Moose and deer 'lichen' these unique organisms

One of the things I love about the outdoors is that there is no end to the stuff you can learn about it.

Take the rocks and trees for example. Did you ever pay much notice to the "plants" that grow on them?

Chances are they're lichens which are a life form unto themselves. Lichens are not one organism but are at least two and sometimes three. They're fungi that have either algae or cyanobacteria (photosynthetizing bacteria) living within them in a symbiotic relationship. The fungus protects its photosynthetic partner which then helps feed the fungus.

I first became aware of the world of lichens in the woods behind our house in Nolalu, near Thunder Bay. In the winter I would cut down dead balsam fir that are loaded with long Spanish-moss-like lichens which we always called Old Man's Beard. Whitetail deer are nuts for this stuff. I've had them rush in to start eating the lichens at the top end of the tree while I was using a chainsaw to cut up the other end.

Moose also love it as do woodland caribou.

I probably looked at Old Man's Beard for 15 years before it occurred to me that there was more than one type.

It was my good fortune this winter to get a set of great field guides for Minnesota and Northwestern Ontario. One of them is about lichens.

I would recommend these books to anyone. They are the North Woods Naturalist Series and are produced by Kollath & Sons Publishing in Duluth, MN.

Besides the book on lichens I got others on north woods spiders, dragonflies and butterflies.

I'll have all the books up at camp this summer if you want to use them.

Lichens are absolutely fascinating and unlike most outdoor subjects are available to study throughout the winter! They don't freeze, that's one of their properties.

The long stringy tree lichens are known as beard lichens and there are many varieties. One of the rarest is Methusaleh's Beard which can hang up to three feet long from the branches of spruce and balsam.

The beard lichens are perhaps the world's most sensitive organisms to air quality and sadly in many parts of the world they have disappeared. Fortunately the air is still pure here in Northwestern Ontario.

Thanks to my new books I'm able to work lichen facts into just about every conversation.

For instance I might notice someone wearing a Harris Tweed jacket at a party. "Hey, did you know that Harris Tweed used lichens to make the dye for their wool until 1972?" Actually, they never know this.

Or when noticing someone has a cut on their hand, "Many beard lichens have a natural antibiotic called usnic acid that is being studied as a treatment for infections."

It may be possible for people to eat some lichens such as the ground rock tripe varieties but according to the book, it's not easy, requiring boiling in many changes of water with wood ash. I don't recommend it. Some could even be poisonous.

Ungulates like moose, deer and caribou are able to digest it because they have four-chambered stomachs and therefore have a much more thorough digestive system.

According to the book Inuit people have learned to open the stomachs of caribou they have killed and remove digested lichens which they then are able to make fit for human consumption. That's pretty ingenious but how would you like to have been the first person to try it?

Two of the most obvious lichens at camp are the grey and green Reindeer Lichens which cover many large areas of bedrock. Many people incorrectly refer to them as moss. There's a lot of that up here too but its a dark green and usually grows on soil.

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Worms and leeches usually best walleye bait

Long ago walleye anglers at Bow Narrows Camp discovered that nightcrawlers and leeches are the best live bait at the west end of Red Lake, Ontario, where camp is located.

Minnows do work, but with one possible exception they're no better than worms and leeches and a lot more bother to take care of. In fact about as many minnows die and get pitched overboard as are used for bait.

Worms and leeches, however, are very durable. Keep them cool and they'll last just about forever. But why do they work so well for our fishermen when on other lakes everyone uses minnows? In fact, minnows are even the most common bait at the other end of Red Lake.

I'm not sure but I have a hunch it has to do with the bottom of the lake.

The bottom at the west end of the lake where camp is located is mostly clay. The east end has a lot of sand.

Or maybe there's just a lot of fishermen who haven't wised up to how well worms and leeches work.

Whatever, it is our good fortune that we don't need to use minnows to catch walleyes around Bow Narrows Camp.

We advise everyone to pick up worms or leeches in town or down the highway before they come out to camp. If they need more later on I can get it for them during the mid-week supply trip.

A flat of worms (500) is a good amount for 4 fishermen. Many of our guests pick these up at bait shops along the road but you can also reserve them by calling bait shops in Vermilion Bay, Ear Falls and Red Lake.

All it takes to keep the worms alive are some freezer packs or frozen bottles of water which we have in the fish freezer at camp. Or you can keep the flat in the refrigerator. Many people bring along little insulated containers and just take out a couple of dozen worms fishing and leave the rest back on the cabin porch or fridge.

Leeches are just as easy to look after. A pound of leeches is a good amount to get for 4 fishermen. Keep them cool but also change the water in their bag every day using lake water, not chlorinated water from the tap. Leeches are quite tough on the hook and many times you can catch several walleyes on one leech. (By the same token you can break a nightcrawler into several pieces and therefore catch several fish on each 'crawler too.) Cottage cheese containers work well for taking a couple dozen leeches with you out in the boat.

The one exception to worms and leeches being the best bait can be in September when usually minnows work better.

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Fun with zoom video camera and bald eagle

It's amazing the videos you can get with today's modern cameras and zoom lenses.
This eagle was sitting on a tree atop the hill right across from camp. It's a bit blurry at the start but if you'll stick with it you will see the reason.

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Bald eagles common sights on Red Lake, Ontario

I'm often asked about changes that I've seen in the half-century I've lived on Red Lake.

I'm glad to say that one of them is the re-establishment of majestic bald eagles.

It was a rare thing to see a bald eagle in the 1960s. In fact I probably didn't get more than one or two sightings in a summer, and if anyone was in a position to see them it was myself. I spent just about every day on the water, fishing or guiding.

The problem with the eagles was the pesticide DDT which they accumulated in their bodies through the food chain. DDT was used by farmers down south and forest companies even up here to keep insect infestations in check. The problem was it didn't biodegrade. Eventually rain washed it into the water bodies where it was picked up by microorganisms that were eaten by larger oganisms and eventually, fish. Bald eagles ate the fish and absorbed the DDT in their bodies. It didn't kill them outright but made them produce eggs with such thin shells that they broke when the eagles tried to incubate them. It was a common story among all predatory birds and nearly led to the extinction of peregrine falcons and eagles.

DDT was banned in the early 1970s. From that point on the level of it in the environment slowly disappeared. By the 1980s we began to see eagles again and their numbers have increased ever since.

Today you can see and hear eagles virtually every time you go fishing. There are many eagle nests that we know about and probably many more that we haven't seen.

It's a thrill to watch these enormous birds fishing and fighting with each other.

Several of our guests as well as myself have witnessed eagles trying to catch loon chicks. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Loons are fierce defenders of their territories and their young.

The time I saw it happening the eagle would swoop down at the adult loon which had its chick beside it. The loon would rear up and attempt to sink its dagger-like bill right into the eagle. At the last moment the eagle would flare away but would come back and repeat the process. I don't believe it ever did get the chick.

Guests Mike and Lonnie Boyer once saw two adult loons trying to drown an eagle after it ended up in the lake trying to catch a loon chick. They said the loons kept forcing their bodies on top of the eagle as it sculled its way toward shore with its wings. Eventually the eagle was able to spring out of the lake and flew away with nothing in its talons so it appeared the loon chick escaped.

Eagles build massive nests out of sticks and keep adding to them each year. The nests and the eagle droppings end up killing the trees which here are always big quaking aspens. The trees stay standing for years until eventually they are blown over by the wind. In one instance we know where an eaglet survived the crash. The parents then fed it on the ground for the rest of the summer.

Eagles rebuild their nests the next spring usually in the same vicinity.

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Use circle hook and dead bait for spring pike

If you are booked into camp the first couple of weeks this season, you should try some circle hooks and frozen ciscoes for northern pike fishing.

This system for catching pike is known as dead bait fishing. It works wonders for catching these huge fish early in the season when the water is very cold.

The theory behind the system is that northern pike after spawning are exhausted and go looking for fish and minnows that died over the winter and then were frozen in the ice until spring ice breakup. These dead fish fall to the bottom once the ice melts and make an easy meal.

The idea that the pike are looking for dead prey has merit because the dead bait system works far and away better than live bait at this time of year.

There are a few ways to fish with the ciscoes. Most often anglers use one-half of these 6-inch long frozen minnows. Half works better than a whole ciscoe. They put it on a 5/0 circle hook which is attached to a nine-inch steel leader and fished three feet below a bobber or float.

Another system is to not use a bobber but to sling the ciscoe (sling is the right word because if you "whip" the rod as in casting the ciscoe flies off the hook) away from the boat, let it settle to the bottom and then alternately reel in a bit and let the ciscoe sink to the bottom. You know when a fish has picked it up because your line starts going out.

A third system is to let a gentle wind move the boat along and "troll" the ciscoe. This last technique might require a sinker to keep the bait near the bottom. In the first two techniques no sinker is used.

The circle hook requires some instruction if you haven't yet used one. Unlike conventional hooks, you cannot "set the hook" when you get a bite. If you do, you will whip the hook right out of the mouth of the fish.

Instead, just reel in the line and this slower tightening results in the hook catching the fish right in the corner of its mouth. You can experiment on how fast to tighten the line but I would suggest giving it 3-5 seconds.

Upon landing the fish the hook can quickly be removed and the fish released, and you'll want to release most of the fish caught this way because they tend to all be big ones. They're a blast to catch but are too big to ethically keep to eat. Eat the fish under the slot size which is 27.5-35.5 inches. They taste better. The big ones are the prime breeders, are virtually all females and are the ones we all want to catch again and again.

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Calf moose rescue a rare event

Our policy with wild animals is to admire and respect them but to not interfere in their lives.

So it was an exception to the rule when our son Josh rescued a drowning calf moose right at camp a couple of years ago.

We have hesitated to mention the incident because we don't want to encourage people to "rescue" what appear to be abandoned animals. In just about every instance, the ducklings or fawns or calves that we come across are not abandoned. Their mothers have just left them while they went some other place to eat or to elude predators, etc.

But what happened in these photos really was a case where the calf would have died right before our eyes if we hadn't taken action.

It happened like this: One of our guests returning to his cabin after eating lunch in the lodge in late May saw this newborn calf swimming right in front of our boathouse. We all ran outside with our cameras but also with one eye peeled for the cow moose.

You NEVER want to get near a calf moose when a cow moose is nearby because she will almost certainly kick you to death in her instinct to protect her young.

But our first glance at the calf showed that something was very wrong. It wasn't swimming horizontally in the water but was instead flailing away with its front hooves in a vertical position. And then it sank beneath the surface only to emerge a second later and continue the process.

We looked everywhere in the yard but still didn't see a cow moose.

Just then the calf sank again and this time the only thing that came to the surface were bubbles.

"Josh, get him! He's drowning!," Brenda yelled.

Josh jumped into the frigid water and emerged in a few seconds with the hapless moose.

He then swam to shore and handed the little guy to me. I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see an irate mother coming charging from the tree line but the coast was still clear.

After a few minutes the calf started to kick and wanted to go. But we were reluctant to release him back into the lake. Josh whipped off his T-shirt and we covered the moose's eyes with it and that calmed him down.

Now what do we do? we wondered.

The angler who had first spotted the moose jumped in his boat and drove up the narrows looking for the mother. He was back in a minute saying there was a cow moose several hundred yards around the bend but coming our way.

We took the exhausted calf up to the end of camp closest to the cow and laid him down in the yard with his eyes still covered.

We then turned off the generator so the two moose could hear better should they try to call to each other. The wind was blowing from the calf towards the cow. We then withdrew a good distance and watched. After about 30 minutes, the calf suddenly stood up, shook off the T-shirt and headed into the bush in the direction of the cow.

A day later someone spotted a cow with two calves in the narrows north of camp and we began to understand what probably had happened.

Cow moose like to swim out to small islands to give birth in May as it offers them some protection from black bears who are on the prowl first thing after hibernation looking for newborn moose calves.

We think that the cow had given birth to twin calves on an island right across the narrows from camp and had swam back to our side of the narrows shortly thereafter. (It's got to be a rude introduction to life for the calves. They're born one minute and swimming for their lives in ice cold water the next.)

The distance the cow swam wasn't far, maybe 50 yards. But she must have crossed right where there is a point of land. The shoreline is too steep for the moose to get out at the point so she swam to the north side where the shoreline was more gentle. One of her calves followed her but the other went to the south, toward camp. Since one of the calves was behind her she didn't realize at first that anything was wrong.

As it turns out the entire shoreline to the south is too steep, at least for a little moose, and he must have swam back and forth along the shoreline for quite awhile looking for a place to get out. Eventually he was exhausted and just couldn't swim any more and that's when Josh dove in and saved him from an early death.

A neat postscript to this story is that the cow and her twins ended up spending the entire summer on a beach not far from camp. Many of our guests saw them sunning themselves on the sand.

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Ask to be informed when reservations available

Now that New Years has passed we usually make a lot of changes to our Reservation Availability.
I have just written letters to all those people with existing reservations and asked them to confirm their reservations with deposits. It is at this time that we find that some of those reservations made last summer need to be cancelled or switched to another date.
While you can always check the Reservation Availability at right to see if a particular week is open, if there is one or two weeks you are waiting for you are best advised to e-mail us in advance. That way, I can hold the cabin for you as soon as it becomes available. I'll then e-mail to see if you still want that week.
Our e-mail address is: fish@bownarrows.com

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Beautiful outdoor experiences to remember

When you live in this wonderful wilderness all the time it's tempting to take the beautiful panoramas and stunning sunsets for granted. They really do, after all, happen every day.

It's often our guests who remind us how special the country really is. They see the landscape with new eyes and soak up every detail.

In these days of winter when the mercury withdraws into the thermometer while the sun visits the other end of the world I have time to mull over forgotten outdoor scenes and see them anew.

As I look over photos in my collection, I'm struck by the beauty that also exists in tiny fragments of the Boreal Forest which is also the world's largest, wrapping around the entire northern hemisphere.

Take for instance, the vertical world of a stand of identical jackpines that have all grown up simultaneously following a forest fire 60 years earlier.

That's our son, Josh, and our old black lab, Bud, walking through an area between Middle Bay and Pipestone Bay. Sunlight came through the erect trees in a strobe-like fashion as we followed a GPS course back to our boat that day.

The forest fire in 1936 that spawned this stand of trees also burned down many of the frontier gold mines that once dotted our end of Red Lake. They included the Cole Gold Mine on Pipestone and the May-Spires Mine on an island in Middle Bay.

It was the end of many people's occupations since the mines never were rebuilt but it was the start of life for these trees.

The second photo shows a micro-ecosystem near Trout Bay that my brother-in-law Gord Cooper and I came upon while moose hunting in October one time. This little seasonal lake was carpeted with carnivorous pitcher plants that grew below the deciduous conifer species called tamarack. Needles of this tree turn golden in the fall prior to dropping off for the winter.

Another interesting feature of tamaracks is that you are warned never to burn them in a woodstove because they burn so hot it can melt the metal.

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Best fishing rods for northern pike, walleye

(This blog item was updated on Jan. 12, 2015 to reflect changes that have taken place in equipment since it was first posted in 2008.)

You can purchase excellent quality fishing rods and reels for northern pike and walleye quite  inexpensively.
The trick is to stick with top name brands which although probably made in China like the real cheap junk are usually still better quality than lesser-known companies.
For reels, the best deal will always come on open-face spinning reels. Companies like Daiwa, Shimano, Phlueger and Penn are usually good bets. Look for models that are made for 8-12-pound test line. Then spool this with the new fusion super fishing lines, rather than monofilament. Lines like Fireline Crystal are excellent and nearly as invisible as monofilament but far, far stronger. Although these lines are smaller in diameter than the mono recommended by the reel company, it's best to still get the same-rated line. For example, get 10-12-pound test fusion line, NOT 20# line that is the same diameter as 10-12 pound. The reason is the smaller diameter allows you to cast smaller lures and is less visible than the heavier line. If you tie proper knots and check your line for fraying from time to time, this stuff absolutely will not break provided you have your reel drag set properly. It is also has less stretch than mono and is more sensitive. These two attributes make it better for trolling (thinner line is less resistant to the water so pulls less and its sensitivity lets you know the difference between bumping the bottom and hits from fish.) You can also feel the tiniest bites from picky walleye when still-fishing or jigging. These eagle-eye fish can't see the line if it is 10-pound test or less. But if you still worry you can always make a leader out of mono or fluorocarbon.
A very good quality spinning reel in today's market should cost $75 to $150.
What about the spinning rod? Again, stick to name brands like Daiwa, Fenwick, St. Croix, Shakespeare, Berkeley. You want a medium (sometimes called moderate) to medium-light (sometimes called medium fast) action. You never want a heavy action.
Choose rods made of graphite. They are lighter and more sensitive than fiberglass. The best lengths are 6-7 feet. Although one-piece rods may have a slight edge for sensitivity, they are a pain to transport. There's nothing wrong with two-piece rods that will fit in a conventional rod case. You can get very good quality rods for $50 to $100.
What about spincast, also known as closed-face, reels? These are not as versatile as the spinning reel, can't cast as small of lures and in particular, their drag systems don't function as smoothly. However, in most instances they will handle most of Canada's gamefish. A tried-and-true performer is the Zebco 33 and an upscale model is the Zebco Omega. The 33 sells for about $25 and the Omega about $65. Something to keep in mind with spincast reels is they are very short-lived. It wouldn't be a mistake to get a new one for every major fishing trip.
Casting (sometimes called baitcasting) reels are always more expensive than spinning. They have a more complicated type of mechanism and if you want a decent one, expect to pay at least $150. Same advice goes on the brands -- get the well-known ones.
Casting reels cannot cast as small of lures as spinning and so aren't as versatile but their drag systems are far superior. When a lunker pike is streaming away from you at 10-20 yards a second, the casting reel drag plays out as smooth as silk. Spinning reel drags are far rougher. For this reason a casting reel is a better choice for northern pike but is not so good for smaller walleye.
Again, use the new fusion superlines and don't be tempted to get extra-heavy line strengths. 10-pound to 14-pound is plenty. I believe you could anchor the boat with just 10-pound. The smaller weight lines let you cast further and also let you cast smaller lures although 1/3-ounce is probably the limit. With a spinning reel you can cast 1/8-ounce, even 1/16-ounce lures with light line.
Casting rods are a little pricier than spinning but you can still get very good ones for $50 to $150.
A medium to medium-light action is best for casting. For trolling go with a medium action. It doesn't bend as much from the drag of the lure and line behind the boat.  A casting rod and reel is a premium setup when trolling crankbaits. For larger lures or trolling with deep-diving crankbaits, a medium-heavy action rod might be better.  You never want a heavy action rod. It's like fishing with a pool cue -- no feeling and no bend to help fight the fish.
 See Trolling for Walleyes and Pike.
Rods have their actions usually written on them down near the butt.

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Which is better rubber or mesh landing net?

We have some of each at camp and I think I speak for everyone when I say that the rubber landing net is way better UNTIL you need to net a northern pike of 40+ inches. Then you wish you had the standard string mesh net.

The advantages of the rubber net are numerous:

1. Fish don't get wound-up in it like they do the mesh nets so you can release them more quickly.

2. Hooks don't get skewered in the rubber net the way they do in the string of the mesh net.

3. It doesn't develop "holes" like the mesh net does after someone has cut out a lure with a knife or after a northern pike has chewed through the string.

The rubber net is a hit with walleye fishermen. It allows them to quickly boat walleyes without fear of losing them or their breaking the line as sometimes happens when you just lift them by the line.

Northern pike fishermen like the rubber nets too for landing any small or medium-sized northern.

The problem comes when you try to land a lunker pike. The idea that the rubber landing net will sag and create a bag for the big northerns usually isn't realistic. These big guys just bridge across the opening of the net instead of limply sagging into the rubber.

So for big northerns the large mesh net is far superior.

See also How to Land a Giant Northern Pike

Should a person carry two nets then?

There just isn't room in the boat. Most anglers already have their boats filled with extra rods, tackle boxes, coolers, fish finders and totes for rainwear, etc., and a landing net is a pretty cumbersome piece of equipment. It fits the best tucked neatly behind the boats' mandatory paddles that are wedged into side braces. You must have two paddles so theoretically you have places for two nets but I just think it isn't worth the extra clutter.

Just choose one net and stick with it.

Even though we furnish nets with our boats it's a good idea to bring your own. Then you are assured of getting the net you like and trust.

One option with the rubber nets and exceptionally large pike is to tire the pike out a little more before netting them.

They do also make very large rubber nets but these are quite heavy due to the weight of the rubber.

It's something to mull over this winter.

If you have any ideas or experiences you would like to share, just click on the little green window below this posting.

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Our bird feeder getting some big birds

Now that hunting season is over we're getting some big visitors to our bird feeder here in Nolalu.
This video was taken out of the kitchen window. The bird feeder is about 30 feet away.
This is one of two identical bucks that have come to eat sunflower seeds.
Brenda and I would like to extend everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Stay safe and warm this winter.
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Looking back: How Red Lake got its name

In just one more year Bow Narrows Camp under Baughman family ownership will celebrate its 50th season!

A long-time guest and good friend, Dave Myers, suggested I write something about the history of Red Lake and it got me thinking about the years gone past.

There are several books already written about Red Lake's history but most of these probably aren't sold anywhere but in the little town of Red Lake itself.

So, I thought I would follow Dave's suggestion and from time to time write a bit about what I know of the history of the area. It's too involved to do all at once so I'll make a series of it and call them Looking Back. I thought I would start with how Red Lake, Ontario got its name.

The fact is Red Lake is one of the most famous towns in the world. At one point it was the scene of the world's busiest air traffic based on landings and takeoffs. That was in the early 1930s.

The reason was gold, or maybe better expressed as GOLD!!!

In 1926, there was a gold rush to Red Lake that saw 10,000 people rushing to the lake by dogsled and canoe and eventually, by floatplanes and ski planes. What made it all the more remarkable was there was no road to Red Lake until 1948. These people came from the nearest railroad stop which was in Hudson, Ont., near Sioux Lookout. That was more than 100 miles away.

Despite the remoteness of the area, they came from all over the world. To this day it is still the world's third-largest gold rush. Only the Klondike gold rush and the San Francisco rush were larger.

That's the history that most people are interested in -- the gold rush.

But I always think history should begin with the first people in the area -- the native people. It was one of the blessings of my life to have grown up with the Ojibwa people who walked the land and paddled the waters of Ontario for countless generations.

There is evidence that native people lived in the Red Lake area for many thousands of years. I would like to read history books about them. The names of some of these ancient peoples are now lost. We know them by the terms archeologists have given them such as the Paleo-Indians and the Laurel Culture.

The problem, of course, is that they weren't lugging typewriters around or snapping photographs as they pursued the herds of caribou that are believed to have roamed this area after the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Book publishers were also scarce in those days.

So today, what we find of these ancient cultures are stone tools such as spears and arrow points along with some pottery shards and most intriguing -- pictographs or rock paintings.

I've seen copies of the first maps made by explorers to Canada and they called this Red Ochre Lake, or Red Paint Lake, not Red Lake. Red ochre is the iron oxide that some of these ancient peoples mixed with animal fat to make brilliant and incredibly long-lasting paint used to make images on flat vertical rock surfaces.

The funny thing is there is only one known pictograph on Red Lake but there are many on lakes just to the west in what is now Woodland Caribou Wilderness Park. The park borders the west end of Red Lake just a few miles from Bow Narrows Camp.

The pictograph mural shown in the photo above is from Artery Lake, on the border between Ontario and Manitoba, perhaps 40 miles west of camp. It is one of the largest such murals in the world and one of the reasons that the United Nations is considering making the park a World Heritage Site.

In one of our first winters in Red Lake, perhaps 1961, we lived near the Forestry Point and the home of Isaac Keesick, one of the oldest Ojibwa men in Red Lake. My father, Don, asked Isaac why this was called Red Lake. Isaac replied it was because this is where the ancient people came to get the ochre to make their paintings. Red ochre just doesn't exist most places in the Canadian Shield which is mostly granite. But here at Red Lake, along with gold and many other interesting minerals, there is iron that makes red ochre.

I believe that is the real story of how Red Lake got its name.

However, one of the first explorers to Hudson Bay wrote down a different tale and that's the one you'll find in the history books.

It recounts a story told by the native people that there was once a Matchee Manitou or evil spirit on the lake and that the people here killed it and its blood turned the water red, thus Red Lake.

Curiously, the one pictograph on the lake, which incidentally we pass every time we go to and from camp, depicts people in a canoe apparently attacking some sort of creature. The creature has no head, and some think this means that it wasn't an ordinary animal like a moose or a caribou but was a spirit.

So that's an alternate theory of how Red Lake got its name.

You can explore the history of Red Lake yourself. Next time you're here, try stopping at the Red Lake Heritage Centre.

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What bears do in the cold of winter

When the mercury is cringing in the thermometer as it is during these coldest days of winter here, you might wonder how do the animals survive?

Temperatures in Red Lake are falling to -30 to -40 C. If you don't know Celsius temps just remember that -40 C is the same thing as 40 below Fahrenheit. These are cold temperatures any way you measure them.

Some animals have found ways to avoid the cold. The most obvious is the black bear who puts on a thick layer of fat over the summer and snuggles into a den in October before the winter snows arrive.

You might think they would dig deep below the frostline, like the true hibernator, the woodchuck, does. But surprisingly their dens are almost on the surface. Their favorite places are where a tree has fallen over and left a bit of a cave where its roots have been raised from the ground.

I found one of these occupied dens right near our home in Nolalu a few years back. You can see from the photos how unimpressive the den was. There's actually a bear in this den. The root ball that it crawled under measured about two feet high and was created when a small balsam fir, perhaps 8 inches in diameter, was tipped over by the wind.

The bear dug under this spot to enlarge the space so it could just squeeze into it. It then curled up and turned its back toward the hole.

Bears don't really hibernate. They just sleep and you can wake them up as I and my dog, Bud, did in this instance.

Bud, a Black Lab, would always growl when he smelled a bear and he started growling here. I knew he must smell a bear den but I couldn't see where it would be. Finally Bud would go no further ahead and I looked right at my feet and saw the little opening with black hair sticking out of it. About this point the bear started growling inside the den and we beat a hasty retreat.

Bears give birth in the den in a marsupial-like manner. The tiny, hairless cub or cubs as there are often two, must find its way from the womb to the teat, then spend the rest of the winter surrounded by its mother's warm fur. It's similar to how a kangaroo gives birth except there's no pouch.

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Spinners and bait the best walleye lures

A great many of our fishermen are walleye experts and if you were to ask these people what they fished with just about every one of them uses a single blade spinner on a piece of mono with some beads and a hook. They bait the hook with either a nightcrawler or a leech. A common trade name for this outfit is Little Joe but most people just call them walleye spinners. Many people buy the components and make their own.

This outfit is back-trolled behind a sinker which can be a bottom-bouncer type with a piece of wire running through the sinker to feel the bottom or, more often, a walking type of sinker that is flattened and bent to do the same thing. Some just use rubber core sinkers.

Most of them place the sinker just ahead of the snell on the walleye spinner. So that puts it 18 inches to 30 inches away from the spinner. After a cold front when the walleyes are skittish, they might double the distance between spinner and sinker.

Early in the season these sinkers might be 1/2 ounce to 3/4 ounce because the fish are in very shallow water, no more than 12 feet. By mid-summer to fall, the size of sinker might increase to 1.5 ounces, just to get the rig to the bottom in the 20-30 foot range where the fish will be laying.

There is a wide variety of spinners used. Early in the year a favorite are floating spinners. These are usually made of foam with Mylar wings glued to them. The foam raises the rig off the bottom so it can be better seen by the walleyes. You can do the same thing by adding a foam float that threads through your line.

By mid-summer everyone is using metal blade spinners in a wide variety of colors and finishes.

The key when fishing with these rigs is to always be in contact with the bottom. You don't want such a heavy weight that your line is hanging right beneath the propeller but you don't want your line a mile behind the boat either. So choose the right size sinker for the conditions which can change with the wind and the depth.

A problem with some of the commercially made spinners is they use too large a hook. You always want to use the least amount of metal possible when fishing for walleyes. Usually the spinners meant to be fished with leeches or nightcrawlers have better, smaller hooks. If you buy the nightcrawler ones, they usually have two hooks and if you want to use them for leeches you can just cut off the rear hook.

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Northern pike fillets are boneless, delicious

If you aren't a regular at Bow Narrows Camp you may not know that northern pike are every bit as delicious as walleye.

And since we clean all of our guests' fish for them, northern pike fillets are absolutely boneless here. Not only do we remove the infamous Y bones from pike but also a half dozen other bones that have no name but which I call "X bones." I've never even heard mention of them anywhere else.

The result is a one-piece fillet from each side of the fish, perfect for the fry pan.

It comes as a surprise to many people that northern pike and not walleye are the favorite of my family and our staff at camp. They taste nearly identical to walleye but the reason we prefer them is that after removing the bones the fillet is thinner and fries more evenly that do walleye fillets that have thick portions and thin portions.

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The best fish unhooking tools for pike

You need some specific northern pike unhooking tools to safely and humanely extract your lures from these powerful fish with their mouthful of teeth.

First, you need good jaw spreaders of the type pictured above. This type has two T-shaped ends that go into the fish's mouth. It spreads the pressure so that the tool doesn't puncture the flesh of the fish. Poor versions have a single wire that will poke right through the mouth.

If you can't get the spreader in because the fish won't open its mouth, use a set of wide fishing pliers such as the yellow ones above to open it enough to insert the spreaders. These pliers are probably all you need to hold open the mouths of smaller pike and for walleyes. Don't use the jaw spreaders on small fish because the pressure is too great and can injure their jaws.

Finally, use the Baker Hookout to safely reach down into the maw and take out the hooks. Nothing is better at doing this but you can also use long-handled needle nose pliers.

Make sure you tie a length of something like parachute cord to the spreader and then fasten it to the boat. This will prevent your throwing the fish overboard with the jaw spreader still in its mouth.

Keep in mind when taking out lures from a fish that the best method sometimes is to slip the lure out backwards through the fish's gills, unsnap it from the leader, then resnap the leader so it can be pulled back out the mouth without catching on anything.

Oh yes, remember to re-tie your line to the leader, cutting off a foot or two, because it will likely have been nicked by the rows of diamond-shaped teeth in the roof of the pike's mouth.

Often it takes two people to get the lure quickly out of the mouth of a big northern pike. One holds the fish while the other does the "surgery."

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Fishing with kids is a lot of fun

It's great to see many of our guests bringing their families, including children, to Bow Narrows Camp.

Just like they do with everything else, youngsters develop the skills for fishing very rapidly.

The best idea is to start them with lures with single barbless hooks, like jigs, Johnson Silver Minnow with a trailer, Beetle Spins, crankbaits and buzzbaits. These lures are less likely to get snagged on the bottom and also in the skin!

There's no point in starting a kid off with an expensive rod and reel. It's no big deal if a $20-$30 outfit accidentally gets dropped in the lake or stepped on. Most kids do best with a spincast and graduate to an open face spinning reel after a few years. Bring a couple rod and reel combos, just in case something happens to the first one.

Kids always prefer action and so I would suggest concentrating on northern pike fishing unless you know for a fact that the walleyes are on a feeding frenzy. Pike are fun to fish for because the kids get to cast for them. It's amazing how fast they become adept at this.

They couldn't care less how big the fish are, just as long as they catch a lot of them. The perfect place is a cove that's filled with hammer-handle pike. You run into these all the time. They're usually small coves and shallow and just about every fish you get there are exactly the same size. The fish are hungry and aggressive and will hit anything that moves. To a kid, this is fishing paradise. Maybe I'm a kid at heart because I feel the same way. My wife, Brenda, our youngest son, Josh, and I spent an afternoon in such a cove one time and hauled in pike three at a time for an hour. When they finally quit biting we had caught and released 100 and we've called that place Hundred Fish Bay ever since.

The thing to keep in mind when fishing with a young angler is just to have fun. If they're thrilled with catching little perch, than just stay at that spot and catch perch. Many times kids have a ball catching and letting go rock bass from around the dock cribs at camp. These little panfish are especially thrilling because you get to see them bite the hook!

It's also good to remember that kids' attention spans aren't as long as adults. They may get tired of fishing during the day; so, plan on getting out at a beach for lunch or exploring islands and the shoreline several times a day. Also, take along a lot of snacks and drinks.

Bring some games to play in case of rainy days and for the evening.

Most of all, enjoy how different kids see the world. They're more observant and are curious about all the new sights and sounds. Help them explore and investigate when they want.

Some kids quickly become ardent fishermen. We've had many boys and girls who simply wear out their elders when it comes to fishing. Others just like to mix fishing with all the other things they can do: swimming, games, exploring.

We're glad to have kids at camp and offer a couple of savings for guests who bring theirs.

There is no charge for kids under 6 and kids 7-12 are half-price.

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Our small staff works in all weather

What happens when the camp generator shuts down and it's mealtime at the lodge?

The kitchen staff dons headlamps and keeps on working!

This was taken last year when we actually shut down the generator at noon because of a severe thunderstorm. (We shut it down to prevent its being struck by lightning) As you can see it was very dark, even at midday. But the show always must go on, even in a thunderstorm.

From left, cook Helena Spizarsky, Brenda Baughman, waitress Meghan Perry.

We have a very small staff at Bow Narrows Camp and they deserve all the credit in the world for making things go smoothly, even in sometimes trying circumstances such as inclement weather.

The only people missing from this photo in 2008 are myself and Ben Godin, our outside worker.

With just five people we do absolutely everything: take our guests to and from Red Lake on changeover days, load and unload tons of luggage and supplies from the camp boat Lickety Split, clean all the cabins, clean all the boats, clean all the fish, mow the grass, cut and split firewood, cook all the meals, do all the dishes, do all the maintenance work, pickup and sort garbage for recycling, build new structures, and of course, keep our guests informed on where the fish are biting and on what lures and baits.

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Best time to fish Red Lake, Ontario

A common question we get is "What's the best time to come fishing?"
This is a legitimate concern because on some lakes fishing is way better when the water is cool but is not so good in the heat of the summer.

However, that is not the case when fishing Red Lake, Ontario, and particularly the west end of the lake where anglers at Bow Narrows Camp fish.

Our anglers do excellent in all months and in all weather and water temperatures. The reason comes from the lake itself.

Red Lake is a big lake, about 30 miles in length and with bodies of water that are five miles in width as well as small shallow bays and winding narrows and rapids.
There are lots of shallow bays that appeal to walleyes and northern pike when the water is cool in the spring and there are deep water bays where the water never actually warms up, even in the warmest part of summer.

Our anglers just fish different areas to suit the weather conditions.
For instance in June walleye fishermen spend most of their time in the bays that are 10-20 feet deep and which warm up rapidly with the sun. Mostly the fish will come from 6-12 feet of water in these bays.
In July anglers continue fishing the shallow bays but also start fishing the edges of the deep water bays, probably also in 6-12 feet of water. It's at this time that it seems like walleyes are everywhere. While some anglers are catching them in shallow bays, others will be doing the same fishing deeper.
By the end of July many fishermen will be concentrating on 16-20 feet of water at the edges of the deep bays. They will locate very large schools of fish around points and underwater structures like reefs and humps.
Meanwhile other fishermen continue fishing in the shallow bays and will concentrate on fishing windy shorelines. It is possible that some of the fish they catch there have swam into the area to feed from deeper water.
Some walleyes will stay in the shallow bays until the first cool nights of late summer in mid-August. That seems at odds with what happens in other, shallow lakes, but it is exactly what happens here. After a couple of chilly nights that cool off the shallow water, the walleyes start streaming out toward the deep. By the third week of August just about all the walleyes will be out there and will be in 26-30 feet. They show up easily on fish finders and we catch a great many of them at this time.
But something else happens as the summer progresses as well. Large numbers of walleyes from other parts of the lake start appearing at the west end where camp is located. No one really knows why but the west end is deeper than the east and that may have something to do with it.
What about northern pike?
By and large we catch them in exactly the same areas in all months and we catch just about as many of them in any particular month. The methods for catching can change a bit.
For instance, the dead bait system for northern pike works the best the first couple of weeks in the spring and in September. The first week or two it works far and away better than casting or trolling. But after awhile casting and trolling work equally as well and by mid-June these systems work better.
There can be a slight change in preference for size of lures as the season changes too. Larger lures work better in spring and fall but aren't worth a hoot in mid-summer. How big is larger? In a Dardevle the 3/4-ounce is good spring and fall whereas the 1/3-1/2 ounce is best in the summer. For a Mepps spinner, the #5 is best early and late while the #4 is better in summer.
In a Rapala an 8-10 incher will catch fish in June and September but is like fishing with a piece of kindling in July and August when a 6-8 incher is way better.
Although we fish for pike in the same bays from month to month the area we fish in those bays varies with the water temperature. Early on the fish will be right on the shoreline. As the season progresses they back out into the emerging weed growth and by season end will be on the deep size of those weeds, perhaps as deep as 12 feet.
Some northern pike will follow the walleyes all year. We catch a great many while walleye fishing (with leaderless jigs and spinners!) However, it seldom pays to purposely fish for northerns in the walleye spots unless it just seems like you are getting bit off by northerns as fast as you can get your bait down. Then put a leader on your jig and get to northern fishing!
So the best month to come fishing is just whenever suits your schedule best.
There's also the weather to take into consideration.
May, June and September can sometimes be cool while July and August are almost always warm. This can make a difference when your fishing partner is very young, very old or the fairer sex.

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Steel leaders for northern pike fishing

Northern pike have a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth so a steel leader is a must when fishing for them. Yet this is one of the most-ignored pieces of tackle for most fishermen.

Take the photo above. This leader is kinked and its wire is unravelling after a hard day of pike fishing which also took its toll on the black and white dardevle. All the paint missing from the spoon came from the dozens of northern pike which bit down on it.

Leaders are made of finely braided wire which flexes pretty well but which eventually will break. When you see your leader getting kinks in it or starting to unravel then it's time to put on a new one. If you are doing a lot of pike fishing this can happen a couple of times a day.

The leader doesn't need to be much heavier than your line strength. We advise using just 8-10-pound test fishing line for anglers who like to cast and 10-12-pound test for those who like to troll.

For leader strength, 18-30 pound weight is all that's needed. The point of the leader is that pike cannot cut the wire with their teeth, not that it is stronger than your fishing line. And just as heavy fishing line will prevent you from hooking many fish (See Lighten Up for Pike), a heavy leader will also spook away the majority of pike. It also interferes with the action of your lure. Your spoon won't wobble, your crankbait won't wiggle and your spinner won't spin right. So there's no point in using them.

The longer your leader, the faster it will kink. Most people use 9-inch leaders and I prefer 6-inch ones. Both sizes are excellent for casting.

There's no good evidence whether a black leader works better than silver but my personal preference is black.

If you like to troll, you can get away without using a leader at all if you use straight stick baits like Rapala, Rebel, Bagleys, Cotton Cordell, etc. The pike will just about always grab these 6-8-inch baits sideways leaving your line safely exposed outside their mouths. Leaders of any sort also interferes with the action of these baits when trolling at a steady speed.

Steel leaders are more of a necessity when casting these baits because the angler can impart twitches and pauses that entice strikes but which also results in the fish taking the entire lure into their mouths.

You should probably figure you will need 4-6 leaders for each day of fishing. You are going to lose a couple of them (and lures) to snags and you'll wear out a couple more just in the normal flexing that goes on with each cast.

They aren't expensive and don't take up much space in your tackle box so bring a good supply and change them often.

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