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Our Blog is now hosted on our website canadianflyinfishing.com. Click here for for John's Blog.

canadianflyinfishing.com

My blog is now incorporated into our main website canadianflyinfishing.com Our website has been reworked and all of the videos, pictures, and John's blog are now under one roof. So keep checking, our website will always be informative and entertaining. canadianflyinfishing.com

The Bush

I came across a book recently, Alaska from A-Z. There are many funny and true definitions in there but the first one I looked at was in the B's

Bunny Boots
Bunny boots, also known as vapor barrier boots, are white, insulated footwear designed to protect feet in sub-zero temperatures. They take their name from the Arctic hare, which has large hind feet and a white winter coat.

The Bush
Originally used to describe large expanses of wilderness inhabited by trappers and miners, now "the Bush" is generally considered to mean any part of Alaska inaccessible by road. A community accessible only by air, water, sled or snow machine transportation is considered a bush village. The Bush is home to many of Alaska's Native people and to many Alaskans who live on homesteads, operate mines or work as guides, pilot, trappers or fishermen.

The term "Bush" has been applied to the small planes their pilots who service areas that lack roads or developed airports. Bush planes are commonly equipped with floats or skis, depending on the terrain and season.

Alaska and Ontario are very similar indeed, except for the mountains! I am glad to not have those in my area I fly!

Manitoba Rednecks 2011

Spring in Canada can be long depending on the weather, hockey is over and there is lots of energy to be burned off. It is kind of funny to see my nephews doing the exact same things my brothers and I used to do, crazy stuff that could possibly end up disastrous but are so much fun!!

The weather has been so sunny and warm. The last storm went south of us again as it has much of the winter so spring has gotten off to a good start, lets hope it stays nice.

Amik Outposts on Facebook

If you are on Facebook, add Amik Outposts here.

Amik Outposts also has a page for you to like and share as well, click here Amik Outposts

We are also attending the Northwest Sportshow in Minneapolis Mn from March 30th to April 3rd at the Minneapolis convention center. Come on down and see Rena and John. They can answer any questions you may have, give you available dates, or book your remote fishing vacation for 2011. We have a new brochure featuring 150 of our best pictures from our guests of nothing but TROPHY FISH!! Come on down and pick one up to see the quality fishery we offer you to experience.

Champs!!

It was a roller coaster season for our Bantam Hockey team. Made up of 14 boys and 4 girls aged 13 and 14 year olds. Our season got off to a less than stellar start winning only one and tying one in our first 9 league games and were in 9th place in a 10 team league. Many of those losses should have been wins but we made many mistakes which ended up in our net. Then after the X-mas break we had to play the top 2 teams right away! 2 more loses. There was many positives in those loses as I could see we were gaining confidence. Since the 2 losses in early January we did not lose another game! Beating every placed team, 7 straight wins to finish the season in 6th place. The league then split into 2 divisions, A and B. We then had to complete 2 best of 3 game series to claim the league banner. Half of the players on our team have never won a championship while the other half winning only one in their short hockey careers. It is fulfilling to see how they have all improved and grown as hockey players throughout the last 5 months.

Here is my daughter Maija and my nephew Trent with the banner we worked so hard to win!





In the playoffs, we continued our winning ways, taking both series 2 games straight. Here is our 2010/2011 Interlake Bantam Regional Champs!


Here is Trent, having a seat in a place I have spent hundreds of hours in.....The Penalty Box!!!!



Only a few exhibition games left and that will be it for this season of hockey. Just like deer season, when it is over, you begin looking forward to next season!!!

Amik Outposts Classics

And today the fishing has not changed! Our lakes have had a strict conservation policy to give you the best possible chance to catch your trophy fish of a lifetime!

Big swings in the temperature!

Perch fishing remains and we are in pursuit, pulling unproductive nets out and re-setting them into "hopefully" more productive spots out on Lake Manitoba. Fishermen have not fished perch much in the last couple of years and there seems to be many big perch this season like this one.



We have had some very warm weather but also some 30 below weather. Here is what happens to the crack when this kind of thing happens. One day it can be 10 feet wide...



And 2 days later you cannot even get close to it, as the lake expands it crushes 4 feet of ice together with incredible force!!

We had a line of nets almost get eaten by the crack. Most people would be a little nervous to be standing beside a 5000 pound machine 20 feet from some open water and a huge crack in the ice, but not us. We have been on the lake since we were toddlers Jamie and I.

There was no school yesterday so my nephew Trent came out for the day. Teenagers are always messing around!



Rena and I went to one of our old Dockhands wedding this weekend in London Ontario. Jay(middle one) is well on his way as a commercial pilot since spending 2 seasons working for us 6 years ago. Flying now with a regional airline and gaining more valuable experience before making the next step into flying the large airliners. It is great to see a young man going for his dream and succeeding.


There is an important building also in London, THE LABATT BREWERY!!! I just had to stop and get a picture outside the beer store attached to a well respected place.

Some video to get you through the winter.

Here is a clip from the first years Amik Outposts existed. Crazy Northern Pike!



And today nothing has changed. Our conservation policy has ensured that there will be great bloodlines in both Walleye and Northern since the big ones have always been put back. Truly a resource that is being taken care of for future generations.

Catching fish and winning hockey games!

January is flying by. No time to get cabin fever or the winter blahs since I spend all my time outdoors or in a cold rink.

Our Bantam hockey team has had a good run since the X-mas break winning all 3 league games versus teams we lost to in the first half. The most recent was yesterday against Gimli/Riverton Eagles. We lost 4-2 in December and trailed 3 to 2 yesterday as time dwindled in the 3rd period. We had 2 times the scoring chances but could not find the net. We continued to swarm and tied it up with less than 2 minutes left. I left the same line on the ice and within 30 more seconds they had scored the game winner! We have been playing good hockey as of late and look forward to every game.

Fishing is going well. We are fishing hard and being rewarded for our efforts. Not the all time best fishing but not the worst either, just like old times, the other fishermen are trying to figure out where we are fishing. A true fishermen never gives a definite answer!

This is the second year in a row that a pair of Eagles has not gone south. They sometimes follow us out for a meal of fish, or should I say follow the Ravens. The Ravens are tough, waiting for us even in the coldest of weather.




Checking to see how wide the crack is.


Sometimes we have to travel miles to find a split or place where it is narrow enough to jump across. Good times.


If you eat fresh Perch in a restaurant in the Midwest, there is a good chance that it came from us. An excellent meal, just glad I do not have to fillet them all.

The Tournament of Champions

Our Bantam team went to the Tournament of Champions this last weekend. We did not fair too well. We won the first game and put ourselves in the A side. Our next game was against the host Minnedosa, a much bigger and faster team than ours. They did show us up on the scoreboard which is acceptable. But they did not let off after getting ahead by a wide margin. Hitting us harder every opportunity they had, especially our girls. (we were one of 2 teams with girls on the team) As in any contact sport, when play like this occurs, stuff gets out of hand. I have been involved in plenty of these kinds of games in my career. A long story short, there were lots of penalties and one suspension. Not the way I prefer to play but you need to look after your teammates. If nothing else, it brings a team closer to take a beating on the scoreboard and fight your way out of the rink.

Other than that, we went bowling and had a great time. The kids bought some sleds and slid down the hills of the town we were in, while the parents had a few!

Here is my form. Tough spare out there.



Here is part of my bunch of Bantams. I love coaching.

Perch Season Begins!

It is time to try our hand at chasing the schools of perch around the lake. We have not made too much $ as of yet during the part of our season where we use a larger sized net to catch mainly walleye so yesterday we started setting nets which are smaller and fish different areas to catch perch. Hope we find some...

Here is a video from a few years of some of the good times and dirty weather. I think the Dirty Jobs show should come and fish with us on Lake Manitoba in January!!

2010 Photo Contest winner!

Here is the winner of our 2010 Photo contest!


Congratulations to John Stanley. We are looking forward to hosting him and his band of merry men again in 2011.

Here are just a few of the honorable mentions. Thank you to all of our guests who shared and submitted photos. It is great to see people having such a good time with us in such beautiful country.

Thank you and enjoy.

Fishing by myself

My brother went away for a week on vacation so I am fishing all by my lonesome....almost. My brothers dog Jess is staying with us this week so she is my fishing partner. She rides in the Bombardier nice and quiet looking over my shoulder, she walks back with me to each hole to tie each net down. It is nice to have company out there, she even puts up with my complaining of crappy fishing. The temperature is quite cold up here but I am not complaining, when you do the work of 2 people you get pretty hot, it was -20 with no wind and I never wore my hat all day, actually I sweated for most of it.

Here is Jess, the fishing dog. She jumped once when the ice shifted and rumbled and she is kind of afraid of the glare ice patches, but she stayed close barking at any distant ravens who followed us 8 miles out for a meal of fishguts.