Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Free Desktop Calendar

Karen puts a monthly desktop calendar on her blog as a free download.  For June she has a photo of our Beaver landing on beautiful Agimak Lake.

Ignace Airways Beaver

For a free download to put on your June desktop click here.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Whose lunch?

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OK so you are bringing in another nice eater walleye.  The action has been steady, the walleye are cooperating by making tentative plans to join you for dinner.  After a while your attention drifts as one walleye after another makes a futile effort to avoid your oxygen rich environment.  Suddenly your rod is nearly ripped from your hands.  That walleye now has your full attention.  You momentarily wonder if the walleye found a phone booth and changed into his super outfit, cape and all.  As you come to your senses and thoughts begin to rattle around your skull like pebbles in a hubcap, a northern pike surfaces with your lunch in his mouth.  Now what?  Do you wake your net partner from his own blissful walleye zone or do you net it yourself?  Who knew fishing could pose such dilemmas?

…just another day on Metionga Lake.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Metionga Opening week

The first parties have returned from Metionga Lake.  Season for walleye opened last Saturday.  Walleye opener is our opener too.

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Nice start to a great fishing season.

Lots of walleye to eat and thick northerns to fight.  A Canada fishing vacation couldn’t be better.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Success

We can measure fishing success many ways. In my opinion you can never have a bad day of fishing even if catching is slow. But if catching is good, fishing is then fantastic!

Irene Lake has produced many happy anglers with a variety of species. Small mouth bass and lake trout are the two most common species with northern pike being sought after too. Walleye can be a little tricky on Irene Lake but very rewarding when caught.

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Smallie

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Lake trout

Opening weekend for walleye only produced a few eaters but the bass and trout made for some great action on Irene Lake.

The guys told me the trout were everywhere and very aggressive. Their only walleye were caught just at dark.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

While you play

Our business is providing the type of fishing/wilderness vacation we would like ourselves. Part of this entails us working while you play.

Doing the little things like replacing deck screens keeps mosquitos out and thus makes one more part of your vacation better.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Looks like a leak to me

We can drain the water lines in the fall, and still have a few spring surprises.  Unfortunately they don’t teach plumbing in pilot school but bush pilots either learn these extra skills or move on to pavement to pavement type flying with coffee delivery on demand while wearing a white shirt with stripes on the shoulders.  Randy has worked with us for 24 years and I am sure he doesn’t even own a white shirt.

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Randy and John verifying it really has sprung a spring leak before they roll up their sleeves and fix it.  It almost looks like a government job.  If only we had a couple more supervisors.

Monday, May 23, 2011

The gremlins have been busy

Somehow some pine martins got into one cabin this winter.  I would think the only thing of interest to them would be mice.  I am sure we won’t see a mouse in this cabin for a while,  so in that regard it is a good thing.  But martins do make a mess.  They found some pancake flour in the garbage can left from our hunters and managed to make tracks throughout the cabin.

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I guess if we stick round this business long enough (26 years hasn't proved enough yet) we will have seen everything. 

Alas what would spring be without a few surprises.

And after the cleaning crew have done their thing, the cabin is ready!

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Friday, May 20, 2011

Walleye Fever

I am sitting here with a terrible itch to go fishing.  I think I am getting a little walleye fever as well.  My friend the doctor told me there is little he can do for me.  My maladies have been diagnosed, and the remedy is only a day away.  He said let nature take its course.  Walleye opener is Saturday. 

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Ignace Outposts is just what the doctor ordered.  If you’ve got the “itch” or the “fever”, don’t give me any details and don’t fret, a fly in fishing trip is just what you need.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Spring work

Getting cabins ready is a job that nobody likes to do but everybody around here gets to do.

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Karen working on a stove

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Randy inspecting for water leaks.

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John getting the water on.

Our first guests show up tomorrow and we will be ready. The cabin start ups are staggered so we just have to be sure we get the right ones open and ready in the right order.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Vern’s Minnows has moved!

Vern’s Minnows has been a icon in Ignace for many many years.  Vern’s is famous for the “minnows guaranteed to catch fish or die trying”.

Vern’s Minnows has moved.  It is now located at the Shell Station on the highway just west of the Burger Scoop (my favorite burger joint).

Vern's Minnows Ignace

The phone number remains the same.  There are new owners now but several of the staff remain.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Bad Hair Day

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Karen captured this young cow moose on film while driving to Dryden last weekend.  Looks like she just got up when in fact she is beginning to shed her winter coat.  In a month or so she will be a shiny near black and well coiffed for summer. 

This cow was along side the road just out side Ignace.   In the daylight they are fun to see and photograph.  In the night they are almost invisible against the dark so utmost caution must be taken while driving.  Be alert.  Always scan the road on both sides and watch for movement or glimmers of light reflecting from their eyes.  You wouldn’t want to hit a moose.  It could ruin your vacation.

It is usually the moose you don’t see that are the dangerous ones on the road.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Questions about crossing the border?

Opener is 9 days away.  We have lots of details to fine tune and we are getting inquiries from US residents about border crossing with minor criminality on their record such as DUI or DWI.

If you are concerned with any issues crossing the border, here is a good website to start your research.  It is best to know that things are in order to have a hassle free border crossing.

Crossing the border

Or if you are so inclined, call NOTO (the Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association) at 1-800-665-5787 or 1-705-472-5552.  They tell me that they have good information and can set you in the right direction.

See you at Ignace Outposts this summer!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

More behind the scenes

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Karen gets the office ready to go and Brad shuffles a little paper.  Once we get through the next couple of days of organizing and training the real fun starts. 

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The picture is fake…  I type with two fingers, not 10.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Back in business!

It’s been a long winter.  As the snow melts and the ice disappears, we all get a little itch to be back in the air.  Getting aircraft and pilots checked out for another summer is all part of the fun.

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The season is under way.  We launched the Cessna this morning. Randy picked up the Beaver This afternoon. 

Lots of paperwork these days lining up our ducks and crossing our “t”s.   Brad and Randy did their ground training last week and now we work with the “new guy”.

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We welcome Marc to our team and if he flies half as well as he plays hockey, we have a good member on our flight crew. 

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Ice out

Ice is now out on Agimak Lake. 

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Yesterday ice was out of our break wall but still covered the lake.

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Today it is open on the lake but the last remnant of ice has moved into our break wall area. 

No worries however, the lake is open and we are ready to fetch our aircraft from their winter home in Nestor Falls.  In a few days the sound of radial engines beating the air into submission will signal the beginning of another season.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

May Desktop Photo

Karen ‘s photo blog has a monthly desktop calendar photo free for you to download to your computer.  Here is the link to May. 

May Desktop 

Pick your size and open the picture, right click then “save as desktop background”.  It is that simple.

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Karen’s desktop calendar photos give you a little bit of Northwestern Ontario all month long. Feel free to down load the photo as your desktop and be sure to keep May 21 in mind as the opener of walleye season.  I am sure I’ll be having fresh walleye for supper that evening… how about you?

We can still get your trip set up for opener.  Ignace Outposts