Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 8

Today we got up at 6:30 did our usual thing. Had pancakes for breakfast up at the lodge. Then we met up with our guide Cal for the day. We took a small road trip about 20 minutes up the road to Corner Lake.
It was cold and windy today. Walleye fishing was tough today however we were able to bring in enough walleye for our shore lunch and for dinner.
Tonight Veronica and I prepared dinner together we had johnsonville sausages out on the grill and gave Dakota a few as well.

Here are just a few pictures from our day. I will post some video we took from the trip today shortly.


This chair was found at our shore lunch camp site. Imagine over the years the number of people who have used this chair at one time or another. Veronica's camera will do stiching of different photos. Today she tried this for the very first time. She really didn't do to bad for this panaramic view of our shore lunch site.
Here is Cal our very good friend and our guide for the day. He is preparing our shore lunch today. Veronica is supervising Cal cooking lunch as well as setting the table for lunch.
Today I caught a huge 39 inch Northern Pike. He was really huge due to the fact he had just eaten a huge walleye for his lunch.
So I wish you tight lines and huge fish.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 7

Today we did our usual routine and after having breakfast we met with our guide, Mike, down by the dock. Fishing was very slow until about one p.m. today.
We were out Musky fishing using what is called a Sucker Rig. A sucker is a type of fish like a smaller version of a carp. The suckers we were using were about 15 inches long and the sucker is attached to a rig which is used to catch Musky fish. I had a 51 inch Musky take the sucker and I set a really hard hook set on it but unfortunately after fighting the fish for five seconds, the musky sheared off the rear treble hook, so I lost that fish.
I lost a 45 incher on a similar situation also today. We had about six of the Musky follow our lures to the boat but they were just window shopping and wouldn't take the bait.
Tonight was Fish Fry that the camp has every Wednesday night for the guests. Tomorrow we will be going on a road trip to Corner Lake with our friend and guide Cal.
So, until tomorrow I wish you tight lines and huge fish.


Here is an outside view of our cabin # 8 our favorite.
Down at the docks this morning.
The boats are being taken out of the water for the season.
Found this wood pecker outside our cabin this morning.
Fishing lures we used this morning. We had these lined up and ready to use.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 5

Veronica and I woke up at 6:30 this morning. After washing up and preparing our lunch for the day, we headed up to the lodge for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns, bacon, toast, and apple juice. We then headed back to our cabin to get our gear and met our guide up in the parking lot. Today we went to a remote lake called ORD lake. We caught 78 Walleye by noon, had shore lunch and then did Musky fishing in the afternoon. We had 7 follow up to the boat but they did not take the lure. One of those was a 50 inch fish. Veronica hooked a 42 inch Tiger Musky but it got away when we were trying to net the fish. On the way back to the dock we saw the deformed deer ( please take the time to view the video below). We then drove home, had Walleye we had caught today for dinner, did some laundry and spent the rest of the night relaxing.
Overall a really good day. So good that we have changed our schedule next week so that we can go back with Andy, our guide, two more times.

Here is Veronica at the Shore lunch campsite. It was really cold today. Canada's Bald Eagle. You will find many everywhere you go in Canada.

Here is a picture of the deer in the video below.
A huge Inuchuk in front of Bobby's Bait Shop in Vermilion Bay. Veronica the proud owner of a squished fish...... Actually Veronica does not like touching the fish so it ended up in this position.

One of the 78 Walleye we caught by noon. We only kept four of them for dinner.
Rick is the proud owner of this huge walleye. You can see the pride in his eyes.

A place we stopped for Veronica to use the ladies restroom ( aka the tree). This area is also where Shore Lunches take place.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 4

The point where most of the follow ups occured Here I am casting for the big one
Veronica was in charge of the camera today.

The day started off bright and early. For me it was six a.m. and for Veronica it was 6:30. Upon getting up I washed up quickly then prepared sandwiches for our lunch. After Veronica got up, she did a quick wash up and got dressed. I made the beds.

We then went up to the lodge and had breakfast. Breakfast consisted of Pancakes and Sausage Links.

We then went back to our cabin and put much warmer clothes on seeing that it was a very cloudy rather cool damp misty day. After getting all bundled up, we headed down to our boat.

Throughout the day I had five follows back to the boat but none of the fish took the lure and ended up swimming away.

Cal ended up catching a 40 incher however it didn't make it into the boat... that is another story for a different day.

After about five hours of fishing and being out in the cold and my back hurting I decided to call it a day however here are some pictures to keep you going.

Canadian Vacation Day #3

We arrived into Dryden at 1 p.m. at the IGA in Dryden to buy more groceries, the things we were not able to take over the border. Anyone who travels outside the United States it is in your best interest to know ahead of time what the conversion rates of currency are and of weights.. Veronica ordered a pound an a half of sliced turkey for our lunches. It turns out that 500 kg is about a pound of turkey . When the lady handed the turkey to Veronica we both about fell over. For only a pound and a half of turkey was $17.54. Bottom line that turkey better taste really good for that price.


We arrived at the camp yesterday around 2 p.m. Due to a scheduling issue, we had to spend one night in a different cabin and not the one that originally was assigned to us. Cabin #8 is our absolute favorite and we always request that cabin. It did not make much sense to unload the car completley because we would have to move everything to cabin #8 in the morning, so we unloaded the car with just enough items to get us through the night.We ended up going to bed early...we were pretty well wiped out. I ended up having another lousy nights sleep. It was a rather cool night and should have been a great nights sleep but I ended waking up about 7-8 times. I finally got up for good around 6:30 AMto get some sunrise photos. Veronica was still asleep at this time. I will post the photos in another blog entry after I finish this one.
Veronica woke up a short time later and around 7:30 AM, the cabin cleaners stopped by and let us know that cabin #8 was clean and ready for us to move in. Luckily we had some help getting all of our suitcases, fishing gear and food items into the cabin. It took Veronica and I about 2 1/2 hours to get everything put away, clothes folded and hung up and all fishing gear stowed away. I then spent an hour or 2 getting all of our rods and reels put together along with straightening out all of our fishing bags.
Tonight Veronica and I had grilled T-Bone Steaks. Dakota, the camp dog, must have smelled the steaks a cooking for she also had T-Bone steaks for dinner.
Tomorrow is our first day of actual fishing. I think were are scheduled to fish Musky. I will make another blog entry to let you know how we did. Hopefully we will have some photos of large Musky to share with you. Until then...wishing you tight lines and huge fish.

T Minus 16 Days and Counting

Only 16 days until Veronica and I head up North, to Canada, to do some fishing and total relaxation. It has been approximately 15 months since we were there last. It will be great to see our friends up there and to see my favorite camp dog...Dakota. We already have most of our clothes packed. Just toiletries and some small items to pack up yet. It was hard to pack this year. Usually we go up to Andy Myers Lodge on Eagle Lake during the month of June. We bring mainly warm weather clothes. This year we had to bring a little of everything to cover all possibilies that mother nature might have in store for us. That time of year the weather can really change from one day to the next. It will be great to be back in the boat every morning waiting to see what adventures and fish come our way. With a little luck, we will both catch our trophy fish this year!!!!

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.