In September of 1977, during my freshman year at Bowling Green State University my Dad, Jim Chamberlin, took me on an exploratory fishing trip to Georgian Bay. I call it “exploratory” because when we left Toledo we did not really know where we would be fishing, We ended up fishing the Upper French River and catching lots of pike and some smallmouth. We fell in love with the Georgian Bay area. Over the next few years I made several trips to the French River with my Dad and brothers, Tom and Chris.

During the Memorial Day trip of 1979, fishing was slow and we decided to spend the last day of the trip fishing the Pointe au Baril area of Georgian Bay. The smallmouth fishing was the best we had ever experienced. We were hooked on “The Bay” and spent the next few years fishing this area.

Throughout my college years at BGSU one of my best friends, Mike Sweeterman, had told me of his lifelong yearly visits to Snark Island in the Woods Bay area of Georgian Bay just south of Parry Sound. In 1982 Mike took me and another buddy, Jack Frank on a great trip to Snark. The fishing and accommodations were unbelievable. During our 3 day trip we did battle with, and lost, two 20lb. + muskys and landed a 47” 17lb. Pike. It was just one of those magical trips.

In 1983 my brother Tom joined Mike and I on our summer trip to Snark Island. I didn’t go up north in 1984 choosing instead to stay home with my wife Wendy and our new born first child Missy. In 1984 my lifelong friend Tom Arman joined Tom and I for our annual trip. Mike Sweeterman had moved to Florida and was unavailable for this trip so the 3 of us stayed in Woods Bay at the Grisdale’s cottages. 1986 brought our last trip to Snark as Mike made the trip back from Florida to join us.

Over the next 14 years, Tom Arman, Tom Chamberlin and I made an annual summer fishing trip to the great white north. Through out these years we experimented with several other areas; a fly in trip from Wawa, the lower French River and the Spanish Ontario region. Nothing compared to “The Bay”. Through out this time we began making Spring and Fall trips with our kids.

During the 1996 and 1997 seasons we introduced two new friends, Jeff Taylor and Steve Summers to “The Bay”. During these early years we began dreaming about some day owning a cottage in the area. While on the ’97 summer trip we ran into Mike Sweeterman and the entire Sweeterman clan at Snark Island. It had been 11 years since I had last seen Mike and it was a great reunion.

Two years later in Spring of 1999 I got a call from Mike telling me that his brother Denny Sweeterman had just bought an island (Hidden View), and would be willing to rent his cottage to us for our annual trip. So five of us headed up for a great week of fishing at the Sweeterman’s cottage.

In the Spring of 2000, Denny Sweeterman informed me that they would be using their cottage all summer and had decided not to rent it. Instead he told me that there was a cottage across the bay from his place that was available for rent. We contacted the owners and arranged to rent their cottage on the south east end of Wahsoune Island. We stayed at this cottage for two years before the owners offered to sell it to us. This was an opportunity I had never foreseen. My wife Wendy, without ever being at the cottage, agreed to let me buy it and with my brother Tom’s help we closed the deal on May 6, 2003.

Tradition dictated that we name our cottage. The search for a name was thorough but short. I had become a Gordon Lightfoot fan over the previous years, enjoying his songs about Canada and the Georgian Bay area where he grew up, and the name “Summertime Dream” came easy. I had spent most of my past 20 years dreaming about my next trip to “The Bay” and finally I owned my own piece of the dream.

Since the first day we owned Summertime Dream we have opened the cottage up to our family and friends so they can enjoy natural beauty, history and great fishing of “The Bay” with their families. The area was built on tradition and we have tried to maintain many that we have learned from our friends and to begin some new ones of our own.