CATCH you later....

It’s hard to believe, but we are wrapped up for the 2024 season at Big Hook!

Texas takes on Central Lake

It seems that summer always goes too fast; the later half of this one felt like a time warp. I guess it’s also true, time flies when you are having fun.

And it was a very fun late season, with just one caveat – the fire that continued to burn for weeks on end, threatening both the Burnt Lake and Cocos Lake cabins. Fortunately, both were sparred thanks to the hard work of the Ontario MNR firefighters and a little luck / help from up above. Quenching rains came just as the fire was about a mile southwest of Cocos and nearing 50,000 acres.

August often brings northern light shows

The extremely dry weather this summer led to lake levels at record lows – down about 4’ from normal at all our locations. Hopefully it’s a snowy winter in NW Ontario so we can start off 2025 closer to average – it will make the snowmobilers happy in Red Lake and Sandy Lake too.

Fishing remained outstanding through the end. Maria, Adam, and I were able get out and test the product some as we pulled portage motors, buoys, and the windsock at Central and found dense schools of walleye. It was easy work pulling in the last, unlucky, to-be-fried fish of the summer. Late season guests did well with both walleye and pike, as their metabolism is still peaked and they put on lbs. for the cold months ahead (the fish, not the fisherman).

In late August we saw a few days with heavy winds. During this cycle, the pike seemed to be relating to rocky points, probably hunting weary and tired prey fish worn out from fighting the currents. I witnessed one trophy fish being pulled up on a ½ oz. bucktail jig. Before and after the wind event, top water action was busy as ever.

West Lake 30"er!

Several trophy pike were boated in early September at West Lake on green and red Rapalas and June Bug spinners.

As noted, the walleyes were grouped up in massive schools and feeding heavily. One group at Central reported floating atop a gentle drop-off leading from a sheltered bay to bigger water and catching “hundreds of 18”- 20” walleye” at about 20’.

Several moose sightings were reported at Southwest, West, and South Lakes. On one of our forays around Central, Maria, Adam, and I spotted a wolf walking the shore – a first for me in Canada!

With the closing of the camps and the departure of our last guests comes a lot of projects that have been on the to-do list. The foundation at Burnt Lake kept us busy for a few days. Frost heaves there shoved the cabin forward – as if the threat off fire wasn’t enough. It’s better than new now, however. West Lake saw a new set of stairs and new chimney pipe installed. Southwest Lake got a new refrigerator, some power system upgrades, and brush cutting. Cocos also got a lot of brushing work done in addition to a heli-pad for the MNR helicopters (so they didn’t have to continue hovering on our dock - see pic). And, the solar installation at South Lake is now complete, making all of our locations operate primarily on renewables (there’s still a generator backup at each location too). The last northbound planes heading up to fly out our final guests of the year delivered several brand-new outboards that we will be eager to fire up in 2025.

MNR firefighting helicopter at Cocos

My most sincere thanks to all our guests and my staff that made this summer possible. It was one for the memory books. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of you.

We are now taking reservations for all of 2025! There are some great weeks still available for the second half of summer. Please reach out you’d like more details. “Quit wishin’ and come fishing“ as they say. Thanks again everybody for an outstanding 2024! We’re looking forward to 2025 already. Have a happy fall and winter in the meantime, Ryan

Another hog from South Lake

Final flight of the year for the 2024 Big Hook staff