Upcoming Canada fishing trip

After looking at the calendar, it dawned on me that Veronica and I only have about 10 weeks until we make our yearly journey up to Andy Myers Lodge on Eagle Lake in Canada. This is the trip that we both look forward to all year long. During the off season I bought quite a few new lures specifically for musky fishing. Below are a few pictures of just a small portion of the lures that I bought during the Winter months. Besides what is shown, I also purchased some 16" Grunts for trolling and a bunch of Bulldawgs. With the new fees that the airlines are charging for over weight luggage, it becomes quite a chore trying to pack everything up and still keep the weight under 50 pounds. I usually start early packing the gear up just to see where we are at on weight, yet making sure that we can bring everything. It gets to be quite the challenge. Each year that we have gone up the Andy Myers Lodge, I have bought and brought more tackle and lures...you know...all of that fishing stuff that us guys just can't do without. Each year I say that I don't need anything else but yet I always seem to end up at the same place...trying to make sure that all of my newly purchased gear makes it in the suitcase. I am very lucky and thankful in the fact that I am able to keep my gear at the house of a good friend of mine, who lives near Eagle Lake. This way I don't have to worry about bringing it all back each year. That would cost us a small fortune with the weight and extra baggage charges. One of these days Veronica and I might live up North, close enough to drive to Andy Myers Lodge and Eagle lake. Then we would not have to deal with the airlines at all and we could drive up there. Hopefully that will happen one of these days. Until then, I will have to keep my luggage scale close by.

Fishing Gear

Here we have some Maribou Bucktails. Starting from the top we Cochran Tackle Bou Bling which is 13" long, then a Musky Mojo Triple X and a couple of Shumway Giant Flashers.

Here we have some more Shumway Flashers.

Fishing Gear

Here are some Bucktails. They are modified Spankybaits that I added a tail to so that they would have a larger profile.

Here we have a Musky Mania Turbine and a Buchertail.
More modified Spanky Baits.

Extra Large Treble Hook Bonnets/Covers

Here are several Grandmas that I purchased in various color patterns. I had a really hard time finding hook bonnets large enough to cover the size of the treble hooks that are on some of these lures. After searching high and low and everywhere on the internet, I could only find one place that sold these extra large bonnets....a place in Australia. These X-Tra (Extra) Large treble hook bonnets will cover hooks sized from 1/0 - 3/0. These are much bigger than the ones sold at either Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas. I decided to stock up on these bonnets due to the trouble that I had finding and then getting them. I have been asked several times, where I got these large treble hook bonnets. It has been a couple of years since I got these hook bonnets. I tried to find my reciept for the purchase of these bonnets so that I could get the name of the tackle store that I got them from. Unfortunately I could not find it. I also did an extensive Google search using different word variations to locate the company on line. This turned up negative results. If I ever locate them again, I will post it on this blog. I FOUND THEM-
I just located the online store where I purchased the EXTRA large size treble hook bonnets. I purchased them from an online tackle store called Billfish Tackle Supply. Here is there Web Site : http://www.billfishtacklesupply.com/Hooks/mustad.htm#44
They are $2.95 for a package of 10.

More Fishing Gear

Various lures in various lengths.

Here we have a couple of Savage Gear Butch lures. I am looking forward to trying these lures out.

Here is a 13" Believer.
3 Creek chub lures.
All of my lures and some of my reels got packed up. Because of the new changes and fees that the airlines are charging, I had to weigh the suitcase out and make sure that it was under 50 pounds. Final weight on this suitcase was 45 pounds. I wanted to make sure that I allowed some weight for any discrepancies in the scale that I was using.

Flowers of the Day

Here we have some Black Eyed Susans, an Asiatic Lily and a Daylily.

Gas Surcharges

The gas prices are really starting to enter all aspects of our lives. I just read that everyone from Pizza delivery drivers to Florist are starting to charge a gas surcharge. A small town in Georgia is implementing a fuel surcharge onto the speeding tickets that written. They plan on adding $12.00 onto each speeding ticket to cover the cost of gas. I wonder if you pull over right away, will they lower the surcharge because the patrol vehicle used less gas to get you to pull over? Or what happens if someone decides to "run" from the police and they get into a high speed chase...will they double, triple or quadruple this surcharge because the officers vehicle had to use a lot more gas to get you to pull over. Now i am NOT suggesting for anyone to test out this theory, just wondering out loud.

Flowers of the Day

Todays flowers are really colorful. I hope that you enjoy them.

Flowers of the Day

Here we have some really nice Daylilies and a blanket of Mums.

More Flowers of the Day

More colorful Daylilies.

More Flowers of the Day

Here are some really colorful Daylilies.

This darn traffic

You know, I was driving around here the other day, caught in traffic again or should I say still and I got to thinking about all of this darn traffic. It really amazes me that in one hour of driving around here I can see twice as many cars on the road than I would see in 2 full weeks of driving around in Canada..at least where we stay at. And that includes the drive from Ft. Francis to Dryden and then Dryden to Eagle Lake and back again on our return home. This along with all of our driving around while up at Eagle Lake. Just way too much traffic around here for my liking.

Nothing better than shore lunch with freshly caught Walleye

There is nothing better than having a shore lunch using your recently caught Walleye sizzling alongside with some fried potatoes and some beans. Here we have Mike, another one of the great guides out of Andy Myers Lodge, preparing our fish for the frying pan.

Here Mike is checking on the fire.
And here is me checking out the fish frying. Boy am I hungry.

More photos from Andy Myers Lodge at Eagle Lake in Canada

The first 2 photos are of the float planes that pick up guests for a day of fishing at remote lakes. The plane returns the guests back to the lodge in time for dinner.

Here is a photo of our friend Ken who is a guide out of Andy Myers Lodge. We went with Ken to Lac Suel for some fishing. I had a Walleye on my line and was reeling it in, when all of a sudden the Walleye took off and was trying to get away from something and go to deeper water. The next thing I know, I have a much heavier fish fighting me at the other end of my line. Upon bringing the fish into the boat, it turned out to be a 39" Northern Pike. There was no sign of the Walleye that I had originally had on my line. It either got away or the Northern had eaten it.

Another nice Walleye caught on Lac Suel

More photos of the interior of Cabin #8 at Andy Myers Lodge

Here we have a couple of more photos of the interior of cabin #8 at Andy Myers Lodge. We also have some photos of our favorite camp buddy, Dakota, the camp dog and one of our favorite dinner guests.

More photos of Andy Meyers Lodge

Here we have some more photos of Andy Myers Lodge. The first one is from Eagle Lake looking at the dock, fish house and bait house. You can see one of the bigger cabins that overlook the lake. The cabin that Veronica and I always stay at, Cabin #8, would be just off to the right of the picture, out of view on this photo. The rest of the photos are of the interior of cabin #8. This 2 bedroom cabin is one of the smaller cabins and retains the rustic feel of the Canadian wilderness while having many of the modern necessities. This cabin has a fridge, double kitchen sink, duel gas stove burners, coffee maker, toaster and microwave oven. All eating utensils are included. The bathroom has a shower enclosure. The cabin also has a gas wall heater and just recently added a/c. There is a large deck attached to the cabin with a bar-b-que grill and chairs on it. The dining room table overlooks Eagle Lake and the dock, so you can watch the boats coming back and forth on of the lake and when they pull in, you can see what they have caught.They do have newer and more updated cabins at AML but personally, Veronica and I prefer the feel and size of this cabin.