 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BULLETIN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
New for 2010: Whether you are flying or driving to Canada this year it is mandatory to have a passport in order to get back into the U.S. Please take the necessary steps to acquire a passport if you haven't already got one for your trip with us! It takes a few weeks to get a passport, so do not wait until the last minute! Past indiscretions could prevent you from entering Canada including DUI's or other charges. If you believe there may be an issue getting into Canada, we recommend Canada Border Crossing Services in Winnipeg to help you resolve any problems. Their number is 1-800-438-7020 or you can visit their website at www.bordercrossing.ca
February 19th, 2010: With all the changes to the website it's taken a while for me to learn the new system and get some time to do another update so this will be a good long one!
First, Tom and I have been through St. Louis, Indy, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Omaha already and had great success at the shows this year! There's just Phoenix and another Minneapolis show left this season and then we'll be concentrating on hiring staff, moving supplies to the lodge and buying a few more odd parts and tools needed for the season.
Today I sent all our new motors, a new 18 foot boat and a truck and trailer to Norway House. Tomorrow we have 2 guys from Norway House who will break the trail into Bolton Lake to haul in our supplies. I'm hoping for a good report from them on the condition of the trail so that I can get everything I've bought for the lodge into camp. I should be there in the next few days to run the trail with my snowmobile and use our bombardier to haul in the boat, motors and truck. We'll have some good pictures and video from this adventure if everything goes as planned!
Aswap Lake has been sold out since early January when we were in Chicago and our last week was filled. Joint Lake is sold out until August 12th and since the 12th is a Thursday, we can sell any length of trip that somebody could want as long as it starts on the 12th. We're hoping to find 2-3 more groups for Joint Lake so that it's filled until the end of August.
We are looking forward to the upcoming season, it will be here sooner than we think!
December 28th, 2009: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! Another year has nearly passed and we're already preparing for 2010! The sportshow schedule is set, although we may add 1 or 2 more depending on how things are going. Lately, there have been quite a few bookings and the schedule is starting to really take shape! Aswap is sold out for the season and there are only a couple of weeks open in August at Joint Lake! We're very excited to see this turn around in bookings and hope that the trend will continue throughout the sportshow season. Now if that darn exchange rate would cooperate then I'd be able to go buy a bunch more stuff without worrying....like a new float plane!
Our new website is nearly complete and I expect to have it operating within about a week. The site will have almost all the same content, just a much nicer and more convenient design.
Bolton Lake has joined FaceBook, just type in Bolton Lake Lodge in a search on Facebook and it should come up. Otherwise, try this link: FaceBook I've been mentally preparing for a trip into Bolton Lake on Snowmobile this winter. It's been said that there will be a new winter road built that will travel about 30 miles south of Bolton Lake between Norway House and Island Lake. My plan is to use this road to haul a new boat, truck, trailer and some other supplies as close to Bolton as possible and then venture off the road to break a trail into Bolton Lake. The old trail through the bush should still be there, but with about 5 years of new growth over it, so it will be a very rough trail, hopefully without too much slush. If the trip goes well, then I'll use our old Bombardier and sleigh to haul in as much stuff as I can so that we don't have to fly in all our supplies this spring. Of coarse, I'll only be able to take in items that can freeze like outboard motors, lumber, bottled water and canola oil but the beer, pop and groceries will have to wait for the spring along with all the fuel because we're just not set up to move the quantity of fuel that I need for a season.
We look forward to seeing you at the sportshows over the next 3 months and at the lodge in less than 5 months!
November 18th, 2009: I've updated the sportshow page with the new All Canada coupon and all the new dates for 2010. I also updated the rates page and will provide some new open dates once we have a few more groups sorted out. So far the 2010 season is looking pretty good, Aswap is currently sold out and Joint Lake only has 3 open weeks. At Bolton Lake June has filled up quickly and there are some larger groups in July and August that are helping to fill in the schedule. Late May and around the 4th of July there is a space for quite a few guests which has become a trend in the past few years. So far winter hasn't started here in Winnipeg so we're hoping for a mild winter and a normal ice out.
I spent almost a week hunting for Whitetail deer with Big Antler Outfitters in the interlake area of Manitoba. On the first day after about 30 minutes in the tree stand I decided to try rattling to see if I could get a dominant buck to come in to investigate. Instead a pack of gray wolves came right to my tree stand. I was in awe just watching the wolves circle the area looking for some deer that they could ambush while the deer were preoccupied with each other. I easily and legally could have taken one of the wolves but opted to keep my gun down and just watch instead. Unfortunately the battery on my camera was frozen so I didn't get any video which would have been better than anything. I spent a few more days in various stands hoping to get another opportunity at a wolf or deer. I rattled one small buck into a fresh scrape that I found and I came face to face with another small buck while walking away from the stand at the end of the day so that was exciting! On the last day with the sun setting a decent buck came along the game trail and I took it with my muzzleloader at about 50 yards. I might go back for a couple more days with my riffle to see if the bucks have really started to move yet because the season was very late this year due to the above average temperatures we've had this fall. Below is a picture of me with my Buck overshadowed by the 150 or so class buck shot by another guest named Mike.
October 27th, 2009: As usual it's been a pretty busy fall getting everything put away, making the newsletters and taking care of the business we just can't do while we're up north. The newsletters will be in the mail later this week, please send us your address if you'd like to receive a copy.
I took one last trip into Bolton Lake yesterday, I rented a Piper Warrior from the local flying school and flew in myself and a mechanic to do some more work on our Bombadier. The Bombadier is a snow machine that we haven't used for a few years but will come in handy late this winter while we haul some supplies into the lodge. The plan is to haul a boat and a few other smaller items into Bolton from Norway House with a couple of snowmobiles and if all goes well then we'll drive the Bombadier back out and pick up a bunch more supplies including the new trailer and a truck to keep at the lodge for the following seasons. It was nice getting behind the controls of an airplane again, we had a great tail wind on our way north but paid for it on the way back. We spotted 8 moose and 1 bear on the flight, all on the way south while we were flying lower and slower. It sure is beautiful flying with the fall colors!
I've had a chance to get out this fall for some ducks and geese and Cary took me whitetail hunting for a couple of days in southern Manitoba. I saw 16 deer but not one was a shooter and only a few were in range. I wouldn't have taken a buck unless it was really something because I have a hunt scheduled next week in the interlake area of Manitoba. I'm very excited about this hunt because it's with a professional outfitter who has a great area for whitetail, bear, ducks and geese. I hope to take a lot of great pictures and video so that I can help him promote his hunting trips and I can continue to experience high end hunts like this.
Here are a couple of pictures that were missed during the season but recently emailed to me:
September 9th, 2009: Well the lodge and the outposts are all officially shut down for the season and only Ray remains at the lodge to look after the camp. This past weekend I did some final shut down work and got in a bunch of fishing with my pal Chris Okell. See below for some great season ending fish pictures! All things considered with the economy, the lousy weather and the late ice out we had a pretty good season. We were fortunate to pick up a few guests who were booked further north in late May but were iced out of the lakes they were supposed to go to so they called us and filled in what little space we had open. Although the ice was late at Bolton, we still had enough water to bring in the guests and get them out fishing, within a couple of days most of the lake was open so we didn't have to cancel or reschedule any guests. We booked groups a bit later than normal last spring because the winter was so cold and the ice was extra thick. I'll be working on my newsletters soon and will have them out before the end of October, if you'd like to make sure you'll receive one, just email us your address. I'm also going to be working on sportshows, the motors we flew out this year to sell and rebuilding our website. There won't be much content change to the website but the look will be different.
The last group who fished Aswap had this to say:
Saturday in 4 hours from 10am to 2pm
My friend Chris and I had to check it out so we went to Aswap to shut down the camp and get a bit of fishing in. We had similar results, in about 6 hours of fishing we had two 35's, two 36's a 39, a 40 and a 41 inch Pike!! The Pike were clearly feeding heavy for the fall, just about every spot we stopped there were a couple of nice fish waiting for us. We also spent a day at Bolton and caught a bunch of Walleye for a shore dinner and a nice Lake Trout. the 3rd day of our little fishing trip we took our Zodiac and 20 hp motor about 100 miles down the God's river in the float plane and found a nice spot to land and put everything together. A few years back I had taken a boat all the way down that river system to this area and had amazing Brook Trout action. Although the Brook Trout were not as big as we're used to getting in our usual spot, I was able to land 15 and Chris landed 10. A few that were 18 and 19 inches long but none that cracked the 20 inch trophy size. Not bad for having forgotten our net! Enjoy these pictures:
August 15th, 2009: A few kidney stones to end off the season for me has put a damper on closing the camp and doing my web updates! Our last lodge guests departed yesterday along with quite a few staff, by tomorrow there will only be 4 of us left in camp! The outposts are full until September 6th and by the 10th the float plane will be headed back to Flin Flon until next spring. We'll still have a couple of guys around to look after the camp, do a few chores and small projects and to get a bit of fishing and hunting in. Here are a pile of pictures from the past 2 weeks!
August 3rd, 2009: The weather has finally settled in for a few days and the fishing is picking up again! The group who just left Aswap Lake yesterday landed 13 Pike between 41 to 44 inches, I'm hoping they'll send me some pictures!! The group who flew into Joint yesterday called in this morning to report that they've already landed a 42 inch Pike and a 38 and a 40 inch Pike! Yesterday at Bolton the bigger Pike were starting to bite here as well with 2 40's and a few more between 36-40 inches, I'm looking forward to the reports at the end of today.
The Lake Trout were the biting last week as well. One guest landed 5 Lake Trout in the "Master Angler" class of 35 inches and bigger, his biggest was 38 inches and close to 30 pounds!! Regi (his guide) will have to invest in a new digital camera so that I can post more of his trophies! Here are a few more pictures from the last week or so:
July 24th, 2009: Again with the rain and wind! It's been a tough season for weather, every time we think it's settled in, another storm system comes through. The fishing has been pretty good with the weather we've been getting, the mornings and evenings have been the best. No matter what the fishing has been like, the shore lunches and meals at the lodge have been outstanding according to all of our guests this season!! Some new varieties at shore lunch like a Walleye pasta, the Walleye stir fry and the Mexican Walleye Baker have all been amazing. I know this first hand because I've made it out to a few shore lunches this month!! I can say without a doubt that we have the best shore lunches in Manitoba and possibly anywhere in the world! Chef Robin has continued to amaze our guests with creative and mouth watering meals night after night, I wish I had his energy, passion and skills!
Here are some more great shots from this season:
July 11th, 2009: It's been windy for the past few days but we've got a great forecast for the next few days. Most guests didn't bother fishing yesterday because of the wind and rain but the guests at Joint Lake had no trouble getting out on the river system and had some great success! Today it's still windy but we've got clear skies so most of the guests have decided to get out there. Here are a few more pictures:
July 3rd, 2009: It's been a bit windy for a few days here but today the sun is out and the lake is like glass! The wind has made the fishing a bit tougher but we're still managing a few trophies every day. Over the past week we've had a few fly fishermen here testing the waters strictly with fly rods, they were pleasantly surprised by the number and size of the fish they caught on the fly and how easy it was to get fish to bite. The Walleye's have been porpoising (this happens every year around this time) in hole #2 and the fly fishermen had a great time catching the Walleye on streamers, poppers and other sinking baits. Other guests are throwing jigs and catching the Walleye about 3 feet below the surface, there is no need to jig on the bottom when the Walleye are porpoising! The fly fishing for Pike was also very effective since our Pike are not very used to seeing slow moving streamers or poppers on the surface.
The fly fishermen also spent some time on the Brook Trout River and did very well. Any type of wet fly were effective and we even got a couple to raise to the surface flies!! I'm looking forward to posting their pictures but I have not received them yet.
The guests at Joint Lake have been having a lot of success fishing for Walleye as well. For the past 3 weeks the guests have barely left the river system because all the Walleye the want are right there!
Aswap Lake has produced a lot of 35-40 inch Pike lately but the guests have struggled to get past that 41 inch trophy size. I think it's a bit of a transition period right now because the weeds are just starting to show up and the shallow bays are starting to get too warm for the bigger Pike. Fishing rocky points and where ever the Walleye are hanging around is probably the most effective method at this time of year. The weeds will be up very soon, so the guests and guides will have to watch for that!
More great pictures from this past week or so:
June 26th, 2009: I thought last week was great but this week was even better!! One of our groups of 4 anglers landed 9 trophies in 5 days, congrats to the Barson group! Another group of 6 anglers in the same 5 days landed 11 trophies on Bolton plus another 17 trophies on our Brook Trout River Fly Out, congrats to the Kehoe group!! The weather was not the best we've had all season, there was more wind than normal and there was a bit of rain as well. Weather wise, it's looking great for the next few days, hopefully the fishing will keep up the way it has!
June 19th, 2009: As promised, a few more pictures.
June 18th, 2009: It's been a funny season for weather so far this year, we've seen snow more often than I've ever seen in late May and June and now we've had three 80 degree days in a row! It's a bit cooler today, but we're okay with that. These drastic changes in weather has made it tough to pattern the fish but we're still getting trophies every day. One of the best days this year was earlier in June when a group of 2 landed 4 trophies within 3 hours. Another group landed back to back trophies including a 45 inch Pike and a 41.5 inch Pike. I'm still trying to get all the pictures from the guides but some of the best shots from the past week are missing so I'll have to do another update with more pictures right away.
It's another great year for Lake Trout already! We landed another 40 incher and then a 41.5 inch Lake Trout in 10 feet of water. Both were taken while jigging for Walleye so they were great battles! The Walleye have schooled and groups are catching them by the hundreds now along with some bigger trophies mixed into the action! The Pike are still mostly in the shallow bays but we've seen a lot of "T-Bones" (Pike grabs a Walleye while you're bringing the Walleye in) so the Pike are following the schools of Walleye and feeding on them too.
Enjoy the pictures but please do not be insulted if we're missing yours, I'm just waiting to get all of the shots from the guides. If you have a picture you'd like to see posted, please email me the shot.
June 9th, 2009: It's been a very busy couple of weeks getting everything ready, doing our fuel haul and dealing with some rough weather. We've seen snow a few more times but pray that we've seen the last of the snow until October! The fishing has been pretty good considering the weather, especially the trophies! The Lake Trout are still shallow, the Walleye will be in the rivers for a while yet and the Pike are still looking for some nice warm water to rest in so we'll be fishing the shallow bays for at least another 2 weeks. We did our first Brook Trout trip of the season yesterday and boated almost 20 Brook Trout including 5 that were 20 - 21 inches long (trophy size)!!
The outpost camps are doing well, still a bunch of trophies being caught at Aswap Lake and Joint Lake has produced a few Walleye trophies, some Pike trophies and a bunch of nice Lake Trout!
We used an interesting method for hauling our fuel this year. At the last minute our usual supplier decided that our airstrip was all of a sudden too short for their plane that had been to Bolton over 30 times before so we had to find an alternative quickly. We were surviving on a bit of fuel we had stashed from the season previous and we flew in 400 gallons on a Caravan for about $5000 so it was an extremely costly and ineffective way to get our fuel. I had heard of a crop dusting aircraft that had been converted to haul all types of fuel in it's bulk tanks. This plane could take 800 gallons of gas at a time for about $2800 per load so it was much more efficient especially since we did 12 loads, almost half the price for twice the load! It was still a bit more expensive than the method used before but at least it wasn't quadruple the price! Below is a great picture of the aircraft used for our fuel hauling.
Here are a bunch more pictures from this season:
May 25th, 2009: The boats are in, the ice is almost all gone, Aswap has a group of 6 who have landed 15 trophies in three days - one on the 1st cast of the trip! - Joint Lake has a group of 4 who went in yesterday and here at Bolton we have a group of 4 enjoying the lake all to themselves! We still have a few chunks of ice around the lake but that should be gone today or tomorrow with this strong warm West wind. We've been fishing around these ice flows for a few days already, they've stayed around for much longer than I ever expected. Normally when we have some large sections of lake open, it's a matter of just 2-3 days before the entire lake is open but this year it took over a week before the main lake fully broke open.
Most of our supplies are now in but we're still waiting on our fuel for the season. We're planning to get all the fuel in this week assuming there are no further delays. It's a good thing we had a few barrels left from last season to get us started this year!
The kitchen staff are all back from last year, so again our guests will be treated to the best meals we have served to date! Aimee will be taking meal orders and serving in the bar again this season, she's excited to see everybody this season along with some new faces. We had a larger turn over with guides this season than we're used to but the new group has a lot of great potential. We spent the last few days showing the new guys the lake, and today we spent the morning doing our guide training program and now they're out catching fish for a huge shore dinner for all the staff. This will be my first fish of the season, so I'm looking forward to this training!
To open Aswap last week, we had to charter a float plane in from over 100 miles away because every other lake in our area still had too much ice for a float plane. We put in all new boat seats at both Aswap and Joint Lake and new motors at both camps as well.
Our float plane made it in late Saturday evening so we had to open Joint Lake as we were bringing in the group of anglers on Sunday morning. We spent most of the day at Joint Lake and tomorrow we'll be setting up the Brook Trout river and rebuilding the dock at Aswap Lake. The new Cessna 206 we have for this season is a great performer and our pilot Ursula comes with over 6000 hours of experience in many different types of planes!
Joint Lake still has a large chunk of ice that's blocking the river exit but the river is wide open and the guys should be fishing the rest of the lake within the next couple of days.
Please check back often along with our weather page for the most recent updates of how the season is progressing and what to expect for when you arrive. I'll start getting camera cards from the guests and staff so that I can get some more pictures going. Yesterday Doug Murray and his daughter and her boyfriend flew in for the day with their Beach Bonanza, here are some of their pictures.
May 17th, 2009: A crew of us made it into camp today to get everything opened up for the season. We were happy to see that most of the lake is ice free and that there's only a large slab of ice on the main body of the lake that will not last long. We flew over Aswap and Joint Lake and Aswap is completely ice free but Joint Lake still has a large sheet of ice on the main lake. There's a lot of open water around the ice so the wind will do the rest of the damage for us. Our lake is one of only a few that are open in our area, I'm not sure why but I believe that a couple of late snow storms missed Bolton Lake which has helped the melting process. Unfortunately there's still no date set for getting a float plane here. We're really hoping that something will be available soon because we need to get the outposts opened up and move guests into Aswap in a few days and Joint Lake next Sunday. Our freight has also been delayed due to weather, but we're expecting to have the big Hawker in on Wednesday with all our motors, beer, pop, lumber and other supplies for the season. The water level is a bit lower than normal for this time of year and the ground is very dry so we don't expect the water level to raise much but our runway is in great shape for this time of year!
May 13th, 2009: I have not been back to the lodge in about 2 weeks but guides Tom and Winston have been giving me updates from Bolton daily. I was shocked a few days ago when they said they launched a boat into our back bay area, now they can get to hole number 1 and Mink Creek and the main lake has some open water and large cracks. With this information, I know that it's only a matter of days before the rest of the lake is accessible and we'll have no problem opening on time this year!! The only problem we have right now is getting the float plane that is based in Flin Flon, Manitoba where there is almost no open water at all. We're hoping that by the weekend things will change and we'll get in there because we have guests going into Aswap on May 21st. One way or another, we'll make it work!
The fuel and freight haul have been further delayed because the company who charters their big Hawker to us have been very busy with other charters and maintenance problems. We're hoping to get the 1st Hawker with freight and fuel into Bolton this weekend.
May 4th, 2009: My commercial license is done! I will be legal to fly the Cessna 206 float plane with guests this summer when required but we'll still have a full time pilot on staff for the season. Having my commercial license will make things much easier with scheduling in case our pilot needs a break, gets sick, hurt or any other unexpected problems arise during the season.
We flew into the lodge last week for the first time since October and everything was just the way we left it! There was still a lot of ice last week but temperatures have been pretty good and the rivers were starting to open up. The ice is down to about 28 inches which still sounds like a lot but once it gets down to 14 inches or so it just falls apart. The fuel and freight hauls have not begun yet but we're planning to get them going next week. All the snow is off the runway and it's drying up nicely.
The updates will begin to become more frequent as we get closer to opening. I expect the ice to be late but most likely just before our first guests arrive.
March 18th, 2009: It's starting to look like spring up here in Winnipeg, finally we have some melting! We've had a great run of bookings over the past 10 days or so, over 30 guests have booked trips with us recently so we're very excited to see a turn around! We still have some prime dates in June that we might fill with a Tv crew to update our videos and get our name out there again, but we're going to wait a bit to see if we can get some more guests in there first. I've updated the open dates on the rates page again.
We have arranged for a new float plane for this season to transport our outpost guests and for Brook Trout fly-outs. The new plane will be slightly larger and will be able to handle just a bit more gear than the Cessna 185 we had last season. The performance and comfort are expected to be much greater with the new plane as well. Below is a picture, I'm looking forward to getting back behind the controls this summer!
February 23rd, 2009: It's been an interesting couple of months here and the 3rd coldest winter in Winnipeg's history! We visited 7 different U.S. cities and even got in a little Pheasant hunt while in Des Moines and a Blackhawks game while in Chicago! The shows were actually pretty good considering the state of the economy but we've had a few groups wait until after we spent $30,000 on marketing to tell us that they're not going to make it this year. This has left a couple of ugly holes in the schedule that we're going to have to fill within the next few months. Give us a call if you're at all interested because we'll be making some deals! I have updated the open dates on the rates page.
We're still expecting to have a decent season even with the recent holes in the schedule and we're still planning to get Kitchi back up and running for 2010 along with a few other upgrades and improvements to the lodge and the outposts. We're building a new dock for the float planes, more than half of the fleet of outboards are being replaced this season, including all the outpost motors, and the shore lunch spots will be getting new picnic tables this year! We will be researching a couple of new lakes this year for further expansion of the outposts and we're seriously looking at buying a float plane for next season. I've been busy studying for my commercial pilot's license and plan to have everything completed in early April. This will give me time for more float training before we go to the lodge. The fuel and freight haul is scheduled for the end of April again this year, hopefully fuel prices stay low until then!
December 29, 2008: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! The Sport shows are about to begin in a few days and we're looking forward to seeing many new and old guests in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Des Moines and Omaha! For a complete list of our shows and a coupon, click here. It's been a cold early winter here in Winnipeg, almost too cold for any outdoor activities! I was a few flights away from taking my commercial flight test when I separated my shoulder playing indoor soccer. Then the weather turned too cold for the small trainer planes and then the holidays hit. Now I'm forced to wait until I'm done with the sport shows and the weather gets a bit better for flying again before I can do my flight test. In the meantime I've been working on my written exam which I'll write before spring hits.
I have updated some of our open dates at the outposts and the lodge but sport shows really changes a lot of things so calling or emailing for availability is always best. For those guests holding space without deposits, please be aware that your spot is vulnerable if another perspective buyer is ready to put down a deposit on your dates. We will always try to call and find out if we can let the space go but many times at the sport show if we don't have the date the guest is looking for, he books somewhere else so we might have to make a snap decision and you could lose your spot. It's always a lot more difficult for us to find out after the sportshows that a group has to back out of their dates or has to change spots because those marketing dollars are spent and the chance to sell that open spot has decreased significantly.
The cost of fuel is very low, airfares are coming down and the exchange rate is the best we've seen in three years!! This means that our pencils will be sharpened at the shows to fill in a few more spots, make sure to drop by and see us!
October 24th, 2008: The lodge has been officially shut down for about 2 weeks now and we're all back in Winnipeg starting to plan for next season. I've been working on my commercial pilot's license more and hope to have the flight test done before the new year, then I'll have the rest of winter to study for the written exam. I used the plane I've been training on to fly up to Bolton and take out Tom. He stayed behind after the hunt so that he could get in a bit of hunting for himself and watch over the camp.
We had a few hunters again this fall with great success on bears and very bad luck on the moose. There were a few good opportunities for moose including taking 2 shots at one but missing it and shooting another one but not recovering the animal. We tracked the moose for over 8 hours but could not catch up to him and regrettably gave up as we had to make it back to the boat before dark. The next day we went again but the rain had taken away our blood trail. Unfortunately we've decided to quit offering moose hunts due to the lack of success. There's simply too much pressure on the hunter to make that one shot count because it's almost always the only chance he'll get at a moose in his lifetime and over the years we've seen way too many missed opportunities. We'll continue to hunt the area for ourselves as there are plenty of moose around and we don't have the pressure of having spent thousands of dollars and only doing this once in our lifetime. We also have the luxury of hunting when it's best and not picking a date and hoping that the weather and moose cooperate during that time. About a week after the hunters left the weather finally turned colder and the moose showed themselves in every corner of the lake. Tom had at least 15 individual moose spotted within a couple of days including a couple of decent bulls.
We've been spending time planning the sport shows and booking groups for next season. The newsletter is at the printers now and we hope to have them ready for early November because we're planning a trip with friends to Grand Forks, ND for some shopping so we can mail the newsletters from there and save on postage. And I can go to Cabela's!
I've spent some time hunting and fishing near our house just north of Winnipeg. I've been out with Robert (one of our guides) a few times now for ducks, geese and whitetail and I've had success in all three. The fishing on the Red River for Walleye has been bad so I'll wait for ice fishing to try again and spend the rest of my free time hunting until then. I shot an 8 point buck a couple of days ago with my new muzzle loader while sitting in a tree stand, a decent buck but now I have to wait until riffle season to get out again. I'll likely go for birds a couple more times until then.
Although there is a lot of talk about the economy in the U.S. it's looking like another busy season at Bolton for 2009. We're very excited about the exchange rate right now and we've locked in our rate for next May and June for about half of our sales. Of coarse the rate has gone up since we locked in but we're still at a higher rate than we've had in 3 years. On the bright side, our rates will not increase for 2009! Now if the cost of fuel stays low then I can spend some money on rebuilding Kitchi Lake and getting a bit more new equipment for the lodge, and maybe Jodi will let me buy a float plane!! Here are a couple of pictures from this fall.
August 28th, 2008: We finished off the lodge season in style!! A 40 inch Lake Trout and a 47 inch Northern Pike were caught during our last week!!! The outposts will still be running for a couple more weeks and then the hunters will come in towards the end of September. The weather has been nice this week but last week it was very windy and there were a couple nasty storms that swamped boats and the float plane. The plane will be back in service within a week, but in the meantime we're chartering a Beaver to move our guests to the outposts.
I wish I had more pictures but I'm waiting on some to come in from guests who don't have digital, especially the 40 inch Lake Trout!
August 5th, 2008: I was worried that things would slow down a bit because we has such a productive May, June and July but the trophies and the numbers are still coming in strong. We were very proud to help a group beat their 20 year records (who says fishing isn't as good as it was 20 years ago??), the Hutchison group who counted every fish they caught smashed their previous total by almost 500 fish!! There were 6 anglers in the group who landed over 50 fish each per day, for a total of over 2100 fish!! The Lodice group went to Aswap Lake landed almost 1500 fish between the 4 of them and they had 4 trophy Pike and two 40 inch Pike!! Bob and his son Dan landed a 45 inch Pike on Bolton and Phil and his dad Pete landed a 40 inch Lake Trout!!! A good friend of mine (who isn't much of a fisherman) finally landed a trophy Pike, his first in over 20 years of fishing! Here are some more of our recent trophies!
July 25, 2008: We've had a great run of weather and fishing again lately!! The big Pike are the main story this season and the Brook Trout would be next headline! We don't go for Brook Trout without landing a few trophies and the numbers have been in the double digits every trip. The guests who do the fly out trip for Brook Trout can't believe that we don't promote it harder but we like to leave it up to the guests and let the results speak for themselves. More pictures:
July 14, 2008: The weather has been up and down quite a bit lately, today we have thunder storms with lots of lightning and some good down pours already. We've been getting the same results with our fishing as well but overall we're have our best year for trophies! The Brook Trout have almost been a guaranteed trophy any time guys have done the fly out, we're still catching trophy Pike just about every day and the Walleye are everywhere right now! The Lakers have slowed quite a bit compared to how we started off the season but they're still a good option for a change of pace. Last week at Aswap a new group of what I'm guessing were better than average fishermen hitting just the right week managed to catch 20 trophy Pike and there were only 4 fishermen!! They gave us a detailed list of their catches which included:
I took a long time guest to our Brook Trout river last week and we landed 23 Brookies including 3 trophies and 6 others that were just under the 20 inch line, it was a great day!!
We had a group of 11 fishermen, the SST group who just left and they managed to catch 16 trophies during their stay including 5 Brook Trout, 10 Pike and 1 Walleye another great week with the guys! The week before them we had a group of 10 anglers who landed 7 trophies and 5 of the 7 were caught by the women in the group! It's been a great year for the women and children coming to the lodge this year, not just how well they're doing while fishing but the number of women and children coming up into the bush! Of coarse things aren't as rustic or primitive as they were years ago. Here are a bunch more pictures from the past couple of weeks:
July 1, 2008: Sorry for the delay, just been busy! It's been a productive 11 days since the last update, over 60 trophies caught and released averaging almost 6 per day!! I think we're going to break our all time high for number of trophies caught if we keep up this pace! The Lake Trout have been better than we've seen them in 8 years, the Brook Trout have been amazing this year, we're catching about 5 trophies per trip and the numbers are way up too. The Pike have been steady right from the start of the season, I don't think we've gone a day without at least one trophy Pike and many days we get a bunch! The numbers of Walleye are good but we're not getting as many trophies yet this season, one spot is about to heat up where we catch a dozen or more trophy Walleye every season, so my next report may be different.
Things have been going very well at the outposts and the lodge, the staff this season has been fantastic and we're getting rave reviews from our dining room! The equipment has been really good too, just a few minor repairs and new props to keep the motors running well. The weather is the story of this season, well after the fishing of coarse, but I think they go hand in hand. We have not had a single flight delay due to weather yet this season, which is unheard of for May and June. Hopefully our luck keeps up for the rest of the season!
Here are a bunch of pictures from the past week and a half:
June 20th, 2008: The weather has been too good to stay inside and post bulletins on the computer! Actually we've had our share of rain over the past 10 days, I think we had 4 days straight with rain, wind and generally bad weather but now it's warm, sunny and there's almost no wind today. The fishing has been very good lately, especially the Lake Trout! In the past 4 days we've landed 11 trophy Lake Trout over 35 inches!! The biggest Lake Trout of the season was landed by Hal and his guide Kurtis and it was 39 inches! The Pike have been fairly steady, but don't seem to want to bite on those clear sunny days. As soon as the clouds come in, then they turn on big time! The Walleye are still going strong, one of the guests landed a 29 inch Walleye just last night! Here are a few more pictures from the past 12 days:
June 8th, 2008: Less than a week between updates, this is a record! I'm stuck in the office desperately waiting for the service people to call me back about fixing my walk-in freezer that died this morning, so I thought I'd keep myself busy by doing an update. We have a lot of great new pictures to show and this will give me another opportunity to thank the group of guests who just left. Especially Bob Weikel who has fished with us about 10 times but who has painfully decided to retire from fishing....it's been great having you fish with us Bob! And Judith and Eugene who are always very nice to have in camp who gave up their seats on the Dash 8 for a later flight on the King Air so that other guests could have a chance at catching their flights out of Winnipeg. It's just really great having such helpful and friendly guests in camp! George, Stanley and Joe who have fished with us 13 years in a row sure enjoyed their trip! They said that they probably caught more fish on this trip than any other, the Walleye sure were biting last week! The Anderson group fished with us for the 1st time at the lodge, normally they're at our outposts but they set our new Brook Trout record this year! Bert and the guys came up for at least the 12th year in a row and one of his new guys Paul caught the biggest Pike of the season so far at 46 inches! Thanks to the Bockstael group for setting the bar tab record for the season, I have a couple of groups who will beat it later in the season, but way to set the bar high!! And thank you to Seth and Al who have fished in a lot of different places all over Canada who plan to come back again for more Brook Trout, Walleye, Pike and maybe even a bear! It's great to see how we match up compared to the competition. And thanks to the Woods group who have been fishing with us since 1990, right from the start without missing a year! Way to set the weight record high again!!
We've had a record number of compliments about our new server Aimee and our new chef Robin! Almost every guest has come to me to say that the food is even better than last season, and last season was very good! Robin is putting in a lot of extra effort to put out a very high quality meal and it shows! It's rare that I pass by the kitchen and there isn't something going on whereas in the past most of the chefs have taken at least most of the afternoon off to relax, fish, read or catch up on some sleep. His efforts have been greatly appreciated by the guests, the staff and Jodi and I!!
The new guests are in for the week (or 4 days) and they're off to a great start. We have a 13 year old girl in camp who is here on her first trip with her brothers, cousins, uncle, grandfather and father and she's showing them how it's done already! Her first fish of the trip was a 41 inch Pike!! She's the one to beat in the family competition!
Here are some of the shots, I'll have Jessica's picture soon!
June 3rd, 2008: It's been a busy spring getting things opened up and setting up for the season. The weather has been absolutely amazing so far this spring, only one real rain shower so far, no snow, blizzards or below freezing temperatures since mid May!!! The group who survived our May blizzard of 2007 is here again this spring and can't believe the difference and they don't know what to do with all the clothes they packed! We don't normally see temperatures in the 70's in May, but we've had more of those days already this spring then almost the whole month of June last season! More important than the weather is the fishing! We've had a great couple of weeks already at the lodge and the outposts! The first group into Aswap landed 24 trophy Pike over 5 days and the second group landed 12 trophies over 4 days!!! We broke our all time record on Brook Trout yesterday which was the first group to go for them this year, other than when I went to train a new guy on the river! The new guy, Robert took 2 guests over there and landed 58 Brook Trout and 15 of them were 20 inches or larger trophies!!!! We've been catching mostly trophy Pike so far this season with a few trophy Lakers and a couple of trophy Walleye to add to the mix. Having these warm sunny days has really made finding the big Pike easy.
Here are some long awaited pictures from this season, I'll get some Brookie pictures soon.
May 26, 2008: Quick update, the ice is completely gone off Joint Lake and Aswap Lake and now we just have one sheet of ice left on Bolton Lake, but that won't last much longer and we can get around it to access the rest of the lake. It's been a bit cool and windy yesterday and today, but the rest of the week is looking great! As of yesterday the guys at Aswap Lake had 16 trophies in only 2 days of fishing, Bolton and Joint are taking a bit longer to warm up because of the size and depth of the lakes but we have about 10 trophies at Bolton so far and I believe they got a couple at Joint Lake last week. I'll have some good pictures soon!
May 21, 2008: The ice is almost gone at Bolton Lake. We have had mostly clear skies and some very nice weather lately so we're seeing big changes to the ice every day. We now have enough open water in front of the lodge to land the float plane and I'm predicting that by tomorrow afternoon we'll only have a sheet of ice left on the main body.
The new bathroom at Aswap should be completed by tomorrow and there's almost no ice left on the lake there.
The new carpets are in the cabins at the lodge, the boats are being launched today and tomorrow, the new moose and bear mounts are hung in the lodge, the water is running and the weather is looking fantastic for the next few days!!!
Here's a shot of the open water and what's left of the ice in front of the lodge today.
May 19, 08: We still have ice in front of the lodge, but by Thursday I'm expecting to have full access to the lake. As predicted it is going quickly and at this time we can access the back bay, Mink, #1, Far South, the Old Lodge, Woods Bay and we'll likely be able to make it to #2 by the end of today or tomorrow. We've been setting up Joint Lake for the past couple of days, the main lake is still frozen but the river system is wide open. Aswap Lake still has some sheets of ice, but we're going to be flying in supplies today. If the wind doesn't change on us and blow the ice into the beach by the cabin we will have no trouble getting in there to set up. We're hoping we still have enough time to build the new bathroom there, but we'll see how things go today. Please check the link at the bottom of the pages for weather updates.
Our toll free number is now forwarded to the lodge but the phone is sometimes difficult to hear, especially right at the start of a conversation, then it gets much better. If at all possible, please use email as it is much more reliable and easier for us to answer while we're in the lodge.
Things are looking much better now that the ice is going and the fuel, staff and supplies are almost all here! Looking forward to seeing the guests arrive!!
May 12, 2008: Most of the fuel has been flown into the lodge for the season along with the remainder of the freight so we have just about everything at the lodge now except the staff and a lot more groceries. The ice has not let go much at all in the past few days, we're still just not getting good enough weather to melt all this ice. Since I've been back at the lodge it has snowed every day except today. Today at 8:00 a.m. it was warmer outside than it's been for the past 2 weeks during the day and we finally have a clear sky! The forecast says it will be like this most of the week and our temperatures will get up into the teens (60's) which is a huge improvement! We've been building a new dock on the ice and we've been cutting holes through the ice to put down the cribs. The ice is rotting from underneath and once we get through the top 4 inches of ice it's all candled. I've taken a picture of candled ice so that people know what it looks like, but basically the ice becomes long thin shards that look like a candle that are packed together tightly until they can break apart. As soon as we get some movement on that ice when the water opens up along the shore and around reefs and that top few inches goes away then it will all fall apart very quickly. From what I've heard further south, the ice is there one day and completely gone the next, which is what I'm expecting here. Unfortunately we need more open water around the edges and another week of sun to make it all happen. The hard part is figuring out just when the ice is going to go. I'll be updating again later in the week to show the progress. Here's the new dock and what it looks like today. The guys are still driving the quad on the ice, but that won't last much longer.....probably until Winston breaks through and gets soaked.
May 4th, 2008: I've just returned from some more
freight hauling into the lodge, now all the motors, new life jackets, new
boat seats, beer, pop, water, wine, beans, corn, moose head, lumber for
Aswap, carpets for the cabins, tackle, Bolton Lake clothing, and
miscellaneous items for the season have been flown in. Now we just have to
wait for Calm Air to put their bulk fuel tanks back into the Hawker so that
we can do our fuel haul. Unfortunately we're ready for them, but they're
waiting for other camps to order fuel so that they're not just putting the
tanks in for us because it takes 16 man hours to do the job. Hopefully the
price of fuel doesn't jump another 20 cents per liter (80 cents per gallon)
before we get the job started. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the weather up north has not been conducive to melting, we've barely made it over the freezing point during the day and it gets to an average of -10 Celsius at night so we haven't done much melting over the past couple of weeks. The forecast is not looking good either, it's snowing right now and temperatures are still barely getting over the freezing point. My new predicted ice out is May 21st assuming we start to get some better temperatures to melt that ice. On the bright side when we're drilling holes in the ice the bottom foot of ice has water soaked into it which is a sign that it's deteriorating from the bottom up.
If you booked your airline ticket well in advance you should be able to still bring 2 pieces of luggage and a rod case but there have been changes to the airlines policies on baggage allowances so be prepared to pay a bit more to bring in extra gear. I'm planning to have more rods and reels available for rental in order to help out with those who don't want the hassle and cost of bringing their own gear.
April 29th, 2008: I've been to the lodge a couple of times in the past few weeks and things are looking pretty good. We have a crew of 6 guys working on building a new dock at the lodge and bringing firewood to the shorelunch spots. Almost all the snow is gone around the camp and on the lake but the ice is still very thick, I'm predicting ice out on May 20th but if we get more cold weather I think it will be later then that. We have not been able to do the fuel or freight haul yet although we've been ready for almost a week, the charter company does not have an airplane available to us for another 10 days or so. I'll be back at the lodge again this week to bring in more supplies for the season and to work on the runway for the freight planes so I'll be able to test the ice a bit more. The guys say that it's now just the full length of the auger to get through so we've lost a few inches of ice over the past 2 weeks.
Bookings have picked up in the past couple of weeks, people are making their last minute plans so we've lucky to fill in some of the holes in the schedule.
April 8th, 2008: Well we're finished all our shows for the season, and we're getting right into spring already! It still looks an awful lot like winter up at the lodge and there's still a lot of ice down south so we're worried about it being a late thaw this year. We have guests booked as early as May 18th, which is normally safe and should give us a week of open water before the first guests arrive, but so far this year there has only been a couple of days where there has been some melting up north. Our fuel haul in March did not work out, there was just too much snow on the runway to get it opened up for the freight plane to come in. Myself and a crew of guys will be going to the lodge this weekend to get the runway opened for the fuel and freight haul at the end of the month and to build a new dock at the lodge. Then we're hoping that the ice lets out early enough so that we can get into Aswap to build a new full bathroom on the cabin, I have all the materials, we just need to get in there and get it done.
We've had a number of disappointing cancellations over the past 2 weeks, it reminds us that we have to be much more strict about getting deposits from groups so that we do not end up having holes in the schedule and wasting thousands of dollars at sportshows telling people we are booked. For those who cancel this late and have a deposit in, there's not much we can do to refund the deposit, there's really no point in taking a deposit if we can just allow you to cancel at anytime without penalty. If we're able to fill in your date without having to discount it, then we can help out with the deposit by applying it to next season.
On the bright side, we've been able to resell all of the outpost dates that have become open again except for the late May date at Aswap. I will keep this list updated on the rates page.
Also, we have almost all our staff hired for this season! We have a great chef lined up who has some good ideas and the experience at some high end restaurants. Our new pilot also has some great experience flying floats in the Rockies, so this should be easy for him! And, we've found some great new guides with some more new ideas and fishing techniques to bring to the table.
We're still looking forward to a great season despite the cancellations, it won't be quite as full as last season, but last season broke a 6 year record and this year the American economy could be much better, so all in all we can't complain. On a real positive note, we're not only going to get through these tough seasons with the dollar at par, but we're still able to put more back into the lodge like last year with the new cabin, new boat seats, new equipment for the outposts and this season with a new dock, a new bathroom at Aswap, new boat seats and other equipment for the outposts and we'll likely rebuild the cabin at Kitchi Lake this year because I think the outposts are going to be even busier next season. All this and we're paying down our debt to the bank from purchasing the lodge in 2006. We're in a much better position than many of our competitors, three of which in Manitoba alone have gone bankrupt over the past couple of years. So your deposit is safe when booking with our lodge and outposts!
March 4th, 2008: Sorry for the lack of updates, I didn't realize it had been so long. Most of the Sportshows have come and gone with just a late show in Minneapolis early April to finish off. Many people asked us at the shows why we were there since it looked as though we were pretty booked up but we managed to fill a few holes in the schedule and do some work for 2009. Most of the time we were sold out of outpost dates, but we've had a couple of groups release their spots since the shows so now we have to resell the dates. We have managed to sell 3 of the 4 open spots so there's just one to go now and that's July 20 - 27 at Aswap Lake. Please see our rates page for last minute holes to fill.
I've been working on getting my commercial pilot's license over the past few weeks. I've been wanting to get it for a number of years so that in case our float plane pilot is sick or if he has to leave for any reason, then I can fill in. It will also give me more freedom to go to the outposts myself to make sure things are working properly.
We're planning our fuel haul a bit earlier this year. March 15th is the projected date so we're going to the lodge on about the 10th to clear the snow from the runway to allow the Hawker to come in and land. We're hoping to get the fuel in without waiting for spring when the runway can be soft and wet from the thaw. Once the fuel haul is completed we're going to start to build a new main dock system. We've had a floating dock for a few years at the new lodge but when that wind comes up the dock and the boats take a beating. We're going to build a crib dock which will be permanent and will protect the boats a lot more. We're planning to run our Moose and Bear hunt again this year. Please click here to see the new hunting page. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plan Your Vacation Today! |
CALL 1-800-665-5321 |
| Discover a place like no other that offers breath taking scenery and unforgettable fishing. Bolton Lake Lodge & Outposts, your escape to somewhere special. |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
