Williams and Hall Blog

YOU TUBE CHANNEL

2011-08-21T10:08:00.007-05:00

Check out our new WILLIAMS AND HALL YOU TUBE CHANNEL. We have created a new You Tube Channel at Williams and Hall Outfitters. We have taken a few videos of groups that have visited us in the past few weeks. Please send us some videos of your trip that we can add to our channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/williamsandhall

FISHING OPENER

2011-05-14T14:50:00.004-05:00

MINNESOTA FISHING OPENER

In Minnesota, this weekend is almost like a holiday. Anglers are giddy with excitement. Even the grocery stores are full of fishermen and women gearing up with supplies and provisions for camping in the Boundary Waters. Minnesota anglers consider the fishing opener - when walleyes (Minnesota's State Fish), northern pike and bass become legal game on the state's inland waters-one of the defining moments of the year. Minnesota's general fishing opener is the Saturday two weeks before Memorial Day weekend. This date was chosen because it allows most walleyes to spawn before being caught by anglers, it ensures that the opener is on a weekend, when most anglers can fish and this date ensures two full weekends for anglers and businesses before the Memorial Day weekend.

WALLEYE FISHING

Minnesota walleyes spawn in spring (at about 48-52 degree water temp.) and when they have the option will choose to migrate from the lake up into feeder streams to spawn. If this option is not available they seek out shallow bars or shoals with clean bottom surfaces near deep water. This toothy fish will eat virtually anything it can catch and get in its mouth. They prefer small fish but will eat crustaceans, worms, and insects. They tend to be somewhat wary and prefer the safety of deeper darker (low light) water. Try fishing for walleye from a few hours before sundown to a couple hours after dark, particularly during the heat of summer.

Walleye fishing in the Boundary Waters can be a little more challenging in one sense as fishing a nice walleye chop (that's outfitter talk for wind) from a canoe isn't always as easy as from a boat, but the wilderness quality fishing available in the Boundary Waters more than makes up for the extra effort and occasional challenge. The state record walleye came from the Boundary Waters in 1979 . . . a 17 lb 9 oz giant! For you smallmouth and largemouth bass nuts . . . remember that the bass season opens early (same as walleyes) in Northeast Minnesota, unlike the rest of the state.

Do you enjoy fishing for and eating walleye? Have a great story or picture to share with the rest of us? Let us share in your experiences.

NO CHILD LEFT INSIDE

2011-01-04T13:47:00.004-06:00

NO CHILD LEFT INSIDE

Williams and Hall would like to help you get your family outside and enjoying nature this summer. Let’s get them off the couch, away from the TV and away from computer games. Help them experience the fun of camping, canoeing and fishing and learning how to make their own fun exploring nature.

OUR ALL NEW FAMILY PACKAGE INCLUDES:
All of the gear that your family will need for an excellent adventure into the Boundary Waters. We provide lodging before your trip with a dinner and breakfast in our dining room, transportation to your entry point, routing and fishing information and tips.
For every child that brings an adult, the adult will get 20% off their complete outfitting rates.
Each youth ages 10-18 will get 25% off the complete outfitting rates.
Each youth 9 and under will go free.
This is a tremendous value you won’t want to pass up.

Call or email to set up your trip
Williams and Hall Outfitters
218-365-2825 800-322-5837
canoe@williamsandhall.com

HOLIDAYS

2010-12-28T16:53:00.003-06:00

At Williams and Hall we hope that you are all having a great holiday season and are enjoying time with your family and friends. We were able to have a lot of family join us here, and of course that involved some winter activities. Skiing, sledding, and snowshoeing were some of the favorites. Matt took this picture one morning on a hike around Moose Lake on his snow shoes.

WINTER ON MOOSE LAKE

2010-12-09T07:50:00.002-06:00

Many of you have asked what it is like here in the winter. This past week the lake has frozen. We'll give it a little while before any of us get brave enough to venture out on it. We do have a good amount of snow on the ground and the trees making it a true winter wonderland here. We have set up a pretty extensive bird feeding station just outside the office and we enjoy the many birds that come to visit us each day. Dave was able to get this video of a pine marten visiting the suet feeder.

FALL ADVENTURES

2010-11-09T14:39:00.008-06:00

International Travels

We have recently returned from our International Travels to Crete and Austria.

We had a very nice group of people that were able to share in this adventure. Williams and Hall customers that joined us were Ron & Ali Bortz and Dan & Stephanie Harrison. We had fantastic weather conditions for a Kayak trip around the Island of Crete. We had 80 degree temperatures every day and only a few hours of rough seas. Just enough for "character building".

The sunsets and the views were spectacular.

After a week on Crete we spent a couple of days viewing the many ruins in Athens.

Then on to Austria and the many views of the Alps. We were joined on this leg of the trip by Reuben & Melanie Collins. We stayed in Zell, a fun little village surrounded by mountains and many different activities. We hiked, biked, rode gondolas, and toured by automobile. There was not enough time to do it all. We were able to enjoy a day in Salzburg where we ate dinner and attended a Mozart concert inside the Castle. These Fall trips were amazing, we hope that you will start planning to join us next fall as we head out.

It is now time to shift gears. We are anxious to help you start planning for your canoe trips into the BWCA next summer. The U.S. Forest will start taking applications for permits beginning on Dec. 1st. From past experience we know that those that apply early have a much greater chance of getting the permits that they would like. Now is also the time to start booking your space in our lodge as some summer dates will start filling up. Hope to hear from you soon.

AWESOME PIKE

2010-07-05T17:20:00.003-05:00

We received this photo from Paul Dumont form Cincinnati, Oh. It is his 42" Pike caught on 5/25. What a great catch!

GREAT NEW PHOTOS

2010-06-22T08:57:00.003-05:00

One of our guests, Tim Abraham, recently returned from his first trip into Quetico Park with his buddy Randy Olson. Tim wrote " While Randy was on the trip to fish and relax, I chose the camera as my fishing pole. I took far too many pictures but it's kind of like casting...you need to do it a lot to catch those few really good ones. He has set up a link with his fantastic picture for us all to enjoy. So when you need a Boundary Waters fix here is a good link to check out. http://abrahamt.jalbum.net/Quetico-Canoe-Trip-2010/

AMERICA'S COOLEST SMALL TOWN

2010-06-03T07:23:00.002-05:00

Budget Travel Magazine named Ely it's 2010 "Coolest Small Town in America." In an online balloting, Ely was chosen nearly 119,000 times among almost 440,000 votes cast for cities with fewer than 10,000 people. They started with a list of 147 nominations and whittled it down to 21 for the ballot and released the results Monday. The magazine defined "coolest" not by temperature -though Ely could certainly make a strong case there - but rather a place on the upswing, a place that's beginning to draw attention--and new residents--because of the quality of life and proximity to nature. "And cool doesn't mean quaint. We want towns with an edge, so think avant-garde galleries, not country stores." If you haven't been to Ely come on up and see the "Coolest Small Town in America"

Ready to Start

2010-05-05T13:13:00.002-05:00

Today was a big day at our post. It was the long anticipated day of turning on the summer water system. Sometimes this goes very smoothly and some years it takes a few days. Some of you may be familiar with how the system works. In the fall we take a system that is working perfectly fine, drain the water out of all of the pipes and put anti freeze in a few crucial places. Then we are ready for the cold winter to hit. When spring arrives we slowly fill the tanks full of water and let the water start flowing back through all of the pipes that have been sittting all winter. In a perfect world, which rarely happens here, the water flows back in just as it was in the fall. But usually we find a few leaks in pipes along the way that have to be fixed. This year seemed to go pretty smoothly, only a few minor fixes were needed, so now we have water in the buildings. This is great because now you can all come and visit us, join us for meals in the dining room and have a hot shower before or after a good nights rest. So I guess what we are saying is we're open come on in!!

OPEN WATER

2010-04-06T11:41:00.004-05:00

Reuben and Melanie Collins couldn't resist the calm water and warm temperature. They paddled around Moose Lake on Sunday afternoon April 4th. This could be the earliest paddling ever.

Spring has reached Moose Lake early this year. The ice went out on April 2nd , making it the earliest that we could find on any records. While much of the country was experiencing cooler than normal temperatures we have been having warmer that normal temperatures. Most of the lakes around the area are open. This has been very exciting for fisherman, because the walleye season doesn't close for another week, so they are able to put their boats in the water and still catch walleye. Those of you that might be looking for an early Spring trip give us a call. Let's start paddling!!

Great Fishing

2009-06-05T13:02:00.002-05:00

At the end of May our good customers Michael Friend and buddies had a great time on their trip and shared some of their fishing success pictures with us to pass along to you. Enjoy

Maps

2009-03-17T16:11:00.003-05:00

by Melanie Collins

If any of you are like me, you love to look at maps. I love seeing where I've been and looking for places I'd still love to see. This is especially true with the Boundary Waters/Quetico. I've spent many hours staring at the overview maps in our outfitting area and looking for new lakes to visit and new route possibilities to explore. Now I've taken it one step further with one of the coolest free programs on the internet-Google Earth. Google Earth is a free downloadable software that provides satellite images of...well, Earth. To get the program, simply go to http://earth.google.com. You will need to download the program, and then you can pretty much just start playing. Densely populated areas have a much better resolution than small towns like Ely, but there is still an amazing amount of details available of the lakes in the Boundary Waters. One of my favorite tools to play with on the program is the "Path Tool." First I marked Wiliams and Hall Outfitters using the pushpin icon (you can find it by following this link: http://bbs.keyhold.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/390560/an/0/page/0#390560). You may have to zoom out a little bit to get a better idea of the surroundings. Then under the Tools menu, I selected "measure". You now have the option to measure a line or a path. I like to use the path option. You can use the crossbars to draw in any path that you would like and Google Earth will tell you how many miles you've traveled. It is especailly fun to figure out how far you have canoed and portaged on previous trips, as well as a great way to start planning future trips. I'm still a novice at this, but I've had a lot of fun playing around and learning new things. As you get more advanced you will be able to save your own locations - like favorite campsites and fishing spots which can be entered in a GPS system and revisited and add pictures for other users to see exactly what you saw! Last summer I went out for an overnighter with some of my "city friends", and was so excited when a few days after returning my friend Ben sent me a Google Map picture of the lakes we canoed in, documenting our path and the island we stayed on! If you need a little Boundary Waters fix, this is a great way to get it!

The Spirit of Trips Past

2009-03-06T11:39:00.002-06:00

Written by Melanie Collins
I used to think every trip had a story, but I have since learned that every trip has many stories. Even the same event can be told with amazing variety, depending on whose doing the telling. One of the best parts of spending your summers at an outfitting resort is getting to be a part of everyone's summer vacation. I used to love picking someone up at the airport and listening to them tell stories of past adventures in the woods as we drove out to the lodge. It seems everyone gets a little nostalgic recalling his or her first canoe trips. Then as I watched our guests prepare to embark on the present trip, they would recollect the time so-and-so left the fish unattended and a turtle got off with supper, or what's-his name decided to play a prank by filling you-know-who's back pack with rocks, or the time the kids beat their parents in a race around the island. When people return from a week in the woods, its always fun to hear the fresh tales of who misread the map and who was crowned "king of the Fire Pit" this year.
As a new year begins, be sure to spend some time with the Spirit of Trips Past. Pass down your version of the story to your spouse, kids, co-workers, whoever will listen. Keep the legend of Uncle Joes' world record walleye alive! Some stories may be sentimental, like the story of the first time your daughter took a trip with you, or the last time you went with your grandfather. Other stories will be full of adventure, like the giant storm that you almost didn't survive. Still others are just plain nostalgic or comical. As you tell your story, others will tell theirs, and the stories will just get better and better and the memories will last longer and longer. There's no better way to pass on your enthusiasm for the wilderness, than to share the experiences that helped you get that enthusiasm.

Share some memories with the rest of us.

Welcome to Our Blog

2009-03-05T13:26:00.002-06:00

Hello Williams and Hall followers and to all the wilderness paddling folks out there. We have finally embraced the Brave New World and decided to jump into the blogging world. Over the coming months we hope to blog about all sorts of subjects e.g. wilderness canoe routes in the Quetico and BWCA, fishing topics, wilderness photography, gear, safe practices in the wilderness and hundreds more. Please add us to your Bookmarks and join in the discussions. I am sure you will be able to find a topic of interest.