Thanksgiving Snow

Finally getting around to post the photo we took of the Loon cabin after our Thanksgiving snow. We received about 2 feet of snow the week of Thanksgiving. Made for a beautiful photo.

Rheanna Haeg Testimonial 12/4/10

sent via email-



My first year up at Aspen Resort was in 2007. After driving on the tarroad for quite some time, we turned off onto the gravel road. Windingand riding down the long road and as we drove up the small first hill,we came upon wooden log cabins off to the right hand side with thewelcoming of the Aspen Resort sign. It was definitely just more thanpicture perfect, it was BEAUTIFUL!! After checking in, we got to ourcabin, unpacked and went adventuring!! Traveling with kids there wasdefinitely plenty of things for them to do as well as adults. Thepool, playground, badminton and volleyball, basketball, paddleboats,kayaks, THE LODGE!! The lodge was where the kids could go to playgames, read books, get a bite to eat (including the dessert cooler) ,have a cold beverage (both for kids and adults), buy merchandise andof course talk to staff. What made Aspen unique is the scheduledactivities that they hosted each day and the nightly campfires. Wetook advantage of this when we could if we weren't out fishing and wegot to know some of the other guests. The fishing was awesome and theboats were in great shape and the staff goes out the extra mile toinsure a memorable stay. This definitely has become our yearlyvacation spot that hopefully our children can pass down to theirfamily someday!

Fall In Minnesota

Hello All, The feeling of fall is in the air. Rainy and a high of 47 today. Calling for mild temps in the mid 60's for the weekend, I hope they are correct. The 2010 season is a good one at Aspen Resort. Thanks to all our new and repeat guests for making it that way. Over the last week or so we have been winterizing cabins, winterizing our rental boats and putting them in storage and enjoying the company of the end of season guests. We hope to see you all back again in 2011. Please visit our website, blog and facebook pages often. Our website will be updated with new photos and 2011 rates later this fall and we will keep posting on our blog throughout the fall and winter. If you have any great vacation photos that you took while staying at Aspen Resort feel free to post them on our facebook page. Look out for a upcoming email from us this winter asking you to submit your Aspen Resort vacation photos and captions on our facebook page for our winter photo contest for a chance to win "Aspen" cash for your 2011 stay. Well that's it for now, have a good weekend!

9/14/10 11" Bluegill "Released"

Sorry everyone that it has been about a month since our last blog post. August was a busy month at the resort, and then we lost all our help as they headed back to college. Here is our most recent photo. Leonard Ashline of Indiana caught and released this 11" Bluegill on Tuesday September 14th 2010.

8/3/10 Largemouth Bass "Released"

Ashlen (6), Austin (8) Ethan (10) caught and released this 20 inch Largemouth Bass while out fishing with Grandpa "Papa" Czechowski.

8/1/10 Largemouth Bass

Ethan Rapier (age 10) of Illinois caught and released this 21 inch Largemouth Bass while fishing with his Grandpa "papa" Czechowski. Ethan wanted to make sure that we did not post his papa's age.

7/16/10 SMALLMOUTH BASS

Wade Newton of Ridgeway Illinois caught and released this 21" Smallmouth Bass on 7/16/10

7/5/10 LARGEMOUTH BASS

Chris Anderson of Elk River Minnesota caught and released this 20 1/2 inch Largemouth Bass over the July 4th weekend. Nice fish Chris, I can see you really like Bass.

The Fish Inspector

Xavier the 2 year old fish inspector from Indiana is checking out grandpa's catch of the day.

ORR July 3rd activities

ASPEN RESORT weekly summer activities list

Father Day Jumbo Perch

Taia O (age 7) of Minnesota caught this 13 inch, 1 pound Jumbo Perch while fishing with Dad on Fathers Day. What a great vacation memory. Way to go Taia!

Moose cabin remodel 2010

Here are a few photos of our Moose cabin remodel we just completed. All the photos will be on our website in the next few days when you click on the Moose cabin information

6/10/10 SMALLMOUTH BASS

Nate Ernat of Oglesby Illinois caught and released this 20 inch smallmouth bass on 6/10/10. Nice Pelican lake Smallmouth Nate. Thanks for releasing it to be caught another day.

6/4/10 BLACK BEAR VISIT

Rick G. from Wisconsin took this photo out of the Moose cabin window on 6/4/10 while waiting for the rain to stop so he could head out fishing. Not very often you get to see a bear roaming around the resort. Makes for some great stories.

6/3/10 NORTHERN PIKE

Bob C. from Illinois caught and released this 34 inch, 7 1/2 pound Northern Pike that was in the Pelican Lake protected slot. The protected slot for Northern Pike on Pelican Lake is all Pike 24" to 36" must be released. This makes for some fun fishing!

5/31/10 WALLEYE

Bob D. from Illinois landed and released this 26 inch 6 pound Walleye during his stay at the resort. A nice fish for his first trip to Pelican.

5/29/10 WALLEYE

Jason B. from Minnesota caught this 27 inch, 7 pound Pelican lake Walleye over Memorial weekend.

5/28/10 BLUEGILL

N.B. from Minnesota caught this 10 1/2 inch bluegill on May 28th 2010 while fishing with mom and dad while staying at Aspen Resort.

2010 Apsen Resort Fishing Wall of Fame Photo

First Fish on the Aspen Resort Wall of Fame for the 2010 season. Congratulations Bill L. from Minnesota on your 30 1/2 inch 9 lb. 8 oz Walleye. "Released"

Minnesota Fishing Opener

We are 8 days from the Minnesota fishing opener and are burning the midnight oil to get the Moose cabin remodel completed. I just noticed it has been awhile since our last blog post. Sorry about that. I heard there is a chance of snow from Friday May 7th into Saturday May 8th. Would not be a normal lead into opener without a little snow now would it. Starting to turn on the water to the campground and cabins tomorrow, then finish getting the cabins set up and we open on Friday May 14th. Hope to see you here! We will post photos of the Moose cabin remodleing project when time permits.

Happy Fishing, Ray & Vanessa

Butch Furtman TV show

Butch Furtman (Sportsmans Journal) & Mark Fisher of Rapala shot a show on Pelican Lake last fall and it will be airing this Sunday (April 11th) at 9:30am on the Fox Sports North station. As always it should be a great one. How can Pelican Lake fishing ever be bad.

Pelican Lake Ice Out

The ice out date on Pelican Lake is usually around the 20th-27th of April. But as you can see with the warm March temps Pelican should be ice free by Saturday April 3rd. I am thinking this might be a record for the earliest ice out. If I am wrong I am hoping someone could let me know. The 3 photos are from March 29th (ice in the bay in front of Aspen Resort. April 1st, (putting in boat to go rescue docks that are floating away). April 2nd (you can see the ice piling up on the left hand side of the island as the wind is pushing the ice). The temp outside today was 73 degrees at 2:15pm. Hopefully these warm temps carry over making for a very nice summer. Happy Easter everyone!

Pelican Lake Fishing Television Show

The Butch Furtman "Sportsman's Journal" Televison fishing show that was filmed on Pelican Lake last fall will be aired on the Fox Sports North channel Sunday March 14th at 9:30am. Try to catch it, some great fishing footage as always.

Hurt Osprey

In an attempt to keep our blog interesting to read and since it's the middle of winter and not much is going on and the spring projects have yet to start we are using some stories that that have happened here at Aspen Resort over the years. A few years ago we found this Osprey (pictured) struggling out in the lake. the weird thing was that it's mate kept swooping down and it looked like it was trying to grab it and help it out of the water. At first we thought it might have been tangled in some fishing line but when we got one of our boats close enough to it we realized that it had broken it's wing. Probably on impact while fishing. It took several attemps to get him out of the lake and into the boat. We used the oar from the boat and put it underneath him and he would climb on the oar, but he kept jumping off when we would get him close to the boat. I guess he finally realized he was going to drown if he didn't get in the boat. Once we got him into the boat we realized what a massive bird he was and how small the boat seemed once we got a look at his beak and talons. Once we got him to shore we got him caged and calmed down and contacted someone that was experienced in injured birds. She got him a free ride on an Northwest Airlines flight down to the Raptor Center in Minneapolis where it had surgery to repair it's broken radius and ulna in it's wing. After it's recovery we were told it was released back to the wild.

Ice Fishing Contest

The Presidents weekend ice fishing contest in Saturday Feb. 13th, 2010 on Pelican Lake. Everyone is welcome to come out a buy a hole to enter the contest. Here is a link to the Orr Chamber page with the contest rules. http://www.orrchamber.com/fishing.html The weather looks like it will be favorible for fishing at 24 above with cloudy skies and light flurries. Come out a have a good time with the family. What a way to start Valentines weekend. Enjoy!

Pack of Wolves

Watched a pack (of 4) Timberwolf's hunting along the far shore of the bay in front of the resort (Aspen Resort)on Superbowl Sunday. Did not see any deer but with the crusty snow conditions, making it easy for the wolves to run on top of the snow,while the deer fall through the crust on the top, it is going to be tough going for the deer until spring.

Eagle Out Fishing

These photos were also taken by Mitch Huyck from Colorado when he was staying at Aspen Resort. The Bald Eagle's are seen daily on Pelican Lake either fishing or sitting in the tree tops watching you fish.

Thinking of Summer

Another photo taken by Mitch Huyck from Colorado while staying at Aspen Resort.

Thinking of Summer

Since it was 40 below wind chill this morning I thought I would post some summer wildlife photos for the next few days that some of our guests have taken while vacationing with us. Photo by Mitch Huyck from Colorado

WELCOME

Welcome to the new Aspen Resort blog. We hope that you will follow our blog posts and comment back from time to time. The photo was taken on 1/25/10 after our last 9.5 inch snowfall.