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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.