Over the last 18 years, we’ve had our share of peculiar incidents involving lost motors. Back in 1993, the transom cracked off the barge and our two 15hp engines sank into 90ft of water! After a bit of searching, the motors were found and recovered. A few years earlier, we had a big white Johnson engine fall off a boat in the river. Gerry was able to quickly locate that one and bring it back to camp. Last year, we had another bizarre incident. Because of our previous experience, we have been bolting the engines onto the boats for the past 10 years. Even though our motors are bolted on our transoms, one of them managed to slip off the boat as one of our clients was driving it! We were not sure what the cause was and we were eager to find out what happened.
Pit had taken his open-water diving course back when he had graduated from high school. The only time he had been scuba diving since then was a just-for-fun dive to check out exactly what attracted all those large walleyes to the South Arm! That was about 10 years ago. After getting all of his scuba equipment revamped, he headed out to find the motor that was lost in June 2004. The recovery was organized so that two of the guides would slowly backtroll the boat in a grid pattern while Pit held on to the anchor. The motor was spotted that day, after letting go of the anchor Pit was alone at the bottom of the lake with and engine, and had no way of getting it up to the surface! A second tank of air was drained while trying to find the motor a second time.

Last winter, Aikens Lake donated a trip for the “Christmas Classic Golf Tournament” auction. Held at the TPC of Scottsdale, AZ the event benefits Phoenix Children’s Hospital, First Tee of Phoenix, the Arizona Junior Golf Association, Valley Boys and Girls Clubs and the Sojourner Center.

Dan Quayle, the former vice-president of the United States, was the honorary chairman and the prize up for auction was a trip for 4 to fish with the former veep at Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge. The trip sold for $27,000!!! Dan was accompanied by Greg Vogel, Brian Rosener, David Rauch, and Andrew Annan. Even though it was mid-August, Drew and Dan were in the mood for some fly-fishing! Dave, our resident fly “expert”, was willing to try it out even though the odds of success were low at this time of year. The three of them ended up having a fantastic time! Being used to catching 15″ trout on the flies, Dan and Drew loved the fight and action of pike ranging from 24″ to 36″! What was really funny was that nobody really gave them a chance at success, but they proved everyone wrong.

The other three men on the trip were fishing with Pat and were jigging up big walleyes all day long! A few of them had admittedly had very little fishing experience beforehand, but this was one experience that will not be forgotten. Brian was the lucky angler who was able to reel up a trophy walleye. In all, it was a great trip for a great cause. Thanks for allowing us to host such a wonderful event and thanks to everyone who took part in it! We hope to do it again next year!

Well, the big day finally arrived! It was a day that everyone in camp was looking forward to since the middle of June… the grand opening of the first Sunset Chalet! Our carpenters worked diligently throughout the summer with the goal in mind of having the cabin ready for the arrival of Mr. Dan Quayle, ex VP of the United States of America! In the picture above, you can see Mr. Quayle and Dale Jensen doing the official ribbon cutting ceremony. Most of our skilled tradesmen were still on hand for the ceremony, and you can see them in the front row.
We are building two new guest accommodations this year, the “Sunset Chalets”. The second one is about two weeks behind the first. These large cabins accommodate 4 people each (two bedrooms). The bedrooms, shower room, and bathroom are seperated from the main common room and screened in porch by large french doors. The interior is completely finished in pine. These cabins are between our “Boardwalk Chalets” and the “Park Place” cabins. We would like to thank everyone that came together at the end of this project to help us meet our deadline! It was truly incredible to see how all of the different parts could be brought in at the end in order to have a complete cabin! Each tradesman was sure to leave a couple of their own personal “signatures” in the cabin, and the result is one of the most unique and first-class accommodations in our industry! Congratulations to everyone who had a hand in helping turn our paper plans from last April into a visual and structural masterpiece!

Well, crunch time is here and the first Sunset Chalet is 24 hours away from having the ribbon cut! I apologize for the recent drought of news, but we’ve been busting our tails getting all the final prep work into the cabin! We’ve had many tradesmen, from flooring to jewelstone to plumbing and electrical, everyone’s had their time to shine in the cabin lately! The carpenters have been truly unbelievable in both the interior and exterior of the cabins. The detail work is intricate, and I look forward to adding pictures once all the tools are removed from the site! I am sure that our first guests are going to be blown away!

The jewelstone finish is a bulletproof concrete that is very diverse in color and finish. It was used for the showers, the countertops, the hearth, and the floor of the screened-in porch. Dino and his helper Ryan have done a great job thus far. One of the other projects that Dino has been able to do while here was at the main lodge. The screened-in porch that is just off the bar has always had a need for a finished floor, but until we learned about jewelstone we just didn’t know what to put down! Dino did a great job. In the picture, you can see one of our guides Dan sitting next to his artwork. Before the final epoxy glosses over the floor, Dan was able to paint a beautiful Aikens Lake Logo into the floor. Great stuff, the place looks sharp!

Last year, the host of the “Boys Trip Invitational” was also the winner of the tournament.  Despite the accolades, Chris Jensen had to endure a winter of allegations that he had rigged the contest, especially by bringing in a 75HP engine for his boat only days before the tournament. This year, 16 friends participated in the easy-going tournament.  Although Chris was leading after day 1 of this year’s event, he could not hold on to the lead and duplicate the victory. Instead, a new face to the tournament was victorious. Mitch Ballou has never really fished a whole lot, much less fished in a great resource such as Aikens Lake! He was lucky enough to be drawn on both days into a boat with our head guide Patrick.  He said that on his second day, he caught more fish than he previously had in his entire life!
This was a two day tournament with the top 5 walleyes (over 22″) scoring each day. On day 1, Mitch, Pat, and Kent Dodson only had 2 fish on the board and time was tight! It was 4:30 and it was time for a desperation run to Bear Island. The last 15 minutes was incredible, with Pat netting, re-baiting, and netting again! They were able to bring in 3 more scoring walleye before the 5:00 bell! Day 2 was a little tougher, with many of the boats failing to catch their 5 fish over 22″. However, Mitch and Pat were able to… this time fishing with Paul Rodriguez. The two-day combined total was enough to edge out the two runners up (Kent Dodson and John McGowan) by only a half inch! Pat was able to claim the victory among the guides, beating day 1 leader Dan by only 2 inches overall. Congratulations to all and it was a great tournament. We’ll do it again next year!

Mid-August is typically a time when the big walleyes are easily found on deep structures and islands. You can ask Scot Woolley, who’s caught 6 trophy walleye in the past 5 years! Back on August 7th at South Shore reef, while Scot was jigging up more big walleyes into the boat, a huge pike decided to make an appearance! This huge 44.5″ pike was reeled in on Scot’s St-Croix rod, and finally made its way into the boat. However, before it left, it broke both the rod and Scot’s ring finger! As Scot said “it’s a small price to pay for such a great fish”!

The story doesn’t end there, however! Right after releasing the fish, Scot came into the office to get a splint and some tape to help protect his finger. As we were talking to him about his fish, we realized that we had forgotten to present him with the special “Aikens Lake Walleye Specialist” rod last season! He had caught his 5th and 6th trophy walleyes back in 2004, and so last year when we started with this promotion, we must have overlooked the fact that Scot was already a walleye specialist! To top it off, these rods are tournament edition St-Croix rods… similar to the rod that the big pike had broken! The timing couldn’t have been any better than for Denis to present Scot (who had no idea we had these special giveaway rods!) with his own St-Croix walleye specialist rod that night at supper. Congrats Scot! Nice pike, nice St-Croix! Hope that hand heals up properly so you can tackle more big fish next year!

Some of you may remember last year’s post about Orazio Nastase from Pennsylvania. He had caught his 5th trophy walleye in only his 4th trip to Aikens. Well, Raz made his 5th trip his most memorable to date! He started off the trip by catching a trophy walleye on the first day!

Raz isn’t someone who likes fishing in the waves. On a windy second day, the winds were howling and he decided along with his fishing partner Neil that they would only fish close to the lodge in the afternoon. Their decision paid off as Raz, a self-proclaimed walleye fisherman, caught a trophy pike! Raz even admitted to actually have enjoyed pike fishing that day!

On Raz’s third day, it was time to diversify a little bit more! Raz wanted to get the “Aikens Lake Triple Crown” by catching a trophy laker (even though he dislikes trout fishing!). Instead, he reeled in a 30.5″ burbot! If that wasn’t enough, he then caught another trophy walleye later that afternoon! All in all, it was quite the trip for Raz! He has fished with our guide Patrick during each of his stays, and his 5 trips have produced 9 trophies! Congratulations and see you next year!

Pat and Julie have been ribbing each other for the past two years about the fact that neither of them, now in their 7th years at the lodge, have ever landed a trophy pike! They both had set a goal last season to catch one, but weren’t able to land that lunker that would have made the other one jealous. This year, they came to Aikens with the same goal in mind.

The night of August 4th was a beautiful night. Most of the staff had decided to have a large volleyball game. However, Pat had experienced some great fishing during the day with his clients (Mr. Orazio Nastase and Neil Edwards of PA), and he knew the bite would be hot again that night. Pat was able to convince Colin that the fishing would be worth the time, and so Colin jumped in a boat and left the others to their game. It didn’t take long for Pat’s prophecy to come true! They headed straight to “Colin’s Cruise” and started cranking. Pat was actually using a Williams Whitefish spoon, a lure that had already landed his clients some large pike this year. After boating a couple of small pike rather quickly, the monster hit! The 44″ pike twisted and turned and Pat was trying to stay calm during the fight… but he knew this was the one and every headshake made his knees buckle. Pat finally was able to take a sigh of relief and extreme joy once that fish made it’s way into Colin’s net! After snapping enough pictures to fill up a magazine, Pat released the fish and quickly proceeded to follow it in the lake! He was so excited that he just had to do something wacky!

News of the fish quickly made its way through camp. Julie, less than impressed that she had been beat out by Pat for that pike, was determined to not let him keep all the glory for very long. The following night, she went fishing with Pit and David to troll the “Cruise”. Back during our break, Julie had picked up the X-Rap Extreme Jointed Shad to troll for pike. She took it out of the box, and on the second pass of the night, it paid off! After the hookset, the fish did not move. Julie went from disappointment by thinking it was a snag, to complete ecstasy when that first headshake made the drag scream! Julie did not waste any time reeling in the fish, and kept pumping until that girthy fish slid into the net! She wasn’t sure if it would make the necessary length of 41″ to be a Master Angler. When she measured it, she let out a sigh that made Pit’s heart drop! No trophy? No way! She was just hoping that it would be bigger than 44″! The official length was 43″. Two nights, two fish of a lifetime! Way to go! I guess now the last one to catch a trophy perch is a rotten egg!

The construction crew has been hard at work… as they have been all year! For those that haven’t seen the lodge since last summer, you are really going to be noticing some great changes! One of the changes that won’t be seen by many guests, but that is a great addition to the lodge, is the new laundry facility. The existing facility was adequate, but it really lacked space to store all of the new linens and towels. Also, when the camp is full, the washing capacity was a bit lacking.

The new “caillebo” will have two sets of industrial washers and dryers, as well as a household set of washer and dryer. There will be tons of storage space for all of the linens and towels. There will be a dedicated sewing area, a chemical room for the mops and cleaners, a carport where the girls can load and unload the golf cart while being sheltered by the rain. We are planning to move the operations to the new facility in the spring of 2007!