It has been very busy
here at camp over the last couple of weeks and being behind on the blog is just
the tip of the iceberg. So with that in mind, and with the new plan of trying
to stay on top of posting the blog on time, I, Colin McKeen, a Canadian, am going
to take my first stab at writing a blog. I'll try to keep the "eh's" out
of it but that also means there won't be any "y'all's" present either
so just bare with me.
As far as Saturday
mornings go here at Wine Lake, I believe July 15, 2017 may go down in history.
The last of the Barbera group pulled out of here Friday morning which left us
ample time to get ALL the cabins cleaned on Friday and still have time for some
Trout fishing...cough cough..I caught a 38-inch Laker..cough cough... But
anyways, that means that the usual Saturday morning cabin turnover was nowhere
in sight which allowed Brenden and I to go to the landing with Nick to give the
grass a good haircut and the Eagles Nest a good makeover.
The Lookingland's,
Kincaid's, and Heap's really worked well together at the portage and pulled all
8 of their boats over themselves. Great job guys! The Baer's were a little
behind schedule so Nick stayed behind at the landing to wait for them and help
them portage and they arrived safely and happily into camp in the early afternoon.
Everyone quickly got back out on the water for a nice afternoon/evening of
fishing to cap of that first day. Samantha DelPrincipe's first fish of the week
was a 29" Walleye on her very first drop in of her lure. With that catch
she is now tied for the biggest Walleye caught so far this year. But that
wouldn't turn out to be the most exciting thing that would happen to her this
week...
Sunday July 16, 2017
will forever be a very special day for Chase Kincaid and Sam DelPrincipe as
they got engaged out on "The Nursery"!!! And there's the biggest
catch of the year! All of the Wine Lake staff and I'm sure many more are very
happy for you two! Congratulations!
The wind decided to
book a visit with us this week and boy did it get its monies worth. I don't
think there was a calm day on the water all week but that didn't keep anyone
off the water or the fish from biting their lures. It wasn't just the wind that
came for a visit this week. A couple of pelicans decided to be honorary
seagulls one morning and designated the swimming rock as theirs. Jody was able
to get snap some great pictures.
As the summer
progresses and the families here spend most of their time out on the water it
allows us to start chipping away at that previously mentioned iceberg. We were
able to cut some trees down to be used as firewood or for fixing boat ramps.
Nick and Beezy were able to repair a float-away section of the dock, and Nick also re-leveled the
back porch.
The one thing that
Nick refuses to work on however is this habit he has of wearing his socks and
sandals at the same time.Unfortunately for us,
he found some fellow members of the socks-with-sandals club and they only
furthered his feelings that he should continue this trend. Thanks a lot guys!!
Tournament day was a
family battle as the 3 boats of Kincaid's and the 4 boats of the Lookingland's
competed against each other and their own families. JoAnna and Mike Lookingland
were the tournament champions not only because of their 18", 17.75" and
17.5" Walleyes but because they also caught two rare species. They reeled
in a stringer and a net from the bottom of Wine!! Well don't you guys just have
all the luck!! On a side note, the Lookingland children got into the tournament
spirit with matching outfits and won the best dressed award!! "Looking"
good guys.
The Baer's were a big
help to us that day as well and put their muscles to great use to help us churn
the ice cream!
Fishing is not the
only way to enjoy your week long stay here. Bryan and Karen Heap are one couple
that really enjoys the beauty of Wine Lake. And by that I mean that they prefer
to look out at this beautiful lake from the deck of their cabin rather than
from their boat! They take their relaxation vacation seriously and really soak
up the sun rays and fresh air here on "the rock." When they would be
heading out to fish at 5pm(for the first time that day) people would ask them, "how
has the fishing been today?" Bryan happily responded, "well, we're
about to find out!" But that paid off for them when they went out for a
nice dinner and sunset watch one evening and got to see a Bull swimming in the
lake and then a Cow doing the same thing about an hour later!
There were a lot of
broodstock Walleyes caught this week as well as some good trophy fish in each
category and the staff here were very happy to see that everyone respected
Wine's Catch and Release policy! The remote lakes got some great use as well as
everyone enjoyed the Small Mouth fishing and caught some great ones.
Just a heads up to
all of you that are coming soon- rain has been at a premium and the falls as
well as all the lakes are low so plan on portaging all the boats as we cannot
run the falls and will have to take your time going in and out of all the
lakes.
I hope you all have
enjoyed my first attempt at blog writing which I have come to realize is harder
than I had expected but really fun nonetheless. Life truly is amazing here on
this beautiful rock that is filled weekly with amazing people that have awesome
stories about the unique history of this place and some of the great times they
have had along the way. We're doing our best to make sure that everyone has a
fantastic week while they're here because relaxing, enjoying the sights and catching
a whole lot of fish is exactly what this place is all about, "eh?"
