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