Ice Off

Howdy!!! It's been a while since my last entry so I figured I'd get you all up to date. Since I've been home, I've been consumed with camp work and the NHL Playoffs. The other day I was redoing a bathroom in one of our cabins, and to put it lightly, I was stressed to the max.  I was in the Nestor Falls hardware store 3-4 times in one day. On my last trip to the hardware store, Bill (the owner), asked me "how's it going now?"  I replied with a frustrated tone "not good Bill, I think I'm breaking more crap than I'm fixing."  He just laughed and said, "you'll make a good camp owner." His little joke lightened up my mood and made me forget all of my prior frustrations.

Despite all the hiccups the past two weeks, I have managed to get out a little bit. Last week I spent one day out on Clearwater looking for deer shed and scouting new areas for hunting season this fall. I didn't find any sheds but I found a gem of a new area (I know it's a little early to be thinking about deer hunting but my lack of success last year has me motivated this year). The new area I found is  a old logging road from 40 years ago that is on the edge of a swamp. The area is full of good buck rubs and deer trails, but there's a down side... It is a pretty long walk into where I want to put a tree stand. I'm going to walk in there tomorrow and put up a trail cam on one of the runways and see if anything good walks by in the next few months.

I also managed to get out on the water twice in the past two weeks. Ice out on the lakes in Northwestern Ontario is one of the best times of the year to catch big fish...  If you have the time and don't mind numb extremities. The first time I got out on the water was two weeks ago. It was the earliest I have ever been out on the lake in a boat around here. I froze my tail off! The water temp is sitting around 38 degrease F  and when the wind blows the cold air coming off the water makes the air temp feel a heck of a lot cooler than 38. The first day I went out on the lake, Cody (my brother), Eric (my cousin), my Dad, and I did a little Trout\Walleye combo.  Both were a little slow but we did manage to get a few. Dad cracked a pretty good walleye (that he made sure we all knew all about) but other than that there really wasn't much to talk about. The next day Cody, Eric, Andy Carlson (a good buddy of mine), and I took a stab at some smallies on Rainy Lake. Fishing wasn't all that bad but the weather was brutal. The wind was strong, temperatures were around 33 degrees F, and  it rained most of the day. We were only on the water for a few hours but all together we managed to catch around 12 smallies. All of our bites came on minnow baits on jigs in 25'-30' of water.  

At any rate, I'm going to go watch the game but hopefully I'll have a chance to write in the next few days with a little better update on the fishing, cold weather, and whatever else pops up in between.

The Gulf

Well Kari and I just made it back to Canada! It was a long 30-some hour drive that felt like it would never end, but it's a great feeling to be back (despite the fact that Florida winter has turned me into a complete sissy when it comes to cool weather. I felt like I was going to freeze to death today and the temps here were in the 40's). I actually think our dogs are more excited to be back here than we are, they have spent the last 6hrs chasing each other, squirrels, and digging holes in my mom and dad's yard (sorry mom and dad). As of today the ice is completely off of Clearwater Lake! It is the earliest ice-out that I can ever recall. I hope to get a little trout/smallmouth fishing in over the next few days before all the work around the camp starts, but we'll see. 

Three days before we left Florida I had the opportunity to head out on the Gulf of Mexico for a little saltwater excursion with a few friends. Needless to say it was amazing and if you ever have the opportunity to hit up the Gulf, I strongly suggest you go, the ocean is carling with all sorts of life. This whole experience of ocean fishing was new to me and I was well out of my league. I had no clue what I was doing and my equipment was way to light for what we were doing but my buddy Garret (who thankfully had a ton of saltwater experience) was our guide and did a great job of putting us in the right areas. We were mainly after tarpon and sharks, sad to say we struck-out on both but we did catch a mess of lady fish, grunts, catfish, sea trout, redfish, and flounder (by the way flounder do not look like Flounder form "The Little Mermaid." They look like a halibut with vampire teeth... By far the creepiest thing I have ever caught). Also, we saw all sorts of sharks, tarpon, manta rays, and dolphins. To tell you the truth the thing that made my trip was the dolphins. On multiple occasions they came right up to the boat and would just swim around us while we were fishing. Also, I think it was the first time in a long time that I actually took a step back and admired what was around me. All around it was a remarkable trip and a great way to end the "Florida Experiment."       

I have a great video of the dolphins that I'll put up as soon as I have a chance.