Happy New Year!

Last post for 2009...

It's a few minutes before we pass into the second decade of this century. Mona and I went out tonight to celebrate the new year. We started out with "Double Bubble" at the Washington Inn in Cecil at about quarter to five. Dinner reservations were for 6:30 (I have to add the food was great!) and we were probably home by 9:00 o'clock or so.

I just woke up on the couch with the TV still playing and I see Mona must have gone to bed. I just figured I'd say: "Happy New Year!" (Darn... missed Dick Clark again!)

Brew says: Merry Christmas

Brewster (the 65 pound lap dog) says MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody.

He's pictured here helping Mona decorate the Christmas Tree this year.

Brew doesn't help much, but he likes to supervise.

Mona Gets into the Christmas Spirit

Right around Thanksgiving or so Mona started getting into the Christmas Spirit slow but sure. Here she is finishing up with some of the ornaments on the tree this year. All that's needed to complete the job is the tinsel yet.

Note the Stockings hanging on the fireplace. They're still empty. St. Nick must have passed us by this year.

What's up with that?

WOW! What a change in the Seasons...

What a change in Seasons. The last posting was from Route Lake in September (Labor Day Week) when we had 70 Degree weather in the far North.

What a difference. Although it may not look so bad in this photo we just got 13 inches of snow dumped in our driveway. Mona used the snowblower to open up a few areas as John used the ATV.

The ATV seems to be running better since we took it to Gillet to have it tuned up. We always wanted to hit the ATV trails and head up north toward Suring or Townsend but never got around to it. Seems like there's too many things going on.

I heard there's anywhere from 6-8 inches of Ice on Shawano Lake - at least on our end and we've been seeing good numbers of fishermen on the Lake as well as a few 4-wheelers. It won't be long and the Fire N Ice racers will be running again.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (1)

This is the first group of additional photos promised a couple of months ago. Mona above sporting her (my) fishing hat from Tiger Musky Lodge on the Big Chip in Northern Wisconsin. She also caught this fine eating size walleye. The second photo shows us cruising along the shoreline while she is shooting a few pictures with the small camera. Don't let the shoreline make you think we're in shallow water in this photo. You could easily be in 40 to 60 feet of water in this situation.

My camera allowed me to take some panoramic photos. Here is one of them as we continue along the shoreline.

More shoreline shots as we slowly motor along on the left. John caught and released this Northern Pike in one of the only areas we found good weed structure. We used several different colored spinner baits to try to catch these guys.

The boat docking area is straight ahead of Mona as we decided to come to shore and take a break from fishing for a while. From the docking area we follow the timber laid sidewalk to the other side of the hill to the cabin.

The fish cleaning house down by the docking area. We didn't just use it to store our fishing gear as the next photo would suggest as Mona hauls the daily catch up to get ready for the frying pan.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (2)

Mona displays a few packs of Walleye ready for the freezer. Note the skin left on the fillet to identify the species of fish for the wardens when we go back across the border if need be. In case we couldn't catch any fish, we brought along a few meals of food to hold us over for the week. Johnsonville brats on the grill hit the spot today. Corn on the cob with plenty of butter wasn't too bad either.

Time to clean some fish. Note the can of beer on the right. That makes this job a lot more tolerable. We set the camera on timer to catch the next great photo. It looks like we're both haveing a bad hair day.

John caught and released this 30" Northern Pike in the Pike spot that we found. This is the largest fish caught and was also in the slot size for the Lake to be released. Two birds with one stone is next. We grilled up some Chicken Breast for Supper one evening with the intent of having chicken sandwiches for lunch the next day. The plan worked great as we had soup and sandwiches the next day.

Time for a cold brew and a shore lunch. Today we're going to eat some walleye so we can catch some more.

Simple Deep Fried Walleye Recipe

Mona dipped the walleye fillets in raw eggs and a little shot of beer then she breaded them with crushed saltine crackers and dropped them in frying pan with about an inch of hot oil in it. A little pinch of salt when they're done add some fried potatoes, tartar sauce, a rye bread and onion sandwich and you have the perfect Shore Lunch.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (3)

Time to Dine... The Shore Lunch was great and you can't get the fish much fresher. Glen pointed us to a few places to try for walleye and we headed out to catch some more. Note: that although Mona took this picture, she has a walleye in her left hand too.

Believe it... or not... this is another "Double" we had. Two different fish than the previous photo. John caught this Northern Pike with a jig and a minnow and we decided to keep this one to take home. We kept some from Eagle Lake, Ontario several years ago and they are good eating.

Glen took a few minutes to show us how to Fillet the Northern Pike with few bones if any. The Wisconsin DNR put out a flyer demonstrating one technique of doing it but I haven't had any luck with that way. They do it different in Canada and it seems to work better. If you're not catching fish in Route Lake, you can take your boat and roll it over these rollers a few hundred feet to a different Lake. We were satisfied with where we were on this trip.

The camera is actually on the kitchen table with the patio door open as we took this photo. We're standing on the front deck that overlooks the Lake. (Should have used a flash... but it's too late now.) The wind didn't die down too much while we were there. This particular sunset was shot during one of those rare occurances.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (4)

Mona caught and released this cute little Northern Pike. She had one that would have been in the slot size get off right by the boat. John couldn't get the net under it fast enough and it spit the hook. The second photo above is part of the elaborate solar system set up at the Lodge to produce electricity. We couldn't run the hair dryer but it worked out well.

Another shot from the kitchen table. It appears to be Miller Time... This young Loon was photographed by John from the deck by the Cabin. One night there were 8 Eagles flying around us putting on an arial show for at least 20-25 minutes.

Glen and Shirley Roulston were our hosts at Route Lake Lodge and they really made us feel welcome. We won the trip that they had donated to our fishing club and we were the last and only people visiting the Lodge the week of Labor Day. Although they were happy the season was over, they still went out of their way to make sure we enjoyed ourselves and put us on some fish. No... Mona's not washing her face here, she's getting a drink of water from a natural spring that's been providing great tasting water for years. We never would have found it on our own, but it was pointed out to us by one of Shirley's relatives as we happened to be following him when we left for home.

Most of the people that know us know that Mona likes to collect things with a Moose on them. Please note the road sign on the right. The black diagonal line on the GPS is the US/Canadian border. We have 478 miles and 8 hours and 22 minutes before we get home, (had we gone straight home).

Busy Busy Busy...

Been busier than a Packer Offensive Lineman trying to protect Aaron Rogers. Hope to be able to do some updates in the near future.

Shakey Boat Ride at Route Lake Lodge

After trolling for Lake Trout one day we tried to grab a video of the side of the Lodge we were on. Here are the results. It wasn't easy operating the motor and the camera while fighting the waves and wind.

We took 3 cameras and a video camera but most everything came from the new camera we had bought a week before vacation.

Route Lake Lodge Vacation (1)

It all started last Spring (2009) when Mona and I worked at the Sportshow in Green Bay at the Special Olympics booth. Our job there was to sell raffle tickets to raise funds for our fishing Club, the Green Bay Area Great Lakes Sport Fishermen.

Money raised from the annual event goes toward setting up our trout pond for a day where Special Olympians are given the opportunity to catch a few really nice trout. The Olympians are bussed in from surrounding Counties where they catch the fish, have them cleaned for the frying pan, and they're given hats or pins, food, snacks and beverages. Naturally, when you sell raffle tickets, you have to buy some too. That's just how it works.

The raffle drawing took place in April at the Club's Annual Smelt Fry and weren't we lucky enough to win the Grand Prize which was a Canadian fishing trip for two for a week at Route Lake Lodge. The Lodge (which is the only one on Route Lake) is located approximately 25 miles north of Dryden, Ontario. The owners, Glen and Shirley Roulston have owned the lodge for 4 years and have given away that many trips to our Club for our Annual Event.

One of the unique things about this Lodge is that when you drive as far as Dryden, you give Glen and Shirley a call and he will be waiting for you by the dock with his pontoon boat by the time you arrive about a half hour later. There he will pick you and your belongings up for the 10 minute or so boat ride to the lodge.

Below are a few of the panoramic photos I took. You can click on the photos to enlarge them. Also note that since they are so large, you may have to use the bar on the bottom of your screen to see the whole thing.

The Lodge is located on a point between two fingers in the lake. This is the side of the point that we were on. The most noticeable cabin in the center is the cabin we stayed in. In the large view, you might be able to see just the top of the Lodge behind the rocks on the right side.

Pictured above is the other side of the peninsula. Starting with the Main Lodge on the left, there are several more cabins on this side. Although they are not visible in this photo, the fish cleaning house and the main dock area are in a small lagoon on the right side where they are normally protected from wind and waves.

This is the inside of our cabin. It's very modern considering the location. Shirley's brother-in-law told us that when the Lodge was built, all the building materials were delivered lakeside by one of the many trains that continually make their way along the winding tracks through the trees. From there they were transported by boat to the final building site. Electricity at the Lodge comes from one of two diesel generators or solar power. If you want to get away from telephones and tv's and radios etc., this is the place to come. (Note: Mona is in the designated Bar making a couple of Old Fashions.)

Walleye fishing was the best Walleye fishing we ever experienced together. We caught and released a good number of Walleye and kept enough for one shorelunch in the cabin and our limit of 4 each to bring home. (We had another meal last night.)

We found Northerns harder to catch because Route Lake is a very deep lake (at least to us - 150 ft. in some areas) and we normally cast in the shallows down to 10 feet or so on Shawano Lake. John caught and released one 30 inch Northern which is in the slot size that had to be released. He had his line bit off once and broke of once. When it was bit off - we hadn't switched over to leaders yet.

I'm guessing we marked a lot of Lake Trout about 30 feet down in the water column but being greenhorns to this type of trolling we had no idea where our lures were running. We experimented between the two of us alternating putting out different amounts of line with no success. On top of that, I tried different boat speeds for trolling but that didn't help us either.

All in all, we had a great time. Even though we were the only guests at the Lodge for the week of Labor Day, Glen and Shirley treated us well. They said the week we spent there was the best weather they had all summer. It was in the 80's (26 C) almost every day and only rained two nights after we had already gone to bed at 9:00 or shortly after.

More photos to come when I get more time to post them.

Chippewa Flowage Vacation 2009

First I'm going to show you that we did actually catch some fish while staying at the Chippewa Pines Resort this year. I think we brought two or three meals back which is plenty of fish for us for a while. We can always get some on Shawano Lake if we really, really need fish. Not only that - you can buy it in the store too... although it doesn't taste the same. Mona was on a roll one day. This is one of the Bass she caught and released.

John caught this Largemouth on his favorite spinner. The fish seem to like it too, sometimes... The Resort has a pontoon boat that they rent out. We rented it one year when my Mother came along for the week (just for one day) and had a blast. That particular day it rained off and on and it was nice to be under the canopy.

A small northern pike on the same lure. We caught plenty of crappie too as you will see if you continue to follow these posts.

Poor Brew... Mona told the pet groomer to take a little more of his poof off this time when she groomed him. It looks like she put the proverbial bowl on his head after she hacked the rest of it off first. The last photo in this group shows how heavy his head is even after having all his hair cut off. You'll see later that he likes to rest his chin on things. He does it at home all the time.

More Fish and Stuff

Mona netted and released a small northern as seen here above left. This small largemouth bass hit the crankbait she was throwing.

A couple more Largemouth... fish that is... that were caught and released.

We took a short break and checked out Crane Island one day. Mona caught John photographing birds.