July update

July update

Well it’s been a busy month around here for the most part, although in some regards a little disjointed as it relates to family matters. Early in the month, Milissa returned to Indiana to deal with some estate issues and the sale of her Mom’s home. On July 7th Emily and Allison arrived in camp to begin their five week visit. Our oldest daughter Megan, who is enrolled at DePaul this fall, arrived on the 25th with her boyfriend Cody for what will be a quick two week visit. Milissa is buttoning up loose ends at home and expects to be back in camp the first week of August.

The weather in July has been very unseasonable to say the least, with two predominant weather patterns. Either lots of fronts bringing rain, thunderstorms and cooler temps or plenty of sunshine and heat. Neither very good conditions to get much done in camp, especially some more painting which is high on our list of priorities again. I don’t know how much rain we have had in July for sure, but it was feeling a lot like June there for awhile with several rains of 1.5-3.0″. While dealing with that much rain wasn’t always the most enjoyable situation, it was badly needed to maintain the lake level which was dropping quickly from the summer heat, and to keep the risk of forest fires lower.

As far as the fishing goes, no one will confuse July with May/June or August/September when it comes to the numbers of walleye that are caught here that’s for sure. BUT, we have had a number of groups that have done extremely well during the month. Jeff Norman’s crew of six caught 986 fish during their week of July 11-18th. Many of those fish being pike and smallies as the bite for northern and smallmouth has been outstanding all month. The key to July walleye success most often lies with our guests willingness to fish harder. Fishing early (NEWSFLASH: 9 a.m. is not “early”) and late was very productive times for guests who fished these times. Bob Esselman, brother Paul and their wives Carrie and Pam, would likely take exception to this notion. Never in a hurry and often “out by the crack of 10” Paul would joke, they consistently went about catching walleye all week long. We tested the waters (so to speak) a few times throughout the month ourselves and found it pretty easy to catch 15-20 walleye in our boat in about 2 hours of fishing in the evening. The mayfly hatch is now a distant memory and every time out on the water now we are finding more and more aggressive fish. Looking forward to an outstanding finish to the season with some great August/September fishing. Good luck to all!

Esselman2
July walleye fishing- you have to use fingers and toes to keep count!

 

July sunrise
Despite more rain than usual in July- the sunrise was just as beautiful.

 

Esselman5
July smallmouth fishing has been fantastic.

 

Essleman1
A good looking stringer of July walleyes

 

Holland
Tony and Troy with their sons celebrating Tony being cancer free!

 

July sunrise2
I have probably snapped a thousand sunrise photos here…and with good reason.

 

Martens
Shane, Carl, Ray and Greg- here from South Bend as part of a fundraising effort between Bear Claw Camp and St. Joe High School. Thanks guys!

 

Peffley pike
My monster pike, or maybe not…the art of picture taking. Guess the length of this fish.

 

Collage
Emily’s photo collage of a Mean Lake sunset the other night

 

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Peffley's Wilderness Camp is a family owned and operated camp. Dave has been fishing Wabaskang Lake for over 25 years and was previously a guest of this camp for 12 years prior to purchasing the camp in 2005. I am a proud supporter of our military and offer a nice discount during the month of July to our guests who have also served. I have three daughters ranging in ages from 16-21 who spend much of their summer with us in camp and have totally embraced the wilderness experience we offer. They have for years referred to it as the "best summer experience ever".

While rarely necessary on our lake, because I do have a very good working knowledge on how and where to fish on Wabaskang Lake and our portage waters, I will guide groups if asked to. Otherwise, I am always happy to share information with our guests and provide them well marked lake maps so they can start catching fish their first day in camp.

I pride myself on running a very clean and well managed camp with your satisfaction our top priority. Many guests who have fished from this camp for over 20 years, and several more that have fished here for over 30 years and even some over 40 years.

Contact Us

Toby & Fran Haughee - Owners
574-276-7413
toby@bearclawcamp.com | fran@bearclawcamp.com

Summer Address:
General Delivery
Perrault Falls, Ontario
P0V 2K0                                     

This is the ONLY number to call to arrange pickup at
the roadside landing during our operating season.
Please do not call the numbers below as
we cannot guarantee a timely answer
on Saturday mornings (changeover day).

Winter Address:
PO Box 1163
Mishawaka, IN 46546                       


Copyright © 2014 Peffleys Canadian Wilderness Camps offers canadian walleye and northern pike fishing and hunting trips in Wabaskang Lake in Perrault Falls, Ontario Canada along with canadian hunting and fishing lodge and canadian hunting outfitters,