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Watson's Kaby Lodge 2012 Newsletter
Hello and Happy New Year from Watson’s Kaby Lodge. The 2011 season has come to an end and we are really looking forward to our 2012 season along with all of our guests and friends.
The 2011 season was a good one, with fishing being much easier than 2010, as our water levels were more in their normal range so people did not have to go far to catch some phenomenal fish! It is wonderful for Tom and I to hear that the quality of our fishery on Kabinakagami Lake is improving each year and the term “walleye with shoulders” was used on a regular basis. The biggest walleye of the year, a very chunky 30 ½ incher, was caught by Paul Eggleton of Howell Michigan, the biggest pike was a 46 plus incher caught by Craig Shane of Akron, Ohio , the biggest perch was caught by Chuck Yates of Alma Michigan and the largest Whitefish caught by a guest was a 19 ½ incher caught by Cody Yates, a 13 year old guest from Alma, Michigan. Somehow, it seems as if Cody is mentioned in each newsletter that we send out. He is truly turning into one of our future fishing stars and who knows maybe someday we will see him on Wild TV with his own fishing and outdoor show! We had many new guests come to visit us at Kaby this year, and with all the kids coming to fish, everyone of them lived up to our “most important rule for kids” at camp and definitely out-fished all the adults in their parties! There were lots of new names on our wall of fame in the 2011 season! Way to go! Brady Fruge is one of those new guests and he is this year’s winner of our website story entry! Congratulations Brady and we look forward to seeing you and all of your family in 2012 when you select your winning jacket and hat! As you all know, Craig our head chef is an avid fisherman and along with Caleb our 2nd chef and Adam our dockhand, he caught and smoked more fresh whitefish than any other year! Thanks for sharing your catch with us Craig and we look forward to more tasty morsels on the salad bar in 2012! Congratulations to all of our guests that made the wall of fame this year and we look forward to seeing many of the same names as well as many new ones on the board for 2012!
When we arrived at the lodge on the 10th of May, we were very happy to see that water levels were right where they should be for spring time and when we left this fall, things were sitting at normal levels so with the promise of lots of snow this winter, things look good for opening in 2012. Isn’t it funny how when we are at home we hope for minimal snowfall, but with regards to the lodge we hope for HUGE snowfalls! I guess it’s because we don’t have to shovel it! We look forward to another great fishing season for this coming year, and think the quality of our fishery will must keep improving. At this point in time, we are not anticipating any changes to the 2012 Fishing Regulations regarding allowable limits and sizes.
We will finally have the new license issuing system in place for 2012 and are very excited! It will now be possible for all of our guests to purchase their Ontario Outdoor Cards as well as their Fishing Licenses on line prior to coming to the lodge which will definitely save time upon arrival, or you can still purchase both items through the POS (Point of Sale) System that will be set up for this season. Due to the fact that licenses and cards are now available on line, we have decided that they will no longer be included in the cost of your packages, as this will save confusion with regards to the ability to purchase prior to your arrival. We hope this does not confuse or discourage our guests from still continuing to select the Conservation Fishing License that helps maintain our great fishery on the lake. We want to remind everyone that some of you should be receiving a form in the mail that deals with your Non-Resident Ontario Outdoor Card. For those of you that have been coming since 2009, these cards are due for renewal as they are valid for a 3 year period and the 2009 cards will expire at the end of the 2011 year. As I stated previously, you will have the choice of renewing on line to save time or waiting until you get to the lodge.
Tom and I are happy to see that all of our guests, both young and old enjoyed the fact that all of our boats are being operated with the 20HP 4 stroke electric start motors, along with fish finders. We had great feedback from everyone and it has definitely confirmed that our investment in these new motors was a worthwhile one! Once we worked out the placement issues for seats and batteries, it seems as if the motors are making for a more enjoyable and certainly easier to use experience. We are now looking at trying to come up with a new style of boat for the lodge and did fly in a Legend boat on a trial basis to see what we thought. We had a few of our guests try this boat, along with Tom and I, but unfortunately we decided the boat was not as comfortable now did it perform to the same level as the Misty Rivers we now use, so back to the drawing board. Hopefully over the next 2 to 3 years we will be replacing our old boats with new, when we find the style that will work for us on the big lake. Thanks to everyone for all of your support and feedback regarding both the new motors and boat. For those of you that were up at the lodge in the latter part of the season, we are sure you will have noticed the improvements to our fish cleaning house, in the completion of the new siding and the many new fish cleaning boards available for your use. We are also happy to say that we continually improve the cabins and are in the process of installing new PEX water lines in system which makes opening and closing much easier for Tom and Michel’s brother Robert. We will continue to offer improvements each year to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of our guest during their stays with us at Kaby. If there are any suggestions you may have, please let us know as we strive to make your trip to your “home away from home” more enjoyable. We are also pleased to let you all know that our water treatment plant is doing its job, and Public Health is happy to see all of our clear water tests each month! As for our kitchen and cleaning areas, we are thrilled to let you all know that we take great pride in making sure that these areas are always clean and spotless. Our thanks go out to Craig and Caleb, for their great job in the kitchen, and Megan, Tamara and Chrissy for their fantastic jobs in the cabins and dining room. Jester and Adam did a terrific job in maintaining the cleanliness of our fish cleaning house all season, and as we all know, in the heat of the summer that is not an easy thing to do! Well done guys!
We had a very successful black bear and moose hunt in 2011 as well. The biggest bear a whopping 475 pounder, was taken with a bow by Tom Hardecki of Brownstone, Michigan. We had our first successful woman bear hunter this year and Claudia Johnson of Ishpeming Michigan harvested a beautiful 175 pounder with her slug gun. Well done! All in all, 5 bears were shot with 4 successfully retrieved, so another great year of bear hunting! We had a total of 8 moose hunters this year and were able to successfully shoot and retrieve 3 moose total. Our first moose taken in the archery season was a big cow shot by Brandon Hines of Ashville Ohio on opening day. The first bull ever taken by a bow hunter at Kaby was a beauty. Mr. Len Thompson of Troutman, North Carolina successfully harvested a fabulous 38 incher that was tracked and found by our wonder dog Jasper! For those of you that have ever tried to go exploring in the bush, you will understand when we say without her we would have never found this bull! Mike Schuster of Maumee, Ohio, a first time big game hunter, successfully shot a cow moose up the Little Kaby River! Overall, our moose hunters saw many moose while hunting, but as for those of us that do hunt, not everyone is able to actually harvest a moose. All of our hunters were thrilled with their trips to Kaby and many of them have booked to return to us next season! Congratulations to all of you, both successful and unsuccessful, we hunted hard!
We attended a Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Convention in Sudbury in November, and met with some representatives of the Canadian Border Service Agency. We are happy to report that they are continuing to achieve a better relationship with tourists and visitors to Ontario and have made it possible for anyone to ask questions, report concerns or offer praise for a job well done. We were happy to hear that there were no real issues that came forth regarding any of our guests crossing the border this year, but do want to remind you all that if you have any concerns regarding border crossing issues, you should contact the border office that the problem arose at and file a report. The Border Service Officers must respond to any concerns they receive on paper, and are more than happy to do so to ensure that all visitors to Ontario have a positive experience at our border. For any of our guests that may have received any charge surrounding a DUI, please contact the Ontario Border Services Agency that you plan to cross at to start the paperwork procedure PRIOR to your planned crossing. This will ensure that there will be no surprises upon your arrival at the border. If you have any questions regarding this process, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be more than happy to steer you in the right direction.
You will notice again, a slight increase in the cost of your packages for 2012, With the rising cost of fuel as well as all of our other supplies, it was necessary to add a small increase to this year’s rates. Flying will continue to be done with Watson’s Skyways and we know they will continue to provide the excellent service we have all come to rely on. If you have not already done so, we want to remind all of our guests to be sure they have applied for the HST refund that they are eligible for. If you have any questions as to the process, please give us a call at the office and we will be more than happy to walk you through the process.
Once again, we heard many wonderful comments regarding the level of service our guests have come to expect while they are with us. We are pleased to let you all know that Craig will be returning as Head Chef for his 11th year, as well as both Jester and Adam on the docks for their 3rd year. Megan, Tamara and Chrissy all wish to return to us as well, as long as school does not interfere, so we are pleased to say that there will be many familiar faces for you to see in 2012, and we all know there will be some great new stories that will be shared, especially from Craig! Tom and I are very fortunate to have so many great people working with us and are already looking forward to another terrific year with all of them!
Mom and Dad LeFeuvre, Michel’s parents are well and had a great trip to Kaby this year along with their oldest Great Granddaughter Ellah and Michel’s cousin Lorry. They are really looking forward to another winter in the New Port Richey area in Florida and we hope to be able to join them for a few weeks in February. Our daughter Bre and her husband Brian are now the proud owners of a new farm in the Orillia Ontario area where our winter home is located, and we are pleased to see all of the children Ellah 7 1/2, Anica 6, Vaughn 4 and Cassius 2 ½ are settling into their new farm life with ease. They are happily raising some egg laying chickens and will have ponies and horses on the farm in the spring. Our son Jess and his wife Hayley have bought our farm from us and will continue to operate it as both a crop farm and livestock farm. Hayley is hoping for goats! Good luck. Jess and Hayley were able to get up to Kaby this year along with our new family member, Karen Ayotte Hayley’s mother. We think we have another northern convert. Another new family member, Briar, their Brittany Spaniel pup also came along as was able to experience all the fun things dogs can do at Kaby.
We have built our new house on the existing farm property and will continue to have the best of both worlds to enjoy. Michel’s younger brother Robert and his wife Sheila came to help us open up the lodge again last season and without their assistance and knowledge of our cabins, it would be a much more difficult job for us to do. They also came back for a visit in August and we all had a wonderful time fishing and enjoying each other’s company when we did not have to crawl around in the mud. For those of who know Robert, please hold him in your thoughts and prayers as he battles cancer this year. We know he is strong, but believe that he can use all the help he can get to win this battle. Michel’s older brother Randy and his wife Donna also came up for a visit this year along with our cousins Jennifer and Dale. Rand and Donna are like pros on the lake now and we really enjoyed showing Jen and Dale what we get to live each day. They were amazed. Dale caught a beautiful 26 ½ inch walleye and nearly fell out of the boat landing it! What great memories! We are very blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives and the fact that we get to share Kaby with them is wonderful.
Each year brings both good memories and sad times, and on July 16th, we faced a bit of both when we celebrated the memorial service of Mom and Dad Watson at Pine Portage. A beautiful memorial stone and plaque with a poem written by the family has been erected on the hill at Pine and a service to honour both Mom and Dad was shared by many family and good friends. We will miss them both dearly but know that they will live on in our memories, and we know their spirits will continue to shine down on all of us on Kaby Lake. It also brings us great sadness to mention the passing of a dear friend and long time guest at Kaby, Mr. Glen Erickson. We have erected an inukshuuk in his honour and our hearts go out to his family. We will miss our early morning talks. For those of you going through tough times, please know that we hold you all in our thoughts and look forward to the day when we will all meet again.
On a cheerier note we were very pleased to see many of our long time guests returning to Kaby after missing a few years because of the current economic times. We also had a number of new guests this year who were able to experience what Kaby Lake has to offer in the great fishing and the true beauty of Northern Ontario. Thank you to all the new and familiar faces and we hope to see you again in 2012.
Please be sure to check out the website for updates and changes as you may see some familiar faces. We are attaching the 2012 Sports Show schedule, so please be sure to come down and say hello if we are in your neck of the woods. We would love to see you all!
While winter prepares to put its tight grip on the north, we are already looking forward to sharing another great season with great anticipation and hope to see you all there! LET’S GO FISHING!
Your northern friends,
Tom and Michel
Jasper and Rowen
SPORTS SHOW SCHEDULE 2012
Ultimate Fishing Show - Detroit
Suburban Collection Showplace
Novi, Michigan
January 12th to 15th
Booth #1300
Cincinnati Boat Sport and Travel Show
Duke Energy Convention Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
January 20th to 22
Booth #106
The Huntin Time Expo
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Delta Plex Arena
January 27th to the 29th
Booth 301
Allegheny Sport Show
Monroeville Convention Center
Monroeville, Pa.
February 15th to 19th
Booth #1118
Bass Pro Shops
Spring Fishing Classics
Great Lakes Outlet Mall
Auburn hills, Michigan
February 24th to the 26th
March 3rd to the 5th
and
Bass Pro Shops
Spring Fishing Classics
Perrysburg, Ohio
March 11th to the 13th
Fort Wayne Outdoor Sports Lake & Cabin Show
Allen County Memorial Museum
Fort Wayne, Indiana
March 16th to 18th
Booth #707
Traverse City Hunting & Fishing Expo
Howe Civic Center
Traverse City, Michigan
March 23rd to the 25th
Booth 317
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