Caribou Falls Landing

May was a warm weather month where the ice melted by May 9 which is a normal ice out week for us here on the English River. We had bear hunters at Dufault’s just days after all the ice had melted on the river. Look at the pictures of their bears! They also took advantage of the northern fishing. The northern were still very much in the shallows with the water temp around 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

In preparation to the fishing season, Chris and Amber ordered 26 NEW Mercury motors for all the fishing boats at our all-inclusive lodges. The motors were all delivered and now it was time to strap these on 26 boats. Backhoes, excavator and lots of trucks, trailers, and man power made this happen in 1 day! Great work team!! This will ensure that everyone will enjoy their fishing trips and not have to worry about any equipment breakdowns and every one can spend their fishing trip fishing!!

Fishermen at Caribou Falls Landing had dynamite fishing-literally the reports kept coming in that this was by far the best fishing year they have ever had! The amount of fish that they were catching was absolutely silly but kept everyone smiling. Rob caught a 38” laker on the river!!! That was GINORMOUS-we are still awaiting to see the picture!

Caribou fishermen registered 54 pike measuring 38” and over, which 22 of those were 40” +. Wyatt caught the largest pike at a lengthy 43.5”. The walleyes trophy count was 16 caught in May with the largest being caught by Scott at 29.5”. For the bass there was 25 registered bass with a 20.5” taking the cake for the largest in May.

Kettle Falls

We have been making quite a few updates to Kettle Falls-some of the larger being the new walkways that are so solid and sturdy-they make it easy to access much of the grounds at Kettle. The other is the large tables out on the main deck-it’s great to come and visit with your friends, or have a meal/drink outside enjoying the view and the fresh air.

75 TROPHY fish registered in the month of May 2023!!! What a way to start the fishing season off at Kettle Falls Lodge!! The northern fishing was superb this month. Emily caught 2 trophy northerns-she wrangled in a 44.5” pike and ALSO a 40.5” pike!! Another large river beast was horsed in by Jerry and his pike came in measuring at 41.75”. Barry, Jerry’s brother, was one of the Trophy Waters winners for 2022 with his 46” northern pike! Troy, who also had a 46” northern in 2022, registered a 20” smallmouth bass. Where did this fisherman catch this big bass? By the upper lip! The walleye list was quite impressive as well with Joey’s 30” and Matt’s 31” trophy walleyes. Cannot wait to see what June brings!

Eat, sleep, fish, repeat at One Man

Guests in May fished hard and their efforts paid off!! We had our very seasoned group in from Nebraska, Kurt and his family/friends, fished their traditional spring fishing hot spots-and WOW! The fish were hitting just about any bait that they were throwing! The group caught 13 trophies-walleyes (26, 29), bass (18, 19.75, 18.5, 18.75), and pike (43.5, 42, 40, 40.25)! Russ even caught a 38” musky-which musky are not usually found in our section of the English River but there are some out there where we might have 5-10 being caught each year. Check out their pictures from their crew!

Wally from one of our groups caught a 42” + 43” pike-those are some nice fish!! Wally also caught a 21” bass that was like a football as it was so round!

3 Fly in Remote Cabins

Fishermen were sure happy to be back in at our remote fly in cabins-Trapline, Rex and Moosehorn! We had some wonderful return guests that feel our nestled cabins in the woods are their home away from home and they were pleased as punch!

At Trapline Lake, Julie again 2 years in a row came out with a ringer of a walleye at 27” while her son Joe caught a 28” and this set a little competition amongst their fishing crew!

The next crew at Trapline, Kye registered a 39” northern-look at his beast!!!

The Rex Lake and Moosehorn Lake guests at both cabins have reported that you can see the smallmouth bass nests in the shallows. The bass are getting ready to spawn. Richard hooked into a football bass at Rex Lake and got himself a trophy hat! ~ Whoot whoot! We also had another group at Rex say the fishing was amazing getting 8 smallmouth bass 18” and over! Rex Lake also has some big northern registered over 38”!

We are super excited for the fishing season! Only a few weeks to go! May 20th is walleye opener (which is always the 3rd Saturday of May) and the season for northern pike and smallmouth bass does not close at any point through the year. The lake trout season is closed from October 1 to January 1 every year as they spawn later in the year than other fish species.

At Caribou, we are putting in a new kitchen, flooring and paint in one of the rental cabins. Check out the progress!

Here is a picture of Amber and Lisa going across on the side by side to One Man bringing in groceries.

We will be contacting everyone who is flying into a lodge or requiring ground transportation to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed!

Again, please check your passports expiry dates and that everything is correct to ensure you are able to cross the border.

If you have any questions about your fishing trip or future trips, please contact us.

Fishermen fishing this summer with us: CHECK YOUR PASSPORT EXPIRY DATES. We want to see you this summer!!! Ensure that you can come fishing this summer with a quick look at your passports!

Chris loves to be able to fly in the winter time as you can get around so easily. Check out the scenery from up above! Gorgeous winter views!! This plane here is fully equipped with skis so he can land on the snow.

Lake trout for supper! Quick family recipe: put fresh trout fillets on a greased baking dish/pan, add lemon wedge, sliced onion, seasonings (we love Old Bay) and sliced tomato. For those who like ketchup you can even put a little squeeze on that. Bake it at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes until fillets just start to shrink-your fish is cooked!

Chris started off the month in Iowa doing a sport show and went straight to Chicago to meet up with Amber and Lisa, the new manager of Kettle Falls. We were able to visit with lots of memorable guests and met a lot of new fishermen as well. We cannot wait for this upcoming summer!

Once back from Chicago, it was getting organized so we could bring snowmobile sleighs full with our stock of supplies into the remote camps. What a great few days it was-look at the blue skies in the picture-pretty deceiving when the temperature was -30C.

Happy New Year!! To bring in the New Year why not go fishing? Chris caught this lake trout when he was out working on camps…hard work, eh? No, Chris and Jonny went cutting firewood for the remote (outpost) camps in preparation for the summer. After being out on trails and snowmobiles, it’s nice to stop and make a fire to warm up your lunch. Lots of times with the frigid temperatures sandwiches get so solid by lunchtime you could break a tooth. The fire is nice to warm up next to and heat/thaw your lunch!

We were able to do some of our sport shows in January…we have been doing the Kansas City sport show for decades and the show was cancelled due to loss of venue and St Paul was cancelled as well. We went to Milwaukee, WI and it was great to be back in the saddle again after not doing any sport shows since prior to Covid.