How to survive a Canadian heatwave...

Hi y'all!

We packed up another good group and they are now headed towards the border.  Would you believe that we have one single week remaining?  That is it.  Every meal we make this coming week will be for the last time in 2013.  I think if Travis was being honest he would say "woohoo!"  When you prepare, serve, and eat the same menu for 15 weeks in the row it can get a little monotonous.  Just a bit.

The guys up this week were troopers in the heat wave.  Good. Ness.  It was HOT.  Everyone stayed in good spirits and we compensated with extra scoops of ice-cream.  I just tried to imagine a blast of cold air coming from the imaginary air-conditioner we don't actually have at the lodge.

Just when I thought I couldn't drink one more sip of water I would grab a precious cherry coke zero brought up from the states (get with the program, Canada!) and plop it in the deep freezer.  That's right.  I said the deep freeze, my friends.  If you haven't tried this before get up right now and do so.

I know what you are thinking:
1. She is a desperate woman.
2. How long can you put a can of soda (or pop depending where you live) in the freezer before it explodes?

Well let me tell ya, because I googled it.  The internet consensus is that you have at least 2 hours before you need to get truly worried about an explosion.  Diet soda will explode faster than regular soda - FYI.  See how informative this blog can be?  You are welcome.  Soda is much more refreshing when it is truly ice-cold.  And anyone who says soda is better in a glass on ice is just nuts in my opinion.  I love it straight from the can.

 Hot, still, and sunny days can make for some tougher fishing for sure - but our guests persevered.  These guys caught some nice fish!

Here is Tim with his 17.75" smallmouth on Parker Lake

2nd biggest smallmouth of the season!

Tim also caught this 13.5" smallmouth on Parker

Here is Kyle with a nice 23" walleye on Red Lake

Kyle also caught and released a 41.75" northern on Red Lake

 AND a 42.5" northern on Red Lake

Kyle is here with his brother, Phil, to fish the Red Lake Fall Classic walleye tournament this weekend.  Too bad its not a northern tournament, eh?  We will try and keep you posted as to how they do this weekend.  Good luck guys!

We had a handful of new guests at Eagle Falls Lodge this past week.  They probably weren't expecting the heat we had the last few days!  

But they still caught fish!

And they enjoyed a nice shore lunch as well.

I love this next picture...

This is how I hope everyone feels when they are out on the lake.  

We had our first guest from Southern California last week.  Talk about a long trip up!  Wayne was super nice and super glad he packed some shorts at the last minute.  Who knew?  

He caught and released this 41" northern pike on Red Lake

Wayne and his fishing partner, Todd, spend the majority of their week casting for northern.  They visited lots of weed beds similar to the one below...

All in all another great week!  

Homemade Ice-cream

Last week we had an extra special dessert treat here at Eagle Falls Lodge: homemade vanilla ice-cream!

I've blogged about ice-cream before, so it stands to reason that we are big fans.  It can be tough out here in the wilderness.  We don't really have good access to ice-cream, milk shakes, and other summertime treats that you folks get to enjoy back home.  However, we are problem solvers.  The group up here last week wasn't discouraged either.  They came fully prepared to make their own.  Now that's the spirit, people!

Denise and Linda - ice-cream magicians!

Travis and I have a hand-crank homemade ice-cream maker back in Illinois, but lucky for everyone involved these ladies had the foresight to bring a motorized ice-cream maker to the lodge.  MUUUUCHHHHHH easier.  Believe me, I've hand-cranked my fair share of this homemade creamy cool deliciousness over the years.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process of making homemade ice-cream the secret is in the salt.  Rock salt that is.  You will use a fair amount and it is layered with ice between the actual bucket and the ice-cream canister you can see above hooked in below the motor.  

You can buy "ice-cream salt" but rock salt used for melting snow and ice works just as well and you can certainly get more bang for your buck going this route.

Travis even helped to layer the ice and salt while that sweet little motor kept cranking along.

After about 20-30 minutes your ice-cream should be pretty firm.   This will vary depending on how much you make and whether you are living the life of luxury with a motorized ice-cream maker or if you are keeping it old-school with a hand-crank machine.  

We just draped a towel over the whole thing and left it in the shade to set up for an hour or so.  At dinner time we removed the canister, took out the paddle, and scooped away!

Delicious!

We enjoyed ours with cherry cobbler and peach cobbler.  

There may or may not have been a freezer raid a few hours after dinner.  It quickly became a free for all to get some of the leftover ice-cream.   This special dessert treat didn't last long out at camp! 

Lake Trout might be Grandma's best friend

Hello!

It is suuuuuuper hot here today.  And humid.  And sunny.  Did I mention it was hot?

I travel many miles to avoid this type of summer weather.  I thought mother nature and I had a deal.  Looks like it may stick around for a few days too.  Yuck!  I predict it will be miserable for the next few days, then it will be pleasant and perfect for a split second, and then it will move right onto freezing.  I'll be begging for warmth by the end of next week.  Oh Canada.

This is where Travis and my mama would tell you I have a tendency to be a bit dramatic in my predictions, and dramatic in general actually.

But!  The weather has nothing to do with the title of this post.

In last week's post we shared an awesome picture of a lake trout caught and released on Red Lake.  Caught by accident while trolling for northern.  With a GIANT stick bait called a "grandma".  We all found it a bit odd that a grandma lure would bring in a lake trout.  Its definitely not something the guys fishing last week are used to seeing with that method of trolling.  Well, Tate's 33" lake trout was just the first!  We had two more really nice and healthy looking lake trout caught last week on grandma lures after Tate caught his.  Take a look:

Gene's 32" lake trout

Jason's 34" lake trout

 What an awesome fish!

Please remember that lake trout are catch and release only on Red Lake, and if you are specifically fishing for them you must use a single barbless hook with no live bait.   They tend to like deeper water depths and are mostly found on the west end of Red Lake.  I've never even seen one outside of pictures!  They aren't a dime a dozen, but I think we can all agree there are some nice ones in Red Lake.

Side note:  As great as this post title is, wouldn't it have been better if it was MY grandma catching a lake trout using a grandma lure?  Gran and Grandma, we may just have to spend some more time on Red Lake next summer jigging for lakers.  Just for fun here is a picture from well before my Eagle Falls Lodge days of me with my gran and grandma.

 I come from good people, I tell ya!

Tomorrow is Monday, which means.... Fish Fry!   Be jealous.

Northern Pike have been plentiful and plenty BIG!

In last friday's post (which you can read here) I hinted to everyone that there would be some nice fish caught in the coming week.

Ladies and Gents....enjoy!

 Kevin - 35" northern

Kevin - 35" northern

 Austin - 41" northern

 Gene - 41" northern

Jim - 39" northern

Mike - 37" northern

Greg - 41" northern

Jerry - 36" northern

J.J. - 35.5' northern

 Ethan - 42.5" northern

Donnie - 35" northern

 Bill - 34" northern

 Dave - 36" northern

 Joe - 35" northern

Joe - 38" northern

 Mike - 37" northern

 Dan - 35" northern

Dan - 39" northern

Mark - 32" northern

 Mark - 32" northern

 Matt - 38" northern

 Tate - 39.5" northern

 Tate - 40" northern

 Tate - 42" northern

We also had three 44" northern pike caught this week in Red Lake.  What beautiful fish!

 Ethan - 44" northern

Troy - 44" northern

Tate - 44" northern 

We definitely had a camp full of northern pike fishermen, wouldn't you agree?  I think they had a good time.  They saw all types of weather: rain, heat, fog, and finally some cooler temperatures.

Some walleye fishermen arrive tomorrow, so we will see how they do out on Red Lake and Parker Lake in the coming days.

Have a good weekend!