What a season! I have to say, aside from the first seven great seasons, this was the best one yet!! This year especially, Matt and I spent a lot of time reminiscing about the first seven seasons…laughing about how green we were, how hard it was but always how rewarding it has been. Looking back at pics of kids, they were so small and young and happy. It has been amazing to think back about how it all started and what we have went through, the things we have built and created…the sheer magnitude of all the people we have seen and met year after year. The work…oh god the amount of work we have done and the long hours of labour just to get through a standard day…crazy!! Now, our days are buttoned up generally before it gets dark and we are in bed well before everyone else, especially kids. They typically tuck us into bed these days lol
What made this season so good?? The people of course! The people, the fishing, the people the weather, the fishing aaaand the people….it was all glorious! The road sucked ass and I will be back and forth with the Ministry of Highways all winter about that..keep you posted. But everybody, the people are what makes the season! Thank-you to everyone we saw in 2024. 152 in June, 127 in July, 89 in August, 37 in September and a small complement of only 18 for Wathaman….There were some awesome Adventures in 2024!!
The fishing was pretty steady from start to finish. Shallow spring trout was hot along with the walleye. Pike saw moderate numbers and sizes…This was not a pike year. Moving into summer, the deeper trout were a little tougher during the mornings but was fantastic in the evening right up until fall.
Walleye numbers were crazy good on Davin all summer. People were seeing schools and schools of them although the walleye were less than interested in biting until you started bottombouncing…then it was on! August was especially good for walleye!
Pike numbers were there as the summer went on but only a few serious trophies made it to the board. Boh B. put the biggest pike on the board in June and kept the biggest on the board all season at 41.5”. A few pics were submitted but nothing was measured for the board to beat out Boh. The biggest Wathaman pike was 45.5’ from the Dixon group…their pics are all over in our albums throughout the years…these guys are pro trophy hunters on Wathaman. Honorable mentions go out to Kelly from Tulsa who caught a 40.5 but weighed in at 26lbs. Nice one Kelly! Another honorable mention goes to Walter from the Pratt group in September, not measured but still a great trophy catch!
I sadly did not fish much this season. When I DID fish this season I knocked it out of the park and smashed a windshield…Check this out: Matt took me out on July 10 a day before my 46 birthday. We left at around 730, hit a couple holes that I wanted and did pretty good. Once i knew it was actually possible to catch my age I made it happen. The boat caught 46 fish..i caught at least 36 of those on a Williams wabler nuwrinkle with a janky leader…back to the lodge by 1030! Not a word of this is a fish story, was just another great day living the dream as this lake always produces! I am heading back up in a week for a week and I will be dragging a hook around…let you know what I catch! (Update: I caught a lot of pike and deep trout but nothing trophy…better luck next year!)
No real bear disturbances in camp this season. Lots of young bears on their own this spring but then they buggered off deeper into the forest for the summer. There was one super cutie cinnamon bear this spring that we saw a few times. Same bear each time as he always stood on his hind legs to appear taller and see further. We saw it for the first few weeks we were in camp then never again. Its a tough neighborhood to live in as we have an intimidating neighbour that we rarely see in person. Big momma wolfie had herself a litter again this year and they were staying close by. Late summer they go on tour for a couple weeks then back again for the winter. Not sure where her den is specifically but iit’sclose to camp. Matt saw her saunter across the driveway one day, she didnt look at him and wasn’t rushing, just crossing the road from one side of the forest to the next. Always lots of tracks on the driveway…mommas prints are huge and run straight…the young run circles around her and you can tell they are playing and wrestling around. Lots of chickens, lots of rabbits and a resident fox hang around camp. A few bears seen and a couple caribou were spotted on the lake by guests. Matt and I found an old caribou skeleton and we scooped the skull to put in a planter at the lodge. THe dogs sniffed it out and one day it was gone…so much for that! A guest found a single moose shed antler on a shoreline…another great find!
We took our family break at the end of July and the first week of August…well deserved! Didn’t do much, maintenance and slept in, splashed around in the water, ran the seadoo and had some friends and family up. One of my sisters and my niece finally made it up for the first time and brought along my mom, 83. This was my mom’s third or fourth trip up so that was super nice to have her back. My sister and niece were blown away! They had the general idea of what camp was like, they had seen lots of pics and heard all our stories, but it is something else to see it and experience it in person. The northern lights were spectacular while they were there, it was quite the show.
The website is being updated slowly in preparation for 2025 booking to open so if you have any pics that you wanted to share or see on the website, send them to me!! I am always happy to post your pics so send them over and they will be in time to show the in-laws at Christmas!
I took the kids home at the end of August so they could start school on time. We came out on a Thursday, went to Edmonton on a friday, stayed until Sunday then school started on Tuesday. This was very important to the kids to start back on time as both were moving up to new schools. Milo started in grade 10 at the high school and Freja started grade 7 in middle school. Miss Freja has never actually had a first day of school if you can believe that. She was 4 when we started this and the kids always stayed until mid to late September. How was her first day?? Underwhelming and not as big of deal as she expected lol. I anticipate repeating their early departure from the lake in the years to come. Milo will have his licence spring 2025 and he already has his vehicle, so at least he can drive them both around.
I travelled in/out from the lake multiple times throughout September and October. I still had All-Inclusive guests to entertain in September so the kids were left to fend for themselves with a “supervisor” not a babysitter lol. They did very well and managed fine…worried mom and dad but at least we had constant communication. If I had been left home alone at 15….with my vehicle in the driveway, guaranteed there would’ve been a thousand unlicensed km’s on it by the time my parents got home…and I would’ve been in shit. Not our kids…they are def not like us at that age, thank god!
The weather stayed absolutely beautiful right up until the middle of October. No snow, no real freezing temps, daytime temps above zero and typically cool sunny days.
The brother in law brought up a trailer load of stuff for Matt and they worked on some projects. Stan smashed the fish a few days before I got back up there…shallow trout, big pike. I get up there and the trout spawn was done, but the pike fishing was still good. Matt and I only fished 2 days my last trip up in between all the work we had to do. We choose to be fair weather fishermen in the fall…gauge the forecast and workload. On both occasions we chose to fish the big lake. We ran up the east side one foggy morning and fished the shorelines from Michael’s Bay down…so good, that is my favorite area to target…secret weed beds and lots of good pike, only a few shallow trout. That morning was so foggy I took some incredible pictures!! Timber is so photogenic ;D
THe next time we fished we wanted to do davin river, the portage etc. Ran right up to the portage….super calm day, I of course don’t look back and already have a hook in the water on the wathaman side and Matt is messing around. He said there were people at the cabin, which you can see from the top step of the portage. Full orange so they are not local hunters, but hunters from somewhere else. What do we do, what do we do what do we do….push a boat in and go find the eff out!!! Yup, they had a fire started, into the cabin and nearly unloaded once we get there…boy were they surprised!! I mean, you kinda anticipate people going through your stuff and your buildings etc but really?? We asked them to move along, they had planned to camp out to begin with so get after it. If there are people on Wathaman and they are in trouble with gear, or hurt or the lake is too rough, of course we expect someone to stay a night, build a fire to dry out, use the radio to contact someone, that is the code. Don’t move into someone’s cabin just because you can. They were extremely apologetic and moved on without issue. We wished them luck with their hunt and gave them some spots to check out. As most of you know, we do not house hunters. We reserve all the hunting for local indigenous and Métis from nearby communities. Matt does not even hunt seriously in the fall…we keep waiting for our moose to walk across the runway one morning hahaha! We head out with our gun and tag every year but never shoot. We do not need to take food and tradition from local communities in exchange for money…full stop.
Anyways, so there we are on wathaman, lake is flat, boat has gas, dogs are comfy in the tinner so we might as well fish!! What a wonderful twist in the morning…didnt set out to fish Wathaman, boats were pulled up and secured for winter already, but there we were. The pike fishing was incredible for the 2 hrs we were on Wathaman. Multiple, multiple double headers, all the fish were 30-35”+, it was AWESOME!! On the way from the portage we stopped at Trout Rock. I usually just like to cruise over and check the fish finder, never really drop because Matt and I never have any luck jigging for deep trout even though we do the same thing you do! Anyways, nothing really showing on the fish finder but we drop anyways because the water is so calm and bam…fish on! We caught our limit in no time at all…it was an incredible experience yet again! It is so crazy in the fall…on both lakes you see fish randomly jumping all over the place, bait balls swell the surface as you cruise by and not just one or 2 but 10 or 15 in the span of a couple miles…population 2 people and time well spent.
So what the hell were we doing up at the lake all fall? Lots of stuff! New windows and doors for all the cabins, this was a planned renovation. What we didn’t plan for was re-levelling all the cabins before putting in new doors. Makes sense though right?? Can’t put in a door if the cabin isnt levelled up. So….we knew a couple cabins sloped a bit and once we got looking at the supports and how rotten they were, it was a mandatory fix. Ripped off the steps for all the cabins. Dug out all the cement pads under the steps, got out the jacks and started in with cabin 3/4 first. Jack, dig, jack dig…dig, dig, dig, jack, dig. Did you know there are 12 supports for each duplex…yup there are! Reset all 12 of the cement pads, cut new supports for all 12 and had a straight string line before finishing. Cabins 3/4 took a whole day, then cabin 1/2 took a 1.5 days. Cabin 1/2 was in the worst shape and required the most digging. My fuckin arms were so dead by the end it was ridiculous. What is even more preposterous was at the beginning of the season I wanted to buy a couple new shovels. Matt said not a chance, there are lots of shovels up there. I thought to myself what the hell do you care and said yeah but they are all garbage and one spade had a flattened or folded over tip while the other absolutely had a broken handle. Matt said no big deal, he will fix and they will work fine. So when we get started fuckin digging for 3 days straight, first thing he busts a shovel and I laughed so hard. THen he broke another handle and now he is getting 4 brand new shovels for Christmas and maybe a new rake too just because i am full of spite after shovelling 72 tons of sand with a broken handle. I am of course exaggerating on the amount of sand I shovelled but not on the quality of the implements I had to use to complete the project. Its a good thing we work well together and can laugh at just about anything and everything. We finished the cabin levelling, got the windows replaced then graded out front of the cabins. It was terrible sloped and steep in places from where people walk and don’t walk. Got it all smoothed out and each cabin will get a full step and deck replacement in the spring. 18 stringers are already on the shoping list for 2025!
What else did we do?? Well, in anticipation for building the new shower house, we needed to take down the old 7-11 (dry goods building). It came down without a hitch and the cement pad it was on was in great shape and cleaned up well. The building demo and cleanup took a day, then we unloaded a new sea can and moved it up onto the cement pad that was now available. THis will house my new camp laundry as well as the water system for the new shower house. Water is of the utmost importance when we extend our season starting in 2025. If we have freezing temps, water will still be liquid for showers. We are also putting in multiple water heaters so more consecutive HOT showers! A new shower house is also needed because we are wanting to get rid of the guidehouse…A) its super ugly, B) its past its prime C)Its impossible to keep clean with sand tracking in/out and D) it’s where the new winter bunkhouse will go sooner than later! Whaaaat?? Yup, 6-8 man 4-season cabin with wood stove so those big groups of 5+ can all stay together versus taking up 2-3 cabins. Plus, we will eventually run a winter ice fishing and snowmobiling kind of thing.
The shower house build is started…piles in and subfloor built. Matt has walls up and all the building suppplies are on site for it to be finished in the spring and then operational by June 1, 2025.
Thats it, that’s the behind the scenes scoop on what we were up to this fall. I have been back in Lloyd for about a week and Matt is coming home today October 24. Kids are in full swing of their school work and activities. I am already back to work and onto my regular winter programming.
Early booking for 2025 begins on November 1 for all of our repeat clients!! Early booking email goes out on October 31 so keep an eye out in your inbox or junk folder. I have been getting tons of new inquiries so I urge you to get ahold of me asap on or after November 1 because I anticipate dates going very quickly once I open it up for new people on November 15. Wathaman will be a hot commodity for 2025 after a restricted 2024 season so if you want one of the 9 spots get your group ready to commit before November 15. Like I mentioned earlier, we are extending our 2025 season well past what we normally operate. I anticipate we will take bookings right up until October 10 which is a month longer. There will be opportunities for All-Inclusive, in a rotation, during this time as well. I am hoping more pilots will take advantage of the later season as the weather is more stable and more conducive for airplanes, please share this opportunity with any pilots who have private planes that you may know.
We want to again thank our 2024 guests for your continued support. We are reinvesting in what we have so we can provide a better experience for everyone. We invite you all back to Davin Lake Lodge whenever you can make it. Cheers to year 8 and beyond!!
Lots of love,
Danica, Matt, Milo, Freja and of course Timber and BARK!!
;D
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