We are now on the eve of our first trip to Aikens in 2006!  Tomorrow morning, Pit and his crew will land at Aikens.  We are hoping that the camp is just the way we left it last fall!  We made sure to secure all entry points into the lodge in order to keep the animals on the outside.  We have had a few incedents where a bird has crashed through the window, and the cabins have become a winter home for birds and small mammals like martens or squirrels… and the mess they leave behind is incredible!

Pit will be joined my Maurice, Denis, and Grant.  Work is set to begin right away as we would like to have the new men’s residence completed before our first guests come in… which is on May 27th.

The website will now be updated every couple of days, so keep checking in to stay up to date with the happenings at the lodge.  Here’s to a great season!

We have been working very hard behind the scenes this winter to partner up with a couple of major players in order to be able to host a wonderful charity event this summer! We are proud to announce that the “PWT Celebrity Shootout” will pair this season’s top 10 Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) anglers with celebrities during a two-day shootout at Aikens Lake September 20 & 21, 2006!!!

The main goal of the event is to raise money for the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF - www.esiason.org). BEF is committed to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis, and in the 13 years they’ve been raising money (over $45 million!), they’ve seen the life expectancy of children with cystic fibrosis more than double from early teens into the thirties! We had the privililege of hosting Boomer and his children Sidney and Gunnar, who himself has cystic fibrosis. They had a fantastic time, just check out our news item last July about Sidney becoming the “walleye whisperer”! Boomer hosts many fundraising events for his charity, and immediately realized that Aikens would be the perfect place for a fishing event!

We left Aikens last fall with a mandate to organize and host a world-class event for BEF’s benefit! We partnered up with In-Fisherman and the PWT. The “Angler of the Year”, along with the 9 runners-up from the “Trail” his summer will get a special invite to come to Aikens in September. They will be teamed up with celebrities, and although we need to hold our cards close to our chest because the invites are going out soon, we can tell you that there are going to be some prominent names involved!

For the official news release, please visit Yahoo News at:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060328/latu071.html?.v=47

For those in the 27 states that broadcast WCCO radio, you probably already know about the new “Live Outdoors” show on Monday nights.  Hosted by Mike Max and ex-MLB pitcher Jack Morris, they talk about everything outdoors!  Tonight between 8:30 and 9:00 PM, they will be interviewing Pit live on the air.  They will talk about Aikens lake, everything it has to offer, and maybe even some great tips on catching those lunker walleyes!  Tune in on your local radio (830 in Minneapolis), or follow this link for a live webcast.

http://www.wccoradio.com/