What are these? Win a mug!

O.K., here's another chance to win a classic VBL coffee mug. All you have to do is guess what these five common NW Ontario trees are. This might be challenging so you have until March 1st to come up with the right answers. To keep your answers secret email them to me at vbay@drytel.net .......I will announce the winner (first one to get them right) in March. Frustrated? Angry? Post your comment and vent!

Chuck's tale of drama and adventure........

Here's an interesting photo from a few years ago, back in early June.
I remember my wife Diane and I were fishing a few kilometres from V-Bay Lodge.
Suddenly the sky went dramatically half dark and white with a harsh wind and distant rumbling thunder.
I suggested to Diane that we should reel in and quickly get to shore to seek shelter from the rapidly gathering storm.
I turned the boat around and began racing back to the lodge.
At just about that time Diane's hat was picked up and thrown in the lake.
We stopped and looked around but couldn't find it.
Again we started racing away. The air temperature dropped about ten degrees and hail began to fall.....followed by freezing rain. This was our most extreme weather experience on a lake.
I passed a couple of other guests boats as we reached Gull Rock.
We tied the boat up at the dock and walked into our cabin and waited for the storm to pass.
I had to wonder how a storm like this effects the fishing?

Chuck in Toronto............

Perch-O-Rama.....

Susanne nailed a bunch of perch in this secret location (clue: note VBL in background) and I added to the pile with a northern. While I have publicly been known to scorn the likes of Kurt Hebecker, Mark Miskywicz, Andy Lewis and others for their love of perch, I will admit that when we fried them up for lunch they were darn tasty! Maybe the "perch queens" were on to something after all.......

Granite from Vermilion Bay......

It's an interesting fact that a lot of the granite for building projects and monuments in Canada & the U.S. comes from the granite quarries near Vermilion Bay. We had a bit of a tour courtesy of Brent who runs one of the huge loaders which can move around 80,000 pound blocks of granite. You can see from the pictures how the drills bore out the basic shape of the blocks. From there if you look closely in the second to last picture you will see a row of rods sticking up. These are actually wedges that are driven into the holes and split off the huge blocks of granite. The Vermilion Bay quarries, just west of the village, produce pink granite. Nelson Granite, who owns the operation, also has quarries near Kenora that produce brown, green and yellow granite. In the top picture you can see the various types of granite waiting to be shipped.

Walleye graffitti.........

You may have noticed some of the artwork near the government dock in Vermilion Bay. Is it art? Is it vandalism? You be the judge. In this exclusive photo we have caught one of the culprits in the act! This person looks eerily similar to Chuck Weiss.......

What's on the end of your line?

I have caught some strange things over the years. Billy here caught a really nice one on Eagle Lake three years ago. It was an ice fishing rod and reel that Bill thought he should measure for the VBL brag board. It's now hanging as a trophy in the fish house. I know Marsha caught a pole and line counter reel during last year's walleye madness tournament (Hey, Gord....where's the pictures from 2008)? Tell us about your strangest catch while fishing.

Lake trout fishing....

Susanne & I spent a few hours in Delano Lake today trying to catch some trout for dinner. Our success rate the past few trips has been "slim". While we didn't slay them today we at least pulled up a couple eaters. Both were caught on these jigging spoons (left...Williams Trophy...right...Williams Wobbler). We were fishing off an island in 35-40 feet of water. The forcast for the next few days is snow, rain and everything in between. Definately not ice fishing weather!

Dog sledding at VBL....

Burton Penner (http://www.canada-dogsled.com/) came by the lodge today with one of his dog teams. These dogs are bred to want to run and they are very excited about "getting going"....at least judging by the amount of yipping and barking that goes on! Our two dogs seemed quite mystified about the whole thing.

Wolf kill by Dog Island.......

Wolf kill by Dog Island....what a great name for a novel or movie. We had wind and snow Saturday night so when we ran across this spot by Dog Island the next day on our way to Clearwater Lake you knew it was only hours old. Well, it wasn't pretty but the wolves need to eat too. Wasn't much left except for a few feet, some hide and plenty of hair and wolf tracks. They were the only ones having luck getting their next meal....Susanne and I struck out on trying to catch some lake trout.

The answer is.....

Charles is the winner of the VBL mug....congratulations! The close-up was from the floor boards of this wooden boat (not the seat or transom, but close enough!). We'll be running this contest at the end of each month so be sure and check it out at the end of February.