DECEMBER
A warm holiday greeting from Jim, Julie and Annie of Wabaskang Camp. We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. We have owned the camp for eleven years now and we are looking forward to the upcoming season as if it was our first. Our guests make each year more and more enjoyable and we enjoy seeing all of you year after year. We know that the tough economic times have hurt us all in one way or another and we pray that the years ahead will see a return to more prosperous times.
The 2010 season was one for the record books in terms of rain. We had another season of high water and cool temperatures. The floating dock kept everyone ½s feet high and dry but without it we would have been in big trouble, the dock is nine years old now and was worth every penny. We made lots of improvements around camp again this season, I managed to rewire every cabin in one way or another and add outlets to all the bedrooms. It was a tough summer to get much painting done but we were able to paint a few cabins and do some touch-up painting on a few others, hopefully 2011 will be warm and somewhat dryer so we can get the rest of the painting done. We did more upgrading on our water system again this season, we now chlorinate the water before it is pushed through the lines to your cabin. Each season I manage to cut trees and brush along the power line into camp, this Fall we had to replace some rotten poles as well, it seems as if this job is a never ending one that will always be there to work on no matter how much time you spend trimming and cutting during the year. When the season was winding down we replaced six hot water tanks, I removed them from the attics of the cabins to boxes mounted on the outside of the bathroom walls, this way they are easy to work on and any leaks just run onto the ground and not through the ceiling into the cabin. The new heaters will recover quicker and give you hot water without much of a wait between showers. The heavy rain during the season meant we had to replace smaller culverts with larger ones and also add new culverts in spots along the road that normally had no water problems, we also put in new culverts around camp to keep the water away from the launch area and away from Cabin #9, hopefully this should solve the problems we had with heavy rain last year. After Julie left for home and I was on my own I replaced the floor in the lodge and redid all the plumbing in the bathroom and kitchen. Still lots of work to do around camp but we accomplished almost everything we wanted to this season.
Fishing was superb on Wabaskang again this season, we had lots of eaters and numerous trophy fish released this year. The perch fishermen in camp did well early in the season fishing on the South end of the lake using bobbers and bits of night crawlers or small jigs dangled on a bobber in about three feet of water, the spawn for perch was the first part of June this year and if you had the right spot you could catch your limit of fish in a few hours. Many of our guests brought in fish around 12 inches long. The average fish were in the 9 to 11 inch range.
Smallmouth Bass fishing was great again this season as well. Most of the fish were caught on tube jigs and small crank baits early in the season and bigger cranks and top water baits through the Summer, as Fall came along many of our guests took bass down as deep as 30 feet on a jig and minnow combination. I have been fishing Wabaskang lake for over 40 years now and early on you rarely saw any good catches of bass in size and number, now our guests can easily catch a limit of bass almost anywhere on the lake in a few hours with many of the fish over 18 inches. A few of the bass released or mounted were:
Dean Harlan 18 ½ bass released 5/15/10
Norby Reiff 19 ½ bass released 5/19/10
Blake Johnson 18 ½ bass released 5/24/10
Blake Johnson 19 ½ bass released 5/29/10
Steve Sauer 18 ½ bass released 5/30/10
Gary Spatz 19 ½ bass released 5/31/10
Dan Schmitz 19 ½ bass released 6/6/10
Mike Lammers 19 ½ bass released 6/7/10
Bob Michaud 18 ½ bass released 6/16/10
Joe Nunlist Jr. 18 ½ bass 6/20/10
Marty Neihouser 18 ½ bass released 6/27/10
Tim Wuethrich 19 ½ bass released 6/30/10
Roy Green 18 ½ bass released 7/11/10
Cassidy Askildson 18 ½ bass mounted 7/26/10
Marge Schurman 18 ½ bass released 8/19/10
Steve Young 18 ½ bass released 8/26/10
The Walleye fishing on Wabaskang was second to none in my opinion this year, we had numerous big fish released as well as tons of eater sized fish. The ½hogs ½ were taken on huge top water baits trolled over deep water weed tops, we also saw some big fish taken the traditional way using a jig and minnow. We had big fish taken each week, some in shallow water and some in deep. Here are a few of the bigger Walleyes released or mounted:
Dean Harlan 27 1/2 ½ walleye released 5/16/10
Mike White 27 ½ walleye mounted 5/28/10
Ken Scheidt 28 ½ walleye mounted 5/28/10
Ann Peterson 27 ½ walleye released 6/14/10
Ryan Little 28 ½ walleye released 6/22/10
Brandon Schroeder 27 ½ walleye mounted 6/26/10
Kenny Fouts 28 ½ walleye released 6/26/10
Marty Neihouser 29 ½ walleye released 6/27/10
Jaret Wunsch 29 ½ walleye released 7/20/10
Chad Peterson 30 ½ walleye released 7/28/10
Tim Schaeffer 27 ½ walleye released 8/17/10
Doyle Brocka 27 ½ walleye released 9/14/10
Chas Ratz 27 ½ walleye released 9/18/10
The Northern Pike fishing was great some weeks and somewhat tough on others. Many of the big fish were taken on huge stick baits while casting or trolling over deep weed lines. The best fishing seemed to be on cloudy days near deep rock piles, it just seem to be that someone would get into the fish and have the best Pike fishing of their lives then go back to the same spot the next day and come up with nothing. The fish were following the big schools of bait fish most of the season and if you were in the right spot at the right time you came up big. Here are just a few of the bigger fish either released or mounted:
Kevin Johnson 41 ½ northern released 5/15/10
Dan Taylor 43 ½ northern released 5/17/10
Bill Kleinschmidt 42 ½ northern released 5/25/10
Wayne Gajewski 40 ½ northern released 5/31/10
Kevin Reints 39 ½ northern released 6/5/10
Derek Bagwell 42 ½ northern released 6/7/10
Ron Phippen 40 1/8 ½ northern released 6/13/10
Dave Wentlandt 41 ½ northern released 6/24/10
Bryce Wentlandt 41 ½ northern released 6/24/10
Izak Christensen 39 ½ northern released 6/28/10
Kristy Lammers 40 ½ northern released 6/29/10
Rhett Lammers 41 ½ northern released 6/30/10
Kenny Schroeder 43 ½ northern mounted 6/30/10 (it took you long enough)
Chad Hawker 39 ½ northern released 7/4/10
Chad Hawker 39 ½ northern released 7/8/10
James Hagen 39 ½ northern released 7/10/10
Kady Mericle 41 ½ northern released 7/12/10
Roy Green 41 ½ northern released 7/15/10
Jaret Wunsch 39 ½ northern released 7/18/10
Brian Boevers 42 ½ northern mounted 7/23/10
Bill Mincks 44 ½ northern released 7/22/10
Rodney Askildson 39 ½ northern released 8/2/10
Mike Lammers 41 ½ northern released 8/13/10
Ivan Harken 39 ½ northern released 8/15/10
Ed Rasmussen 45 ½ northern released 8/20/10
J.J. Hansel 39 ½ northern released 8/21/10
J.J. Hansel 40 ½ northern released 8/22/10
Mike Lammers 41 ½ northern released 8/12/10
Kevin Reints 41 ½ northern released 8/25/10
Gary Shaver 40 ½ northern released 8/30/10
Jim Bulten 42 ½ northern released 8/30/10
Joel Demro 39 ½ northern released 9/9/10
Curt Schurman 39 ½ northern released 9/11/10
Vern Hanus 40 ½ northern released 9/14/10
The Lake Trout fishing was productive to those that chose to give it a try. Most of the trout were caught in deep water in the months of June, July, and August. The best bait was a blue and silver spoon fished anywhere from 40 to 60 feet. We also had a few trout caught in shallower water early and late in the season, here are a few of the larger fished caught.
Mike Schultz 27 ½ trout 5/17/10
Mark Lewandowski 29 ½ trout 6/29/10
Paul Dennert 32 ½ trout 6/29/10
Eric Siech 30 ½ trout released 8/2/10
Tom Gloviak 22 ½ trout released 9/15/10
Peter Linsmeier 23 ½ trout 9/17/10
Normally we don ½t have very many Muskies caught during the season. This year we had two huge Muskies caught. The first fish was caught and released by Garrett Hancock from Indiana. He managed to skillfully catch and release a monster 51 ½ fish, the second Musky was caught by Joel Demro from Minnesota, [ grew up in Iowa ], he landed a beautiful 39 ½ fish which was also released.
Julie and I are both back to work at Kay and L Draperies now. We took two days and went on a little vacation to the Amana Colonies over Thanksgiving, We will be very busy from now on answering phone calls and returning e-mails from people inquiring about camp. The 2011 season looks to be as busy as ever, lets all hope the economy continues to pick up steam and we all have a good year.
You do need a passport to enter and exit Canada by air as of June 2009. A passport is required for land entry to Canada effective June 2009 for those citizens age 19 and older. For complete details on the latest laws regarding passports check out the website: http://travelwithkids.about.com/od/insurancedocuments/a/passports.htm
For border information call (204) 983-3500 or (506) 636-5064 , the phone number for the bridge at Fort Francis is (807) 274-3655
Julie and I are looking forward to the Spring of 2011. We have many projects to work on again this upcoming season. We will probably head North sometime after April 21st, 2011. Last year the weather was wonderful and made opening up camp an enjoyable chore. Our opening for Walleye is May 21st, 2011, that will be our first day of the new season. We mailed out the reservation forms to many of you and if you haven ½t returned them to us yet please do so right away, we have quite a few groups that are looking for a particular week that is currently reserved so the quicker you and your group can get back to us the sooner we can finalize the reservation book for the new season. We won ½t be able to hold your cabin without some type of correspondence from you before December 15th, 2010. You can always e-mail us at stay@wabaskangcamp.com or call us at (319) 352-5559 and leave a message, I will try to get back to you right away. We will not be doing any sports shows again this year, we only have a very limited number of openings for the 2011 season.
We want to wish all of you a great holiday season and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again next season, take care and start thinking about the good times ahead.
Jim, Julie and Annie
Wabaskang Camp
