outdoors

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens’ famous line refers to life during the French Revolution, but he may as well of been writing about Canadian fishing trips.

Because when you’re on that dream fishing trip and everything’s going great, life doesn’t get much better. But when you’re stuck on a trip that’s a total bust, it’s a real kick in the pants––mainly because for months in advance the Ghost of Christmas Future teased you with visions of unreal fishing, and the disappointment of a squandered trip is devastating.

So, my New Year’s wish to fellow anglers is that in 2013 you enjoy the former, rather than suffer from the latter. To help with that goal, here are 3 tips for making sure your precious, hard-earned and well-deserved fishing vacation lives up to your great expectations (OK, no more Dickens’ references).

1. Don’t Go Anywhere Without A Referral

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker. When I read in a fishing lodge brochure, “Fast and furious fishing action year-round with walleyes up to 8-pounds,” I instantly start to daydream about hauling in 8-pound walleyes one after the other.

After a second or two, reality kicks in, and I’ll remember the term “fast and furious” can be a bit vague, as can the phrase “up to.” After all, even a below-average lake can offer “fast and furious” action––at the right time––and likely has at least a couple walleyes “up to” 8 pounds … even if the average if a 12-inch dink.

Bottom line: Every lodge looks good on its own website. Better ask around. I felt a bit overwhelmed last year trying to pick the perfect fly-in to take my dad. So I used my “phone a friend,” and fortunately my friend was none other than Bill Sherck, host of Due North Outdoors.

Bill asked me what type of experience I was looking for and gave me great advice. I had his ultimate fly-in recommendation–––KaBeeLo Lodge––and some very concrete expectations on what I could realistically anticipate in terms of fishing and overall experience.

Also, a personal referral can share specific hot spots with you and, equally important, can warn you about parts of the lake that are better left un-fished. Lodge owners will rarely steer you away from any part of the lake because over the years “guests have caught fish there” and because, understandably, they don’t want to squash dreams or take away your joy of exploration and discovery. (Friends, whoever, will save you time and just tell you the best spots on the lake!)
 

2. Ask a “Trick” Question or Two

I’ve found in business––and in fishing––that you can learn a lot about someone by asking them a question you already know the answer to and seeing how they respond. Or by asking them a question they can’t possible know the answer to and listening to what they say.

So, as I pondered a trip to KaBeeLo Lodge, I asked owner Harald Lohn how many pike I could expect to catch in a day if I only targeted that toothy species. I loved his response. And it gave me a ton of confidence in Harald and his wife Ann.

Harald said, “I don’t know.”
 
He had no idea of my fishing ability, the weather conditions I’d encounter, and whether I considered a “day of fishing” to mean sunrise to sunset or just a couple hours between meals.

His answer was so honest, I knew he wasn’t blowing smoke about other claims either.

When went on to talk further about the type of fishing his guests generally have on the various outpost lakes, and he also directed me to the dated journal entries of guests at each lake––and those entries painted a clearly unedited and realistic view of the excellent fishing I could expect. Then we went and enjoyed dream fishing that exceeded our expectations, with the best walleye fishing of our lives and pike over 40 inches.

3. Pick a Lodge that Cares About YOU

In general, lodge owners are fantastic people. But you talk to enough of ’em and eventually you run across a couple who seem to think they’re the main attraction at Lodge XYZ rather than the fishing and the scenery.

Or you’ll encounter a lodge owner who cares more about his great lodge than your individual trip. He may simply be too understaffed to have time to truly serve your needs, but either way you leave feeling your trip could have been better if you had received more individual attention.

Like I said, I was a bit overwhelmed planning the fly-in for my dad last year because he had dreamed about doing a fly-in his entire life and I wanted it to go well. So I bombarded Harald and Ann with lots of emails with lots of questions about all aspects of KaBeeLo.

They responded promptly, and what impressed me further is that they always thanked me for the questions and encouraged me to ask more. KaBeeLo is one of the busiest fly-ins in Ontario because they get so many return guests, but Harald and Ann don’t act like they’re the busiest, and that makes an awfully big difference––especially when you’re on the trip.

Let’s face it: Your trip is a BIG deal to you individually, but it’s another day like every other day for the lodge owner. You want to go to a lodge where the owner will embrace your excitement and feed it with individual attention.

The night before my dad and I flew out to Bear Paw Lake, we had dinner with Harald and Ann and traded stories about fishing, family, current events and hobbies. The next morning when we flew to our outpost, they both walked us to the float plane (after loading all our gear) and wished us luck. When we returned from the outpost they greeted us at the dock and asked us all about our adventure.

It wasn’t another day to them; they genuinely wanted to make sure we had a unique, special experience and they demonstrated that by giving us individual attention. In turn, that individual attention made our experience that much better … and that’s a key thing to focus on when you’re picking a lodge.

So there you have it, my 3 tips for picking a lodge and planning a dream fishing trip. My last piece of advice: Do it 2013, because life’s too short to wait.

Oh, and one more thing … pack a Dickens book just in case. 

The absurdity of my error smacked me suddenly in my face. I was reading Patricia Shultz’ New York Times best-seller “1,000 Places to See Before You Die,” salivating over exotic destinations like the Great Wall of China, the Alhambra Palace in Spain and the Serengeti Desert in Tanzania. I turned the page when––without any warning––out jumped a “must-see” destination that was basically in my own backyard … and I’d never even been there once.
 
I had flown in helicopter over Hawaii’s Na Pali coast, I had hiked Alaska’s gold-rush mountains, I had ascended Jamaica’s Dunn’s River waterfall, I had conquered “The Path of the Gods” along Italy’s Amalfi Coast, but I had never been to Bayfield, Wisconsin. The error of my omission jolted me into action.
 
So my wife and I set sail for Bayfield, which is to say, we threw some stuff in our Chevy Impala after work one Friday and drove 3½ hours. “That was easy,” Jodie mumbled when I nudged her awake in the passenger seat as we pulled into our B&B of choice. “Oh, wow,” she said, suddenly alert. “This looks really nice.”

 
Our home for the weekend was Wisconsin’s very first bed and breakfast, the Old Rittenhouse Inn. A Victorian house first occupied by a former Civil War general, the antique-filled Inn is today owned and operated by the Phillips family. As we quickly discovered, the Rittenhouse Inn’s appearance in Shultz’s “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” has as much to do with the family’s devotion to serving guests as it does with the B&B’s breathtaking views of Lake Superior and close proximity to the Apostle Islands.

The father of the Phillips family, Jerry, taught high school, met his bride––a fellow teacher––and then ignored everyone’s advice by risking it all and buying the Rittenhouse Inn some 38 years ago. His loyal sister, Julie, has worked by his side through it all and seems to feel her personal mission in life to start every person’s day off with a smile (enjoy even just one breakfast there and you’ll see what I mean).

The primary Innkeeper at the Rittenhouse is none other than Jerry’s son, Mark, who’s basically lived at the Inn since age 3. So perhaps Mark’s wife is the only “outsider” helping to run Rittenhouse? Well, not exactly. In high school she worked as a housekeeper at the Inn, then served as a waitress and maitre’d through her college years before––you guessed it––falling in love with Mark.

“It was kind of an unspoken thing between us that someday he and I would be running it,” she said. “Managing Rittenhouse has brought both joy and stress. It’s a constant inspiration to try to offer the best accommodations, the best dining, and the best service.”

That “service” for us included recommendations on how to see the best of Bayfield in one full day. Following their advice, we woke before the sun and raced up the hill to Le Chateau for the ultimate view of a Lake Superior sunrise. We weren’t disappointed.

Later that morning we cruised on a “3-hour tour” around the Apostle Islands which, it so happens, were misnamed by French missionaries who thought the islands numbered 12 instead of 22. (Apparently the French aren’t mathematicians.)

Weaving through the islands broke up the big lake in a way I hadn’t experienced before. After all, you can see Superior from the moon. It contains enough water to cover the entire land mass of North and South America in a foot of water. I’m used to gazing out from Duluth and seeing nothing but steely blue waves; to see, for my first time, the heavily forested Apostles interrupting the sea of Superior showed me a new side of the lake.

Also new was the experience, later that afternoon, of driving my car onto a boat and being ferried across to Madeline Island. On the island, Big Bay State Park provided a relaxing hike through 2,350 acres teeming with wildlife, beaches, and sandstone cliffs.
 

The culture on the island is distinctly different––you get the impression the people who already love Madeline wish that new people would quit falling in love with the island and leave her alone.

At a local pub on Madeline Island we bumped into a good friend of mine who had just won a sailboat race that day––in fact, we unknowingly saw the race in progress during our Apostle Island cruise. He’s been sailing around the islands for a decade and admitted to me that the locals at Madeline keep urging him to shut up about their hidden gem.

But he loves the island too much not to share it with his friends, and with sunsets like the one we enjoyed, it’s easy to see why.

After dark we returned to the Old Rittenhouse Inn for what was, perhaps, the highlight of our time in Bayfield: dinner at Rittenhouse’s Landmark Restaurant. I knew I was in for a treat when the breakfast that morning blew me away. I am firm in my belief that breakfast is the least important meal of the day; hence I rarely eat it and never developed a taste for breakfast food.

Nonetheless, Executive Chef Matt Chingo’s creativity and talents are obvious and overwhelming. Breakfast was fantastic and dinner, quite frankly, was one of the absolute best meals I have ever had. I’m well aware of the fact that I’m not a talented enough writer to do the dinner justice, so instead I’ll simply list some of the dishes and make one key distinction: the dinner is done entirely with a verbal menu.

Smoked Trout Salad: Local trout smoked with applewood served on a bed of wild rice and mixed greens dressed with lemon vinaigrette topped with garden chives and aged Wisconsin cheddar.

Steak Bercy: Grilled filet mignon with Yukon mashed potatoes, vegetable du jour and a Bercy sauce made with veal reduction, butter, herbs, garlic and burgundy wine and topped with a giant Bercy mushroom cap.

Chocolate Torte: Chocolate mousse layered between dark chocolate ganache frosting layers. Served with Bayfield raspberry sauce, whipped cream, and shaved chocolate.       
      
Our waiter, Lance, recited in delicious detail all the key components in the 5-course meal by memory. It is a special ritual at Rittenhouse that catches you off-guard and makes the experience come to life: Sitting by the fireplace in an old Victorian mansion overlooking Lake Superior’s crashing waves, listening to Lance declare the day’s fresh fish and local ingredients.

We were so stuffed by the time dessert was done, we were grateful that all we had to do was stumble up a few stairs from the dining room to our bedroom to go to sleep. We slept well with full bellies and the knowledge that this day, which had started with a Superior sunrise, ended with us having enjoyed the beauty of Bayfield and the Apostle Islands … a beauty that definitely deserves its spot in “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.”

The website for The Old Rittenhouse is www.rittenhouseinn.com. For more information, email frontdsk@rittenhouseinn.com or call 1-888-611-4667.

“Is this Heaven?”

No, it’s Wisconsin. Canoe Bay, to be exact, but the serenity and solitude offered here surely rival that found past the Pearly Gates. And, if you’re an angler or nature lover trying to convince your significant other to join you for a weekend in the great outdoors, you may want to split the difference.

After all, it’s not very often you find a private lake teeming with giant largemouth bass that just so happens to be overlooked by “one of the 50 most romantic hotels in the world,” according to Travel & Leisure. The real kicker, for fellow Twin Cities residents, is that this gem which USA Today named “the Midwest’s premier rustic-elegant hideaway,” is barely over 100 miles east of St. Paul.

So, as someone who loves to fish, hike, camp and kayak, I decided to take my wife, someone who defines “camping” as staying in any hotel that costs less than a $100 a night. The result was a trip that blew us both away, but for different reasons.

I was amazed by the natural beauty surrounding Canoe Bay, a series of lakeside rooms and cottages secluded in the heavily forested Indianhead Region near Chetek, Wisconsin. At the center of Canoe Bay’s 300 forested acres lies Lake Wahdoon, a lake carved out by glaciers thousands of years ago, hidden today by giant maple and oaks trees over 130 years old.

You can hike miles of well-maintained trails through the massive hardwoods without seeing or hearing any signs of people or civilization. Nonetheless, you do get the distinct feeling of always being watched.

The woods are thick with wildlife, including whitetail deer, bear and pheasants, as well as the ducks and loons that live on Wahdoon and its hidden sister lakes. No motorboats are allowed, and the only access is via Canoe Bay, which accommodates a maximum of 25 couples at a time (no children are allowed, which further enhances the unique serenity and silence). There are canoes and kayaks available to enjoy the lake, and fishing is as good as you’d expect it to be on a remote, spring-fed lake that is virtually un-touched and remains strictly catch-and-release.

And trust me, you won’t be missing any shore lunch. Dinner at Canoe Bay’s lakeside dining room is an experience unto itself, with a gourmet chef using fresh, local ingredients to prepare new offerings every day––with a constantly changing menu to feature the freshest food available. Maybe this sample menu will give you a better sense of what I’m talking about:

Salad
Salad of garden greens & radishes with orange supremes, toasted pine nuts, grana padano cheese, citrus vinaigrette.

Entree
Pan-seared Alaskan Copper River Salmon on house-made Capellini Pasta with Zucchini Pearls, Cherry Tomatoes, Herbed Beurre Blanc.

Dessert
Caramel Apple Tartlet
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Mint

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words, so perhaps these photos from our dinner will do the Canoe Bay dining experience some justice. I didn’t know pork could taste this good! 

Needless to say, dinner was a high point for the both of us. But for my wife, the non-camper, the ultimate highlight was the cottage itself. I have to admit, it’s hard to argue with that. It’s amazing, quite frankly, that the cabins can be so spectacular––ours was 1,300 square feet, with two stone fireplaces, a beautiful living room overlooking the lake, and a private spa equipped with an exercise bike, sauna, whirlpool and two-person steam shower––and still blend in perfectly with their woodland surroundings.

I guess that’s the genius of architectural legend Frank Lloyd Wright, whose protégé and partner actually designed much of Canoe Bay. Given the architectural brilliance of these cottages, it’s no surprise that in the weeks before us, guests had travelled from South Africa, Denmark, Britain and Israel to spend time here.

Let me put it this way: If these aren’t the finest cottages you’ve ever stepped foot in, I want to know where the heck you’ve been!

Perhaps our favorite time at the cottage came on our first night after dinner, relaxing on our deck in the darkness of night. Rain had threatened earlier in the afternoon but held off during my wife’s first-ever canoe excursion. Through dinner, the clouds darkened, then finally, after nightfall, thunder broke. The lightning illuminated the night sky, putting on dazzling display of natural fireworks. From our perch on the deck we were completely dry––all the rain was off in the distance, and we could sit together in the blackness and watch the horizon flash violently. 

With each glimpse of light in sky above, we couldn’t help but ask the question: “Is that Heaven?”


The website for Canoe Bay is www.canoebay.com. For more information, call (715) 924-4594 or email reservations@canoebay.com.

Some people don’t get to take the trip they’ve always dreamed of––death snatches them before they get a chance, or illness cripples them, or life’s everyday busyness burdens them until the dream just slips them by. I didn’t want that to happen to my dad.

So last week I took him on the Canadian fly-in fishing adventure that, for his entire life, he’s dreamed of going on “someday.” Fact is, there’s not a fishing lodge in Ontario my dad hasn’t read about; for decades he’s pored over brochures, preparing for the day he would climb into a rickety old floatplane and fly away into the Canadian wilderness.

Now, having just spent a week at KaBeeLo Lodge’s Bear Paw Lake outpost camp, he can honestly say the dreams didn’t do the experience justice … but not for the reasons you’d anticipate.

Sure, we caught tons of fish. Every day we’d have fishing streaks so hot you’d swear we were making it up––our jigs couldn’t sink 10 feet to the bottom of the lake before a fish would gobble them up. I had a 20-inch walleye bite a plain hook I left dangling six inches in the water as I grabbed for a new minnow. There were such feeding frenzies, one time a walleye bit me off, so I tied on a new jig and caught the same walleye 60 seconds later––and recovered my original Northland Fire-Ball Jig in its mouth!

And sure we caught big fish. Walleyes over 8 pounds and pike pushing 45 inches––the biggest of both species we’ve ever landed.

But that, to a degree, was anticipated. I figured Dad had waited his whole life for this trip, so I better make sure I took him to the best dang fly-in I could afford. I asked around, and KaBeeLo came strongly recommended to me by two friends of mine who know a thing or two about world-class fishing: Ron Schara and Bill Sherck.

And so, we sort of expected fishing to be phenomenal, even in September. What we didn’t expect, and simply couldn’t have anticipated, was to feel so close to the heavens. The sky we fished under was breathtaking and bold. And incredibly close.

 

 

That far north, fall days make you feel you can touch the sky. The clouds were so low they covered the lake in a retractable roof. We were tucked inside our own little snow-globe, illuminated every night by the moon. The full moon cast light to let us see our midnight-walleyes just well enough to unhook them and toss them back into the black waters of Bear Paw.

 

The nightly ritual––fast and furious fishing action under the moon––was new to us, but not to the walleyes, or to the fishermen before us. This is, in fact, KaBeeLo’s 40th year of existence. But last year, as the raging flames of a historically uncontrollable wildfire encircled owners Harald and Ann Lohn and torched their family’s Ontario fly-in fishing outpost camps––it looked like that 40th anniversary might not arrive.

Mother Nature nearly wiped many of the outpost camps at KaBeeLo Lodge off the map.

The fires, the worst to ravage Ontario’s vulnerable wilderness in 50 years, laid siege to over a million acres last summer. Two of KaBeeLo’s 13 outpost camps burnt to the ground, another half dozen were shut down with fishing parties getting evacuated for safety.

The Lohns refused to leave; instead the couple transformed their base lodge into command central for 100 firefighters and worked 20 hours a day to provide food and housing for those risking their lives to squelch the flames.

The Lohns survived. And so, the 40th anniversary did arrive.

“Running the lodge is a way of life,” Harald said. “You have to embrace all aspects of the entire operation.”

Harald’s cousin opened KaBeeLo in 1972, running it for a decade before selling it to Ann and Harald, who in a previous life ran the welfare system for the state of Maryland. Today, Harald and Ann can’t image life without KaBeeLo, and neither can their children, who grew up at the lodge and lived there into their early 20s. Their son remains heavily involved with the lodge today; watching his family’s float planes as a teenager inspired him to pursue a career in aviation.

In the end, it was aviators who helped save KaBeeLo last year when flames tried to claim the now-famous fly-in. A host of planes, as well as 17 helicopters, dumped millions of gallons of water on Ontario’s burning woods, squelching the flames and saving the dream––not only for Harald and Ann, but for folks like my dad.

“You know, Tony,” Dad told me as we approached the U.S. border on the car ride home from KaBeeLo. “I’m going to be dreaming about this trip for a long time." 

Good, Dad. That’s the point. 

The website for KaBeeLo Lodge is www.kabeelo.com. Call 1-800-233-2952 or email info@kabeelo.com for more information.

 

At top:  Dad likes to end each fishing outing with a catch. One night, after an hour of non-stop action, we ended our fishing with this beauty.

Above:  In 7 days, my dad and I went through 70 dozen minnows (my calculator says that's 840). Northland Fire-Ball Jigs and Northland Thumper Jigs were our go-to presentations for both walleye and pike.

Sure, we got lots of great fish photos on the trip, but to me it is the scenery pictures--like this photo of us riding into the sunset--that bring me back to that special time at KaBeeLo Lodge.

 

  

 

 

 

Normally you dream about sunrises like this, but at KaBeeLo, you wake up, step out onto your deck, and take pictures of 'em.

One year ago––as the raging flames of a historically uncontrollable wildfire encircled Harald and Ann Lohn and torched their family’s Ontario fly-in fishing outpost camps––it looked like today might not arrive. Mother Nature nearly wiped many of the outpost camps at KaBeeLo Lodge off the map.

The fires, the worst to ravage Ontario’s vulnerable wilderness in 50 years, laid siege to 1.6 million acres last summer. Two of KaBeeLo’s 13 outpost camps burnt to the ground, another half dozen were shut down with fishing parties getting evacuated for safety.
 

The Lohns refused to leave; instead the couple transformed their base lodge into command central for 100 firefighters and worked 20 hours a day to provide food and housing for those risking their lives to squelch the flames.

The Lohns survived. And so today did arrive: the 40th anniversary of the Lohn family running KaBeeLo Lodge.

“Running the lodge is a way of life,” Harald said. “You have to embrace all aspects of the entire operation.”

 

Harald’s cousin opened KaBeeLo in 1972, running it for a decade before selling it to Ann and Harald, who in a previous life ran the welfare system for the state of Maryland. Today, Harald and Ann can’t image life without KaBeeLo, and neither can their children, who grew up at the lodge and lived there into their young 20s. Their son remains heavily involved with the lodge today; watching his family’s float planes as a teenager inspired him to pursue a career in aviation.

And in the end, it was aviators who helped save KaBeeLo last year when flames tried to claim the now-famous fly-in. A host of planes, as well as 17 helicopters, dumped a staggering 28 million gallons of water on Ontario’s burning woods.
 

 
The images are unforgettable, and the Lohns’ dream––however unlikely––remains alive: 40 years … and counting.
 

Kabeelo Lodge survived the fires to maintain its reputation as one of Canada's finest fly-in lodges. "Kabeelo gets in your blood," says outdoor TV personality Bill Sherck, who makes an annual trip to Kabeelo with his dad. "Harald and Ann are amazing, and Kabeelo is one special place."