed us deer hunting for the week. Lindsay and I didn't have intentions of shooting a deer unless we stumbled into a really nice buck as we still have our Montana trip coming up. If successful, we won't need any extra meat. We are also fortunate that deer season is open for two weeks after we get home, so if we don't end up doing well out west we have plenty of opportunity to get a deer or two for the winter. We are very lucky to be in such a favorable position because it sure was a tough week of deer hunting! We didn't see temperatures below freezing until two days ago, and had a couple of days that hit nearly 70 in the afternoon. As you can imagine there weren't a lot of deer moving and very few of them were bucks. That being said a friend of ours was able to connect on a nice doe opening weekend with limited time, and we did watch quite a few other does, and passed one small 8 point we would like to give another year or two. Slow hunting aside, it was a great week with friends and a highly anticipated break after a busy season.

Well that's a quick update in the meantime. When we get back from Montana I will be sure to have a few updates about our hunt, and once all of the dust settles we have more pictures to post from the end of the season. Some final fish pictures and some various hunting photos as well.

Take care and for those who are out, happy hunting!

 

Ryan

October 1, 2022 – Sorry For The Absence

Hi All,

I'm sorry for the big lag between posts, as usual the fall got away from me. Camp has been busy all fall and as fishing season is quickly fading into hunting season, the leaves are changing colours and the fish are still hammering. Mom has been doing very well and her hip is healing up great! The doctor gave her the all clear to return to camp at her 6 week check up, so she has been out helping us on the weekends again for the last 5 weeks or so. I am taking her to Dryden this week for the 12 week check up, and I believe if everything still looks good we are all said and done with the doctors. A big thank you to everyone who has been reaching out to check in on Mom, she has really appreciated hearing from everyone!

The weather was really nice through August and the first half of September. In fact, we had a couple days in September that were downright hot. Through the second half of September and now into October, we have had a few colder spells that have lasted 2-3 days, but between them have been nice breaks of warm sunny weather. The colder day have temperature swings from about 38-55 degrees, generally feeling a little cooler with the wind, and the warmer days range from 40 - almost 70 degrees. So far we have only had 1 frost, but we are forecasted a couple of cold nights dipping a bit below freezing towards the end of this week.

By the beginning of August the water levels were pretty much caught up to normal. Probably still fairing a little higher than average, but very close to what we would expect that time of year, and nothing quite like this spring. The lake continued to slowly drop through most of September, and about a week ago I noticed that it is beginning to come back up as the temperatures are cooler, and we have gotten a bit of rain. I would say currently we are still in that same area of very close to average, maybe a touch high, and the lake is behaving normally as the water levels tend to slowly climb through October. I haven't noticed that the lake has turned over yet, but with the impending cold temperatures, I wouldn't be surprised if that happens soon.

The fishing has been phenomenal all summer long, and that hasn't stopped through the fall. I think almost every week for the first 4 months of the season someone told me it was the best fishing they have either ever had on Press, or ever in their life. We didn't have any real monster walleye caught this year, but I did hear about quite a few in that 26-27" range. The average size however, has really increased, and there are A LOT more walleye being caught in the 18-21" range than we were seeing pre-covid. The current bite is pretty standard for this time of year. The walleye are concentrated on the humps, mainly out on the big lake and are being caught as deep as 30', and as shallow as 12-15' on top of the reefs. We tend to see a lot of really nice fish caught this time of year in the deeper waters surrounding the reefs, and that has been the case so far this year as well.

The bass seemed very active this year, and also have increased in average size a bit. The sprig bite ran later than normal as the bass were still on nests a lot later into the year with the late spring and high water. Now they have moved up onto the reefs and are absolutely hammering off of 7 Pine Island. The pike have been pretty typical this year with lots of walleye being T-boned on their way to the boat, and almost weekly reports of a 40"+ fish being caught.

Hunting seasons are beginning to open up and we have been doing some duck and grouse hunting. The ducks haven't been overly cooperative so we have had a few tough hunts, but have managed to come home with a handful of birds and have had a couple of nice meals. Certainly can't complain about that. Our road sees a lot of traffic from grouse hunters at the beginning of the season, but now that we are into the 3rd week and there are a lot less hunters around, the birds are starting to come out a lot more and we have been able to pick a few of those up to replenish the freezer for the winter!

We are into the second week of the three week archery moose season, and we currently have two hunting groups in camp with a third arriving later this week. So far no tags have been filled, but both groups have seen moose. Just the usual story of lots of bull sightings and everyone has cow tags, or difficulties getting within bow range. I believe the rut is really kicking off right now though as there has been lots of moose sign and activity everywhere, so I suspect the groups will have a lot more action before the week is out. Rifle season opens on October 15th, and we have three cow tags and one bull tag in camp for that week.

That October 15th week is our last week open, so as of writing this we only have three more weeks left of the season. It's crazy how fast the summer goes by. Lindsay and I have a pretty busy fall planned so we are starting to get very excited. I will be moose hunting with a group of friends for opening week of moose, and Lindsay will be spending the beginning of the week hunting with her dad and grandpa. Once we close up camp on the 22nd, we have about 5 days to get home and then head down to our deer cabin in Barwick to prepare for the opener of deer season on the 29th. We will spend a week down there, likely coming home on November 5th, and then we are off to Montana for a couple of weeks on November 9th to try to fill two elk tags and two mule deer tags. We are doing a DIY hunt and will be spending a couple of weeks in a tent in the mountains. We have spent a lot of the summer getting in shape and ready for this trip and are getting very excited as it approaches. November is a lot of fun for us so I don't like to squander it sitting on the couch when there are open hunting season to be had!

Well I think that's all for now, I have received quite a few pictures from folks so thank you very much! I will try to put together a post here in the near future with a lot of them from the last few months.

 

Ryan

July 27, 2022 – The Fish are Moving Onto the Reefs!

Hi All,

Now before I get into all the good stuff like the fishing report and pictures, I have a few housekeeping announcements that we need to make. The first is about Mom having a bit of a fall. Next is regarding our landline situation, and then I will follow that with two new rule changes to the fish and game act for this year and going forward.

On July 8, Mom tripped and fell outside the grocery store, and unfortunately broke her hip. Fortunately for her and us it was my ex Hali who was essentially the first one to find her, and was a huge help in getting her up and taken care of. Mom (reluctantly) went by ambulance to Dryden where they determined she had a break and would need surgery, so she was flown to Thunder Bay. There she had a partial hip replacement and was flown back to Dryden a couple of days later. She was released from Dryden on the 16th and was brought back home by Lindsay's parents where they got her in and settled on their way out to visit us at camp for the week. Since then, Mom has had some pain from the break but nothing she can't handle, and is recovering well. It will be 3-4 months before she is able to resume all normal function but knowing her she will be getting herself into trouble before then. We would like to say a big thank you to Don, Mary, and Jake (Lindsay's parents and grandpa) and to Hali for all helping out and getting Mom taken care of.

About a week ago we received a phone call from our phone provider Bell Canada, that they would officially be decommissioning our very archaic radio phone system. Truthfully we have been expecting this to happen for some time and aren't really surprised. Now that we have our very reliable Starlink internet, we have found Wi-Fi calling through a cell phone to be a very good substitute to having a landline. So, our response has been to have our current business number (807 934 6911) ported over to a cell phone that we will be able to use both at camp in the summer and in town during the winter. What does this mean for you guys? Truthfully, not a whole lot with the exception of us no longer having a different winter and summer number, and that you will now be able to text us at the above number if you would like. I think this is actually going to be a convenient change for everyone, not to mention cheaper for us!

Next are a couple of rule changes. Both are in response to the rising aquatic invasive species problem in North America and that is unfortunately spreading through Ontario. The bulk of the spread in Ontario has been limited to more populated areas that are also adjacent to the Great Lakes, say around Toronto. However, the spread of those invasive species is increasing and the government is trying their best to keep them out of our pristine waterways up here in the north.

The first rule change is very simple, and for those of you who travel through Minnesota you will be familiar with it. You must now remove the plug from your boat hull and livewells when travelling across land with your boat. The plug will need to be left out of the boat until you are ready to launch at your next location, with the only exception being that you are allowed to keep water on board in one vessel (livewell, bait bucket, etc.) to keep live baitfish alive.

The second change is a little more complicated. In an attempt to monitor and police the movement of baitfish across the province (for example: bringing bait from the invaded lakes in the southern portion of the province north up here) the province has been divided into various baitfish zones. Baitfish can be moved between these zones if you are headed from our clean northern water south, but it is now illegal to transport the bait from the south to the north. To police this it is now mandatory that if your primary address isn't within the borders of the baitfish zone that you are fishing, then you must keep the receipt from purchasing bait on your person at all times and be able to produce it for an officer if you are checked on or off the water. For folks crossing in Pigeon River who stop to get bait along the way, both Thunder Bay and Kakabeka Falls are within our baitfish zone and it is legal to bring that bait with you as long as you keep and bring a receipt. Same goes for anyone crossing in International falls, you are still within our zone and bringing bait acquired along the drive is still legal. For our own purposes, we are now required to give every group a baitfish card that you will have to bring with you when you come to get bait, and that we will tally your bait on. This will act as your receipt. We have spoke to officers from the MNR and this is their recommendation to keep things as easy as possible for both guests and outfitters alike, and so we don't have to provide a new receipt with every bait purchase. You will only need one card per group if the group is expecting to fish relatively closely together. If you are completely splitting up it might be best to get one card per boat. You will have to remember to keep the card on you while you are on the lake.

Lastly, and this has been the law for a while but it does not hurt to have refresher:

It is illegal to (or attempt to) deposit or release into, or within 30 metres of, any waters:

• live or dead bait or baitfish, including fish eggs, gametes or fish parts
• the water, soil or other materials used to hold any of these items

Essentially, don't dump your bait buckets or worm bedding (even devoid of worms) within 100' of any lake's edge.

Okay, now onto the more interesting stuff! Until this week the weather has been great. We have had a few hot days or short periods of intense heat, but it never seemed to last too long. Whenever we got any rain it was mostly during the night or it wouldn't last very long during the day, and the average temps were 70-85. That was until this week however, where we started off the week dipping down into the 50's! Now the days have warmed up and when the sun is out it is actually quite hot, but it has rained almost every day this week. Hopefully it breaks tomorrow and folks will have a nice day and a half to round out their week. The mosquitos are still bad but have definitely improved since a few weeks ago. We are really hoping all of this new water doesn't spark another hatch.

The fishing has been really, really good! I have been hearing weekly from groups old and new alike that this is some of the best fishing they have ever seen either on Press, or in a lot of cases in their life. The walleye were slow getting to the humps, likely from a late and aggressive may fly hatch a couple of weeks ago. Since then, they have been moving onto the various humps and are being caught out around Red Rock and on the reefs on the big water too. 7 Pine Island and Gull Rock have been producing well, as I'm sure are most of the other reefs out there.

We have been receiving a lot of fish pictures lately, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who has been taking the time to send them in! Below are some pics from the Oswald crew:

 

Here are some from the Stauffer group:

 

 

From the Western group:

 

 

And lastly a picture from Garret Pratt from 2021:

 

 

Well I think that is all for now!

 

Ryan

 

 

June 24, 2022 – We Have the Fish House Back!

Hi All,

Well, as the title suggests the water level has been dropping quite a bit and as of this week we are back in the fish cleaning house. The water is still very high for this time of year but it is getting a lot closer to normal and it is nice to have our building back. Currently docks 1-3 have power restored and I will be working on the rest this weekend through early next week. Unfortunately most of the receptacles ended up under water so I am assessing and repairing any damage. It is advisable to bring an extra extension cord if you are coming over the next week or two, just in case it needs to be run from the cabin or across from docks 1-3.

The weather has been a little all over the place the last couple of weeks, but for the most part has been very good, although hot. Temps are still dipping into the 60's at night usually, cooling the cabins down a bit for sleeping. Day temps however, have been reaching 80-90 degrees, with one day this week peaking at over 100. We could do with a little cooler temps during the day but we have been having the odd day of overcast giving a bit of a break from the sun. There has been enough rain to keep the bush wet but not enough to be a nuisance, and we have had a fair amount of wind with a couple of fast but intense storms. Fortunately for us, we weren't hit at camp nearly as hard the surrounding area. The couple of rain storms we have had paired with the high water this spring has unfortunately been the perfect storm for mosquitos. I definitely recommend bringing lots of bug spray and a Thermacell as they have gotten absolutely awful over the last two weeks.

And now for the part you have all been waiting for, the fishing report! So far we have been hearing nothing but great things about the fishing, I have even heard from several groups that this year is the best fishing they have ever had! We are seeing really good numbers of fish, and since Covid we have seen a big increase in the average size of the fish being caught. It seems the walleye are averaging 16-17", with lots being caught over 20". Despite the high water the walleye are being found in their usual spots. They have mostly moved out of the smaller rivers like Wintering Creek, but are still very active in the current of the bigger rivers in areas like the Rock Gardens and down by the old bridge. Wind blown shores and points are also producing well. I haven't heard much about folks fishing on the reefs and haven't gotten out lately to try myself, but I think it shouldn't be too long before they are being caught on those as well. We have had a few groups go into Hut and have all done well and have reported that it is nice and easy getting up there with the current water levels. Here are the fish pics we have received so far this season:

A big thanks to Jesse Virlee and Mike Houser for sending us these pics. If you get any good fish pics while you are up please do not hesitate to pass them along so we can share them.

We have had some confusion about vacation dates this year. Last year our season opened on the earliest possible day, May 15. This means that our opener this year jumped way back to the latest possible day, the 21st of May. Going forward the opener will be one day earlier per year until it hits the 15th, and then it will jump back later again. This is explained by 365 days a year not being evenly divisible by 7 days a week, so dates will shift a little each year. We have had a few groups not realize this, thinking their dates are a week earlier than they actually are, as their correct dates are around a week later then normal. If you have any questions or uncertainties about your dates please reach out to us to confirm them so you don't plan to come the wrong week.

Lastly, we have been receiving lots of questions about our address for filling out the ArriveCAN app as guests prepare to cross the border. Please use the following address when filling out the information:

2054 Valora Rd

Ignace, ON

P0T 1T0

We don't really have a real address out here but we have the one listed above on some various paperwork so that is what we use for our purposes, and it is accepted by ArriveCAN. You can also use our camp for your emergency quarantine location.

Well I think that is all for now, it has been great being back to "normal" and being able to see everyone again! We're looking forward to the rest of the summer.

 

Ryan