Oh Canada - Hit the Lake

The 'Otter' slides right up to the dock and what looks like a small fraternity that kidnapped a couple of professors and eaten their pledges is waiting with all their gear to come home. I marvel at all the Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie shorts and shirts. They seem to be a little overdressed for this type of thing. Maybe they organized a meet and greet with a local lake sorority here in the middle of nowhere. Somehow I doubt it and shrug to myself. They help us get out gear off the plane and begin to show off all the hotspots for fishing on our map to my cousin, Chris. We walk up the small path to a very modern looking cabin. Up the stairs to the porch and through the red door we go. I place some things in the cabin and go back for more gear and help the evacuees with theirs. The cabin fits eight and eight there were. That includes one guy in a full on Haz-Mat certified level 2 Bug suit. He had the hat, face net, the body netting tucked into his boots, the whole nine. I won't lie, this guy made me nervous. Not only is it very alien with the Abercrombie boys in the background, but it tells me that the mosquitos here must be insanely thick and huge. Those are two qualities I don;t normally like in insects. I wish I would have gotten a shot of him though.

'We're on our way', Tom says after a short tour of the place and accepting some 'gas money' from my father. So we are. We lightly unpack and I can hear my fish-happy cousin getting his pole ready outside. My dad and I begin to unload the boxes of groceries for the week into the propane refrigerator and outside freezer. This is what we have for the week, so it better be enough. We could, however radio in some supplies if we need to as the plane will be back for a camp check on Tuesday and Thursday. Today is Sunday. Our first day of fishing.

Everyone is getting geared up to go out on the lake. Lines are tied to swivels which are hooked to jig-heads that are speared through brightly colored rubber bodies. This will be our weapon of choice for the walleye swimming in the lake. We take a minute or two to remove the barbs from every hook we put on the lines. We don't want to keep the nasty, slimey northern pike on any longer than we have to. Their razor-sharp and amply-sized teeth will not only slice through most fishing line but easily through your skin. Chris brought gloves with him in order to prevent chumming the water with blood. I'd rather just hope that as I get them closer to the boat that they wriggle themselves off so I don't have to grab those snot-snakes. We'll fish for those big ones when it's time. Right now, everyone is ready to go and get some walleye, an excellent eating fish. We better get some too because we've left three open meals for them.

We pair off, my dad and myself and my uncle and his son. There are 4 boats total, but we obviously don't require that many. Life jackets and rain gear in bags and tackleboxes slung around, we make our way into the small Lund boats and start the engines up. Maps are checked and destinations set. I'm bringing my GPS to mark what we find in the water and various hot spots. There's even something to note the best fishing times for our coordinates, though I'm not sure how accurate it could possibly be.

Within minutes, we're out on the water, in search of rocks. Walleye enjoy sitting in the shade of rocks apparently, waiting for food sources to come around. The sun is warm already as we approach 9 or 10 AM. I don't wear a watch and my phone was deposited in my bag hours ago. Time begins to become irrelevant.

We find a spot marked on our map by the earlier inhabitants. There is no one else on the lake. Really, there can't be. There is no other way in here, save seaplane. There is only one cabin, ours. There is just us, various flora and fauna and a large cabin with the necessities including a shower which heats the lake water up nicely for you and sends it back down to who knows where. I assume at some point, it goes back into the lake. The toilet? Well that's outside. One or two trips into there and it gets nicknamed, 'The Sauna'. No one seems to be able to locate a 'Hot Tub' though I'm thinking that's ok. There are no electrical outlets in our place. The solar power cells hold enough energy to power the tiny lights and CB radio, should something happen. Welcome to the wilderness, in style.

Back to the fishing: We get to those rocks and begin to cast a few. I believe Chris or my uncle Kevin is the first to latch onto something. Let the fishing begin. We probably catch 8 or 9 fish there within 30 minutes. We let them all go as it is way too early to start thinking about keeping anything at this rate. I latch onto my first walleye ever and pull him up to the boat. Nothing too big, but nothing to sneeze at. I set him loose in the water and tell hmi to grow. They are coming in around 2-3 pounds, around 16 inches. I'm down. My dad latches into another one and we feel the breeze die, freeing up the heat in the already warm sun. Outside layer, off. If this is what it's going to be like all week, I'm set. My rain gear has amounted to a large plastic poncho left over from a previous vacation and some track pants. if it downpours I'm screwed. For today I'm just going to enjoy the sun, time with my family and look forward to fish for lunch.