Another year has flown by and fall is here again. All of us at Amik Outposts would like to thank all of customers for their business this season. Our inaugural season in Red Lake was a success, a lot of work to get here, but well worth it. We hope all of our guests liked being in Red Lake as well as the shorter flights to the outposts.
The weather overall this summer was exceptional. Many parties coming out of camp saying they have never had 7 days without rain in 20 years of coming to Canada. This season was full of sunshine but awfully dry. This created some problems with low water levels and the threat of forest fires. This year was very active forest fire season. We had some fires burning in early July and many more burned until the middle of September. There were some tense moments and a few smoky days and we did have to move two groups due to this forest fire situation. Not bad considering we haven’t had any fires for 6 0r 7 years. This is just Mother Nature’s way of cleaning up. Thank you to everyone who called in regarding the fires. Thank you for your patience and your understanding.
We ended up with extremely low water this summer due to the dry weather. This did not affect fishing at all, but we did however find some new rocks and structure to fish on some lakes. John discovered numerous reefs on some lakes that he had never seen from the air before, particularly on Loree and Findlay.
We started the fishing season with earlier than normal ice out. We arrived on April 23rd this year to no ice on Lac Seul or in the Red Lake area. We started to open camps the first week in May. This early ice out did have an affect on the monster Northern Pike fishing. The number of northern pike up in the weedy bays and in the shallow water was down but Northern were caught at all our camps throughout the summer, usually while fishing for walleye. We had a lot of fishermen this summer that were reeling in a 12 – 18” Walleye when suddenly, BOOM away it goes. Eventually getting to the boat, a pretty beat up walleye with a 40” Northern attached to it. It is great to see the look on people’s faces when this happens, sometimes landing both fish in the net at once. There were times in August where if the wind was blowing into a bay, our fishermen reported catching lots of medium to large sized Northern up in 3-4’ of water. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time and pay attention to the conditions around you and be willing to change your strategy to those trophy fish. The largest Northern this summer were caught by Larry Pedersen, a 46” on Cobham Lake in June and Cary McFadden, a 46” on Jeanette in the middle of July. We didn’t have anyone crack 50” this summer, but it could be you next season.
Walleye this summer were as good as ever. Our trophy lakes speak for themselves, group after group catching 20-27” walleyes every week. The largest Walleye this season caught on Vee Lake was 32” by Tom Schafer. Caught and released without any problems. What a fish! There were many other trophies caught and released this year with quite a few 28 – 30” walleye. Here are some other notable fish this season:
| Group Name |
Lake Fished |
Walleye |
Northern |
| Sam Toft |
River |
2-42" and 37.5" |
by Sam 42" |
| Dave Hermann |
Shearstone |
23" |
40" & 38" |
| Kirsten, 10 years old caught the most fish |
|
| Tim Tarara |
Black Birch |
30"+ (Jim) |
|
| Doug Pyle |
Loree Lake |
23" |
|
| caught a lot of fish, one young boy never fished before and had a lot of fun |
| Cary McFadden |
Jeanette |
25" fat walleye |
46" and 42" |
| Richard Peterson |
Daniel |
23" walleye, lots of nice fish |
| Dennis Rogers |
Findlay |
great trip |
29" and 33" |
| John Kovacs |
River |
25.25" |
3-37.5" and 2-33" |
| David O'Black |
Vee |
23" and 25" |
39", 2-38" |
| David Motter |
Cherrington |
44" and 38" Northern from shore |
| at the rapids, great time, good weather |
| Robert Lund |
Jeanette |
|
43" and 40" |
| Giles Cadman |
Daniel |
George caught a 42" Northern |
| Aaron Zech |
Shearstone |
|
36" |
| Vince Rizzo |
Black Birch |
27.5" |
|
| Pam Molde |
Loree Lake |
|
41", 39", 37" |
| Tom Kusmerz |
Cobham |
43" & 40"(Len), 43"(Stan)
|
| Dan Stevens |
Findlay |
26"(Chris) and 38"(Erik), 36.5"(Derek) |
| 103 walleye were caught by 2 people in 3 hours |
| Jim Rogers |
Vee |
29", 4-23" |
3-35", 41"(Ryan) |
| Mark Halepeska |
Cherrington |
24" |
|
| One day it was their best fishing ever. |
| Steve Ventimiglia |
River |
|
42"(Adam) |
| Serge Doroshin |
Springpole |
Caught Lake Trout |
| Andre caught a 9" Pike-smallest fish of the trip |
| Ron Trilling |
Shearstone |
26.5" |
39" |
| Robert Jones |
Black Birch |
25" |
37.5" |
| Curt Davis |
Loree Lake |
27" (great trip) |
36" |
| Scott Comstock |
Morley |
|
2-36" |
| Saw a monster 50" but he just wouldn't bite! |
| Mike Baranek |
Findlay |
2-27", 27.75", 26", 25" |
34.5" |
| Caught all Northern in about 15-20' water in early July |
| Joel Frank |
River |
24" |
44" and 40"(Joel) |
| Caught a bunch between 35-40", about 1000 fish for 7 people, 5 days |
| Doug Unruh |
Vee |
lots of 20-24" |
|
| Caught 1066 fish, 4 people, 7 days |
| Jeff Richter |
Cherrington |
2-28"(Mark & Dave) |
|
| Dave Throndson |
Morley |
26" |
37" |
| John Swanson |
Shearstone |
|
42" (Tom) |
| Ron Herz |
River |
|
35", 41" (Ryan) |
| Willliam Altenberger |
Black Birch |
25.5" (Billy) & 23.5"(Nicholas)
|
| Chris Terry |
Loree Lake |
24"-minnows worked best mid Aug. |
| Earl Trotter |
River |
|
41", 43" |
| Paul Schultz |
Findlay |
1400 fish, 4 people, 7 days |
| Karl caught 27" Walleye and 27.5 Walleye in 2 minutes. Several 26" & 24" |
| Willis Dietz |
River |
700 fish, 5 people, 5 days |
| Girls caught 39" Northern and 26" Walleye |
| Vince Keefe |
Vee |
|
42.5" (Mike) |
| Herb Goetsch |
Morley |
27" (Jim) |
good fishing |
| Jason Reinke |
Cherrington |
28" |
42" |
| Saw woodland caribou in the bay by the cabin, 2 bears, good fishing, a lot of fish |
| Ken White |
Daniel |
28" (Craig) |
|
| Arnie Johnson |
Shearstone |
|
41" |
| Rick Delaney |
Black Birch |
20" |
37" |
| Eugene Levering |
River |
43"(Frank), 43"(Louis)
|
| Lots of big wallye. Fish anywhere you put your line |
| Steve Rains |
Loree Lake |
|
39" |
| Nile Glasebrook |
Findlay |
|
40"(Forest) |
| Arnie Johnson |
Jeanette |
28" |
38" |
| Fish caught everywhere. Lots of big walleye, 6-22", 6-24", 5-25", 2-26" |
| Mark Mirick |
Morley |
28"(Collin) |
|
| Ron Evans |
Vee |
28" |
42" |
| Morry Bryan |
Cherrington |
Julie caught a 29" Walleye |
| Dan Rudahl |
Daniel |
|
43", 40", 41" |
| Mark Eggerding |
Shearstone |
21" |
41" |
| Bruce Evans |
Black Birch |
caugth 20 walleye over 22" |
| Lots of 24" and 25" Walleye. Fantastic trip |
| Mike Meiling |
Morley |
2-26", 25" |
40", 45" |
| Dave Bauer |
Findlay |
23" |
30" |
| David Stroupe |
River |
3-24" |
44", 38", 39" |
| Gary Weber |
Vee |
|
2-38" |
| Dave Samuel |
Cherrington |
5lb. Walleye |
|
| Pat Rochford |
Springpole |
26.5" |
|
| Rod Szymanski |
Jeanette |
28.5" (Joe) |
40", 2-39", 38", 35" |
| Kirk Doan |
Morley |
First fish Kirk caught was a 40" northern |
| Paul Schultz |
Black Birch |
27" |
40"(Jim) |
| Great fishing, tons of fish and northern lights |
| Jim Peters |
Loree |
1832 fish, 6 people, 7 days |
| Jim Bergman |
Morley |
26.5" |
46"(Larry) |
| Lindon Boyd |
Vee |
24" |
43"(Titus) |
| Roy Pingl |
Cherrington |
2-29.5", 30" |
31" |
| Mike Krall |
Jeanette |
29" on Sesi, 28" on Jeanette |
| Don Rolling |
Springpole |
2-24" |
34" |
| Had a hard time finding fish small enough to eat |
| Ron Wage |
River |
caught 12 perch |
38", 41" |
| Art Kucksdorf |
Loree |
2-24" |
|
| Pat Gerken |
Black Birch |
2 people, 5 days, 821 fish |
Henry caught a 26" & 27" Walleye, Pat caught a 26.25" Walleye
In one day they caught 241 fish. Everyone had a great time! |
| Mark Renard |
Morley |
25.5" |
36.5" |
| Darin Stutler |
Findlay |
29", 26"(Stan) |
|
| Barry Johnson |
Vee |
24" |
5-39" |
| One boat, last day, 125 fish |
| Sid Webb |
Daniel |
22" Lots of Beavers |
|
| Bob Lear |
Cherryington |
|
34", 35" |
| Jeff Selleck |
Jeanette |
23" |
34"(Bo) |
| Actually got sick of catching walleye. Boys caught more fish than the Dads! |
| Randy MacMiller |
Springpole |
Good time caught 6 Lake Trout |
| Ed Mays |
Black Birch |
26" |
40"(Hal) |
| Second fish of the trip was a 38" Northern. 6 guys, 4 days, 1200 fish. |
| Scott Hocum |
Morley |
lots of Walleye |
2-40", 42" |
| Dan Dillon |
Findlay |
29" Caught a ton of fish. |
| Leeches worked well. Over 200 fish per boat per day. Best trip yet. |
| Toby Surgo |
Vee |
6-27" |
38" |
| Lots of 23" Walleye. No small fish. Saw 2 bear plus a moose swimming. |
| Mike Slygh |
Cherrington |
27" |
|
| Ray Sickles |
River |
|
43", 40", 39" |
| Cabin 10,000 times better than it was. Tons of Northern Pike in the 30" range. |
| Rodney Phillips |
Vee |
Caught lots of 18"-19" and 22"-23" Walleye |
| Pete Crowley |
Cherrington |
27.5" |
|
| Lots of 25" and 26" Walleye. More than 1000 fish, 6 people, 7 days. |
| Tom Schultz |
Morley |
|
2-38" |
| Doug Alesch |
Springpole |
Nice Walleye all over |
36" |
| Bryan Tate |
Jeanette |
29"(T.J.) |
|
| Everyone in the group caught a Walleye over 24" |
| Dick Hoene |
Cherrington |
30"(Andrew), 28"(Dick) |
40"(Al) |
| In one hour, one guy caught 20 Walleye over 20". |
| Larry Garrett |
Springpole |
|
38.5"(Martin) |
| Jeff Lange |
Daniel |
29"(Geniene), 41"(Travis), 38"(John) |
| Daryl Walkup |
Cherrington |
27.5"(Paul) |
|
| Lots of 23"-24" Walleye. Caught lots of Lake Trout, the biggest being 31". |
| Bob Pfeiffer |
Findlay |
2 over 25" Fat, healthy fish |
| Dave Sietz |
Springpole |
2-23" |
2-41" |
| Dan Houk |
River |
20" tons of fish |
39" |
| Anthony Hall |
Cherrington |
4-23" in one hour! |
40" |
| John Strom |
Morley |
25" |
36" |
| Chris Mickle |
Springpole |
couple of Lake Trout |
41" |
| John Stitcha |
Jeanette |
24" |
40", 2-39.5", 36" |
| Brent Prokott |
River |
24.75" |
36" |
| Both big fish caught by Susn on her first trip! "The most fish they ever caught" |
| M.C. Brown |
Springpole |
13.5 pound Lake Trout |
| Lots of 4.5-5 pound walleye, 6.5 pound largest Walleye. Tons of Northern |
| Jack Darsnek |
Daniel |
|
39"(Sid) |
| Lots of 20-25" good sized Walleye, saw a bear, no bugs and lots of fish |
Please keep in mind these are not all of our guests, just the ones that told us specifically about fishing. We have many guests who have a great time each year and don’t feel they need to mention sizes of fish and numbers caught. If you did have a great time or a great catch please send us your letters and pictures. We can always use new pictures for the wall in our office and on our website.
Another exciting part of our summer was a lot of animal activity. Being in pristine wilderness some people would expect to see all kinds of wildlife. Even when you are flying you would think you would see more bears and moose, but unless the animals are in the wide open you don’t see that many moose and bear as you would think.
This year around the lakes there were a lot of wolf, bear, moose, beaver, caribou and bald eagle sightings. There was a huge bull caribou seen at Cherrington many times this summer, sometimes right in the bay right by the dock and also swimming across the lake just out from the cabins. One day when John landed at Cherrington he was swimming right across in front of the airplane. Everyone thought that was pretty cool. Jeanette had numerous caribou sightings as well. Plenty of small games were spotted around the outposts this summer. Pine martin, mink, grouse were all seen around various cabins which is nice to see. The Dan Rudahl party saw a mink catch and kill a muskrat right in front of them while out fishing this spring. The most exciting sightings this summer were wolves, at Cobham especially. Fishermen reported hearing wolves howling at a lot at a few lakes but on the Cobham this season there was quite a bit of activity. The Ruhaak’s staying at the Daniel cabin in early August, when around 11 p.m. in the evening, all hell broke loose just North of the cabin, Ravens and wolves were howling and carrying on like mad. Obviously something had been taken for dinner. The following morning Bill took a drive over to the area to check it out when he was met on shore by a big black wolf. The Ruhaak’s decided to putter along in the boat than venture up into the woods.
At the same cabin the following week, Jeff Lange was with his family when they got up one morning and looked out the window to see a huge grey wolf looking through the fire pit. He stayed there a few minutes before he ventured into the wilderness. When you are at our outposts, don’t forget to take the time to just sit and listen. No need to talk for awhile, just sit and listen to the wind, the water and the peace and quiet of nature. Slow down and appreciate the remoteness and beautiful scenery Canada has to offer. No telephone, no television, no traffic, nothing but silence. This peace and quiet holds true most of the time except when the Cadman family went fishing one day on the Cobham and witnessed an awesome but brutal part of nature. As they were trolling along in the boat they saw a cow moose come crashing out of the bush with a wolf covered in blood hot on her tail. Running back and forth along the shore, the wolf continued its pursuit of the moose biting and tearing at its hind end. Quite a sight for anyone but the Cadman family being from England had never witnessed anything like this before. Eventually the moose ran into the water up to its waist and the wolf stopped chasing. The moose was obviously terrified and stood for several days motionless in the water staring at the shoreline. The Cadman family checked on her each day but then had to leave. The next group into camp went to look but could not find any moose. We don’t know if the moose survived or if she became dinner for a wolf but it is an impressive story none the less.
A member of the Tom Rolfs party at Black birch got up around 6:00 a.m. and went outside, when he looked up and saw a huge moose running off in the other direction behind the cabin. Plenty of other moose sightings were reported this summer. We love hearing all of your stories, whether its fishing, wildlife, or weather related. We appreciate knowing you are having a good time.
As most of our repeat customers know, our rates have not increased since 2003. All aspects of business have been increasing but we have not increased our price until now. In 2007 our rates are going up. The increase in price is partially to do with rising expenses but the largest culprit is the exchange rate on the U.S. dollar. In previous years the exchange rate increased every year giving us a built in price increase to offset increasing expenses. Now it is going in reverse.
In conjunction with rising fuel cost, aviation fuel, outboard gas, oil and propane costs, one doesn’t want to raise prices on a spike with one expense or other, but expenses have increased each year and the increase has been consistent.
The next culprit in the expense column is insurance. The insurance companies have told us the cost of insurance will come down. This simply hasn’t happened. The final culprit is aircraft maintenance. Canada leads the world in Aviation Safety. We are highly regulated and Canada as no plans in becoming less than No. 1 in World Wide Aviation Safety. We operate under the same safety regulations as the major jet carriers. Maintaining a specialized aircraft to the level required by Transport Canada is an expensive task. Your safety costs but it is money well spent.
So if you want to fly in a safe aircraft, have a nice, comfortable cabin, well maintained boats and motors and timely service you can depend on, we’ll see you next summer.
With every year, we end our season with a moose hunt. This year was no exception and it was a great year for hunting. We had 12 hunters and ended up with 8 moose. There was a wide variety of weather and we were delayed one and a half days getting everyone into camp during the first week. After that the weather was perfect. Dick Schema and his hunting partner Mike Zipoy were successful in their week of hunting guided by John, 2 moose in 3 days. Dick had a choice of Bulls as 2 came to John’s call. Both moose, briefly fighting in the bush before coming into view at the same time. Dick’s bull measured 41”. The second bull is still out there to get bigger for next season. Ted Moonen and his buddy Jeff passed up a spike bull on their first evening of the hunt guided by James. James was able to cal in 2 huge bulls during the hunt. Ted’s bull measured 50” and Jeff’s 47”. Both were in their prime and were beautiful animals. Don’t forget to take a look through our website for updated pictures.
Each year we try to take on a couple of projects to continually improve our outposts. With our move to Red Lake and getting our base operational it didn’t leave much time for any major work at the cabins. Repairs were made to both Jeanette and Cherrington docks. We have added a second outhouse to both our Jeanette and Cobham River cabins. This will help to accommodate larger parties. Cobham River has a new boat ramp and we will continue with improvements to the Cobham River next spring. We hope to add a 12’ x 24’ deck and a gazebo. We have gazebo’s at Black Birch and Vee and they are used frequently. The gazebo at the River cabin will be nice up on the hill overlooking the lake. It is always nice to get out of the cabin in the evening without worrying that the bugs will get you.
We will be at some sportshows this winter. Please come out and see us at:
Minneapolis All- Canada Show Minneapolis,MN January 5 – 7,2007
Rivercentre- Cenaiko Show St. Paul, MN
January 10 – 14, 2007
Phoenix Int’l Sportmen’s Expo Phoenix, AZ
March 10 – 12, 2007
Northwest Sportshow Minneapolis Convention Center
March 27 – April 1, 2007
