Early February update and canoes for sale.
February 3rd, 2012
Welcome to our website from all of us here at La Tourell's Resort & Outfitters. Whether you're a past customer of ours or a someone that is looking at visiting us for the first time, we hope this site is helpful to you. We'll be regularly updating the site with forest conditions, fishing reports, and other helpful information. Enjoy!
Our winter has continued to be a mild one, although we definitely have a wintery looking backdrop in the woods and the lakes here have very good ice. The mild condtitions have made it great to spend some time outside. We've been busy cross country skiing, sledding with the kids, and getting out a bit on the area fishing lakes. There have been plenty of wildlife sightings lately. The kids saw a couple of moose on the school bus ride the other day. We've had quite a few wolf sightings as well. Its very interesting to see the wide range of color of the timberwolves, as in one day I saw one that was almost white and later on saw another that was almost pure black. The bird feeder has been busy with chickadees, Gray Jays, Blue Jays, nuthatches, Pine Grosbeaks and plenty of woodpeckers flying around outside the kitchen window.
The dry conditions that we had through the 2011 summer has continued through the fall and winter. We didn't receive much significant rain during the last months of fall and the winter has seen lower snow amounts as well. The last week has seen some decent little snowfalls, but we're still far behind normal. Lake levels at freeze up were as low as we've seen. However, we're hopeful that the long range forecasts for some healthy snowfall yet this winter will help to improve these low levels by spring.
These dry conditions late this past summer as well as some other unusual factors led to the Pagami Fire in the southern part of the Boundary Waters that was the big news this September. Although we do have a good number of our customers that travel the several miles over to access the areas affected by this fire, the majority of our guests travel into areas here around Moose Lake that weren't affected at all by the fire. Those of you that do plan on paddling into the affected areas will be happy to note that the US Forest Service will be able to allow camping on most of the campsites within the burn area. The only changes currently in place are that several campsites will be closed for rehabilitation and that there will be a slightly different permit quota system. I've already heard from many of you that are anxious to see the regeneration that has already begun, the patchwork of areas within the burn not affected, and how this natural process will change from year to year. Again, for those of you travelling out of our base on Moose Lake, these areas were not affected.
It was another succesful fishing season here at La Tourell's in 2011, and we enjoyed hearing so many of your stories of your fishing adventures. Also, thank you to everyone that shared all the great photos of your trophies with us. The smallmouth bass continue to provide us with a world class fishery and the size and numbers of fish were again impressive in 2011. Trophy walleyes up to 32" as well as some impressive stringers of eaters were again reported. The hard fighting northern pike were very co-operative overall with some huge numbers of fish as well many 40" plus fish being caught. We also had good reports from the canoe trails on the lake trout fishing and some very nice catches of bluegills in the shallow bays accessible here from the resort.
We've been busy talking with many of you about your trips for 2012. If you have any dates in mind, please give us a call so we can lock in a date for a trip or a cabin stay. We do still have openings for our resort cabins, although many dates are beginning to fill up. In order to secure your preferred dates, we recommend contacting us at your earliest convenience. Permit dates for the canoe camping trips are still mostly available, although a few dates are beginning to fill up.
Quetico Park (Canadian Side) permits are available 5 months in advance of your entry date. Those of you that are planning Quetcio trips should be aware that there have been a few changes in the last few years. The most important items to note are that Quetico Park has now implemented a ban on live or dead bait and also requires the hooks on your line to have the barbs pinched down (the rest of your tackle box may have the normal barbs....just those being used must be modified). Fishing licenses for Quetico can now be ordered online at at www.ontario.ca/outdoorscard and it does save a bunch of time to get these ahead of time. There has even been priliminary talk that you will need to obtain these online ahead of time and not be able to purchase them at the Ranger Stations. The RABC permits to enter Canada are still the same, but in 2009 the US Customs implimented some new requirements to re-enter the USA. A passport is now required to re-enter the USA from anywhere (including here in Ely). US Customs is located just as you enter Ely from the NE (directly across from the Wolf Center). Again, these Quetico Park regulations only apply to canoe trips into this area, not to our resort guests or to BWCA canoe trips in the United States.
As we do every season, we now have some of our canoes available to purchase. I've listed the canoes we have available for you and their prices below. Please contact us at 1-800-365-4531 and talk to Bob if you would like to discuss purchasing one of these great canoes or if you would like us to email you photos of any of these canoes.
Kevlar Canoes (all are kevlar ultralight layup with internal skidplates, and free yoke pads).
Wenonah:
MN III 20' (3 seat canoe): $1400-$1600
Seneca 19 1/2' (3 seat canoe): $1695
MN II 18': $1450-1495
Champlain 18': $1295-1495
MN IV (4 seat canoe great for families): $1950
Boundary Waters: $1450
Souris River:
Quetico 16' Solo: $1775
Quetico 18.5" (3 seater): $1850
Wilderness $1695
Aluminum Canoes:
17' and 18' Alumacraft and Grumman Canoes
From $325 to $475 dependant on condition
Thanks again for visiting our site! We truly appreciate each of your visits with us and look forward to helping you with your vacation plans. We enjoy sharing in your experiences to these northwoods our family calls home!