The holiday season is fast approaching for yet another year.  I can't imagine where the time has gone. We will be operating Davin Lake for the 11th season in 2015.  Seems like just yesterday when we bought the camp.
Our bookings are looking great for the 2015 season.  Space is becoming limited so I would suggest you call soon to make your reservations. 
I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Hoping you all enjoy good health and prosperity in 2015.
From Our House to Yours.
Irvin and Diana

readmore

Another year has come and gone and as we look back on 2014, it was an exciting year for us at Davin Lake.  One of our highlights was putting in the new dock.  It has made it so much easier for us and nicer for the guests.
Fishing was excellent.  A large number of trophy was caught and released.  The walleye seem like they are getting bigger every year  Pike fishing has stayed the same and the trout fishing was a bit weaker than usual.  This is likely due to the hotter than average summer we had.
We had an above average problem with bears as bear number seems to be up quite a bit from other years.
We noticed a lot more moose and caribou on the lake from other years.  This is likely due to the new growth after the forest fires a few years ago.
At this time we would like to congratulate the new pikemaster for 2014.  Lynden Butler from Colonsay, Sask. caught and released a 48 1/2 inch pike.  Lynden has won an all expense trip back to Davin for 2015.  Way to go Lynden!!!
Bookings are above average for this time of the year.  If anyone has any special dates they want to book, contact us to ensure your request is met.
Hope this finds everyone well. 
Until next time.......

readmore

Bus Tour Parking Issues

After the bus left, we sent the following e-mail to P.A. Tourism in hopes to get parking  tickets reversed. The end result is that they will not reverse the tickets BUT Davin Lake will take the cost of your ticket off your trip next year.  We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience!!!  Read on to see the correspondence.

"Hi Jayne,

Nine years ago, Davin Lake Lodge began an annual bus trip to allow Saskatchewan residents and friends an economical way to spend a long weekend fishing Davin Lake.  The bus starts in Melfort, picks up in P. A. and La Ronge before arriving at Davin Lake.

When we started the bus trip, we were granted permission from the tourism booth in Prince Albert to use that location as a pick up point for guests.  Verbal permission was given for guests to leave their vehicles there (at their own risk) for the three days.   Although it was a verbal agreement, it worked great up until this year.  On return Sunday, July 27th our guests found tickets on their vehicles and the guests are very

unhappy as we told them it was okay to park their vehicles there.

Can you please explain what has happened as we were under the impression that P. A. tourism and Northern Tourism worked together.   We also need some direction for the future. If you can or will not help us we will need to find a different location for pick up.  This is a great location for us.  It is easy to find and our guest pick up additional info on future tourist opportunities.

Please advise,

Irvin Kjelshus
Owner/Operator
Davin Lake Lodge"

We received the following e-mail with an attachment.

From: Prince Albert Tourism <patourism@sasktel.net>

"Good Day
We do apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused you and your
patrons.
Unfortunately due to many changing circumstances at the Visitor Centre  we
are simply unable to accommodate long term, overnight and multiple
non-Visitor Centre specific parking.
I have attached the letter that was left on the vehicles which should
clearly explain our current circumstance, including that the Visitor Centre
used to be closed on the weekends and is now open during the summer for 7
days a week.
For clarification, the parking lot is a City owned lot. As Such, the City
only ticketed the vehicles that were improperly parked(taking up more than
one stall)  and not any of the other vehicles left in the lot.
We did have one gentleman inquire the day prior in regards to parking and he
was told that we could not accommodate for the same reasons as explained in
the letter.
Proper signage has been requested from the city in order to prevent any
further incident.
We would be happy to assist you in finding an alternated location, for
example the Northern Lights Casino Parking lot, pending confirmation with
their management.
Sincerely
Jayne Remenda"

The following attachment was included in the e-mail.

Re: Overnight and long term parking in the City of Prince Albert’s Visitor Centre Parking lot.

This letter is to inform you that overnight and long term parking in the City of Prince Albert’s Visitor Centre Parking Lot located at 3700 2^nd Ave. West is not permitted.

The Visitor Centre houses the offices of The Prince Albert Tourism and Marking Bureau, The Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce and The Prince Albert Destination Marketing Fund.  These three organizations are required to have parking stalls available for 10 staff, persons conducting business with the said organizations and most importantly our daily visitors to the Centre and the two Museums on site. The Visitor Centre is open to the public 7 days a week during our prime summer season and Monday to Friday for the remainder of the year.

All City of Prince Albert public parks are closed to the public from Midnight until 6:00am daily. However, we do recognize the lack of parking specific signage indicating designated staff parking, short term visitor parking and that there is no overnight parking permitted. In order to prevent any further incident the appropriate signage has been ordered and will be installed by the City of Prince Albert.

Your future compliance in this matter would be appreciated.

Thank You

Jayne Remenda

CEO of Destination Prince Albert

On Behalf of the

The Prince Albert Tourism and Marketing Bureau,

The Prince Albert Destination Marketing Fund,

And The Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce.

readmore

Another Successful Bus Tour in the Books

We've seen another bus trip come and go.  We'll call this one hugely successful! Thank you to everyone that helps make this event one to look forward to each year.  Lane Therres recruited 10 guests.  Alex Brown brought 8 guests.  Lyndon Butler brought 4 guests.  Luis Milhomens has been with us from the beginning.

On the first night, Lyndon Butler of Colonsay landed a 48 1/2 inch Pike to send him to the top of the Davin Lake Pikemaster leader board.  Alex Brown caught a 42 inch fish as well.  We hope to have a picture of that one soon.

The bus clients have always parked their cars at the Sask Tourism booth while they come up for the weekend.  We have permission to do this.  However this year they all went home to find tickets on their windshields.  To those clients, rest assured we are working on correcting this situation!

We cooked for 33 people altogether during this trip.  This is very rewarding for the staff at Davin Lake... lots of work, but well worth it.  We are so thankful to be able to work with such an amazing group of people and in the end hopefully have happy clients!  Being that it's Irvin's 104th birthday today and I'll be 103 in a month, we're quite tired!  It may take us until next year to recover from this weekend. Thank you again to all of our bus clients!  We can't wait until the next one!

readmore

New Pikemaster Leader

Lyndon Butler from Colonsay caught and released a 48 1/2 inch Pike shortly after hitting the water on the day of his arrival.  This is the one to beat now, folks! Congratulations, Lyndon!!

readmore

The McLaren Group

These pictures were sent to us from the McLaren group from the Naicam, SK area.  This group had a great time at Wathaman in spite of the nasty weather last weekend.  14 McLarens came in and 14 made it out safely!  Family time is always fun for this group and we are so glad they could spend part of their summer with us.  Thanks for a great weekend!  There are some nice pictures of the Wathaman Outpost camp for those that have never been there.

readmore

Our latest testimonial

"Diana and Irv,  If you call this ‘The Experience of a Lifetime’, then after 14 trips we’ve have had more than our share!  Well, not quite.  No two years have the same fishing conditions, and I can’t wait till next June.  This session, we changed our methods a bit.  We made better use of our flyrods, not only to catch trophy pike, but also walleyes, which is a first for us.  So, thanks again for another great year and congratulations on the new dock.

Keep your powder dry,

J. T. Dibble"

readmore

Some reading material on fish handling

The year is going great! We have received pictures of great fish from our clients! We just want to reiterate that when you take a fish (especially a big one) out of the water, be sure to handle them properly so they can produce the next generation as well as be caught again. The following link is written about musky, but all fish SHOULD be handled this way! You may need to cut and paste the link.

http://www.thenextbite.tv/articles/handling-techniques-and-survival-released-muskellunge-rod-Ramsell

readmore

Dixon Group

The Dixon Group had a very successful trip this year.  As you can see in the pictures to follow, there were several trophy pike caught and released.  Moving to the top of the Pikemaster leader board is Trevor Laughren with a 43 incher.

Trevor Laughren 5.5 pound Walleye

Steve Dixon 32 inch Pike

Trevor Laughren 40 inch pike and his next cast below...

This one could be a monster someday!

Steve Dixon says Trevor needs a bigger spoon!

Sunset over the Wathaman

Who says light housekeeping has to be PB & J?  This is quite a feast!

Steve Dixon's 42 inch Pike

41 inch Pike caught by Steve Dixon

readmore

The New Dock Is In

The new dock is in! We want to extend a huge thanks to everyone who helped get it in the water, especially Wayne and Ron! We couldn't have done it without you two. We had to jet water around the old posts to get them out of the ground after they finally thawed. Below are various pictures in different stages of the removal/installation. It was quite a job!

Removing old posts

Pulling the old dock out with the pontoon boat

Wayne hauling off the last piece of the old dock

It looks a little different with no dock

Putting the new dock together

Floating the new dock into place

The Pros at work.  Doesn't this look nice?

readmore

The One to Beat...

                            

Bob Miller with his 42" Pike caught in the first week of June. If you look closely, you just may see snow in the background!

We have part of the new dock in! Watch for our next post with pictures of the whole process!

readmore

A glimpse of winter to start the season

We got camp opened and found that our phones were not working so we bought a satellite phone to use in case of emergencies.  It worked well for a few days before Irvin took an accidental swim in the Wathaman with the phone in his pocket!  So we have no phone this year.  We can only be reached via e-mail at fish@davinlakelodge.com. 

Our first fishermen were Bob & Manny and George & Irene Hamp.  Bob put his name on the top of the Pikemaster leader board with a 42 inch fish.  We are working on getting some photos from them.  Fishing was a little different due to a late ice and cool temperatures. Even so, everyone caught lots of fish and took home their limits.

My son and his family are currently visiting from Tennessee.  They arrived on June 5th and brought snow in with them which lasted through June 6th.  The weather is trying to straighten around and my granddaughter, Sydney, has gone from building snowmen to sandcastles in just a matter of four days. 

 

Davin Lake June 6, 2014

 

Snowman to Sand Castles in just 4 days!!

This Tennessee girl loves to build sandcastles at the camp.

She was SO EXCITED to see this white stuff and build a real snowman!

She even had a carrot for his nose, thanks to Grandma Diana.

 

 

The sandcastles have gotten quite a bit more elaborate since she started coming at age 2.

 

 

Spencer's 37 inch Pike

 

Sydney's catch for shore lunch :)

 

This is one happy camper!

 

Irvin, Spencer and Wayne cooking shore lunch for the P. A. Cosmopolitan Club

 

Good food and great friends sharing fish stories at shore lunch

The Prince Albert Cosmopolitan Club is here now with 14 members.  They are bringing in fish left and right!  Here they are pictured at "Sandy Beach" following shore lunch.  I overheard one of them say, "Can it get any better than this?"  We don't think so!

Until next time,

Diana

readmore

Just a quick reminder - Due to circumstances beyond our control, we will not have a phone this year.  The internet is working very well and, of course, it is wireless.
Thank you for your understanding.
Later

readmore

We are here!!!  It was a tough trip in with bad weather, bad roads, truck trouble, rain, wind just about everything you can imagine.  We arrived last night, tired and  saddle sore.  But when we walked out on the dock this morning and saw the trout swimming we realized how happy we are to be here.
Trouble getting Oscar out of bed but he has accomplished a ton of work since he got mobile.  Now he won't slow down!!
Ice is off and the old dock is still standing.  We were hoping the ice would take it right out, no such luck.
We will give you an update as soon as we have the camp opened up.
Till next time.

readmore

Good Evening to everyone.  Well, the hype is starting as we are getting geared up to leave for the lake.  Spring has been super late and as a result Irvin is just finishing up the seeding.  If all holds together he will be done this evening.
I have all the shopping done, Irvin needs a few things and he will be finished as well.  The camp truck is better than half loaded so we are near ready.
A week ago today we made a flying trip to the lake.  As most of you know we are putting in a floating dock so we ran up with the floats and checked out the camp.  Everything was pretty good.  Someone had been there, broke into the house and generator shed.  Left a lovely deposit in the shower house!!!!!!!  Nothing was abused or destroyed but they took the memory card out of the camera.  Thank goodness we have more cameras up and they didn't see them.  As a result we know who it is.  For now I would like to thank them for not destroying anything and pretty much leaving it the way they found it.  I know they read the blog as I know the people!!  I would request that they send me back my card for the camera and nothing will be said.
There is ice on the lake!!  Irvin thinks that Atwater will be off but Davin will be at least another week.  It might be tight but I have faith that we will be rolling by June 1st!!!
I am posting a few picture I took last week.  Hopefully this will be the last time you see this dock!!!!!!
My blogs will be more regular now that we are thinking fishing.  Talk soon.

readmore

WOW. you can't imagine how cold it is here. There has been a wind chill warning out for most of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.  Not that's a lot of real estate.  The wind chill was -52 this morning and is still that close to here. It is only -45 here!!!!
With that in mind - can't wait till we can go fishing.
Bookings are coming in and it is looking real good for this season. Hope you have all made your arrangements, wouldn't want to miss you.
The Saskatoon Sports and Leisure Show starts on the 6th and goes until the 9th of March. We will be there so hope you drop by for a chat.
Until next time, stay warm.

readmore

Happy February to all our fishing friends.  I will be so glad when this winter is over.  It has been so terribly cold and the wind hasn't stop blowing since last fall.  If it isn't actual temperatures being cold then it is the wind chill.  Winter, winter go away!!!
We have been so very busy, Irvin has gone back to Alberta for the winter and I am trying to keep the home fires burning as well as run the farm and the lake business.  WOW, the older you get the faster you go!!!
Bookings are coming in and it is starting to look good again this year.  Anyone interested in fishing needs to pick a spot, June is almost full, only a few cabins left.  The rest of the year is looking good too.
We have built a new website, thank you to my daughter-in-law.  Good job Amy.  As with most change, there are a few hiccups.  You need to go to www.davinlakelodge.com  everything works great then.
I will be doing the Sports Show in Saskatoon March 6 - 9th.  Drop by and say hello.  And don't forget Oscar, he will be at Sportsman's Warehouse in Loveland, Co. every Saturday.  Stop by, he'll tell you some lies!!!!!!!!
Hope this finds you all well.  Until next time.............

readmore