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.