July 29th, 2006 - Aikens Lake, MB - AP

There was much hype and gamesmanship surrounding the 8th annual “Little Hammered Olympics” at Aikens Lake, but the the crowd had to wait until the very end, during a thrilling game of “beersbie” on the beach to see the final outcome!

The festivities started off behind the Bait and Tackle, with the announcement team names and costumes! These names had been held in high secrecy in the week leading up to the event. When all was finally revealed, we knew why! Team 1 was called “Boris and his B*****”, where Natasha donned a mustache and the three guys donned short skirts and long hair. Team 2 was “Team Grunthal”, where everyone used the Grunthal Lumber Tyvek house wrap to make costumes (or underwear?). Team 3 was “The He-Shes”, no explanation needed. Team 4 was called “The New and Improved Fantastic Four featuring Captain Lifeguardman”. You can see the 5 members of that team in the picture above.

After the player and team introductions, the torch was lit and a rousing rendition of “Oh, Canada” was sung. Judges then proclaimed that the games had begun! Volleyball was the first event, and some very close matches were played. Head referee Maurice awarded a point when a service hit him and made him clutch the volleyball pole to avoid falling off his ladder! The games then were moved to the beach for a comedic round of “bat twist”. Nobody ended up in the water on in the rocks, which was a good thing. The third event featured a spirited and lenghty tug of war. Players dug hard into the sand and it was a draining event to participate in!

Going into the final event of Beersbie, the He-Shes were tied with the Fantastic Four for the overall points lead. They both lost their first round matches of beersbie, which made the consolation final the deciding factor in the overall Olympics. The game went back and forth for a long time until a bullet frisbee toss by Kik knocked the Gatorade bottle off the pole and gave the He-Shes a victory in the event, and also the overall points title! The winning team consisted of Jacqueline, Kik, Dave, and Points. In the final picture above, you can see them with their “gold medal” at the closing ceremonies in Big Molly’s Bar.

In March of 2006, we announced that Aikens Lake would be hosting the PWT Celebrity Shootout to benefit the Boomer Esiason Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis. The idea was first discussed during Boomer’s trip to Aikens last summer. As we get closer to the event, I just wanted to put the news out there once again. This is going to be a huge annual event for all of the parties involved!

The event is structured so that the top 10 finishers on the Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) are invited to fish in a sort of “all-star game” at Aikens Lake. By teaming up with Boomer Esiason’s charity, we hope to raise alot of money through corporate channels for the charity. In-Fisherman will be covering the event and will make a television show out of it. We already have many of the celebrities confirmed (each will fish with one of the pros), so look for an announcement to come out within the next month. You can read our first press release here. Also, you can check out the official website at www.aikensshootout.com for more updates.

Have you ever jumped off the high diving board at the pool (30ft)?  Have you ever jumped from trout island’s 30 foot cliff… a perch that gives you a bird’s eye view of all of Aikens and a few surrounding lakes?  The sight is exhilirating, as is the jump!  Our staff decided that the best way for everyone to experience this was to go and jump off trout island “en masse”.  The “team” atmosphere certainly helped sway the minds of some of our staff who were having second thoughts once they had climbed up!  Everyone had a great time, and the only person to get injured was Andre… but that was because he stubbed his toe climbing up to the top!   Some of the braver people decided to jump multiple times, and then started naming their jumps.  DG scared the crowd, not to mention his girlfriend Natasha, by naming one jump “infertility”.  You can see him in the picture on the right.  Thankfully he didn’t forget to close up those legs!

It was like he had always been part of the fabric of Aikens Lake!  One  week ago, when Jimmy first stepped off the plane at Aikens Lake, he didn’t know any of our staff members.  However, he was quick to win them over with his charm and his culinary skills!  The staff has been eating like kings, including hand-rolled panzerottis!  Meanwhile, the guests have really been raving about the food!  From Stuffed turkey to pork tenderloin to steak and shrimp kabobs, we have had nothing but good reviews!  If you are coming up to Aikens in the next month or two, bring your appetite!

For over 30 years, the province of Manitoba had 28 gamefish listed in its Master Angler program, and suckers weren’t a part of it. In 2005, the province added both sucker and sunfish to the game, increasing the list of eligible gamefish in Manitoba to 30. At Aikens, you can catch trophy walleye, pike, lake trout, whitefish, perch, and burbot. Sucker is now the 7th species eligible for recognition in the Manitoba Master Angler program (the designated length is 18″)!

Nobody last year was able to catch the inaugral trophy sucker. Today, our partner Chris was able to land the first trophy sucker in Aikens Lake history! It was a great 21″ specimen that was caught by sighting it and pitching a jig and “gulp” bait. Notice how in the picture the big sucker has a nice red tinge to his jacket… I mean his fins! Garbage fish no longer, the sucker now stands among the proud fraternity of walleye and pike as an official gamefish in Manitoba!

With our first guests of the 2nd half set to arrive tomorrow, the staff was back in full force this afternoon to spruce up what has been a relatively quiet camp. The past couple of weeks have seen minimal staff there to do odd projects. The new bar top in Big Molly’s looks very sharp, as the deep pine finish matches the overall wood theme. There was also some progress on the Sunset Chalets, as now the interiors are all framed and awaiting the tradesmen to rough in the electrical and plumbing. Everyone seems to have had a great break in the city and there is definitely a jump in everyone’s step. Today also marked the arrival of our new chef Jimmy Olynyk, who left his position at a great Italian restaurant in Winnipeg to come and work for us at the lodge. With such a great vibe in camp, we are sure to have a fantastic time during a busy 2nd half of the season!

Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »