November 6, 2023 – Another Season Has Come and Gone!
Hi All,
I would like to start this off by giving a big thank you to everyone who vacationed with us this year! This was the first summer that felt truly normal since Covid and it was so great to see so many familiar faces and a lot of new ones as well. I think it’s fair to say that everyone is excited to be able to travel uninhibited again (us too), and camp was as busy as ever! It was a great season and above average temperatures through the fall made it a nice and easy shut down for us.
I’ve got to make this post fairly quick as we are putting together the last of our gear to head off to Montana tomorrow morning for our annual elk hunting trip. After a very busy season we are really looking forward to spending a couple of weeks in the mountains chasing mule deer and elk. Closing down camp and the month of November is a bit of a blur for us, it’s a LOT of fun, but it is hectic. We were home from camp for one full day and night two weeks ago, before heading down to our deer property for a week of whitetail hunting. Then home for a very short three days to do laundry and repack before heading out the door again tomorrow. Our house is a mess of boxes and storage totes everywhere, but that’s December’s problem!
The deer hunting was slow, despite the weather turning cold and snowy just in time for opening day, but we were there about a week too early. We saw lots of does and fawns and a couple of spiker bucks, but nothing we wanted to take with only buck tags. Of course the last two days we were there we started to see the first fresh rubs, scrapes, and signs of rut, and then the evening of the day we left my target buck came out in daylight and I have a nice picture of him in front of one of our tree stands – haha. But hey, that’s hunting! That same night we actually had a new bigger buck cruise by as well and who knows what else the rut will bring. We will be back down there for a bit in December and will hopefully be lucky enough to see him.
We had a very successful moose hunt this year with two bulls being taken during archery season, another two during rifle as well as a cow. My group of friends got an additional calf so far, and we are hoping to fill our cow tag before the season closes on December 15th. Fishing through the end of the season was a little spotty. There were days where they were biting great and others that they were slower and extremely scattered. We had very strange weather this fall where it would be close to a frost and then two days later it was 70 and sunny, and then two more days later it was close to a frost again and storming. A lot of weird pressure changes and the fish didn’t seem to have time to settle back into schools between storms, but plenty of walleye were found to eat and lots of good fall bass fishing was to be had as well.
With the average temp warmer than usual right through the end of our season, I noticed two big differences this year. The first is that the lake hadn’t turned over by the time we left, which is very odd as it usually does early to mid October depending on weather. Secondly, a lot of the poplar trees still had leaves on them when they are usually totally deforested by the end of October. It was a beautiful but strange sight leaving camp with fall colours still in the trees. The water was at an all time low when we left camp so we need to hope for a decent snow pack this winter and a wet spring. Two years ago was the lowest I had ever seen Press, and I think this year topped it. The narrows on the north side of The Big Island was basically unpassable unless you were in a small boat and pushing through with a paddle. The southern narrows weren’t a whole lot better, especially if you got out of the channel into the mud flats which usually resulted in the boat getting stuck in the mud. Here’s to hoping it will look different in the spring or we could be starting at a real deficit.
Well I should get back to packing! I’ll be writing up a big post when we get back with all the stories from our trip and hopefully some great pictures as well. I will be sure to get a few of the fall fishing and moose hunting pictures up then as well. Might need a two part post – haha. We will will be gone for about three weeks, but if you need to get a hold of us please just email or call and leave a message and we will get back to everyone when we get home. Booking inquiries are handled in the order that they are received, but thanks to all of you guys we have very few vacancies for next year!
Ryan