Big Pike

By: Steve Cegielski, All-Canada Show, Operations Manager

My neighbor, Randy Theobold travels to Canada each year in pursuit of the elusive 50" pike. But as a twist this year Randy took along his 15 year old daughter, Morgan. What an experience to share with his daughter. We need more Dad's to share their passion with young adults....I believe Morgan's hooked for life now. She shared some thoughts about the trip....her memories.

Not many 15 year old girls would be willing to go on a six day fishing trip with their Dad. Well, I’m the exception. I got the opportunity to go on my first fishing trip ever, in Canada, with my Dad this summer and I had the best time of my life. My Dad has come back from Wollaston Lake Lodge year after year now, always excited about what had happened in the week that he was there. And now I know why. It was such a neat experience for me. I went on a float plane for the first time in my life and it was so cool! I also saw (and caught) the biggest fish I have ever seen. I loved our guide, Brian. He was so patient and he knew everything there was to know about Wollaston Lake, which is around 800 square miles!! He always made me laugh, made the best fish during shore lunch, and he always had cookies in the boat for me!
It could be debatable which day was my favorite. The first day I caught my biggest fish which was a 43 inch pike. But the last day was by far the best. We drove an hour and a half in a boat to a fishing spot, which is a long time, but totally worth it. We caught 187 pike that day and about 30 of the fish were over 35 inches! That is the most pike our guide has ever gotten in his boat in one day after working there for about 15 years. When we were fishing we noticed a big rock in the middle of the bay and we thought it would be funny to let me fish off of it. Brian told me that if I caught a fish, he would name it Morgan Rock. I did! Just a little guy, but he still counted! We caught 418 northern in 4 days!!
If you ever get a chance to go to Saskatchewan, I highly recommend it. I had an amazing time in Northern Saskatchewan and I am already begging to go back!

Winner Visits Saskatchewan

Joel Prunty - media manager, All-Canada Show - Each year, in conjunction with our show circuit, we award Canadian adventures to lucky winners. This past year we partnered with Tourism Saskatchewan, Sportsman’s Lodge on the Churchill River and The Score 670AM in Chicago partnered with the All-Canada Show to offer an incredible Saskatchewan Adventure.

The vacation included roundtrip airfare from Chicago, lodging, meals maid service plus guided fishing and was won by Jim Vyhanek. Jim took the trip with his son and recently returned forwarding several pictures…he also indicated they had a fantastic time.

A big thank you to Tourism Saskatchewan, Ruffo Schindler (pictured in center) at Sportsman’s Lodge and 670 The Score!

Even Lodge Owners Fish

Joel Prunty – media manager, All-Canada Show – Sometimes even lodge owners get to fish. Our good friend and lodge owner Bill Pryndik send us a photo from a recent adventure with his sister Bev. Bill owns Golden Hook Camp on Gull Rock Lake near Red Lake, Ontario.

Bill is also a private pilot and owns his own plane, so he Bev and her grandson took some time off recently to do a little walleye fishing. Bill said the fishing was great and they saved enough to eat a hearty shore lunch.

Each spring, on our annual tour of Northwest Ontario, Bill opens his door (and his boat) to host us for a few days. Then we are fishing for pike and several of us have caught trophies with Bill as our guide.

Glad to hear you are finding time to fish Bill, enjoy it while it lasts! Joel

Mosquitoe Relief

By: Steve Cegielski, All-Canada Show
Mosquitoes….the one creature I can live without. It’s amazing how much impact such a small insect can have any outdoor activity especially hunting and fishing in Canada. We’ve all been pestered by mosquitoes one time or another and in the past we’ve only had a few options to eradicate the pesky insect. I personally dislike any spray-on repellent because of the residue that it leaves behind, not to mention the aroma that spooks big game. My only remedy was to stay in the breeze or retreat indoors during periods of intense mosquitos’ activity.

Thanks to a relatively new product called ThermaCELL swatting mosquitoes while
Filleting fish, relaxing by the fire, fishing off the dock, and camping are only a distant memory. I’m hooked on the ThermaCELL as a personal mosquito repellent without the negative effects of traditional sprays. I highly recommend all outdoors enthusiasts to check out Cabela’s to purchase their own ThermaCELL.

Under intense testing the ThermaCELL unit rated off the charts in my opinion. My first test was under an extreme attack from mosquitoes while turkey hunting over Memorial Day weekend. About 10am Saturday morning the mosquito attack became overwhelming. I had two choices, leave or give the ThermaCELL a test under unfair conditions. I must admit when I pulled the ThermaCELL from the backpack I had my doubts. I remember thinking we only have a few minutes or our escape back to the truck will be on a dead run. My hunting partner Alex Pelishek was getting eaten alive. I fired up the ThermaCELL and placed it against the tree we were leaning and with 5 minutes it was eerily quite. The buzzing was gone. The true testament was when I watched Alex do the famous head bob and struggling to keep his eye lids open from our 3:30am wake-up call. Nobody can sleep while a thousand blood sucking insects gnaw at every inch of exposed skin.

I’ve since tested the ThermaCELL under normal situations – deck, fishing, and camping all with outstanding results. You’ll see a mosquito enter the ThemaCELL zone and immediately retreat-awesome.

I intend to put it to the test on fishing trips to Canada this year. I’m curious about black flies, and other biting insects.

I wish I would have had this product while spring black bear hunting in Manitoba a few years back. I think my hearing was damaged by the buzzing sound I dealt with that week. The sound could drive you crazy.

Always eager to hear how you’ve used your ThermaCELL and applications that worked or didn’t work out. One question left to answer….what effect does the slight odor of the warm repellent pad have on big game like deer, bear, moose etc. Drop me a quick email…if you’ve used in hunting applications.

Bottom line the ThermaCELL allows me to enjoy the outdoors longer which means more chances to catch that trophy fish or bag that big game trophy. It has changed the way I think about outdoor activities forever.

2011 Show ciruit changes

Joel Prunty, media manager, All-Canada Show - For those of you in All-Canada Show markets, be sure to double check the dates and location of the show near you. Each year we make adjustments to the schedule and this year is no exception.

Our Minneapolis show has new dates Feb 18-20 and a new location on the north side of Minneapolis at the Earle Brown Heritage Center near the intersection of Interstate 694 and 94. This well known location offers easy access and free parking.

Dallas, Texas also has new dates of Feb 25-27 and a new location in Irving TX at the brand new Irving Convention Center. This location puts us in the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. This state of the art facility is perfectly suited for the needs of this show.

Sioux Falls is now on a weekend, Super Bowl weekend, but not over the Super Bowl. The show is Thursday, Friday and Saturday…NO SUNDAY. The new weekend date will allow more people to attend from a larger area.

Stay tuned for any more changes that may occur before showtime!

New Gadgets

Joel Prunty, media manager, All-Canada Show – I like gadgets. In fact I wish I could afford more of them. Some of my personal favorites are my key chain knife sharpener, an infrared pocket thermometer for measuring fish fry oil at shore lunch and of course my GPS.

This year I will be testing a new gadget…a Rapala cordless electric fillet knife. For me it doesn’t pay to purchase an electric fillet knife because there aren’t any electrical outlets at shore lunch in the Canadian wilderness. In fact, there are not electric outlets in the fish house of any outpost cabins either.

The first week of August I head on my first Canada adventure of the year to Uchi Lake Lodge, a fly-in American plan camp north of Sioux Lookout, Ontario. This trip will be unguided, so I will be doing the fish filleting and can hardly wait to break in the newest gadget.

I have never used an electric fillet knife of any kind, so this will be an experiment. The way I look at this…the faster I can fillet a walleye the quicker I can get to eating it! I’ll keep you posted.

Fabulous Trip to Cedar Point Lodge in Ontario, Canada

Kids hanging out at campfire on 4th of July at Cedar Point Lodge.

By: Jennifer Young, All-Canada Show owner

I will be writing a full feature article for the 2011 All-Canada Adventures magazine. You can pick up a magazine at any one of the shows in 2011. Click here for the 2011 All-Canada Show circuit.

Our trip to Canada was so much fun. There is so much to do and so much to see in Nothern Ontario, and Cedar Point Lodge caters to families.

They have a sand beach with a raft for the kids to swim to as well as a paddle boat. Eagle Lake offers great fishing for walleyes, northern pike, muskies, and lake trout. We focused on the walleys and pike, and with four kids on the trip 13 and under hitting the honey holes was lots of fun. We all enjoyed the boat rides as well. I prefer to sit in the front of the boat with the wind on my face and nature all around.

We had the American Plan which includes all food, license, boat, motor, gas, and guide.

Click here to check out the Cedar Point Lodge website. Check out the article that I wrote 8 years ago.

We are all talking about our return trip to Northwest Ontario and planning the next adventure.

Black Bear Tune-up

By: Steve Cegielski, Operations Manager, All-Canada Show
With Black Bear season about a month away from gearing up in Canada, I think it's time to dust off the rifle or tune the bow. Never to early to begin preparing for a quality Black Bear hunt north of the border.

A few years back I had a chance to hunt with Pine Acres Bear Camp out of Vermillion Bay, Ontario. Traveling back and forth from our baited stand locations with the owner of Pine Acres Bear Camp, Chris Lavoie, gave me a chance to pick a black bear experts brain on the bear. We discussed everything from hunting strategy to a bears life cycle. Here's some bear facts that I learned during our daily truck ride to and from the hunting grounds helped give me a better understanding of black bear habits and tendencies.
Black bears mating season occurs in June, and cubs are born in the den during the month of February. Sows have a gestations period of roughly 8 months before giving birth from 1 to 3 cubs. If you see cubs with a sow in August they are roughly 6 months of age. The sow will winter the following winter with the cubs before chasing them off in June before mating season at 18months of age and about 100lbs.
It’s difficult to tell the sex of adult bears from a distance, but some minute differences include; skull size, and body shape.

A black bear can live in excess of 25yrs.

Most people think black bears have a poor sense of sight, but in reality they have average eyesight. Sight alone won’t spook a bear, two senses must be peaked before they panic – sight and human odor will surely push the black bear into cover in a hurry.

I'm not heading north this year for bear season, but I'll be thinking about all the hunters living their dream hunt this fall. Shoot straight and then send me your story. If you haven't planned that awesome Black Bear hunt yet, check out http://www.allcanada.com/ to book that trip of a lifetime.

Winner Enjoys Trip

Joel Prunty, All-Canada Show media manager - In each show market we partner with a radio station and give away a Canadian fishing trip. In Green Bay WI we partnered with 107.5 The Fan and the winner was Jason Seefeldt and he brought his father with him last week. Jason managed to land a very nice northern pike on the trip and they loved their stay at Whitefish Bay Camp on Lake of the Woods Ontario. CONGRATULATIONS Jason!

Social Fishing…

By Rodney Schlafer Show Director, All-Canada Show - Social Media is taking Canadian Lodges by storm. Everyday I see more and more lodges are adding twitter, facebook and blogs to their sites. Here are some of the lodges links to their pages:
Face Book

All-Canada Show
Whitefish Bay Camps -
Hatchet Lake Lodge
Black Bear Island Lodge
Patricia Regional Tourist Council
Pine Sunset
Talston Bay
Wilderness Air
Bolton Lake
Kashabowie Outposts
Canoe Canada Outfitters
Clarks Camps
Fireside Lodge
Nungesser Lake Lodge
Andy Myers Lodge
Aikens Lake Lodge
Woman River Lodge
Mattice Lake Outfitters
Nueltin Lake Lodge

If you have a favorite lodge facebook page add it to the comments I would like to follow them on Facebook.