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Hunter Comments

Tate Island Lodge is operated by Jim and Gail Weinkuaf. We met them at the Indidnapolis Boat, Sport and Travel Show. They touted big black bears in a recently obtained a land concession that hadn't been hunted in 40 years. For my party this was our main goal to hunt large black bears. The fishing would be an added bonus. We arrived and the weather was cold with snow squalls raking the lake all day. Jim says; "No bear hunting due to lack of a bear guide but we could fish around the island". Jim did not inform us where he stashes the diesel fuel can for the cabin heat stove, we ran out of fuel around 1:30am and froze til morning. That morning, Jim informed us that he had no guides in camp to take us out to the stand sites. He did not offer to take us out himself. We later found out Jim has a fear of being out on the lake without a guide with him. The next day we found out from the first Indian guide to arrive that he had been out placing baits and stands out for us on the day we arrived. They used some oats, gummi bear candy and orange colored marshmallow type peanut candy as baits (not very smelly stuff). 6 bear hunters in camp were to use 6 baited stand sites and we didn't know until we got out to the stand if any had been hit by bears. Of the 6 stands 2 were showing a little activity. I was lucky and got a stand that had been hit overnight. Our Indan "shuttle service" guide(Vernon Bird) confessed that he was afraid of bears and did not linger any longer than absolutely necessary at any bait site. I was lucky and saw 3 bears that evening. I shot the 3rd one, a 250# chocolate/black mix bear with my crossbow. He looked bigger than what he was as I compared him to the 30 gal. barrel which I thought was a 55 gal. barrel. Jim failed to mention that too. Probably so his bears would appear bigger. I tracked it 50 yards and waited for my guide to return. Upon his arrival I told him the bear was dead and we brought it to the shoreline but he wouldn't load it in the boat. He said Jim (the outfitter) would be angry if we got blood all over his boat. But he said he would come back that night and get it in another older boat. He did not. The next morning we got the bear but not before some critters had chewed on it a bit. It stunk to high heaven as it laid out "ungutted" overnight and the weather was warming up. The meat had spoiled. We caped out the hide and the Indians took and fed the spoiled carcass to their dogs on a nearby island. Afterwards I discover no fishing guide for me now, he is busy taking other hunters out to their stands. With a total of 10 clients in camp there shoud be at least 5 guides present. Jim did not plan well for the first week his lodge was open even though he had already been there 7 days prior to our arrival. We all learned Jim Weinkauf was not a friendly outfitter now that he had our money and we were forced to adapt to his logistical shortfalls. He kept the rest of the hunters out on unproductive baits sites day after day. He had me and my (now fishing) guide haul 2 barrels and bait several miles across the lake to 2 new sites. I found out those new sites were for next weeks hunters and not for our use. That cut into my guided fishing time as we were not allowed to fish with our guide past 5pm or we would have to pay extra for the additional time. Nevermind that we had no fishing guides on day #2. On Friday the last day of bear hunting, Jim took my fishing guide from me again and turned him into a bear tracker (one hunter shot a small bear the night before). Jim wanted 2 Indiana to track the bear. So I lost a half day of paid guide service due to that. Jim was not about to go out away from Tate Island himself. Jim would not talk to us at dinner and inquire how we're doing. He never offered to lend his expertise in bear hunting or fishing, most likely because he does not possess any. I came to the realization that Jim relies totally on his guides to interact with the clients when it comes to fishing and bears. Without the Cree Indians, Jim would not be able to handle even one client by himself. Day to day, we could find Jim riding his tractor or his golf cart about camp. But never did he stop to check on us unless we intercepted him going to & frow on his two favorite modes of transportation. On the last morning, as we were preparing to depart, Jim drove by our cabin and gruffly announced "Your gear had better be on the porch of the cabin in 10 minutes or it'll be left behind"! I'm sorry but Jim never had to wait on us, instead all week we had to wait on Jim. Gail Weinkauf was pleasant most of the time. She cooked good meals and served them pleasantly. She would engage us in small talk when she had the time. She maintained the cabins daily, making beds, replenishing towels,etc. She even prepared a Lake Trout chowder for us at my request. Thank god for Gail! The Cree Indian guides knew how to locate the Northern Pike and the Lake Trout, but not Walleye or Grayling. They were pleasant fellows and very honest. They did not sugar coat or lie about anything. They even admitted they would spear the BIG Pike in the shallows. Which is legal for them to do, but never for us. To sum things up, Jim grossly overstated what we could expect from him. No big bears, No quantity of bears. Few active bear baits. No trophy Northern Pike or Lake Trout (over 20#), Guides were in short supply. No Walleyes or Grayling. Boats were not new. No hospitality from Jim either, nor did we recieve an apology from him for his shortcomings. If I ever get back to Reindeer Lake it will not be to spend another day or dollar with Jim Wienkauf.

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES

Outfitter's Response

In response to this review:

We were aware of the attitudes of these guys and their threats but brushed it off to seeing through people like this. However, this past summer some guests of ours brought to our attention just how personal the attacks and the outright lies that were throughout their report in an effort to just harm instead of report the facts. So Gail and I decided these must be addressed and these guys need to be called out.

To start, spring was late and all outfitters were struggling with late ice out and cancelling or rescheduling trips, however after spending thousands of dollars extra to fly in fuel and supplies, we were able to make their trip work…at a loss to us I might add, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. So we got started late, but instead of cancelling their trip and them losing out we were able to make their trip possible with some, but not unreasonable inconveniences. However, from the moment they stepped on the dock, the criticism and complaints started. It never fails to amaze me why people would spend so much money and time to find negative in everything and give up before getting started. From the start, the weather was too cold, the bait wasn’t what they wanted, the stands were too close to the lake and facing the wrong direction. To go to the extent that one of the guys missed a bear because his bow string hit the stand bar when he shot and threw his shot off, and said I should turn the stand facing the other direction as if I know exactly what direction they will come from! A couple of the baits were not getting eaten a lot and they refused to sit on them but the guides consistently saw very good sign of big bear around them. Sometimes with a huge boar around, the smaller ones will avoid the area but the big one is there and they don’t eat much when searching for a sow. We tried to tell them, when not a lot of numbers are at the bait a very big one could be in the area..we showed them the signs of claw and rub marks and on the trees etc, but they knew different and complained that they expected to see LOTS of animals. Who knows how still they sat in the stand or what of many things they can be doing out there to LIMIT their success..but to them it was always somebody else’s fault. I swear if I would have tied up big bear to a tree for them to just go out and shoot on the first night, something would have been wrong!

To address some of the accusations and outright lies:

We were not able to get into camp until late Thursday afternoon and slept very little preparing for Saturday morning guest arrivals (not a week earlier as they claim). The guides started out with their boats Friday morning from about 100 miles away fighting ice all the way in an effort to get to camp ASAP to prepare. A couple of them made it, however, some of them had to camp on an island the first night because there were areas that were impassable after the wind shifted the ice and blocked their progress. At times they even skid their boats over ice in spots to try their very best…and these guys’ attitude is what they busted their butts for.

In a nutshell as far as the guides go, 2 arrived late Friday and immediately began baiting the bear sites. The bears are already in the area since they are there feeding on the fish spawning in the streams where the baits are located so setting the baits right before we start hunting isn’t a factor in success. Saturday morning they continued setting up the bear stands etc. The guests arrived about noon and ate lunch while I prepared the boats etc. They were informed that we would not hunt that first half day under the circumstances but they were welcome to take a boat and motor out as there is very good fishing close to the lodge. By Saturday evening the rest of the guides had arrived and everything was routine after that. These guests know nothing about what goes on behind the scene to try to make them happy and successful, and actually want you to believe that with a weeks worth of work to do in two days I have nothing to do but ride around on my golf cart and tractor. Good grief!!!!

Next….Vernon Ninine (last name) is a guide that has worked for us for several years. He grew up on the lake and is very good. He is primarily a fishing guide, not a bear guide. His job was to give the guys great fishing and then drop them off and pick them up from their stands. The other guide for these guys is a very good bear guide and he has done this for years!!!! When Vernon picked up the hunter that had wounded a bear, he checked to see if it was a clean kill. It wasn’t and he tracked it a ways until he decided he didn’t want to disturb the blood trail. It was 11:00 pm when they returned. We then sent him and two other very good bear guides back to track the bear. It is still good light at that time of year and they tracked a long ways until they couldn’t see anymore. They got back to camp about 1:30 am. The next morning I did pull their second guide to go back and look for their wounded bear. I told them they could either go with to track their bear or take the boats out and go fishing on their own. They did forfeit their second guide for a couple hours because finding a wounded bear is priority. Under the same circumstances I would do the same thing again. If it had been a good shot and a clean kill we wouldn’t have needed to track it the second day!

We would not leave a bear trophy on the shore until the next morning for any reason! Even if picked up in the good fishing boats they have carpeted front and vinyl back floors making it easy to clean the mess both fish and bears leave!! I have never had a “critter” damaged animal even when we haven’t found the bear til the next day, nor have any ever been spoiled…EVER!! On one hand they claim they nearly froze to death in the cabin yet the bear rotted over night! It never happened.

We could go on but don’t want to ramble on…but cannot let this stuff go unchecked.

As far as the other BS they claim:

I’m afraid of going out on the lake…(I’ve taken guys into remote Alaska for weeks with nothing but my own gear and supplies doing self guided hunting trips, yet they say I’m afraid to go out on my own lake???).

Hiding the fuel for the stove so they run out

Have small barrels to trick hunter into shooting small bear Bait doesn’t please them (pleases the bears but not the these hunters I guess) and failed to mention we put out scent packs and also bait with sucker fish that get out smell and the bear love to eat. We’ve done this for over 25 years! But again they knew better.

Restricting hunting area Condition of equipment Guides spearing the big pike Threatening to leave luggage behind All ridiculous claims!

Except for the one about Gail…………….she does do pretty good on the food. Also true is that after a few days of being confronted with attitudes like these, one does tend to “shy away”, however, our efforts never back off to doing our best to give everyone the most enjoyable, successful trip possible knowing the money they have spent and vacation time they are using.

I could go on and on addressing these guy’s claims but feel this has gotten way too long already, so I will just conclude this way and you call me if you want more detail. *Gail and I have been in this business 27 years.

*I have been awarded “Outfitter of the Year” from the regional tourism association.

*We received “Episode of the Year” award from the Sportsman Channel for our hunting and fishing. Best of all combination episodes for an entire year over all other shows!

*But the best part for us is our guests consist of about 80% repeat business or word of mouth recommendations.

Nobody accomplishes that by providing garbage fishing and hunting, having junk equipment or treating people with disrespect. We are confident that our hundreds (thousands over the years) of guests would dispute these guys claims…and even our competition and tourism people would tell you this is NOT how we run our lodge or treat our guests.

Jim Tate Island Lodge

My number…800-709-3475