License/ Outdoors card reminder! ... spring update

A reminder to everyone coming up this season to bring along the Outdoors Card you received this past winter. If you don't have it with you, we will have to charge you an additional $9 charge for another application prior to purchasing your license. Unfortunately, non-residents can not purchase their fishing license online as of yet, the Ministry of Natural Resources is aiming to have that going for next season. They do have a 1800 number you can call and purchase a license, but it does take 4-6 weeks to receive the license, so most of you are probably best to just buy your license once you have entered Ontario. We do have licenses at here at the camp, or there is a few spots you can stop on the way to pick one up.
Our first trout fisherman arrived yesterday afternoon, unfortunately it looks like a poor weather forecast for the days they are here. They should still be able to land some trout if they can tolerate the rains. (which we do badly need however!).
The water levels on all the river system lakes are extremely low, the floods is approx 7 feet low. The upper launch is still okay to get into with larger boats, you just have to back out about 50 feet further than normal. Have not been into the lower landing lately to see how accessible that is. We still have 3 weeks before walleye opener, which is a lot of time to get some significant rainfalls to help bring water levels back up. We will post about the water levels again before walleye opener.
The smallmouth are just starting to move shallow and become slightly more active. We were out last Saturday and caught about a dozen bass and a dozen northern pike. Seen a lot of fish, but the water temps were just a bit cool yet and the fish were not real aggressive towards artificials and we did not bring along any live bait. Surface temps are ranging 45-48 degrees right now.
If anyone coming up has any questions at all, please feel free to contact us anytime through our email, or call direct if you need to talk in person. Otherwise, good fishing until we see you next!

2010 Season Begins!!!

Believe it or not, the open water season for 2010 has begun. All the lakes have opened up and Crystal is loosing it's last bit of ice today. We were out yesterday after the kids got home from school and trolled for about an hour, caught one nice laker, lost a couple more, and one good bass. Water temp was 35. The trout have been biting quite well most of the winter and still are going into the open water fishing. If any one wants some excellent trout action, plan an April or very early May trip! First time ever we have been able to fish out here in a boat in early April . Ice out is about 3-4 weeks ahead of time. Unfortunately, unless we receive a lot of spring rains, water levels are going to be down a bit due to little snow run-off this spring. A record winter for us as I only had to plow snow 2 times!! Usually it is 2 times a week.
Well, for all our return guests, our new office is in the new house that we have been picking away at for 6 years! We finally completed it last fall and moved in before Christmas. We did add nice little tackle shop, and what we are doing as a special promotion is anyone that refers a new group that books with us, we will give them a $50 credit good for any fishing tackle in our office. If you refer two groups, you will get $100 credit!
Moving into our new house allowed us to open up our old residence (number 1) as another cabin rental unit. We are, however, starting to get fairly booked up for this upcoming season, so if you or anyone you know of may want to come up this season, please contact us as soon as possible to reserve a date.
We are looking forward to another good season this upcoming summer. Thank you to all guests that have reserved dates for 2010 and to all our past guests as well that may not have the opportunity to come up fishing this summer.
Well, I have to go to get my walleye gear ready for this upcoming weekend, I am going to do some open water jigging before the walleye season closes the 15th. This is the first year we are ever able to try for some winter wallys from a boat!
Jody

Tribute to Jack

This is not a blog entry we ever look forward to enter, but we just wanted to let all our fishing friends that have been coming to the camp over the years know that Jack Switzer, the big old guy that was always helping out around the camp passed away earlier this spring. Jack was a good friend of ours that helped us through our learning curve of operating the camp the past 6 years. He was also a good friend of many of our fisherman, as Jack owned and operated the camp from the 70's to 1989. Some of our long time return guests were actually coming to Crystal Beach when Jack owned the camp. Jack will be sadly missed, but much of his craftsmanship has been left in the buildings and on the property here at Crystal Beach. Rest in peace Jack.