holiday lodge letter

Hello everyone!

I'm sure you are all busy wrapping up any last minute holiday planning, shopping, and decorating - I know we are.  Last week we were in full "lodge letter" mode.  We received our new brochures, went through a few ink cartridges, and unpeeled hundreds of stamps to make sure you received our annual holiday mailing by Christmas.  We are excited to share with everyone the recap from last summer and our plans for the lodge in 2013. 

If you DON'T receive your letter this week please send us an email and we will get one to you as soon as possible. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Fishing Wish List

Still looking to fill out that holiday wish list?  Here are a few items to consider that will definitely improve your fishing experience.  Summer fishing may seem like a long way off, but it's never too early to start gearing up!

Rubber landing net from Cabela's $59.99 - $69.99
www.cabelas.com
Rubber nets are easier on you and the fish when compared to old non-coated nylon nets.  They don't have knots which can be abrasive to fish and also will cut down on the number of tangled hooks which makes releasing fish much faster and safer.  Be sure to consider what species you are primarily targeting since you'll want a bigger net for Northern Pike than you will need for Walleye.

Dry bags from Cabela's $17.95 - $37.95

www.cabelas.com

Dry bags are a must for me.  There's always something in the boat you want to keep dry whether it's a camera, GPS, papers, or snacks.  It may not be raining, but you'll still have spray from the lake when underway or water dripping off all the fish you're catching.  Cabela's has a great line of dry bags to choose from.  

                                        

                                                 

Lindy Rig Components from Jann's Netcraft $2.59 - $10.99

www.jannsnetcraft.com/lure-making-parts

I don't have time to build all kinds of lures, but if you build it then Jann's Netcraft has the parts for it.  I like their site for the selection of lindy rig components.  They have a terrific assortment of all colors and sizes of beads, blades, hooks, clevises, and swivels.  

Nubait Spinnerbaits $6.95 - $12.95

www.nubaits.com

Don't forget about these deadly spinners that won Bait of the Year in 2010 at Eagle Falls Lodge.  Check out their site where you can customize bead, blade, and tail colors.  These lures work great for consistent Northern Pike action and yield big fish.  

Rapala Clackin' Rap lures from Cabela's $4.99 - $10.99

www.cabelas.com

Last year was the first time I had used the Clackin' Raps and they were well worth the investment.  I replaced hooks on several of them midway through the season due to the numbers of fish they were bringing in and they equaled or outperformed the Husky Jerks that I like to use for trolling and casting.  Bonus - right now they're on sale on the Cabela's site.   

Hope this list gives you a few ideas for upgrading your equipment.  If you find any new (or old) products that make your fishing experience better be sure to let us know!  We love to hear what's working for you and trying new things too.  Photos courtesy of linked sites.  

  

so very thankful

Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone!

Just wanted to check in to wish you and yours a very happy, healthy, and food-laden Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Travis and I will both be running a turkey trot 5k in the morning to kick-start our holiday.  This will be the first time in several years that we have raced head-to-head.  Too bad neither of us are competitive (ha!).  Depending on the outcome and who blogs next there may be some results to brag about.  Wish me luck!

I hope you all have endless things to be thankful for - I know we do.

I thought I would share just a few with you:

- waking up in a warm house with my boys

- truly enjoying everything that comes with lodge ownership

- usually catching bigger fish than Travis

- all the support we receive from family and friends
- getting to eat TWO pieces of pie tomorrow
- spending 5 months of the year in beautiful Red Lake, Ontario
- the communities we live in and the people who have made them feel like home

Cheers!

Why wouldn't we have a Scottish dinner party?

Good morning all!

So a few posts back we listed some of the crazy numbers associated with the 2012 season (read that post here), one of which had to do with some certain dinner guests.  From Scotland.  For real.

I thought I would fill in the details that you have been anxiously awaiting since we left that little teaser of sharing more about this event.

In early August (think Olympics, pre-presidential campaign overload, and lazy days of summer) we received a phone call at the lodge.  It was Lucy from the propane shop in town who we have talked to a few times, but it was still a little surprising to be getting a phone call from her.  She is from Scotland, but has been in Red Lake for a while and married a Canadian.  Travis happened to answer the phone that day and this is what I overhead from their conversation:

Travis:  "How are you?  Yes, the summer is really flying by"....yadda yadda.....
(Lucy's response)

Travis:  "We would love to have you and your relatives out for dinner.  It would be no problem."
(Lucy talking some more)

Travis:  "When are they visiting?
(Lucy's response)

Travis:  "Oh, mid-September. Well, that should be fine.  Just let us know all the details the week before.  We are looking forward to it."    

Now, I'd like to think I am a very reasonable and pleasant person.  BUT!  I think it was fair to jump to the conclusion that my husband had just invited a somewhat large number of people (read: strangers) to dinner after our season was over when we would be trying to close up camp, right?  At this point I must apologize to Travis for the initial reaction I had following the above phone conversation.

Travis, being the good looking and good natured fellow he is, was super excited at the opportunity to host some Scottish visitors.  I mean how often does this situation fall into your lap?  Probably never.

Okay, so it DID sound kind of fun.

Fast forward to mid-September.  We heard from Lucy again about the dinner and learned there would be 8 dinner guests coming to the lodge.  Travis suggested we make the beef brisket, which is quickly becoming our guests' favorite meal.  Sounded good to me.  Well, not really.  It was hard for any of the meals I had just prepared for 15 weeks in a row to make my mouth water, but it sounded like a good idea that others would most likely enjoy.

On the day we expected our guests it was fairly cool and cloudy, with wind gusts over 30 miles an hour.  Due to the wind, boat travel plans had changed for Lucy and she asked if we could come get them in our barge.  The barge is great for transporting large groups of people across the water.  It is also a WIND MAGNET.  But, alas, the brisket was in its 12th hour (literally) and there was no turning back.  Travis and his dad headed over to town to pick them up.  Apparently at the landing in town where we pick up guests Travis was battling wind as he was backing up and turning the barge around to head back to camp.  He missed another docked boat by inches.  INCHES!  Someone was extremely impressed and told him, "Man, you must really know your boat!"  I'm sure Travis was sweating bullets and thanking his lucky stars at his near miss.  Always an adventure, I tell you what.

Everyone made it safe and sound and their somewhat "bumpy ride" didn't phase them one bit.  I guess being from Scotland helped.  We introduced ourselves and gave everyone a quick tour of the camp and had a great meal.  They brought the wine and super fun accents and we had plenty of food and our beautiful view of Parker lake.  It was such a fun evening (this is where Travis says "I told you so!")  and before we knew it was time to head back to town before it was totally dark.

We did get a group picture before they left for proof!

Lucy was so thankful and sweet.  I think they had a genuinely great time and many of her relatives had never been to Red Lake before!  Who knows, maybe we will become the hip dinner spot for Red Lake - locals and visitors alike.  If so we are going to have to teach Cosmo to wait some tables.

I'm sure some of you are preparing for dinner guests of your own as we head into Thanksgiving week.  Anyone hosting out of towners?  Or, better yet, friends and family from out of the county?  If so, best of luck!

Take care,
Carrie

Election Day and super fun video!

Hello everyone!

Cosmo wanted me to remind you all to go out and vote today!  This election season has really worn him out.

Also, just for fun, this is a video promoting the new GoPro camera.  Travis is obsessed with these and I think it is officially on his "I need (but really just want) list" for next season.  The footage is incredible.  I can't decide if I want the camera because of what I will be able to capture myself or if this video has convinced me that by owning the camera I will be able to do all the cool things these fine folks can do.  Either way, pretty amazing technology.

FYI: we are not endorsing this company, we just thought you guys would enjoy the video!

Happy Election Day!

Carrie

NOTO Conference

Good afternoon to all!

*Our thoughts are with everyone dealing with the aftermath of Sandy, and we hope everyone and their families who were affected are recuperating well.*

I have just returned home to Illinois after traveling solo to Thunder Bay, Ontario!

The 2012 annual NOTO (Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario) conference was held in Thunder Bay this past week and I had the opportunity to attend.  This organization does advocacy work for the outdoor tourism industry and provides loads of information and opportunity for lodge owners such as ourselves.  You may find more information about what they do on their website here.  It also gave me a chance to surround myself with other camp owners, many from the Red Lake area, to swap stories and advice regarding lodge ownership.

There were 10 people in attendance from the Red Lake area, many of which I had not properly met.  Here we are just after one of the many sessions I attended at the conference.

What a great opportunity to introduce myself and get to know other people in the industry!  Travis was unfortunately unable to join me - my work schedule is much more flexible than his.  Having one of us attend provided a great way to learn more about what is happening in Ontario regarding outdoor tourism, specifically in Northern Ontario.  I got to hear several presentations on a wide range of subjects.  One thing discussed and presented by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) had to do with an update and response to the new online fishing license system.  They are definitely working on ironing out any kinks that were faced during the first season.  What do you guys think?  Did you or will you renew your fishing license with the new on-line system?  If you did this past summer, how did it work for you?

The annual general meeting took place during the conference as well.  During the meeting, elections for the board were held and I was voted in to join the board of directors as a representative of the northwest region.  Towards the end of the summer the owners of Bow Narrows Camp (located further west on Red Lake from us) talked to me about becoming involved with the board for the NOTO organization.  They recommended me to run this year to fill an opening in the northwest region.  I am excited at the chance to become more involved with the industry and hopefully meet more people and help out others in tourism.

Overall it was a great trip and the drive along the north shore of Lake Superior was beautiful.  I did however miss all the trick-or-treaters that visited our neighborhood on Halloween night.  Travis had a blast handing out candy until he practically ran out!  We hope you all had a great Halloween and are ready for Thanksgiving.  Is it possible that it is less than three weeks away?

Take care,
Carrie

2012 By The Numbers

If you've noticed the long delay between posts, you're not the only one.  We haven't forgotten about the blog, but Carrie and I have been very busy settling back into our winter jobs.  Contrary to popular belief, we don't spend our winters relaxing on the beach enjoying drinks.  We will soon begin looking forward to the 2013 season, but before we do we thought it would be fun to reflect a bit on the 2012 season.  In case you didn't make the trip this past summer here's what you missed: 

2012 By the Numbers

4 months of fabulous fishing
1 upgraded water system installed 
541 fish boated by Travis (more later)
1 grounding system installed for our generator
3 new electric start motors!  
20 guests under age 16
600 Tim Horton's donut holes purchased on Friday mornings
3 Northern Lights sightings
0 T-shirts left (ordering more for 2013!)
107 guests new to us
5 visits by the MNR 
6 locals sought shelter during a wicked storm
360 hours spent washing dishes (yes, that's 9 weeks of a full-time job)
2 fish hooks removed from fingers
1 Epipen administered
130 sunsets overlooking Parker
2 search & rescue missions
5 birthdays celebrated
2 wolf sightings
54 trips to town
51 boat oil changes
1 triathlon finished by Carrie
21 portages
2 eagle nests
25 brave swimmers on Parker
9,611 liters of gasoline used
3 doggie play dates for Cosmo
8 dinner guests from Scotland (more later) 

Whew.  It was a busy, productive, and unforgettable summer.  A HUGE thank you to all of our lodge family that continues to make Eagle Falls Lodge their fishing destination!

side note:  
That picture was taken this past spring on our way up to Canada at Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis, MN.  We didn't want you guys to think there was an incredible waterfall out at the lodge that we hadn't told you about!

An evening on the lake

Good evening everyone!

Travis and I just came in off the water for the last time this season.  It was one of those perfectly calm evenings with yet another breathtaking sunset.  It was as if every creature was aware of our imminent departure and came out to say goodbye one last time.  Most of the loons have migrated I think, but to hear their haunting cry is absolutely moving.  We could see its silhouette on the water while it swam in the bay.  The beavers were out being very busy (as always) and we had one come right up to the boat.  Travis was casting into a weed bed as a last attempt for a smallmouth bass this season and we cut the motor.  The instant silence is totally awesome.  Out of nowhere we could hear an incredible snorting sound.  It had to be a bull moose and we could hear it just off shore into the woods for a good 10 minutes.  I had never heard that before and it was something.  As the sun was setting, bats fluttered around us eating the last of the summer's bugs.  Sometimes it takes these quiet moments for me to truly appreciate how lucky I have been.  The end of the season is always tougher on Travis, it breaks my heart to watch him have to leave this place he loves so very much.  But how truly truly lucky we are.  We are here for five months a year - and find happy, unforgettable moments each day.  And the view from the office isn't bad either.

As we docked the boat I asked Travis what he was thinking about.  His response: "I was thinking about how cool it would be if we could get a camp boat up into a tree."  I kid you not.  That guy is unpredictable.  But you have to admit, a camp boat tree house does sound kind of amazing.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and a good start to the week.  We will be traveling home early next week.  As much as I look forward to Chinese food, being able to talk to family and friends, quick runs to the grocery store, and settling back into our Illinois life, our Eagle Falls Lodge portion of life is pretty darn grand.

All good things must come to an end...

Hello everyone,

We haven't blogged in a good solid week and there is no excuse.

We helped our last group pack up this past Friday and Travis and I have been enjoying a few quiet days out at the lodge.  It is hard for us to believe that the 2012 season is already over.  We pretty much blinked at the beginning of August and it was Labor Day.

As we start to pull boats out of the water and winterize everything out at camp we stop and soak in our last few moments of Canadian wilderness.   It is something that I have really grown to love and miss over the winter months.  How lucky we are to enjoy this view, the remoteness, and all the guests who have truly become our friends in the past few years!

We can't thank our guests enough, it is because of all of you that we had another great summer!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We have much more blogging headed your way throughout the off-season, so stay tuned over the winter.  Travis and I have lots of work to do before we head south, but are also finally relaxing and enjoying some time on the water and the deck while we are still here.  I think Cosmo knows his trip is coming to a close, because he has been outside ALL day these last few days.  The weather has been beautiful and very fall-ish.

Hopefully you all had a great Labor Day weekend and now that summer is over you are looking forward to fall - my favorite season!

Carrie

Year of the Pike

2012 seems to be the year of the Northern Pike at Eagle Falls Lodge.  We've had a record year for numbers of big Northerns caught and released.  You might remember a few days ago we had a flurry of activity on the catch & release board.  The group that was targeting Northerns has headed home, but the numbers they left behind on the board are staggering.  They caught and released 154 Northern Pike measuring 30" or more and 20 Northern Pike measuring 40" or better.  That's an average of fourteen fish 30" or better and nearly two fish 40" or better in each boat.  Not bad right?

Here's how the group fared over the last four years with us.  This is even more impressive considering this was the smallest group size over the past four years.

It's especially great to know that so many fish are being caught in the 27.5" - 35.5" slot and many of these fish will survive to become trophy sized.  Here are a few more shots of big fish from the week: 

Scott's 42" Northern

Dakota's 39.5" Pike

Marty's 37" Northern

Dave's 44.25" Pike

On your mark, get set, go!

Good afternoon to all!

Some of you who have been up more recently may have heard me talking about the Red Lake Triathlon.  They had the 23rd annual Red Lake Triathlon last Sunday morning and I am proud to say that I took part in it.  This was definitely a new type of competition for me and one that I was not quite adequately prepared for.  I have been running a little more regularly this summer (more for my sanity than anything else) and I managed to do a few practice swims before the event, but other than that I was the farthest thing from prepared.  

Sherry from the Marina has been on my case the last few summers about competing in the triathlon and I had successfully avoided it with telling her I couldn't just leave the lodge to do the event - we all know I make better breakfast than Travis (ha!).  But alas, I could actually swing it this summer so I figured what the heck.  I plunked my $30 down and bravely signed up.  I was at least smart enough to register for the "sprint distance" which consisted of a 750m swim, 20km bike ride, and a 5km run.  Sherry was nice enough to lend me her bike and her helmet and I met her at her house a few weeks before the triathlon to adjust my seat and helmet.  So I should be good to go on the biking portion, right?

When Carson, Travis' brother, was up here he helped me measure the swim distance on Parker from a boat while holding a hand-held GPS.  FYI - if you swim to the point and back you've done about a 1/2 mile or around the 750m necessary for my race.  Donny Aiken, who owns the marina, let me borrow his daughter's pink swim goggles so I could at least swim in the right direction on race day.   Luckily I had my own running shoes and gear and I definitely felt most confident about the run portion of the race.  I come from a running background and was pretty sure I could at least finish the 5km run, now whether it would be pretty or not was still in question.  

I feel it is important to share that when I was doing this practice swimming and when I signed up for the race it was consistently in the 80's during the day with water surface temperature hitting over 70 degrees.  Care to guess what the temperature was the few days leading up to the race?  Mid 50's with low 40's at night.  Yikes!  

So there I was on Saturday evening getting everything packed and ready for the following morning, race day.  Anyone who knows me well knows that the first and MOST important thing to pack is snacks.  I don't like to be cold or wet either, but if I am hungry - watch out!  Snacks get packed, every combination of bike/run outfit gets packed, water bottle is packed, goggles, extra socks, shoes, you get the picture.  Looks like I am getting ready to leave for three whole days.  I double check everything and I decide maybe I should google "triathlon tips" since I have never done anything like this before.  Let me just say: WORST. IDEA. EVER.  I quickly wasted 30 minutes peeling through websites, forums, etc. and learned how much training is recommended, the gear you should have (which I most certainly did not have), and how to set up and manage your transition station.  Transition station?  What the heck is that?  I'll tell you what it is, something that had not even crossed my mind.  Insta-panic for Carrie.  I called Travis back to our room when I had reached full potential meltdown mode.  He knows this look quite well, unfortunately.  Like always, he knew what to say and not say and tried to kindly suggest that the Red Lake triathlon was probably fairly low key and that I had zero pressure to do well or do it at all.  I signed up for this because I wanted to do something fun, right?  So I headed to bed feeling better about everything and refocused on how cold it would probably be the next morning.  

I woke up at 6am to get dressed and had my one cup of coffee with two slices of peanut butter toast and a banana.  So far so good.  Travis got up to walk me down to the dock and it was definitely chilly.  First time I have ever had to take a boat to get to a race!  I told him if I wasn't back by noon to start getting concerned.  The boat ride was awesome, very rarely do I get out on the water this early in the day.  The steam on the water looked so cool and to be the only one out there was just super peaceful.  Definitely helped me to calm my mind and my jitters.  

I picked up my borrowed bike and headed to the check in on Howey Street by the public access docks.  I quickly realized that it was pretty low key (Travis is right, yet again) and found a place for my bike.  

One of the most fun parts for me was getting my swim cap and my numbers marked on both arms and legs.  I felt very official.  

Once I got that taken care of I set up my transition station and started to survey the competition.  See the girl in the picture below?  I could tell she was legit - and I think she ended up getting 2nd place.  She was strictly business, like jumping in the water and warming up for the swim business.

I was starting to notice that probably half the field had wet suits on.  Seemed like a good idea, since we were all getting ready to swim a fair distance in some cooler temperatures.  I'm tough though, right?  I was also noticing that the rest of the field had legitimate swim suits on, the kind you see on people who can swim laps with proper stroke form.  As we got to the starting line (where you had the choice to start in or out of the water, I chose out) I realized that I was the ONLY person with neither a wet suit or actual swimming swim suit on.  I had settled on sports bra and undies that could pass as swim bottoms, mostly for their increased probability of staying put when entering and exiting the water.  Yea, this is what I had to work with people.  

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of anything during the race, but here is a quick recap for you.

Swimming:  I felt like I did pretty well.  I was probably in the back half, but I felt comfortable about my pace the entire time.  I never felt like I was super fatigued or at risk of drowning.  It was neat because they had 2 float-planes set up in Howey Bay and you had to swim to each and then back to the dock, sort of like a triangle shaped swim course.  I'd say about half way through my hands and feet were completely numb.  When I got out of the water and on the dock it was challenging to get to my bike and get changed for the rest of the race.  Partially because everything was wet (picture me trying to put on running tights when my legs are dripping with water and my hands and legs are totally numb) and partially because my mobility was limited due to the cold.  I'm sure my transition time was pretty poor, but I had no idea what to expect.  

Biking:  This was maybe the toughest part.  I was nervous about being cold (which I wasn't) and I was nervous about the borrowed bike being up to snuff (which it probably wasn't).  It wouldn't change gears very well, so I just tried to keep it in a fairly low gear so I could make it up the hills.  Speaking of hills, there was a MONSTER hill right before the turn around.  I was trying to gage my position overall for females and was probably in 8-10th place during the bike portion.  Some of these may have been on teams, I wasn't really sure.  The girl I talked about it the picture above, yeah - she was WAY ahead of me.  This portion of the race was when I sort of realized that my inexperience was making it pretty much impossible for me to win or place in the top three, so I sort of decided to just have fun and enjoy the rest of the race.  Oh, I also had a super sore bum from the bike seat, like from the minute I started.  

Running:  I was surprised how much my legs felt like jello after getting off the bike.  It probably took about half of the run for me to get my legs back.  I did pass about 4 females on the run, so I think I finished in the top 5 or so.  I really enjoyed the run, I was pretty tired so I never felt like I reached "race pace" but that was fine.  It was super fun to finish strong in my strongest event out of the three.  I really do love to run, and it made me excited to get back home and do some more serious training this fall.  

Right after I finished one of the race officials came up to ask me my name.  Turns out they had my race number down wrong, so they didn't get my swim time.  Kind of a bummer.  They did get my total time which was 1:40:something.  Not bad, huh?  I don't know how many females competed in the sprint distance, but I think there were about 50 people total.  I wasn't able to go to the awards/wrap up event because I had to get back to the lodge, but it was fun to see and meet a different crowd from Red Lake.  I will definitely be doing another triathlon in the future, hopefully with a little more training under my belt.  

Anyone else tackling new adventures out there?  If so, more power to ya!

Carrie

Reason #83 we have the best guests ever!!!

Good evening!

Last week I briefly mentioned a special dessert we enjoyed out at the lodge that I wanted to tell you guys about.  Well, this story really starts two years ago during the 2010 summer in August.  Travis had just arrived with our group on Saturday and we were busy unloading everything into the cabins when I miraculously heard the phone ring.  It was Wayne Aiken back at the landing calling to tell me our other group had arrived.  I instantly got sweaty.  I calmly asked Wayne how many of them were there (4 people) and I asked him what their names were.  He told me it was Jim England's group.  At this point I had stretched the phone cord on the bag phone as far as it would go and had reached out to grasp the schedule list of who we had down for that week.  I quickly peeled over the 2010 reservation list and did NOT see anyone named Jim England - party of four.  As far as I knew I had never met or heard of Jim England or his plans to come to Eagle Falls Lodge.  Oops.  Thats what we call in the business a big, fat, lodge FAIL.  I told Wayne to pass on the message that we were on the way to get them and sorry about the delay.  

We then had to rearrange our current guests to leave enough room for Jim England and we raced across the lake to pick them up.  Thank goodness Jim, Rick, Dan, and Myrle were good sports about the whole mix up that we, of course, felt terrible about.  Don't feel too bad for them, however, because they made sure to remind us about it ALL week long.  Kept asking if we had enough food for them, or should they wait to see if there were any leftovers. They fit right in to our Eagle Falls Lodge family.  

Sometime during that week I was sitting in the lodge asking Jim about where he was from, what he did, etc., and he let it slip that he owns a homemade ice-cream shop.  Let me repeat that.  He OWNS a homemade ice-cream shop.  I was like Cosmo on steak night the rest of the week - drooling and slap happy thinking about ice-cream.  I very plainly (much to Travis' dismay) let him know how interested I would be in some of this said ice-cream.  

Fast forward to 2012.  We triple checked and confirmed Jim England's week, group size, arrival time, to make sure there were no slip-ups.  About the week before their arrival Jim emailed and asked the much anticipated question of what ice-cream flavor I would like.  I responded casually saying something about whatever he thought was best, something in season would be nice, but immediately started counting down the days until my ice-cream delivery would arrive.  

Let me tell you, it was well worth the wait!  Jim brought me 2.5 gallons of homemade fresh blackberry ice-cream, sweet glorious made-with-real-rich-cream-ice-cream.  Yep, we have the best guests ever for sure.  I think I had about 20 bowls before the first half of the week was over.  I hadn't even made a dent in the ice-cream bucket so I very graciously shared it with the whole group that week.  What a treat! 

I am one happy girl in this picture with Jim, and with a belly full of tasty ice-cream.

For those of you lucky enough to live near Olathe or Lawrence, Kansas you HAVE to go to Sylas and Maddy's ice-cream shop to confirm for yourself how delicious it is.  To go to their facebook page click here for more information.   

Here is a picture of Jim's group from last week - don't they look like some of the best guests ever?

Take care,

Carrie

Northern Pike Season Record

The battle for Northern Pike supremacy heated up last week.  As you recall, four fishermen and women were tied for the biggest Northerns of the 2012 season with 42" fish.  Last week we saw a flurry of big Northerns caught.   The record changed hands three times in 48 hours.

Denise caught a 43" Northern on Tuesday afternoon on Red Lake.

Terry topped that on Wednesday afternoon with a 44.75" Northern caught and released a few yards off the Parker Lake dock.  We hope to have a picture soon, but I can vouch for it since I was the one that measured it on the dock.  

Ahren added a 40" Northern off Parker Lake.

Denise struck again on Thursday morning.  She caught and released this 45.5" Northern on Red Lake to reclaim biggest fish on the board for the season.

We have a large group this week all chasing Northerns again so we'll see if anyone can dethrone Denise.  They already released two 40s, a 42", and a 44.5" fish in the first couple hours on the water today.  Stay tuned...

A new camp record!

Hello everyone,

We had an awesome small mouth bass caught on Parker Lake last night.  The guys who caught it thought it had to be a large mouth bass because of its size!  It measured in at 23 inches, which crushed the previous camp record.  Going into the season we had a camp record of 18 inches, which was tied in June and then beat out by Betty's 19 inch small mouth in July.  See this post for a picture of her 19 inch fish.  We were all pretty excited last night in the lodge!  Congratulations to Jesse of Madison, WI.  He pretty much has a guaranteed spot in the Christmas letter.  Who knows what today will bring?  

That is what is so completely awesome about coming up here.  You never know what type and size of fish you will bring in the boat.  Everyone was pretty pumped and hopeful this morning that today would be THE day for them!  

Weather has continued to be gorgeous, but the temperatures are definitely starting to drop.  Later this week will have temperatures in the upper 50's - low 60's during the day, with it getting well into the 40's at night.  Fall is right around the corner here in the north country!

Tonight is brisket night at camp.  For those of you who have been up already you know how awesome it is.  We have a special dessert treat tonight as well, thanks to a guest in camp.  More to come on that in the next blog post...

Take care,

Carrie

Big fish, little fish

Good morning!

Another beautiful morning here in Red Lake!  It looks to be nice and clear, but our guests found out this week that can change in a hurry.  We had a big storm roll in on Wednesday afternoon in a matter of minutes and most of our guests were still way out west on Red Lake.  I'm talking huge wind gusts, bolts of lightning and thunder, and HEAVY rain.  Everyone did exactly as they should and eventually made it back to camp.  The storm moved through fast, because the sky was clear and sun was shining by the end of supper.  Makes for a good story to tell folks back home, I suppose.

I even managed to sneak some time out on the lake this week - thanks to some very generous guests willing to arrange their fishing to come pick me up and drop me back off.  I caught some nice fish and it was just perfect weather for being out in the boat.  One of my more interesting catches was this little perch fella.  Would you believe John and I were doing the EXACT same thing and he caught a 23" walleye, while I got a perch that wasn't even as long as the crawler I was using.  See the crawler hanging down on the left side of my fish?  I guess thats why they call it fishing.

We were in Don's boat, and here he is with a nice 25 inch walleye off of Red Lake.

These other pictures were from another group up this week who enjoyed some nice shore lunches during their trip.  Looks like they had fun and ate well!

Their shore lunch may even rival our Monday night fish fry...better step up my game.

Have a great weekend!

Carrie

future fishing all-star!

Wrapped up another awesome week at the lodge!  Everyone got loaded up and is on the journey back home.

I already posted pictures of some of the bigger fish caught this week, but I wanted to highlight one of the more impressive walleyes that was caught (& released!) on Red Lake.  Natalie, who was a first time guest, caught a nice 26.5" walleye which helped her win the group's "big fish contest" this past week.  She went home a veteran angler AND had some extra cash in her pocket.  Way to go!  And we should give a shout out to her grandpa, Terry, for helping with her big catch.  Its always great to see the future generation of anglers do so well and be so excited about fishing.

I'm off to do all the errand running in town as we gear up for another group tomorrow!

Big fish club

Good evening!

Just finished a whole mess of dishes - lots of happy plates tonight!  Travis did a great job on the barbeque chicken, like always.  We have been busy this week with a mix of old and new guests at the lodge.  Everyone is having fun and we have enjoyed some excellent fish stories.  Weather wise we have had lots of rain during the evening and overnight.  Sunday night we had a HUGE lightning storm with thunder and heavy rain.  Thankfully there was no storm damage.  We did, however, get some surprise guests trying to avoid the storm.  Three couples from Red Lake had been out on the water that evening and got caught in the storm, so they decided to get off the water and come up to the lodge.  They ended up staying for a few hours and didn't attempt getting back to town until close to 11pm.  We were happy to have them seek shelter with us and it turned into a huge Olympic viewing party with everyone hanging out in the main lodge.  Super fun!  It has been interesting to watch the Olympics on some of the Canadian networks, because they focus much more on the Canadian athletes.

Anywho, back to big fish.

This first picture is one from when Travis' relatives were up a few weeks ago.  Megan caught this 26.5" walleye on Red Lake on our Muskie rod, of all things.  We had every rod, reel, net, and piece of tackle loaned out that week.  We may need to get some more back up equipment, it was the first time we had to equip about 20 people at one time!

Next up is a 19" smallmouth caught off Parker by a first time Eagle Falls guest.  Very exciting to see such a nice smallmouth come out of the lake up here.

George is up here this week and caught a nice 38" northern yesterday off of Red Lake.

His fishing partner, Dave, caught a 42" northern on Red Lake earlier in the week.  That puts him in a four way tie for biggest northern of season - 2 caught off Red Lake, and 2 caught off Parker.  I better see if I can go fishing with them in their boat before they leave - it must be lucky!

We will be back this weekend with more pictures of big fish from this past week.

Take care,
Carrie

End of July camp update

Hey everyone!

We just had another great week out at the lodge with two large groups.  One from Missouri (very close to our old stompin' grounds) and the rest hailed from Wisconsin.  All of them talked about how hot and dry it is back home.  Here we are thinking we have had a warm summer, but we are definitely not experiencing the heat levels that most of our guests are trying escape.  We had temperatures in the 80's  this week, but it dipped into the 50's at night which is AWESOME!  We also had some rain on Wednesday which was much needed.  We even mowed, ah-hem Travis mowed, on Thursday.  The camp looks super nice thanks to that sweet husband of mine :)

Here are some photos, most of which are from this past week.  They all had a great time and caught some nice fish as well!

All those nice looking fish were caught and released during this last week.  Thanks again to everyone who practices catch and release angling!  

These guys below were up two weeks ago and the guy in the middle is actually a co-worker of Travis' in the winter time.  It was great to have them up and Travis got to get out on the water with them a bit - tough job, but someone has to do it, right?  They emailed us these pictures once they got home.  A BIG thank you to everyone who remembers to email us photos.  We LOVE getting them and sharing them with everyone else.

We only have six weeks left of the 2012 season.  How is that possible?  It goes by so fast!  Please remember to let us know your preferred week for 2013, as we start to look forward and schedule for next season.

Have a great weekend and stay cool.