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July 22 & 23 - Travel Days:  Thursday, 7 pm departure from Andy’s house in carmel. Andy, Jim, Clayton in the IMI explorer and Bob, Jack, Stan in the IMI expedition. Wrong turn by andy leads to separation until we reconnect at I74. easy drive up through Illinois and Wisconsin. Saw huge storm for 100 miles until we finally drove into the tail end around the IL/WI border. Arrive at the Canada border at 8 am. Thrash around for a while looking for Bobs checkbook, putting a hold on his check account with the bank, having most of indiana search their driveways. Passengers re-arranged so that all Sigurds in one vehicle and we cross the border without incident – (first time I have crossed the border in both directions without having to speak to the guard from the passenger seat.)

Passed by eating spots at inconvenient times, so we haven’t stopped for food since 4am and we zoom through Dryden on a detour and miss all other opportunities for food. Last chance in Vermillion Falls and we stop for a late breakfast at about 11 am. Hook up with some Cubans cigars and off to Red Lake. We arrive at the dock around 2:30, offload all the gear onto carts for easy plane loading in the am, get our licenses from Rena, have a brief instructional speech from Rena and John (no open alcohol is allowed in boats in Canada – who knew?). Within the hour we roll up to the fabulous Balmer Motor Hotel where we are assigned rooms in the Annex which is clearly an upgrade from the main building. Having driven a lot of the dark part of the trip, Jack heads for a nap and the rest congregate in Bob and Jim’s room, for a quick celebratory taste of Stan’s ginormous Makers Mark. About ½ hour in it is decided that we should reduce our weight load on the plane and we empty the bottle and leave the empty behind in Red Lake.   Pretty good dinner at the Balmer Restaurant after the frank announcement by the waitress that she just wouldnt be able to serve us in the bar and we best go next door to eat.  Me thinks we Made our Mark a bit to loudly on entry.  Off to bed by 10 or so.

July 24 Fly-In day: Andy and Jack have typical Hoosier confusion over time zone changes and are up and dressed and out the door in total darkness. Where is everyone? supposed to be ready by 4. No lights in any other rooms, turn on the TV, it is 3 am... back into bed for short nap.  Up again at 4am, Stan and Clayton waiting. Bob and Jim rousted out of their Makers induced coma and off to base camp.  Plane is already loaded up and we board and are airborne by 5:30.  Uneventful flight in - clear skies, smooth flight, perfect landing which is a blessing because the passenger next to me is clutching his barf bag pretty tightly on take off.  Quick exchange of gear with the outbound group of 2 guys and their wives(?) and camp is ours by 7:30. 

The Camp at Findlay is pretty typical of Way North with minimal time for annual maintenance, everything begins to tilt a little, some things tilt a little more than a little.  This camp though has an interesting new feature - the lawn is covered with old pallets.  This probably means less mowing and does give us some lumber for some of our later camp modifications/upgrades.  As a nice bonus, the raspberries and blueberries that surround camp are ripening if a bit sparse, but provide two breakfasts of wild berry pancakes.

Afternoon break	Fredo.. "hail mary, full of grace"

Everyone pitches in unpacking kitchen and beverages, launching boats, filling gas, and we are ready to gear up by 8 am. Bobs checkbook recovered from its clever hiding spot inside his depth finder.  By 9, everyone heads out for what looks like it should be a good spot to put the rookies on fish fast - the inflow of Russell Lake. Beautiful river connecting Russell and Findlay, but not so much fish at the honey hole.  We pick up a few stragglers in the inflow, and Clayton and Stan find a tiny hole with lots of fish they can tie up to a tree and snag.  Bob/Jim Andy/Jack go up to the small rapids which are shallow and snaggy.  They exit back to Russell main body and find fish off the points of a couple of islands and a long submerged reef. Back to camp for lunch, and off to the west end of the lake in the afternoon where we find the big submerged reef and lots more walleye.  Dinner of about 10 pounds of spaghetti with red sauce over sauteed walleye.  Stan sobs himself to sleep missing his girls back home.

Headed out 6 am	Not Huge, at least we had camera

July 25-29: Fish Everywhere and not a mosquito in sight - And so it goes for the next 5 days.  We find fish in all the places we expect to find fish with several submerged reefs, many islands and wind blown points, this lake abounds in walleye habitat.  Not too much trouble to put 100 fish in a boat daily, but we moved around quite a bit to keep things interesting and to keep finding fish.  Not a lot of huge fish - only a handful at 24 plus, Stan goes for big fish at 26, but everyone gets plenty of nice fish above 20 inches.  Not much Northern to speak of, but without Orvis, we really didn't spend too much time throwing the heavy artillery around.  We end the week with a conservative estimate of 1500 walleye. Pretty great fishing - some of the best quantities we have ever had. 

Notable events - Andy and Jack both catch the same fish at the same time - a 22 incher.  Andy gets the double species in the boat on one hook with the pike clamped tightly onto the hooked walleye.  Stan makes his very first pancake - tasty.  Jack becomes certified walleye skipper with 3 days running the boat and on the last day puts his boat on 139 fish, 100 in less than 4 hours.  On one of Bob and Andy's early morning excursions they employ the "bobber boy" walleye locating system - look for modified versions in years to come.

Stan mentions daily how much he misses his girls back home (Stan, I hope I mentioned this enough times to earn you bonus points for next year), and in the next breath can't believe that he has waited so long to join us on the trip. Jimlets take down another rookie, but we do find out that all Jim really wants is just a cup of ice.  Otherwise, the rookies perform like veterans on fish gut duty, on camp chores and in the boats. (ok, maybe not so much on fish gut duty, but it was good nightly entertainment for both the gulls and eagles and the rest of us).

We make several noteworthy impovements in camp including; pallet windbreak by the fish fryer, pallet sidewalk to firepit, pallet bench at the fireplace, (notice a theme here?) sand beach surrounding the firepit, new latches (fashioned from pallet lumber) on cabinets to replace the duct tape latches previously employed - as always NLFC leaves the camp in better condition than when we arrive.

Weather was pretty much a non issue, with rain on a couple of afternoons, but never really put us off fishing much.  Oddly, we were expecting a massive swarm of mosquitos and biting flies, but aside from Andy mistakenly using his Deet as sunscreen and blistering his knees (I blame the manufacturer for putting deet and sunscreen in identical bottles) we never applied any bug repellant.  Food was pretty much just right, aside from a temporary scare on lack of lunchmeat, we wound up with very little extra - mostly beer.  As always when given the option to choose any fish recipe on the last night - CANDY FISH is the winner, and Stan goes for about 10 pieces to prevent any waste and possible Ministry fines.

Trip out was about as uneventful as the trip in, two of the smoothest flights we have yet experienced in the bush.  Drive home always seems about twice as long as the trip up, partly due to the educational side trip we took through the dockyards and ghettos of superior MN. 

Front: Bob Haldrup, Clayton Wright
Standing: Jim Shubert, Stan Wright, Jack Haldrup, Andy Haldrup

Pre trip Info:  Posted June

Going Rogue and we have an official headcount including and a couple of fresh newbies - looks like the veterans will have a very relaxing time with all the rookies around to fetch our beverages, carry our gear, and ward off the bears.

Our years of fish stories have finally convinced Stan Wright to join the group, and experience the wilderness of Way North America. 

Unfortunately, with Bob Vowell traveling to Colorado Springs a couple of times this year to visit Ben at the Air Force Academy, it was not working out for him to join us. 

Fortunately, Jim Shubert took about 13 seconds after hearing that the group was light one man to post his deposit money to NLFC World Hdq.  Jim works with Bob H at IMI and will be a welcome addition to the group.

This years casting cast:

Bob Haldrup,
Andy Haldrup,
Jack Haldrup (the grad), 
Clayton Wright,
Stan Wright (the rook)
Jim Shubert (rook2).

Findlay Lake - Amik Outposts

Owners blog site has good info from past years.   Plus John the pilot is posting regular updates and pictures from groups he is taking out of the lakes at the end of their trips.  Sounds like lots of good fishing so far this year, and some encouraging numbers out of Findlay.

Revised Itinerary: (as of 5/10)

0. 7/22 - 9 pm departure from Indy. Destination - Red Lake, Ontario 5 pm arrival
0. 7/23 - Noonish Border crossing, Arrive Red Lake, Ontario, 5 pm.
   • Bunk at fabulous Balmer Motor Hotel.
0. 7/24 - Fly into camp Saturday morning.  We have been promised first flight out - probably between 6-7 am departure from dock.
   • Set up camp and on the water before noon saturday.
0. Fish, fish, fish, eat, cards, sleep, fish, fish, fish, beer, fish, fish, eat. (snore)
0. Survivors rescued 1st pickup Friday 7/30 (7-8 am)
0. Indy Sat morning.
0. 358 days til next trip

The Fabulous Balmer Motor Hotel	The Findlay Lake Camp manor
Kitchen	Master Suite
Lake View, Click for big version	Loading up for departure

From the Amik Website:

"Findlay Lake is located 100 miles from Red Lake, Ontario. The lake is approximately 12 miles in length and includes access into Russell Lake and 2 rivers. Findlay is a Walleye fisherman's dream with depths averaging 25' deep and spots up to 60'. With terrific fishing all season long the Walleyes average 19" in length with many caught between 22" and 32". The largest Walleye noted was 34" caught and released. The quantity of fish is phenomenal and is great for first time Canadian fisherman and families. Findlay is not known for its Northern fishery but times are changing and having a NO TROPHY policy for a number of years in paying off. Countless trophy Northern are being caught and released more and more each year. Some nice Northern caught last season ranged from 30" to 45 inches in length. Findlay, being the only cabin on the lake, is a great place to get away for complete solitude and privacy.

See you next year.

Stan mentions daily how much he misses his girls back home (Stan, I hope I mentioned this enough times to earn you bonus points for next year), and in the next breath can't believe that he has waited so long to join us on the trip.  Jimlets take down another rookie - all Jim wants is a cup of ice, but the rookies perform like veterans on fish gut duty, in camp and on the water (ok, maybe not so much on fish gut duty, but it was good nightly entertainment for both the gulls and eagles and the rest of us). 

Canada Limosine	Hey, wipe the windshield!!