Peffley's Camp a.k.a Bushwood Country Club

Well it's that time of year again, Vinnie and the boys from Appleton are in camp along with a full complement of other guests, and it's time for the annual long drive competition and closest to the pin contest. Big hitters and hacks alike will take their turn(s) for this year's bragging rights to see if they can unseat last year's champions. It's always a lot of fun with many laughs shared by all, and a great way to unwind after another great day of fishing. Of course this is all dependent upon the weather which we are promised is finally going to improve.

Speaking of the weather, that's been the story the past two weeks as abundant rains were upon us most of the early part of the week. We have had some relief yesterday (Tues) and although we have had very heavy cloud cover, so far today the rain has stayed away. The forecast for Friday thru next Tuesday is for sunshine and temps in the middle 70's which (if it holds up) will be a welcome relief, as finding even a small window to get on the lawn tractor and get the lawn mowed has been challenging. The lake continues to rise and is now up around two feet since the rains began a week and a half ago.

The rising lake level has also resulted in much cooler water temps as surface temps were approaching the mid-70's already just a short week and a half ago. Currently, surface temps are back in the low to mid 60's and although the water is a little dirtier than normal, fishing has been very good with many guests commenting "another great week".

Other projects around camp have been on hold with the frequent rains, but an improving forecast should get us back on schedule with this year's to-do list. Time permitting, I will try to post a few pictures of this year's golfing festivities.

Delayed (again)

Sorry for the lateness in getting a new blog entry out here. I had drafted one for the week of June 2-9, entitled "High Pressure, NO Stress" mentioning the incredible high pressure system we had that week that brought abundant sunshine, warm weather and an extremely calm lake almost all week. Problem is, I never got back to finishing it, and after this weeks weather (June 9-16) it sure isn't appropriate any more. Regardless, despite high pressure weather, it was low pressure fishing as we had another excellent week of fishing.

This past week, HOWEVER, saw low pressure systems one after another, move into the area bringing us abundant rainshowers. Not sure how much rain we got exactly, but enough to cause the lake to rise about 14" this week. So you get the idea. When a 15,000 acre body of water rises 14" in about 5 days--you've gotten quite a bit of rain. Other than being a pain in the butt to deal with it, it really didn't hurt the fishing much this week until about Tuesday-Wednesday when finally the rapidly rising lake and dirtier water from the downpours did start to damper the fishing. Even at that, guests complained very little about the weather, indicating to me that overall the fishing held up very well! Case in point-veteran camp guest Bob Stromberg had one of his worst "catching" trips ever in over 40 years of coming to the camp, yet his crew of four still managed to boat 357 walleye and northern for the week, despite losing a fair bit of fishing time to the weather.

We really needed the water for the lake levels so it's hard to complain too much, but now that we are "sitting pretty" water level wise, we are hoping the next couple of weeks will be significantly drier. Long-term forecasts however are indicating differently.

Die hard smallmouth fishermen, these guys were with us for only their second year ( in fact two of the guys were first timers) and had a smallmouth fishing trip bordering on unbelievable. In one day alone, the group of six intercepted smallmouth taking advantage of rapidly rising lake temperatures to get on their beds, and caught over 200 fish in one day! That's right, one day! Of course many of them were the 17-19" bronzeback bruiser variety with their big fish for the week a 19 1/2" gem. There are lots of new photos in the photo gallery, as I have had a little time to "catch up" on posting pictures, including many new photos submitted by several group even from opening week.

One of my favorite pics from the "smallmouth smashers".....

Too many smallmouth, not enough hands?

Will try to be a little more diligent in getting the blog done next time! Until then, goodbye from the distant shores of Wabaskang Lake.