Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Stone Sheep Hunt


By: Steve Cegielski, Operation Manager
Josh Meissner, my brother-in-law’s father, Jerry Meissner, experienced an awesome adventure this fall in British Columbia. He chased Stone Sheep in the mountains for a week. I received the following email from my brother-in-law describing the hunt. Take a look at that picture, that’s where I want to be some day.

Hi Steve

It was a horseback hunt with a lot more hiking and steep grueling mountains than he has ever been on before. He was glad the hunt ended on day 7, as he said his body had about enough. Elevation wasn't that high, maybe 6000 or so. Basically, flew to base camp, rode out (on
horseback) 3 hours to spike camp and hunted from there. They had chased this ram for 3 days, having bad luck the first two times - 1st time fog rolled in as they had closed the distance, and 2nd time a alone caribou went up the mountain right at the sheep and scared them off. 3rd time was a charm as they were heading up the drainage they had seen him in the night before.
They were only a half mile from where they left the horses when they stopped to shed some clothes. Just picked up their packs when Jerry spotted two rams coming right down the mountain at them, and it was him! A quick drop to the ground to get pack situated for a rest on an uphill shot was all it took. 160 yards seemed like 460 when the adrenalin's pumping and body is shaking, but two good hits put him down.

Josh, thanks for sending the story and pictures, always looking for a unique hunt opportunity in Canada to dream about.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Wylie Coyote

By Norm McCreight, show spokesperson - When I was a kid my favorite cartoon was the Roadrunner, that Wylie coyote was the epitome of a born looser. In those days a cartoon wasn't a cartoon unless it had at less three sticks of dynamite in it, there was no I love you, you love me. The coyote wasn't stupid, he just had bad luck. I may have liked watching coyotes then, but I sure hate them now.
This has got to be one of the worst years yet for those predators. Nature always take care of itself, this is something I always believed in. A good example of that is when they stopped the spring bear hunt on Ontario. Without that spring harvest some areas showed great increases in the population of the bear. As time went on the birth rate of the black bear slowed down to manageable sizes.
For some reason the coyote as well as wolf has grown to problem levels. Everybody that I have talked to has reported high levels of these two predators. When I was muzzle loading in southern Manitoba this October where we usually see at lease a 100 deer in our hunting area we saw none. they pretty well went nocturnal.
In remote areas where there is just forest or bush, packs of wolves have been sited chasing the deer. I know wolves go thru cycles but coyotes are managed thru nature a lot of time by contracting mange, a disease that can quickly make the coyote drop in numbers.
When in doubt back out. That is an expression that most hunters are familiar with specially when bow hunting and your shot is off the mark. Unfortunately an arrow may veer off coarse for reasons unknown and may hit the animal too far back, a killing shot, say to the liver, but it takes a little more time.
So instead of going after the animal an hour or so after the shot, the hunter will wait till morning to retrieve his animal. You don't want to keep pushing him further in the bush if you don't have to. Well one of my friends had this happen to him while hunting, the right thing to do was to back out till morning. Unfortunately when he pick up the trail of his deer it led to one remaining hoof, the wolves got to it at night and devoured it.
A friend of my buddy John shot a deer, a good shot at that, waited two hours to be sure, found his deer eaten by coyotes in that short space of time. so what do you do? Well the first thing you do is make sure you have two, not one, two good flashlights and extra batteries with you. Wait 45 minutes then go after the animal. Caution here is the key when walking thru the bush, at night it is dangerous. I can't emphasize that point enough!
When buying your flashlight don't get taken in by the brightness of the flashlight, I'd rather have a good light that last long then a super bright light that works for half an hour. I like using two six volt lantern type flashlights with a spare battery in my pack and a LED head lamp. Two years ago I bought a million powered light it lasted about half an hour it was a piece of.... junk, I'm being nice here.
In normal conditions always back out when in doubt but for this year and maybe next be prepared to adjust to the predator conditions.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Traveling Moose


By: All-Canada Show, Operations Manager Steve Cegielski
December at the All-Canada Show warehouse means preparing all the equipment for our travels across the Midwest US is near. Our Locked at Lac Seul display of two trophy bull moose is ready to go for another year.

The moose display made its debut at the 2005 All-Canada Show, and has been on tour ever since. To my best guess the moose have traveled over 30,000 miles crisscrossing the country.

Thousands of show quests have had the priviledge of admiring the amazing mount, but only a few have seen the transport method used to safely transport the 4,000lb mount.

The moose are securely mounted to the base using 1 inch threaded rod running down each leg. The base is created of 2” X 3” steel tubing, which has 4” V-groove steel wheels mounted every 24” of the 24 foot long base. The V-grove steel wheels ride on 1 ½” angle iron flipped upside down to create an upside down V. To ensure vibration didn’t wreck the mount I used anti-vibration pads to connect the track to the trailer floor.

The Locked a Lac Seul display is slowly pulled out of trailer on the track….as the display comes out a series of 4 wheels on each side drop down to create a trailer floor height position. If trailer is positioned on level ground the complete moose display can be removed from trailer by one person.

During travel the base is bolted to track to prevent jumping off track. Anti sway bracing on the rear quarters of each moose keeps the mount from twisting and flexing. Direct straping of the antlers to each side of the trailer helps ensure no movement of the mount. So far so good, looks like many more years to admire the magnificent mount.

Come check out Locked at Lac Seul for yourself, check out website http://www.allcanada.com/ for a show location and dates nearest you.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Canadian Whitetail Rut


Steve Cegielski, Operations Manager

Now with archery whitetail season open in Wisconsin I can’t help but think back to last years Ontario whitetail hunt. We hunted with Halleys Camp out of Minaki, On.

Tough hunt because of the weather. We arrived to mid-50’s and sunshine, it felt like a great weather for a late fall Canadian fishing trip. Well that balmy weather held up most of the week. And as you could imagine deer sightings were rare.

I hunted hard for 4 days before I was able to call this buck into sight. The bleat can brought him on a rope. Cabela’s was attempting to video the hunt, and the buck came the only dead zone for video – behind and over our right shoulder. No problem, I had to let the buck creap closer and closer until he made the video screen. Now the only problem was that he was less than 5 yards from the ladder stand. I wish I had my bow, but the .270 caliber had no problem reaching the animal!

Awesome hunt, maybe not the monster I was looking for, but considering the weather I was lucky to tag this buck.

Archery season has my full attention now, but just looking at the picture of that hunt gets me fired up to try another Ontario whitetail hunt in the near future. Check out the full story when you pick up your copy of Canada Adventure Magazine this winter at the All-Canada Show….free copy waiting at the front door.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Cigar adds to enjoyment


Joel Prunty, media manager – Part of a Canadian adventure for me is enjoying a good cigar. I’m talking hand-rolled and properly humidified.

Traveling to Canada you’d think…I should buy Cuban cigars. My advice, unless you visit a good tobacco store in a major city or the lodge you visit has a humidor – bring cigars with you.

Over the counter Cuban cigars in Canada are expensive and inferior to those from the Dominican Republic and Honduras available on websites like Thompsons, JR’s and Cigars International.

Shop around, my favorite cigar, Sancho Panza’s La Mancha is a double maduro (full-bodied) and varies in price on the websites I mentioned from $70 for a box of 20 to as low as $35. That’s a 50% difference.

On my trip this past summer a friend dropped 26 Partaga’s ($100 box) on us and we didn’t bring any home…I think my cousin Rod had four in one day. Enjoy.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Canadian Anchor


Steve Cegielski, operations manager - Normally walleye fishing means back tolling live bait rigs or hovering the boat over structure, while slow jigging. I’ve mastered the art of multi tasking while fishing. Keeping the boat in position while tying a jig, baiting the hook, jigging, or netting a fish, takes practice.

Well my last Canadian fishing trip included my young fishing partners, my boys. There is a limit to how much multi tasking can be done. I can handle my equipment and maneuver the boat, but now I needed to untangle lines, bait their hooks, and of course divide the snacks, so I had to call on an anchor to stay on the walleye’s.

Anchoring is usually not the best method, even thought it might seem to be the easiest method to stay over structure. You’re limited to only one exact location, while usually the boat is hovering over a larger area picking up the most active walleye.

Since we were on an Ontario Fly-In fishing trip weight was an issue. Problem solved with a basketball net and 25ft of 3/8 nylon rope. For under $6.00 dollars and even more importantly; under 1 pound I had an anchor that when filled with rocks would hold the boat even in heavy current.

First tie all the loops on one end together with a piece of the 3/8 inch rope. Fill the net with 3-4 medium size rocks and tie the top loops with the remaining rope.

Happy to say that anchor lasted the whole week of fishing and I passed it along to the next group.

Sometimes you have to comprised when walleye fishing to be successful.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Moose Bay Trading Updates


By:Steve Cegielski,All-Canada Show Operations Manager

Always looking for ways to improve the All-Canada Show, as the Operations Manager I’m in charge of building the new displays you see at the show. This year I’ve decided to concentrate on the Gift Shop.

Our display racks needed improvement from a traveling aspect to an appearance outlook. Our lure racks were very time consuming to set-up and teardown and our t-shirt displays were none existent.

15 sheets of BCX plywood later, we now have displays that should handle the rigors of 11 All-Canada Shows in 2010.

Brian, our gift shop manager, will be able to roll these crates in and out of his 20ft enclosed trailer and be ready for business in a few minutes. Don’t want to make life to easy for Brian, but he earned alittle break after all the hard work from last years shows.

Stop by the gift shop at the All-Canada Show next winter to check out the new racks and of course pick up some souvenirs and tackle for your next trip north of the border.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Moose Hunting News


The All-Canada Show is moose hunting with Cabela’s Television next week. We’re headed to Dogskin Lake Lodge in central Manitoba and it appears our timing could be perfect as things are beginning to cool down up north.

Speaking of moose…we just got word from Bob Extence at Rainbow Point Lodge in Perrault Falls, Ontario that one of their bow hunters bagged a monster 64” bull last week. That’s the moose of a lifetime. For more details visit Rainbow Points blog

Speaking of big moose – the photo here is of All-Canada staffer Rod Schlafer with his trophy Manitoba moose from last fall.

Happy Hunting!!

Monday, September 28, 2009

All-Canada Show E-Newsletter


Want to keep up-to-date on what’s happening with the All-Canada Show? Sign-up for our E-newsletter at www.allcanada.com. We just announced via our E-newsletter the All-Canada Show is adding shows in Dallas, TX and Sioux Falls, SD. How cool is that.

All-Canada also announced our new social media sides here on Blogger, YouTube and Twitter, Visit our www.allcanada for links.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Caribou Season


Steve Cegielski, operations manager – Caribou hunting is in full swing during the month of September. Quebec is the Caribou hunting meca of Canada, but a few years back I had the chance to travel to Northern Manitoba on a special Caribou hunt with Cabela’s TV.

We hunted at Nueltin Lodges, which is in extreme Northern Manitoba, so close you could boat up to Nunavut Territory. I had the chance to throw a rock into the waters of Nunavut, but we couldn’t cross the border because of license requirements.

Awesome hunt, at first you spend your time admiring the shed antlers scattered on every point and shoreline. Then we got down to some serious antler hunting of our own. We each tagged two caribou and camp as a whole had 100% success. If a successful hunting trip is what your after, caribou is your game….success ratios are high.

Even better than the hunting is the landscape…we were on the fringe of the tree line. One day we’d be in the timber and the next we’d be glassing endless miles of barren land. Barren land is a poor descriptive word because it leave you with a feeling of boring, but the barren land is beautiful especially in the fall. Now spending the winter there might be another story.

If you ever get the chance a trip to the barren land….treeless terrain is worth every penny. If fishing is your game make sure you take time away from the boat to hike the eskers to see the vastness of the land.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Live Bait - Crawlers



By: Steve Cegielski, Operations Manager
When it comes to live bait, minnows, crawlers, and leeches all have their place. Minnows are hard to keep alive, and don’t stay on the hook. Leeches can’t be taken across the Canadian border and are very expensive. So that leaves crawlers as the bait of choice for late summer Canadian fishing trips.

Of course each lakes fish tend to prefer one over the other, but usually crawlers will be the most consistent during late summer bite.

You can buy crawlers in large quanities (500 crawlers to a flat) in the states and transport at a low cost. A flat of crawlers cost about $50-60.00 dollars. You must use artificial bedding to transport across the border. Crawlers are easy to keep alive….cool damp environment is the key.

I’ll use whole crawlers to back troll using two hook crawler harnesses seems to work the best. Some guys will even enject the crawler with air to give buoyancy.

When it comes to jigging I prefer to cut crawlers in half and insert the hook into the crawler just like a twister tail. Let the remainder of the crawler dangle like a twister tail. I’ve found a whole crawler allows the walleye to short bite and steal the bait.

I once witnessed a guy caught 8 walleyes on the same half crawler…hard to keep crawler meat on the hook that long…..hungry walleyes.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Yukon Fishing Adventure



By: Jennifer Young, All-Canada Show President

Yukon Trip more than expected

My husband, Jeff, my sister, Cecilia and her husband, Matt and I flew to Wolf Lake Lodge in the Yukon this July.

We had so much fun. We learned how to fly fish for arctic grayling. We also fished for lake trout and northern pike (at the outpost May Lake). Check out the YouTube video. You will see the beautiful scenery. Feel the waves at your feet and the wind on your face.

The shorelunch is something that can’t be beat. Fresh cooked fish with all the fixins.

Come to the All-Canada Show (www.allcanadashow.com) in 11 cities in the Midwest US and read the full feature story in All-Canada Adventures magazine.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

High Water in Red Lake Ontario


Rod Schlafer, Show Director - Starting out this spring the weather has been nothing close to typical. In Northern Manitoba ice off was extremely late and some camps opened 3 weeks later than normal. And due to the continuous rain this some summer water levels are also approaching historical high levels. I was reading a blog by Viking Outpost and Hugh Carlson actually had a fish swim through his motor shed. Check out Viking Lodges blog for pictures and story.

In my talks with outfitters across Canada it seemed like summer weather never came and water temps never reached normal levels, making fishing better in most instances keeping fish in the shallows. In mid August I found most of the Walleye’s on the lake I was fishing in 4’ to 14’ of water. Not typical of an August bite where fish should be in 20’+.
The weather was so messed up I was actually fishing the first week in August and found myself in a May-Fly hatch. Go figure!

Wet weather also means low fire hazard. I never once heard of a fire ban this entire summer in Ontario or Manitoba…makes for nice shore lunches!

Check out the photo of a camp in Red Lake Ontario, he said water levels this summer where 3-4’ feet above normal, a 30 year high!

It is now the first week of September and I actually had someone say it has been the nicest week of the summer! Pretty soon the snow will start to blow and this summer and its miserable weather will be history.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Blue Walleye


Steve Cegielski, operations manager - While we were at Pipestone Outpost this summer we encountered unique walleyes. About 25% of the walleyes we caught that week had a distinct blue coloration, especially their dorsal fin and tail. Only one other time have I caught the so called “blue walleye.” At first the walleyes appear to be very dark, but once compared or laid side by side with the typical golden belly walleye the blue coloration stands out.

I’ve since researched the color phase walleye on Pipestone Outposts website. Check out this link to their website for some more inside info into the “blue walleye.” http://www.pfo.net/pfo_files/File/blue-walleye-article.pdf

With the sun angle just right they make for some awesome or should I say unique walleye photos. Some call it a prehistoric fish, I’m not sure that’s true, I believe it’s a genetic trait.

The article stated that the coloring is actually in the mucus of the skin of the walleye. I learned this first hand by cleaning some blue walleyes and the blue fish slim smeared blue all over my shoreboard. (fish cleaning table)

Curious if anyone else has caught the “blue walleye” any where else in Northwest Ontario? If so where and when?

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Kids in Canada


Steve Cegielski, All-Canada Show, operations manager - Back from our family trip to Pipestone Outpost. We flew 239 miles northeast of Emo, Ontario to enjoy a week at Kenoji Lake outpost. Mike and Renae have been long time All-Canada Show exhibitors, and it was my turn to write the family article in All-Canada Adventures for 2010.

My brother, his wife Kristine, and their two boys Blake and Riley joined my wife and our two boys Ben and Max on a trip that none of us will soon forget.

Great flight in the DeHavilland Otter float plane. We were worried that the young boy’s ages 5,6,7,8 years old would have a motion sickness issue, but no problem….they all fell asleep to the vibrations of the Otter.

Never to young to learn the art of walleye jigging and casting for pike…..we accomplished both. Maybe not in record speed, or endurance, but fishing ruled the week.

Now a veteran of “Kids in Canada” I have many tips and tricks to make the trip go smoothly.

Number one “safety”….lifejackets that fit and are comfortable are a must.

2. Travel to far end of lake right away in the morning and work your way back to camp.

3. Keep moving….no 3 hour jigging session over a lake hump….”boring dad”

4. Bring rubber boots...wet feet ends a perfectly good day on the water.

5 Most importantly….bring lots of snacks in the boat.

Take a kid fishing, you won’t be disappointed

Steve

Monday, August 31, 2009

All You Can Eat?


Joel Prunty, media manager – everyday I come into work and check out the Lodges of the Day on AllCanada.com. I do this to keep in tune with what’s happening in the camp business.
Not long ago, I was on Ogoki Frontier’s site – outpost operators out of Armstrong, Ontario – and noticed a banner that offered an August special “all you can eat blueberries”. It caught my attention because very few outpost operators offer food and blueberries are expensive.
Then I got it…and laughed out load. If you’ve ever been in the Canadian bush in August blueberries are everywhere…hence all you can eat.
I was reminded of Ogoki’ Frontier’s offer after viewing pictures from Steve Cegielski’s family trip last week. They picked enough wild blueberries to make blueberry pancakes for the kids.
If you are ever driving through the Ontario bush in August and come across an area that has been logged in the last five years or so…grab your bucket and start picking because you’ll be in blueberry heaven.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Cool, Wet Summer


Joel Prunty, media manager - For the most part, this summer will go down as one the coolest and wettest of recent memory. Right now Red Lake, Ontario is above flood stage and much of the north is seeing high water.
The cool temperatures have impacted walleye fishing. Normally in August walleye can be found in 20ft or deeper water and scattered throughout lake. This August most lakes are seeing walleye in 5 to 15 feet. Most guides are reporting walleye fishing as good to excellent all summer, but the bite is much lighter. In fact, they indicate that live bait verses a product like Gulp is a more productive presentation.
All-Canada took two outpost trips in August and experienced the same conditions described by most lodges…great walleye fishing with a very light bite. In fact, what we found is walleyes preferred picking jigs off the bottom over a jigging action.
Outfitters are starting talk about how the high water conditions might affect the coming moose hunt. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the sun comes out and things dry up a bit.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Packing for a Fly-in



Steve Cegielski, operations manager – Packing for our bi-annual family fishing trip to Lac Seul reservoir in Ontario is always a challenge. But, this year’s trip is a fly-in into Vaughan Lake part of south central Lac Seul making it even more of a challenge. Past years we’ve boated into Lac Seul, but the only way into Vaughan Lake is via floatplane.



We’re allowed 70lbs per person, but 25lb of the pounds is set aside for food and community gear like nets, depth finders, water, beer, soda, etc. That leaves me just 45lb of personal gear….so every single piece of equipment gets evaluated.



First I pack the essentials…rods and reels. Technically, everything else I can live without. Next, I pared down the tackle bag limiting my self to four small trays. Jigs of every color filled one tray, live bait rigs and bottom bouncers filled another tray, leaving a little room for crank-baits, spoons and stick-baits for the large pike.



Clothes – how much do we really need for a week in the bush? Two pair of jeans, two shorts and enough socks, plus t-shirts and underwear for each day. I rounded off my clothes with a medium weight long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, and rain gear. Pray for varied weather so you’re not stuck in dirty jeans or shorts all week. If things get bad, wash dirty clothes in the lake.


I used my fish scale to check my progress…wow, I was only at 38.4lbs. I could pack 6.6 lbs of conveniences like: bait buckets, extra rod and reel, and of course some special snacks.
I just purchased new Danner Gore-Tex boots from Cabela’s– so I don’t need rubber boots – every little bit helps.



A good rule of thumb, you should be able to carry everything down to the float plane in one trip. That means one bag over the shoulder, cooler (full of supplies) in one hand, and rod tube in the other hand…..done.



It feels good to be really organized – take the weight issue as a challenge then after the trip analyze what you’ll do different on your next Canadian adventure.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Is Shorelunch a lost art


By Joel Prunty media manager

The past three summers I’ve had the privilege to fish at an Ontario fly-in outpost. And all three times we were the only cabin on the lake and all three times were at least a month into the fishing season at popular destinations.

The common denominator on these trips was we could not find a spot were another group cooked a shore lunch. What? Are you kidding me; fishermen have stopped cooking shore lunch? I know this because we look for well trampled points with level rock pits, offering space between us and the mosquito infested bush and we couldn’t find any.

Why would fisherman skip one of the true highlights of a Canadian fishing adventure? I’m guessing the reasons are many including: it’s a lot of work, it takes too much time, we have to drag all that cooking stuff with us, it’s too dry, it might rain and the list of excuses goes on.

There’s a simpler explanation addressing all these excuses though…the fish fryer back at camp. It’s less work, quicker, your boat isn’t cluttered, it greatly reduces the risk of fire and you’re out of potential rain.

But…at what cost? I admit to using the fish fryer back at camp, but only if necessary. A fire ban is a good reason, sever weather is a good reason, but the rest are excuses and take away from one of life’s great pleasers: battered walleye, panned fried over a wood fire away from everything, on the shores of a Canadian lake. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Our first Blog!

Welcome to the official Blog of the All-Canada Show.

Visit here often for "insiders" information on our adventures to Canada, breaking news about our events, advice on planning an adventure and fishing and hunting reports.

This is our first post, so look for weekly updates beginning this September.

So hold on tight as we provide information only available from our unique perspective. See you in Canada!