2011 Season Underway

Grab a cold beverage of choice, raise it high in the air, and say in true Bud Light commercial fashion: HERE WE GO! The 2011 NW Ontario fishing season is (with the walleye opener today) officially underway. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted it was supposed to be posted on Saturday but with the poor weather we had to delay the award ceremony (read below).

Cloudy skies, intermittent sprinkles, and easterly winds around 12 mph did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of guests who have long awaited this week. The fish did not disappoint with good catches being reported from throughout camp on all species ( except perch for which no one fished). Lake trout, walleye, pike and smallmouth were all caught despite the dramatic change in weather from the sunny skies, light winds and 75 degree temps from last week to today's emerging front. It wasn't fast and furious, but with some hunting and pecking most everyone was able to catch plenty to eat. Water temperature is around 58 degrees.

Joining us this year, for his record 50th consecutive year is Don Strafford who wasted little time in getting in some early lake trout fishing and with good success. It is always great to have a kid (Don will turn 81 in a couple of months) in camp. Just like a kid, he and Pete were out right until 10:00 pm (it gets dark about 9:45PM) on Thursday night laker fishing and had me pacing the floor watching for them. I guess if the passion for the sport runs deep in your veins there is simply no denying it.



Don Strafford (L) and Pete Greendyke with some early season Lake Trout



To celebrate Don's 50th year in camp, we presented him the following plaque: (sorry for the rough photo)



This may not be the only 50th year award we present as we have a couple of others knocking on the door.....but until we celebrate the next one, we just want to say one more time "Thank you Don" from all of us, it is always a pleasure to have you in camp.

L-R Pete Greendyke, Steve Strafford, Don Strafford and me

Don Strafford with his 50 year recognition award

We will try to keep the blog updates coming fairly regularly as you look forward to your upcoming trips to Wabaskang. Until then...take care and see you soon.

Feels good to be at camp...

A sentiment that I know many of you would agree with. We got in late in the day on Monday after a joyous 3 hour "experience" being "processed" at the border. (Please feel free to insert your own words for experience and processed! Of course, there are always a few hiccups (i.e. flat boat trailer tire) to further slow the process, but at that point nothing could stop us from getting to camp. Just enough time to get everything unloaded and into camp and get the generators fired up for some lights. On Tuesday we headed back to Dryden to pick up Ray and Marilyn at the bus stop and to return to camp to get started.


The weather this week has been pretty tolerable overall with the exception of today which stayed in the mid 30's almost all day with some rain and sleet mixed in for good measure. Great day for indoor projects and we took advantage of it! Brand new gas ranges are installed in Cabins 6 & 7 and a new water heater is in Cabin 7 also. On Wednesday we got the floating docks all back in, along with a couple of boats and hope (weather permitting) to put more boats in tomorrow.

The water temperature for you early season bookings is now 45 degrees, but with an excellent forecast over the next seven days I would expect opening week water temps to be close to 55 degrees or possibly warmer which should result in an excellent opening week!

Looking forward to another incredible season, hope you are too!

Ice Out Draws Near

Great news from Perrault Falls, as it looks like ice out on Wabaskang is now just a few short days away. The last couple of days of temps around 16C ( thats about 61F) and some strong South winds have really started to speed up the ice out process I am being told from our friends in the area. Looks like we will get to boat in to camp this year and not have to fly! That comes as great news to all of us. Rain showers have returned to the short-term forecast also, but I think that is just to "welcome" us back to Ontario.

Lube the reels and grab a stringer, its almost go time!

Rain or shine, the next blog entry will be from the wilderness of NW Ontario. Stay tuned!

Still searching....

For spring that is. Talk about some crazy weather... on Sunday April 10th here in Granger we hit a high of 82 degrees. One week later, we had minor snow flurries. C'MON!! Unfortunately, this crazy temperature pattern held true in Ontario also, with the last week reverting to daytime highs in the 30's and 40's and overnight lows in the teens. Yeah, I know thats MAKING ice, not MELTING ice. Now the good news is that rain and warmer temps are in the forecast again for this week which will help to get things going again.

Most reports I have from the area are indicating anywhere from 16-24 inches of ice on area lakes and still tight to the shore on the bigger waters. Fortunately, most accounts are also reporting that very little of the remaining ice is "good" ice with lots of slushy layers between. So once things get moving it should (with just a little help from Mother Nature) go pretty fast.

UPDATE: Village Corner

Many of you have asked in emails, phone calls or by other means about the status of the Village Corner (gas station, restaurant and tackle store) located at the junction of Hwys 17 and 105 in Vermilion Bay. There has been no progress made to date in starting any rebuilding and so the likelihood of any reopening for the 2011 season appears slim. Bobby's Corner to the west about a mile is still open for gas, phones, tackle or other last minute supplies if necessary, as of course will be Dutchie's General Store right there in Perrault Falls. Some cell service is available in Vermilion Bay as well, depending upon who your carrier is. If you are calling by cell to arrange pickup at the landing, I would strongly suggest pulling off the highway right in Vermilion Bay to place that call as the reception can get pretty sketchy as soon as you have headed north on Hwy 105.

On a final note and as evidence that spring (despite many outward appearances) is HONESTLY getting here, I have one more local fishing story to share. A friend of mine back from the days of my involvment in the Michiana Steelheader's called me last week to see if I was available for some bluegill fishing. We had actually tried this once before about two weeks prior with little success and left the lake with a consensus opinion that "spring isn't here yet". Well on Thursday, April 14th we decided to try it again. This time with much better success as we caught about 75 bluegill on the day, culling through about 25 of the smaller ones, to keep a two man Michigan limit of 50 fish mostly in the 7-9 inch range. What a treat it was to have fresh bluegill for dinner on Friday night! After not getting in any ice fishing this year, those bluegill fillets sure didn't last long on our table with Milissa and the girls chowing down like it was their last meal (and I guess I probably ate a couple of pieces myself)! May just have to try that again one more time before heading north!

Just a few of our 50 fish limit...gosh were they good!

Until next time--keep thinking Spring and some excellent fishing on the cool, clear waters of Wabaskang Lake.

Spring update

Hey everyone,

Hope you are enjoying the very slow and deliberate arrival of Spring this year. After being teased weeks ago with some temperatures in the seventies, it has been a treat since to get a sunny day in the 50's. Despite the cooler temperatures, I actually had a chance to get our boat (TrebleTime) out on Lake Michigan twice recently for some early spring coho salmon fishing. After neglecting the boat for nearly the last five years ( being in camp all summer, the home fishing season is pretty short ya know), it sure felt great to get her back in the water. It required a lot of cleanup, mechanical issues to address, new trailer tires and a handful of other things, but on the morning of March 31, we set in at Michigan City, IN for her "maiden" voyage in quite some time.

As luck would have it, the fishing Gods blessed us with some incredible spring salmon fishing which produced a three man limit in just two hours of fishing. It felt really great to be back on the water again, and also to know that I hadn't forgot EVERYTHING about setting downriggers, planer boards etc. that come with fishing the big lake.

With having a such a good time on the shakedown trip, and a favorable weather forecast for the next day, I decided to try to find a boat partner for the next day and return to the scene. Whereas the day before the lake had a pretty good residual chop on it left over from the previous days winds, this trip greeted us with NO wind and a lake as smooth as glass. Not necessarily the best conditions (sometimes) for fishing, but certainly pleasurable to us and comfortable to fish in. Any concerns about the smooth lake hampering the fishing were quickly put to rest as the first salmon came to the net about 10 minutes into the trip. A short hour and 20 minutes later, we were pulling rods to head in with another limit (2 man this time). Not quite the adventure and beauty of fishing Canada, but after a LONG winter it just felt great to be on the water again.

Speaking of Canada....rumors from Ontario also say that spring is SLOWLY arriving. Forecasted temperatures for much of this week and into next are in the mid 40's with some possible rain (come on RAIN!) and snow (yuck!). Still a lot of ice on the lakes, but nothing some warmer temps, rain and winds can't fix in short order if mother nature continues to trend the right way.

Approximately one more short month at home before heading up to open camp and as usual there still feels like a ton of things to get done between now and then to make the transition up north. As always, we are excited about another season drawing closer, as we know all of you are too. We look forward to hosting our guests again this summer and providing you an excellent fishing and/or family vacation with us. Stay tuned for more information regarding the status of ice out on Wabby.

Until then take care and hope to see you all in camp soon!

March comes in like a lamb.....

At least here in northern Indiana it did, so if the saying holds true can we expect it to leave like a lion? Not sure to be honest exactly what that would mean, but at this point I certainly hope it doesn't mean more snow and cold weather. Yes, you guessed it, we have had our fill of winter this year and are really starting to pull for Spring to show up.

Of course this also gets me thinking about camp (like there is ever a day that I don't!), and what getting in this year might look like. As winter holds on-- I think more and more that we might be very fortunate that this is a late opener (May 21) this year. As of this moment the extended seven day forecast for the Perrault Falls area is calling for a high daytime temp during the next week to only reach 19 degrees and overnight lows this coming weekend still around -15 degrees F. BRRRR!!!!!!!!!!, and certainly not the conditions we need to get some ice melting. Now, before everyone calls and cancels their opening week reservations, please note there is still PLENTY of time for things to warm up and the ice to go out (keeping in mind average ice out on Wabaskang is generally around the first week of May anyway) Certainly, WAY to early to push any panic buttons yet, AND on a bright note, the longer the ice hangs in there the better the lake trout fishing is going to be in addition to our typically excellent walleye, pike and perch fishing this time of year.

We would love to be able to supplement our springtime blogs with some stories of our guests. If you have a great story about a past trip to camp, or would just like to share your excitement about an upcoming trip to camp if you are a first timer, please email it to us and we will include your stories in our spring blogs.

In the meantime, think Spring, warmer weather and another season of excellent fishing on Wabaskang!

Road Trippin!

Hi All,

Just a quick blog this time from the road. I am currently in Stillwater, MN staying with a good friend dating back to my public accounting days and trying to get a few administrative details handled while waiting for the start of the Minneapolis All-Canada show this Friday (2/18).

This trip has already covered stops in Sioux Falls,SD; Omaha, NE; St. Cloud, MN; and this weekend Minneapolis. As the show circuit goes, it has been typical in that some of the shows have been very good, some average and some downright poor. One thing that stays constant is that for many show guests who do take the time to visit our booth, they learn quickly that we offer a pretty hard to beat package of remoteness, excellent fishing and affordability. Hopefully, this at least gets us on their "short list"!

With just the one show remaining on this trip, I am really starting to look forward to wrapping up this trip and getting back home. The bummer of this trip is that our daughter Megan is competing in the state finals of ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) this weekend and I am going to have to miss it. :-( (Good Luck Megan-you can do it!)

Once back home, there are just a couple of small local shows to attend. One is the Michiana Walleye Association's Sportsmen's Show.

http://www.michianawalleye.org/sportsmansoutdoorshow.com/home.htm

We look forward to maintaining our relationship with this local fishing club and continuing to provide them a free trip to our camp which they in turn raffle off to provide funds for an annual scholarship to a local high school student interested in studying fisheries management or related subject. Great program for which we are glad we can be a part.

Not much left for openings this year, but still some September dates which is a great time to be in camp and experience some terrific fall fishing. Give us a call if you are interested.

Until next time, tight lines!