MIA??

No. Not really missing in action, just taking some time off from blogging and focusing on matters here at home. We trust that everyone's new year is off to a great start, and with February right around the corner, some of you no doubt, will start thinking about your upcoming trip to camp. (like us diehards aren't always thinking about the trip to camp!)

To be perfectly honest, there just isn't a whole lot to blog about when camp is not in season. It was nice to get out on the road to the Chicago and Madison All-Canada shows earlier this month. Thank you to all of our guests who stopped in at the shows for a visit, and to our new guests who booked at the shows. We look forward to having you join the "family" and are excited about having you experience our camp and the great fishing we enjoy on Wabaskang Lake. We have a local show here in South Bend, In coming up over Super Bowl weekend and then a trip to Rockford, Il and Minneapolis, Mn yet this month. If you are a local, and can make it out to the show at the Century Center in South Bend, please do so and try to revive what used to be the old boat show. Our good friends at the Michiana Walleye Association have worked hard in developing this "new" show and we think it will be a hit.

Still no ice fishing for me yet this winter as I got home from the show circuit and promptly managed to catch the mother of all head colds. Guess I should feel fortunate at least it's not the flu, but sure has made life miserable anyway. With some luck, may still find my way onto the ice before seasons end.

I was fortunate enough to get in some fall deer hunting and take a 6 pt. buck the second day of the season. Unfortunately, our fall Lake Michigan fishing, was a "non-event" as several days of extremely high winds pretty much destroyed any near shore fishing opportunities for the entire season.

In Perrault Falls, we hear that the area is receiving some much needed snow which should help maintain our spring lake levels some. Speaking of lake water levels, I did talk to some guys at one of the shows, (don't remember which one), who were telling me that they heard that Wabaskang became very hard to navigate when the water is low. Not sure where this MYTH came from, all I know is we operate a 21' transport boat with a 150 h.p. Yamaha all season long and 95% of the time can do so at full throttle across the 12 miles out to camp. Doesn't sound too tough to navigate to me!

Only 16 short weeks until opening day 2013! See you in camp soon!

Summer is heating up....

Although the title refers somewhat to the weather, as it does continue to be a little on the warm side here, it mostly refers to the fishing. The walleye have been biting at an absolutely torrid pace this week and the same can pretty much be said for the northern too, including at least two monster 45" fish the past two weeks. With water temperatures still in the upper 70's here, you might expect the fish to be a little more sluggish but that simply hasn't been the case. Can't wait for some cooler nights and to see how much better the fishing gets as water temps dip back into the 60's.

We are coming off of our slowest week of the entire season guest wise and it felt really good to have a slower week in camp and recharge a bit. With just a little extra time on my hands, I did manage to get the girls back to Lost Lake for a half day adventure and let them experience what I hoped was going to be a few great hours of walleye fishing. Lost Lake didn't disappoint as we fished for three hours and released a total of 45 walleyes with almost every one between 17-22". Throw in a few pike in the upper 20 inch range and some "eye-popping" jumbo perch and it certainly was a trip to remember. Little did we know that as the week wore on, every group of guests that we sent back to Lost Lake would make our catch seem paltry by the numbers they caught. Always nice to complement some excellent fishing here on Wabaskang with a great adventure trip and lights out walleye fishing.



CJ heading to the FLW podium...looking good!

Some of you may remember previous Blog or fishing report entries mentioning CJ Holbrook. CJ is the teenager from Roann, IN that was diagnosed about 5 years ago (at the age of 13) with lymphoma and we were able to work with the Make-a-Wish foundation to make his Canadian fishing trip wish come true. We are very thankful  to update that CJ's cancer remains in remission and that his family will be making their third trip to camp in the summer of 2013. CJ is looking great, has a new girlfriend I am told, and has started to do some professional bass fishing on the FLW tour. Young, handsome, healthy, a pretty girlfriend AND some fishing on the FLW tour....the sky's the limit. Good Luck on the tour CJ!

Just in case any of those bass fishermen want to get in on some great smallmouth fishing....


Well August will soon be upon us, hope everyone is having a great (albeit probably very HOT) summer. Camp is booking up quickly for 2013 so don't wait too long to give us a call if you are thinking about a trip next summer. Until next time-Good Fishing!

Ice Out Imminent!

Our sources on Wabaskang Lake (notably our friend Tom Williams from Sleepy Dog Cabins), tell us that ice out on Wabaskang is now just a couple of days away. The ice is about half gone now and going fast! For those in the area this means some open water fishing opportunities for delicious lake trout, walleye and pike.

Back home in Granger, and monitoring our Facebook Group page, it is clear that many of you are anxiously counting down the days to your 2012 trip to camp. With only a few short weeks remaining before we head north, this last month will go by real fast. That's assuming that I can resist the temptation to jump the gun early and head up.....



The smiling faces (especially mine) are saying "man is it good to be out of the car!"

 We just returned from a 12 hour drive (each way) from the mountains of North Carolina where we took the girls for spring break, so I may need a couple of days to recover.... not from the 12 hours of driving, but  from being "locked" in the vehicle for 12 hours with the four girls! It was a fabulous trip, after having driven through the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia et al in the past, it was refreshing to stay in the area to discover more of the beauty and serenity this area has to offer. While not quite as remote and serene as camp, I have to admit it was certainly very peaceful at our mountain cabin rental and waking up in the cool mountain air and to some awesome views was very enjoyable. Another thing I personally liked about the experience was it offered some great perspective from the "renters" point of view, something I haven't really had in this environment since my last year as a guest of camp back in 2004. I caught myself on several occasions making mental notes like " oh, I like the way they did this", or "this is nice, but they could improve it by..." I'm sure some of the same observations that go through the heads of our guests every summer and we hope get shared with us as we are always open to doing even more to making the camp and your experience with us the best it can possibly be.

The ladies rest near Split Rock on Grandfather Mountain

The view of Linville Falls from the top of an awesome trail hike

Why the sign picture? Read on....

Well in addition to pointing the way to the swinging bridge which is a great walk between two mountain peaks suspended 5,280 feet in the air (a great experience even in rain, thunder and lightning as we found out), this is also where our vacation came close to an abrupt end. I learned a valuable lesson while driving up to the mountaintop--that being: don't spend too much time reading the signs and not focusing on the road! By the time I finished reading this sign the van tires were about two inches from the edge of the steep (no guard rail) embankment. As screams filled the van, I jerked the wheel to get us back on the road and on our way back up (instead of down) the mountain! I have to admit, even my pulse was up a couple of notches after this one! On the way back down after walking the bridge, I did point out to everyone that there are quite a few trees growing down the embankment where we nearly went over so I really don't think we would have rolled down that far.... Nobody seemed amused....

Enjoy the balance of spring and see you on the distant shores of Wabaskang Lake for some incredible Canadian Wilderness fishing soon!



Michiana Walleye Association Scholarship Fund

For the past six years we have been fortunate enough to be involved with the Michiana Walleye Association and their annual college scholarship fund the Ukele Memorial Scholarship. In case you missed it on our Facebook page, we donate a FREE trip for two to camp every season ( a $1,400.00 value) to the MWA, and they raffle off 300 tickets at $5.00 each to generate the funds to award the scholarship. The program has been extremely successful through the years, with several recipients going on to excel in their field of study which is outdoors and conservation related. You can read more about their program and this year's winner on their Blog at http://michianawalleye.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in purchasing a ticket to support their scholarship fund, please contact the MWA from their Blog or their website http://michianawalleye.org/index.htm or simply shoot me an email and I will be happy to coordinate the ticket sale for you.

Thank you for your support of the program!

Opening week-UPDATE

The response to our new special for opening week has been pretty good. With the current weather forecast for Perrault Falls, things are definitely looking up and showing more potential for an earlier ice-out. Temperatures for the next seven days (at the time of this writing) are forecast to hit highs of 43-52 degrees F every day during this week. It won't take too much weather like this and the ice will go quickly! Which brings me to the point....There are still a couple cabins available opening week and due to a cancellation a cabin is now available the second week of the season May 22-29th. With the warming weather trend, this is almost certain to provide some excellent multi-species fishing these two weeks, at a time when there just aren't that many people around yet to fish 'em! If you have never fished the opener--this is a great opportunity, so don't be a turtle-- hurry up and call or e mail today!