Greetings to all you avid and loyal fishermen (women included), the North is a scorcher today and we are hiding from the sun until after lunch when we go swimming. Little smoky here today, lots of fires burning in the far north and on the western side of the province...a few in our areas too but nothing threatening. We will fire up the pumps today to ensure they are operational and ready when/if needed...pray they are never needed!
Today is July 15...I must apologize to all of you regular readers...I have not done a post to inform you all of the happenings around camp or the lake & fishing conditions. I could never lie to save your feelings of being left out, so I will tell it to you straight. The fishing has been awesome!! lol I will call it another Year of the Walleye! They have been so plentiful and large sizes too! Lots having to be tossed back as they are too large! They are still quite shallow as well in 4-12 feet, near weeds and reeds at the shorelines, in moving water, at the T and in Atwater...they have just been phenomenal and are still the #1 catch today. Lots of guests made their limits for take-home. Irvin and Diana (former owners) were up late June and again last week...Irvin said he has never seen so many walleye and in places he has never seen them or fished for them. He also had no troubles finding the pike during his June trip but I'm sure he has never really divulged ALL his secret fishing spots to us either.
Lets talk about the trout....they have been good this year too but the majority of them stayed fairly deep. Sure there were some good numbers in the shallows this spring but right from the get go we were catching good sizes and good numbers in the deeper areas where they hang out. I will back up a bit to last fall...Matt and I were up until later September and we never really experienced a true trout spawn. we thought we missed it, it was very late or it didn't happen at all. Still remains a mystery. But, this spring when ice came off and right up until about June 17, lots of the trout caught still had roe..too early for it to be accumulated or it was left over from last fall.. either way, I think the spawn cycle was interrupted or incomplete from 2021 and that affected the their movements this spring. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS say: when you have a multi species lake, they species go in cycles. Some species will be dominant for a few years then another will take over as the cycles progress. Weather and water temps play a huge factor as well.
Pike: few and far between this spring but have really turned on the last 2 weeks as the weather and water warmed up. Seeing some really big fish and plentiful eaters the last couple of weeks but it took some time for them to start showing up in any really numbers and sizes. They are hungry for what ever you throw at them now!! I caught a decent pike about 10 days ago and as we got it in the net it spit the hook and also spit out an 8" burbot! The feed is on!
Tackle: Regular readers know what I use but I will refresh you...I typically run a Mepps syclops in blue/pink as well as a Len THompson five of diamonds #2...I do this because if I can catch then anyone can catch! Matt is still running his jig head with a 3" white double grub tail and he catches ridiculous numbers, so clearly that is what works. I even switched over to that one day when we were in Atwater...we started catching walleye in about a 100 yard stretch and within 30 min we had it narrowed down to about 20yards, both of us catching on every pass, back AND forth! Then it turned off and we went home lol
He also went 12 for 15 casts at the portage one day when delivering fuel for the outpost. His last couple casts he had lost his jig tail and he still caught! lucky bugger.
Camp has been very busy...we saw over 90 people in June and just over 100 for July. I have not done a count for August yet but we will be in the high 80's-90's. We are absolutely sold out for the season! I have found a couple of spots for last minute people but I really don't have anything left at all for this season, except for a spot or 2 in September. It won't hurt my feelings if they stay open though because by then we will want to be on the lake ourselves. Speaking of earned days off, we have once again taken time for ourselves at the end of July, nearly 10 days!! I have some big family groups in during that time but they are Independent and will require minimal assistance from us. We plan to fish and suntan and sit around the campfire eating chips and s'mores....play some games with kids and do some fort maintenance over at Point Evergreen (milo's shack). Our days off are quickly approaching and I am so excited...to sleep in lol.
Matt is out fishing today with Gus (his dad) and friend Lorna and Gus' best friend Bruce whom we have all known for about 100years. Bruce has gotten into some dirty card games with Freja and has lost just about every time. Freja is a real natural with playing cards, it doesn't matter what game it is, she picks up on strategy and can conjure up all the cards from the deck that she needs. I think the crib count is 9wins and 0 losses for her...everyone loses and we don't take it easy on her either! We keep joking that we may need to get her around the countryside to enter into crib tournaments...next stop VEGAS!!!
Camp fills up again today for the next 5 days and then we are into our days off then boom it will be the end of the month and we will be onto August....man time flies up here, it is so sad! Kelly from Tulsa will be here in 55 days and as much as I love your countdown Kelly, it is a double edged sword. When you come in, our season is nearly over! Kelly is the last group I cook for so I pull out all the best dishes and desserts for him....I got some delicious goodies in store for you!!
Not much sign of bear in and around camp...we have had a few but BARK!! and Timber know their job and do it well. Lots of wolf tracks on the driveway in and on the end of our runway, but no run-ins with anything so that is a relief.
What else can I tell ya...Im not sure! This is our 6th year of operations and we are still having the time of our lives and we wouldn't change a thing...except maybe a lotto max win! We are already blessed enough so that would just be the cherry.
Family picture is coming up...sometime on our days off, we have a spot picked and the drone will capture us at the spot. stay tuned!
I hope to do another post early August, let you know fishing conditions and update you all with the trophies on the board! Cheers to tight lines...if your not outside, you should be!
Matt, Danica, Milo, Freja and of course Timber and BARK!!
**EDIT: I wrote the majority of this yesterday but didn't get the final edit completed. Today is a new day, the weather is 24 ish and overcast and the lake is FLAT!! Camp is completely full today and so is the campground...couldn't ask for a better weekend!
Gus, Lorna and Bruce left this morning, so it is just us 4 regular camp staff...kinda nice to have no extra mouths to feed, although I would've kept Bruce awhile longer to keep playing cribbage with Freja. Hugs to you all and hope to see you soon!
Little fire burning south of us so there is a bit more smoke in the air today.
I had mentioned that matt took his dad, Lorna and Bruce out for a fish again yesterday and they did great!! Pics to prove it! lol
Lots of guests did really well yesterday day...deep trout and shallow pike and walleye. Can't ask for a better experience I suppose. Matt and I are always so nervous and pray that people catch but then we just have to put our trust in the lake that it will produce, like it always does!
Anyways, I will leave you with another fabulous sunset that was taken by a guest...Steve Price
and another....smoke coming off a campfire...
and another....pic of our Canada day decorations
Cheers from our full house to yours...tight lines to all! If you're not outside, you should be!
MDMF T&B