Ultimate Northern Manitoba – North Seal/Churchill Combo

Mike and Michelle Zakosek were the winners of the All-Canada Show Grand Prize, the Gangler’s North Seal Safari/Churchill Combo adventure. Here’s a nice note Mike sent to All-Canada owner Scott Pautz thanking him for the trip:

“Hey Scott:

I’ve had months to email you and I didn’t get it done.  I imagine you are busier than heck right now with getting set up for the Illinois show this weekend.  We will be there Friday night, and maybe we can find you.

The Gangler’s trip was fantastic.  We started by staying overnight at the O’Hare Hilton on a Monday night.  We flew out at 6:00 am the next morning, getting to Winnipeg through Toronto.  At Winnipeg, someone from Gangler’s met us at the airport, grabbed our luggage with us, helped us to the hotel at the airport and left us to overnight.

We were in the hotel lobby at 4:15 am the next day.  We were transported to the Gangler’s charter.  That flew out around 7 am.  There was a little delay but all was fine.  We landed, had lunch and went out in the afternoon.

We fished and explored for the next 2.5 days.  We wanted to do more fishing than most guests. One afternoon we skipped fishing and did an ecotour in a side by side around the lodge with two biologists from Gangler’s.

The fishing was very good.  It was nearly 90 degrees every day, with high, sunny skies, which is obviously not typical.  We caught as many pike as we wanted.   Michelle caught a laker.   We were happy with the fishing, for sure.  If there had been some cooler weather or some clouds, I imagine we would have gotten into the walleyes too.  Our First Nations guide was fantastic.  He is from the local area.  He was a great guide, and a great talker.  He made us feel very much at ease.  He was a pro.

We stayed up to see the northern lights two out of the four nights were there.  One night we slept, and the last night was cloudy with rain.  In the pics I am sending you, the first bunch is from our first night.   The second bunch is our third night, with the moon visible.  They had a telescope set up and we could actually see the rings on Saturn.

The accommodations were great.  The food was special.  The staff was very nice and helpful.  Ken is a gracious host.  He was great to talk to and made everyone feel special.

I can’t say enough about how nice of a guy Ken is and how he treats his guests.

We flew over to Churchill.  We kayaked with the beluga whales. This fat guy was a bit uncomfortable in his performance kayak, so I took it easy.  Michelle actually had whales that swam along her kayak, pushed her from behind and bumped her from below.  Later in the day we went out in a zodiac and saw the whales again.  They swam around and under the boat.  We did see polar bears too.

We flew back to Winnipeg on Wednesday and overnighted at the hotel airport.  We flew home on Thursday, going through Montreal. The trip was great, absolutely great. I guess I should have taken more photos for you guys. Thanks so much for your help through all this.  We are eternally grateful.

-Mike Zakosek”