Greatest fishing story ever told, Part One

This and the next two blogs will recall what I consider the three greatest fishing stories I have ever heard. As you might imagine, in the 52 years my family has been in the sport fishing business, we've heard some pretty good tales.
One of them I know to be true and the other two I have no reason to believe are not true.
I will present them here in no particular order.
Greatest Fishing Story, Part One
The group who told me this story still comes to camp, in fact, a lot of the photos on this blog were generously donated by them.
As I recall it, they were fishing at camp later in the season, either late-August or September and discovered that northern pike that week were bonkers over white spinner baits. If you were fishing with a white spinner bait you caught fish, lots of fish and especially, big fish.
Fortunately, there were just enough white spinner baits among them for each person to fish with one.
They found one particular bay that had a narrow, shallow entrance that was a particularly great fish producer. There were four boats in the group, I believe, and all four boats went to this bay at the same time. They all stopped to fish the entrance because that is where they had done especially well the day before.
This day was no exception and the group caught several fish at the entrance. One of the anglers, however, had a fish break his line and probably his heart as well because it was the only white spinner bait he had. There was nothing to do but carry on with a different lure as the group moved farther back in the bay. Sure enough, everybody did well except the man without the white spinner bait.
Finally, it was time to head back to camp for supper. As the boats snaked their way back through the narrow entrance, the man without the spinner bait and his fishing partner saw a big fish jump not far from the shore. It sort of tail-walked on the surface, thrashing its head left and right. They saw something fling from the fish's mouth and land right next to the shoreline.
Never taking their eyes from the spot, they went to see what it was.
It was the white spinner bait!
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Snowshoeing is an excellent way to keep fit

Brenda and I enjoy snowshoeing during the winter months and find it to be excellent exercise.
If you don't think this type of activity is much of a workout, then how come your muscles ache the first few times you try it?
Brenda uses modern-style snowshoes, quite short and narrow and with a solid plastic-like material between the wooden frames. They perform very well, supporting her above the snow and are easy to walk in.
Mine are traditional Chippewa-style shoes with rawhide webbing.
She also uses adjustable walking sticks that have little baskets near the tips, just like cross-country ski poles. I carry a single cedar staff which I don't really use for keeping my balance but which can be used as a prop to keep from sliding down steep hills.
We both find that we feel great when we snowshoe regularly.
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Winter also shows Nature's subtle side

If the sky was a painting then the winter dawn would be done in water colours, all delicate shades and nuances. In summer, it would be painted in vivid acrylics.
Winter is often labelled as depressing, brutal, cold and dark, but it is also a time for noticing the little things.
I was snowshoeing yesterday and was struck by the fragrance of balsam fir and white cedar.
Likewise, I can pick up the smell of wood smoke from a neighbour's chimney a mile away.
These things would go unnoticed in the summer when the air is overwhelmed with the scent of flowers.
Also, in the summer a tree's limbs are obscured by leaves but now they stand revealed as a network of ever-finer branches.
It's like a circulatory system, I mused, thinking of the human body. Then it hit me; it IS the circulatory system, the tree's system, and it is shaped exactly like ours. It just works in the opposite direction, taking food from the leaves and storing it in the trunk and roots.
I knew that, I guess, but it took a walk in the winter to remind me.
We're not that much different, trees and us, at least so it seems in the winter dawn.

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Dock or fishing spiders are nothing to fear

Spiders give a lot of people the "willies" and I've never understood why.
You would think the fact that spiders eat insects would make them and people natural allies.
The truth is we all only fear one thing and that is the unknown. Once we learn about something, it isn't fearful any more and can even be fascinating.
Take dock spiders, also known as fishing spiders.
By just about any standard, these are big spiders, with legspans of up to three inches. Their bodies are much smaller, perhaps just 3/4 inch.
They like to hang out under docks and in logs and driftwood at the water's edge.
They catch insects by running them down or lying in wait and pouncing on them. They can sense vibrations in the water surface that indicate prey. They may even go underwater to catch minnows. Air bubbles cling to their furry bodies and provide them with breathing oxygen.
The only web dock spiders build is to hold their young.
Dock spiders have excellent eyesight and almost always see you coming and hide. If you look carefully at a dock before you step on it or its gangplank, you might see a dock spider sunning itself. They scram below the boards as soon as they spot you moving.
Interestingly, they seem to recognize individual humans and can become "tame" for these people. A case in point, I've seen dock spiders that have learned to recognize our staffer who fills the gas tanks. This person comes down to the gas dock several times a day. He or she usually think it's neat to see the big spider and takes care not to harm it. The spider gradually becomes accustomed to this person and will continue sunning itself even while the tanks are being moved around a few feet away. However, when a different person comes down to the dock or one of the boats comes to pick up a tank, the spider is gone in a flash. In fact, most people probably have never seen a dock spider even though they are quite common.
Like all spiders, docks spiders have venom which they use to kill their prey. I have never heard of anyone being bitten by one but it's probably possible. You wouldn't want to pick one up, for instance. You could say the same about many wild creatures. They are neat to observe from a distance but treat them with respect.

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Lime kiln last remnant of '26 Red Lake Gold Rush

As you fish along the shores and islands at the west end of Red Lake there is barely a trace any more of the hubbub of the 1926 Gold Rush, except for the old lime kiln on the side of Hall Bay.
Bow Narrows' angler Paul Stowick supplied this photo of his group at the kiln. Hey, who's taking the picture? Maybe the camera was on a tripod and the timer activated.
Made of concrete, fire brick and steel, the lime kiln stands like an old tombstone, no clue as to its origin, purpose or death.
It actually was in operation in 1948; so, it was one of the last parts of the west-end gold rush to operate. By that date all of the gold mines at the very west end of the lake such as May-Spires, Cole, West Red Lake and Miles, had ceased, to my knowledge. Several of them had burned down in a forest fire in the late '30s.
There were two gold mines that were accessed from Golden Arm still going then, but just barely. They were the Lake Rowan and Red Crest mines.
The real paydirt had been hit at the east end of the lake, where the town of Red Lake is now located. Just about everybody had pulled up stakes and moved there.
The lime kiln; however, was just being built in the late '40s. The mines at the east end of the lake such as the famous Howey Mine which was located between where Sobeys and the Legion are now needed lime for their operations. As far as I know, it was just for making concrete, not for the gold-milling process.
At Hall Bay, limestone would have been hauled to the kiln from a nearby pit, roasted, presumably using firewood as fuel, and the lime collected.
I have a newspaper article from 1948 stating that lime from the kiln had just been analyzed and was determined to be of good quality. There is no word about the kiln operation after that.
But something spectacular happened in 1948 that changed everything for Red Lake. A road was built to it. Up until that point everything had to come by water transportation from Hudson, near Sioux Lookout which was the closest rail terminus but was more than 100 miles away.
The fact the lime kiln faded into oblivion after that year would indicate that lime was simply hauled up the road by truck, probably a cheaper alternative to the Hall Bay operation and the water transportation needed to get the finished lime to town.
Another important thing happened in 1948, at least as far as we are concerned. Bow Narrows Camp was built!
Bill Stupack, one of the gold rush pioneers, a trapper, prospector and market hunter for the mines, could see that sport hunters and fishermen were likely to come to Red Lake with the creation of the road. He built four small cabins for them at the present location of Bow Narrows Camp.
A friend and fellow pioneer, Art Carlson, who had also supplied wild meat to the mines before the road was made and who as a carpenter and log-building maker had helped build many of the buildings for the mines and their workers, did the same thing on Douglas Lake which is the lake that feeds the stream at the end of Trout Bay. He called his camp Viking Island Lodge.
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Is Red Lake the loon capital of the world?

This awesome photo of a loon on its nest was taken last spring by John Andrews, one of our guests.
If there was a world competition for best photographers of loons, our fishermen would fill all the top spots.
Red Lake has pairs of loons literally at every turn. It is hard to fathom of any lake having more.
The loon is a beautiful subject, a study in black and white with riveting red eyes that apparently help it see in dark water.
Loons are the oldest birds in the world. Did you ever wonder why loons are the first birds in any bird book? It is because the birds are ordered chronologically, the oldest species first and the newest species at the end.
This photo shows the entire extent to which a loon ever goes on land. It builds its nest of water vegetation in a shallow cove, on a hump in the water or even just on a flat rock at the lake's edge.
When the chicks, usually two, hatch they immediately push themselves into the water and from that point on they are strictly aquatic, not touching land again until they too get old enough to build a nest.
Loons have a number of calls and behaviours that make them especially fascinating for humans.
I've learned what two of their calls mean. When they put their necks low in the water and make a long, repeating yodel, it is always in response to seeing another loon flying. When a loon makes the short call "kuk," it sees another loon on the water and wants it to come closer.
Loons with nests are fierce defenders of their territory, which is all the lake they can see. They will drive away other loons and will kill ducks, mergansers in particular, which either haven't gotten their flight feathers yet or are just more inclined to swim than fly. I've also seen a loon in a death battle with another loon, presumably an invader. This behaviour is probably an instinct to preserve food resources for the chicks. Merganser ducks, for instance, are fish eaters just like the loons are.
Loon nests are almost always in protected bays, at the entrances to marshy creeks and in sheltered coves on islands.
Loons out on the wide open water do not fight. They are probably unmated individuals who have no nesting territories. These "bachelors" form groups that can number a dozen or more and just party the summer away. They chase each other but don't fight, bounce up and down, hoot and holler and generally act irresponsibly, not unlike human adolescents.
The most dramatic loon event I have witnessed was a loon and a bald eagle fighting. The eagle would swoop down at the loon, I think to get its chick which I couldn't see but was probably hiding next to the adult. The loon would rear up out of water and strike at the eagle, trying to drive its dagger-like beak right into the big raptor. The eagle would flare away but would then wheel right around and attack again. They were still going at it when I drove out of sight on the Lickety Split.
Two of our guests witnessed something similar a few years later. Only this time the eagle ended up in the lake and a pair of loons tried to drown it by piling their bodies on top. Eventually the eagle was able to get out of the water enough, perhaps by using the loons as leverage, to get its immense wings clear of the lake and take off. It did not have any loon chicks in its talons.
Loons haven't survived for 65 million years by being milquetoasts.


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Nice to have some fresh fish in the winter

Sam and I got a supper's worth of perch and small walleye earlier this week by ice fishing on Whitefish Lake near our home in Nolalu, ON.
The temperature was right around the freezing mark that day but then plunged to -20 C for a couple of nights.
You can see that the ice is a perfect blue color. It's about a foot thick which is far less than normal. There is almost no snow on the ice so there isn't anything to insulate it from freezing deeper should we get sustained cold temperatures.
Blue ice is the strongest kind of ice there is. There have been people driving trucks on the lake since the ice was only eight inches.
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We need to hear from people with reservations

It has now been a month since a letter was mailed to every group with reservations at camp next summer.
If you still are planning to come to camp, and you haven't been in contact with me, you need to e-mail or phone right away.
I am in the process of trying other ways to contact the reservation-makers such as by phone and e-mail. If these don't work I will have no choice but to take these groups out of our reservation book and post their cabins as open on the Availability list.
If you are a member of a group but not the contact person, make sure the contact person has notified me.
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Make your own fishing lures this winter

You can make your own spinners, spoons and stick baits for a fraction of the cost by purchasing the components and assembling them yourself.
Hagen's fishing components company in South Dakota produces a great catalog of thousands of lure parts.
It also has an extensive YouTube video library and archived newsletters of how to do make each type of lure.
Although Hagen's sells many of its parts in bulk quantities, it also has a minimum purchasing system that only costs $1 more.
The company also has prism tape, a.k.a. holographic tape or reflecto tape that lets you change lure colors as easy as sticking on a piece of tape.
You can purchase hard-to-find hooks, paint, beads, leader wire, split ring pliers, crimping pliers and other tools needed to make top-quality lures.
Making your own lures is not only economical but fun as well and lets you customize your bait to the unique conditions of your lake.
For some items, like spinner blades, you can optimize savings if your whole group shares in the purchase.
Check it out yourself by ordering a catalog. The website is www.hagensfish.com
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How to catch walleye in the weeds

If you were a minnow trying to live a long life, like maybe to 4, where would you choose to hang out? In the open where there's nothing between you and packs of marauding walleye and northern pike or hidden between clumps and stems of weeds which also, as it turns out, form the basis for all the food you, as a minnow, need?
It's a no-brainer, isn't it? even for a minnow-sized brain. Minnows like the weeds. And walleyes eat minnows!
Weedbeds are packed with all types of aquatic life, not only minnows but insects like dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, perch, rock bass, frogs, leeches and -- walleye and northern pike.
Most people know about the northern pike. Weedbeds are a favorite location for casting pike lures. Fewer people realize there are also lots of walleye in these spots.
Weedbeds are the supermarkets of the lake.
Yet fishing there, especially for walleye which are at the bottom of the maze of weeds, can be an exercise in futility.
If you try to troll crankbaits you are continuously reeling in to remove a weed from your lure.
If you try to troll with walleye spinners every part of the rig, from the sinker, to the knot, to the hook catches weeds.
You can do a little better by casting and jigging. You might be able to make a few jigs before hooking a weed, but you still catch bunches.
But there is one technique that lets you spend most of your time fishing and just a little extracting weeds. That is to use a slip bobber, a small jig and a leech.
Go to the farthest edge of the visible weedbed where the water is the deepest and then anchor 30 feet or so farther out yet. Pick a spot that is not secluded -- walleye likes lots of oxygen that comes from the wind aerating the water. A weedbed on the side of an exposed bay is good.
So is the entrance to a bay where the current carries the oxygenated water. The entrance to virtually every bay has a current. That's because there is almost always a creek that feeds into the bay somewhere.
A simple but effective rig is to use a small jig, say 1/16 oz, beneath a slip bobber. Always use a leech rather than a minnow or a worm. That is because these places are loaded with perch which have an uncanny knack for stealing minnows and worms but can't usually get the tough little leech off your hook.
If you haven't fished with a slip bobber before, they work like this: the first thing you do is put a tiny rubber stopper or small piece of string that comes with the bobber on your line. The line then feeds right down through a hollow quill at the top of the bobber and out another quill at the bottom. Beneath this tie on your small jig.
Move the stopper up your line to about a foot less than the depth of the water. So, if the lake is 12 feet deep, put the stopper 11 feet up your line.
The stopper is so small it just winds up with your line on your reel. You wind in all your line so that you just have the bobber and the jig beneath the rod tip. Then you cast the outfit to the spot you have picked in front of the weedline and the jig pulls the line down until the stopper hits the quill at the top of the bobber.
You can make very long casts with a slip bobber whereas with a red-and-white plastic clip-on bobber you must sling the bobber plus all your line and jig dangling beneath it.
The slip bobber will tell you if you have chosen the right depth to fish. If you placed the stopper too high up on your line, the bobber tips over because the jig hit the bottom and isn't making the bobber ride upright . If you fish too shallow the bobber floats along fine but you just don't catch anything. You want your jig and leech down near the bottom where the fish are, just not on it or you will catch weeds. So you will need to make a few practice attempts before figuring out the proper depth.
Use the wind, if there is any, to drift your bobber along, covering new territory. If the bobber stops moving but doesn't go under, you've hooked a weed. Pull the rig loose and if you think you've got a weed, bring it back in and remove it.
Fishing vertically, however, means your hook will move right past many of the weeds compared to pulling it horizontally and hooking all of them like when you are casting or trolling.
You will usually find the walleye are on the edge of the weedbed where the weeds are sparse and your bobber moves more or less unobstructed. Walleye are usually in the deepest part of the weeds although in windy conditions they might be much shallower. If there is a rockpile amid the weeds, fish up close to it.
You can also use the slip bobber technique to fish rocky shoals where there are no weeds but which are too uneven to troll and where you constantly hang up by standard bottom-bouncing a jig.
The slip bobber is a deadly way to fish. Give it a try on your trip to camp this summer.
Top photo by Bow Narrows Camp angler Bob Edwards.

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Buck deer shows wounds from fighting

This is the first deer I have caught on camera this winter that has dropped its antlers and it appears to have other wounds to the head.
My guess is the wounds on the side of its head, lower than where the antlers were attached, came from the antlers of another buck. Perhaps it also lost its antlers in the fight.
Except for the goring to the head, the deer seemed otherwise unhurt.
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Wolves and coyotes stricken by mange

This coyote, caught by my trail camera a couple of days ago, would seem to have mange. Note how thin its fur is and that there seems to be a bald spot behind the shoulders in the bottom photo.
Trappers in the Nolalu, Ontario, area have reported for years that wolves and coyotes commonly have mange, a highly contagious disease that is caused by parasitic mites.
This is the first case I've seen personally.
The loss of hair can be fatal to these animals since they don't have the insulation to fend off the cold.
Mange can spread to other animals, including dogs and horses. I know of one horse farm near us that years ago had many of its horses infected. The owners eventually discovered that coyotes and wolves were sneaking into the barn at night just to keep warm.
I've kept our dog, Sam, on his Revolution heartworm and tick medication throughout the winter, just because it is said to be effective at also preventing mange. There is no chance of his contacting heartworm or ticks in the winter here.
I would suspect that the explosion in the whitetail deer population caused by our ever-milder winters is at least partly to blame for the mange problem. The huge deer numbers support far more wolves and coyotes that prey on the deer. The increase in the predators mean they come into contact with each other more frequently.
In Northwestern Ontario coyotes are frequently called "brush wolves."

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Single fisherman seeks other single fisherman

Are you a fisherman who would like to make a fishing trip to Canada but just don't have anyone to come fishing with you?
It's a common predicament.
I have often thought that it is harder to find a fishing partner than it is a spouse.
After all, a fishing partner has to be such a perfect match that you enjoy being stuck in the same boat with him for a week. Many married couples can't even do it!
At Bow Narrows Camp we have a fair number of single fishermen. Some just love fishing up here where the sport is at its best but don't have any friends who feel similarly. Some had always gone fishing with their dad or brother and then that person died or moved far away. Some are waiting and hoping that their sons or daughters will join them when they get old enough. Whatever the reason, they end up coming by themselves and although they have a good time they would be the first to tell you it would be more fun to share the experience with a buddy.
It's also easier to fish with a second person in the boat, someone to net your trophy, snap a photo of you releasing it and take turns running the outboard and dropping the anchor.
I suspect that the single fishermen who actually come to camp are just the tip of the iceberg.
There are probably many more who never get as far but would come if only they knew somebody.
Which brings me to this idea: Why not have a "matchmaking" service for anglers, a way that fishermen without partners can find other single fishermen?
In the 51 years that we've operated Bow Narrows Camp we have watched many thousands of fishermen interact and have a fairly good idea what makes two people compatible for the purposes of angling.
Some of it is just personal habits: Do you smoke? Drink alcohol and if so how much? Snore?
A lot more, however, are criteria that strictly have to do with fishing.
What species of fish do you prefer fishing for? Mostly walleye and some pike or all of one and none of the other?
How do you like to fish? Troll? Cast? Still-fish?
Do you use live or dead bait for fishing?
Do you release all your fish? Keep some fish for eating at camp but not take any home? Take some fish home but release all the big fish? Take home the maximum number and sizes allowed by law?
How do you feel about fishing in the rain? Snow? Wind? Hot days?
Would you go fishing before breakfast all the time, sometimes or never?
What is your preferred schedule for a fishing day?
How many years have you been fishing?
What would you do if your partner botches a netting job and the largest fish you've ever seen gets away?
On a scale of one-10, how much importance do you put on non-fishing experiences that occur while on a fishing trip such as seeing moose or bears or northern lights?
When you are fishing how much do you talk? As little as possible? Some of the time? Most of the time?
Do you prefer catching lots of fish, even if some of them are small, or to target only large fish even if it means catching fewer fish each day?
How often would you like to eat fish at camp?
How do you feel about fishing in the weeds? Fishing in the same area as other boats?
Answers to these questions would help single fishermen know if they might be compatible with another person. Do you have any other questions along these lines? If so, please leave your comments on the blog or send me an e-mail by writing to: fish@bownarrows.com
Depending on the reaction I get on this, I might go ahead with a formal questionnaire that I could e-mail single fishermen and then put similar folks in touch with each other.
If they lived relatively close to each other they might also be able to share the expense in traveling to Red Lake.
Readers and single fishermen, what are your thoughts on this?
Incidentally, the photo of the lone island on today's blog comes from Bow Narrows angler Ken Lehmann who has been visiting Bow Narrows Camp with a group of fellow anglers -- friends and relatives -- for many years. Ken's original photo was totally realistic and I have given it a photo-effect by altering the color balance. I felt it was an artistic choice to photograph a little island and the photo effect made it even more artistic. I hope you don't mind, Ken. If you do, let me know and I'll change it.

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Down jacket on sale at Cabela's great for fishing

I mentioned in a previous blog about what to pack for a Canadian fishing trip that Cabela's makes a great down jacket that is the ultimate in warmth and which goes on sale once a year. Well, that sale is on right now. It's Cabela's Mid-Winter Inventory Clearance Sale and lasts until Feb. 7.
The jacket is Cabela's 550 Goose-Down Jacket which normally sells for $59.99 but is on sale for $29.99.
I bought one of these many years ago and can vouch that it is well-made.
This is a better alternative to bring for unexpected cold weather than a heavy sweater. It stuffs into a smaller space and is warmer.
Down garments look puffy but crush down to fit underneath whatever you are wearing. If you wear this jacket underneath your breathable rain coat you are prepared for anything nature can throw at you.
I bring my down jacket to camp each year and wear it under my Dry-Plus rainwear for those times when it snows or is near-freezing. The rainwear blocks the wind and precipitation and the down jacket provides the warmth.
In fact, this is also the very combination I wear all winter long here at our home in Nolalu, even in -30 C temperatures.
I don't believe you can find anything warmer or more versatile, especially not for $29.99.
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Perfect weather for kicksledding and ice fishing

I've been out ice fishing on Whitefish Lake several times now and caught one real jumbo perch. It weighed at least a pound.
Conditions are perfect for using my kicksled which is to say there is almost no snow on the ice. The lake is covered with about eight inches of pure blue ice. I am able to cut through that with my Nils ice auger in about 15 seconds.
I've had the best success the last couple of years using two relatively new ice fishing lures, the Salmo Darter and the Lindy Darter. These short, lipless crankbaits are meant to be jigged vertically such as when ice fishing but would also work at camp to vertical jig beneath a boat. I don't think I've seen any of our guests using them. They should give it a try.
I like to remove the end treble hook and replace it with a single hook on which I place a bit of bait such as a Gulp waxworm or perch eye.
The single hook does not catch the sides of the hole like the treble. Nothing is more frustrating than to watch a fish escape at the bottom of the hole because your lure is stuck on the edge of the ice.
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Merry Christmas from our family to yours

We have about eight inches of snow at our home in Nolalu which is about 30 miles from Thunder Bay, Ontario, so it seems certain that we will have a white Christmas.
We are fortunate this year to have all our family home for Christmas including our son Matt and our grandsons Raven and Quillan (pictured) and also our son Josh and of course, our dog Sam.
We would like to wish you and your family a safe and joyous holiday.
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What makes a great fisherman?

It is our good fortune to have many truly great fishermen at Bow Narrows Camp.
So what is a great fisherman? In my opinion, a great fishermen is someone who meets the following four criteria.
1. Adapts to the conditions.
The difference between shopping and fishing is that fishing is different every time you do it.
Conditions out-of-doors are dependent upon the weather and the season. Not only does the location of fishing spots change but so do the preferences of the fish themselves.
There is much more to know than just the water temperature, for instance, which is indeed an important factor. Perhaps the water temperature plus the photo period (length of daylight) make fish behave in a certain manner. Sometimes though, there are just unseen factors that can only be guessed. For example, maybe the water conditions have created a hatch of aquatic insects, maybe this happens only cyclically every unknown number of years. Maybe conditions years ago created a great year-class of a certain species of minnows or other forage. Any of these things might lead the fish to being in a certain place and behaving in a certain manner.
The point is, if a person always fishes in the same place and in the same way his success at catching fish is going to vary drastically from outing to outing.
The adaptable fisherman, however, will try different methods and different locations, sometimes guessing at what is going on and guessing right and sometimes just being lucky to find the right combination of technique and location.
We have one excellent walleye angler whose favorite technique is to use jigs with plastic tails and live bait. He usually drifts or anchors and casts the jigs into known hot spots.
This just about always works, the only thing that changes is the color of the tails. But on one trip I was surprised to hear him say that a better system that week was to troll Rapalas. He didn't know why, but that's what was working. He had adapted.
Similarly, sometimes northern pike are lying on the deep side of weedbeds, sometimes right up on shore, sometimes in the logs or in the rocks. They might prefer spinners on one occasion and spoons on another. Inexplicably they might even prefer top-water baits. Or, they might want dead bait.
You usually can't look at the lake and determine what is going to work. You have to try different spots and techniques and be alert to what is the best. That's the key, be aware of what is happening and adapt.
2. Releases large fish.
For probably 20 years now it has been obvious that to ensure fish populations remain sustainable, it is necessary for anglers to release the big ones and keep smaller or mid-sized fish to eat.
Big fish are the big spawners. They are almost all females and produce the most eggs. They also have the genetics for fast growth and large size. When a person kills a big fish he is reducing the lake's potential to sustain harvesting of that species. In my mind he is being disrespectful to the fish and the lake.
The world's population just passed 7 billion. That's more than three times as many people as were around when my mom and dad took over Bow Narrows Camp in 1961. The planet just can't support this many people by following ignorant and wasteful practices of the past, such as keeping big fish.
Big fish are also unhealthy to eat. They are old, the top of the aquatic food chain, and all the heavy metals that occur naturally in nature are accumulated in their tissues. A 10-pound walleye probably has 30 times the contaminants as a two-pounder. That's because a 10-pounder might be 30 years old while a two-pounder is only a few years old.
3. Shares his knowledge. A great fisherman always tries to help others enjoy the sport in a sustainable manner. Every week at camp we see some of our guests help others who aren't doing as well. They give them tips on what is working, share lures and bait and even invite them to join them. It's great to see and why not? If you are fishing in a sustainable manner, which is to say you are releasing large fish and not keeping more than you can eat, you are not harming the fish population. There are fish enough for everyone.
4. Appreciates all of Nature. A great fisherman just enjoys fishing; the catching of fish is a bonus. A day can be gloriously sunny or excitingly windy. There are magnificent thunderheads to see, eagles perched on snags, moose standing in the grass, beavers cutting trees and all sorts of wonderful things to take in. There is also the company of your companions to enjoy, stories to tell and to listen to, jokes to share. And silence to contemplate in.
Fishing is all about the experience. If all you want is the fish, then just go shopping.

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Requests for deposits are in the mail

Every group with tentative reservations at camp for 2012 will be receiving a letter from me in the next week or so asking them to confirm their reservations with deposits. We require $100 per person to continue holding reservations. Deposits are fully refundable upon 60 days notice of cancellation.
Many people have already sent their deposits and I will have written them confirming their reservations.
New this year is that guests get to choose their departure boat time at the end of the week when they make their deposit. They can also choose their pickup time in Red Lake at the start of the week. That part is unchanged from the past. So, those who send or call in their deposits first get the first choice.
You can make your deposit by check, sent to our winter address or by credit card by calling us at our winter phone number. You can include your HST rebate check from last year's trip as part of your deposit. Just sign the back and send it to our winter address.
Although we have been holding many of our reservations without deposit since last summer, we will now move quickly to secure them with deposits. We would like to hear from everybody in the next 30 days.
I always caution group organizers not to pay the entire group's deposit out of their own pocket. If they do, they don't really know who is coming. It is when the organizer asks each person for his $100 that the rubber meets the road. Those who are serious about joining the group will step up. Those who aren't will change their mind.
From our end, we need to know how many people are really planning to come. We realize, of course, that some people may need to drop out later for personal reasons. That's why we have our refund policy. But it hurts us when someone books a cabin for 8 and only four show up and we had turned down another group of 8.
Planning is always an imperfect process but we just ask that everyone do their best and keep us informed as the group's numbers go up and down. We know from years of experience that people who ante up their $100 are serious and those who don't are not. So, if you are a group organizer, tell your members to give you their deposit or send or call it in to us within the next month. If they don't, they aren't going.
The photo on this blog was taken by Bow Narrows angler Doug Billings. It is of camp on a misty morning in July 2011. It is our guests who continually renew our appreciation of the natural beauty of Red Lake and Northwestern Ontario. It really is breathtaking, isn't it?
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Fishing off the dock can be a good technique

Every summer a number of our anglers "discover" how good the fishing can be right off the dock at camp.
Usually they fish for walleye with live bait in the evening and are delighted to find they can do as well as out in the boat. Sometimes they even do better!
We've had several groups where someone simply couldn't fish in the boat, usually because of back problems. So they took a lawn chair down to one of the many docks we have and tried their luck.
When their buddies came back at lunch they were astonished to find the man on the dock had not only caught a lot of fish but big ones as well. We're talking 26+inch walleye, 44-inch northern pike and in the spring, lunker lake trout.
I remember one elderly gentleman, probably in his 80s, who got a nine-pound walleye and 20-pound pike on the same day. They were netted by his wife and the pair of them were absolutely thrilled. Soon the rest of their family joined them and they were all hauling in fish.
While it is possible just to cast a spoon or spinner and catch a fish at any time, the people who do the best use live or dead bait and a float. The very best system is a slip bobber because the bobber slips down your line right to the hook or jig and lets you cast it out in a natural motion.
The old red-and-white plastic bobbers also work but since they are clipped to the line they have to be flung out in a cumbersome manner. You usually want the bobber about 8 feet or more from the hook. It's a difficult thing to make a cast with eight feet of line, bobber and hook beneath your rod tip.
What you are trying to do is let the wind or the current (there is a current in our narrows) take your bait down the shoreline while keeping it within a foot or two of the bottom.
If your bobber that was moving along stops or tips over, it indicates the hook is on the bottom. You can reel it back in, move up the bobber or stopper in the case of slip bobbers, and cast it out again.
In this manner you can also detect underwater structure that may hold fish.
There is as much to know and learn about bobber fishing as any other technique.
The dock is a good place to master this.
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Tips on renewing Non-Canadian Outdoors Card

When you go to renew your non-resident Ontario Outdoors Card on-line, you are going to find a lot of pages of info to wade through first.
Here's some tips on short-cutting the process.
1. Click on this link or cut and paste the following URL address into your browser window:
Buy an Ontario Licence Online - Provincial Services Division, Ministry of Natural Resources - Government of Ontario, Ministry of Natural Resources
2. Go half way down the page and click on START YOUR LICENCE PURCHASE HERE
3. On the left side of the page click on Licence/Permit Purchase
4. At the bottom of the page click on Begin Licence Purchase
(If you don't have a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader you will be prompted to download it)
5. Choose Non-Canadian Resident
Choose Yes to being an existing customer with an Outdoors Card Number
Type in your Outdoors Card Number and Date of Birth and Zip Code
6. Purchase the Outdoors Card for $9.63 and check out.
You then pay with a credit card and your new card is mailed to you. You can also print out a paper temporary card. That's a good idea. You don't know for sure how long it's going to take to get the mailed one.
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