May 5th, 2005: I took the 185 on floats to Joint Lake yesterday and saw no ice on any lakes until about 50 miles south of Bolton Lake! Kitchi Lake has no ice, Bolton has more open water than we did May 25th last year, Joint Lake is open in the river and along the shore of the main lake, and Aswap is mostly open except in the larger sections. Everything will be on time as this week the weather is great and what's left of the ice is very rotten. Conservatively, I'd say by the middle of next week we'll be free of ice everywhere.

The guys are making excellent progress on the cabin at Joint Lake. I motivated them with a 20 piece bucket of KFC, so the work will be finished by next week. There's still plenty of space and the cabin looks great! We'll have to return with the plumber and the rest of the supplies for the season before the guests arrive, but not having to worry about ice or a wet airstrip will make opening a lot easier this year. Brian is at Bolton packing the airstrip and the mechanics are flying up tomorrow. Our new generator, quads and furniture will be flying up in about 10 days.

Here are some pictures of the cabin at Joint:

April 27th, 2005: I'm so busy right now that the summer is going to be a relief...yeah right! We're in the middle of selling 50 plus outboard motors locally, on Ebay and through word of mouth. Iboats.com is also a good place for people to find good motors so we have a bunch listed with them as well.

It's been a cold week here in Winnipeg and not much better up North. The guys working at Joint Lake check in regularly and are making great progress, they say the cabin is awesome with the new siding and interior. I'll be up there next week with the float plane and I'll bring home some good pictures. I'll fly over Bolton, Aswap and Kitchi to get an idea of how the ice looks and when it will be out. I'm a bit happy about this cold spell, we didn't want to set 2 records in 2 years, earliest and latest ice out, I think that would make fishing a bit tougher.

I'm getting a new back up generator, a new quad and some new couches that are scheduled to be at the lodge by mid May.

April 20th, 2005: It's been nice and warm here in Winnipeg for the past 3 weeks and the ice has started to melt a lot. The rivers are open and soon I'll be able to land a float plane at Joint Lake where the crew is working on remodeling the cabin. They've enjoyed some beautiful weather and have caught a few Pike in the open water in front of the cabin. Work is going well and they have all the supplies they need to get finished, but I hope to get out to them so that I can bring them some fresh fruit and meat. It never fails, as soon as we push a few groups back so that we don't have to worry about ice, we run into a very early spring. This will be a lot nicer kind of opening since we will not be trying to get everything done and open minutes before the guests arrive, and in last year's case, after the guests' arrived.

We're looking forward to another great year at Bolton and the improvements will continue again through out the season. One idea is to build outhouses strategically located around Bolton so that the guests do not have to travel back to the lodge for a washroom break. We have more and more guests who come up with their wives and daughters so this will be a welcome addition for those guests in particular.

I have one space that has come available June 5 - 12 for a group of 2, and I still have a bit of space at the end of May for groups who want the spring fishing.

I'm also selling our outboards from seasons past. If you or anybody you know is looking for a good used motor at a heck of a price, give them my number.

We're excited to get started...it's just around the corner now!

April 5th, 2005: We just finished our last show in Minneapolis and now we're gearing up for a great season!! The weather has been very warm here in Winnipeg, and above normal up North as well. Our guys up North say that it looks like it's going to be an early break up this year since they've been have +15 degree Celsius weather for the past few days and there's a lot of melting going on. Next week we'll be flying Yvon and Winston into Joint Lake to do the work on the cabin, but we're a bit worried about the condition of the ice. We have our Cessna 206 on skis hauling in the supplies to Joint, but they say near the dock there's only 8 inches of ice, so it could be gone at the dock by next week. I'll keep the updates coming.

We still have some of those same holes to fill, and there's another spot that has opened up in June at Aswap this year. I've called all my people on the waiting list for Aswap, but it's just too late to fill that spot because most of the people taking trips this year are already booked. It's June 19 - 26 if anybody can fill it. Other than that, we have some late May dates, which will be quite prime this year, and then nothing until July 17th for a 3 day spot. I have a bit of space to fill towards the end of July and early August and then we're done for the season. The television show that was taped in 2004 has been playing again this week on The Outdoor Channel, check it out if you have not seen it yet:

Broadcast time: Monday April 4th, 10h30pm EST
Reruns; Thursday April 7th 11;00 am
and Sunday April 9th 12:30 am

March 7th, 2005: Just a quick update, I have resold all my June dates at Bolton, and hope there will be no further cancellations. However, recently a group canceled their dates in Aswap lake June 19 - 26. I believe I'll have that date sold today or tomorrow, but it's open right now if anybody wants it.

The winter roads have been more difficult than usual. Even though it's been a cold year, the ice had a lot of snow cover and simply did not freeze as much as normal. We're expecting to get our fuel into Elk Island this week and we've been up the winter road at least 6 times already with smaller vehicles, but the big loads are what's most important for us to operate efficiently. As long as this week stays cold and the roads stay open we should get it all done. I've updated the address for our new offices and shop, if you're sending us anything, please make note of the change. Our toll free number, local numbers and emails have not changed, but our fax number has changed to 204-334-2774.

February 24th, 2005: WOW HAS IT BEEN BUSY!! We got back from the sportshow circuit late last week and have been running around like crazy to get the supplies for the winter road. On top on that, Brian has sold his air service business including the 5 wheeled planes and the hanger so we're moving to a new home. We will be in the new building next week, and the new guys operating the air service have allowed us to stay as long as we need. The new location is only 5 minutes down the road, and we're really looking forward to getting into our brand new offices and shop. The shop will serve to repair equipment and prepare the outboards for sale. We sell off all our outboards every 2 years and that takes up a lot of time and effort as well, so it will be nice to have our own shop where we're not getting in the way of the airplanes and engineers working on them.

I just got off the phone from ordering the supplies for the Joint Lake cabin. The interior will all be brand new and there will be dividing walls for the bedrooms so that there's a bit more privacy. It's really going to make the cabin look great. I also ordered a new hot water tank, a new high efficiency refrigerator and a new solar system to run it. I'll be happy to try out a new refrigeration system to see if I can eliminate those *&!**# propane fridges, if the salesman is right, the new system should pay for itself and work better than the old style. It's going to be an all new camp there this year...now if I can just figure out how to set up a hot tub!

The sportshows were very productive for us again this year. We had great opportunities to see many of our old guests and we met some new people who want to give us a shot this year. It's getting harder to sell at the shows since there are new operators every year coming into the mix, but I know we do better than average because of a few simply reasons. We're a family owned and operated business and not salespeople. We have been doing this since 1988. We have a great lake that produces trophies in Pike, Walleye and Lake Trout and we can fly out for trophy Brook Trout. It's a well organized trip that does not allow for much confusion. We use the best equipment from boats and motors to the Dash 7 aircraft we charter out of Winnipeg. I guess the biggest difference that separates us from the rest is that we care about our guests from the minute they book with us when we book hotels and put them in contact with a travel agent for flights to the day they leave and we make sure they leave satisfied.

Our need to constantly improve our camps and services continues again this year. Stay tuned for our next set of ideas to make your trips with us more enjoyable than the last.

January 26th, 2005: I did not mention in my previous bulletin, the show is called Outdoor Passions, I hope a lot of people will watch!

The shows have been very good to us this year. It's always great to see old guests and it's also great to hear of how they enjoyed their trips and plan to return. At one show I ran into a guest who I guided back in 1992 when I was first getting started. He had not been back to Canada since and this year he's going to be back in July for a 7 day trip. Bolton Lake sure has changed in the past 15 years, an all weather strip that can accommodate the 40 passenger Dash 7 aircraft, an entirely new lodge and only one remaining original cabin from when my father bought the lodge in 1988, three great outpost camps, all new 18 foot deluxe fishing boats, Moose and Bear Hunts and a great new location on the lake to make everything a bit easier for us and more importantly our guests.

I'm in town while Greg is in Madison and Green Bay this week and I'll meet back up with him for the long drive to the Cleveland show starting next week. I managed to sneak away from the office yesterday afternoon to get some ice fishing in on the Red River. I only caught a couple of small saugers, but my fishing partner, Chris caught a real nice 26 incher pictured below.

January 12th, 2005: The shows are well under way with three down and 12 more to go. It's going to be a whirlwind for the next few weeks moving from show to show for relatively short stays in cities like St. Charles, IL followed by Grand Rapids, MI then Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and finally Omaha. We'll be through all those cities in just over a month. Then later in March we'll be back in Milwaukee and Cleveland and finish up in Minneapolis where I expect we'll be selling mostly for 2006 since we're very close to being sold out of June dates at the lodge and our first opening at the outpost is July 10th, 2005. Of coarse Aswap is sold out for the season, as per usual and we have only a few weeks to sell in Kitchi and Joint Lake. There's not much point in listing them since at this time of year things tend to change daily. Please give us a call or send us an email to check for availability, there's always a few groups that we think are set in stone, but issues come up and space becomes available.

The dates for the Bolton TV show have been set. On The Outdoor Channel our show will air on Monday, January 31st at 9:30 p.m. then again on Friday, February 4th at 4:30 p.m. and on Sunday, February 6th at 11:30 p.m. I'm pretty sure those are Eastern times.

It's been way too cold to get out and fish around here lately so I have not fished for nearly a month. On the bright side, the winter roads should open on schedule this year and we should have no trouble getting the new motors, fuel and other supplies to the lodge this winter.

December 13th, 2004: There's not much to report other than we've been busy putting together next year's schedule, printing new brochures, finishing the new video and putting it on CD Rom. We also had our annual general meetings with the majority of the other fishing lodges and Outfitters in Manitoba and I was elected Vice President for our association again. Jodi and I had a chance to take a week off for some time on the beach in Mexico, it was a great trip with beautiful weather at a very nice resort.

I have updated the rates page now that the new brochures with the new pricing has come out. Unfortunately we lost 30 points on the exchange rate this year, which means we lost our entire profit margin and then some so we had to increase the rates for 2005. Fortunately things are looking great for 2005 in the booking department, so we will have a great year as long as we don't lose any more points on the exchange rate. Surprisingly I still have a couple of prime spots at the outposts in June 2005. If you're thinking we're sold out as usual for June at the outposts, you'll be as surprised as I am when I say that June 19 - 26 is available at Joint Lake and June 26 - July 3 is available at Aswap Lake. Not surprising, is this is the last week available at Aswap for the 2005 season.

The new motors have been ordered for the 2005 season, a new quad has been ordered and the plans to update the cabin at Joint Lake are still in the works. The workers have already agreed to go in and land on the ice at the Joint Lake cabin, and we'll get the supplies to Elk Island on the winter road so that we can fly them over when the workers arrive. We hope that the work goes as well as it did at Aswap last spring.

We're looking forward to the sportshows and getting supplies up on the winter road. It's amazing how many different things you have to know when you run a lodge. From marketing, websites, computers, scheduling, transportation, to work at the lodge including building, plumbing, heavy equipment, mechanical and my favorite, sewer and water systems ;). It's a great job to have if you like to do something different every day, and you get a bit of time off in the fall and winter when you're not at the shows or on the winter road.

I have been ice fishing twice here in Winnipeg so far this year and managed to catch a few Walleye, Sauger and Goldeye. One of the Goldeye's was a trophy and if you don't know what a Goldeye is, there's a picture of it below. I fished with 3 of the guides who worked at Bolton this year, Chris, Aaron and Albert all got a chance to show me how it's done. I had the lead until Chris landed a trophy Walleye also pictured below. I'll post a picture of the fish I caught in Mexico as soon as I find it.

Have a great Holiday Season! We're excited to see you at the shows in January, February or March!

	Chris and Aaron with a nice Red River Walleye through the ice.
	Trevor with a Goldeye through the ice on the Red River.
	Picture of Trevor's Mahi Mahi