This is one dedicated mother grouse

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!

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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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