Hockey Tournament is over.

Our hockey team hosted a six team two-day tournament this weekend in two towns for Atom aged kids which are 9 and 10 year olds. It was a excellent fundraiser for our minor hockey association and local arenas. We live in a small town and keeping the rinks open is always a concern. Everyone in town loves to see a buzz around the rink on occasions like these. My team did not place in the medals but won the Consulation. We invited stiff competition but most games were decided by one or two goals, Very Intense! These kids will be in body contact next year so there is a fair amount of body checking, I love that!!

And guess who planned it all...
If you have ever been fishing at Amik Outposts it should not surprise you to hear Rena takes care of all our tournament planning. She is Greatly Appreciated!!


This is one of our ways that we raise money, The Loonie Stick. This year there was 2 one piece composite sticks with each person paying $2 for each entry. $1 goes to our tourney and the other taped to the stick and their name entered in a draw. We had 2 sticks and each one had almost $100 on it. Other Fundraisers were Chuck-a-puck where the closest to center ice won a new wheeled hockey bag, Buy-a-player where we get $1 and the player bought gets the other $1, a Warren player went home 70$ richer this weekend. We also had a huge Rainbow auction.



Our kids had a League game Friday night then played three games on Saturday. Maija was totally wiped in the second intermission of our last game. We had a 2-1 lead going into the third against a team that is a division higher than us but sadly we ran out of gas and gave up three third period goals and lost 4-2. She mustered half a smile me. lol

It was sooo cold here this weekend. Minus 35 celsius with a -50 windchill. Canadians are crazy for hockey and we had teams travel through the weather and come to play despite the weather. Here is my Goalie Dradon. Hiding in his equipment trying to stay warm. Cold and played out after facing that frozen piece of rubber for 4 games in less than 24 hours.

This is the net that I scored my first goal in almost 30 years ago, Still Going.

The old barn in Eriksdale. Natural ice is great to skate on. Not many of those left. When I started playing here there was no glass, just heavy wire on the ends of the rink. The fans stood along the boards and had to pay attention to the play or they might get a stick or puck in the teeth. When my Dad coached Men's hockey here the fans were involved in the game too, holding up players or yapping with the opposition. Things got pretty heated at some of those games where the age old rivalries saw some awesome hits and goals.

My Daughter Maija on the left with Jerrica and the "Hardware"

One of my wingers Leo with a nice shirt on.

The Bronze medal winners, Warren Wildcats

The runners up, Riverton Eagles

Gimli Vikings, The Champs. This team is half girls and boys. Congrats!

Some Recent Pictures.

The Lake is Big outside the Reef!!

Here is the Video of our last week out on "The Lake"

Winter on Lake Manitoba


Perch fishing has been pretty good for the first couple of weeks. Hopefully it will continue for another month. Temperature has just begun to warm up too. So the ice crack should start to pile up like crazy. the ice has been "talking" since yesterday when the south wind started. Quite often you hear "Chunk" as the temperature rises. Today we could hear rumbling like thunder for sometimes 5 minutes on end as the crack pushes together until something gives and carries on for 30 or 40 miles, crushing together 3 to 4 feet of ice.

"The Lake is big outside the Reef" This is a saying that was written on an old wooden fish tub that is still over at the family farm. It means outside Long Point Reef which is 4 miles south of Einar's island which is 2 and a half miles out from Scotch Bay which is 1 and a half miles west of my house, the lake is BIG! Kind of an inside joke between my brother and myself. We do not know who wrote that but it is very true. There is nothing but smooth mud bottom out in the middle of Lake Manitoba, but that is where the Perch are. The lake is big outside the reef.

Minus 46 Degrees Celcius with the Wind Chill, Feels pretty good? Not really.
That is the Jigger under 3 feet of ice. It takes out the line to set our nets.
Fishing was so good, one day this week we ran out of tubs. So we just dumped them on the floor. It takes around 240 Perch per tub to fill. Lots of picking in a day.
We catch a few pretty big Perch too.

The video of our first days troubles on "The Lake"

Well, the first frostbite showed up today. Yesterday my brother Jamie said to me,"Hey your nose is frozen". I wanted a picture but by the time the camera was fished out of my snow suit it would have thawed, I did not feel like going out from the back side of the Bombardier to keep it frozen,LOL After showering today Rena noticed there was a patch of skin missing from the bridge of my nose, just a little frozen skin, nothing serious.

Here is the link to the video of our first day on "The Lake"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7liRe_AdfzI

Perch Season begins on Lake Manitoba with a Bang!!

Perch Season began today and it was a Stormy Day!! Very poor visibility, -20 celsius, and a wind gusting to 70km/h, and we had fishing to do!! My brother and I have the same work ethic, if there is a job to do, we will get it done no matter what the weather. Today we delivered once again, it was not pleasant out there but as long as you stayed moving it was not to bad. We did have a little trouble though. As we were crossing the first ice crack, (which was wider than we expected) one of the skis on our sled that we haul our snowmobile on caught the edge of ice on the crack as we came across. The end result....






A bent steel ski and a partially wrecked snow machine, could have been alot worse had the Bombardier hit the crack like that. We just took the snowmobile and left the sleigh. It was very cold driving the snow machine as we were going setting nets 15 miles from home. A long ways with no windshield to hide behind. Anyways I toughed it out and by late afternoon the wind was going down and it was actually almost enjoyable. The wind is supposed to blow from the north tomorrow and get colder. GREAT!! Can't wait to start catching fish..

Sportshows were a success!!!

Bookings were very good at the 2 sportshows I attended these past few weeks. A reminder to anyone wanting to book a flyin trip with us to call or email for dates as they are filling up fast.

I will show you those little gold Lake Perch soon, hopefully lots and lots of them.

Sportshow Time Again

Tomorrow I head down to Minneapolis for a couple of sportshows. The All Canada Show starts on Friday Jan 4th in Minneapolis at the Convention Center. It is held in the lower part of the Convention Center. Then on to the St.Paul for the Annual Sportsman's Show held at the Rivercenter. This one starts on Wednesday Jan 10th. Hope to see some of you down there.

Trophy Night in Eriksdale

We have 30 members in our little club with 9 entries in the Head competition. I did not have an entry this year but I did win it last year. The bucks are way bigger this year over all. 5 scored over 150 and the winner scored 165. Nice to see. Everyone is practicing trophy management and it is starting to show. No more small bucks being taken.

A nice Elk taken in our area with a bow by an old friend Jodie.

My Brother Jamie with his buck.

The only non-typical entry.



Tis was the winner. He scored 154 typical. Nice deer.