Welllllll....looky who it is....The lady who is supposed to write the damn regular blog posts!!! Sorry team, I really let you all down this year, but in my defence, we were busy.
Too busy to blog or social media post because we are too busy living in the moment helping and hanging out with our people in camp. We had a fabulous season, truly amazing! Lots of friends and aqaintences made it up and we met a ton of new people! Many of which we gained from Facebook ads and promos. Clearly I should get after it and put more effort in when it comes to social media and blogging...how ironic.
The border opened in the nic of time too. We saw some new American friends to camp and we also had some very dear friends relieved they could come visit us again. It wasn't easy for them though, lots of sudden organizing goes into driving 2800+ km one way in the spur of the moment. We appreciated every moment we got to spend with you and are looking forward to your trip next year!!
Interesting Stats From the Season:
Diesel 5000L
Premium 6000L
Matt travel by boat 3000+km
Fishermen Davin 170+
Fishermen Wathaman 43 (only!!!)
New quad (arrived with 6km) Rolled 1000 early October (lots of date night dump runs)
Eggs cracked 1600
Bacon 32kg
Shore Lunches 49
Pike 47"
Walleye 30"
Trout 32"
Days in Camp for 2021....142 days and we wish it was 143+
Projects:
Painted the inside of the guide house
Primed wood panelling in our cabin
New gazebo next to the lodge
Cleared 5 trailer loads of trees around the lodge and opened up more of the rock face. Only 32 more trees to go!
New shore lunch location cleaned up and set up
Rail fence around our cabin!!! Looks so awesome, gives us a bit more privacy too.
Pushed dead trees and debris into a fire break by the creek
Opened up a new campsite with the hopes that Irvin and Diana will park their RV with us for next season
Opened up portions of the driveway to make it a bit wider
Insulated the floor in our cabin with Barricade sub floor from Rona. We are getting closer to being there in the winter time!!!
One thing we always struggle with is Refrigerators!! Every year we pick up 2-3 from kijiji but this year we ran out of replacements which lefty us scrambling mid season. Then my big beautiful Pepsi fridge with glass sliding doors crapped out at the end. I don't get another one either! something about power blah blah blah. We'll see what I come up with for refrigeration in the lodge over the winter. Probably just have another 4-5 kijiji fridges on the trailer in the spring lol.
I'm sure lots of you saw the North was dry this year and we had quite a few fires. Matt and I were talking early spring, pretty much right after we got up there...standing on the runway, looking and talking about the ice etc and we thought it might be a dry year and so it was no surprise to us that there were quite a few fires. No fires that were an immediate threat to us but we still dug out and set up all of our fire suppression equipment. Its good to remember where you have it stored, figure out how you want it laid out and make sure it all works for if/when you need it. I had gone out to Missinipe in early August to pick up my sister and bring her back up. We sat on the patio at Thompson camps and watched the bombers come in to fill and take off again, you could see active flames shooting up into the sky right nearby to but it was clear on their patio...amazing. On the drive back north to camp, there were active flames along the road and a helicopter dropped its bag right by us as im flying in my truck. My sister and her husband were fairly concerned and taking pics/video gawking lol...just another day though, get out get in.
Fishing:
The best walleye fishing I experienced this year was a smoky orange evening at the Davin River. I had on a Williams Wabler Nuwrinkle (hard to find the big ones) and I would cast, then BOOM! Fish on!! I couldn't flip my bale fast enough to get a tight line. A walleye would hit it as soon as it hit the surface...it was spectacular!
The pike fishing I felt was still in a bit of a slump. The fish were plentiful but smalls not beauty keepers/eaters. Lots of trophy pike caught..multiple groups of people caught their PB pike on their first day which was always kind of comical and makes for an exciting trip. But, FILLING limits with good sized pike for the freezer proved difficult for many or they just kept some smalls. Then late September came around...Matt and I fished a lot after I took the kids out and came back in. Man did we catch some nice pike 25-30". Found some ridges and reefs and weed beds that surprised us. If the water stays low next season matt is gonna need to mark some additional stuff on big Davin.
I caught a really nice 43" pike on a day that I went to shore lunch with Matt. We cruised past a couple places on our way, really only fishing 30 min or so...I was lucky.
Trout- lots of people did really well on trout shallow spring and summer deep. I, however, did not. lol. I caught a couple nice ones for the freezer but I didn't get a chance to hook up in the #'s that everybody else did... story of my life in the kitchen all the damn time!
Tube jigs (TC moto) did really good but the BUZZ BOMBS were the golden ticket for the deep trout. Such an old lure and it has always done really well on our lake. They came out with some new colours and finishes so we will be sure to be fully stocked with as much as possible for next season.
If you have read some past posts, you will know that Matt is a disaster when it comes to keeping a tidy tackle box and typically has lures hanging out in a tin can screwed to his boat. I bought him a new tackle box and organized it this spring...he did pretty good this season. The tackle box was used for the most part but his tin can was still pretty full!
I take so many photos and so many videos each summer...guests send me their pics all the time for me to post. I will be creating a calendar of the most beautiful pics I take or that guests send to me...it will be available for the new year.
Next year think I will get guests to check in on social media if they like and post their own photos from their trip and then just tag us. That makes much more sense than me posting everything I get sent none of the time lol.
I have started a new YouTube channel for all the videos I take...planes landing and taking off...stuff from when we are out fishing etc. You can check some videos out there, just search Davin Lake Lodge. I am still in the process of adding content but it will have a ton of stuff uploaded in the coming weeks. Look out for a website update too. I will upload the 2021 pics and update pricing for 2022. It has to go up a bit, be prepared to see that. Carbon taxes and fuel prices...yeah. It won't be drastic but there will be an increase in package pricing.
We are taking a bit of a break right now and I am catching up on bookwork and my to do list but I will be sending out an email to friends of DLL on my email list prior to November 5 to encourage early booking. I would like to open up first come first serve widespread booking for 2022 by November 15. We are on the cusp of exploding in popularity but will remain humble through the expansion in the next 2 years. Stay tuned, we have some other big projects to get through before building additional cabins...but we have almost arrived at that point, How exciting!!!!
So what are we doing right now?? Chillin out!! Matt will head back to work in the next couple of weeks but we are hoping he sticks around home, or not too far from home, until Christmas. I have a couple of shifts scheduled for the end of the month and then a couple in November. I have lodge bookwork to complete for the accountant so I can't commit too much in healthcare at the moment...I'm sure I will be flat out before Christmas again.
Kids are good, happy to be back in school and having a social life. Freja has learned to skateboard and is doing really well..no surprise, she is an over achiever! lol
Timber, BARK!! and I have returned to the daily dog park life and continue to walk our winter route in the evenings....boring I know, but after the busy summer I had its nice to settle into a winter routine.
The wheels are already turning in preparation for 2022. Stay Tuned and watch our website and your inbox (check your junk folder too) for the signal to book your 2022 Adventure North to Davin Lake Lodge.
Cheers friends,
Matt, Danica, Milo, Freja and of course Timber and Bark
