Regan Thompson

Thanks for the advice guys. This is why I always come to OFC first. I agree it's too much hassle. Looks like I will be budgeting for motors with alternators next year. Much Thanks

Hey All, We're in the process of purchasing some new rental boats. Some of the boats will have 20 HP electric start motors and some will be more basic and will have 9.9 manual start motors. All will have electric bilge pumps with livewells and fish finders, therefore batteries will be required. My question: For the boats with 9.9 manual start motors, how can we keep a charge on the batteries without an alternator? Does anyone know if there is a solar panel on the market that we could permanently wire to the batteries so they would always hold a charge? The draw from a fish finder and livewell pump are very low so it wouldn't have to be much. Feedback appreciated, thanks!

I'll be there for Friday and Saturday night too lads. Looking forward to it!

We'd use braid so they would get deeper and I think they were between 2-3" in length. Natural color seemed to work the best.

Mostly in summer and we'd troll the Kawartha weedlines in 10-12 FOW. We used to fish Chemong a lot and there was not much structure there as you may know. Just a big bowl of weeds! There were certain areas that had more of a sandy bottom. The weeds would be less dense in these areas and that's where we had the most luck.

Not sure where, but for my old docks I bought a couple of dock floats from home depot. The each year I would just slip one under each end of dock section and move them out that way. I'd even get my boat lift out the same way.

Captpierre, I used to live on upper Chemong and my old man neighbor caught tonnes of Walleye. He used Count Down Rapala's and pretty soon I caught on! They work well because they get right to the bottom while trolling very slow (as versed to floating cranks that don't get deep). We used to troll weedlines with them and they worked so well, after a while it's all we used.

We did a lot of research on this before getting into the industry. I'm not sure exactly how many there are but the number 2,000 comes to mind. I think this is just in Ontario if I'm not mistaken (but could be in Canada). Another interesting stat is that for every resort that hits the market, more than half of them end up being sold as private real estate. Many of these old lodges sit on large expensive pieces of land and the real estate value ends up trumping the business value. A large generation of lodge owners bought resorts 20-30 years ago when they were less expensive. Now these older lodge owners are retiring and their properties are hitting the market. In the next 10 years I predict a substantial decrease in the number of lodges operating. In our area for example, just within the last 10 years it went from 9 lodges to 4, most being sold off as private land and severed in most cases.

We use for yearly maintenance on our rental 9.9 two stroke motors as follows: First, mix fuel stabilizer in a tank Run the motor with fuel stabilizer while spraying SeaFoam into the air filter while revving Let it run for a couple of minutes Turn off the motor and disconnect fuel Pull out the spark plugs Spray SeaFoam in cylinders while pulling over the engine slowly Replace spark plugs

Just one final note, you have to ready this article... I've been to a tonne of lodges and have met all these types lol! http://www.bulkleysteelhead.com/blog/4-types-fishing-lodge-owners

I have and still do have a great deal of respect for Kevin. He was a stand-up guy and a true pioneer of the lodge business in many ways. He had a rare magnetic quality about himself that I'd never encountered before. In the short time I knew him he taught me a lot. I'll miss the talks we had. Rest in Peace Kevin

I might be able to weigh in here as my wife and I own one ourselves. It's not a simple "yes" or "no" answer, but from my perspective the answer is "yes". I stress the words my perspective in saying this however, because it really boils down to "are you the right kind of person or persons to own a lodge?". Many owners get in thinking it's a "retirement gig" and have a rude awakening. Others get in without the skills required to run a lodge and it quickly falls apart. For example, If "Billy Bob" without a highschool education won the lottery or got an inheritance what would he do? The answer is buy a fishing lodge, and it probably wouldn't last long because Billy Bob would be out drunk fishing every day. My point is there are a lot of people who get into it for the wrong reasons or with the wrong skill set and if this is the case it usually fails, so you need to evaluate this for yourself. This isn't true for just with lodges but for any business. Owning a lodge is like owning any other business; location, hard work and survival of the fittest. Before getting into the lodge business ourselves, my wife and I worked office jobs (like many) where we worked 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year. Now we work 10 hours per day, 7 days per week but 21 weeks per year (although not this winter if you follow us on facebook!). So although you're working like a beaten slave in the summer (not that our customers literally beat us lol), you're rewarded with 6 months off every year. Also, if I had to choose between 6 months of working 5 days per week in the office and 6 months of working every day as a lodge owner, I'd take the lodge owner gig every time. It's tonnes of work but the rewards are huge. A typical day for us is pumping out boats in the morning, talking to guests about fishing, building docks, cottages, cutting grass, talk some more fishing, take guests out fishing, etc. You're working outside in the sun every day. We also love the creativity it allows us when it comes to the marketing of the business. The best part I'd have to say though is the people. In a typical job you see the same handful of people all year, but in this job you meet SO MANY interesting a fun people. In one year of owning this lodge we have more friends and crazy stories than our previous 10 years as a couple. So I if you're the right kind of person and if it's what your really want go for it dude! People told us we were nuts but now we're loving it. Before you do though there is A LOT more you should know about location, infrastructure, septics, financing, grants, the list goes on and on and on. I won't get into that stuff on the thread but if you're really serious about taking this step please call me and I can give you some sound advice. Cheers!

Hey All, I need to order more maps for this season and would like to get Nipissing maps in feet instead of meters. Does anyone know if they exist and if so, where to get them?

I've had experience with both... Wood burning - We made one of these for very low cost building the structure, then inserted a oil drum in the bottom corner with a door where you could load in wood from the outside. We then cut a hole in the top of the barrell and ran a chimney through the roof. We lined it with cedar and built a box around the barrel on the inside and filled it with rocks. The way it would work is you would light the fire, the rocks would heat up inside and you throw water on the rocks. I LOVED this sauna and it got extremely hot! Infrared - Not as nice as the wood burning but great for one or two people and starts up at the press of a button. The one feature I really liked was that because it's infrared, it's not heating the air in the sauna but instead matter (i.e. you). In regular saunas it can be hard to breath at times but not in these ones. It's said that the infred penetrates deeper into your tissue, releaseing more toxins, but not sure if this is true or just a great selling feature.

It's good to see that most of us can have a chuckle. Just the other week I saw them out on Nipissing checking ice huts and snowmobilers. There was a couple guys getting their sleds impounded but they were not chuckling! LOL

Did you look inside of it Lew? LOL

I'm on Nipissing and we had the same last year. Weeds were down and no one could find the fish! This year will be very similar. Last year the ice went out around April 1 and this year will be the same if not later. This will affect the fishing for sure but if you know where to look you can find them.

I'm researching boats myself because we are planning on replacing our fleet of cedar strips at our lodge. I'd go a little bigger to and get the trailer. A fantastic boat that allot of the lodges use up here are Naden's. Made in Temagami and the best value aluminum boat I have been able to find (doing tonnes of research!).

I can't sympathize with you enough! Us men complain when our wives spend $100 to get their hair done but I'm sure our investment in Musky gear must seem equally insane to them. I'm usually ok as long as I stay away from the tackle stores, but just recently the owner of Northshore Musky baits started attending our Muskies Canada meetings where he sells baits! Needles to say I had a moment of weakness at our last meeting.

Thanks Art and Joe, We drove 5 hours to visit family for christmas this year and nearly lost our hair, so can't even imagine how you make the 13 hour journey each year. Glad we make it worth your while, and will continue to do so with some surprises in 2015.

Thanks Lew, you're the godfather of Muskie fishing up here and I learned ALLOT from you during our time fishing together. More importantly, I had loads of fun fishing with you and hanging out with you and Diane at the Lodge. PS - I haven't forgotten about our expedition to the far west arm (Cross Lake). We'll pack a lunch and make a day of it in June.

We'd like to wish a happy New Year to all OFC members! We had the privilege of meeting, catering and making friends with many of you this year and look forward to continuing this in 2015. Our lodge sort of became an unofficial OFC headquarters this past year, and boy are we glad to have you, so thanks! We already can't wait to kick things off this spring, and are busy preparing and making upgrades that we know you'll all appreciate (cottage reno's, docks, boats, new store, etc, etc.). Many of you have already booked with us and we thankyou. If you haven't been to Mashkinonje yet, we'd like to personally invite you join us for this upcoming year. Much Thanks, Regan

Beauty Pics Joey! I always look forward to seeing them. You definetly have a gift.

I seriously nearly threw up my coffee all over the keyboard when I read this post! A little disappointed that it's just until spring but I think this is still a very positive move. I'm sure it's only the beginning.

Free as well as meals.. Well worth it though