Map and/or GPS

Today is another miserable rainy, drizzly, foggy day. It is forecast to go to 4 degrees C tonight. This weather will have to break eventually. But I suppose many folks would have nothing to talk about if it wasn't for weather.

Looking out over a foggy lake, I can't help but think about how tough it is to navigate an aircraft in poor visibility. When we fly, we not only have a GPS to assist us, we have maps of the area. One nice thing about maps is the power never fails like it may be prone to do in a GPS. Maps do not require batteries or charging units. Even though we fly over the same area daily, we do not rely on a GPS. For some reason however, many of our guests rely exclusively on their GPS to navigate a remote lake and sometimes end up pondering a night under a 14 foot boat when the power goes off.

Here is a hint about navigating a remote lake. Firstly, have a map and use a map. We will provide a map for each boat before you venture into the camp. A GPS is a great father's day gift and there is no problem owning one or using one, but they are not fool proof.

There is a phenomenon, which I refer to as “Daniel Boone syndrome”, which requires fishermen who have just flown into a remote lake to want to go the furthest end of that lake as soon as they can. When this urge hits, check the map and know where you are on the map. It does help to know which way is North and a compass certainly makes finding North rather easy. No need to wait til dark to find the North Star. Darkness opens a whole new can of worms in regards to navigation. Do not go all the way to the far end of the lake until you are sure you can find your way back to the cabin. It is kind of like finding your way around a large city. At first everything looks the same. I feel this way in Chicago, but after a while I am able to venture further and further from the security of my hotel.

I get many requests for maps. I have maps of our lakes available on my web site. If you might be looking for a map of some other area, I can't help you much. There is a site I came a cross which has free maps for North America however.

Touratel is a great site for checking out a lake or area. Check it out.

"With a little help from our friends..."

Our yard filled up quickly with trailers and trucks. Our thanks to our guests who all understood the weather is out of our control.

Friday and Saturday combined to be two of the worst days weather wise we've seen here in a long time. Not only was this our busiest weekend of the year, Friday brought torrential rains, fog and high winds that grounded us after 1 and 1/2 trips north. The Otter could not make Metionga and turned back at Sowden... again. Saturday was a no fly day due to high winds. I was thinking it was deja vu all over again from last weekend.

Randy did make it back and stayed put for the rest of the day. The Beaver stayed at Metionga over night. Friday night the wind blew and blew. On Sat morning it continued to blow at a gale force - enough that we felt it was unsafe to fly. On Sat morning hoping for good weather Karen and I were in the office at 5 AM to meet guests. Our aircraft did not move until about 5 PM when the winds subsided. By then we had several Friday folks still waiting as well as all our Sat folks. By the time we flew on Sat we had over 70 people waiting to fly.

In the 4 weekends so far of this season we've fought severe weather elements each weekend.

In over 23 years operating this business I can count on one hand the number of times we've had two days of non-flying weather such as this weekend. Our guests on Irene Lake reported 4 to 5 foot waves rolling down the lake on Saturday. One of our docks was destroyed by the pounding wave action.


The wind pounding the shoreline at Ignace - The brakewall certainly helped break the waves.

Randy, Marcel and Derek flew til dark to move people and gear. We hired our competitor Rusty Meyers to help out. They provided a twin Beech to assist us. It is nice to know that even tho' we are competitors, our small industry is such that we can count on each other to help out when needed.

Karen and I locked up the office at 10:10PM on Saturday after a grueling 17 hour day. I wore a pedometer and without leaving my yard recorded 16,115 steps. That is over 10 miles, up and down the docks and back and forth across the yard with guests.
Our thanks to Rusty Meyers. And our hats are off to our guests who patiently waited both in Ignace and at the camps until flying conditions were safe.


Rust Meyers' Beech - helping us out moving guests - arriving moments before official dark.

The extra help allowed us to catch up by noon on Sunday and get on with Sunday flying.

We are grateful for experienced and skilled pilots who value safety as much as we do. When the decision is made to not fly, there is no grumbling or second guessing. Safety is first and the over 80 safe years of flying experience we have between us, in this area on these aircraft, speaks for itself.

On Friday evening, we were privileged to join a 50th birthday a party for Pete Elftmann, a member of the Rorabeck party, hosted our office.

Happy birthday Pete!

A handfull of Pike

Sometimes the only way to describe the fishing at Ignace Outposts is by a photo or two. There is no doubt, Metionga Lake is a popular destination for anglers, and this is a primary reason it is so.

From Bill Erickson

"Brad...here's some more pictures of Jack Sutliff, from our opening week trip at Metionga. The big northern he is holding is 44 1/2 inches caught below the rapids on a jig, twister tail and a 1/2 minnow with 6lb test line. You can see we did quite well with big fish that all went back to fight someone else another day."

Northern on Walleye; fishing at Metionga Lake

Last week the Shultz party experienced a relatively common spring occurrence at Metionga Lake. After they spawn, Northern Pike will hang out around the river to aggressively feed on Suckers and Walleye as they finish their spawn. It is quite an experience to hook a small walleye and then almost have the rod yanked out of your hands when a northern decides he wants the walleye more than you do.

This is the note Bill sent to us.

"Brad/Karen,

As promised, this is a photo I took of a large Northern chomping on a 16 inch Walleye while fishing last week on Metionga. This was one incident of a dozen our party of four encountered during our 6 day trip. In some cases, we were able to net both fish together. We had numerous other incidents where Northerns would take a stab at walleyes when attempting to bring the walleyes into the boat from the water's surface. This sure added drama to the otherwise routine task of reaching over the boat to unhook/release walleyes back to the lake! Luckily, we all returned home with all our fingers attached.

Thanks for another great fishing adventure. We'll be back to wrestle the hungry beasts next year!

Regards,

Bill Schultz"

Keep in mind that if this happens and you land both fish, the northern must be released. The hooked walleye may be kept.

Wildlife Avoidance Tips When Driving

Seeing wildlife on your trip is always a thrill. Sometimes it can be more thrilling than you would like.

It is only a few weeks into the season and already we've had one party hit a deer on their drive to Ignace. Today a party had a close call with a calf and mother moose.

Moose, Deer and Bear often attempt to share the road ways with vehicles in our area. Even though most accidents with animals occur between 5 - 8 am and 6 pm to midnight, hitting a large animal on the road will ruin your trip at anytime of day. Here are some tips to help you avoid an accident with an animal.

- Use high beams when possible

- Be sure your windshield is clean and your lights are working

- Scan the road continuously from shoulder to shoulder

- Be aware that in most animal/vehicle accidents the animal was “just barely” on the paved portion of the road

- At night, watch for flashes of the small glowing eyes of animals

- Wildlife crossing signs do actually indicate areas of increased risk

- Always slow down when passing wildlife – they may suddenly turn or dart into your path

- Remain alert after passing an animal, it may be with others or its young

- Never attempt extreme manoeuvres to avoid a collision.
It may not seem logical but don't swerve to avoid an animal. It is often better to clip the animal than to loose control of your vehicle and end up head on in the other lane or rolled over in the ditch.

- Don’t assume the animal will move out of your way

- Watch your speed, KPH and MPH are different!

- Moose, Bear and Deer are large enough to activate your airbags when you hit them. Keep this in mind as you sip from a bottle or cup in the front seat.

- You don’t often hit the animals you see.

- If you hit a bear, do not stop to see if he is alright. A wounded bear is not an animal you would want to visit with for any length of time.

- If you come across a fox, rabbit, bird, or other small animal on the roadway, don't leave your lane. See the note above about swerving.

A break in the action

Today is one of those days with very little going on. My to do list consists of - write on the blog. It is raining... again, and the pilots are enjoying a well deserved day off.

Here are a few pictures from Metionga Lake earlier this spring with the Riley Party from Wisc.

"Brad...some pictures from opening week on Metionga and Little Metionga. The third picture is Dewey's big Northern. These fish are back in the water living to fight someone else on another day."


Dewey Reilly, with a nice 25 incher opening week at Met


Jack Sutliff, with a nice 25 1/2' Walleye from Little Met


Dewey Reilly with a 45 1/2" brute from Little Met opening week

If you've been and gone this year already and offered to send up a few photos, I am still waiting and you'll get your 15 minutes of fame on my blog.


Here is a little light humor to brighten your day and get you thinking about Ignace Outposts.

Two guys from Chicago are in the boat by the rapids at Metionga Lake, fishing and enjoying the peace and quiet. Almost silently as not to scare the fish Rob says: " I think I'm going to divorce my wife...she hasn't spoken to me in over two months." Earl continues slowly reeling in another walleye, then thoughtfully says, “You better think it over...women like that are hard to find."

Boneless pike fillets

Every year I get a lot of inquiries as to how to fillet a northern so that it is boneless. I have to admit, I've tried many various methods and am continually searching for a fool proof method such as this one below.
A pike has "y" bones which float away from the spine and as a result are not eaten as much as they should be. Northern Pike are great eating and in the spring when the water is cold many folks actually prefer them over walleye. Many others have never had them because of the problem deboning them. Here is a short video I came across which is about as easy a method as possible to claim boneless fillets from a pike.
Keep in mind that this method of filleting a pike is not a good way for transport but instead for eating at the cabin. For transport, the fish must be measurable, countable and identifiable. This doesn't allow it to be measurable.
Since our catch and consume policy doesn't allow fish home this should be of no issue to our guests.

Moose and calves

A cow moose and her two babies meandered down the Gamble River a couple of days ago. The Coppin Group at Irene Lake grabbed this photo of the moose. Cow moose often have twin calves. Scott Coppin stayed back about 100 yards so as to not frighten the moose as he took the photos. The cow and calves continued wading several hundred yards down stream before heading up into the forest cover.
We have often heard reports of cows and calves in this area over the years but few photos are taken.
As small as they are now (barely bigger than my dog) these calves will be about 500 lbs by fall time when they are weaned.