The two contestants (Harvey opted out) are ready to commence drinking.

This is after 16.  Pussyboy passes out like the first year, but being the good sport that I am, I revived him and he got his  second wind.

Here is the final count.

The queen still reigns but so does the king.  We called a  truce on number 21.

And you can see from this picture that neither of us remember much of the evening.  Jack will have to supply the details.

All the beer is on ice.

Not a hunyak is stirring

Not even Brian “Lovemaster” Rice.

Harvey, Brian or Jan?

All the bets are down

Only a few short hours

Until the Queen retakes her crown.

Oh, and yep, there is a bear hunt going on.  The count is 6 bear dead.  Most of the baits are being hit every day and a lot of the hunters have seen bear and wolf.  Here is a picture of another 300 pound bear that Shrek killed Sunday night.

Hey I have witnessed a lot of posturing and pontificating by contestants and bystanders (even turkeys that have never been here or met the contestants!) alike but I have to say this will be a close race. Janet has been in training and Harvey was born that way! And Pussyboy will probably stick with the old “stay on my feet for as long as possible” strategy. So who do I think will win? That’s very simple! The last person drinking. I will stay neutral as always and try to not let anyone see me trip Pussyboy.

It has been a very busy month – what with all the ongoing projects and even more so with all the summer events. All of this years events were total successes even if two of them were rained on. The Ethnic dinner (Polish this year) was a little soggy but still an unmitigated success. The food was excellent, the company so-so. But what the Hell, we started off with a shot of Luksusowa and everything got better and wetter from there.

Cabbage rolls, perogies, halushky, and hunyaks everywhere! I was even knighted Lord of firth and all sourrounds by Bob Poczik – gee I was hoping for emperor! Oh well one must take what one must get.

National Vodka on the Beach Day as always was waaaaay too much fun. We also dovetailed into playing bean bags and a later camp fire.

The vodka types we had were Luksusowa, Fleischemans, Jacquins, Effen, Grey Goose, Red White and Blue, Popov and Stoli Raspberry as well as regular. So there was a fine assortment of rot-gut as well as designer vodkas for all tastes. It was a good time.

We generally have Mojito Monday too but the weather didn’t cooperate so being the flexible people we are – we had Mojito Tuesday!

I missed most of the festivities as I was out fishing but I was assured that a good group of Mojitos were consumed and I got the remnants of a Mojito when I got back. These are all Mojitos made with the wild mint that grows at our beach. I think it is a variety of  spearmint so Sportsmen Camp Mojitos are special in their own way! I am transplanting the mint from the beach to several locations around camp so that a bad ice off spring doesn’t wipe out our patch of herbs.

We also had sailing whenever the wind conditions were exciting and blustery. This year I suited up my 17′ old Grumman canoe with its sailing rig and took it out so we could have a mini regatta. I learned to sail in this canoe as a child and its really “twitchy” but a gas to sail! My sister Joan was the only one with enough balls to go out with me – it was a good sail. It also drove the point home to me how poorly the the canoe sails – fast on a reach but it doesn’t point well and it tacks like a pig. Still it was like a walk down memory lane – very exciting being right down on the water and spilling wind as we tore along taking on spraying water!

The Flying Circus was a delight to sail again! The largest rig available for the canoe was 45 square feet but being a reckless kid I wanted more so Dad built a bowsprit and we added even more sail to make it even twitchier! It was a fun day and true to form my hands were shaking after the sail!

Every year the Baxter clan asks me to put together an adventure day trip to an outlying lake for fun in the sun with fishing as an afterthought. They just ask me to take them somewhere interesting and beautiful. So this years trip we went to Sinclair on the grassy river system. This year was special as the grassy river system is about 5 – 6 feet low exposing vast lengths of sandy beaches. I selected an island that had all sorts of interesting features – two isolated white sand beaches, a long stretch of a quickly dropping beach and several rock point to dive off of and an adjoining island that could be waded to for more exploration opportunities. We did do some fishing with limited success but it was a great day of fun on the beach. We swam, ate lunch, dove off the rocks, built rock cairns, assembled a driftwood sculpture, skipped stones and ran the dogs all over. It was quite an expedition this year with between 18 and 19 people and three dogs. I’m not exactly sure how many people came so there may be someone left on the island – c’est la vie.

As always we throw rocks via the new trebuchet , GordoWulf II,  at our hapless target boat. We haven’t yet sunk it this year but we did score a hit directly on the transom of the boat. Several other shots have hit close enough to splash water into the boat! It a good thing we haven’t sunk it as I would just have to drag it from the lake and repair it anyway!

Mixed in with all the other activities we have – games of Sportsmen’s Camp sanctioned Beer Croquet, ice cream making, the Philistine Invitational Fishing Contest, sauna nights, campfire songfests featuring wandering troubadours guitar players, Texass Hold’em tournaments at the lodge, as well as Oh Shit games and darts up in the store and watching northern lights on the beach. And oh yeah we do go fishing occasionally!

Unfortunately the the summer is winding down (Sob) but there is still much more tom foolery to be had. The drinking contest and happy hours on the beach as well as several projects. But before I bid you all adieu Bart insists that I post a picture of him showing how big his nose is!

Warning: If you don’t want to see dead bear then don’t scroll down.

So, I need to waste some space for those of you that don’t want to look.

Weather this summer: warm and dry – mostly beautiful Canadian summer days.

Fishing this summer: average.

Drinking holidays: plentiful and well received.

Drinking contest announcement: Brian “the Love Master” Rice, Harvey (everyone knows Harvey) and The Queen of the North will compete, each drinking his or her choice of beer.  That will be Buttwiper, Schmidts, and 50 respectively.  The contest will be held late in the week of August 28- September 3.  Post your wagers.

Okay – here’s the picture.  One 305 lbs. and one 288 lbs.  And Bob and Harvey say we never post anything about bear season!

We had to feed seven – count ‘em – seven ravenous fish eaters yesterday. It was the first rainfree day in a string of about 5 warmish days with scattered drizzle to heavy downpours so we aimed to “make hay while the sun shined”.  The plan was to send out the infamous Japanese long liners! The long liners consist of me, the evil Janeeto (Yes, of the planet Janetron), Baxter and Bart. We take our tiny ultralight fishing poles and park on “the Shoal” in the Piscarious with about 10 beverages and about 3 dozen leeches and fill up a stringer with eating sized bass (say 12 to 15 inchers). We also enjoy a beautiful day on the water. This time we needed about 10 fish to feed this crowd of gourmands! It took us about an hour and a half to complete our task. The cool thing is that several “whompers” were caught and released on the way, Janet caught a 19″, 18.5″ and a 17″ on the way and I (not to be out done) caught a 19.5 incher. Oh, that precious half inch! On initial measurement I only got the fish at about 18 inches – but it was curled and flopping so I remeasured it and it came in at 19.5! The Evil One may leave a comment disparaging my measuring technique but I can assure you all that it was on the up and up! What a beautiful day on the water – northwesterly breezes with a strong westerly component puffy cumulus clouds and warm sun. The bass tasted fantastic for supper too. We wrapped up the expedition a little early and journeyed back for bean bags and keeping a squirrel treed and fun on the beach. What a great day!

It is warmer and sunnier today but still with the comforting northwesterly breeze and I am slated to put a new roof on cabin number 9 – so I may have to get a little long-winded on this blog to delay the inevitable. The lake temperature is in the high 70’s F. The water level on this lake is about normal for late summer. The fish are biting and the insects are fast approaching their low point for the seasons activities. The Humming birds have hatched and fledged and I have to refill the feeders almost daily as the little winged piggies drink and fight with each other all day. Well lunch  and a roof beckons so I must bid you all adieu.

The fishing and weather have been wonderful. The lake temperature is in the upper 70’s F near 80 and the bulk of the mayflies (Janet suggests that they be called “July flies”) have hatched and the fish are nailing leeches and minnows. They are also responding very well to hardware and jitterbugs. Last night me, Janet and the boys spent about 2 hours on the lake at dusk. I caught about a dozen bass on my mepps none smaller than 12 inches and a good one at 17 1/2 inches. I also caught a very well built 30″ pike. Janet nailed a few bass on her jitterbug as well as a small pike. We didn’t do any fishing over deeper shoals, we were fishing the deeper weed beds where the minnows are schooling. Carol Fuller also got a nice perch north of elephant rock – we could hear her squealing in delight from about a quarter mile!

It won’t be all that long until the summer holidays of Vodka on the beach day, Mojito monday, Beer contest on the beach day, All Hail Caesar day, Polish dinner and cocktails, sailing in blustery or calm conditions (depending on the age of the crew – except for “I’m up for any conditions” – Bob Poczik) and the daily bean bag competition as well as all night darts. The Evil Janeeto (from the planet Janetron) has been doing a great job of turf management for beer croquet as well as cross country bocce too! We never run out of beach and lake driven activities and we sometime enjoy a cold drink during the fun!

It rained pretty good today and has cooled to about 75 F so its a very comfortable day. Firth lake levels are not all that different from dryer years. We seem to be getting enough rain to keep up with the demands of the growing season but levels are dropping steadily on the Wapus/Montreal river system and the Grassy is going to record lows this summer. I expect that it will end up about 6.5 to 7 feet below the norm. Sinclair is about 5.5 – 6 feet down now – you can actually walk around the lake now and vast amounts of shoreline rocks and hundreds of feet of gorgeous beach are exposed that haven’t been seen before in this lifetime. The fishing is still very good though and the landing is still in good shape. I actually think that its easier to put a boat in and out this year. I am thinking about a trek to Kapiskong to see the conditions there. It would also be a great year to take another group into Sinclair for beach combing, picnicking, shore lunching and swimming as the die-hards beat the water.  So its all good. Is this heaven? No, its the boreal forest of northern Canada – Sportsmen’s Camp to be specific.

I am lucky, I get to see people at their best – their happiest – their most relaxed, but I don’t think that that was a factor with Al. Even when it was cold and pissing down rain on a fishing trip he had a shit eating grin on his face. Al was a fun magnet. He would attract the fun to any situation and you’d get sucked in too. Before you realized it there was a party going on with everyone as grinning and as happy as Al. He had an odd penchant for hand held self portraits with the digital camera. The eastern mystics like to blow smoke up a person’s ass by saying  – “You’re an old soul.” Well Al wasn’t an “old soul” he was a young soul! He saw things with the brightness and positive perspective of a kid – a young man. To hell with being an old soul I wanna be a young soul like Al. I think that Al had the secret to eternal youth – a young soul. Al was a catalyst, a jovial sort, a good fisherman, a good father, an outdoors-man, a friend and my brother (I knew it even before Jeff started calling me uncle Jack). He is sorely missed – I feel as though I’ve been kicked in the gut. But I warm myself with the memories I share with him and my aspirations to achieving young soul status.

One of the theories floating around camp is that Billy fell asleep whilst smoking in one of our older wooden boats.

But there is still much to report. We (Pat, Carol, Gil, Joyce, Baxter,and Bart included) made a trip to the Mond and caught a lot of fish. But there will probably be no more people getting into that lake this year. The entire Grassy river system is down about 3.5 to 4 feet! It was a very difficult push into the lake, what with all of the Evil Janeeto’s – of planet Janetron – bitching and moaning and the low water levels. I would stay with the idiomatic “pissing and moaning” but Janet has raised the art of pissing to new level so I will stay away from that. I had a great time and the fishing was delightful but when the other participants recount the trip they will probably dwell on “Oh it was so hard to walk in the bush and the mud was soooo deeeeep and…” Wa wa wa what a bunch of fucking babies!

I also went up to Sinclair lake a couple days back with the Walkers and it was absolutely amazing to see all the structure high and dry. The drop in water level there appeared to be a good clean 4 feet! You could walk around the lake if you wanted to! But the fishing was still good and the newly exposed rocks on the shore line were gorgeous.  The boat launch at Sinclair was very easy with a 4 wheel drive truck but the launch at Loonwing was about 100 ft away from the water.  We caught several pike, many pickeye or wallyerels, and the bass are now firmly established in the southern grassy system. It occurs to me that any trips to outlying lakes should be investigated prior to packing the boat up and travelling there this year.

The may-fly hatch appears to be concluding. The green drakes were heavy on the water the last few nights so it is possible that the early July guests will experience some of the best fishing of their lives – sans mayfly. The lake temperature is about 73F but we have some cool nights predicted for the coming week but as long as the days are mostly sunny the temps should stay pretty constant.

After it was happily re-sized, I made a replica of the Stanley Cup from a salad bowl and some stainless steel stove pipe and re-sized it and fixed it on top of the arena.

The Civic arena will now be placed on the frame for the roof of the new diesel generator house. So let no Pens fans lament, the beloved Igloo is now preserved for all time here at Sportsmen’s Camp.

It’s also time for the annual Lupine Picture:

The lake temperature is back up to 70F and I have the reef makers placed on the lake. As I was placing the markers I caught about a dozen nice bass on a brown wooly bugger and silver mepps. The bass have already vacated their beds and there are swarms of bass fry all along the beach.

Its another rainy cool day here but we need the moisture. The weather will be rebounding quickly into sunny warm days by Sunday and for the rest of the week. The fishing has been good if you’re willing to go out in a north wind with misty rain – but why the hell would I do that – I’m here all summer Ha ha ha ha ha – eat your heart out – and there ain’t no goddamn black flies - La la la la (as Babe the pig would say).