Fall 2007 Newsletter

L & M would like to take a few minutes to thank all of you who came with L & M in 2007. The fishing season of 2007 is over and completed. Considering the new airbase change to Dryden in the spring, it was a new experience for everyone who visited us this season. We believe it went very smoothly. Yes, there were a few learning curves involved that we had to deal with, but overall, we worked through them all to make it another great year. We are looking forward to 2008, as we have all these items ironed out. We heard all positive comments about the move from our guests, except for 1 negative comment from 1 group. We felt this was very outstanding considering it was a major change to our business and a lot of groups spoke in with their comments and thoughts. Factors such as weighing out the difference between a little more drive time verses less flying time. The anglers liked it. Meaning... on "bumpy" flight days, less time sitting in the plane equals to less people getting anxious or nauseous. More fishing time as you get to the lake sooner with less flying time. Driving the 502 highway to Dryden served to many of the guest as a wildlife viewing area and beautiful scenery. Many of the groups saw moose, bear, deer, eagles, and/or even wolves along the roadway on numerous sightings. In between flying our clients into the outpost and keeping the outpost sites all working properly, We spent a big portion of the summer this year fixing up the Dryden airbase to the standards we are all accustomed to, while still flying our clients into the outpost and keeping the outpost sites all working properly. We are anxious for the clients who came in the spring of 2007 and who are booked back to come in 2008. They should like the new set up and how things will look when they arrive again. The whole place has gotten a total makeover. They will surely be surprised and impressed.

As of today, all of our outpost cabins are locked up and winterized. All of our airplanes are sitting in Sioux Lookout for the winter and waiting to go through the winter maintenance schedule and to be ready to go again for 2008. All of our docks are ready for the winter (hopefully) and avoid any ice damage.

A quick summary of this past season:

In the spring of 2007, we added 1,000 watt generators to all of our outpost cabins, as another service we provide. Many of you enjoyed using these to charge up your cameras, depth finder batteries, etc or even people who had sleep machines could use the machines to get their sleep. All we asked if you will be wanting to use an extension cord, please bring one with you as we do not keep extension cords at the lake, and where you find the generator to put it back with everything that was in the box back to where you found it. That way nothing gets lost for the next group coming in behind you just as you would want or expect when you arrive to the lake for your trip. There is no extra charge for using the generators. This is just another service L&M has added into our packages for your convenience.

The fishing was good this year, as always. Everyone enjoyed the fishing. Some weeks were better than others, but that’s why it is called fishing and not catching. Everyone still caught plenty of fish. Some big fish were caught this year, but if my memory serves me right, I would say the numbers of big fish were down slightly compared to past years. I believe the lower water levels in the spring, jetting to high water in June, displaced the big fish (scattered out) rather than being concentrated or even placed them into areas where they would normally not be caught. Coupled with the extreme heat and dry conditions for parts of the summer, they went into their little hiding places and harder to catch, when the conditions are of such. Still good numbers of fish caught and plenty of big ones as you can see from our fishing reports that are posted on our web site. This is why we promote the practice the catch and release efforts to maintain these lakes. Even on a "slower" week, the fishing will still provide a high quality fly-in trip with good fishing and on a "normal" or a "good" week. Fishing is just plain and simple, FANTASTIC.

September brought a mixed bag of weather. Early in the month was mostly nice. Mid-September brought fall like conditions. Cold, windy, with lots of rain and even had the ground white a few days with snow. Overall, the 2007 season was a windy year, with lots of wind through out the year.

Reminders: We would like to thank all of you who have sent in your deposits for your trips reserved for 2008. Everyone or each group is confirmed with deposits except for a couple of groups who just booked recently. For those who are planning on coming or who are booked for 2008, a couple of quick notes for planning.

Overnighting: We have amended our original list from this spring to what I have on the web site now. It was on of those "learning curves". I still highly recommend using or staying at Indian Point camp the night before your trip, which is located near our airbase on Wabigoon. We had 1 misunderstanding early on this year with that camp, but we talked with them about that and got it all straightened out. Since, ALL who have stayed there have expressed good things about Indian Point along with the owners Hank and Cindy. We are pleased to be working together with them along with our services. This camp is away from town and in a nice area overlooking the lake (You can even see our planes from across the bay). Nice close drive and will also cook a meal if requested ahead of time (at an extra cost). Also, very reasonable on rates, too. If staying in town, we highly recommend the Holiday Inn Express. We heard great responses about this motel in town. And if you are flying out early, they will even set up their continental breakfast earlier for you if you request. Best bang for your buck as for motels go in town. The cheaper motels such as Town and Country or Timberland are also good. Best Western is nice but more costly. We have taken off the Patricia Inn and Chalet Inn as recommendations to our lists to over night, many guests said they were not as clean as they would expect or turned out to be noisy, especially on weekend nights. Where ever you plan to spend the night, please let someone at L & M know where you book in at before your trip. Good time to let us know is when you call in your preorder items. It is usually not needed, but just in case we need to reach you the night before, we know where to reach or locate you to get a message to your group. I would also recommend not waiting until the last minute to book your overnight lodging though. As Dryden is on the Trans Canada Highway, the rooms can book fast and for no apparent reason. Booking early is a good idea, rather than the last minute or waiting until you arrive at Dryden. Many also decided to check in with L & M the night before the trip starts. It was not a problem for those who did as long as we were around. Next year feel free to do so again, as it does save time the next morning if we are around the base when you stop by.

As for the bait, we found a great guy in town to work with on opening day of our season. We had a "bait" person all lined up last winter and his ideas changed with our first order of the year so had to look for someone new. In the long run, it turned out great for us, and Kevin at K & A Bait & Tackle who bent over backwards to provide the bait we asked for and on time. This is exactly why we ask for 1 month prior notice to ALL preorders (bait, beverages, and food) As this gives us plenty of time to process the order and pass the orders onto the correct people or gives us plenty of time to purchase your desired items ourselves. So in 2008, we will be asking the same, 1 MONTH notice on all items preordered will be required. For those guests who flew in by commercial airlines. Being located in Dryden offers many options. A) Fly into International Falls MN and either rent a car or use the taxi service to Dryden, a 2 hour drive. B). Fly into MPLS, MN then rent a car, 7-8 hour drive. C) Fly into either Winnipeg or Thunder Bay then rent a car, 4 hour drive. D) Fly into Dryden directly by flying into Winnipeg or Thunder Bay via Bearskin Airlines E) Fly into Duluth, MN and rent a car, 5 hour drive. If you are considering using airlines please contact us and we'll go over the finer details...

The new 2008 rates have been posted on our web site. We raised roughly 8% to cover the on going raising costs and the ever-stronger Canadian Dollar was also factored in. Considering, if we had stayed on Clearwater for base of operations, that raise for 2008 would be about double that amount. We must justify a certain amount of cash flow as we provide and our customers expect a certain high level of service that we provide. Meaning, I know everyone who comes likes to know they are flying in a properly maintained, airworthy aircraft (as do we), properly maintained outpost cabins and working boats and motors just to name a few for starters. We also made an order to replace a lot of our 9.9 Yamaha outboard engines this fall, so most lakes will have new motors for 2008.

Hope everyone has a good fall. Expect most of you to be doing some last minute fishing or getting geared up for the fall hunts to start. We will write again later in the year.

If any of you have any questions or want to give any comments, please feel free to do so as we enjoy hearing from all of you.

LM@lmflyin.com

If anyone has any good pictures of their recent trips with L & M feel free to send in your picture. We never have too many pictures and always enjoy seeing them. I also want to mention, we are still trying to get our blog going on our web site by having our customers write in their input, so others can read for info and when your looking for info can go to the blog to see if anyone is willing to help you. We need your help to get this blogger rolling, if people don't start expressing interest into our blog we'll just end up erasing the blog from our site. It can be a great tool for us here at L & M and for you, the customer. Learn new things about each lake rather than hearing it from the owner's view, be from a fellow L & M customer.

L & M Fly-In