Vacancies & Information
Updated Vacancies – March 8th, 2025
Current vacancies for the 2025 season:
June 21 - 28 - Cabin 6
June 28 - July 5 - Cabin 4
September 20 - 27 - Cabin 6
September 27 - October 4 - Cabins 3,4,7
Otherwise we are booked solid for 2025, 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.
February 26th, 2025 – We are off in 11 days!
Hi All,
Well, it has proven to be every bit of busy of a winter as one would expect when getting ready to leave for a little over a month – haha. I apologize I haven’t gotten much up here this winter, but to be honest we haven’t had a lot to write about lately. After getting home from hunting this fall in early December, and then getting through the holidays, we have been in full go mode. Lindsay and I have only been ice fishing once this winter together, and I got out twice more with a couple buddies on an annual trip near Thunder Bay. I think this is the 6th year we have done this trip and we are finally getting a few spots figured out. 4 of us were able to limit out on these 8 beauties in under an hour. We still have some work to do on a reliable walleye spot though.
Mom is doing well, but definitely needs a little more help. We are at her place a couple times a day usually to visit and give her a ride anywhere she needs to go. She is still very involved in various activities in the community and at Silver Tops, our local seniors center. Some days I’m bringing her to and from there 2-3 times! It’s good to see her so involved still, and now that we are seeing some warmer temperatures, we have been getting out to walk Cedar almost daily as well.
The weather has remained a yo-yo all winter, still cycling from very cold to quite a bit warmer and precipitating. That precipitation had been a lot of snow until this week, where the warmer temperatures climbed above freezing and we got some rain/freezing rain. The wetness is annoying but the warm temps have been a really nice change! I’m sure we are yet to get some more snow this winter, but we are already in good position for the spring and we should expect decent water levels at the very least. Definitely needed after the low water conditions we have seen a couple of the last few years.
We didn’t go out west this fall to chase elk and muleys, but instead toured across the Midwest to visit friends, and to refill our freezer with venison after losing one and it’s contents this summer. It wasn’t as big of an adventure so I figured I wouldn’t do a dedicated hunting journal, but just talk about our trip a bit here. The fall started with a quick week down at our deer cabin with friends. The weather was a little warm and we were a little early for the rut, so we saw lots of does and a couple spikers but nothing that really grabbed our attention. Linds took a spiker for some meat for some friends of ours that weren’t able to get out hunting as much this fall.
Afterwards, we came home from the cabin for about 10 days before we were headed south of the border to Michigan. We spent a week there visiting, shooting a couple deer, and of course drinking too many beers. Lindsay and I each took a small buck there and I shot a doe as well. It was an absolute blast as it always is, it’s hard to beat a classic Midwest deer camp.
After Michigan, we headed to Indiana for another week of more of the same, lots of time spent up in a tree. It was another great week, and we saw a ton of deer in both states. I was able to take the best buck of the trip there, a decent 8 pointer. By no means a giant but a decent deer and more meat for the freezer. Linds was holding out for a big guy, and had a glimpse of a really good one we had trail cam pics of, probably in the 150-160 class, but unfortunately had no shot. We also enjoyed a couple of nightshifts doing some predator management on some coyotes. It was our first time doing that, and we had a blast hunting them at night with thermals and night vision. Definitely stuff we are not allowed to do up here – haha.
When we got home, I headed back down to our deer cabin in mid December to close out deer season with a buddy. We were able to shoot him a spiker for the freezer so he went home with a bit of meat as well. All in all, it was a very fun and productive fall, and we have been enjoying the spoils of a freezer full of venison again! Now we have a couple very short weeks before we are off again, hopefully returning with a little more meat.
As I believe we told most guests this summer, we have a very exciting and big trip coming up on the near horizon. On March 9th, we are headed to Winnipeg where we will fly out the next day for close to 5 weeks in New Zealand. We land in Auckland, but immediately fly down to the bottom of the South Island, starting our trip out in Queenstown. We will be spending a week there and will be getting married on the 17th! It’s just the two of us heading down, and we have hired a company that takes care of the whole process for us, and we get to spend the day in a helicopter with a photographer and officiant travelling around and landing in 5 different locations to get a taste (and a bunch of really amazing pictures) of all the different and diverse scenery New Zealand has to offer.
After Queenstown we will be driving north up the west coast quite a ways before cutting across through Arthur’s Pass and heading to Christchurch for a couple nights. From there we will be heading farther north to the top of the south, Nelson. There we have hired another helicopter to drop us off in “the tops” as they call it down there, which is in the alpine above tree line to spend a week doing some semi-DIY backcountry hunting. I say semi-DIY because we are going without a guide and it will be just the two of us hunting, but the pilot is an experienced hunter and will be dropping us off in some good country. This first leg of the hunt will be extremely physically demanding as we will be in some very steep and rugged country chasing red stag and chamois. We have spent a lot of time in the gym this winter getting ready for what I think we would consider “sheep country” over here. I don’t think it will be quite full-blown mountain goat type terrain or closer to full on mountaineering, but this will definitely be our biggest test and adventure to date!
After a week in the tops, we are getting relocated to 800 acres of private land equipped with a little hut and even running water, for 4 more days of hunting. This property is down in the valley and will still be a bit of hiking and climbing, but will be nowhere as difficult of country as the beginning of the trip. The property is backed by more public land, and the animals on it are totally free range, not any different then a standard whitetail lease here at home. There we will have another chance at red stag, and will also add in fallow deer, but it does not have any chamois as they live up in the very tops of the mountains. We are viewing this last leg of the hunt as a sort of “honeymoon hunt” as it will be easier and a nice way to relax a little more while still hunting before returning to being a tourist for the rest of the trip.
After coming out of the mountains (hopefully with some meat and racks for the wall) we have just short of two weeks to continue north. We will be ferrying to the north island and will spend the rest of our trip working our way back to Auckland where we will fly home mid April, just in time to get ready and back to work opening up camp for the season! Planned highlights on the last couple of weeks are mainly sight seeing, but we plan on doing some whitewater rafting, visiting Hobbiton, enjoying some of the native Māori culture, and of course sampling all the local food and drink!
To say we are getting excited for our trip would definitely be an understatement! We have a very busy two weeks left at home to get everything taken care of to prepare for being gone for over a month, and to make sure everything is in place to make things easy for mom while we are gone. It is going well, but of course the closer the trip gets the more it feels like there is to do. But that’s always the case, and things seem to always get done. We will be available until March 9th for any questions or inquiries, but after that we will be basically unreachable for 5 weeks. We will have our email and phone messages set up to reflect that as a reminder if anyone reaches out while we are gone. We will be answering any messages and getting caught up on all correspondence once we get home mid-April, and like normal all reservation inquires will be taken in the order they were received by date.
I’m sure it will take a while for us to get caught up on life, mail, and messages once we get home, but I plan on journaling about our trip here and will be posting lots of pictures of our whole trip. We will try to take the time to update our personal and business socials a little bit while we are away as well, for a few little tastes of what we are up to halfway across the world. I suspect this will be my last post before we leave, but keep an eye on the socials in the meantime for some updates and we will hopefully get something up here shortly after arriving home. And of course just after that we will be opening up the gate and welcoming you guys back up in mid May!
Ryan
December 31st, 2024 – Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We would like to extend a very Happy Holidays to everyone! Mom, Lindsay and I enjoyed a really nice Christmas in Dryden celebrating with all of Lindsay's family. It was so nice to get everyone together and spend a couple of days visiting, and eating too much food of course - haha.
Our weather up here has continued to be all over the map. About two weeks ago we had lows down around -25F and just a few days ago it was 36F and raining for two days straight. We had quite a bit of snow (and not a lot of ice) before the rain, but the rain melted and settled a lot of the snow out. Of course once the temperatures started to drop again everything is now coated in ice and our snow pack is multiple layers of snow and ice stacked on top of each other. We have enough ice to fish on the smaller lakes but the bigger, deeper trout lakes are still a little sketchy. Temperatures are forecasted to drop more this week and hopefully we will add to that ice so we can get out on the hardwater safely.
As promised in my last post, I would write an update with some pictures from this fall as it was a good one! Moose season kicked off in September with archery season. We only had two groups of archery hunters in this year and both were successful each taking a very nice bull! The hunters were battling temperatures far too warm to have rutting bulls out much during the daylight, but despite the less than ideal conditions both groups were able to connect. I was only able to grab pics of one of the bulls as the hunters were working fast to break down the animals to get the meat taken care of and cold.
As archery season faded into rifle season, we still had quite a few groups of fisherman in camp that were enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and the good fall fishing. Opening day of rifle season marks the first day of our last week being open, and this year it was a crazy one. We had 5 groups of hunters in camp spread out across the 7 cabins, and on opening day we had 5 moose come into camp! Not one from every group as some groups had multiple tags and brought in multiple animals, but it was one hell of a start to the week! As the week progressed we had 2 more moose come into camp making 7 total for rifle season and 9 total for the year. I'm not certain that's a new camp record but it has to be very close, and I think 5 on opening day is a new record! We had 5 bulls, 2 cows and 2 calves to mark the season and all 5 of the bulls were very nice moose all near or breaking a 40" spread.
After opening week was finished and everyone was gone it was Just Lindsay and I at camp for about a week or so finishing up any last jobs and closing down and packing up. Before putting my boat away for the winter we snuck out for one last evening of fishing, and what an end of the fishing season it was! We caught a mess of fish at Red Rock and I was fortunate enough to catch a 28" walleye, my best for the season!
Afterward we were treated to one of the most spectacular sunsets I think I have ever seen on Press. The sky faded to a dark orange so brilliant it almost seemed eerie, like a storm was brewing, or something even worse almost otherworldly. It was such a dramatic gradient of colour it could be seen clearly in the reflection in the water.
It sure was a hell of a way to send off the 2024 season!
In the last few days at camp we had our two new docks delivered. The crew brought them in from Kenora and dropped them off on the shore where they will be assembled come spring. These two docks are going to cabin 1 and 2, and the old docks at those spots have been moved over to the campground so we have a couple of somewhat usable docks over there again.
I would like to take a quick moment to give a big public thank you to my friends that come up and are a part of my moose hunting group. We tagged out early this year, and as a result the guys who had the week off put in a lot of hours of work for me at camp and accomplished a TON! This includes finally getting all of those old derelict docks from the campground broken down and hauled off to the dump. The shoreline is cleaned up a lot and it makes the entire camp look a lot nicer, thanks guys!
The plan is to continue replacing the oldest cabin docks each year with 1-2 of these new docks as our budget allows. Of course we are still hoping to add new bathrooms to cabins 2 and 4 as well. It looks like we may have someone lined up for this fall to get cabin 2 done, so fingers crossed nothing changes between now and next fall and we will continue to see constant improvements and upgrades.
We would just like to say thank you again to all of our guests old and new that vacationed with us this year. 2024 marked our busiest season yet and 2025 isn't looking any different. We are very fortunate that we get to do what we love and that wouldn't be possible without you guys and gals! Take care and keep your eyes peeled for another post coming soon to talk about our personal hunting adventures this fall.
Thanks,
Ryan
December 18, 2024 – We’re Home! Merry Christmas and a Quick Update With More to Come!
Hello All,
I apologize for not getting any sort of updates posted sooner, but it has been a very busy fall. We just got home from the last of our hunting adventures earlier this week, and it has been a very fun and successful fall, but we are happy to be home and settling in for the winter. In the next few days I will start getting some more detailed posts up talking about the incredible moose season we had at camp this year, and will follow that with an update of what we have been up to as well. No big western hunt this year but we still put some miles on the truck travelling to visit friends and hunt whitetail. We had a great and very successful trip and filled the freezer back up after tragically losing it and it's contents this summer.
We have had very strange weather up here to start the winter off. We came home to over a foot of snow to move and for the first 4 days we were home (during a surprisingly quick week back home before our last trip of the season last weekend) we had fresh snow to move every day. We have had some very cold snaps getting down to -25 F, but they have only lasted a few days before warming right back up to that 20 degree range or so. I personally haven't been out to check any ice conditions but from what I've heard it varies a lot lake to lake. With the large amount of snow and not a lot of cold I don't think we have a great start to the ice season as the little ice we have is well insulated from the cold with all that snow on top. I think the bigger trout lakes might be okay once they freeze more solid as they remained open for a lot of the late fall and hopefully don't have as much snow on top of the ice insulating it. As we approach the new year we will start poking a few test holes here and there to take a look and hopefully get out on the hardwater.
Lastly, I just wanted to take a quick second to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our valued clients, new and old! We really do appreciate all of you guys and gals and your continued business. Thanks to everyone who chose to vacation with us this year, and to all of those who have our schedule for 2025 practically sold out already. I have also taken a bit of time this morning to update our Rates page and the Vacancies post as well. So if you are looking to get a spot reserved for next season give it a look and of course please don't hesitate to call/text/email any questions.
Ryan
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
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
February 25, 2024 – What a Strange Winter!
Hi All,
Well since my last post, our weather hasn't gotten any more normal. All through January and now February, we have seen unseasonably warm temperatures and virtually no snow. There have been cold periods where the temps drop to -15 F or so for a day or two, but then without fail it warms right back up and highs during day have been consistently above 32. It seems we lose a little more snow each day and it has been weeks since we had any accumulation at all. It has made travelling with a snowmachine very difficult, although still possible as we have maybe 6" of snow in the shade and just enough on the lakes to get around. Ice levels are considerably lower than normal, but without much snow the little cold we have had has been able to penetrate and we have enough to safely get around, usually 12-18". Currently we are forecasted to get close to a foot of snow on tomorrow and Tuesday, so we may see a little bit of winter weather yet. As much as we need the snow, I had plans to drive into camp at the end of next week and spend the weekend, so we may be looking at a change of plans if the weather hits. Currently you can drive a truck down just about any road you want to, and this is the first time in my life that I have ever seen it like this in February up here.
As strange as the weather has been this winter however, we certainly can't complain about how nice it's been to get outside! Lindsay and I have enjoyed quite a few day trips out fishing so far and one camping trip for two nights on the ice. We have hit a variety of lakes and have enjoyed catching a number of the different species available to us in the area including walleye and lake trout, and stocked splake and brook trout. We were fortunate to bring home a really nice limit of brook trout on our camping trip and we couldn't believe the colour gradient of the flesh between fish, and how shockingly bright red some of them were:
Here are a few pics of some of the splake and walleye we brought home from other trips as well:
I also spent 4 days on the ice on an annual fishing trip I do with some buddies near Thunder Bay. We have been learning the lakes in the area so generally the trip has been more about comradery and the evening beers than it is about the fishing, but this year we actually caught quite a few fish. We had some crappy weather that went from very warm and sunny to rainy the next day, so there was very little snow to travel on between lakes and a lot of standing water on top of the ice. As a result, we only fished the lake that we were staying on and tried some new spots. We found some very aggressive schools of lakers and were actually able to limit out twice! And of course, we still had plenty of beer in the evenings - haha.
Aside from the weather and the fishing, we have been enjoying our off season and a bit of relaxation before we get busy again in the spring. We don't have any travel plans to head south this winter and have been happy to be spending a little less time on the road this year. However, we are headed down to the Toronto area for 2 weeks to visit family in early March. Mom will be joining Lindsay and I going down so she can visit her brother in Kitchener, while Lindsay and I head to Oshawa to see my side of the family. It will be a nice trip seeing everyone and we are a little overdue to get down there.
Our schedule is incredibly full for the 2024 season, so we would like to extend a big thank you to everyone booked with us! We really appreciate everyone riding out Covid and sticking it out with us through everything. It really feels like we are back to "normal" and we couldn't be any happier seeing everyone annually again. By the time we left last fall the lake levels had dropped to the lowest I have ever seen them, beating the previous all time low of 3 seasons ago. I am worried that if we don't see some snow by spring, or get a LOT of rain, we are going to have some lake level issues this year. But a lot can change between now and then, so lets just hope for some precipitation. For those who have been following along with our hunting journal from this year, I am hoping to get another instalment wrote and up this week.
Ryan
January 14th, 2024 – Montana Hunting Journal Pt. 4, Days 7-10.
On the morning of day 7 we headed back into the spot where we had located elk while scouting on day 1, to be set up and glassing before sunrise. This time opting to walk the last 1.5 miles in as the road was a little sketchy for a pick up. It wasn’t long and we found a herd of elk on a ridge in the burn a little below us about a mile or so away. We sat and watched the elk feed along the top of the ridge until they disappeared over the back side as the sun started to get higher, presumably to bed. We didn’t have a good way over to them from where we were, but we knew of a trailhead we could use that would get us in pretty close so we marked their approximate location on the GPS and headed back for the truck.
It took us about an hour and a half to hike out and drive around to the trailhead and we had our packs on and were on our way in again, looking at about a 2.5 mile hike. It was pretty easy going as we were on a trail most of the way and were actually slowly dropping elevation on the way in. Along the way Linds and I had to stop to squat behind a tree so I told Jake to keep going and we would find him at the top of a little knob we were hoping to locate the bedded elk from. The plan was to circle the elk wide keeping them on our right until we got past them and downwind. We were hopeful we would be able to glass them up again from our new location and then begin to close the distance, and if that didn’t work, we would get the wind in our face and try to still hunt in through the relatively open burnt timber.
As Lindsay and I were headed to meet Jake, we were circling the elk about 500 yards out from their last known location, and suddenly we heard 3-4 “mews” from some cows inside 100 yards directly in front of us! We couldn’t see them for a small rise in front of us but we hunkered down and I checked the wind on my puffer bottle and it was headed straight to them. Worried we were going to blow this second herd of elk out of the country if they winded us, we opted to turn left hard and head straight uphill to try to get a more favourable cross wind and to see if we could see them from the higher ground. It was pretty steep country and with the small undulations in the ground we weren’t able to see into where we thought the elk were, but we could see Jake waiting for us at the top. We climbed up to him and told him what happened and we made a plan for him and I to circle around wide behind them to get the wind in our favour and to see if we could sneak within range, while Linds stayed back in case we happened to bump them back towards her.
Him and I set out making a wide circle into where we had heard the elk “talking,” and when we arrived there was nothing but a mess of tracks in the snow. It didn’t look as though they had left running as though they had winded us, but they had clearly continued on their path of travel. We also noticed the tracks had come from the direction of where the first herd of elk we had spotted that morning bedded down. We followed the tracks about halfway back to the bedding area to realize that it wasn’t a second herd of elk that we heard, but the original herd as they had gotten up on their own and were moving along. As it turns out Lindsay and I missed intercepting them by probably less than 5 minutes.
Jake and I spun around on their tracks and started going in the same direction they were headed knowing they had a pretty good head start on us by this point and followed their tracks for around a mile until they went through a saddle and dropped off onto the other side of the mountain. We decided to go back and regroup with Linds and sit the hillside until dark hoping they would come back through to feed as we were overlooking a bunch of nice grassy meadows. As a bonus we had some decent glassing from where we were sitting to keep us occupied until dark.
Shortly after settling into our spot for the evening we saw a couple of long legs coming though the trees behind us. It was enough to get our hearts racing for the split second it took to realize that it wasn’t an elk, but was in fact a horse topped with a blaze orange cladded rider equipped with a pack and rifle. We watched him go by us at about 75 yards continuing down the ridge, seeming to not have noticed us huddled under a tree below him as he went by. A little defeated that we had some competition we kept our heads up high and stuck out the rest of the evening. The herd of cows never came back through, but about a half hour before dark I glassed up a small bunch of elk in a meadow about 1500 linear yards away from us and probably 500’ or so above us. Even before we were able to set up a spotting scope, we could tell one of the animals was considerably larger than the rest and knew there was at least one decent bull in the mix. The spotting scope confirmed this and we watched as the bull and the few cows with him filtered in and out of this little micro meadow feeding. We didn’t think we had enough time to get over there and make a play that night, as there was no good shooting position to get within range, so the only play would be to try to sneak in close enough to get a shot amongst the burnt trees. We watched the elk feed until dark and begun our hike out with plans to return in the morning.
On our hike out in the dark, and not really to our surprise, we could hear the hoof beats of a horse behind us sharing the same trail. We hopped off the trail to make some room and the other hunter came through and stopped to chat a bit. He was very surprised to see other hunters back in where we were and even more surprised that we hiked in. We chatted for about 20 minutes doing the familiar dance you do with another hunter in the field, toeing the line of comrades but also competitors looking for the same prey, sharing information but vaguely enough as to not give away the animals we were both after. We talked very openly about the herd of cows that went up through the saddle as he was aware of them as well, but we kept “our” bull in our pocket and got the impression he was doing the same with some information. We left hoping we both weren’t after the same animal the next morning.
We got some snow overnight and the road into the trailhead was already a little icy so we threw the tire chains on our rear tires for our drive up. It was my first-time using tire chains and I’ve got to say, holy crap do they make difference! Almost gives one the confidence to try to drive somewhere they don’t have any business going – haha. Anyway, we reached the trailhead and started hiking in knowing we were already behind our friend on the horse as he was camped at the trailhead and we could see the fresh tracks in the snow going in. Undeterred we started out knowing there was a lot of country and a lot of elk back there and hoping we wouldn’t be on the same ones. The storm had broken but left behind a lot of fog in its wake making glassing a challenge, but as soon as we got to our glassing knob Jake threw up his binoculars and said “got them!”
On an exposed hillside made up mostly of shale and loose rock with some patches of grass and the odd burnt tree, there was a nice bull and 7 or 8 cows brightly lit up against the backdrop of the fresh snow. We were about 1200 yards from the elk, but they were on the other side of a large bowl. Going straight would mean dropping down and then climbing back up 1200 vertical feet, and doing so undetected (and safely) in the loose rock would be almost impossible. The much better option would be to side hill around the bowl into their zone, which would be about 1.5 miles from where we were. Lindsay volunteered to stay behind and watch the elk for us flagging with a spare orange vest if they moved, and Jake and I headed out, really hoping to connect as this was his last day before having to head home to Wisconsin the next morning.
We knew they had to have bedded in the timber we were working though and moved out of it to feed in the open early that morning, and we were hopeful we could get over there before the sun warmed them up too much and they moved back into the dark timber to bed. On our way around we found their fresh beds and tracks headed out of the timber from the night before, and we followed them to the edge of the open, steep, shale-y hillside. We knew we were only about 300 yards from where the elk had been feeding, but we couldn’t see them, as they were in a bit of a dip. We could glass Lindsay from our location and she hadn’t moved the orange vest, indicating that the elk were where we had left them. Deciding it would be impossible to get any closer across the loose shale we decided to set up on their tracks where they left the timber and where we had a pretty good field of view, hoping to catch them on their way back to bed.
As fate would have it, elk weren’t the only tracks we saw in the timber that morning. On our way around the bowl, we intercepted fresh horse tracks in the snow, but since we had glassed the elk up in the open and didn’t see any orange, we were hopeful our friend was working into somewhere else and didn’t know about “our” bull. As we got farther into the timber the horse tracks veered left deeper into the woods and we were headed right towards the timber’s edge, so we pushed on hoping we wouldn’t interfere with his hunt, but determined to get an elk. As we sat in the shade of the timber waiting for the elk to work back to us with the rising sun, we heard the familiar BOOM of a rifle behind us in the timber maybe 300 yards away. It wasn’t in our direction or at the elk we were watching, but as we would later learn from Linds, as soon as the shot wrang out the herd we were working took off straight downhill. The icing on the cake was the second shot a few minutes later which pushed the elk the rest of the 1200’ down to the bottom of the canyon where we lost them in the timber altogether.
As a funny side note, Lindsay ended up seeing a post on a hunting in Montana group we are in on Facebook where she recognized a hunter from his horse and dog that we were playing with at the trail head the night before. I reached out and sure enough it happened to be the same guy and we became Facebook friends and bullshitted a fair bit. He is a really good dude who had actually offered to help us pack meat with his horse when we met him on the trail had we happened to kill something. I’m not going to call him out by name but if he happens to read this, congratulations because we later learned that he killed a totally different bull bedded in the timber in behind where we were.
Anyway, Jake and I sat the hillside until the early afternoon in case all of the commotion pushed something our way. Unfortunately, it didn’t and after a while we were getting pretty cold so we made our way back across to Lindsay where she filled us in on what happened with the elk after the gunshots. We sat and glassed from that location until dark but didn’t turn up any more animals. We headed out that evening knowing Jake’s elk hunt was over but hopeful that Linds and I could turn something up with the 10 or so days we had left. We put together a plan to pack everything up in the morning and to head to Great Falls for two nights to resupply, shower, and eat some real food. When we would come back, we were planning to pack in our tent and woodstove and to spike out into where we had been seeing the elk to save the hour of driving and 1.5-2 hours of hiking in and out each day. Hopeful that after a couple of quiet days some elk new or the same, would be back in that secluded basin.
On the morning of day 9 we said goodbye to Jake and we headed off to the city where we enjoyed a lot of sleep and some really good food at a couple of restaurants. As usual, we also spent a good bit of time and a bit of money at the local Scheel’s as well! On the evening of day 10 we swapped our smaller bags for our bigger spike out bags on pack frames and packed all of the gear we would need for our first true spike out adventure the next morning.
January 7, 2024 – Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, everyone!
Well since my last hunting journal update (more to come this week), we spent the last week of deer season down at our cabin, came home in time to have a few family dinners and Christmas in Dryden, and then back home for a few short days before Lindsay, Cedar, and I headed into Press for New Year's Eve! We have had an extremely busy, but fun filled fall and holiday season with very brief stops at home before heading off again. We are back home for a while now that the holidays are over and it has given us a chance to slow down a bit, unpack, and start to get ready for some serious ice fishing. We don't have nearly as much travel planned for this winter as we did last year, and are looking forward to a winter with a little more time at home to adventure in our own backyard.
The end of deer season was a little slow as we had unseasonably warm weather through December. The last week of the season (closing December 15th) saw temperatures rarely dipping below freezing and virtually no snow. We were getting lots of pictures of deer but almost exclusively at night as they became very nocturnal in the warm weather. The warm weather did make for more comfortable sits in the tree stand then we are used to in December, however. We were hopeful to get one more deer for the freezer, but with only buck tags it made for a tough hunt until the last day of the season when a little broken spiker came out to Lindsay's bait pile and she was able to close out our season on a high note!
The availability of natural food sources for the deer was a lot higher this winter making them much less dependent on bait in December than they usually are. Of course this contributed to the more difficult hunting, but should be beneficial to the deer herd with such abundant food reserves and easier and warmer conditions. I don't mind a tough season of hunting every now and then if it helps out the herd health.
Coming home from the cabin marked the end of the 2023 hunting season for us and left us with about a week before Christmas to finish holiday preparations and to start to settle back into the house. We had a wonderful Christmas with Lindsay's family in Dryden and then again with Mom here in Ignace. The weather remained incredibly warm right through December with virtually no snow fall. In fact on on our drive to Dryden on Christmas Eve, it was about 40 degrees and raining. After Christmas we saw more rain and some colder temperatures which froze the rain water over night leaving virtually all of North Western Ontario covered in very slippery ice. It was dangerous even trying to walk outside for a few days between Christmas and New Years, but fortunately has gotten a lot better.
Since we still didn't have very much snow and the slippery ice was mostly covered, travel became much easier, so we decided to drive into camp for New Years. Lindsay, Cedar, and I drove up on New Years Eve and spent a very peaceful two nights out at camp. We didn't bring any fishing equipment, but just went up to check things out and to spend some quiet time together after the busy hunting and holiday season, and it was a really nice and quiet trip! This marks the first time in Press Lake Camp's history that we could drive into camp in December/January in a truck without the aid of a plow. We drove up for one Christmas up there when I was really young, but even that trip required us plowing the road open. This has been one of the strangest winters I have seen in my life.
The few times we have spent time at camp in the winter we have learned it is much easier to stay in and heat a cabin, rather than the main lodge, so we spent this trip in Cabin 2. Pictured below are some nice venison chops and potatoes we made for New Year's Eve dinner, and some pics of camp and the drive in. It sure is beautiful up there in the winter!
The weather still hasn't changed too much in the new year. Temps are getting colder with highs in the teens and lows around zero overnight. Yesterday marked the first real snowfall we have had and I would say we have maybe 6" of light fluffy snow at the most. Despite the warm weather the ice conditions are really good, as we were seeing cold enough temperatures at night to make ice as there hasn't been any snow on top to insulate it. We are actually yet to get out fishing (will be changing that here very soon) but have heard anywhere from 9-12" of good solid ice depending on the lake. I believe we will still be able to get into camp despite the fresh dusting of snow we received, so we are hoping to make at least one more trip up there before we get more. This time we will be bringing the fishing gear and snowmachine to see if we can find some walleye. Our plan is to do a little fishing around Ignace in the next couple of days, and then plan another trip up north for a few nights.
We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and we wish you all the best for 2024! We are looking forward to seeing everyone again this summer! Stay tuned for more hunting journal updates from this fall and an ice fishing report once we get out on the hard water.
Ryan
December 6th, 2023 – Montana Hunting Journal Pt. 3, Days 5&6.
On the morning of day 5 we set up to glass a new section of coulee, farther down then we had previously gone. We had a slower start to the morning not seeing a lot of deer, but turning up a few pockets of does and a couple of younger bucks cruising between them. We did see one very nice buck emerge from some buckthorn that I was very interested in, but in a matter of 20 or so minutes we watched him cruise about a 1/2 mile down the canyon bottom, up over the bank to the flat top and quickly out of our sight and out of our lives. I guess he didn't find the doe he was looking for. It is truly incredible how quickly and how much ground a deer can cover out there cruising at a walking pace.
We also turned up our spike elk again this morning and to our surprise he had gained a friend, one more spike elk. They were probably another mile down the canyon from us and fed out of view so we decided to make a mid morning move in their direction. The plan was to move maybe 1/4 mile or so at a time stopping at various vantage points to glass around and see what we could turn up. Well the day was very quickly heating up as the sun rose and by around 11:00 am it was in the mid 60's. Moving along the canyon bottom we found an easy spot to climb part way up the bank on the west side of the coulee, and decided to sit down on a flat spot to cool off and eat some lunch.
When we stopped we were all sweating from hiking with our layers from earlier in the morning still on, so we took the opportunity to strip down a bit. I peeled out my base layer top and put my orange vest on without a shirt, had taken my zip off base layer bottoms off from under my pants (zip off bottoms are great for taking off without having to untie your boots), and had taken off my boots to air out my feet. We were sitting there casually chatting, eating, and enjoying the beautiful weather, not really expecting to see much for deer. With most of our focus on what we could see with our binoculars down canyon we had been ignoring what was in our immediate vicinity, until Lindsay said "Hey, there are a couple deer straight across the coulee from us on the other bank. I think one is a buck!"
Well, we all dropped our food and lowered our voices as we pulled up our binoculars to see a very nice buck cruising and feeding on the hillside opposite us with a few does. I quickly pulled my rifle off my pack and got laid down behind it building myself a shooting platform and told Jake to grab his spotter and let me know if he thought it was a shooter buck. I grabbed the range at 350 yards and dialed my scope while Jake told me it looked like a pretty good buck. I found him in my rifle scope and agreed and decided this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. 350 yards is the farthest I have shot at game thus far, although I practice at that distance and beyond as much as possible at home, so I took the time to line up and dry fire on the deer once. Everything felt really solid and I was very confident so I chambered a round and waited for the deer to turn broadside once more. That only took him a couple of seconds and I was squeezing the trigger. The rifle jumped and I saw the deer buck hard and head about 40 yards into some buckbrush with one of his front legs clearly not working properly. We knew he was hit hard and did not see him come out of the brush so we began celebrating and laughing that I had just shot a really nice buck and wasn't even wearing any boots!
After the shot we finished eating and got our gear together and headed down our side of the canyon to go start the steep climb up his side. It didn't take Jake and I very long and we found him piled up in the buckthorn exactly where we expected to, but we couldn't believe how big the body of the deer actually was. He had a very nice rack being a cool 3x3 with eye guards, but he actually scored lower than Lindsay's buck from this year, and my mule deer from 2022. But despite the size of the antlers he is by far the biggest bodied and most rutted up buck I have ever shot. At the base, his neck has to be bigger than a basketball, and the goo from his tarsal glands was running down his back legs like tree sap. He was on a very steep bank so we tied paracord to him at the front and back ends and worked him down the bank slowly to where we could work on him on flat ground and get the meat in the shade as we broke him down.
A few hours later and we had full packs again and started our 3 mile pack out while we still had some daylight. We got back to the truck shortly after dark all smiles as we had filled all 3 of our deer tags. We decided we would take the next morning off of hunting to finish butchering out all of our deer that we had been keeping on ice in Jake's HUGE Yeti 210, and a had a couple of drinks to celebrate that night.
The next morning Jake and I got to work butchering out the already deboned deer meat and Linds made a supply run to Great Falls to get us dry ice. For those who don't know, if you put dry ice on the bottom of a cooler it will act as a fridge. If you put the dry ice on top of your meat, the cold sinks and it will freeze the meat underneath it solid. Just be sure to add a couple layers of cardboard to prevent freezer burn and leave a vent plug loose as dry ice turns to CO2 as it sublimates and it can pressurize your cooler to the point of eruption - haha.
We got done our butchering midday on day 6 and decided we had enough time to go check out our deer spot one more time just to rule out if those elk were still around or not. We hadn't seen the two spikes since the morning of day 5 and were pretty sure there weren't any more elk in there, but we had to check it out one last time to be certain. We hiked almost 5 miles down the coulee in search of them and were only able to turn up more deer. And as luck would have it of course the best buck we had spotted so far was on this day, after we filled all of our tags. But that's alright we were all extremely happy with the deer we took, and satisfied there weren't any elk around we hiked our 5 miles back out in the dark planning on heading up into the mountains in the morning.
December 5th, 2023 – Montana Hunting Journal Pt. 2, Days 3&4.
Well on day 3 we decided to sleep in a while as we were pretty tired from packing deer so late the night before, and Jake would be driving through the night and arriving sometime mid morning. He was towing a camper across country with him and we got the text that he had arrived at our camping spot and was going to grab a little sleep before we got there. Linds and I packed up our motel room and headed up into the national forest to find Jake and swap the deer story from the night before. While chatting a CO from Montana FWP drove by and saw us in orange with the deer skull and stopped in to say hi. He checked to make sure we all had our licenses in order and then we all shot the shit for a few minutes and he told us there had been a herd of elk in where we were deer hunting. We had heard this information once already but he was able to show us the private land they had moved out onto in case we wanted to set up on the land we could hunt, and try to catch them coming back. We thanked him for the info and he was off!
It didn't take too long and we were settled into Jake's camper so we headed out to go verify his rifle. The day was waning but I figured if we hurried we would be able to get back into our deer spot with the last hour of daylight and thought that might be enough time to make something happen. Lindsay decided since she had filled her tag and she was still tired she was going to stay back at the camper for the night hunt, and Jake and I headed out to search for a buck.
After about a 20 minute drive and an hour or so hike we were arriving at the little cliffy edge of the coulee that we like to glass from. There is a great view of the canyon floor from there running up and down the coulee, as well as a great view of the opposing bank catching deer coming in and out of the canyon. It also sets us up to be in a position where deer will work the canyon bottom underneath the cliff edge and within rifle range without having to move. Well as we reached the cliff edge and were admiring the view of the open country Jake looked right below us and said "Hey, there's a deer!"
We threw up the binoculars and directly below us, 200 yards away, was a buck feeding with a small group of does. I asked Jake if he wanted to shoot it and his reply was "Let me get a look at it in the scope, but I think so." So we sat down quick and took off our packs. Jake built a rest to shoot off of and started checking out the buck. He was nice enough to ask me if I wanted to shoot it and I said "No, you take him. You spotted him anyway." With that we hadn't been to our spot more than 3 minutes and the first shot rang out. I confirmed to Jake it was a hit, but the buck just took a couple steps forward and was looking around as though nothing had happened. Another shot rang out and this time the buck kicked good and hard, but otherwise didn't move. I confirmed that Jake smoked him that time for sure, but the deer was seemingly unphased. It turned around and started to head the direction it had been coming from and we could see blood pouring out of the exit wounds, but the deer started to take a few steps headed for some thick buckthorn. A third shot rang out and I watched the bullet impact with the group of exit wounds from the first two shots, and to our surprise the buck was still on his feet. Well, that wasn't the case for long and he tipped over in his tracks, somehow absorbing 3 well placed shots from a .300 Win. Mag.
After getting the high fives and hugs out of the way (and some laughs about how quickly everything came together) we started off down the bank to go check out Jake's first muley.
A couple of hours later and we had packs full of meat and were headed for the trucks. My second pack out in two days and it felt great! We got back to the trailer and celebrated with a great dinner of butter and herb basted tender loins, stovetop stuffing, and instant mashed potatoes (which frankly have come a LONG way)!
The next morning we headed back out to check out some different country in the same area. We killed two bucks in two days pretty close together so figuring that area was a little blown out we wanted to go a little farther to see if we could stumble into the elk we had heard about, and to try and find another good buck. We spent the day glassing and saw quite a few deer, but no bucks that caught my eye enough to initiate a stalk. We spent the day glassing some really big country and enjoying the visibility and all of the amazing views. Of course I'm not great at taking pictures that don't have animals in them, but we did get a little excited when we saw this guy cruising solo:
Not the best picture as it is a screen grab from a video but we spotted a lone spike elk wandering near the bottom of the canyon abut a mile or so down from us. Unable to shoot a spike with our tag (branch antlered bulls, or cows only) we didn't make a play but were hopeful he wasn't alone. That was the excitement for the day as we spent the entire day glassing and didn't chase anything. Excited to come back the next morning to try to locate the elk, and hopefully our third buck, we hiked out to get some sleep.
December 4th, 2023 – Montana Hunting Journal Pt. 1, Days 1&2.
Hi All,
So this year I am actually going to get my butt in gear and get a recap of our hunt out west up on the blog while it is still fresh on my mind. I meant to do the same last year but we seemed to have a lot going on and I just didn't get around to it. I'll be starting today with a recap of our first two days in the field, and will continue with daily updates on here with single or multi-day recaps. I'll be gone to our deer cabin for a week or so on Thursday to finish up our deer season here at home, so there will be a little break in the posts but I'll be sure to finish them up when I get back next week.
We left home on November 7th this year, opting to break the drive up over 2 days instead of driving straight through like we did last year. We got the bulk of the driving out of the way the first day, and only had about 5 short hours to Great Falls on the 8th, where we make our last few stops to grab gas and the last of our supplies. Another 45 minutes or so drive south and we were checking into our motel room that would be home for the next 3 nights. We had plenty of daylight left after getting checked in, so we took the opportunity to run up into the mountains and verify that our rifles were on and ready to go after travelling and changing altitude. Once dialed we headed back to our room to get some sleep so we could start scouting the next day.
Deer and elk season were both already open and we had each had a tag for both species. Since we were in Montana for the last 17 days of the regular rifle season, we took the first day to assess access into some different hunting areas that would be new to us this year. The plan was to see how the roads getting in there were and then spend a few hours glassing around to see if we could locate any animals. Carrying our rifles in case the opportunity to take something presented itself, but ultimately just scouting and seeing what was around. My friend Jake from Wisconsin would be joining us for a week starting on the 11th, so we were hoping to get the drop on some elk up in the mountains, were hoping to have some deer located in the foothills and if possible, have one down and packed out for a head start before his arrival. We headed out early on the 9th to begin our day 1 scouting...
The weather was A LOT different this year compared to last. In the lower elevation foothills there was no snow and the temps felt like beautiful fall days hitting the mid 60s at times. At higher altitude there was maybe a 6" snow pack and temps would be cooler but still ultimately very warm for this time of year. We headed out early in the morning to drive up to a burn to start scouting. We ended up driving down a road that was certainly passable (as we were driving on other truck tracks) but was a little narrow at times for our liking with a few good 40' drops if you were to slip off the side. Unable to turn around we kept poking along knowing that there would be a spot to turn around eventually as the other trucks that had gone in there must have. Eventually reaching our destination we hiked in the last little bit to our glassing knob and within 5 minutes we spotted a herd of elk out feeding about a mile from us.
We glassed around a while longer and didn't see much more so we headed off to check access to a nearby trailhead. We drove up to the trailhead only to realize that we had both forgotten the adapters to attach our binoculars to our tripods on the ground at the last spot. In the excitement of finding the elk we forgot to put them away, so back down we went. Not wanting to drive the last part of the road again we decided to hike in the 1.5 miles to grab our gear and back out again. Leaving our packs behind and going in fast and light made for a quick, but annoying trip back in to where we just were. After reclaiming our gear we set out to go a little farther south to check out a different burn. This one was farther back in and at a higher elevation and the road looked a little too snowed in for our liking to try to get the 13 miles back in we wanted, so we decided to take that spot off the table for this season. With an unexpected free afternoon, we decided to head down to the foothills to begin scouting for deer, which we had been planning on starting to scout and hunt the next morning.
We spent a great afternoon glassing up lots of pockets of does and seeing a few decent bucks out cruising from group to group looking for a hot doe. After watching deer until dark we headed back to our room excited about what tomorrow was going to bring.
The next morning we settled into our glassing position bright and early. We had a slow morning and early afternoon glassing. We saw some deer but not as many as the evening before, but we were confident that as the evening approached things would pick up. We moved once mid day to gain a different vantage and around 2:30 Linds glassed up a really nice buck that fed over the backside of a little knob and was was feeding and bedding with a doe on a little bench. At about 3 they were still there and looking like they weren't going anywhere so we decided to make a play on them. We were hunting in coulee country and glassing from a high point on one of the banks to see the canyon below us. We would have to drop down a couple hundred feet into the bottom and work our way down towards them and then climb back up into a shooting position.
We grabbed our gear and headed out making better time then expected getting over there. Operating on waypoints that we had dropped for a rough location of the deer and a location we figured we would be able to shoot them from, we began climbing up their side of the canyon. While climbing we checked the wind and it had been swirling around and was now blowing directly to the deer making it impossible for us to get to our shooting location without bumping them. This left us with the only option of circling around past them and coming up behind them, however doing so would mean we would be climbing up onto the bench they were on and would be within archery range before we could actually see them. We started creeping up the backside of their hill dropping our packs midway. The rest of the way up was incredibly noisy as all of the leaves and grass were very dry and crispy, but much to my surprise when we slowly rose up over the hill I could see the bucks big white hind end and rack as he was browsing.
The doe was a little higher on the hillside up from their bench, and unfortunately picked us off as soon as we started to rise up. She knew something was there but didn't completely blow out, she just kept working higher up the hillside staring at us trying to figure out what she saw. Hunkered down and unable to move or make a play on the buck we had to wait as we watched this doe slowly move farther higher and across the bank stopping every few steps to look back. We expected to see the buck start to work up the hillside following her but to our surprise he didn't, and she was finally out of our sight and we could move again. We rose up to check for the buck and we couldn't see him. I figured he did one of three things, moved into the thick buckthorn he was feeding on and we couldn't see him, moved south and down off the side of the hill into the bottom of the canyon, or worked north and over a fence onto private property.
We rose over the top of the hill we had been huddled behind and I went to check the canyon bottom and Linds went to my right to check the neighboring property. After just a few steps each in opposite directions, the buck exploded out of the buck brush right in front of us and started up the hill the same way the doe went. Linds had her back to the action but I whisper yelled and got her attention. She turned and saw the buck cruising up the hill and I was able to stop him at about 100 yards with a grunt. Unfortunately he was broadside to me but too severely quartered away from Linds for her to take a shot. With her scope still on its lowest setting she dropped to one knee to get more steady and the buck started walking uphill again. Another grunt and he stopped again this time around 150 yards and perfectly broadside to her. Wasting no time I heard a shot ring out and the buck kicked hard and headed uphill towards a fence and private property. I yelled for her to shoot him again to stop him but as we went up the hill she never had another shot. We watched as his head and front end got lower and lower as he approached the fence and I knew he didn't have enough in him to jump it. As it turned out he didn't even have enough to make it and fell over a few feet shy and way laying there dead. Linds had her first ever mule deer on our second day of the trip!
We drug the buck down onto the bench where we originally spotted him to butcher him out and few hours later he was deboned and in our packs and we were starting our 2 mile pack out. It was a bit of a grind seeing as we hadn't gotten used to the elevation yet and had an entire deer split between us along with our gear, but it wasn't too bad and we got the deer out in one trip. We got back to our room after midnight and were excited to sleep in a little and to go meet Jake when he arrived the next day.
To Be Continued...
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
September 13, 2023 – We Had Our First Frost!
Hi All,
It has been a very busy summer so I haven't been as diligent at updating the blog as I should be, so my apologies. Lindsay has taken over updating our socials (which has been very well received!) and has been doing a great job of posting a lot of pictures on there weekly, so I hope that suffices in my absence on here. We are by no means getting away from doing the blog for those who don't pay as much attention to social media, so we will still be here as well. I will be trying to get back to monthly updates on the blog at least. We have been receiving a lot of picture submissions since she has been getting the weekly posts up, and we really appreciate everyone who has sent them in! Without pictures we can't do a Walleye Wednesday and a Fish Friday, so thank you!
The weather has been sporadic lately to say the least. Early last week we had temperatures in the 90's, immediately followed by a big cold front pushing the temps down into the 40's, and with that came a pretty major storm. We were very lucky that we didn't get hit too bad out here at camp, but unfortunately Ignace was a different story. Ignace had a half hour of extremely high winds knocking down trees all over town damaging property. Some folks had damage to their rooves or their homes and sadly our friends at Ignace Airways had their twin otter damaged pretty badly. We are happy to have avoided the storm but are really feeling for all of those affected. Since the storm we have seen overnight temperatures down in the 35-45 range, but the days have been absolutely beautiful and sunny with highs reaching 65-70. Last night was our coldest night yet however, and we did see our first frost of the season. I think it is safe to say that fall is here, but this is my favorite weather and time of year. It's great having the woodstove going in the evenings, nice and cool to sleep at night but warm during the day, and best of all: NO MOSQUITOS!
The fishing has been a little more volatile with the sudden pressure changes associated with the weather we have been having. Lately groups have been having about 2 days a week where they are a little less aggressive but otherwise are absolutely hammering as usual. I think now that the weather has stabilized a little bit we will stop seeing those slower days in the mix, or will have fewer of them at the very least. The fish are pretty much where they should be for this time of year, we are still seeing lots of numbers and size being caught on humps and structure adjacent to deeper water. As the water temps are cooling we are starting to see the beginning of the fish transitioning back into some shallower water along rocky shore lines and weed edges. My recommendation is still to work the humps, and if you want to cruise some of the other habitat nearby it is certainly worth your time. Here are a few nice fish caught since my last post (my apologies if they overlap with what Linds has been posting):
Despite getting some periodic rain, the lake has continued to drop most of the summer and the water levels are very low. I would say with the exception of 2021, this is the lowest I have seen the lake. Both narrows and the Rock Gardens can still be navigated, but require attention, and some of the reefs (7-70 for example) are shallow enough that they can be hit. Hopefully we will get a bit of rain this fall and a lot of watershed from our snow pack to bring things back to normal for next spring.
As our fishing season is beginning to come to a close we are excited to welcome that cool air that feels like hunting season. So far duck season is open and we have been out once without any luck. Sadly the big storm we had pushed most of the local birds south before the season opened, but it won't be too long before we have some more birds joining the ranks from up north. on the 15th grouse season opens and we are pretty excited to get some "bush chickens" for the freezer, and on the 23rd archery season opens for moose and we will be welcoming our first groups of moose hunters. It's crazy that another season has almost come and gone, but we are eagerly waiting for our favorite time of year and all of the hunting we have planned - stay tuned!
Ryan
July 28, 2023 – Hard To Believe We’re Almost Half Way Through The Season
Hi All,
I apologize for not getting a post up here sooner. A few weeks ago I had an aunt pass away and was gone most of the week to the Toronto area to visit family and attend the funeral. Once home, it took a little while to get caught back up and get everything back to normal, but we are all caught up again and I figured it was about damn time I get a post up on the blog - haha!
Well, despite the incredibly dry spring and early summer we had, for the last month or so we have been getting lots of rain. It was well needed as I'm sure everyone knows that Canada has been on fire. That is still the case out west, but locally we have seen our fire ban lifted, and the grass in the yard is actually green again. Not to mention the yard and the road on the drive in aren't so dusty, and smoke from the wildfires is basically nonexistent at this point. Water levels are low, but not outrageously so. However, had we not got that rain I think it would be a much different story. Getting into Hut is still possible although getting more and more difficult, especially with larger boats.
Fishing has remained pretty incredible all year. I am seriously not kidding when I say that since the border has been open I hear weekly that the fishing is the best groups have ever had, and the fish are consistently the biggest they have seen. We haven't seen a large influx of really big (say 27" +) walleye, but the average size now seems to be running 17-21". However, we did have a massive walleye caught by Laverne on his 88th birthday. This 32" giant made for a pretty special birthday present!
Lindsay has started upping our social media presence with weekly Walleye Wednesday posts, and has been reaching out for photos from everyone's trip. So far we have been getting quite a few so a big thank you to everyone sending in pictures, and if you haven't sent any and have some good ones, please forward them along! Below is a nice sample of some of the submissions and the walleye being caught this summer:
The walleye are definitely in the deeper water now and are being found on the shoulders of reefs and sharp drop offs in anywhere from 15-25' of water. 7 Pine Island, Gull Rock, Rosie's Rock, and The Flats are producing heavily as are just about any other structure found. Walleye are still being caught in good numbers in the current of the English River, whether it be upstream or down, but as the year goes on those fish tend to start running a little smaller than the ones being caught on the reefs.
The northern fishing has been phenomenal as well. We have seen several fish 40"+ so far this summer and a LOT between 35-40". The smallmouth bite had slowed down a bit a few weeks ago, but seems to be picking back up again for those targeting them. I have heard of a lot of nice bass being caught this week.
Lastly, we have received some pretty cool sunrise and shore lunch pictures, especially since the fire ban has been lifted.
Otherwise not too much is new around here. This summer has been the first to really feel "normal" since Covid and it sure is nice to be back into our regular rotation and seeing everyone up here and enjoying our fishing once again. The season is almost halfway done and like usual I can't believe how fast it goes.
Ryan
June 8, 2023 – We Are Rolling!
Hi All,
I apologize for not getting any posts up here yet, as we are already into the third week of our season. Getting into camp a little late (only 10 days before our first guests!) made our first month or so pretty busy, but we are starting to get caught up and back into our normal weekly routines. Opening up camp this spring thankfully went without a hitch. We went from battling snow and colder conditions through about the middle of May, and then everything flipped and we were faced with one of the hottest springs I have ever seen. I say "spring" a little in jest because we lost the ice on the lake in 3 days, and within that week started seeing days over 80 degrees! We didn't really get too much of a spring this year.
We were blasted with 10-12 days of extremally hot and dry weather through the end of May and into Early June. Fortunately, it has started to cool off a bit with the highs closer to a more normal 70-75, however it has remained very dry and we are currently in a fire ban. We don't have any fires too close to us here, and I'm hopeful it will stay that way. Canada of course has a number of larger fires out west which is flooding you guys to the south with smoke. I have received a few emails inquiring about the smoke conditions up here and so far we are very clear. We aren't currently affected by the smoke from out west and there isn't anything local enough to be smoking us out.
And now, for the paragraph you've all been waiting for: FISHING! So far the walleye fishing has been really good all year. Through the first two weeks of our season they were still being found in the rivers in shallower warm water. We were surprised to see them in the rivers so late this year, especially considering the hot bright weather we had for weeks in a row. As this week has progressed the walleye have begun to move out of the smaller rivers into the lake, but are still being caught in the English River at both ends of the lake, with the Rock Gardens really starting to shine. on the main lake the walleye are beginning to be found in the shallow warmer water along weed beds and wind blown rocky shores, and I imagine within a few weeks we should start to see some being caught on shallower reefs. Presentation has been very typical, a jig tipped with a minnow or your choice of live bait seems to be the best, but of course plenty of fish are being caught on artificial bait as well as lures and crank baits. Average size has been 16-21" with the biggest of the year at 28.5".
The small mouth and northern fishing have also been phenomenal all year. The smallies were on nests through the first couple of weeks of the season and were aggressively hammering just about any bait that came to close to home. I think they are still on nests in some cases but are also starting to branch out and feed a bit, and as a result are still aggressively hitting baits to recover from their spawning season. We have had a few northern over 40" caught already as well. Some were targeted, but as usually is the case most of them were caught by anglers fishing for walleye and ended up hooking into a giant that is there to feed on those same walleye. The English River towards the Old Bridge has been producing a number of very large northern, as it tends to.
We haven't received too many photos from guests yet so if you have or take any from your trip please forward them along! We love getting pictures up on here and our social media pages for all to see. Here are the few we have this year so far:
We would also like to give a big thank you and shout out to Fred and Mary Winchowky for sending us a new flag. For those who made it up last year you probably noticed we didn't have our flags flying as we usually do. This certainly wasn't by design, but was because we were having a hard time sourcing good outdoor flags that will last an entire season, and because our old ropes had broken and the poles needed to come down in order to be re-strung. Anyway receiving two new flags and a wonderful card in the mail this winter was just the kick in the butt we needed to get the poles fixed and the flags back up. Thanks again Fred and Mary!
Otherwise all is going well at camp and we really happy to be back to normal and seeing everyone again. This is the first summer since Covid that has felt "normal" and we are sure glad for it. Mom is doing well and is making a great recovery from her broken arm, she is very happy to be out of a cast and just in a brace now. She is still up on the weekends helping us out with cleaning and getting a chance to see and visit with everyone. Keep an eye out on Friday nights through Saturday if you are looking to say hi!
Ryan
BOOKED!! LAST MINUTE VACANCY – JUNE 3 – 10, 2023
Hey folks!!
We just received a cancelation for June 3rd - 10th of this year. This vacancy is NEXT SATURDAY!! I am also discounting this cabin again, waiving all minimums and offering it up at 30% off. This means if you are able to fill this last minute vacancy, it will only cost $250 per person for the week. There is a small catch though - this cabin is only available this year, as it is spoken for in future years. The cabin available is cabin #2, which is a 2 bedroom each room has a Queen bed, and twin bunks.
This discount is only being offered on this booking, this year only. The option to book this cabin next year will not be available.
Give us a call at 807-934-6911 asap to snag this spot!
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!