Bow Narrows Camp Blog on Red Lake Ontario

Greatest fishing story ever told, Part Two

2012-01-30T21:41:00.002-05:00

The year was 1961, the first that my parents had taken over Bow Narrows Camp.
There were few people other than my parents and me at the west end of the lake, and that included customers. My Dad spent most of his time fixing up the old cabins and my Mom and I would often go fishing by ourselves.
Most of the outboard motors that had come as part of the purchase of the camp were 10-year-old-or-older models. These old motors had been produced before the invention of the gear shifter. When you started the motor it immediately propelled the boat forward. If you pushed the throttle lever a bit too far on start-up, the boat shot out from underneath you and you were pitched over the back into the water. It was quite a dangerous operation for a 7-year-old kid and his mom who was new to living in the wilderness.
So we opted to just paddle a boat that had no motor. We didn't need to go any farther than the other side of the narrows anyway; the northern pike were so thick in the lake back then you could almost walk on them.
There is a small island at the entrance to a small bay across from camp. Mom cast her Dardevle up beside a deadhead in the water there and immediately a fish started pulling out her line. Her old Pflueger Summit reel didn't have a drag, no bait casting reel did back then. So she thumbed the braided Dacron line trying to slow down what was obviously a big, big fish.
It went behind the island right into the little bay. Mom couldn't stop it without freezing on the reel; she just had to let it keep taking line, right to the knot at the arbor.
The boat then started moving toward the little bay -- the fish was towing us!
We were excited beyond belief. We yelled and screamed for my dad to come help but he was busy mowing the grass with the old Lawnboy mower he had brought with him to Red Lake from our cabin on the Pickerel River in Eastern Ontario.
Mom was wedged into the bow holding onto her rod for dear life and the boat was moving at a pretty good clip. The fish had turned away from the little bay and headed toward the deep side of the island.
This cedar-strip boat wasn't exactly like the boats we have today. It was a 16-foot Nipissing and resembled a square-stern canoe more than today's wide aluminum boats.
It took about 10 minutes before the fish had taken us a complete turn around the island and the fish had run right back to where Mom first hooked it. She slowly reeled in her line, pulling the boat right up to where the fish lay in a few feet of water.
It was enormous, at least five feet long and eight inches thick across the back.
It had wrapped the line right around the deadhead.
"Grab my line and unwrap it," said my Mom.
I did as she said but made sure my hands never went into the water. In fact I never took my eyes off this monstrous fish for fear it would grab me and pull me overboard.
Once free, the fish took off for the little bay, stripping off line just like before.
Again we screamed. Again my Dad couldn't hear us.
And again the fish towed the boat completely around the island and right back into the same log.
"This time," said my Mom, "pull the log into the boat when you unwrap the line.''
I unwrapped the line and grabbed the log and we were probably half-way around the island before I managed to pull the waterlogged deadhead over the stern and into the boat.
When the fish had finished its third tour of the island, it went right to where the log had been but of course, it wasn't there anymore. So instead it ran into a big tangle of logs at another spot on shore and this time, before I could get it out, it broke the line.
We paddled back to camp and hysterically told my Dad the entire saga, over and over. We still had the log in the boat. I'm sure he believed we had latched onto a big pike, but five-feet-long, 60 inches? That would have been a world record.
About a week later, Gus Forslin, the old commercial fisherman who once fished Red Lake, stopped his old inboard boat at the dock on his way back to town. He would go by camp at dawn to lift his whitefish nets up in Pipestone Bay.
"Just thought you'd be interested in something we saw," said Gus. "There was a really big musky sunning itself on the rock by the green buoy in front of camp this morning. It was the biggest fish I've ever seen."
THAT was our fish.
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Greatest fishing story ever told, Part One

2012-01-29T11:51:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-28T11:06:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-26T17:34:00.005-05:00

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

2012-01-24T00:15:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-20T10:54:00.005-05:00

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?

2012-01-17T20:32:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-14T22:24:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-12T11:50:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-11T08:37:00.005-05:00

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

2012-01-08T20:36:00.005-05:00

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

2012-01-07T00:44:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-04T16:03:00.005-05:00

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

2012-01-02T17:48:00.008-05:00

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

2011-12-29T09:43:00.007-05:00

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

2011-12-27T11:47:00.007-05:00

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

2011-12-23T19:10:00.003-05:00

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?

2011-12-20T11:36:00.004-05:00

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

2011-12-17T20:47:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-15T19:49:00.004-05:00

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

2011-12-12T12:05:00.003-05:00

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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Renew your Outdoors Card when notified

2011-12-10T10:17:00.007-05:00

The first non-residents to get an Ontario Outdoors Card, back in 2009, are beginning to receive renewal notices. The card cost $9 and was good for three years.
You want to go ahead and renew your card. It still costs $9 plus change and is good for another three years.
What is an Ontario Outdoors Card?
First of all, it is not your fishing licence but rather the card that contains all the information that you or we tediously filled out when you got a fishing licence. You know, where you live, when were you born, how tall you are, colour of your eyes, etc.
Although for the past three years you had to give that information anyway, even though you had the Outdoors Card, that is all going to change next summer.
Starting in 2012 we at camp and all other licence issuers will have an electronic machine like those used for credit cards. When you get to camp we will just swipe the card, punch in a code for the type of fishing licence you want, and print out your licence. The whole process should take just a couple of minutes. This is going to save everybody, including you, a whole lot of time that could better be spent fishing.
You need to have both your Outdoors Card and fishing licence together when you are fishing.
What happens if you forget to bring your Outdoors Card? You will have to buy another which will be sent to you the next winter. And you will have to input all your info the old-fashioned and time-consuming way again.
So, bring your card! If you get a card renewal notice, renew it. There may be options to get the fishing licence too but it might be a good idea not to do that. For one thing, we supply a free conservation fishing licence with all our fishing packages.
Speaking of cards, every Canadian boat driver now has a Pleasure Craft Operators Card, similar to the one in the second photo. It comes from taking a course on boating safety and is a requirement to operate a vessel in Canada. The card is good for life.
If you are a non-resident of Canada, you must either have a card like this or fill out our Rental Boating Agreement which acts as a one-week boating safety certificate. It is free but takes about 10 minutes to complete. If you do have a Pleasure Craft card, we just write the number on the Rental form and you are on your way.
Pleasure Craft Operators courses are available on-line and typically cost about $40. Again, the card is good for life. A card from the U.S. is also good in Canada.
You must carry the Boater's Card or the Rental Boating Agreement anytime when you are boating. A Conservation Officer or police officer may ask to see your boating credentials as well as your fishing licence. They may also ask you to identify the required safety equipment in your boat. The Number One safety item is your PFD -- personal floatation device or life vest.
Seat cushions do not qualify as a PFD.
We supply PFDs and the rest of the safety kit in all our boats but you need to know where it is, what's in it, and what it is used for. It is specified on the boat agreement but it's a good idea to ask our staffer who shows you your boat at the beginning of the week.
Incidentally, if you are wearing your PFD, something that every boater should always do, you probably won't be asked for anything else. Ninety-nine per cent of being safe in a boat is to wear a PFD at all times.
Conservation officers and police are also always on the lookout for alcoholic beverages. It is illegal to have any type of alcoholic beverage, including beer, in a boat. Actually, the law states it is illegal to have an opened case of beer or container of liquor. So it is OK to bring full cases of beer in our camp boat, the Lickety Split, on your way out to camp. You can consume the beer anywhere on shore at camp or in your cabin, just not in a boat, whether you are driving it or not. You cannot drink in the Lickety Split, for instance, even though you are just a passenger.
We occasionally see boaters who not only take beer with them but also proudly line up their empty cans in the splash tray at the back of the boat. They would be certain to get charged if they were inspected.
In Canada, drinking and driving, be it a car or a boat, is a felony. People convicted of this offence are not allowed back into the country for 10 years.
So please, do the beer drinking on shore.
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The best top-water lures for northern pike

2011-12-07T13:06:00.007-05:00

More and more, it seems, anglers are discovering that top-water baits can be an excellent choice for catching northern pike.
There are some excellent new northern pike top water lures on the market. We saw a few of these at camp last summer and the fishermen who used them reported great results.
The first lure, however, is an old-time favorite, the Zara Spook.
This lure is basically a floating torpedo that zigs and zags with each flick of your rod tip. It comes in many colours and sizes but for fishing northern pike on Red Lake, don't get too large on your lure size. Four-to-six inches is plenty big to catch pike that can weigh up to 30 pounds. Bigger lures tire you out and catch fewer fish.
The next two lures are very new. They are the Live Target Walking Frog and the Live Target Hollow Body Frog. Live Target is becoming known as a premium-quality lure maker. It's lures are extremely realistic. They are also pricey.
In our experience, the Walking Frog, which is a hard-body lure, worked the best of the two but it might be too early to decide. These lures just recently came on the market. The Hollow Body Frog is soft-bodied. Again, you impart the action to these lures by twitching your rod tip.
The final lure may seem the cheesiest (pun intended). It is the Snag Proof Moss Mouse. We had one person last summer who caught 35 pike in one day on this, basically a rubber mouse. It isn't exactly a top-water lure as it sinks about a foot deep. It is simply reeled back to the boat and has an enticing swimming action.
You won't catch many pike on either the Hollow Body Frog or the Moss Mouse without making a modification to these lures, however. We have discovered that it is practically impossible to hook a northern pike with lures that have the hooks pointed upwards. The pike strike at them, just seldom get hooked. All you have to do is turn the hooks around, so that they point downward. Instantly those strikes turn into fish!
Of course, a lure with hooks protruding downwards is no longer weed-proof but there just doesn't seem to be any alternative. Do you want to catch fish or just not catch weeds?
If you really want a weedless lure, try the Johnson Silver Minnow but always use a trailer on this lure's single hook.

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Buck and Sam the best of buddies

2011-12-04T21:31:00.004-05:00

Our outside worker, Ben Godin, brought his two-year-old black Lab, Buck, with him to camp last summer and he and our chocolate Lab, Sam, instantly became the best of friends.
Just about every day you would see them play-wrestling and sleeping against each other. Both dogs' favorite thing to do was to go in the boat when Ben emptied fish guts on an island in the evening.
Sam is considerably older; he'll be nine in January, but he really enjoyed the younger Buck's company.
In the fall we took both dogs duck hunting. It was the first duck hunting Sam had ever done. Previously I had only hunted him for grouse. But Ben is such an experienced duck hunter I thought it a shame not to learn from him while he was at camp last fall.
Buck had hunted the previous year and knew all about it. The whole experience was an eye-opener for Sam. But after a couple of trips, he wanted to retrieve ducks too. Unfortunately, I didn't get any after that. But there's always next year.
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Still one of the most affordable fishing trips

2011-11-30T20:04:00.005-05:00

Our 2012 rates are now posted on our website.
It's the first change in rates we've had since 2008.
As you can imagine, a lot of our costs have increased over that time, especially fuel and food.
We will start immediately sending our brochure and new rates sheet out to all guests with existing reservations and asking them for deposits to secure their reservations.
We've done a lot of research this fall and have found that a trip to Bow Narrows Camp is still one of the most affordable in Ontario, especially among remote operations.
Something new this year will be that guests can reserve their departure trip time at the end of the week when they give us their deposit. So, you will know far in advance when you will be departing camp and can make the rest of your travel arrangements.
Another change is our first boat on departure days from camp will leave at 6:30 a.m. and the second at 8 a.m. We will be diligent in scheduling people so that not too many want to depart on the same day.
Boat times on arrival days in town remain the same at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., if necessary.
Speaking of the Lickety Split, check out this beautiful photo of our boathouse with the Lickety Split under cover. It was taken by Doug Billings, one of our guests with a real flare for photography.
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Tim Horton's is up and running in Red Lake

2011-11-29T23:31:00.003-05:00

No sooner do I write about Tim Horton's restaurant in Red Lake being nearly completed than I see in the Northern Sun newspaper that it has officially opened!
Way to go Timmy's!
I'll be by for a double-double in the near future.
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Our Boreal Forest world's largest ecosystem

2011-11-28T19:24:00.005-05:00

When you come to northern Canada such as Red Lake in Northwestern Ontario, you will be immersed in the world's largest ecosystem -- the Boreal Forest.
Viewed from space, the Boreal Forest, named for Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, is said to be a green band that goes completely around the world in the northern latitudes.
It is certainly beautiful, as this scene taken at camp last fall by our brother-in-law Ron Wink shows. But it also is vitally important to the health of the world too.
The Boreal Forest covers 58 per cent of Canada which is the second-largest country in the world. (Russia is the largest). It also represents 50 per cent of the entire forest area on Earth.
And while it is vital as the breeding area for hundreds of species of birds and is home to countless species of animals and fish, its greatest importance these days is all the carbon it contains.
It holds 22 per cent of all the carbon on the surface of the Earth in its forests, peatlands and soils.
That's twice as much as the tropical forests.
Carbon that is tied up in the form of trees and peat is carbon that is not in the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect and raising the globe's temperature. In fact, each tree holds about a ton of carbon. It got there, of course, through photosynthesis where a plant uses sunlight and water to convert carbon dioxide (from the atmosphere) into a sugar and releases oxygen back to the atmosphere. For this reason, forests have often been called the "lungs of the Earth."
No wonder the air quality in a forest is always excellent.
2011, incidentally, is the International Year of the Forest.

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Walleye fishing to be incredible for years

2011-11-26T14:23:00.004-05:00

Walleye fishing on Red Lake is going to be spectacular for years, based on the fish we caught last summer.
There seemed to be a million walleyes just getting big enough to keep. By season-end in 2011 these fish were 14-15 inches long. Since they grow about two inches a year, in 2012 there are going to be hoards of fish 16-17 inches. That is absolutely the perfect-size walleye to keep and eat.
That year class will dominate the catch now for years to come. Next year they will be 18-19 inches, the year after 19-21 etc.
Walleye begin to spawn at 18 inches in Red Lake. So expect a reproduction boost from this year class in a year or two.
There are lots of bigger walleye too but the hard part is getting one before the smaller guys take your hook.
Last year saw phenomenal fishing for walleye with some people reporting as many as 100 fish in as little as an hour. More often, of course, a great fishing day would be 50-100. Usually people catching large numbers of fish were getting mostly small ones. The big ones take longer to land.
Although big walleye were found in all areas, the ticket to targeting strictly big ones was to fish in deeper water, at least when the shallow waters were stuffed with the smaller ones.
Most people had no problem filling their limits with 17-18 inchers. You are only allowed one fish over 18 inches and we encourage people to only use that option for a lunker they accidentally kill.
Still, some people keep them anyway and we saw quite a few really fat, muscular, 24-26-inchers being kept.
Biggest walleye I heard about, which was released on the spot, was a 31-incher. It was caught in deeper water fishing for lake trout.
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Tim Hortons, Super 8 coming to Red Lake

2011-11-25T15:03:00.003-05:00

Red Lake is getting two renowned food and accommodation franchises: Tim Hortons restaurant and Super 8 motel.
Both will be located along Highway 105, on the right just before you enter town.
Tim Hortons is better known in Canada than in the U.S. Virtually every town in Canada has at least one Tim Hortons, known for its coffee and donuts but also breakfast and lunch menus.
Super 8 will be the first chain hotel ever to open in Red Lake.
Both businesses should do a thriving trade.
Although Red Lake does have other restaurants, many of them are not open during extended hours. There has been a shortage of motel rooms in Red Lake for years. There are only three local motels in the area and these are usually filled with mineral exploration crews. Visitors such as fishermen usually need to book a room a year in advance to get a reservation.
Construction of the Tim Hortons is nearly complete but the Super 8 was just beginning when we left camp the end of October. Both are expected to be ready by the spring of 2012.
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"Lifejackets." Learn from Professor Popsicle

2011-11-24T23:22:00.008-05:00

At Bow Narrows Camp we provide comfortable PFDs for all our guests. PFDs are personal floatation devices which most people would call lifejackets. There is a technical difference, however. The Coast Guard requires lifejackets to float a person face up even when they are unconscious. For this reason lifejackets are bulkier, usually of a keyhole design worn around the neck, are uncomfortable and just about never worn.
PFDs, on the other hand, are slender vests or inflatable suspenders that keep a person afloat as long as they are able to turn themselves right side up. They are very comfortable and should be worn any time you are in a boat. All our staff wear them. Brenda and I wear them. All professional outdoors people such as conservation officers, biologists, etc., wear them. So do police officers.
And PFDs, despite the objection of the Coast Guard, are also known by everyone as "lifejackets."
Not wearing a PFD or "lifejacket" is about as smart as not wearing a seatbelt in an automobile or not wearing a helmet when you play football.
Why the Coast Guard doesn't make wearing PFDs mandatory is beyond me. Canadian Coast Guard regulations only state there must be a PFD or lifejacket for each person in the boat. You don't legally have to wear one. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Well, make sure you are smarter. Always wear your PFD.
In the photo, long-time Bow Narrows angler Charles Howard wears a comfortable PFD.
I think the problem comes from the Coast Guard also being responsible for Maritime shipping regulations. You know, ships as long as football fields. They apply the same rules for the big vessels to recreational boats. But there is a huge difference. Ships sink, boats capsize.
When a person needs a lifejacket aboard a ship, it probably comes after hearing an announcement on the PA system, "Now hear this, this is your captain speaking, all passengers are ordered to report to their muster stations and don lifejackets."
When you need a PFD aboard a boat it comes a split-second after striking a log or rock. Everything is absolutely normal one moment, and the next you are flung into the water. There is no time to put on your PFD. There isn't even time to shout, "Look out!"
It is heartening to see most of our guests wearing their PFDs these days. Many of them bring their own. That's smart. If you go shopping for them you will find one that is the perfect fit for your build.
Lots of people opt for the self-inflating models. These look like suspenders that are joined behind the neck. They use a CO2 cartridge that inflates the PFD whenever it is immersed in water.
But sadly, there are still some people who just use their PFD for padding on the back of their boat seat or cram it under the bow seat.
To fully understand why you should always wear your PFD, we recommend you visit the Cold Water Boot Camp website.
Learn from Canadian professor Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, also known as Professor Popsicle for his studies of hypothermia.
The Boot Camp website has some eye-opening videos on what happens to people who end up in cold water. And when you watch these volunteers struggle in the water, consider that they are professionals who are in the peak of physical condition. Most of us would have an even harder time.
One of the lessons Professor Popsicle teaches is the 1-10-1 rule.
When you hit water that is 7 C or colder, you instinctively hyperventilate. This goes on for about one minute. Don't fight it, he advises, just know that in about a minute your breathing will return to normal. You then have 10 minutes before you lose control of your arms and legs. Finally, it takes one hour, even in the coldest water, before you go into hypothermia, a life-threatening condition.
So, let's consider the situation of a person wearing a PFD whose boat flips or who is thrown from a boat. They will instinctively gasp and ingest water when they hit the cold lake but thanks to their PFD, immediately float on the surface where they can cough up the liquid while waiting for their breathing to slow down. They then have 10 minutes to swim to the boat or shore. Of people who drown in Canada each year, 66% are within 15 metres of safety and 43% are within two metres (about six feet)! They could easily have reached safety in the 10 minutes before the blood flow shuts down to their arms and legs, a self-preservation system that tries to keep the body core warm. Remember, the reason the person is in the water is probably because they hit something, like a deadhead or a reef. These are almost always right near the shoreline, not out in the middle of the lake.
But, let's say somehow the person did end up floating in the middle of the lake. He has at least one hour for someone to pick him up before hypothermia sets in. Hypothermia, incidentally, is when a person's body core temperature plunges. The loss of control of extremities like arms and legs is not technically hypothermia.
Also, a person can extend the onset of hypothermia by getting back into or onto the boat, even if it is filled with water (all boats float, even upside down), huddling with other people in the water, etc. The point is there is ample opportunity for a rescue.
Now, let's take the case of person not wearing a PFD. A few seconds after he is unexpectedly thrown from the boat he would likely be dead. That very first gasp would probably do it. However, in the event he survives the plunge and gets his breathing under control 60 seconds later, he also has 10 minutes to get to safety. If he tries to help someone else in the water, probably also not wearing a PFD, it may take more than 10 minutes at which point his arms and legs become useless and he drowns.
It's really a no-brainer. Always wear your PFD.

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North shore of Lake Superior -- awesome!

2011-11-22T22:35:00.002-05:00

There are stunning scenes like this at every bend on Hwy 17 between Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay.
Brenda and I took this route around the north shore of Lake Superior on our way to and from the annual convention of Nature and Outdoor Tourism Ontario which was held this year in Sudbury, a couple of weeks back.
The weather was clear and with the incredible scenery, the miles just flew by.
If you haven't traveled around Lake Superior, the world's largest lake, you are truly missing out.
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Gorgeous cross fox visits our home

2011-11-21T13:51:00.003-05:00

Caught this photo of a beautiful cross fox at our home in Nolalu this week. It comes by every few days.
It isn't very afraid of our chocolate Lab, Sam. It just sits down about 30 yards away even though he gives it his most ferocious-sounding barks.
The fox is one of the color variations of a red fox. The ones that are part dark and part light are usually called "cross foxes" because the dark normally crosses at the shoulders. Most cross foxes are lighter in color than this one.
Foxes can also be totally black with fine silver tips to their hair. They are called "silver foxes."
All three color variations: red, cross and silver, can come from the same litter. By far the most common, of course, is the red.
Did you know that the red fox is not a native North American animal? They were brought to this continent by the English who wanted to carry on the tradition of fox hunting.
They are sure found everywhere now.
I've had a bad case of writer's block for the last couple of months and thought I would use this photo of the unusual fox to get back in the groove.
I've written about 400 blog entries over the past few years, 300 or so of which are still on the blog (I deleted some of the old ones). So, it just seems to me I've covered about everything. This winter I'm going to lean toward more philosophical musings rather than how-to stuff. There will be some of both, of course. And there are always newsworthy items to pass on.
I want to thank everybody for wishing me well while I recovered from my back problem.
It is totally back to normal now. And that's fortunate because it is deer season! And in the not too-distance future, ice fishing!
Thanks again.
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Cabin 7 gets a real, below-frost-line foundation

2011-10-30T21:23:00.006-04:00

Our brother-in-law Ron Wink and staffer Ben Godin turned into gophers to put in a superb foundation for Cabin 7 in September.
This entailed jacking up the cabin and digging deep holes to below the frost line. Foundation pads were placed at the bottom of the holes and preserved wood foundation posts installed to the beams under the cabin. It's the same foundation system we use in all of the newer cabins. Cabin 7 was the first cabin built by my father, Don, at the camp. I think that was in about 1967.
The soil under the cabin was hardpan clay that had to be dislodged with sledge hammers and chisels, in some cases. Needless to say, it was hard work and I was only able to help with the above-ground portion due to my back problems.
Ron and Ben also removed the porch from the cabin in preparation for a much larger porch and deck to be built next spring.
Ron and wife Lynda (Brenda's sister), dropped into camp like angels from the sky in September to help us do projects like Cabin 7's foundation and new shingles on Cabin 10, as well as arduous year-end tasks like washing all of the camp's blankets and putting away absolutely everything for the winter. Lynda also helped Brenda with all of the kitchen work.
It was thanks to Ron and Lynda that Brenda and I were able to leave camp a week earlier than normal this fall.
We are sure lucky to have people like them in our lives.
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Many, many thanks to our great 2011 staff

2011-10-28T09:05:00.002-04:00

Steph Aires, Ben Godin and Jenn Bucci were our spectacular staff in 2011.
On behalf of Brenda and myself and all of our guests I would like to thank them for all of their hard work, good humour, thoughtfulness and creativity.

Tough sledding for MNR trout team

2011-10-24T22:25:00.004-04:00

Brenda, Sam and I are back home for the winter. We arrived in Nolalu yesterday. The 2011 summer will go down as one of the best Red Lake has ever seen. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It made for beautiful fishing too. Walleyes were numerous and aggressive. Northern pike fishing started slow but picked up as the summer progressed and was great the last month or so, especially for anglers who used the dead bait system.
Unfortunately, the warmer-than-average temperature took a toll on Ministry of Natural Resources fish and wildlife efforts to capture trout in October. Despite a valiant attempt the MNR came up short in getting enough eggs to rear at the hatchery in Dorion, near Thunder Bay. In fact they only caught about 1/4 of the fish they needed.
Myles Perchuk is seen above stripping eggs from a trout on the dock at camp.
The MNR crew is normally long gone by the time my family and I start moose hunting, usually about Oct. 6. This year they stayed until Oct. 19 and still didn't get enough fish.
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I'm finally "back" to blogging again

2011-09-28T23:39:00.005-04:00

There have been precious few blogs in the last month or so and the main reason has been my health. My back went critical on me way back near the beginning of August and it has taken all of my strength and time to do the least things required of me at camp.
Brenda and our terrific staff: Ben, Jenn and Steph, incredibly picked up the slack. About the only thing I could do was drive the camp boat, Lickety Split, and ask our great guests to load and unload it. In town I was aided by helpers at Red Lake Marine and Sobeys Supermarket.
Finally, after about a month, my back began improving. Then, out of the blue, my knee went totally ballistic. I couldn't even get around with crutches. It seems I have a knee condition known as pseudogout which mysteriously creates crystals in the knee joint. Not much is known about it other than it can be brought on my dehydration. I very likely was dehydrated. Since sneezing in the morning often sent my spine into spasms, I had been taking antihistimines which literally dry you out. I also have not been a big water drinker, tending to instead drink coffee and sugar-free but caffeinated pops. These also are dehydrating.
Once I learned what might be causing the pseudogout I starting drinking large glasses of water and began feeling better within hours.
Three days later my knee is still swollen and stiff but the acute joint pain is gone. I was able to walk more or less normally today.
Needless to say, I will be drinking lots of water from this point.

More big fish for young fisherman

2011-08-27T20:38:00.005-04:00

It's all Nathan Manni can do to hoist this chunky 25-inch walleye for the camera. It was one of many walleyes in the 20s that this angler boated that day.
He had an excellent guide -- his father, Scott, seen at the stern of the boat.

Young anglers are landing the big ones

2011-08-17T18:08:00.002-04:00

Brett Styve, 12, hefts a chunky 25-inch walleye that he caught and released while fishing at Bow Narrows Camp a couple of weeks back.
Brett was one of many younger anglers we have had this summer at camp and they have all proved excellent fishermen.
I believe it was the third trip for Brett who comes with his dad, Paul. The pair landed a bunch of big walleyes and Paul got a giant northern pike as well.
These two are also excellent conservationists. All their big fish were released to grow and reproduce.

How hungry are the pike? This hungry!

2011-08-14T22:42:00.002-04:00

Bow Narrows angler Ken Lehmann has had some pretty incredible things happen during the years he has fished Red Lake but last week was the first time a pike bit his lure in half!
It happened right at the boat. Ken said the pike took the other half with it and swam away.

Fish don't seem to mind smoke from forest fire

2011-08-07T20:44:00.004-04:00

My great nephew, Hunter Baughman, holds a nice 36-inch pike that he caught and released on Friday. Notice the forest fire smoke in the background.
Depending on the wind direction, the smoke can be very heavy or the skies can be absolutely clear.
We're expecting a little rain tomorrow and that will help dampen the fire. It's about 25,000 acres now and is about 15 miles northwest of camp. The fire is mostly around Murdock Lake which is Woodland Caribou Wilderness Park.
Ministry of Natural Resources fire fighters have only been protecting cabins on lakes in that vicinity and have not been fighting the fire itself since the fire started from lightning, a natural method of ignition, and fire is a natural element of the Boreal Forest.
We are in no immediate danger here at Bow Narrows Camp. Mostly the smoke and ash are a nuisance. However, everyone will be happy when we finally get a rain and the air clears.
Northern pike and walleye fishing were excellent last week. One boat caught 65 northern pike in one day and another got 75 walleye.
Fishing is always slower on Saturday and Sunday as new fishermen figure out how and where to fish.

I catch a sauger; smoke and ash fall one day

2011-08-04T12:44:00.002-04:00

I don't get out to fish much but when I do, it seems like I catch the most unusual things. Here is a nice sauger I got just down the shoreline from camp. On another outing, just last week, I caught a lake trout in only 20 feet of water.
A few days ago the sky above camp became inky dark from the smoke of forest fire to the northwest. There was even a lot of ash falling from the sky.
We could see the smoke cloud originating northwest of Pipestone Bay. A check with the Ministry of Natural Resources showed the fire is a Murdock Lake, about 10 miles from Pipestone and in Woodland Caribou Wilderness Park.
The blaze is not being fought by the MNR since it is in the wilderness park.
The forest is very dry and I wouldn't be surprised if restrictions are placed on shore lunch fires soon. We already had one such restricted fire zone, about two weeks ago, but then it was lifted after a couple of rainy days.
Camp is not in any danger.

Label your luggage and belongings! Fishing is great!

2011-07-29T23:45:00.002-04:00

When our camp boat, the Lickety Split takes you to and from camp, you will be traveling with many other guests. Everyone's luggage and belongings will be placed in one large hold, mixed together. How will you be able to differentiate your things from others?
On any given trip we will be carrying three or four night breathing machines, all in black carrying bags.
We will have many identical tackle boxes, duffel bags and plastic totes. Guess how many people have things in plastic shopping bags, bring rubber boots, etc. How about loose fishing rods? Boy do these all look alike.
It isn't unusual for many people to bring the same model of fish finder.
Is it any wonder that time and again people head home with the wrong belongings.
Here's what you need to do: Get a roll of tape and a Magic Marker and mark every one of your things with your name. The more bizarre the color of tape the better.
Mark your things at home but bring the tape and marker to mark things you purchase along the way, such as tackle, bags of snacks, cases of pop, etc.
On a different topic, people are wondering how the fishing is?
It's FANTASTIC!
Walleyes are biting great, on all the usual baits such as worms and leeches, fished on Little Joe-type spinners and jigs. All colors work at various times.
Northern pike are biting great, on all the usual lures such as spoons and spinners.
For more on what to bring, look back at some of the previous 300+ blogs. There is a ream of material there.
The weather is beautiful; the fish are biting. Get up here and get at it!

The lake is everybody's way to cool off

2011-07-27T23:59:00.002-04:00

Brian Spillar and son, Keenan, snapped this great photo of a large cow moose wading in the shallows during a hot spell we had last week.
They reported the moose was unperturbed by their presence just as long as they didn't approach too closely.
So far we have only had three hot days with temps in the 90s. The rest of the summer has been 75-80 F with little rain. In fact, the lake level is lower than we've seen it in the last decade.
The forest fires are pretty much history. You can even have shore lunch fires again.

Trouble getting connected to write blog

2011-07-24T07:01:00.003-04:00

Once again, I'm finding it difficult to connect to the Internet to write this blog. It's taken weeks of attempts just to make this connection today.
We can get e-mails, check the weather forecast, even see websites. But connecting to the blog program is a different matter. Our radio-telephone connection seems to be too slow for that.
I suspect there is something new to the program that makes it especially cumbersome. I've grown weary of the high-tech world. I'm a writer, not a computer expert.
But I'll continue trying.
So, back to the present. The weather, the fishing and everything else has just been beautiful this summer. We've had a total of three hot days, last week, otherwise the temperature has been 70-80 F every day.
There are lots of forest fires in Northwestern Ontario but none anywhere close to camp.
We had a couple of rains last week and that reduced the fire danger somewhat; however, shore lunch fires are still not permitted by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Finally, seven more ruffed grouse join the world

2011-07-13T00:31:00.001-04:00

It seemed to take them forever but the seven eggs under our faithful mother grouse joined the world today!

This is one dedicated mother grouse

2011-07-11T07:01:00.001-04:00

This hen ruffed grouse is sitting on her nest at the base of a large quaking aspen tree, right alongside a trail where we pass with the golf cart. She refuses to be scared away from her seven eggs.

Those hokey duck lures might just work!

2011-07-06T19:34:00.003-04:00

Look what Ben Godin, our outside worker and fish cleaner, found in the stomach of a northern pike -- a duckling!
It's hard to identify downy ducklings but our best guess is that this is a goldeneye.
It was in the stomach of a 26-inch pike.

Lots of trouble understanding fish limits

2011-07-06T13:20:00.002-04:00

We've had a rash of problems with new guests understanding Ontario's fish limit regulations.
Daily limits and possession limits are exactly equal. This means you can have one day's limit in your possession which means in the freezer, in your cabin fridge, in the lodge fridge and in your boat.
If you have the conservation licence that comes free with our fishing packages, then the limit is two walleye and two northern pike. If you buy the full-size licence, the limit is four walleye and four pike.
No matter which licence you get, you are only allowed to have in your possession one walleye over 18 inches. You cannot have any northern pike in the slot-size of 27.5-35.5 inches and you can only have one larger than the slot size.
The problems always arise from people who want to make sure they have "THE LIMIT" to take home. So they quickly sock away their entire allowable catch in the freezer. Then they bring in more fish to eat at camp.
This makes them over-limit on their possession. All the fish they are allowed to have are already in the freezer. They cannot keep any more unless they want to first take some out of the freezer and eat them.
We've also had people who want to replace some of the fish in the freezer with bigger ones. For example, they saved a 22-inch walleye and then later caught a 24-inch walleye. When they do this they are, again, over-limit, now both for numbers of fish and also fish over 18 inches.
Incidentally, if you are a conservationist, you would never keep ANY walleyes over 18 inches. Ditto for big northern pike.
You would only use your legal right to keep that big walleye or pike over 35.5 inches in the instances where you accidentally killed the fish. Big fish are poor eating choices and are the major reproducers. Walleyes under 18 inches and pike under the slot size are the ones you want to keep.
We have had people who knew they were maxed out on their limits bring in fish anyway, saying it was for "the camp limit." There is no such thing! Fish for yourself. Believe it or not, everyone is capable of providing his own fish.
The sensible thing to do if you want to take fish home, is to eat fish at camp early in the week and save fish to take home near the end of the week.
Lots of people choose to eat fish fresh at camp and take no fish home with them. Some just save suitable fish the last day. If they don't take home "THE LIMIT" so what? They just wanted some fish for a fish fry for the family. A couple of 22-26 inch northern pike and a walleye or two will do the trick.

The pike are big and chunky

2011-07-03T00:32:00.003-04:00

We have had some great pike caught and released this summer. Here angler Greg Tanko shows the camera one of the hefty pike he caught while fishing at Bow Narrows.
It has been a glorious summer so far. The weather has been wonderfully warm and dry and the fishing has been excellent.
We have had a lot of comments from guests wondering how Sam is doing after the surgery to remove the hook from his stomach. He is absolutely fine! The thing that hurt Sam the most was his being confined to the lodge for the first couple of weeks. Sam really enjoys meeting our guests when the Lickety Split comes into the dock and it demoralized him to have to watch from the window.

How's this for the first fish?

2011-06-30T19:03:00.001-04:00

Bret Crabb came up to camp a few weeks ago with his father, John, as a graduation present and this 43-inch northern pike was the first fish he caught!
Fishing was fairly slow when Bret and John were here due to the abnormally cold water. Now, however, everything is going full bore. Our anglers are catching lots of fish and lots of big fish as well, both in walleye and northern pike.

Holy cow, have we been busy!

2011-06-23T20:32:00.002-04:00

No, I haven't died!
The total lack of blogs is only due to my exhaustion.
We've been doing so much I've already forgotten half of it. I've just been whipped at the end of the day and have tumbled into bed for a few hours sleep. There just has not been any time for me to write anything.
After a slow start, fishing is now fantastic. The last two weeks in particular have been spectacular for walleye and the weather has been beautiful.

A tiny bird in the hand

2011-06-01T07:56:00.002-04:00

This ruby-throated hummingbird was stuck in the porch of one of the cabins last week.
Our outside worker, Ben Godin, removed the bird to the outside where it lay resting in his hand for awhile, then buzzed away.

Nothing beats a shore lunch

2011-05-31T13:33:00.003-04:00

John and Matt Andrews were the first anglers to have a shore lunch this year at Bow Narrows Camp.
In the top photo John shows a nice pike that he caught and released while in the bottom photo Matt prepares a fish for the wood fire in the background.
We provide shore lunch boxes with all the ingredients, pots and pans, etc. You just supply the fish. Since our fish cleaner can remove every bone from you pike or walleye, many people bring in fish the night before, get them cleaned and take the boneless fillets out with them for the shore lunch.
The usual staples are fried fish, pork and beans, potatoes and onions and cookies for dessert.
We will point out on your map good shore lunch spots. There is usually a ring of rocks to build a fire. We provide a steel rack to place on the rocks and make a cooking surface.

How to convert treble lures to single hooks

2011-05-30T07:26:00.003-04:00

Angler Steve Kacvinsky, who fished here last week, donated to camp these two lures which show how to convert crank baits that have multiple treble hooks to ones with only two single hooks.
The lure at the top is a five-inch Rapala. Steve removed the three tiny treble hooks and replaced them with 1/0 Siwash hooks.
The lure at the bottom is a six-inch Bomber. Steve used 2/0 Siwash hooks for this slightly larger lure.
Many of us have refrained from using crank baits like the ones above because of their multiple treble hooks that are difficult to remove from fish and get wrapped up hopelessly in the landing net.
Steve says he has used the two Siwash hook-lure-system for decades at his charter fishing business on Lake Superior.
They hook fish just as readily as the trebles and are a snap to remove.
Siwash hooks are special hooks made just for lures. They are deeper than bait hooks and have an open eye that can be crimped down on the loops or split rings of lures.

Sam's home; thanks for all the support

2011-05-27T18:48:00.002-04:00

Brenda and Sam came home yesterday and Sam is doing well.
He must stay inside for a couple of weeks, except for walks on a leash and is supposed to remain quiet. This is a tall order for the camp greeter.
If Sam could talk, I think he would say, "I don't know what all the fuss was about. I've eaten worse things than that hook before!"
That is probably true. The problem this time was this thing wouldn't work it's way out the other end!
The good news in the whole episode is that the hook and ciscoe were recognized as missing immediately and we got Sam to the vet before the hook became ensnared in his entrails. It was just sitting in his stomach. The vet cut open his abdomen and moved his stomach outside his body cavity before making a small incision. He said he cut off each hook from the treble inside the stomach and removed each piece, thus not needing to make a larger hole to remove the whole works at once.
Sam's stomach is pretty tender but already we've seen improvement. He certainly hasn't lost his appetite but is on a restricted diet for a couple of weeks.
It's important for everybody to know that what happened here was just an accident.
We don't blame anybody for it and are just glad Sam is going to be OK.
I still wish bait fishermen would use circle hooks, however. I've written many times about them here on the blog. They absolutely catch fish, and always right in the corner of the mouth.
But, and here's where many people goof up, you must NOT set the hook when using a circle hook. Instead, after letting the fish take the bait for a few seconds, just quickly reel in. It's this slow, steady pressure that pulls the hook out of the fish's throat and hangs it right in the corner of the mouth.
Circle hooks are the type used by ocean commercial fishermen on long-liners. In this instance the fish hook themselves as they swim away with the baits in their mouths. If circle hooks didn't work, commercial fishermen would not choose them.
We should also use this opportunity to realize live bait is a temptation to all sorts of critters. We need to secure it out of reach and out of sight when we are finished with it.
I don't know how many times I've seen boats at the dock with rods that still have minnows or other bait dangling from jigs and hooks. Besides dogs, these can be gobbled by sea gulls, ravens, eagles, mink and other animals.
We should treat bait the same way we treat ammunition. Except when we are using it, don't leave it laying around.

Frosty nights, cool temps put chill on walleye

2011-05-26T07:20:00.002-04:00

The beautiful warm weather we had a week before opening faded into cool temperatures and frost at night this week. Going from warm to cold always turns off the walleye and that's what happened this week. Just about all the walleye were caught the first couple of days when it was warmer.
Each day has gotten warmer again, however, and I expect walleye to be biting well again by the weekend.
We've had a good number of large northern pike caught and a couple of lake trout. More trout would be caught if anyone fished for them but mostly people are looking for pike and walleye.
We had a major catastrophe this opening week. Our dog, Sam, ate a frozen ciscoe (minnow) that had a treble hook attached to it.
Sam, and Brenda, have spent the entire week at the vet's in Dryden where Sam underwent major surgery yesterday to remove the large treble hook from his stomach. He now faces a long recovery.
This event underscores why no one should ever use treble hooks for fishing with bait. Treble hooks are deadly to all forms of life: dogs, fish and birds and are no fun to remove from people either. Use 5/0 circle hooks instead. These will not harm creatures if they ingest them but still let you hook every fish that bites them.

We're in camp and fishing is great

2011-05-23T12:47:00.003-04:00

We got into camp May 10, the day the ice went off Red Lake.
The weather since then has mostly been wonderful with highs in the 70s F (20s C) although it is cooler right now.
Northern pike fishing has been fantastic and the walleyes are biting quite well for the first week of the season.
Many pike in the high 30-inches and low 40-inches are being caught.
Pike and walleyes are all fat as footballs.
There's so much to do here at camp that I haven't had any time to write on the blog.
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Sometimes we all look bird-brained

2011-05-08T21:33:00.006-04:00

My friend and neighbor, Don Melnyk, told me this winter about a perplexing experience he had years ago.
Don used to work shift-work and was returning to Nolalu from work late at night when he heard the backup "beep, beep, beep" of a heavy machine in the woods nearby.
"That's odd," he thought. "I didn't know anyone was logging in that area, and why are they working so late at night?"
He listened for a long time and the backup beeping never quit. Something wasn't right, Don reasoned. Maybe somebody had been using a skidder or wood harvester and had fallen off while it was in reverse. Despite the late hour he decided to phone a neighbor nearest to where the sound was originating.
The man answered the phone fuzzy-headed and Don suggested they both get flashlights and meet at a crossroads.
Don got there with his flashlight but the neighbor, to no one's surprise, had gone back to bed.
"Well, I'm going to find out what is going on," said Don and plunged into the maze of balsam fir, jackpine and spruce in the inky darkness.
He drew ever closer to the sound until eventually his flashlight illuminated the source: a tiny little owl, the saw-whet. They make the "beep, beep, beep," sound to attract mates each spring.
Don's story reminded me of my own wild goose chase in Nolalu.
Brenda and I and our sons Matt and Josh and our black lab, Lady, moved to Nolalu in 1985 and lived in a 100-year-old homestead cabin.
The first spring we were there I heard a flock of birds one evening take off near our field. They sounded like pigeons which seemed surprising to me. There were no barns or any other such place pigeons could live in the area.
I headed in the direction of the sound when I heard it again, a little farther back in the trees. When I reached that spot I heard it again, this time behind me.
"How can I be missing an entire flock of pigeons?" I wondered.
I wish I could say I got my answer that first night but in truth it took me several evenings. I must have made a hilarious sight as I slowly stalked back and forth across the field, gazing intently at one tree or another, always to no avail.
Eventually, I looked beyond the trees into the sky beyond and there, high up in the sky, was a single, small bird. It would fly up high, then dive toward the ground. On its descent it made the sound that I had been mistaking for a flock of pigeons.
I got out my bird book and discovered it was a snipe and the sound, called winnowing, was made by air rushing through its wings as it made its daredevil plunges, again to attract a mate.
I guess in both cases it would work. After all, Don and I were certainly mesmerized.
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How do loons know when the lake ice is gone?

2011-05-06T19:15:00.006-04:00

Although total ice-out is still days away on Red Lake, loons will have already landed in all the open patches of water around the edges.
In fact, as soon as you notice the ice is gone from a small bay or narrows, you will see the familiar profile of a loon. But you never see loons flying around the frozen lake looking for open water.
How they know there is some place to land is a mystery. Loons cannot land on anything but water. Their legs are placed far back on their body making it impossible for them to even stand up on land.
In fact, except for pushing themselves on their bellies a foot or two onto and off of their nests, loons never touch land.
Their leg placement -- sort of like propellers at the rear of their bodies -- makes them take off from the water just as a floatplane does. They always head into the wind for the added lift and both churn their powerful feet as well as flap their wings against the water. It can take them a hundred yards to get airborne. Once free of the water, they are powerful fliers and fly faster than most other waterfowl.
They also land like a plane. They set their wings and come gliding in like the Space Shuttle. Final touchdown is done on their bellies. Sometimes they will dip a wing into the water to make a fast turn. And, also like a floatplane, it takes far less room for them to land than take off.
So when they slide into a little patch of open water around the edge of a frozen lake, it is very likely they cannot take off again, until the ice melts some more.
I've often wondered if some of them ever get frozen-in when the temperature dips below freezing and the lake refreezes. If it happens, I've never seen it, or found their bodies in the spring.
Loons are the world's oldest bird. They've been doing this for tens of millions of years. I guess they know what they are doing by now.
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Lakers should be on surface first couple weeks

2011-05-01T17:23:00.006-04:00

It's looking like ice-out on Red Lake could take place some time in the next 10 days.
That would be more or less an average ice-out time.
The weather has been mildly warm (except for today; it's snowing and below freezing!) and if that trend continues after ice-out then the lake water is still going to be frigid when we open on the official walleye opener, May 21. It will probably be similar the next week as well.
I expect cold-water-loving lake trout to be right on the surface those weeks and will be taken by anglers casting and trolling lures for northern pike.
However, you will get more if you actually go looking for trout.
Although all lake trout must be released on Red Lake while they replenish their numbers from a problem with reproducing, you can still catch a bunch, especially in the spring.
To be prepared, make sure you bring some salmon spoons with single hooks. The law states that when fishing for lake trout you must use lures with single barbless hooks and cannot use bait of any kind.
Salmon spoons usually have a single siwash hook. Just pinch down the barb and you're in business.
I would use spoons that are four-to-seven inches in length. Favorite colors are silver, gold and hammered finishes.
The best technique is to troll these spoons with a medium-weight rod and line that is 10-20 pound test. Operate the boat in the forward direction (in other words, don't back troll like you would with bait for walleye). You can try trolling with no weight at all at first and gradually add some weight if you aren't successful. The best sinkers for this kind of trolling are bead sinkers which have some bead chain and swivels on either side of the lead.
Lake trout are terrific fighters. You'll think you've hooked a submarine. Make sure your drag is set so the line can be pulled out but with resistance.
You won't need to go far to catch them. I'll give you directions once you are here.
Lake trout are making a comeback from the days when they weren't reproducing. We catch many young fish in the spring, perhaps three or four pounds. But there are also some whales out there. Expect to also tie into some trout in the teens and 20s and we also have trout up to 40 pounds.
Bow Narrows angler Kerri Schmiedeskamp hefts a nice trout in the photo above.
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Man, am I hungry for some fresh fish!

2011-04-29T21:24:00.004-04:00

It's been a long, cold, hard winter and the one thing I can't wait to do when ice-out comes to Red Lake is to catch some northern pike for the skillet!
My favorite pike to eat are those 20-25 inches long. They are big enough for us to easily take out the Y-bones and their fillets are thin enough that they are done perfectly on the inside when the outside is golden brown.
If you are new to Bow Narrows Camp it may come as a surprise that we remove ALL the bones from pike fillets. They are 100 per cent boneless and absolutely delicious.
I eat a lot of fish during the summer. In fact, if I had my way, I would eat fish every day. I just don't get tired of it. Pike one day and walleyes the next.
It frustrates Brenda that I really only like it fried or in a chowder.
Brenda has a secret recipe for flouring fish. (The secret ingredient is Corn Flake Crumbs. Shh!)
But she also uses store-bought recipes that our guests leave behind, beer batters, and concoctions she just whips up at the spur of the moment and couldn't do again if she tried. Frankly, I like them all.
But I'm not a fan of baked or poached fish. Some day I'll probably have some that I like but so far, it hasn't happened.
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Techniques to catch Red Lake's ice-out walleye

2011-04-27T13:30:00.007-04:00

Walleye fishing the first couple of weeks of the season this year is going to come soon after ice-out it appears.
This begs the question: what techniques should anglers try when looking for ice-out walleye?
There are two main types of places to fish first thing in the spring: 1. where walleye have spawned and 2. where the lake warms the fastest.
In both instances the walleye will be very shallow, probably six feet or less. This usually means fishermen can do the best by either anchoring or drifting and using live bait or jigs with bait.
It is difficult to troll for fish in less than six feet of water and not scare them.
Usually the best rig is to use a 1/8-ounce jig with or without a 2 1/2-inch twister tail and tipped with either a piece of worm or a minnow. The water can be too cold for leeches to have much action at this time.
If you are new to camp we will mark on a map where the fish should be.
A lot of times the walleye will be right up next to the shore in as little as three feet of water.
These will be shorelines that are protected from the wind and which get full exposure to the sunlight. No doubt the fish are in these spots because that is where the food supply is. This can be water insects that are emerging from the mud as well as baitfish.
I would suggest anchoring or drifting in these places and pitching the jig to within a few feet of shore, let it sink to the bottom and then jig it back to the boat, all the while making sure the jig falls to the bottom on each motion.
Fish move around a great deal, of course, and the places we send you are just a starting point. Look for similar habitats in other locations and try those too.
Although you might not be able to get as many walleye by trolling, this method is very effective at finding a new spot. Many people front-troll floating Rapala-type stick baits, in 3-6-inch sizes, as close to shore as they can without hitting anything with the motor. Even if you scare off some fish, there will be others which will fill in behind the boat and strike the lure. You can then work the spot back and forth by trolling or even better, switch to jigs and live bait and drift or anchor once you've got a good idea where the fish are.
Spring walleye are usually very localized. They seem to go on feeding frenzies every couple of hours and don't seem to be as light-sensitive as they are later in the season.
Another difference between spring and summer fishing is the walleye may not be on the windy shore in the spring. Rather they can often be in the calm places where the water warms the fastest. However, if the weather is hot and sunny and the water warms rapidly, the windy shore can be the favorite in the spring too.
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Red Lake, Ontario, 2011 ice-out conditions

2011-04-23T10:27:00.003-04:00

Even though the weather has not been balmy, the ice continues to melt on Red Lake, Ontario.
The latest report comes from the blog of Enid Carlson for Viking Outposts and Viking Island Lodge.
Her blog shows husband Hugh drilling a hole with an ice auger in front of their home at Hammel Narrows on Red Lake, Thursday, April 20. To his surprise, Hugh found there was just 15 inches of ice left and five of that was weak slush ice.
Hugh said he expected the ice to be two feet thick.
Fifteen inches isn't much ice. We might be on track for a typical ice-out after all, especially if the weather would turn warm and sunny.
The average ice-out for Red Lake is May 8.
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Wolves of the winter are hard to photograph

2011-04-22T10:40:00.007-04:00

I had my new Bushnell trail camera set out all winter here in Nolalu, hoping to get some good photos of the timber wolves that regularly hunt deer behind our home.

My first wolf photo, Jan. 12, was the best. But I did get some others. They are shown above.

I left the time and date stamp on the pix so you could see when they were taken.

In two of the three, the wolves have obviously detected the camera. It's pretty hard to see in the daytime as it has a camouflage pattern and blends in well with the tree it is fastened to. However, at night it has infrared LEDs that glow and this frightens animals if they see it before the camera clicks.

This camera is the Bushnell Trophy Cam. It is the first camera I have had that will work in -20 C (below 0 F) temperatures which is basically what we have here all winter. It uses lithium batteries that are unaffected by temperature. However, the camera trigger is slower to respond in the bitter cold resulting in the camera sometimes clicking after the animal has gone by.

I cannot brag about the Bushnell Trophy Cam much, however, as I had to buy three before I got one that worked. There was a glitch in the other two that made them click photos continously once the camera was triggered. They would fire away until the batteries were dead.

Wolves are common in Northwestern Ontario and are most abundant in those areas where there are whitetail deer, like in Nolalu. There are few deer in the Red Lake area although there are many between there and Minnesota.

Contrary to popular belief, wolves don't "wipe out" prey species like deer.

In fact, as evidenced almost everywhere in Northwestern Ontario, they hardly make a dent in the population and actually do us all a service by selecting the weakest and smallest animals for their kills. That is one of the main reasons our deer are larger than those to the south where there are either no wolves or very few.

Human hunters have the opposite effect on deer. They always harvest the largest animals and end up promoting a deer herd that is smaller in stature and antler size.

Wolf numbers also have a maximum limit. That is because wolves are territorial and won't allow other packs in their territory.

Territories can be compressed a bit when deer are abundant and spread out when deer are scarce.

What really controls deer numbers in Northwestern Ontario is the severity of the winter. When we have winters of deep snow, the deer are unable to move around and consequently starve.

Deer aren't made for deep snow, but moose, with their extra long legs, are.

Unfortunately, deer carry a parasite called brain worm that is fatal to moose.

Once you have lots of deer, you don't have moose. And that's the situation in all of the southern portion of Northwestern Ontario, including Nolalu.

The deer are spreading northward each year, and moose are disappearing.

Red Lake is one of the last communities in Northwestern Ontario where moose are still abundant.

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We're not the only ones who can't wait for spring

2011-04-21T10:49:00.004-04:00

I spotted this garter snake in Nolalu on Wednesday.

He was soaking up the meager heat from the sun in a patch of ground where the snow had melted. Poor guy.

The snow that fell last weekend is still visible in the upper part of the photo. It has not been warm! However, things are looking up. It's warm today and the nice weather is predicted to stay for at least awhile. (We're kind of hoping it stays for the rest of the summer!)

Incidentally, garter snakes are the only snakes found in Northwestern Ontario. They are harmless and do a lot of good for man by catching mice.

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Mares tails and mackerel scales -- storm ahead

2011-04-19T21:42:00.004-04:00

"Mare's tails and mackerel scales make tall ships carry low sails," old seafarers used to say.

In other words, a storm is coming, one with lots of wind, so take in your sails or you might capsize.

I get a kick out of reading in the media every time a meteorologist is asked if sayings like this really do predict the weather. They almost always chuckle and say there were a lot of quaint sayings and folksy ways that people in the olden times used to predict the weather, like examining the fat around pigs' guts. Of course, today we know this is all rubbish.

I beg to differ, at least on the validity of weather sayings. Frankly, I have no experience with pig guts but it does seem unlikely they would be a good way to tell the future.

Mare's tails and mackerel scales, on the other hand, are actual weather phenomena and they really do predict the weather, just not far in advance.

The photo shows mares tails, high cirrus clouds. I don't have a photo of mackerel scales but they are small clouds arranged in a fish scale pattern.

Both mean a storm within 12 hours.

Similarly, the saying "red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning," works nearly 100 per cent of the time. And again, you are only predicting 12 hours in advance.

It's my turn to chuckle when I hear the weather forecasters talk about their own accuracy.

Some say they are right 75 per cent of the time. Does that include today's forecast? I bet it does, and frankly, they're always right on the money with today. "It's raining today." Yes, it is.

What I notice about the weather forecast reliability is that it is very accurate for the next 12 hours, just like the weather sayings are. Then it goes rapidly downhill. The forecasts for more than two days away are no more than 50 per cent. You could flip a coin and do as well.

Those forecasts for up to 14 days are utter fiction. I think they are based on statistical averages for those dates, not weather systems. I mean, where would the weather system that we get today be 14 days earlier? China?

Thanks, but I'll stick with the weather sayings.

For the bemusement of meteorologists everywhere, here are a couple more that I like and trust.

"When the dew is on the grass, rain shall never come to pass." Dew means high barometric pressure which means dry weather, even if it happens to be cloudy.

"A sudden storm is soon over." A storm that seems to come out of nowhere is almost certainly a thunderstorm which is always very local.

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Scenes like this a reality again in a month or so

2011-04-17T22:08:00.008-04:00

Bow Narrows angler Terry Matson sent this awesome evening photo of his son, Neil, fishing just a couple hundred yards from camp in early June a couple of years ago.

Not only is it an incredibly beautiful scene -- it could easily win a photo contest -- it also illustrates how late the sun goes down at Red Lake in June. Terry remembers the photo was taken between 9 and 10 p.m.

Even after the sun sets there is twilight for probably another 45 minutes. And at the night's darkest, say 1 a.m., if you look toward the north you can see a glow that resembles northern lights that are over the horizon. Actually, it is just the sun, barely hidden by the top of the Earth.

I'm sure I speak for everybody when I say we can't wait for summer scenes like the one above to come again. Winter has been long and hard and it isn't going away quietly. We just got eight inches of snow in Nolalu. Some places in Northwestern Ontario got a foot.

There is still three feet of ice on the lakes! Last year by this time, or at least by April 20, the ice had melted off Red Lake! We open for business May 21 this year and that is probably going to be just after ice-out. I'll go out on a limb and predict May 15 as the breakup date.

The one thing we always have going for us is the sun. Every day it stays in the sky longer and throws more heat than the day before. Even if the temperatures aren't as warm as we would like, the sun warms the water under the ice and continues the melting process.

What will a late ice-out on Red Lake, Ont., do to the fishing?

It is absolutely the best scenario for northern pike and lake trout. Our anglers who always fish the first week of the season love it when there is still some ice floating in the lake. This is when the dead bait system works wonders for huge pike. If you are booked for the first or second week of the season this year and haven't tried dead bait fishing, read up on it here in the blog. Just put "dead bait" in the little search window at the top of the blog and hit the magnifying glass symbol.

Lake trout will be right on the surface and will be voracious. Although all of our trout must be immediately released, they give you the fight of your life and are a ball to catch. Just remember that when targeting lake trout you must have lures with single, barbless hooks. This basically comes down to salmon spoons which mostly come with single hooks, and jigs. You can't use bait when fishing for lake trout in Red Lake, even dead bait, but the truth is you cannot help but hook some lakers when fishing for northern pike with dead bait. Take our advice and use 5/0 circle hooks. These always hook the fish in the corner of the mouth making it easy to release them unharmed.

Normally, a late ice-out doesn't make the best walleye fishing at first. They can still be spawning. But walleye fishing in Red Lake isn't normal right now. There is a walleye explosion happening. I expect to see our fishermen tying into lots of walleyes right from the start. Walleyes are everywhere and they will be hungry.

All we need is for that ice to melt.

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Pipsissewa a beautiful forest evergreen plant

2011-04-16T05:00:00.000-04:00

If you get out on the shores of Red Lake, Ontario, this summer, where there is a lot of rock and moss, you will notice this striking little plant.

It is called Pipsissewa or Prince's Pine. You will need to be here early in the summer to catch it flowering. However, the brilliant green, waxy leaves are evident all the time, even in the winter. It is an evergreen plant.

I always think the leaves resemble a Christmas cactus.

The name Pipsissewa comes from the Cree language and refers to how these First Nations people used it to treat bladder ailments.

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Driving beside world's largest lake

2011-04-15T15:05:00.007-04:00

Brenda, Sam and I came along the North Shore of Lake Superior from Duluth to Thunder Bay yesterday and as always we were awestruck by the beauty of this drive on Highway 61.

Frankly, I enjoy this drive through Minnesota even more than the longer drive around the big lake on the Ontario side, from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie. One reason is because Hwy 61 literally skirts the lake whereas Hwy. 17 on the north and eastern side is usually higher and farther back from the water.

The sky was blue but the temperature was actually right at the freezing point when we stopped along one of the many pebble beaches along Hwy. 61 on Thursday. We wanted Sam to have the chance to see a really, really big lake.

As usual we also saw a bunch of deer on the four-hour trip from Duluth to Thunder Bay.

There are two tunnels on this route and on another trip we even saw a bunch of deer perched above a tunnel entrance, munching on grass. They looked like mountain goats.

This route goes through numerous quaint little towns. The largest is Grand Marais, shown in the photo. This town is filled with unique arts and crafts shops, outdoor sports stores and great restaurants. My favorite is Sven and Ole's Pizza. There was a time when half of the cars from Thunder Bay, Ont., sported Sven and Ole's bumper stickers. The restaurant is filled with old-time cross-country ski memorabilia as well as other winter sports.

This reminds me of a story about something that happened right after 9/11.

It seems the pizza business hadn't been doing so well; so, Ole returned to the logging trade, this time near the border between Minnesota and Ontario at Grand Portage. He had been working in the bush all day and hadn't heard anything about the 9/11 events. He didn't know border security was at full alert, with jumpy armed guards given instructions to stop anyone traveling in the vicinity of the border and demand his name and reason for being there.

It was dark by the time Ole's truck came grinding out of the bush near the border crossing.

He was met by two border guards with their guns drawn.

"State your name and what you're doing here," they demanded.

"Ole. Been loggin'," he said.

So they shot him.

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Replica trophy means actual trophy still out there

2011-04-13T05:00:00.000-04:00

Bow Narrows angler Ken Conkle recently received his trophy replica of a giant lake trout he caught and released in August, 2009 (the date on his camera wasn't accurate when he took the top photo).

This beautiful laker was 42.5 inches long and weighed 35 pounds!

Ken promptly released the big fish after quickly getting its measurements and the photo.

As you can see from the second photo, his taxidermist made a beautiful replica of the fish and mounted it neatly on a piece of driftwood.

The real fish is still out there in the lake, only now it's even bigger.

Replicas are the ideal way to remember these once-in-a-lifetime moments without killing the actual fish. We want fish like this to pass its genes on to other generations.

Way to go, Ken!

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Red Lake, Ontario, ice-out unlikely to be early

2011-04-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

With a snow pack that measured four feet most of the winter, it is unlikely that Red Lake, Ontario will see an early ice-out.
Last year the ice-out tied a record when it occurred April 20.
Northwestern Ontario had what was really a historically average winter but since climate change started happening seemed unusually cold and snowy.
The result was three feet of lake ice but also a heavy snow pack that must be melted off before the ice will begin to disappear.
Also, the white slushy ice that results from heavy snow is more reflective and is slower to melt than "blue ice" that occurs during winters with little snow.
The unknown factor is predicting ice-out is the weather over the next month.
Warm weather -- with no more snowfalls -- will hasten the procedure. Every snowfall sets it back.
The average ice-out for Red Lake is May 8. My guess is this year it won't be any earlier than that.
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Deer and woodland caribou hope for wind

2011-04-07T05:00:00.001-04:00

In Nolalu, whitetail deer look forward to windy days. Out on the Slate Islands in Lake Superior, woodland caribou do the same thing.

The reason is the wind will topple dead trees such as this old balsam fir which is covered in beard lichens, a favorite food for both animals.

The Slate Islands can have the densest woodland caribou population in the world, but at other times goes through massive die-offs.

The reason is the wind, or rather, the lack of it.

Lake Superior is famous for its terrific November storms. Just remember the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Those storms usually knock down a lot of old trees on the Slates which are in the northeast corner of the world's largest lake.

The woodland caribou then munch the lichens on these fallen trees the rest of the winter.

Once in awhile, however, there is a calm November and the result is the caribou starve over the winter.

Whitetail deer here on the mainland are more adaptable to other food sources and so don't usually suffer the same fate. There are no deer on the Slates.

But in winters of deep snow, wind-toppled trees are also a convenient way for deer to get nutrition without expending a lot of energy travelling.

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It's tough being a camp dog, really tough

2011-04-03T05:00:00.000-04:00

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This Trillium gets the nod for Ontario's flower

2011-03-31T05:00:00.001-04:00

After living at Bow Narrows Camp for 51 years, we finally discovered trilliums growing right in the yard!

It's like the story of the man who sold his farm to become a diamond prospector. The new owner then notices the rocks in the farmer's fields are actually diamonds.

That's the way I felt when I saw my first trillium by one of the cabins. What else have I been missing all these years?

These are Nodding Trilliums, also called Nodding Wakerobin and Whip-poor-will flower.

Incidentally, never pick a trillium flower as it can kill the plant.

The White Trillium is Ontario's provincial flower. It is proudly displayed on everything from licence plates to driver's licences.

All trilliums are rare.

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Northern pike come in various colorations, patterns

2011-03-28T05:00:00.001-04:00

This small northern pike has a beautiful camouflage pattern on its back. How would you like to be a prey fish and try to spot this fellow lying amid the weeds with the waves above dancing the sunlight over it?

Northern pike in Red Lake, Ontario, come in several colors and skin patterns.

1. Large spots -- Their skin is covered with large spots or rings, almost in a chain pattern.

2. Small spots -- It's the same pattern as above but the rings are much smaller.

3. Silver with no spots -- Some people think these are silver muskies but they really northern pike with no spots at all.

4. Beet-red fins

5. Green mottled fins

Also, the flesh of the pike has several distinct colors: white, yellowish-orange, pale green.

Although you might suspect the flesh of the fish could be influenced by what they had been eating, it is perplexing that you can get fish of all colors from exactly the same location.

Incidentally, they all taste the same -- delicious!

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An artifact from before the throwaway society

2011-03-25T05:00:00.001-04:00

This steel can is used for kindling in one of our cabins.

Who can still remember when steel cans were used to hold potato chips?

Take notice to the lower left side of the can. It could be returned for a 50-cent deposit!

Just imagine how much less waste we would have created if all food had come in returnable vessels.

Instead, our society opted to do everything the easy way and just threw the containers away when we were through with the product.

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What made these tiny holes in an alder tree?

2011-03-22T05:00:00.001-04:00

The correct answer is the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

This small woodpecker is migratory in Northwestern Ontario but leaves its mark on many trees. In fact, the bird will keep adding to the rows of holes it drills year after year.

It makes the holes to drink the sap under the tree bark. It's favorite trees are the ones with the sweetest sap. In the Boreal Forest, that primarily means white or paper birch trees. Although they have far less sugar than do sugar maples of the forests in warmer climes, there is enough for humans to make syrup -- birch syrup. It tastes very similar to maple syrup.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds take advantage of the sapsucker's wood drilling habit by also drinking the tree sap in the spring, before there are flowers in bloom.

I have even seen sapsucker holes in the bark of jackpine trees.

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How to use this blog to find more information

2011-03-19T16:12:00.004-04:00

Would you like to see more information than is in this current list of blog entries?
Here's how to get it.
1. At the bottom right at the very end of this group of 20 blog entries is a little button that says Older Posts. Click on it and you get the previous 20 entries. At the bottom of that list is yet another button that says Older Posts, etc, etc.
That's one way to see the more than 300 articles written about fishing and outdoor life at Bow Narrows Camp and Northern Ontario that are contained in this blog over the past five years.
2. Another way is to enter topics in the little search window at the top of the blog header and click the little magnifying glass. It then brings up the latest 20 entries that have that term in them. At the bottom of the list you can hit Older Posts and it brings up the next most recent 20 entries with that term, etc. etc.
3. This next method is the slowest system. At the right is a list of all the years that the blog has appeared. You can click on the year; it will then display the months for that year. You can then click on the month. This seems to take forever to open these files, at least on my computer. So I recommend you use 1 or 2, above.
There are blog entries on just about everything you can imagine to do with fishing at Bow Narrows Camp on Red Lake, Ontario. They tell you the best techniques, lures to use, times of day to fish, how to net fish, take out the hooks, what to bring and a lot more.
There are hundreds of photos of big fish, awesome scenery and wildlife, all taken by Bow Narrows Camp anglers. There are also stories on things to do besides fishing, what's cooking in the lodge, latest info on fishing regulations and so on.
What if you would like to comment about something you have read?
Hit the comment button at the bottom of that blog entry, leave your comment in the window, follow the instructions and send it off, no matter when that entry was first published. Your comment should appear below the blog entry in a couple of days.
Finally, if after reading something you have questions that you would like answered, send me an e-mail. I would be happy to answer them, if I can.
My e-mail address is: fish@bownarrows.com
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World's smallest fish caught on #5 Mepps?

2011-03-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

I don't believe it is possible to catch a fish any smaller than this on a #5 Mepps.

This tiny perch isn't more than one inch long.

It obviously wasn't trying to eat the Mepps. Maybe it saw the spinner as a school of perch and just wanted to be one of the gang.

The photo is also a testimonial to how sharp Mepps hooks are.

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Witch's brooms found not just on Halloween

2011-03-15T20:53:00.003-04:00

Dense masses of weird branches sometimes grow in balsam fir trees behind our home in Nolalu and anywhere in the Boreal Forest. These are witch's brooms.

Before anyone gets a stake and fire ready, let me quickly say they have nothing to do with witchcraft. Rather they are places where a disease has afflicted the tree, causing it to grow spindly branches in all directions.

This cell-altering disease could have been caused by fungi, insects, viruses or even by accident such as when a falling tree bashes into another, leaving a wound where the disease can enter.

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If a shadow falls in the forest and no one is there

2011-03-13T16:57:00.010-04:00

Before considering the question I'm about to ask, first go have a beer or a sip or two of good bourbon. At the very least, clear your mind of all extraneous thoughts, sit cross-legged and stare blankly at the sky for a few minutes.

Are you ready?

OK then.

Is a shadow SOMETHING or is it just the LACK OF SUNLIGHT?

I ponder this question just about every year at this time.

"Well, that's understandable," you are probably saying. "After a long Canadian winter you are probably getting a bit daft!"

That is always a possibility, I suppose.

The question at first seems as simple as it gets. A shadow is just where the light is blocked. It is where there is a LACK OF SUNLIGHT. It isn't something in itself.

I could easily believe that premise any time of year except now. You see the daylight is quite long now, almost 12 hours, in fact. And there is a lot of warmth in it too.

Something funny happens to footprints made in the snow right about now. They grow!

For a fact, a footprint made today will be quite a bit larger tomorrow and will be even larger the next and this will continue until the snow is either gone or there is a new snowfall that fills the footprint in again. That's what happened to our dog Sam's tracks in the second photo. The tracks on the left were made today. The much larger one was made by him two days ago.

What could cause this?

Well, the shadow caused by the depth of the footprint is darker than the rest of the snow and this darkness absorbs more sunlight -- and therefore heat -- than its surroundings and the footprint melts faster.

If you think the footprint might melt faster because the snow is compressed you would be dead wrong. Compressed snow is more dense and is considerably slower to melt. In fact, the footprints made in the snow last winter, then filled in by subsequent snowfalls, stand like little stalagmites in the spring. They don't melt as easily as does the rest of the snow.

No, it is the SHADOW of the recent footprint that accelerates the melting of the snow. How can the LACK OF SUNLIGHT create a reaction from the sunlight? I don't think it can.

Therefore, a shadow is SOMETHING.

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Fishing strategies for northern pike on Red Lake, Ont.

2011-03-11T09:41:00.005-05:00

The places and techniques to fish for northern pike on Red Lake, Ontario or any Northern Ontario lake for that matter, vary with the weather conditions each day.

The photo above shows a perfect day for casting artificials along the shoreline and weedbeds. There is a slight chop to the waves that means the sunlight below the surface will be broken up and continuously changing. The light will "dance around" giving the fish a glimpse of their prey, then vanishing, then reappearing.

Northern pike hunt virtually entirely by sight, not with their lateral line sense as do walleye and lake trout. So they are "looking" for something to eat.

Choppy water also creates a situation where there is more for the pike to find. Plankton and other tiny organisms are moved to the windward shore by the waves or are washed away from the bottom out into the open. Minnows swarm in on this bonanza and that is what attracts the larger predators like northern pike. Also, the minnows aren't able to see the pike coming because of the changing light conditions.

So when the water is a bit chaotic from the waves, the best way to attract a strike from a pike is to have a very visible lure, something bright and flashy. Now is not the time for a subtle presentation -- it won't even be found.

There is no particular lure that is better than others in this instance other than it is unnecessary that the lure be identical to a natural prey fish. It just needs to flash and be noticed. I would use a spoon or a spinner here. They are easier to fish with than stick baits like Rapalas because they catch fewer weeds and also have fewer hooks to remove from the mouths of the fish you do catch.

Now lets take the opposite condition; water that is dead calm and the sun is beaming overhead.

In this circumstance the fish have a perfect view of your lure. I always imagine they can read the writing on it: "D-A-R-D-E-V-L-E. What were we taught in fishing school about Dardevles? Never bite one!"

These are the toughest of fishing conditions, not just because it is hard to fool the fish, but also because all the natural prey are hiding as well. So the predators aren't even looking for a meal.

However, they can be tricked with subtle, slow presentations such as a stick bait that pauses and twitches -- a wounded minnow! Or a surface plug that does the same thing -- a popper that looks just like a frog to a fish 10 feet below. The key is to be slow.

Another trick for calm conditions is to use tiny lures, especially spoons and spinners, that are just 1.5-2 inches long. Frankly I'm not sure why this works but maybe it's just that the lure is so small the fish can't distinguish that it is an artificial. You might even need an ultralight rod to pitch these little jobs that probably weight 1/4 oz or less.

A good rule of thumb is to use small and subtle-colored lures in calm conditions, larger and brighter lures in wavy conditions.

A good thing about fishing in calm conditions is that you can see the weeds so clearly and therefore can work your lure deeper without snagging one.

What about rainy days? Fish them pretty much like you would the windy ones.

The pike can't see very well with cloudy skies and even less if there are raindrops on the surface.

I would use bright flashy lures, like an orange or chartreuse spinner or spoon. Silver or white is also good. Gold, on the other hand, is better for sunny days.

Since pike must see their prey, they usually can't be caught well in water that is muddied badly by the wind either. So you don't want to fish shorelines that are being beaten to death by the waves. That's good because it's too hard to fish there anyway.

On extremely windy days you can catch pike just about everywhere; so, concentrate on areas that are protected from the wind and are easier to control your boat.

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Here's where to meet the Lickety Split in Red Lake

2011-03-08T23:13:00.005-05:00

We meet our guests in the town of Red Lake at Red Lake Marine which is located on Hwy. 105 at the bottom of the hill as you come into town as shown in the top photo. Our dock is located between Chimo Airways, whose dock is seen in the background, and Red Lake Marine.

The bottom photo shows our long dock and the Lickety Split tied up on the lefthand side. Note the baggage cart at the end of the dock. Use this cart to transport your luggage and other belongings to the end of the dock. Take everything off the cart and pile it on the righthand side of the dock, leaving the left side clear for the cart to take baggage from guests coming from camp to shore.

Dan will show you where to park your vehicle at the dock. However, you can save time by leaving a spare set of car keys in advance at the front desk at Red Lake Marine. Just say you are going to Bow Narrows Camp and want to leave your keys. They have a box just for this purpose. You need to leave the keys just in case there is an emergency and the cars need to be moved.

Red Lake is a very picturesque little town and with some of the busiest floatplane traffic anywhere as these photos attest.

On Saturdays the Lickety Split makes a round-trip to camp and back to the dock approximately every 90 minutes. We schedule the passage for each group in advance.

If you have some time to kill, you might want to wander into Red Lake Marine and pick up a free coffee. They have a lot of fishing gear inside and they're also a Source (Radio Shack).

Right across from our dock is a Subway restaurant. The drive opposite our dock ends at the Beer Store! At the top of the hill behind the dock is Sobeys Supermarket which shares a parking lot with the Liquor Store.

If you drive past the dock you come to the end of Hwy. 105 at a traffic light. Turn left and go about a block and you come to Northern Sporting Supplies on the right. Turn right and you go down the main street in town. Some places to check out are: the Lakeview Cafe (great breakfast and lunch spot), the Rexall Pharmacy, the Treasure House (great place for genuine moosehide slippers, moccasins and gloves). There is a turnaround at the end of the row of businesses where you can turn and come back toward the light again.

There are several businesses between our dock and Chimo Airways. They include McTaggart's Store (mens and womens clothing), Home Hardware and the Water Buffalo (coffee shop).

One thing you will notice as you visit any of these stores is how friendly everyone here is. Red Lake is a very beautiful and friendly town.

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Tips on how to cross the border into Canada

2011-03-06T07:56:00.008-05:00

Here are some tips on how to make crossing the border into Canada as quick as possible.

First of all, remember that everyone these days needs a valid up-to-date passport. In addition, children who don't have both biological parents traveling with them should have a letter from the other parent giving his or her permission for the trip.

The driver of the vehicle should hand the passports of everyone in the vehicle to the border officer when he pulls alongside the booth window.

I'm not going to tell you what you are allowed and not allowed to bring into Canada. You can see this for yourself at these websites:

http://www.canadawelcomesyou.net/

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5082-eng.html#s2x1

However, I am going to pass on some practical advice on what to do at the border.

For starters, know that the person you are talking to has absolute authority over your admittance. So with that in mind, answer his or her questions politely, concisely and honestly.
Don't tell jokes, make wisecracks or pass the time of day.

Everyone in the car should remain silent unless asked a question by the border guard. The guard will usually ask the driver questions such as how long the group will be in the country, what is the purpose of their visit, where they will be going, etc.

You will always be asked if you have any alcohol and tobacco aboard and exactly how much of each so have that information written down ahead of time. (See the websites above for allowable amounts.) If you have more than the allowable limit you will be asked to come inside the building and pay duty and taxes.

You will also be asked if you have any weapons on board. It is illegal to bring any type of firearm into Canada (hunters must register their guns through a website in advance and have the paperwork ready when they come to the border). It is also illegal to have any other offensive weapon such as Tasers, mace, bear spray, throwing stars, switchblades, etc.

At the officer's discretion you might be asked to pull over and your vehicle and belongings searched. You should only have in the car the belongings of people in that vehicle.

Such searches are infrequent but can be prompted by things like background checks on the vehicle occupant's passports, answers to the questions the guard asked, or just at random. In other words, yours was the 47th car since the last vehicle was searched.

Never argue or complain. The officers realize they are inconveniencing you. Just do as they say and the process will go faster.

It will help if your belongings are organized rather than scattered all over the place.

Don't bring things in the boxes they were purchased in. For instance, if you stopped at Cabelas on the way up and bought a new fishfinder, take it out of the box before getting to the border. Why? Bringing items in their unopened packages makes it look like you might be intending to re-sell those items in Canada rather than bringing them for your own use.

Don't bring anything with you that isn't needed for the trip. For instance, don't bring lots of tools other than those needed in case of an emergency. It makes it look like you are intending to work in Canada.

Don't take photographs of the border crossing or the officers. In fact, don't take photos at the crossing, period.

Be patient. Treat the officer with respect. He or she has a serious job to do. Don't question their motivations. For example, don't ask why they seem to be singling you out. (Perhaps you may resemble someone they've been advised to look out for.)

Some of the officers are men; some are women; some have been doing their job for a long time; some are summer students hired as extra staff for peak time periods. Treat them all courteously and respectfully.

But what if they are rude and disrespectful to you? Although this is rare, it does happen.

You must still be polite and courteous. Remember, this one person has the power to deny you entering the country.

However, although you can do nothing about the incident at the moment, you CAN and SHOULD register a formal complaint later by doing the following.

All officers have large identity badge numbers. Memorize that number and write it down as soon as you are through the crossing.

Also write down the physical description of the officer, the exact time you crossed the border, the date, and every detail of your complaint including anything the officer said or did that offended you.

Don't wait until you get to camp to do this. Do it immediately while the details are fresh in your mind.

When you return home send your complaint in writing to this e-mail address:

RDGO-BDGR-NO@CBSA-ASFC.GC.CA

It will be read and the incident investigated by a high-ranking officer at Canada Border Services Agency regional headquarters, not the border crossing.

It is possible that the border guard who offended you or treated you unfairly is a "bad apple" and your complaint plus those of other people against this individual can be used for disciplinary action or even dismissal. However, this person must be clearly identified. That is why you need to specify the hour, the date, and any other facts. The best, of course, is the officer's identification number.

Only you can launch this complaint. We cannot file the complaint for you nor can you file a complaint for someone else.

Just about all of the officers and border guards are excellent professionals. I'm sure they would also like to get rid of any fellow officers who bring contempt to their ranks.

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Evening at Bow Narrows always a magical time

2011-03-02T20:40:00.005-05:00

"Did you see that thunderhead over Pipestone Bay? It was like a mushroom cloud!"

"What about that sunset! Wasn't it spectacular!"

That could be the conversation any night at camp. If it isn't the sky that is awe-inspiring, it's the fish that was caught and released or the moose that came so close to the boat or all of the above.

People gather in the yard or in the lodge or the fish house and the stories just fly. Evenings are really special here.

Everyone tells about the day's events and the wonders that they saw. It's so serene, so beautiful. Then somebody cracks a joke and the whole place erupts in laughter.

As everyone retires to their cabins, maybe just to their screened porches where they put their feet up and listen to the symphony of loons calling back and forth , the stresses of everyday life are a million miles away.

"Hey, are those northern lights? calls someone from the inky blackness of the yard.

Everyone bails out of the cabin to find the caller is right. Hanging overhead like a shimmering neon curtain is Nature's own light show.

Eventually, of course, you realize that you must go to bed or you'll never be ready for tomorrow. You drift off with the sounds of loons yodeling, toads trilling and Joe snoring in the next room.

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Fall fishing can be hot for really big pike

2011-02-28T20:11:00.008-05:00

To the best of my knowledge, the record for number of 40+inch pike caught in one boat goes to two anglers who fished at Bow Narrows Camp in late September. They caught and released 16!

Their technique was to cast #5 Mepps spinners and white spinner baits on the deep side of weedbeds.

Another system that can work wonders at this time of year is to fish with dead bait and bobbers. That's what my brother-in-law Ron and I were trying when we got these dandy pike in late September. Incidentally, we used 5/0 circle hooks and hooked all of the six lunker pike we got that morning right in the corner of their mouths as always happens with these hooks.

We had started out trying to get some fish for lunch. By noon all the pike we caught were enormous so we gave up dead bait fishing and headed to a protected weedbed where we figured there would be mostly small fish. Ron's first pike, caught while casting a spoon was yet another lunker. We actually returned to camp for lunch empty-handed and had to tell the girls that all the fish were just too big to keep!

The key to late-season pike, I think, is to vary your method as the day progresses. Dead bait seems to work best in early morning. Once the sun comes up, switch to casting or trolling. We'll give you tips on where to do each once you're at camp.

Fall is when I get to do most of my fishing because we're not as busy then. That's a pity because fishing can be some of the best of the season.

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What to pack for a Canadian fishing trip

2011-02-24T21:02:00.000-05:00

Here's a list of what most fishermen bring when they come to our fishing lodge on Red Lake, Ontario.

I've added a couple of things that I personally think are important.

Clothing

By bringing a few versatile things you will be prepared for anything Nature might throw at you. I can't emphasize enough the importance of this first item:

1. Excellent quality, breathable rain gear. See Best Rain Gear for a Canadian Fishing Trip

This is more important than your fishing equipment! You are far better off to have great rain gear and poor fishing equipment than vice versa.

2. Waterproof boots (rubber or Gore-tex type). Although hunting-style boots are the best, an inexpensive but quite effective alternative is overshoes such as Totes. They're also lightweight and fold into a small space.

You need to be completely waterproof, from your head to your toes. Our summers are almost always gloriously warm and sunny but you need to be ready for the worst just in case.

3. T-shirts, underwear and socks for each day you will be on your trip

4. Two pairs of jeans or other fishing pants

If you bring pants with the zip-off legs you can skip the next item

5. Two pairs of shorts

6. A swimsuit!

7. Long underwear!

8. Tuque a.k.a. stocking cap or knitted winter cap or wool cap

9. Neoprene gloves (Optional)

10. Wide-brimmed hat or baseball cap

11. Light jacket or sweatshirt

12. Heavy sweater (an even-better alternative is a down jacket. Cabelas often has these on sale for $29. They will stuff into a tiny space in your luggage and are the ultimate in warmth.)

13. Sneakers or light hiking boots

14. Two flannel or other shirts

No matter when you come, from mid-May to the end of August, the weather is probably going to be wonderful. You'll feel great in jeans and a flannel shirt or t-shirt with a jacket for mornings and evenings.

If it gets warm, wear your shorts. If it gets hot, put on your swimsuit and go for a dip in the lake.

If you somehow get wet, you've brought an extra set of dry clothes. Hang up the wet ones to dry in the cabin or outside.

If it gets unexpectedly cold, put on your long underwear, your heavy sweater or down jacket and most importantly, your breathable rain gear, plus your neoprene gloves which stay warm even when wet and your tuque (wool cap). With the exception of the neoprene gloves, this outfit is what I wear all winter. The key is breathable rain gear which cuts the wind but doesn't make you sweat.

Fishing equipment

If you have everything on this list you would be totally prepared but you can get by with less as well. If you click on the highlighted words it will bring up more information about each of these items.

1. Three fishing rods (See Best fishing rods for northern pike and walleye)

Two should be medium-action, 6-to-6.5 foot rods. You only need one but have two in case you break one. The third is an ultralight spinning rod. (Optional) It's a blast for catching walleye in calm conditions.

These should all fit in a cheap, conventional plastic rod case. If your rods are two-piece this rod case won't be more than 3.5 feet long and will conveniently fit in your car truck or won't be classed as oversized luggage by airlines. You can also bring the rods loose but they stand more chance of damage that way.

2. Two reels plus the reel for the ultralight. The most versatile outfit is the medium-weight spinning reel which is made for 8-12-pound test line. Spool them with 8 pound line if you like to cast or jig, 10-12-pound if you like to troll. You could, of course, have one rod set-up for casting and the other for trolling. The ultralight spinning reel should have 4-6 pound line. (See Which is better, monofilament or braided line)

3. An extra box (spool) of line.

4. Six 30-pound steel leaders

5. Six 12-pound thin wire leaders (handy for small lures but optional)

6. A portable depth-sounder/fish finder for each two people (for each boat) and an extra set of batteries. (This is optional but most groups have them. Use it for fishing at the proper depth, not for "finding" fish.)

7. Six northern pike spoons: 1/3 oz. to 1/2 oz for fishing Red Lake. Recommended: Len Thompson, Dardevle, Johnson Silver Minnow, Acme Little Cleo

8. Six Mepps or Blue Fox Spinners, sizes No. 4 and No. 5 in various colors

9. 30 leadhead jigs in the following sizes: dozen 1/4 oz, dozen 1/8 oz, three 3/8 oz, three 1/2 oz

10. Dozen walleye spinners

11. Lead sinkers: six 1/4 oz, six 1/2 ounce, six 3/4 oz, one pack split shot

12. Slip bobber with rubber stops

13. Plastic bobber

14. Assorted-size single hooks for bait fishing. These should be small for walleye. If you plan on fishing with dead bait for northern pike, we recommend 5/0 circle hooks.

15. Six stick baits such as Rapala etc., shallow and deep running, 4-6 inches in length (These are the most expensive lures and not necessarily any better than spoons, spinners and jigs; so, you can scrimp here if you want.)

16. Two dozen plastic twister tails for jigs and Johnson spoons: 2.5" for 1/8 oz jig, 3" for 1/4 oz jig, 4" for 3/8 oz jig

17. Jar of Gulp Alive for each two people

18. Six dozen worms/leeches or combination per person per week

19. Fish unhooking tools (One set per boat). At least a pair of needlenose pliers.

20. Hook sharpener or stone (One per boat)

21. Prism tape in various colors for changing lure colors

22. Nail clippers for trimming line

Miscellaneous items

1. Bottle sunscreen (the summer sun here is more intense than what you are used to)

2. One aerosol can Deep Woods Sportsmen Off with 30% DEET in the blue can for each two people

3. Flashlight

4. Comfortable life vest. We supply these at Bow Narrows Camp but if you bring your own and it fits your build comfortably you will be more inclined to wear it all the time. Parents should always bring the proper-sized vest for their young children and insist they wear it any time they are outside.

5. Sun glasses with polarized lens (neck strap for these is also handy)

6. Refillable water bottle (All of the water from Bow Narrows Camp taps is delicious, crystal clear, filtered, safe drinking water from our water treatment plant. When you bring a water bottle instead of bottled water you are doing the environment a big favor.)

7. Camera and extra battery

8. Binoculars (optional). Handy for spotting wildlife.

9. Small radio (obviously optional but we suggest tuning in to CBC Radio One 90.5 FM for some really thought-provoking, discussion-starting programs as well as Northwestern Ontario news and weather.

10. Passport!

11. Ontario Outdoors Card (if you fished in Ontario the last two years you would have been mailed this. If not or if you forget yours you will need to get one. Applications come with your fishing license which we have at camp. The cards cost $9.

12. Boater Safety Card (optional). All Canadian boaters have one now. You can get one by taking a course on-line and it is good for life. If you don't have one you can just fill out our boat-rental form which serves as a one-time boater safety card.

13. Spare keys for your vehicle. Give these to a buddy to safeguard.

14. Pocket knife. If you plan on cleaning your own fish out on the rocks for shore lunch, then also bring a fillet knife. However, since at Bow Narrows Camp we expertly clean all your fish and remove all the bones, you don't really need a fillet knife. You can also have us clean your fish that you take out for shore lunch.

15. Chapstick

16. Rod tip repair kit. This includes a couple of replacement eyes and glue.

17. Duct tape. One roll per group is plenty.

18. WD-40. These come in small pen-size containers that are ideal for lubricating reels.

19. First-aid kit. One per group.

20. Personal medicines plus pain reliever, cold or allergy relievers, upset stomach treaments and diarhhea medicine just in case someone comes down with a cold or flu on your trip.

21. Medium to large cooler if you plan to take fish home. One per 4 people.

22. Small cooler with refreezable ice pack for keeping drinks and/or bag lunch cold in the boat. Depending on the size you may only need one per boat.

That is a fairly complete list. If readers have other things they find handy or necessary, please leave your comment and I'll be sure it is printed.

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Angler's unique jig method lands walleyes off dock

2011-02-22T09:46:00.005-05:00

Each year more and more people "twig" to the fact that Bow Narrows Camp is literally located in one of the best fishing spots on Red Lake.

The camp is in a narrows (shaped like a bow) that connects several bays including one of the lake's largest -- Pipestone Bay -- to the rest of the lake. Fish must swim right past the camp to move around the lake.

So, they must swim RIGHT PAST YOUR DOCK. This means you can just fish from the dock and do really well. However, there are some fishing techniques that work better than others when fishing either from the shore or a fixed location like a dock.

Mike Gage from Texas, shown in the photos above, has one of the most unique methods that I've seen. I've watched him for several years now catch dozens of walleyes off the dock, pretty much every morning and evening, and it wasn't until last summer that I noticed he does something different from most anglers.

He uses a small jig, either a 1/8 or 1/16-oz jig and tips it with a bit of worm. So far that's no different than most people. He sits on a chair. Sure, you might as well be comfortable.

Then he flips the jig out into deep water and lets it sink to the bottom. That's when his method changes from just about everyone else I've seen who jig for walleyes.

Mike doesn't "hop" the jig across the bottom with a flip of his rod, then reel up the slack and repeat the process. Instead, he reels up the slack and watches his rod tip. If nothing happens after maybe five seconds -- without moving his rod tip -- he takes a couple cranks on the reel all the while watching the rod tip for a telltale tug that a fish has picked up the jig.

He NEVER has any slack line and therefore NEVER misses any bites when the jig is falling!

We have lots of people who do really well fishing off the docks and other than Mike, I would say the ones who do the best usually use a bobber.

Bobbers are a great way to fish at a distance and not get snagged all the time. The very best of these are slip bobbers where an angler puts a tiny rubber stopper on his line which passes right through the bobber. The bobber then falls all the way down to his weight which only needs to be a split shot. This makes it easy to cast the whole rig a good distance away from the dock.

When the rig hits the water the weight pulls the line down through the bobber until it eventually hits the stopper on the line. The stopper can be placed 10-feet or more up from the bait, whatever depth you want to fish. Your aim is always to have your bait near the bottom.

Slip bobbers are also very slender and when the fish takes the bait and pulls the bobber, it slips under the water with little resistance, so the fish can't "feel" it.

While slip bobbers are the best for bobber fishing, most people just clip on the old red-and-white plastic bobber and they seem to do pretty well too.

About the least-productive method of fishing off the dock is to cast and that is how almost everybody fishes. But even these people routinely catch pike and walleye, just not as many as the bobber-and-bait or jig fishermen.

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How to pick up a northern pike from the water

2011-02-21T11:26:00.003-05:00

It is a pain to use the landing net for every northern pike, especially small ones. They get twisted up in the mesh and takes many minutes to get them out. The fish can be injured from the net and, if it takes too long, die from being out of the water.

For any pike you intend to release anyway, it's best just to reach into the lake and pick them up. But there are certainly precautions to this manoeuvre.

The main risk comes from your own lure. You need to be sure to stay away from any hooks that might be exposed on the outside of the fish's mouth.

The proper technique to pick up a northern pike from the water is to do it like me in this photo from last summer. (I do get out to fish once in awhile!)

You want to reach over the top of the fish's back and grab it right where the gill plates are with the top of your hand toward the fish's head as shown. I would have put the grip on the fish as it lay totally in the water. The photo shows me lifting it out a few seconds later.

Squeeze to depress the gill plates just enough to get a good grip on the fish. If you squeeze too strongly you could actually damage the fish but this rarely happens.

This grip keeps most fish quiet, as well, although I see the one in the photo is kicking a bit.

It is a bad idea to ever lift a fish out of the water by the line or the leader. For starters, if you have a little nick in your line it is going to break and you lose both the fish and the lure.

Another reason not to do this it almost always makes the fish thrash wildly about while not being supported at all by your hand. If the lure was caught in the fish's gill area the gills are almost sure to rip, thus killing the fish.

Many times while holding the fish in the boat with the approved grip the fish will open its mouth so you can reach in with pliers or, my favorite, the Baker Hookout tool, and remove the lure.

You can pick up virtually any size northern pike that you can get your hand around the top of their gill plates.

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What lure catches the most big northern pike?

2011-02-19T13:16:00.006-05:00

Bow Narrows angler Troy Bechtel caught and released this mammoth northern pike in Red Lake last July.

If I recall correctly, the lure that attracted this enormous pike was none other than this walleye spinner with either a leech or a worm!

But that is hardly an accident. We catch more big pike on either walleye spinners or tiny leadhead jigs than any other lure!

How can that be? you ask. Why would these biggest of fish, weighing 20-30 pounds, go after a tiny walleye lure? Wouldn't they prefer a bigger meal and therefore a bigger lure?

I'm just telling it like it is. Walleye baits catch the most trophy-size northern pike. And when you consider these rigs aren't ever fished with a steel leader, you wonder how many of the bite-offs people get were fish like this? You just assume it was smaller pike. After all, every pike has a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. It almost takes a miracle to hook one right in the lips with either a walleye spinner or jig and therefore not get the line in the fish's mouth.

Still, miracles or not, we catch more really big pike on walleye rigs than any other lure.

It is understandable really. Humungous pike want a really big school fish for meals. Walleyes fill the bill.

So should a person seeking big northern pike only fish for walleye? I don't know anybody who does this. They fish FOR WALLEYE and accidentally land the big pike.

The real pike fishermen use spoons, Mepps and Blue Fox spinners, stick baits, and jigs but cast them along shorelines, not fish them right where there are walleye. Maybe they should target the walleye areas with their northern pike lures but they do pretty well fishing the way they do. Certainly they catch far more northern pike than do the walleye fishermen. And they catch lunkers too.

Yet, it is while walleye fishing that most people get the super big pike.

It might be worth a try.

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Jessica Fletcher used burlap bag for her fish

2011-02-18T13:08:00.004-05:00

We wrote earlier about how simple yet effective it is to use a wet burlap bag for keeping fish fresh in the boat. See Burlap Bag Simply the Best .
Now we even have TV's mystery writer Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote backing us up.
If you watch the opening credits for this popular series which ended about 20 years ago, I think, but is still on re-runs, you will see Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) walking up from the pier in Cabot Cove, Maine with her fishing rod and tackle box in her right hand and a burlap bag with her catch in the left! You've got to watch carefully because it only takes a second or two for that part of the credits.
It's such attention to detail that set this show apart from the others.
We still watch it and I've a hunch so do many other people.
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Live-Forage weedless spoon looks great for pike

2011-02-15T20:48:00.007-05:00

Northland Fishing Tackle just came out with a weedless spoon that looks like dynamite for Red Lake, Ontario's northern pike.

It's called the Live-Forage Weedless Spoon and as you can see from the photos, the holographic-type images on the spoons are incredible.

I just got a press release from the company about the new spoons and I see they aren't even on their website yet. That's http://www.northlandtackle.com/

The spoon is obviously similar to the Johnson Silver Minnow in shape but it has a couple of things that could make it even better, if that's possible (I'm a huge fan of Johnsons).

The Live-Forage spoon's single hook is a Mustad Ultrapoint. This company is known for its needle sharp hooks. The one problem I had with the Johnsons was that their rather blunt hooks needed sharpened all the time. I've got to think the Mustad hook would be an improvement.

The Live-Forage spoon also has a plastic Y-shaped weed guard. I'll have to see how it works. The single metal weedguard on the Johnson worked fine but after many deflections would break; so, maybe the plastic guard is better.

Another important feature is that the spoon is made of brass. That's great because it's heavier than steel and makes the lure run deeper.

In its press release Northland recommends you use a trailer or a skirt on the spoon as well.

I wholeheartedly agree. The Johnson spoon, for instance, is many, many times better with a trailer.

As I look at the leopard frog image on the second spoon, I can't help but think a plastic twin-tail would make this look just like a frog's legs. The top image is the baby bass. The spoon also comes in golden shiner and blue gill. It's hard to say without trying them but my guess is the leopard frog and the golden shiner might be best for Red Lake as both of those species exist there and are natural prey for pike.

The spoon only comes in two sizes 1/2 ounce and 3/4 ounce.

For Red Lake's northern pike and their crazy preference for smaller lures, I would suggest the 1/2 ounce.

Speaking of Northland Fishing Tackle, their panfish ice-fishing videos are a hoot.

Go to their website and click on videos, then Northland Fishing Tackle's Bros Bug Collection.

Make sure you've got your sound turned up!

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Does anybody remember Detty's Fish Gripper?

2011-02-14T22:29:00.004-05:00

I still use one of these fish pliers and I wonder if anybody else does.

I don't believe I've seen another set for decades.

This is Detty's Fish Gripper, basically a type of pliers to hold a fish's mouth open while you extract the hook.

It works better than any other tool I've seen for this purpose. The flat surface of the pliers doesn't harm the fish and gives you a good grip on the jaw.

I use this tool to hold open the mouths of northern pike and walleye, then extract the hook with a Baker Hookout.

The Detty's Fish Gripper is my favorite fish gripping tool and I'll bet it is an antique.

Does anybody know what ever happened to this company?

If you do, or if you have anything to add, please just leave a comment.

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Here's a canoe sunrise from last fall

2011-02-13T15:11:00.004-05:00

I clicked this scene of a sunrise while canoeing last October.

What is it about sunrises that makes them seem even more spectacular than sunsets?

I get more sunrise photos in the fall than any other time of the year for a couple of reasons.

One is that I use a canoe for moose hunting. It is legal in Ontario to shoot from a canoe that does not have a motor, and my family has found this to be an excellent way to hunt.

The second reason is that sunrises are so late in October, around 7 a.m., that you don't have to get up early to see them.

I really love silently slipping along the lake, looking at all the wildlife. You can go so close to shore that you can even see tracks. There are so many wild creatures to see -- and hear -- this way: moose, bear, wolves, lynx, owls. It's a hoot! (pun intended)

The difference is like driving along a highway looking for animals compared to sitting in a treestand. I thought of this last fall after we got back to Nolalu and I had just spent a fantastic morning in my treestand.

I had not only seen 12 deer that day but had many of them stand right below me, watched a buck grunt, watched a buck go after a doe and heard a doe bleat. What an education! And that wasn't all. I also had a barred owl fly within a few feet of me, saw grouse feeding and had a pine marten go by!

After I went to the house for lunch I walked down to the road to get the mail and observed trucks of hunters driving slowly around, hoping to see something cross the road. What a different experience they were getting out of deer hunting.

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What else is there to do besides go fishing?

2011-02-12T10:25:00.004-05:00

Fishing on Red Lake, Ontario is so good that it is easy to forget that not everybody in the world comes here to fish or at least do it full-time.

Often men have wives, sons or daughters who are partially interested in fishing but would like some other adventures as well.

At Bow Narrows Camp there are a few trails to walk, mostly to other lakes, a couple of old gold mines to look for rocks at, swimming off the main dock and beaches (if the water isn't high) in July and August, and gorgeous scenery and wildlife to see all over the place, but it is a real shame to come to this land that literally has more water than land and not explore it by water!

The very best way to do this is by sea kayak or canoe and the camp has several of these to loan to adventurers.

Many people have never tried a sea kayak and for some reason have the belief they tip easily. That is incorrect. Sea kayaks are more stable than a canoe and once seated in one it is very difficult to upset. You would need to try and tip it. We can instruct you on how to use a kayak and with probably only an hour's practice you will have the knack for it and can start exploring.

We insist that everyone using a canoe or kayak wear their life jacket and we have some special ones just for kayaking. If somehow you do manage to upset the kayak, it will be floating right beside you. Just push it to shore, dump out the water and get back in. Ditto for a canoe.

Incidentally, sea kayaks are not the same as the river kayaks you have seen people shooting white water with. These are long vessels that are meant for paddling long distances. They move along at twice the speed of a canoe, partially because of their double paddles but also because they are so streamlined and sit so low in the water that wind barely affects them.

The really neat thing about kayaks or canoes is that you can sneak silently along the shore and up creeks that are far too shallow for a boat. They draft only a couple inches of water.

This is especially fun to do in the evenings because these are locations where you are most apt to see moose, shore birds and other animals including the aquatic ones like beaver, muskrat, mink and otter.

Sea kayaks have water-proof holds in the front and back where you can store extra clothing or a lunch. What a great adventure it is to paddle to a destination like a waterfall or old mine, walk a trail or two, eat lunch and then work your way back to camp.

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How to see a moose when you're fishing

2011-02-11T14:07:00.005-05:00

I wonder how many people would have gone right by this cow moose and never notice it?

In the top photo eagle-eye Dixie Carpenter spots the black dot in the water that turned out to be a moose last summer.

Husband Blaine Carpenter zoomed in with his camera for a closer look on the second photo.

There are lots of moose to be seen around Bow Narrows Camp and some people are better at seeing them than others.

Most folks will notice a moose swimming in the lake. But how about just a moose head sticking above the lily pads? That's all you sometimes can see of a moose feeding on aquatic vegetation. They stand on the bottom and stick their heads completely underwater to grab weeds growing there.

Weedy bays are good places to find moose and so are sand beaches! In warm weather moose like to wade out in front of the beach and cool themselves off. We've seen them do this for hours.

The best idea to spotting a moose is just to scan the water's edge and look for something black.

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Your cell phones should work in camp this year

2011-02-09T18:38:00.003-05:00

It seems almost certain that you will be able to use your cell phones in camp in 2011!

We are working with a communications company in Thunder Bay which says there should be no problem connecting a repeater antenna that would allow anyone with a cell phone to pick up a signal within about 100 feet.

Our plan is to mount the antenna in the lodge porch.

So you might not be able to use your cell phone in your cabin, but could do so if you walked over toward the lodge.

The signal might also be strong enough to reach some cabins such as Cabins 5, 6 and 7.

We have a cell bag phone in the lodge that works with an external antenna and a signal amplifier. The plan is to connect the amplifier with an external transmitting antenna.

You should be able to do all the things you can normally do with cell phones as long as you are within range.

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Is May too cold? August too hot? September?

2011-02-08T15:10:00.012-05:00

These are common questions for people who are planning a fishing trip to Northern Ontario. The facts, however, might surprise you.

Let's start with May. The photo above shows long-time Bow Narrows anglers Suzie and Darrel Palmer and their friend Dave Myers using the dead-bait system for catching northern pike during May, 2010. This is an ideal pike fishing time.

I was just telling someone that May is usually nicer than June! That's been my observation anyway. I decided to dig up some facts on the subject and went to the historical data for Red Lake at the Weather Network.

It would be misleading to look at the average temperature for May because we aren't open until May 21. So let's look at the data from then to the first of June.

It got as warm as 27.9 C during those 10 days last season. That's 82 F!

The coldest it got was 4.7 C or 40 F.

What about precipitation?

Total precipitation was only 3 mm or 0.12 inch.

In other words, May was warm and sunny! And there are no bugs!

How about August then? Since we're open the whole month we can look at the Weather Network's figures for all of August. The warmest daytime high, as recorded at the Red Lake airport in the first week of August in 2010 was 29.5 C or 85 F. The second week it was 31.8 or 89 F. The third week it was 28.8 C or 84 F. The final week it was 31 C or 88 F. When you consider most people think 80 F to be an ideal temperature in the summer, our August highs last year were only slightly warmer than the ideal.

Also, those temperatures were taken at the Red Lake airport which is located inland and gets reflected heat from the runway. The temperatures at camp would have been considerably lower, probably by 5-10 degrees, since it is surrounded by cool lake water and forests and is refreshed by summer breezes off the water. And we just don't get the humidity up here.

Finally, those were the hottest temperatures in those weeks. They may only have existed for an hour or two.

The average daytime high was way, way less.

When you look at the historical average high for August in Red Lake, Ontario, it is just 20 C or 68 F! However, that historical average has been altered due to climate change in recent years. I would say the average daytime high for August in the last decade has been more like 78 F, still pretty close to the ideal and again, may have only existed briefly. It virtually always cools off at night, perfect for sleeping. Remember, this is Canada. Even our warmest weather isn't hot.

But do warm temperatures hurt the fishing? No way, not in our lake anyway. The depth in Red Lake varies from bays of over 100 feet deep to very shallow bays. The water temperature in the deep bays never gets above 46 F. That's great for lake trout but too cold for comfort for walleye and northern pike. When the weather gets warm we just fish near those areas where the water always stays cold but where the air temperature has warmed the cold lake water into ideal fish temperatures in the 60-75 F range. The fish will be there. August is one of our best fishing months.

What about September then?

September is a month of transition, going from summer to fall. It is virtually the reverse of May which starts off cool and gets warmer. September usually starts off warm and gets cooler. Usually. In 2009 September was the warmest month of the summer with daytime highs of 80 F the whole month. But that was certainly an exception.

Let's look at what happened last year and let's divide the month in half.

In the first two weeks the hottest temperature was 24.7 C or 76 F. The coldest was -2 C or 28 F. In the second half of the month the hottest temperature was 18.8 C or 66 F. The coldest was -2.9 C or 27 F.

So, as you can see the month does cool off as it goes along.

Historically, the average daytime high in September is 11.6 C or 53 F. But again, historical figures aren't of much use any more because our atmosphere is heating up. I would put the average daytime high for the first half of the month at about 65 F and about 50 F the last two weeks.

As the surface temperature of water cools off, the walleye move into deeper water and cluster at the entrances to narrows, around points and islands. We catch them readily there in 20-30 feet of water. Northern pike will still largely be in their summer haunts, just on the deep side of the weeds in probably 6-12 feet of water.

Summer here is too short for the fish to waste any of it.

So September is also a good time to fish and it has other advantages too. One of the biggest is the absolute solitude to the place. Most people are not able to come fishing once school has resumed. Either they have children or grandchildren in school or are teachers themselves.

September is also the most beautiful time of year to come. Leaves will begin to change color about Sept. 20 and will all have fallen by mid-October.

It is also the best time of year to see moose and bear which get more active with the end to summer. Throughout September there will also be great flocks of sandhill cranes and snow geese and Canada geese streaming overhead.

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All our outboards now electric-start Hondas

2011-02-06T15:48:00.003-05:00

All of our Honda outboards this year will be electric-start models!

To start these motors you simply put the motor in neutral, leave the throttle turned to the lowest setting and push the start button. The motor will start and if cold, will automatically give itself some choke and advance the idle speed. As soon as the idle speed slows down the engine is warm and you can go on your way. When the motor is warm you just start it and proceed immediately.

We will have 18 electric-start Honda 20 hp outboards on 16-foot Lund boats this season. This motor and boat setup has proven ideal over the years. It will push two anglers along at about 24 mph which means you can reach the farthest of our fishing spots in no more than 20 minutes. The Lunds are great boats for handling any type of wave condition.

The 20 hp Hondas are legendary for being whisper quite and for trolling like a dream. The motors produce no smoke and are wonderfully fuel-efficient.

New at camp this season will be an 18-foot Lund SSV model powered by a 25 hp electric start Honda. We will reserve this boat for larger guests or for people fishing three-to-a-boat. This boat has two rows of split seats that should make moving around even easier.

We are also trying a new 16-foot SSV Lund model that has a split rear seat in a slightly different configuration than our other Lunds. If anglers like this model we will likely use it to gradually replace our other boats.

The SSV Lunds have a more V-shaped hull that is said to ride even more smoothly in rough water than the earlier models which were themselves famous for their ride and stability. The SSVs come with ready-made floors to make a level surface for standing and fishing.

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Ruffed grouse burrow beneath the snow at night

2011-02-03T17:29:00.006-05:00

I just snapped these pix on a snowshoe walk with Brenda. We saw this ruffed grouse or partridge at a distance. They are really spooky here on our property in Nolalu. At camp you can nearly pick them up. Local people refer to them as "chickens."

That's not the case in Nolalu. They usually flush 20 yards ahead of you.

The second photo shows a grouse "burrow." This is where a grouse spent the night -- burrowed beneath the snow. They actually fly right into the snow, then wiggle through it a bit. The next day they wiggle upwards and take off, as seen where the wings struck the snow in the photo. There are never any telltale tracks leading into or away from the burrow.

Every grouse will do this burrowing if the snow is deep enough. It is much warmer under the snow than above.

They're pretty good at hearing you come near and will explode out of the snow while your heart goes into cardiac arrest. I think they get a big kick out of it!

Unfortunately, red fox don't make as much sound and sometimes nab the grouse right in their sleeping chamber.

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