Fish River Lodge Journal

Journal entries from Fish River Lodge, Eagle Lake, Maine. Adventures in hunting, fishing, trapping and running a sporting camp in northern Maine.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

We're still here! Recap of the past year...

It's been a YEAR since I last posted a blog, and I apologize for that! I've found that most folks are following us on facebook now... You can follow us on facebook too at: http://www.facebook.com/FishRiverLodge?ref=hl . I post weekly updates there, sometimes daily. I'm going to TRY to write more blogs in the coming year. Not exactly my new year's resolution, but just something I'm going to try harder to do for those who enjoy our Fish River Lodge blogs. Let's catch up...After moving back up to the lodge and spring cleaning the lodge, camps, and grounds we enjoyed very busy spring fishing, summer vaction, and fall hunting seasons. We saw the return of many familiar faces and welcomed new friends to the Fish River Lodge family. Spring fishermen landed several salmon in the 3 1/2 - 5 1/2 pound class. We've seen steady improvement in the salmon fishery on Eagle Lake. Tom Knowles landed the largest salmon at Fish River Lodge in 2012, weighing just shy of 5 1/2 lbs. In mid-April we added a new member to our four-legged family: "Magnum", a 3 year old Appaloosa horse that I keep at Fred Simard's. Kindly, Fred alows us to be part of his "herd". Before Fish River Lodge, I had horses for 20 years or more. I have missed having a horse in my life since we sold them to move north. Now that we've settled in to Eagle Lake, it was time to get back in. Highlights from the summer season included a two-week visit by Acadia - my grand daughter; we hiked, fished, paddled, went target shooting, rode horses and ATVs, took a trip to Allagash, and made many wonderful memories. John Chase's famous "Trash Can Turkey" was another 4th of July tradition and hit along with a fireworks display. We enjoyed campfires on the beach; The Dunning's new boat; Crain family vacation; more fishing, boating, and rides on the woods roads. Alli had puppies on July 24th (my mother's birthday!) - we ended up keeping one; "Belle" has become the newest "lodge dog" here at Fish River Lodge. Throughout the summer I worked on Magnum's education and was able to start working him under saddle at the end of July. John Medina and his son Brian started a big, new addition to "Guide Camp" and tore down cabin #4, marking the site with a cross. When finished, the remodeled camp will sleep up to 8 and has a sweet deck overlooking the lake. We had a surprise visitor in August: Maralyn BENEL Redinger. 72 years ago, to the day, her dad caught a salmon in Eagle Lake while staying at Charlie Wiles Lake View Camps (now Fish River Lodge). The Benel family, originally from Long Island NY, used to vacation and fish here until WWII ended their vacations. On Maralyn's "bucket list" was to return someday. Amazing, and unknown to her until she arrived, she returned on the EXACT day her father had caught the fish pictured in the vintage photo still hanging in the dining room! Hunting season for us starts at the end of July when we start running bear baits. We had many successful bear hunters, including my father, George Skolfield. Although his bear wasn't the largest of the season, it was the best "trophy" hunt I guided! October brought one of the most productive ruffed grouse seasons we've enjoyed in YEARS! Our new puppy, Belle, was introduced to grouse and did an amazing job tracking one day. Here she is, taking a break, after hunting with us one afternoon. I think she's going to take right after her mother "Alli the Wonder Dog" when it comes to tracking and sniffing out game. We are fortunate to guide three different weeks of moose hunters. "Milestones" and highlights included Amanda Caswell's first hunt, a cow moose guided by Mike Duni; Jean Wilson's first hunt and perfect shot on a cow moose; I got my first moose tag - an October bull - after waiting 30 years! I brought my daughter as my sub and we had the MOST amazing week of hunting! We saw dozens of moose and grouse and Miranda shot her first limit of grouse. After passing on some nice early-week bulls, I killed a 45" bull on the Friday of my hunt. The largest bull taken by a Fish River Lodge moose hunter was Bob Pratschler's, guided by Wayne. The season came to a close in November when the Bombara family returned to hunt deer and we guided our last moose hunters of the season. While some hunters in the Bombara family saw deer, none were taken. Wayne guided a delightful pair of hunters on a cow hunt - we all became fast friends - Bernie & Donna Clark and Kenny & Linda Jackson - the ladies watched over me after I twisted my knee badly. Snow began falling in October. It didn't stay and we got more in November that melted away. December snow started piling up and we enjoyed a pretty normal winter. Soon after Christmas we shut down the lodge and moved in to cabin 7. It's somewhat like hibernating. The first couple of months it's quite cozy but the tight quarters, long nights, and cold gets old and by mid-March we long to return to the lodge! This winter we ice fished, enjoyed a weekend of snowmobiling with Mary Heald and Dan and Ian Pinnette. We rode in to Duboullie then to Allagash for lunch. It was a great day of riding! Quigley's Outdoors sponsored another ice fishing day at Fish River Lodge. It has become an annual event that the kids in The Valley look forward to. This year they ice fished, played tug-of-war on the lake, took snowmobile rides, went sledding, and Jared brought his Halflinger horse, Emma, and gave sleigh rides! I wonder when was the last time a horse and sleigh were on Eagle Lake? We hosted Jaye Foucher and her team for the CanAm races in March, and Acadia and my parents came to visit for the sled dog races too. Their visit brought back many memories of my sled dog racing days as we toured all over northern New England racing dogs in the winter. I watched coyotes and lynx on the lake. We took long walks on the ice and lots of pictures, I read, and worked on some marketing and graphic design projects. Wayne visited his mom and dad in Florida and attended the Daytona 500 with his brother Geno. While Wayne was away I treated Miranda to her first hunt - a red deer hunt at Hind Site, in Newport, Maine. Rocky Luce was an enthusiastic host and friend Mike Duni helped guide. I coached Miranda and she killed this red deer hind (doe) to feed her family this winter. Miranda is determined to start filling her freezer with game meat now that she knows she can do it! In no way is this preserve hunt a "gimme". We saw deer, lots of them, but they don't hang around long so it makes for some quick thinking, aiming and shooting. Miranda did an excellent job and there's no doubt she will become a thoughtful hunter. Ice fishing season ended on March 31. As of today (April 7), we still have about 30" of ice and a foot of snow on the ground. We plan on moving back up to the lodge by the end of the month to start "opening" for our 9th season and greeting our 2013 guests! Spring IS coming, so they say.