Basskicker

Here we go again.....bored are we? Call me later.....but I prefer 100lb power pro and cod hooks....and gummy bears. Jason

After debating what to do for the 3rd week of our honeymoon....we decided to do our first fly-in fishing trip out of Nestor Falls. Nothing was planned...it was hilarious when we walked into the office and told them that we wanted to do a fly-in trip...the lady asked....which week in 2009 would we like to go.....I said "TOMMORROW" then her eyes lit up. It was meant to be because they actually had an opening for a week leaving in the morning for 7 days. Perfect we said....what time does the plane leave!!!!! It was absolutely amazing.....being the only 2 people on our own lake with 5 boats and 3 lakes to fish from. Absolute silence except for our good buddy Chipper (chipmunk) and few loons and Barbie the bear. Barbie caused me many sleepless nights...explain later. The morning of...we were so excited... Here's a short video of one of the take-off's in the float plane... <object width="400" height="302"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1594654&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"'>http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1594654&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /> <embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1594654&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1594654?pg=embed&sec=1594654">Untitled</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user513794?pg=embed&sec=1594654">Jason Lovell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&sec=1594654">Vimeo</a>. This is the cabin we stayed in....which was a little rustic....but we managed. Our first morning we awoke to a beautiful view of the lake..... All I can say is that the fishing was amazing.....mostly small walleye in the 12-18" range but I did manage to catch another P.B. walleye at 27 3/4" and another at 26" A giant for such a small lake being so far north. It was so wierd......I figured that the fish would be deep this time of the year...but ALL fish were found to be in the 5'-12' of water with mud/sand bottom and no rock in the narrow channels with slight current or shallow back bays....wierd....so I thought. Here's a couple of the bigger fish from the week... Here's my big fish for the week.... Does anyone know what kind of spider this is? It was massive....bigger then a toonie in both directions....and super fast. This was the biggest one that I saw...but they were everywhere. And this is our good buddy Chipper.....who woke us up every morning. Monday night is where things got scary.....it's around 9:30 P.M. all the windows are open and it's pitch black outside and we were in bed.....still awake with the lights on when we hear a huge BANG....and I asked Andrea....what was that? She says don't worry about it...it's the hot water tank....it makes noises. At this point I'm thinking...hey if she's not worried..why should I. So a couple of minutes later we hear some other strange noises in the back bedroom area....at this point I'm like ok....enough is enough and get out of bed. I grabbed my flashlight and started to look through the windows.....see nothing....when I get to the back bedroom I turned on the light and noticed that the window screen had been pushed in about 10-12".......and I hear more noises...at this point I'm getting concerned.....thinking that a small animal was in the cabin with no way out except for the window screen that I had just fixed. So I looked around under the bunks and throughout the whole cabin.....interior secure. So I hear more noises again and they sound close as I'm standing near a window that was closed...because it had no screen. The lights were all on at this point so I couldn't really see outside. I hear more noises....this time they sounded a little different but still very close....so instead of being very quite, I decided to bang on the wall right beside the window where I was standing. When all hell broke loose inside my head....and chaos broke out. When I banged the wall....it banged back....and loud. At this point I lost all of my cool and calmness. I'm like honey....get the hell out of bed NOW and start closing the windows screaming like a girl. Once the windows were all closed....i turned off all the lights and grabbed my big Maglite flashlight......I was like a crackhead peeping outside the windows for about 15 minutes...eyes bulged out of my head according to Andrea. After not seeing anything...except this The bear had been standing and looking through this window when I banged on the wall. ......I finally get dressed and get the courage to open the door with flashlight and M-80's (fireworks) in hand..... First thing I saw was the barbecue (the initial bang)....or what looked like our barbecue..it was destroyed. Every single part of the barbecue was in pieces....the only thing still attached with the propane tank on it's side and the wheels still attached to the frame ...everything else was scattered. That's when the real panic set in......realizing it could be only one animal large enough to destroy the barbecue. It was BARBIE the BEAR. Seriously....I nearly crap myself when that realization set it. ......so inside my head I'm thinking that this is not good. Here I am on my honeymoon in the middle of nowhere....nothing to defend myself except a small wooden broom or a steak knife....no one even coming to check up on us for 2 more days and no way to contact them. The bear had come and gone......I set off M-80's for the next 30 minutes in 5 minute intervals. At this point there was nothing that I could really do..but wait...and wait.....because I couldn't sleep...so I waited....but nothing......Barbie the bear was gone for the night. So I settled in....fortified the only door with a chair and pots and pans because there was no actual lock on the door just the door knob. Eventually I fell alseep....... The next morning....we laughed and joked....but in all seriousness I was very concerned....I am very bear cautious when I am in the woods. This was a brave bear and obviously not his first time at this camp......I was worried about the bear coming back. Eventually Wednesday morning came and the mid-week check came and we explained to the pilot what had happened, but he never said too much. Thursday morning 9:00 A.M. I hear a plane close by and it lands.....I figured the owner was probably concerned about our safety and didn't want the honeymoon couple from Toronto attacked by bear and had decided to come take us back early. Oh boy....was I wrong..... A Model 444S rifle with enough ammo to shoot 10 bears.....cool. So this is how we slept every night....broom, bear spray, M-80's, and Model 444S RIFLE The rest of the week...Barbie the bear was nowhere to be found....thank God. Even with a rifle I would have never shot the bear unless it came down to Barbie or me The rest of the week was awesome....beautiful weather and lots of fish. Here's some more scenery pics. Hope you enjoy...I know we did. Jason

Thanks guys.....I have to admit I am the luckiest guy on earth to be married to Andrea. She's from the Thunder Bay area originally...I have pictures of her with a fishing rod at the age of 5......when I saw that I knew she was the one. I hate SPAM....however when I receive great service I like to tell people about it. Vince from Amik Lodge is a great guy and I would not hesitate to recommend his place. If I ever drive up that way again...I would stay there......if he's not booked solid already for 2009. Jason

Thanks guys for all the kind comments.....as for the sand ceremony. Since it was an outdoor wedding, it was our version of the unity candles. She poured the white sand and I poured the black into the middle vase to symbolize our unity together. The vase is now home with us on our fireplace mantle....how the helps to clear it up. Hey Cliff....no little one's in the plans as of yet. Jason

All I can saw is WOW .....those are just huge specs Dan.....the scenery up that way is simply amazing. Thanks for sharing Jason

After our wedding we drove 7 hours northeast to the 49th worlds largest fresh water lake Rainy Lake. I would really like to thank Vince of Amik Lodge.... first class guy and operation. He has 3 cabins located on the northeast arm of rainy lake about 45 minutes north of Fort Frances. The cabins are new (4 years) and the boat's are brand new 2008 and an unbeatable price. $1000.00 for 2 including cabin, boat, motor,gas, bait. The deal was great, but the hospitality was even better. Vince took me out fishing to show me the spots to fish, made our stay enjoyable and even let us borrow a DVD player and a selction of movies to watch. Amik Lodge This is what we arrived to after another long drive.... The next morning we ventured out on this massive body of water in search of walleye...not to be disappointed we caught a few fish dragging jigs with a nightcrawlers in 15-28 ft of water. I am definitely NOT a walleye fisherman but I caught the bug after catching my new P.B the very first night...a respectable 27.5" fish. One of the beautiful sunsets for the week The next day...Andrea caught her new P.B. walleye as well...it was so funny...she thought she snagged on a rock, you should have seen her just reefing on the rod when all of sudden the rock MOVED and all hell broke loose. She also caught another beauty the same day..... It was so hot during the day and the sunsets were incredible every night Some more scenery shots...Rainy lake is a true gem....accessible by road but in 7 days we probably saw less than 20 boats. I was shocked to see this Pelican...there was hundreds of them around. We went for a short drive one day and came across a section of dead tree's full of bald eagles....I must have spent a good 15 minutes taking pictures...trying to get close. The wing span of these birds are incredible....very cool. One more sunset Our honeymoon was awesome as the week ended we had to decide to stay or leave. We both decided to take a drive up to Nestor Falls on Lake of the Woods. We looked into doing a fly-in fishing trip....our first ever. After checking out a couple of places...the decision was made. We rushed back to Amik Lodge to start packing for an adventure of a life time.

I haven't been around for awhile, been real busy.....so I thought I share some of my adventure for the last month. We left for Thunder Bay back on July 25 to get married on August 2, 2008 and had our honeymoon on Rainy lake near Fort Frances. It was so exciting having 4 weeks off, getting married and going fishing for our honeymoon. I took over 600 pictures so trying to choose which ones to post has been difficult. Our first day was long with the drive to Wawa where we stayed the first night. We pulled into Wawa around 2:00 A.M.......a piece of advice. DO NOT leave the Sault St. Marie after dark....the drive to Wawa took over 3 hours and that stretch of road is dangerous at night due to moose. Our place for the night... The next day we reached Thunder Bay were Andrea's parents live on the beautiful shores of Lake Superior about 100 feet from the water...this is the view of the Sleeping Giant that I awoke to every day... The next 7 days I spent with her family...but of course I had to sneak away for some fishing. So off I went to explore with my van and canoe. The first trip I decided to head out to the Nipigon River....when I got there I was overwhelmed by the shear beauty and raw power of her. Not willing to put my canoe in the river (suicide) in that location.....I decided to head back towards Thunder Bay and fish the Black Sturgeon river which I was told held some brookies......but all I got was walleye and smallmouth (all released). Managed to catch a dozen of so fish. I saw several deer near her parents house.....those buggers are quick...really difficult to photograph...seen over 15 deer and managed only 1 picture..... A couple of days later I decided to head out to a smallmouth lake for the evening. The fishing and scenery was unbelievable. In nearly 3 hours I caught and released from my canoe over 30 fish. Trying to take pictures of fish in a canoe is very difficult....but I managed a couple. This was the average size. Finally August 2, 2008 arrived.....the day of the wedding. It was amazing....we got married in Rossport...a very small village (300 people) located south of Thunder Bay on the shores of Lake Superior. The scenery was unbelievable. Here's a video segment of the wedding done to our wedding song. <object width="400" height="302"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1593520&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"'>http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1593520&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /> <embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1593520&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1593520?pg=embed&sec=1593520">Untitled</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user513794?pg=embed&sec=1593520">Jason Lovell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&sec=1593520">Vimeo</a>. After the reception we all went on a boat cruise of Lake Superior....it was beautiful. Coming soon.....Part 2-Rainy Lake. P.B. Walleye for both Andrea and myself Part 3-Nestor Falls-flyin with visiting bears Part 4-Minnesota/Ontario Border Lake portage smallmouth bass fishing Jason

Just awesome....funny we both got married on the same day. August 2nd...cool. But I didn't get a truck...hehehe. Thanks for sharing Jason

WOW.... that was an amazing trip for sure.....congrats on the bass and muskies.... Were gonna have to hook up for an evening real soon (just got back yesterday). Thanks for sharing Jason

Congrats on another great trip guys...wish I could have gone. Sorry to hear about the lack of fish north of Cochrane. Never get sick of looking at the scenery from up that way!! Jason

Awesome fish Carol.....I know that spot Jason

Awesome report Mike...like always. Jason

Do I still get my beer? I did find one in JAPAN Jason

Hey Mike, I've been looking for a while now....and I can't find any in the states...wierd!!! But here's another one ...in JAPAN...good luck bud....I say grab the ones in Canada before I do.... http://cgi.ebay.com/STORM-Thunder-Stick-TS...p3286.m20.l1116 Jason

Hey Mike, try here Unfortunately there is no picture, but I think it's what your looking for. https://www.securewebexchange.com/baitcaste...products_id=148 Jason

All I can say is WOW Cliff....thanks for making my day Jason

Hey Mike....actually this year we lucked out....we paid some guy $10 for launching.....little did he know I would have paid $100 after last year's episode. And yes the tent is awesome, but would be useless without the wood stove. I was actually complaining about the heat at times. Thanks guys for all the replies....it was certainly an epic adventure like always. That's what I love about it.....extreme weather and extreme fishing on a budget. There are thousands of lakes in northern ontario that are filled with HUGE pike...the locals HATE pike. With a little research and adventure anyone can find an hidden gem of a lake filled with fish just as good as most fly-ins for 1/4 of the cost. I'm going back in August for 2 weeks with my wife after the wedding (part B of our honeymoon)-her idea

Well after a very long winter it was time for our annual trip up north of Cochrane for some rather large pike. This year was a little different as a good friend of mine decided to join us from B.C. After a long day at work, I picked up my buddy Mike from the airport with boat in tow.....for a very long 12 hour drive into the remote wilderness of Northeastern Ontario. The anticipation of this trip was overwhelming yet exhausting....38 hours without sleep is not good for the body. The drive up was rather uneventful until we reached Cochrane after buying our groceries and gas $135.9/L we embarked on out last 2 hour drive to the lake. Once you leave Cochrane, there are no services period, not a place to go unprepared. Once you leave Cochrane......you are in bear country.....and I mean bear country. This year would be no different....9 bears in total. They are very hard to photograph at 80km/h...but I managed to get a couple of shots. Finally after reaching the lake absolutely exhausted we loaded up the boat for the 1 hour boat ride to the campsite Once we reached the campsite.....things turned ugly....our campsite was flooded with 12" of water and tree's fallen over from the harsh winter's winds. This was where we were supposed to camp for the next 8 days.....so plan B....my tent is rather large...not knowing if the tent could take the punishment of the strong north winds and being up for over 30 hours at this point we decided the hell with with it and set it up on the beach directly in the path of those harsh north winds. Finally after cleaning the camp site up and putting up the tent/vestibule/wood stove and shower and organizing everything we decided to go fishing for a while. The fishing this year was difficult due to the high water and fluctuating water temperatures, but we still managed to catch 200-300 fish. The pickeral fishing was absolutely amazing at the mouth of the rivers.....literally every cast in the evening...double, triple headers. The pike fishing was very slow due to cold front conditions and cold water temperatures (42'C). This was my view of the lake all week from inside the tent. The second day was beautiful ......warm (15'C) and sunny. ....we managed a few like every day but the pike fishing was slow compared to last year. I managed to catch my personal best pike....simply amazing fish at 47" and weighing in at 24.5lbs. It was kind of scary when I realized how big it was. The third day was a day to remember for the rest of my life. Extreme weather. The day started off very dull looking with grey skies and cold winds from the north. We figured the rain was coming.....were we ever wrong!!!! I couldn't believe it SNOW!!!! At first we were like cool......snow.....but after a few hours I was shocked with the amount of snow we received. Here's a couple of video's of the snow storm (Thanks CLIFF) <object width="400" height="302"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1100811&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"'>http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1100811&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /> <embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1100811&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1100811?pg=embed&sec=1100811">Untitled</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user513794?pg=embed&sec=1100811">Jason Lovell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&sec=1100811">Vimeo</a>. <object width="400" height="302"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1101287&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1"'>http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1101287&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" /> <embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1101287&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1101287?pg=embed&sec=1101287">Untitled</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user513794?pg=embed&sec=1101287">Jason Lovell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com?pg=embed&sec=1101287">Vimeo</a>. The extreme weather shut down the pike for the rest of the week.....we still managed to catch 30-50 pike a day....but most were on the smaller size 3-4lb. The water temperature dropped 10'C in 48 hours. It was an amazing trip once again....between the great company, fishing, wildlife and food, extreme weather. Here's a few more shots from the week. It's Gods country up there.....364 days left until next year.....going to be a long year.

Welcome back.....awesome intro and pics. Thanks for taking the time to share. Jason

You certainly have a keen eye for photography.....beautiful scenery shots!!! Jason

Those specks have beautiful colors....thanks for sharing. Looks like a lot of fun Jason

I just spoke with a gentleman at BPS and he told me that there was a switch on the outside of the charger that held a small magnet. This has to be removed in order to charge AGM style (Optima) batteries. Well when I get back from my fishing trip, it the first thing I'll try. Thanks once again for everyone's help. Jason

I have 3 batteries in total 2-Optimas- Blue Top Dual Purpose 34DC-for Trolling Motor Only Using Bass Pro Shops 2 Bank 10/10 as per diagram 1-Nautilus Deep Cycle-for everything else...NOT hooked up to on-board charger-25HP main motor charges battery Jason Gonna call BPS right now....

Sorry for my ignorance....but what exactly do you mean by "Once it was reconnected, I finally got the "charge" light to display" Thanks Jason That's is exactly the same situation that I am facing.

Now updated.....weird stuff....yet probably so simple . I'm going to call Bass Pro this morning to ask as well. Thanks Jason