Frost(!), Fishing and Fotos

Happy October!  It has arrived with a bang here–frosts pretty much every night.  The fall colors are beautiful, however, and I’m trying to spend some quality time outside before it gets cold and ugly. 

Steve and I went fishing Wed. afternoon.  We had a ball!  We must have released 30+, 15-16″ walleye in about an hour!  They all looked like this:

It was a bit chilly but nothing I couldn’t handle.  We really did have a blast.  I’m not too thrilled with my footwear option–not a choice, a necessity:

a sure sign that it's time for me to head south!

Steve and I celebrated our 15th anniversary on Thursday!  Happy Anniversary, Buddy!

Let’s do some of Sandi’s photos.  I have a bunch of others yet–some still trapped on my now-defunct older camera.  I’ve got some of moose camp, feeding the eagles (not suitable for all audiences), and other random subjects on my new-and-getting-friendlier camera.  For this entry, though, we’ll look at Sandi’s.  She had a lot of nice ones; these are some of my favorites:

A sun-faded loon?

You can really see the colors in this one's neck.

That's its foot sticking up!

This is my favorite loon photo of hers.

 

We call one of our eagles Eldon after Sandi's husband.

  

 

You can imagine my delight with this reflection...

Oh...my...gosh--absolutely phenomenal!

Here's Sandi's Eldon. Whatcha' got there, Eldon?

Photo Fest!

What a week!  The weather is STILL so beautiful!  I have taken back all bad things I said about no summer.  Our temps are in the mid to high-70’s and the sun just shines and shines.  It affected fishing a bit–our new group realized they needed to low-light the walleye–but Steve and I went out Tues. and returned with our limit in a couple of hours (we threw back quite a few as well).  Steve caught first and most; I’d say we tired for biggest.  We had some die-hard northern anglers here as well.  They lost track of how many fish they caught although they didn’t find any trophies.

I’m still picking blueberries and was able to get out three times this week.  I’ve also been closing cabins as they become empty.  I have only one cabin left.  We have a couple of guys coming in Tues. thru Fri., so I’ll leave that cabin alone.  I will head back to Iowa Oct. 7 and still have a bit to do around here. 

Steve’s been goofing off as usual!  He’s been pulling boats and winterizing them, as well as getting ready to antifreeze the cabins and lock ‘em up.  He’s also putting a new floor in Cabin 5; Cabin 6 got one a couple of weeks ago.  We’re road-tripping tomorrow to Winnipeg for a couple of days to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary:)

I have a lot of great photos to share.  I’ll start with Neal and Marji’s.  They’ve been coming for four years now and seem to enjoy it more each year.  They had their best fishing yet this year!  Marji enjoys photography and does a nice job:

They said this otter was really cussing them out!

I loved this reflection photo of floating sticks.

Looks like you can touch the sky...

Little, tiny minnow on a great big lure.

Whatcha' got there, Neal?

Here come a slug of bird photos:

Goofy looking cormorant

You can take my picture if you give me bread.

The mergansers really seem to flock up in the fall.

Something ruffled this loon's feathers.

Thanks for the photos, you two!  Hope to see you at a sports show and again next summer.

John and Brant from home left us a bunch of photos as well.  I have no idea how many photos of John I’ll have to send to the webmaster for Conservation Awards–I’m sure he released at least five walleyes over 24″–but I decided to use some of their scenery photos here.

How cool is this photo???

Steve got some fishing lessons from Ben.

Tony and Erik...real action or not? You be the judge.

How cool is THIS photo?

Father and son at day's end.

I take my cues from the geese...time to head south.

We feel the same way, Tony!

Sorry, ladies, he's taken. Brant's getting hitched in May. Nice stick.

Well, that’s enough for now.  I have plenty more to share…hang in there.

Friends & (Their) Families

I had completed this entry last night–probably a bit more than an hour’s work–and it just disappeared.  So here I go again.

Fishing has been phenomenal!  Newcomers as well as old timers have been catching walleye.  Bob, who’s been coming for about five years now, released a nice 26″ walleye a couple of days ago.  You can view it from our website.  Harvey and Worm, two new guys, have had a great week of walleye, northern and perch fishing.  These guys are true anglers; they don’t use a GPS or a depth finder–they just fish.  Sandi and Eldon have had their best fishing yet–spring or fall!  Charley and Nancy made their first fall trip and really liked the less-crowded lake.

The weather has been as good as the fishing!  We’re in our third week of an incredible Indian summer.  Daytime temps are in the 70’s, and the nights cool off into the 50’s.  We have beautiful blue skies with fluffy white clouds.  I took a 6-mile walk today and just marveled at how gorgeous it is.  I guess it makes up for the cold, rainy, windy May, June and July.

I’ve been picking like a crazy woman!  I’ve been out three times this week:  twice with guests and once on my own.  I’ve decided to try my hand at blueberry jam when I return to Iowa.  In the meantime I’ve baked some blueberry zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread and made a nice bear back strap stir-fry for dinner the other night. 

I want to catch up on some recent guests’ stays.  I’ll start with a great friend of the Camp, Ron.  Ron visits every spring with his son and grandsons, then returns in the fall for a month with his wonderful wife Karna.  Their good friends Bob and Ann (who hooked up with me in Florida a couple of years ago) come up for two weeks during Ron and Karna’s stay.  We ladies have a good time together–berry picking, shopping, road-tripping.  They are really good company for me.  Here are some photos I swiped from Ron’s camera:

Karna likes going after big northerns!

Bob got a bit of northern action as well.

Looks like walleye for dinner that night.

This eagle kept a watchful eye on Ron every morning.

Ron enjoys capturing sunsets

and is really, really

good at it.

Here's to a couple of great people.

Our good friends from home have been gone a week and I still have quite a few of their photos to post.  They treated us to shore lunch one day which has become a tradition.  They won’t let me lift a finger!  There were 14 of us for lunch.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

Mule skinner Ben shared stories from his life's work.

Good friends Frank and Bender got to fish together

and cook together (while John fired up another stove).

Frank has fond memories of his dad making shore lunch.

Frank and John are both unbelievably devoted family men.  This year they were able to share all their guys with us!

Frank, Frank and Tyler together at Tall Pines Camp for the first time!

John brought son Brant (middle two) back and added sons-in-law Erik and Tony.

Here's to good friends--old and new! Thanks guys!

Catching Up

I plan to do a couple of posts again this week.  I have a lot of great photos from guests.  Our friends have all headed back to Iowa, so I should have a bit more time this week.  It sure was great seeing them; Steve and I both needed a little shot in the arm to finish out the season.  Visits from home do us both a lot of good.

Andy and Virginia were newcomers last week.  They took home their limits of walleye and northern, as well as some perch.  Andy released a few very nice northern.  He knows how it’s done:

Catch...quick photo...

quick measure...

release!

He and Virginia also got to see a couple of moose swimming:

I liked this photo of Camp:

What great reflections!

We were able to go fishing THREE times last week!  We went twice with our good friends–more on that later–and once alone.  Well, the fishing gods were finally smiling on Andrea (probably ’cause they felt bad about my birthday fishing).  Anyway, I caught first, biggest and most each of the three times!  Plus, I get points for style (as always)

and variety (a new category I stole from Ron, Karna, Bob and Ann):

Now that sucks (a big shout out to Marie)!

I even released my first ever slot northern (29-30″ish).  The camera battery died, though, so no photo:( 

Steve declared that the fuzzy slippers were bad juju for him.  When we returned home, I tossed them in the garbage.  Thank God Sandi had my back!  She surprised me with a new set of footwear just in time for me to go fishing Sunday evening:

I intend for my new “moose flops” to be my dress flipflops; however, I had to wear them fishing just one time.  Steve and I both ended up with good fishing; however, as I stated previously, I caught the first, biggest and most for the third consecutive time.  I even got a 2-for-1 special:

That northern would not give up that walleye until they were in the net!

Da Bears

What a week we’re having!  First of all, fishing has been very, very good for most of our guests.  The walleye have been plentiful, and many large ones have been returned to the Lake!  You’ll see new photos on our website within the next few days.  I had a good day of fishing Monday…more on that later.  Let’s get to the good stuff.

The nuisance bear was continuing to be a nuisance.  You may recall that he had punctured some oil jugs and left his “sign” in our front yard.  Steve kept forgetting to bring in his popcorn oil (used for bear bait), so the bear kept coming in.  Our guests saw him last week around 9:00 p.m.  He was becoming quite a regular.  Steve set up the trail cam so we could see what goes on around here after we’ve called it a day:

Jason left several poses on both of our cameras:)

Apparently we have a lot of ghost activity after hours.

Ah-ha! There's the culprit checking out Gruper's truck!

Steve was getting concerned about the level of bear activity.  Our guests were reporting more and more sightings of the bear–the whole Camp was in a turmoil.  It was time to call in a professional:

Meet Ben "Dead Eye" Taylor, a retired mule skinner from Pleasant Valley, Iowa.

Ben arrived Saturday.  Steve brought him up to speed about our nuisance bear and the possible danger to everyone in Camp.  Ben formulated a plan to frighten the bear enough to leave us alone.  Ben would fish by day and stand sentinel by night.

Ben fishes and talks strategy with his able-bodied assistant Greg.

An all-around outdoorsman, Ben released a nice walleye here.

Then came the big moment!  Sunday night–only 36 hours after his arrival–Ben heard a commotion on the deck of the Bear’s Den cabin.  He carefully looked out the window to find the bear right outside!  He raised his rifle and shot the bear in the butt…

...right through the screen!

We’re very happy to report that the bear has not been back to bother anything or anyone since.  Thanks to Ben, everyone is resting a bit easier around here.

Speaking of bears, Steve got one Monday night!  He had seen several in just a couple of nights.  Here are some photos.  CAUTION:  some of these are a bit graphic and may not be suitable for all audiences.

It’s always good to have a mule skinner around when something needs to be skinned.

That's fat...

Something dies every year when Ann visits...and she likes it.

Ben still has a few days with us.  We’ve found the next nuisance for him to eliminate:

Fishing, Weather, Happenings

Summer, Phase II, is happening!  All of last week and today the weather has been outstanding!  We’ve hit 80 a few times, the sun shines a bunch, and the nights cool off for perfect sleeping.  The warm temps and blue skies do not seem to have affected the fishing much either.  The walleye have gone deeper–Ron and Bob have fished 40+’–but they are being caught! 

Mary and her family visited last week.  Here are some of their fish photos:

Mary herself with a nice walleye.

Mary's hubby Ron got a piece of the action.

Daughter Lori caught some fish (and sun) as well.

Ron and Ken showing their goods.

The happy crew at potluck.

Lori befriended some ducks.

Mary took these photos of, like, a gazillion mergansers hanging out together.

It’s always fun feeding the northerns!

See the northern on the right?

Mary snagged a great sunset as well (we had many last week):

Hope you get some sunsets like this next year!

Cabin 3’s crew was a good batch from Kansas…one new guy and three used guys.  Their fishing was good and they had a great time overall.  John is an awesome angler.

I sneaked this photo from his camera;)

His son Jeremy released a big piggy perch for the Conservation Program.  You can view it from the website.

John also took some great scenery photos:

I thought this was awesome.

How intense is this???

The guys were fishing on 1st Lake (where Camp is located).  A cow and calf moose came running out of the bush.  Not far behind them was the reason…

Two wolves were in hot pursuit.

Here, the brown one slipped into the Lake.

My sister would call this a "Movie Star Wolf."

I have more to report about our Camp bear, and we have two bear hunters this week (Steve is one of them).  I have some more nice nature and sunset photos as well.  I’ll do my best to do a double entry this week!

Comings & Goings

Cam’s last day was Friday.  We were both sad to see him go.  What a good kid!  He took a construction job.  We only needed him for a couple of more weeks, so we can’t blame him for moving on to something that will get him to winter.  We do hope that he hates it though, and calls us in the spring:)

Our bear visitor was back.  This time he punctured two empty oil jugs on the deck.

I can’t figure out why Steve doesn’t just set up a tree stand in our yard.

We had great fishing last week!  My new friend April, aka “The Survivor,” released a couple of very nice fish:

A big, fat 29" northern!

And a nice bass to boot!

She also caught some good blueberries with me.  Way to go, April!  Hope to see you at Camp again and at the Madison Fishing Expo.

Nate, a newcomer to Camp, nailed walleye all week.  He and his girlfriend Staci caught a ton of good fish.  His best catch all week though was Staci, ’cause Nate proposed to her on Wabaskang Lake while fishing on Thursday (a first since we’ve been here)!  Congratulations!!

Of course, while Nate was fishing on Friday he released a 29.5″ walleye!  He still said Staci was his best catch but he had to think about it a bit…  You can view his monster fish from the Fishing link of our website.  Staci caught a fantastic sunset during their stay:

So many colors!

My birthday came and went as well last week.  Steve and I were able to sneak away on Tues. and Thurs. to find some walleye.  I’ll start by saying I was horribly outfished both times; Steve caught first, biggest and most both days.  It was windy and the fish were deep (20-24′), so I had trouble with my hook-set.  I had a bunch of fish on but couldn’t get them to the boat:(  I still caught a lot, but my husband caught A ZILLION.  He even tried ignoring them as I became more frustrated but eventually his pole would bend enough that I’d notice he had ANOTHER fish on.  Ugh.  I’d say we fished about two hours each day.  Steve easily released 25ish walleye 14-16″ each of those days.  I probably released about 10 each day and lost that many as well.  Thurs. Steve was really on. 

That's a 19"er.

21"

24"...qualifies him for a TPC Conservation Award!

All in all, it was still a great birthday.  It was quite cold and windy out there and I had chosen inadequate footwear.

Took them two hours to thaw out when we got back!  I regained feeling just in time for a lovely dinner with Mike and Lynn–plenty of wine and cake (thanks again, you two).

Fishing & Bears (welcome or not)

Last week’s great fishing has continued into this week.  Guests–new and used alike–have been doing very well on walleye, northern and perch.  Nathan and Staci, a new couple this year, went right out to 2nd Lake on Saturday and caught plenty of walleye and a big northern.  They commented this morning that they threw back a bunch of walleye yesterday:)  Good for them!  They’re fishing spots that are new to us.  Last week’s guests were finding walleye shallow–around 12-14′.  Nate said they are finding theirs 15-20′.  The water temp is only mid-60’s, so we figured the fish wouldn’t go that deep(?) 

Jim Flory’s group last week continued to do great!  Lee, who I’ve dubbed the Fish Slayer, made the Conservation Awards Program with both a walleye (26″) and a northern (36″).  You can see those fish–as well as some nice perch and a couple of other northerns–on our website’s “Fishing” page.  Flory’s guys (Junior, Lee, Rich and Jim) are busy planning next year’s trip already.  Of course, they’re concerned that their buddy Crabby Tom won’t do well if the weather is as crappy as last week’s.  That’s OK, he can cook meals for the guys and keep the cabin tidy.  Here’s a photo of these nice guys:

Junior, Lee, Jim & Rich...a great group of guys!

We had a lovely, social bunch of folks last week.  Potluck was an incredible success!  I made about 25 lbs. of wild rice mooseloaf–good thing, too, ’cause we had only a couple of pieces left over.  Bob from Cabin 9 took some nice photos:

Mary & Jim (he's a dirty picker), Jim, and George and Betty got to know each other.

Jim, Bob & Mike had a very nice time.

A somewhat familiar sight on Wed. evenings.

Despite cold, rainy days, last week's sunsets were incredible.

OK.  Let’s talk hunting.  Both Rick and Kraig took bears on Wed. evening!  They had seen lots of action earlier in the week as well.  Kraig had even had some wolf action!  We were very excited for both of them.  I was excited for Steve as well, ’cause I know how hard to works to make these hunts successful.  Kraig was so pumped that he already book a hunt for next year.

Rick & Kraig pumped after the hunts!

We had a little bear action of our own this morning:(  Steve went out to the deck at 7:00 and found this:

Those are tooth puncture marks in a cooking oil container.

That's bear poop located near the punctured oil container...

Needless to say, Stinky LaRue is spending the day safely in the house after last night’s show…

I don't do bears (or dogs, other cats, some people...).

Saturday morning we had a neat fog over the lake.  Steve snapped a good photo:

Saturday evening was another great sunset.  I nabbed a photo of it:

Weather & Fishing & Hunting (oh my)

Well, summer was nice and lasted approximately six days.  Fall arrived last Saturday and is here to stay I think.  Temps have been around 60.  We’ve had a ton of rain this week; the lake has risen 8+” in less than a week.  Today it was fairly windy, and we all know what that means!  Fishing was phenomenal!

Actually, fishing’s been pretty darned good this week.  Today, however, seemed to put smiles on lots of faces.  Roger & Nancy reported a very good day, with Roger catching the biggest but Nancy catching the most.  She even hedged on berry picking tomorrow ’cause she doesn’t want to miss out on the action!  Jim Flory and his buddies are newcomers to Wabaskang.  They’ve been doing great all week–limiting out on walleye Sunday or Monday.  They’ve also played with some nice northerns and are already talking about next year.  Music to our ears.

We have a real group of go-getters this week.  Even with the cold, wet weather, everyone is out fishing early.  The women are right out there with their husbands and stay out all day! 

We have two bear hunters in Camp this week.  Both have seen bears.  One has seen some wolves.  They’re the real troopers this week–sitting in a tree in the driving rain.  They’re being patient and choosy about their bears.  Cross your fingers for them.  Here’s a trail cam photo that I almost threw away ’cause I thought it was nothing…take a closer look…

Where's Waldo?

Look up in the tree.

We ladies have been doing a little hunting of our own.  We have been blueberry picking with abandon!  Today we picked in the rain for a couple of hours.  We were soaked to the skin!  It’s just too much fun to stop. 

Jenny's checking her progress.

Shari and Mary use different picking techniques: kneeling and bending.

Blueberries and moss

Just look at those things! Nice big berries this year!

Fishing, Bears, SUMMER!!!!

Happy August to all!  I guess I should start with a fishing report.  Last week the walleye played hard-to-get.  Have I mentioned that we had a mayfly hatch on Aug. 4?  What’s next:  June bugs in Sept.?  Our new guys from Missouri found some, including a 24″.  They were die-hard anglers, though–even going out in some pretty foul conditions.  They tried live bait but ended up using grubs for the majority of their fishing.  The true champs last week were the ladies!  Theresa, Kim and Judy released 38″, 39″, and 40″ northerns respectively!  Wow!  You can view all three on the website.  That’s Kim and her husband Chris with the 39″.  They’re newlyweds–you can tell ’cause they wanted their photo taken together;)  The fish-only pics belong to Judy and Theresa.

The walleye have gone to 15-20′ this week, although one new guest found them at about 12′.  They’re coming on to their fall spots, and 5th Lake is the place to be right now.  We think that 3rd Lake’s spots–Doe Island and Devil’s Point–will be lighting up very soon. 

This week the perch have begun schooling and behaving like perch.  Our Bear’s Den group, four nice couples from Wisconsin, have been finding Piggy Perch!  They caught 64 this morning–none smaller than about 10″.  They found them right here, on 1st Lake.  They are also finding nice northern and some walleye.  Our Cabin 4 couple, Corky and Rosie, came in with their two walleye over 18″ today as well as some eaters.  We have a father and son from Tennessee who dropped in for a couple of days and decided to stay a week.  They’re doing very well and are quite the fish “hunters.”  They like Wabaskang; can’t say as I blame them.

Let’s talk bears.  Season opens officially this Saturday (15th).  Steve has been performing his baiter duties with gusto.  All of his baits are being hit very regularly, and we think we’ll have a lot of success this year.  We have some more shots from the trail cameras.  A couple of them make me very nervous.

This one's cute but small.

This one and the raven seem to be looking at something.

This is a good-sized bear.

This one looks cranky--maybe all the bait is gone.

OK.  Here’s where it gets a little scary.

This photo was taken mid-morning.

There were LOTS of night photos with this kind of activity.

OK.  Let’s talk SUMMER!  This week is supposed to be in the 80’s and sunny!  I know that doesn’t necessarily bode well for fishing but it sure puts a smile on my face.  I do believe that the sunny warmth is why the perch and behaving like perch.  I picked blueberries yesterday!  They’re just coming on and it looks like we’re going to have a good crop! 

Blueberries and blue toes:)

So I’ve finally started using the new camera I bought in May.  I was afraid of it and left it in the box until my old camera finally quit (in fact there are photos on there I want and can’t get).  I fear this camera as much as I feared my pressure cooker when I bought it last year.  I’m not sure if these are unnatural fears or fairly typical(?)

Judy, catcher of last week’s 40″ northern, made me a beautiful plant hanger.  I still have the lovely begonia from Sandi and Eldon’s spring trip (your fall trip is just around the corner, Woman).  I paired the two for a photo op.

How happy is that?!!!