Bob Gillispie was very excited when he booked his first trip to Aikens back in January. Aikens had been on his radar for awhile, and this fly-in fishing veteran of 15 years jumped on an opportunity when he saw the special package offered on the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters Association (www.mloa.com). Bob always fishes with his father-in-law Karl Hunter. Bob is also the owner of Custom Jigs and Spins (www.customjigs.com) and he brought quite a tool box filled with his own creations to see if they would work on Aikens.

…And work they did! Bob and Karl fished with Turbo as their guide and brought in over 20 slot walleyes on their first day to spark off a great trip! They also hired Tyler to guide them in the evenings, and on the 2nd night the monster hit! Karl was using a yellow and white Flu Flu jig with a crawler. Tyler marked a huge arc on the depth finder, and everybody’s fingers gripped their rods just a little bit tighter in anticipation of the bite… and Karl was the lucky one on this night! After a crazy fight full of sideways runs and under-the-boat mayhem, Tyler netted the thick walleye. It taped out at 30.75″ in length… but the most impressive measurement was the girth, a whopping 19″! Converted using In-Fisherman’s length x girth x girth / 800 formula the fish would weigh 13.8 lbs! Bob and Karl figured it was probably closer to 12 lbs, but either way it’s a fish to remember! If you are planning a trip to Aikens (or anywhere), don’t forget to check out Bob’s website to restock your tackle box!

Aikens Lake is just like any other fly-in when it comes to providing all the amenities of the real world… we are totally “off-the-grid” and so we need to be self-sufficient. Power is no exception! The lease on our generator expired this month, and so a new one was flown in. The old generator was a 50 kilowatt (KW) engine, but we opted for a bigger capacity and ordered an 80KW! At first, we were against the idea because our philosophy has always been to reduce demand, not increase capacity. However, after researching fuel consumption charts it was clear that at our average loads (20-30KW), the larger engine would actually burn less fuel! Amazing.

Anyway, as you can imagine these generators aren’t light! The new 80KW actually weighs just under 2,300 lbs… too much for one otter to handle. Therefore, it was shipped in 6 pieces over several flights and we pieced everything back together with the help of the Cummins mechanic Greg. Our resident “Mr. Everything” Leo was also on hand to help coordinate the loading/unloading of all these heavy pieces of machinery! Because of the high water, we were able to use gravity to get the pieces out of the plane using a large ramp and some good old-fashioned muscle. Once on the trailer, moving it to the diesel shed was easy! From there, our team (which also included Denis, Diesel, and Pat) re-assembled the new generator just outside the building it will call home for at least the next 4 years.

The last step before hooking it up to the grid was to roll it into the building. What seemed like a backbreaking task was actually a piece of cake because our master “bush engineer” Leo rolled it expertly on pipes using a crowbar, and even managed to swing it around a corner for good measure… Take that, 2300 lbs of steel! Although we are doing many things to reduce demand (such as the new re-circulating hot water line, or the switch to fluorescent bulbs everywhere possible), it is still nice to know that we have that extra power in the back pocket if ever we need it!

Our staff had a special treat today as one of our guests took a little detour to show us the speed of his new plane! Rob Phillips had never heard of Aikens Lake until a month ago, but there’s no way he’s ever going to forget about it now! Rob was browsing the web for a place to take some buddies for their first fly-in adventure. He chose Aikens based on our website, and when he called us for the first time it was to make a reservation!

The group flew up from Tulsa, OK and they got the full “Aikens Experience”. They got some great fishing (Mike Peterson landed a beautiful 28.5″ walleye in the Saddle on their last evening), had great weather, and had a great time sharing stories with our staff. We even attempted a campfire on the beach one night but the bugs told us that it wasn’t that good of an idea! Anyway, as the group was leaving, Rob told us that they would take his Citation Jet from Lac Du Bonnet and fly it over the camp and into the back bay.

About an hour after leaving, and true to his word, we heard the jet come over camp. It was very quiet compared to what we are used to with the otters. They did a large swoop towards the honeyhole and came right down the back bay. They cruised just above the water and came right in front of the dock. When they passed the dock, you heard the afterburners kick in and they shot up in the air to fly back home! It was a great experience to see the raw speed of this machine zoom past us. I’m sure it didn’t take them very long to get back home! Thanks for that experience, and we look forward to having you at Aikens again next year! Later.

Our staff is surely going to be well rested… we just finished up a long break which allowed everyone to recharge their batteries. Many of our staff traveled oustide the province during the break, visiting friends and family… or even just to fish! Many people went fishing for smallmouth, with a 17.5″ being the biggest one caught (Turbo). Others used the time to lounge on the beach, or to stay up way too late! All in all, it is a fun and necessary part of our summer plans every year.
Today, we flew back in to Aikens to get it set up for our first guests of the “2nd half”… We have a group of 4 coming in tomorrow. Today we cleaned the cabins, cut the lawn, bailed and cleaned the boats, and basically got the camp back in order. We were also able to go out fishing… actually we didn’t have a choice because we had to catch our supper! It didn’t take long to find out that the walleyes are hungry! Julie and Pit got onto a school of eater-size ‘eyes at the Saddle. Pat and Turbo took Jimmy, Elise, Janelle, and Aislinn fishing and got into some fish at South Shore reef in 28 feet. They caught an assortment of sizes, with the biggest one taping 27″. The Captain and his family found fish at Bear Island. It seems the mid-summer patterns are in full swing and this bodes well for the 2nd half! We will now get back to updating the page every couple of days, so bookmark this page and come back often!

Logistically, getting to Aikens is much easier than going to most other lodges. Just fly-in to Winnipeg (available through connections in Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, or Toronto many times a day) and we can have you at the lodge only a few hours later. Our packages start right from the Airport, and so we provide the 90 minute drive and the 30 minute float plane ride. Well, the 90 minute drive just got a heck of a lot more comfortable!

This past winter, our friends at OTours (the company that handles all of our ground transportation) helped us find a place where we could purchase a luxury conversion van. It became evident that these were not produced in Canada! So, we started looking south of the border. We found the Explorer Van Co, based in Ft-Wayne, IN. They customize hundreds of Chevy/GMC vans per year to exact specifications… you should see how many options there are! We decided on getting most of the options because we wanted our guests to be super comfortable and relaxed on their way to Aikens (sometimes it’s not very relaxing being a passenger on a commercial airline!). This new van provides just the cure!

The van was imported in late June, and is now fully ready to roll. It has passed a vigorous inspection to be able to insure it in Canada, and it has really been turning heads in our community. This van is HUGE! It seats 8 people plus the driver. There are three rows of bucket seats, and a large comfy back bench. A 20″ Sony Bravia HDTV is nestled behind the driver’s and passenger’s head, and so guests can enjoy watching all the footage from our 2006 PWT Celebrity Shootout as they travel to Aikens. It’s a great way to get that fishing fever pitched to a higher level! It has incredibly smooth suspension, and you can even draw down the blind if the sun is in your eyes! Climate-control and plenty of legroom also can help you get that final nap in as well! It is quite probably the only one like it in our province! I hope that you will enjoy all the luxuries of this new van… Just don’t be surprised when everyone is gawking while you climb in to this 5-star vehicle on your way to a 5-star lodge!

You have probably noticed the lack of updates lately… it’s not that we’ve been too busy - it’s that we’ve been in “vacation mode”! This year, our break started on July 1st and will extend through to the 19th of July. It’s longer than the 10 days we shoot for, but that’s just the way the bookings fell this year. Our staff is mostly spending the break travelling (from Ottawa to BC!), and attending the Winnipeg Folk Fest at Bird’s Hill Park - an annual festival of music that attracts over 100,000 people! Meanwhile, back at Aikens, the first week of the break was a very nice quiet time for Pit and Julie to host Julie’s parents and her sister’s family. Annika especially enjoyed this as her little cousins Jude (5) and Joel (2) were here to play with her. They especially loved the new trampoline! The weather cooperated nicely and so there were a few beach days, and some good fishing time as well. Joel caught the first fish of his life, and the kids really liked being able to eat the fish they caught for shorelunch!

As happened last year, Julie was the best guide of the week. This time, she guided herself to a trophy walleye on the Saddle. We fished primarily mid-summer spots like the Saddle, Bear Island, Middle Gull, Three Sisters, Mouth of the Gammon, and the always popular South Arm. We landed big slots on just about all of these spots. The walleyes seemed to be in 20-27 feet of water for the most part. We also tried a deep-troll for lakers by running spoons and raps on 8-oz weights that ran around 50-55feet… but unfortunately we only connected with a pike and no lakers.

This week, Gerry and Lorraine are at camp. They have reported some good catches at the South Arm and also at Red Rock. It seems that when our break is done, the walleye population will be completely moved onto our favorite spots! I love it when you can find these huge schools of fish on a structure, then just stay on them and catch them one after another!
Stay tuned to the newsletter in the next day or two for pictures of our new luxury van! It was just imported into Canada at the end of June and will be ready to start transporting clients from Winnipeg to Silver Falls as soon as our break is over!