Kashabowie Outposts Winter Newsletter

Kashabowie Outposts from Atikokan Ontario is happy to extend a great big thank you to all of their guests for sending in the great hunting, fishing and scenic pictures to be entered in our on-going “Best Picture Contest” and “Biggest Fish Contest”. You do all the work; have all the fun and we get to view your great fishing and hunting adventures!

Come Read the
Canadian Fly in Fishing
Kashabowie Outposts
Winter 2008 Update!

In this issue:

• Best Picture Contest - 2007 theme - the best outpost cabin picture!
• Biggest Fish Contest - see Fly-in Fishing pictures of our biggest Walleye of 2007 and biggest Northern Pike of 2007. Read our invitation to find the biggest Smallmouth Bass!
• Outpost Cabin Upgrade Report - new improvements, upgrades and new features!
• 2007 Fishing Report - See how important lake and weather conditions can be!
• 2007 Moose Hunting Report - Action-packed Archery Hunts and Rifle Hunts this year!
• 2008 Sport Shows - Old friends and guests! As we send this Newsletter out on January 20, we are reminded of how bitterly cold Northwestern Ontario can be. With recent daily highs only reaching -20F and last nights low down to -36F, we have been enjoying our visits South on the Sport Shows! Come out and visit us! We look forward to sport show season and hope you get a chance to stop by and say hello!

Madison Wisconsin All-Canada Sport Show
Green Bay Wisconsin All-Canada Sport Show
St. Louis Boat & Sports Show
LaCrosse Boat, Sports & Travel Show
Indianapolis Boat, Sport & Travel Show
Northwest Sport Show (Minneapolis)

Kashabowie Outposts provides Canadian Fly in Fishing At It’s Finest. Family Group Holiday Vacations - no internet, no cell phones, no TV, no distractions - just time together by the campfire, telling stories and HAVING FUN FISHING!

Tight lines!

Atikokan Fly in Fishing Camps attend Milwaukee

Two of the leading Canadian Fly in Fishing Outfitters are from Atikokan Ontario.

Kashabowie Outposts and Canoe Canada are on the road today, heading for the All Canada Sport Show in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

There’s been a lot of buzz online - lots of conversations and excitement about the 2008 Milwaukee All Canada Show - here are a few snippets from around the blogsphere:

The Canadian Fishing Book Blog highlights place and time of the Jan 18-20 All Canada Show  while the new Blog from CanoeTradeShow.com features the angle of finding the best Canadian Canoe Outfitter for a 2008 Canoe Trip.  A few outfitters, also worthy of mention - Mattice Lake Outfitters, Ignace Outposts, Rusty Myers Fly-in’s and Camp Quetico American Plan Fishing Lodges.  I found brief new All Canada Show announcement page, but it looks static so we’ll check it later and see.  If you’ve got the winter blues and want to be reminded of summer, maybe a Weekend Getaway in Milwaukee is just the thing!  And if you’ve ever dreamed of a real, true, 100 walleye-per-day catch and release Canadian Walleye Fishing Adventure - this is your chance!

When you get right down to it - you will find hours of entertainment this weekend (jan 18-20 200 at the All Canada Show in Milwaukee Wisconsin!

Atikokan Lodge Owners to Attend All Canada Show Minneapolis

The Minneapolis All Canada Sport Show is held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in 2008.

A number of top Atikokan area Fishing Lodges and Canoe Outfitting services are present on the All Canada Exhibitor List this year.  Returning to these popular Sport Shows year after year, the finest of Canada’s Fishing Adventure Services show their stuff to several thousand eager hunters and anglers.

This year the All Canada Show in Minneapolis features Seminars on Surviving Arctic Winters and a Seminar on Walleye Fishing Techniques.  The Walleye Fishing Seminar is fitting because attendee’s of the All Canada Sports Shows can also enjoy a Labbatts Blue and a Walleye Shore Lunch!

Head on down to the Minneapolis Convention Center, January 4-6th 2008.

Drop in and Visit Canoe Canada, Kashabowie Outposts and Browns Clearwater Lodge - some of the finest Atikokan area Tourism Service Providers.

Synergy Wood Products begins production

Atikokan’s first value-added forestry operation in recent years, Synergy Wood Products, is now shipping its cut-to-size lumber, and plans to have its paint line in production within a few weeks.

 

The company has expanded its original plan of producing UV-coated panels, “and it has since evolved into two businesses,” said president Mike Shusterman.

 

That product has been shipped out to a lumber company in Barwick and—just last week—to a furniture making company in Calgary. “We are on one shift right now and see that we are going to have to go to two shifts shortly, and I want to get two shifts on our paint line as well.”

 

Combined, the two operations should employ 20 people at the company’s industrial mall location.

 

The cut-to-size operation encompasses a variety of value-added functions, and caters to smaller orders. Often these custom orders are too labour-intensive, and small in quantity (sometimes less than a full truck load) to be feasible for larger companies like FibraTECH to accommodate. “We do various things like stair treads and different things that wouldn’t be as profitable for a large company to do it, but is for us,” said Shusterman.

 

Stair treads are crafted from off grade particleboard purchased from FibraTECH and cut into 1/8 inch thick, foot wide, 42-48 inch long strips, edged with a rounded strip.

 

Synergy is also producing shelving and furniture components from 3 ½ inch wide, 88 foot long particleboard strips, which furniture companies cover with a veneer-look coating and use in making furniture.

 

The uniqueness of the paint line product and the operation’s location will open up markets out west, and in the American Midwest.

 

“There is a lot of demand for this product and there is nobody really doing this between myself and Calgary, and the U.S. Midwest is interested as well. I’m pretty encouraged about it.”

 

Shusterman has met with potential Menards customers at the chain headquarters in Eau Claire, WI. a month ago. “They seem to do a good job of marketing painted shelving. They are opening up a broad new distribution centre, so they need new product, and we are really nicely located for them as well.” He has just returned from meeting with potential customers in Montreal.

 

The 120-foot paint line will also use off grade particleboard (from FibraTECH and a flakeboard plant in Sault Ste Marie) and UV protected, water-based acrylic paint to produce shelving. The board is put through the paint line process, where imperfections are filled in and sealed with a top coat. The coated board is then cut into shelf sizes, and given a smooth edging for a finished product.

 “You end with a look that looks just like melamine,” said Shusterman.

There have been some issues with electrical capacity at the industrial mall location; including the fact that the stalls weren’t equipped for the electrical capacity necessary to run operations for the paint line. Those issues have been resolved and things should be up and running next month.

 

Another recent growing pain has been resolved. “I can see that I am going to have a shortage of room and I’m going to have to ship product to Thunder Bay to store it and ship it by rail from there.” Synergy now has rented four stalls and has 12,000 sq. ft. storage space, and Shusterman said the best option to add more space may be to build warehouse space, once the company is in complete production.

 

Originally published in the Atikokan Progress