Hockey season is half over already!

Hockey so far for the Lakeside Peewee's has been played with a few less games than normal up to this point in the season due to us having artificial ice problems early in our arena. We are 3 wins, 3 loses and a tie in the first half of the season in our league....we should have a great opportunity to win our league. We have always been slow starters and finish strong. We are also entered in a couple of tournaments in January, so there should be lots of hockey to write about. My best memories in life were from the tons and tons of tournaments we played in in every corner of Manitoba. It was always great to play new towns who did not know how rough we like to play here in our little town! :)

Keep watching to see the highlights.

Photo contest deadline is 2 days away!

Click Here to view the Amik Outposts 2009 photo contest. There are only 2 days remaining to vote for your favorite photo from our past season. Simply scroll to the bottom of your favorite picture and comment! Thats it! Thanks to all of our guests who submitted entries. It was great to see all of our customers again this summer.

If you are on Facebook, add Amik Outposts as a friend here.

The Deer Party 2009

It was a good year for big bucks in our small corner of Canada this year. Nice weather, dry and not real cold during deer season. Great hunting weather. No snow made it difficult tracking a hit animal. The new Manitoba record typical was found dead not to far from where we live. I will post some pictures of that monster soon. Our club is small and local. Here are some of the heads.


Not many Non-typical deer around but there was 2 this year.









This was the winner. Scored 158 and change.


Here was my entry this year, 133 and change.


So up it goes on the wall. No matter how big it is it will have a home.
Big whitetails are usually a cagey animal


Now we have to wait another 11 months for my favorite time of year.....Hunting season!

The Lake!!

My brother Jamie and I have been fishing hard lately and it feels good to be out on "the lake" again. The ice in the bays in our area is nice and smooth. Great for setting on. There has been lots of wind too though which is normal for freeze up time. Mountains of ice are forming daily on some reefs in the distance off shore. We are just starting to take the snowmobile out to fish our nets. We walk many miles a day in the beggining but it only gets easier as the winter goes on.


Today we were going out to set inside of Long Point. A place you always have to be careful around all winter long. The current, when the wind blows, whips around the point making the ice unreliable at times. We always give it a wide berth. We took the snowmobile along the shoreline out to the inside of the Point, staying close to shore in case we fell in.



Today we had a first for us! We went in....the whole outfit. 1 snowmobile, 2 sleighs, 20 nets, all of our pegs, weights and the Jigger went in the lake! Jamie and myself too.


We stay close to shore for the shallow water but the ice can be thinner there as well. Which was the case today. We were almost to where we were going to walk out to set when I yelled at Jamie because it was cracking alot. Some cracking is very normal but I knew this was not! He did not here me over the sound of the snow machine. We were driving on top of a snowbank as well. The ice is usually thinner under a snowbank because of the insulating factor. When he looked back I yelled again and he could read my lips....It is cracking a lot!

No sooner did he steer for shore, in we went. Thankfully it was only on 2-3 feet of water. The snow machine went in first with both sleighs full of nets and gear coming in right behind and spilling into the icy water. Jamie hit solid ice before me but we were both scurrying like rabbits to keep dry. I ended up with wet feet right after impact getting out but Jamie did not get wet until he went back in to tie onto stuff so I could stand and pull our gear out. I was totally expecting to fall in. It was a lot deeper where I was pulling the stuff to. In all we only lost 45 minutes of time and went right back to work. Wet feet in the Arctic boots we wear are not an issue. They are designed to keep you warm even if they are full of water.


This is a Moto-ski Spirit, more commonly known as the Elan by Bombardier. Not made any more this was the best snowmobile ever built and used by thousands of trappers in Canada. One cylinder and very light, this awesome machine threw water off the belt and started to grab when Jamie giver the throttle. It was not quite deep enough to drown it so we just broke ice until it climbed up onto the ice. One tough machine! Here she is. It was built in the 70`s.

Fire and Ice

Deer season is over and the timing is almost perfect for fishing to start. Freeze-up is quite late this year. It has been winter for awhile up north but we have had some awesome stable weather here for a long time. But I think winter is right around the corner.

Would you walk on this much ice?



Close to shore.



But alas, we could not set any nets today. We run the jigger out and as I was walking out to cut a hole and pull the net in when the ice cracked right beside me and I was sinking. Quick feet not taking too hard of steps and I was away from the crack and heading back to shore!! We will try again tomorrow. It is no fun falling through the ice.

Here is Jamie going out on his belly to retrive the box of nets I was dragging behind me when the ice cracked. Looks fun eh!


Since we couldn`t set nets we decided to clean up some of the wild hay on my brothers property that could not be taken off this summer due to the wet conditions.

How to vote for your favorite photo

This is for anyone who just recieved our newsletter.
Below each picture there is a place to comment. The picture with the most comments by December 20th will be the winner.

Good luck to all of the entries.

One week of deer season left!

It has been an awesome fall up here in Manitoba and there has been a few nice bucks taken around my area. Here is a couple of pictures from some I have come across.

Which one is bigger?


There is some ice forming on Lake Manitoba but not much. We will be out on thin ice soon enough. Just late this year.


James. My hunting buddy. We kind of got stuck! No one was too surprised.



The first nice one in our area.

Getting bigger :)

Lets see how it ends up at the Deer Party!

Let us know what you think!!

Time for Me to hunt!!!

Rena and I are back in Manitoba, winter feels like it is not far away. Lots of cloud and cooler weather around. The most important thing though is that the bucks are starting to roam around and have just started making scrapes around here. I have a few stands set up and now it is time to wait and watch.....

Have you ever been run over by 3 moose?

With David tagging his bull on day 2, it was time to get Dad one. Bill had shot a few moose over the years and wanted to make sure his son got his first. Done. We had more lake yet to cover and had found some fresh sign in some other parts of the lake which had new sign since the first day we looked at that spot. We were close to them. But the wind would not let up making calling difficult. The change of seasons was here. Sometimes it comes in with a week of wind like this year but I knew that things were going to go our way, eventually.

By Friday James had 2 moose already for his 2 hunters and they were ready to go home. After hunting with Bill until noon, I left in the Otter to run over to Shearstone and take them out. I left Bill up on a nice high ridge looking across onto a nice hill and into a valley. A moose could come out anywhere at anytime in this spot... Bill is a good moose caller and continued to call here all day.

Mid afternoon, Bill heard me return in the Otter and knew it would be around 20 mins until I returned with the boat. This time I spent a few extra minutes in camp to tie the Otter down putting me back to Bill 25 mins later than he expected me. He headed down to a small sand beach to wait. He had not heard any answers so far all day and was going to see if there was any new tracks in the sand. As he was waiting for me, he looked back to the spot where he was sitting...... 3 moose came over the hill and walked, at a very fast pace, right near where he was calling. He figured they were headed down the trail right to the beach where he was standing, and they were! He grabbed his gun and when they got to be 40 yards away he finally waved his arms. The calf in front, behind was the cow, and a small bull had his nose right up her butt chasing her from behind. The calf turned to Bill's left with the cow and bull in tow. As the bull passed at 25 or 30 yards....the 300 Win. Mag. let loose! The bull took a few steps and got into a dead end in the burn from fallen trees and turned around. Not a good decision with a veteran moose hunter standing a few feet away. One more round from Bill and it was over. Father and son both successful in harvesting moose.

All of this commotion took place as I was enroute to Bill. When I reached the narrows just before getting to the sand beach, I looked up on the hill and saw 4 big ears looking over the hill. I killed the motor and watched....for 15 minutes. The cow and calf were standing on the hill not 40 yards from where Bill was sitting, so I thought. I got tired of waiting and went to where I had dropped Bill off. He was not there. I called my way up the hill, he was not in the spot where I thought he would be....I hoped he had one down. I called again and I heard him call me back. I got one he yelled!

Bill said, He wasn`t big but he was less than 50 yards from the lake, pretty hard to say no to that on the second last day of the hunt!

It was mid-afternoon, plenty of time to get him home before dark and have a good supper. Lets cut a trail....



Here is the reward of having patience. A father son double header.



The first thing I do is put the beard in a tree.


This is the best tree I have hung it in yet!

It is nice to recover your bullet and see that it did everything it was supposed to do:)


It was nice to have Josh staying with us, for his company of course, not his young back and legs!! He really enjoyed being apart of the hunt and got right into it.


The father son moose hunters are returning next year to hunt the monsters again! It gets into your blood. I love it! Can you tell...

One Tough Customer!

The first moose we took during the second week on Loree Lake was a tough one! We finally had a small reprive from the east wind and were calling our way into an area to hunt when we had an answer! David looked at me and asked how close I thought he was, 2 or 3 hundred yards I said.... we turned our heads and he was right behind us, 150 yards and getting closer. Not much time to get prepared. I made a couple of quiet calls and he came even closer yet. When he got to around 80 or 90 yards he walked broadside....Boom!! It was a good solid shot. The bull took a couple of steps and stopped. Boom! Another solid connecting shot. Then he went down but only for a couple of seconds and then got up!! As he started to head down the ridge David gave him another one that I heard hit again. The bull then looked like he was done. Walking a few more steps then going down a 150 yards or so away. We watched for awhile and then figured we would give him some time to expire. If you chase big game up before they are finished, they may head really far into the bush before dying and in the burn you do not want that!!! So we went back to camp to have a coffee and returned about an hour and a half later.



As we were heading up to the spot where we shot the moose we looked up and saw a moose running away at a good clip, not appearing injured at all!!! It was not as black as the one David had just shot at. I continued to call and he came right back to us. We watched him for 30 or 40 minutes just to be sure that it was not Davids bull. This one was a much smaller one, a young bull just hanging around the action. There was a cow in the vicinity as well, so we had ourselves a moose honey hole here.

This young bull was afraid to come out of the long weeds for quite awhile. After some of my sweet talking he walked right out and we could have shot him easily. We knew Davids moose should be lying not far away.


When we got to the spot where the moose went down....NO MOOSE! There was blood but not alot. A tracking we will go. The burn was thick but not unwalkable so we could see his track at least from time to time.



The blood trail started to dry up but the tracks were quite visible as we got further from the lake. He was hurt bad too! He was really having a tough time walking, I could see he had to be going on 3 legs, his toes in the front were really splitting out like he was putting alot of weight on it. He was also starting to make a turn back towards the water and the spot where I was calling the small bull earlier. I knew then we would catch up to him.



There he was!!! Laying there. As we walked closer to him, he lifted his head! One last shot and he was done. A very exciting hunt, Moose all over and finally one to take back to camp. He had us a little worried, but all 3 of David's shots were good solid hits right in the vitals and front shoulder. This was one tough bull!


100 plus pounds of Moose meat! Easy with a good pack frame and tied on with hockey skate laces!



This is an awesome meal! Organic anyone?

Moose Hunters are gone and the camps are closed.

2009 is officially over for us at Amik Outposts, as far as customers go. We still have some work left to do to prepare for 2010 in Red Lake but will be returning to Manitoba soon. If any one is interested in dates for next season please drop us a line and we will see what we have available for you.

Moose Hunting 2009

We had a huge variety of weather from one week to the next this fall. During the first week of our hunt, we had 75 degrees and sun everyday. Generally not your optimum weather for hunting big game. Then during the second week we had cool temps in the 40's everyday with a east wind that did not stop for 7 days, day or night. Again, not the optimum weather one would want big game hunting. Even with the weather not in our favor we did quite well in 2009. We went 2 for 6 the first week in the heat and 4 for 4 the second week in the wind. Only one party was not able to get a shot at an animal this year but heard plenty of moose answering but just not willing to come to the call yet. It was a late rut this fall. Everyone else saw multiple moose and had quite a bit of action. There are a number of stories to tell. From James catching a Pine Martin on his fishing rod to one of our hunters, Bill almost getting run over by a bull, cow and calf! I will get those posted this week coming along with some pictures.

Here are the moose from this season. Smaller ones this year due to the late rut. Some of these guys have shot moose before with us and some of them it was their first. Hunting moose is not easy, so any moose taken is a trophy, not to mention excellent eating!

The last fishermen!

I know when I see these guys from Wisconsin, the summer is pretty much over. Loree lake is their camp of choice and for 5 days every fall, this is their slice of heaven. The weather is not always nice for them at this time of year but this year was a real treat! Sun everyday except for one 10 minute storm and temperatures got as low as 40 one night but everyday was 60-80 degrees! Awesome weather for middle of September.

Fishing was fabulous as well. A 42 inch Northern and a 27 inch Walleye were the biggest caught but they had a blast with the numbers too!

Here is a hefty 27 inch Walleye.


Not sure of the length of this one but it looks like it would be close to 40 inches.


The Beast of the trip on the second last day! 42 inches and Thick!



That little tape measure in front of him is not even close!! The long tape is by his back.


And Back down to the depths, to be caught again... It feels good to see all of our guests catching Trophies and feeling good about putting them back. That's why we have the Trophy Fishing we have.


The prop on the Otter sure pushes the air!

New Pics

Findlay Lake walleyes are sure prepared for winter! These fish that Lonnie K. and his buddies caught were fat! The last group of fishermen of the season just had to remind those walleyes who the boss is....


Even the 20 inch fish look like footballs. Good strong fish that put up a heck of a fight.


This is a beautiful walleye!


We have had some great weather lately, which is nice...I was a day late in picking these guys up last year thanks to Mother Nature.