| Fly out fishing
outpost cabins north of Red Lake Ontario
Canada. News about the 2017 season |
|||
|
Trips | Newsletter |
|
|||
| January 4/17 Happy
New year to all. Winter has settled in for most
of Canada and much of the United States as well. We
hired a local snow plow to clean our driveway and the
banks are huge for this early in the winter. |
Ryan will be leaving shortly for the
sport shows. He will be at Chicago Pheasant Run in St. Charles January 12-15 Green Bay January 19-22 for info see http://www.allcanada.com/ Please stop by to visit. |
||
| January 6/17 Louise was feeling
pretty good about her round wood piles until she
received an email about interesting wood piles.
Check the one to the right. |
 |
||
| Jan 13/17 Ryan is attending the All
Canada sport show at Pheasant Run in Chicago. He
will be at Green Bay next weekend. |
 |
||
| January 27/17 We are in
Massachusetts visiting family. Last night Bill
went to the TD Garden for Cameron's first NHL hockey
game. Photo at right is Bill with our son Scott
and our grandson Cameron. They were 11 rows from
the glass and Cam got to watch the warmups right by
the glass. Chara is even taller than he looks on
TV. After the game Cam got to meet 2 players
from the Pittsburgh Penguins. |
 |
||
| February 24/17 Greg F emailed to
book his trip to Goose Lake today. Greg first
came to Goose Lake when he was 12. This year he
will bring his son Kyle and his father Ken. The
weather in Iowa has been warm enough to melt the ice
on the ponds and Greg sent along the photo at right of
his first Iowa Bass of the 2017 open water season. |
 |
||
| March 2/17 Louise and I made a
quick trip to Cozumel to do some diving. We just
love Eagle Rays. The Eagle Ray in the
photo spent 20 minutes digging for clams in the sand
right beside us. As long as we remained down
against the sand it was not at all concerned about
us. We dive with our friend Freddy Contrares
at Mestizo Divers. You can also check out a video I shot 6 years ago with 17 Eagle Rays |
 |
||
| April 4/17 The weather in Red Lake has
been quite warm and the snow is melting. Ryan
has been taking advantage of the nice weather with
fishing and helping his friend Brett haul fuel.
If this weather holds we should have a very early
breakup. |
  |
||
| April 9/17 The photo at right
shows the airplanes at Red Lake Seaplane ready to
go. Photo borrowed from Howey Bay Camps. |
 |
||
| April 14/17 We are back in
town. The ice is melting fast and appears to be
going everywhere all at once. We plan to pull the
airplane off the ice and wait for open water in Howey
Bay. |
 |
||
| April 15/17 As per usual we have
the April 15 picture of our bay. The snow is all
gone. The ice seems to be melting everywhere all at
once. Normally our shallow bay will open long
before the main part of the lake. We should be
ice free in less than 2 weeks if this weather
holds. All dock owners want the ice to melt in
place and not be blown around by the wind. |
 |
||
| April 21/17 The ice on Red Lake
is looking very black. The sun has been very
intense for the last few days and the ice is melting
rapidly. We will have an early ice out, so fishing should be fantastic for the last week in May and the first 2 weeks in June when we happen to have space available. If you can make a trip this spring please call. The photo at right from behind Green Airways looking east toward the bridge. |
 |
||
| April 26/17 It is a very
different break up this year. The wind has
picked up and switched to the north-east. The
ice went out of Howey Bay yesterday but our little bay
is still ice covered. We have had some snow and could get some more yet this week. The ice will still be out by the first week in May. This north-east wind is the worst for doing damage to the dock at Goose Lake. All fingers are crossed. |
  |
||
| May 1/17 The ice in our bay
melted over the weekend. The plane is
home. Ryan, Louise and Bill are anxious to get
to work. Pilot medicals are tomorrow. |
 |
||
| May 4/17 We made it to Goose Lake
today. There was still lots of ice but we
managed to get to the dock. We had to launch a
boat and break some ice to get out. Two more
days and Goose Lake should be clear of ice. |
 |
||
| May 7/17 Ryan and Bill have been
busy at Monroe Lake. The old deck is being removed. The old deck had three layers of wood floor. The original one inch rough boards were mostly sawdust. |
 |
||
| May 10/17 The new deck at
Monroe. We kept the two burn barrels going full
blast to burn up the old deck. We also cleaned
out the old plywood from under the cabin. |
 |
||
| May 11/17 Cold and windy today
but we managed to finish up the new deck at
Monroe. Warm weather to return on Sunday. |
 |
||
| May 15/17 Today we got Unnamed
Lake ready. We installed the reef markers and
cleared the portage. On the way back to Red Lake
we stopped at Monroe Lake to finish painting the
exterior of the cabin. |
 |
||
| May 23/17 Cool and rainy on the
weekend but sunshine and warm today. We moved to
Goose Lake. Forecast is calling for warm with
sunshine all week. |
 |
||
| May 25/17 When Ryan came to help
us shut camp down in the fall of 2016, he insisted
there must be a better way to bring the motors over
the portage. (We had been loading them in the airplane
and flying them over. The Honda motors are very
difficult to load in the airplane.) So today
Ryan built a motor portaging cart and successfully
tried it out. |
 |
||
| May 27/17 Today we put out the
new reef markers. The new markers are much
easier to see. |
 |
||
| June 1/17 We flew to Poirier
Lake this morning. No surprises, Poirier is
ready for Bob B arriving tomorrow. |
 |
||
| June 5/17 The camp looks twice
as good on a glassy water day. |
 |
||
| June 9/17 With everyone working
all day we managed to lower the fish house down to the
same level as the service building. For years
Louise insisted the service building was sinking but I
insisted it could not possibly sink uniformly.
So it had to be the fish house was rising. This
spring the evidence showed the fish house
rising. Now all is at the same level. |
 |
||
| June 10/17 Those Loon Haunt hats
really get around. Our friends Dave and Dianne
at Stonehenge. |
 |
||
| June 11/17 Nasty storms this
afternoon. Some pea size hail but no damage to
the airplane. Over an inch of rain. |
 |
||
| June 12/17 People are once again
asking about the fish locator power supply in the
boats at Goose and Nechigona. (We do not have
this set up at the outposts). Our setup in
the boats looks like the photo on the right. |
 |
||
| June 12/17 continued. The setup
you need on your locator looks like the photo at
right. These connectors are available cheap at
Radio Shack. Connect red to red and black to
black and you will be OK. |
 |
||
| June 13/17 Outpost checks
today. The new guys at Unnamed are into the nice
Walleye 25 and 26 inches. The big
Northerns are grabbing the Walleye as they are being
reeled in. Frank and Sarah at Monroe are getting
Walleye from the dock and in the spots Warren marked
for them. Sarah painted this watercolor while at
Monroe Lake. When she is a famous artist this
picture will be worth a fortune. |
 |
||
| June 14/17 Louise insists we
show the annual Lady Slipper photo so here it is for
2017 |
 |
||
| June 15/17 In 2015 we made up
safe travel maps for each outpost lake. They are
shown here to aid in navigation this year The top map is Monroe Lake. |
 |
||
| Click on the map to open a larger
version and print it out. The second map is Poirier Lake. |
 |
||
The third map is Unnamed Lake. |
 |
||
The fourth map is Whitelaw Lake. |
 |
||
| June 18/17 The Walleye are
biting below Whitedog Falls. |
 |
||
| June 19/17 The Northern are in
the same place |
 |
||
| June 20/17 Today the Walleye are
at the Honey Hole |
 |
||
| June 20/17 Continued A 27 inch Walleye caught at Gas Can Rock this afternoon |
 |
||
| June 21/17 At Loon Haunt no one
runs out of beer. |
 |
||
| June 22/17 It looks like Gary is
leading in the Northern pool at 35 inches and also in
the Walleye pool with this chunky 28.5 incher caught
at the Honey Hole. Outpost checks yesterday revealed a 28.5 inch Walleye at Monroe lake this week. Picture to follow |
 |
||
| June 23/17 Last evening the
action seemed to be concentrated on the Wall |
 |
||
| June 24/17 Nice shot of the
boats in for the evening. Today the big Northern
are terrorizing the fishermen at the Honey Hole.
They grab the small fish as they are being reeled
in. Several fishermen have had the big ones on
but could not get them to the boat. |
 |
||
| June 25/17 A very early and
quick change over this morning. Last evening
Ryan showed his flair for cooking with his Walleye
Bites. Walleye, Maple Bacon and Bar-B-Que sauce. |
 |
||
| June 27/17 Ryan, Brett and I
flew to Selkirk Manitoba today to retrieve Brett's
recently purchased Cessna 180. I found it an
interesting experience riding in the back seat of our
airplane. |
 |
||
| June 27/17 continued. When
approaching the water base at Selkirk the landscape
changes from the many lakes we bush pilots like to see
to the scene at right. |
 |
||
| June 28/17 The big fish
continue. Bob caught this 28 inch Walleye by the
mid lake green jug. |
 |
||
| June 29/17 Today Ryan treated
the Fleming family to a real Canadian shore lunch. |
 |
||
| June 30/17 Don Fleming started
fishing with us more than 20 years ago. Don now
fishes from the other shore but his family continues
to fish here at Goose Lake and remember a great
father, husband and grandfather. |
 |
||
| July1/17 Ralph caught this
beauty at the Twin Sisters. |
 |
||
| July 2/17 The Nelson crew from
Iowa are at camp this week. Photo at right. |
 |
||
| The above photo qualifies as news because they also brought along a photo of their crew at Goose Lake 31 years ago. |
 |
||
| July 3/17 If you find the above
amusing you will die laughing at this one. I
used to look like a bad guy but now I look like Santa
Claus. |
 |
||
| July 4/17 Bob tried to send a
cheque for his deposit at Poirier Lake in 2018.
This is what his cheque looked like when he got it
back from the US Postal Service. |
 |
||
| July 6/17 The photos are coming
in. 12 year old Julia caught this 40 inch
Northern in the portage lake at Unnamed. The
photo is of course, proud dad holding the fish. |
 |
||
| July 10/17 The problem this year
is no one will put their 24-27 inch Walleyes on
the bragging board because they know a bigger one will
be caught. It seems we see a couple of 28
inchers every week. |
 |
||
| July 11/17 The nice Walleye continue
at the Honey Hole. Walleye Alley over in Nech
has really turned on as well. Four young boys
this week find it is like fishing in a barrel. |
|
||
| July 11/17 (continued)The
Northern Pike are also providing some excitement |
|
||
| July 12/17 Every time I watch an
old guy make his way forward in a boat I say someday I
will modify boat 10 just for the old guys. Ryan
and I worked for 2 solid days but the job is
done. Boat 10 is now the designated OLD GUY BOAT
and this old guy loves it. Yes, more are planned. |
 |
||
| July 15/17 A pair of 27 inch
Walleye caught at the Honey Hole 30 minutes
apart. The action has been great off 9 Tree island at a depth of 18 feet. |
  |
||
| July 17/17 We occasionally see
the odd Pelican here at Goose Lake. Less than a
dozen over 40 years but today we had 4 Pelicans right
in front of camp. |
 |
||
| July 19/17 Don't worry, the next
generation of fishermen will be fine. |
 |
||
| July 20/17 Lynn caught this nice
26 inch Walleye off Bunny Ear Island (also called 9
Tree Island) on the bottom at 19 feet. It looks
like this is the money fish. |
 |
||
| July 29/17 We have managed to
obtain a couple of Moose tags for the area on the
north side of Goose Lake. This will be a hunt
for 2 hunters only. If you are interested in a fully
guided hunt please call us. Meanwhile the fishing remains fantastic. |
 |
||
| July 31/17 Jon called from
Unnamed Lake today. Kathy caught a 43 inch
Northern. They are actually catching more
Walleye than Northern and they just fish
Northern. Once again it must be the lucky
shorts. There was some severe hail in Red Lake today (airplanes damaged) but nothing here at Goose Lake. |
  |
||
| August 5/17 The great fishing
just keeps on coming. Ryan figured out a way so
he could wash boats by himself if necessary. |
 |
||
| August 11/17 We passed.
Kurt the health inspector from the North West Health
unit was in to inspect our water system and we are
doing it right. Our twice treated spring water is
better than most cities and we think better than
bottled. We are good for another 4 years. The interesting thing is the airplane in the background is the same airplane we used to find our site on Goose Lake 41 years ago. |
 |
||
| August 14/17 The group of 2 at
Poirier Lake just called on the radio. They
fished from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and caught 100 Walleye
between 20 and 23 inches. |
|
||
| August 18/17 We have been
busy. At right is the final version of our boat
mods. The bench on the right side of the boat
contains the flotation foam we removed when we cut the
seats. We replaced all the wood on the seats
while we had them apart. This version allows for
easy walk through yet still gives the option of 3 in a
boat. |
 |
||
| August 20/17 Fishing
report. Last week at Whitelaw the Robinson party
caught numerous Walleyes 20-23 inches plus eaters and
a 40 inch Northern. Today at Goose Lake Ron
arrived at 1:30 and by evening he had caught a 28 1/2
inch Walleye. Fishing in the next boat
Jerry caught a 27 inch Walleye. Both on "the
Wall". |
 |
||
| August 21/17 Eclipse Day.
Unfortunately we have complete cloud cover. The
photo at right is the 27 inch Walleye mentioned above. |
 |
||
| August 22/17 Yesterday the
wall also produced a 26 inch Walleye and a nice
Northern. |
  |
||
| August 27/17 The deep water
keeps producing nice Walleye almost every
day. Ken caught this 26 inch Walleye off
Seagull rock. |
|
||
| August 30/17 Jack is now in the
lead for the Walleye money at 27 inches. |
 |
||
| August 31/17 The Kelley party
left Unnamed Lake on August 28. We can count on
Mark and Mike for pictures of big Walleyes. The
photos at right are a 28 inch Walleye and a 25 inch
Walleye. |
  |
||
| September 2/17 The Red Lake Fall
Classic Walleye Tournament started today. Ryan
and his friend Tim used only 5 of the allotted 9 hours
fishing to post a limit good enough for third
place. They need a good day tomorrow
as well. |
 Photos by Pat Boucha |
||
| September 3/17 Unfortunately day
2 was not lucky for them. They lost a really
big Walleye that would have put them in the top three.
They did have a 5 pounder that put them in sixth place
but it died so they were penalized half the weight and
finished in 23rd place. Out of a field of 130
boats. They did manage to win back the entry
fee. |
 TEAM LOONHAUNT |
||
| September 8/17 We closed up the
cabin at Poirier Lake today. Rick the last
fisherman at Poirier this season emailed some
pictures. The first picture is a 40 inch
Northern caught while fishing for Walleye. The
second picture is the new Eagle Nest now located at
the south end of the long island. Near the
location of the nest from years ago. |
  |
||
| September 12/17 Finally the long
wait is over. We got our first ripe tomato from
the garden. We will definitely be expanding the
garden in 2018. |
 |
||
| September 29/17 This Snow Goose
decided Goose Lake was as far as he needed to fly for
a while. We have had many Canada Geese on Goose
Lake this fall but this is the first Snow Goose we
noticed. |
 |
||
| October 1/17 So far we have
eaten about a dozen of our tomatoes. Today we
picked the rest. We will take them to town where
they will slowly ripen. |
 |
||
| October 3/17 Today we put away
the Nechigona boats. It sure goes well with 3
people. We even had time to mix up some cement
and make a dozen new anchors for the reef markers. |
 |
||
| The address for our Facebook site is facebook.com/LoonHauntLodge/ Click on the link above to visit our Facebook site. |
 |
||
| October 10/17 The season is
almost over. We are back in town and planning a
final trip to Monroe Lake on Thursday. Once
Monroe is done we will pull the airplane out of the
water and head west to visit family in British
Columbia. Ryan's friend Brett hurt his back so
Ryan will be helping out for at least another couple
of weeks. Thank you to everyone who make a trip with us in 2017. What we do for a living doesn't seem like work when we are dealing with wonderful people who are having a great time. Thanks Bill, Louise and Ryan |
 |
||
| November 10/17 We have been away
visiting family. While we were gone winter came
to Red Lake. Ryan stayed in Red Lake for some
more Moose and Deer hunting. Our bay is frozen
over but Red Lake is still open water. The
forecast for next week is warmer with rain. Our annual newsletter Tremolo is available online at http://www.loonhaunt.com/tremolo17.pdf |
 |
||
| December 4/17 We are back in Red
Lake waiting for a promised snow storm this
afternoon. The lakes are frozen over but not
much ice yet. Weather is warm for this time of
year. Ryan will be at the All Canada sport show in Chicago (Pheasant Run) January 11-14. He will also be at the show in Green Bay (Oneida Casino) January 18-21. Look for our new banner shown in the picture at right. Discounted tickets can be purchased online at http://www.allcanada.com/ticket-purchase/ |
 |
||
| December 25/17 Merry
Christmas to all. Ryan is in Ottawa
visiting family for the holidays. Louise
and I are spending Christmas in Massachusetts with
Scott and his family. Right now things are
pretty exciting. Addie's Hatchimal is starting
to make sounds and the light is on. News flash
--it is happening the beak is visible. |
 |
||
|
Sunset Photos |
Norseman Photos | The Pilots from Superior
Airways
|
Handy Length to
Weight Converter |
|||
|
|
|||
