Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

[Mo]

Sweet report Miles!! You are living the life !!

I have fished Minn. Land of 10,000 lakes for Pike and Walleye with family that live there. Almost looks the same as where you are. Did some ice fishn one winter on a visit..but do not like the booming the ice makes when freezing !!

Keep up the good reports !!

[miles]

Been neglecting this thread!! Some updates:

20 - 23 June 2008

Since its summer here (read NO SNOW!!), we decided to explore Canada a bit more. Our destination, Prince Albert National Park. Its a short 3 hour trip from our town. Packed the car on Friday afternoon after work and off we went.

We arrived at the gates at about 7pm, with the sun only setting at 11-11:30pm, we had quite some time to start exploring. Everyone told us of how beautiful this place is, but NOTHING can prepare you for it!! Its ABSOLUTELY PHENOMINAL!! Possibly THE most beautiful place i've been too!! Forest everywhere, with over 60 lakes in a 70km radius!! Various species of deer EVERYWHERE.

We stopped at the hotel and dumped all the gear in the room and left for a stroll along the jetty right in front of the hotel. Clean water, maybe 1-1.5m deep, TEEMING with fish!! Small fish, with plenty of 1-3kg sized fish, swimming lazily just a few feet away from you!!

Early the next morning, we're at the marina, hiring a canoe. These are 2 man sit inside type canoes. Lashed it onto the 4x4's roof and off we went for a hour drive, through the winding forest roads. Got to the launch site, which is a small river. Quickly sorted our gear out and got the canoe in the water. Paddled upstream for about a kilometer, then we had to remove the canoe from the water and portage it. This entails putting it on a metal trolley, which runs on a railway track, then pushing it for about 1.5km's through the forest, with the mozzies and bugs trying to eat you!! All the whiles, making as much noise as possible, as you want to alert any black bears to your presence!!

After the portage, we launched back into the river and continued upsteam for about 500m, when suddenly the lake opens up in front of you!! This whole process take over 2 hours, but very few people do it, so you have the place all to yourself.

The water is crystal clear and we start paddling out. Just into the deeper water, we start seeing fish on the surface. We chase the fish and finally get close enough to cast. My wifes busy casting and hooks a fish almost immediately!! I'm busy taking photo's. We get a sudden gust of wind and the fish kites to the right..............next thing i know, we're BOTH in the water!! We managed to capsize the canoe!! Wife comes up from under the water, i manage to turn the canoe back upright, but its filled with water!! Wifes now laughing hysterically!! I get worried and ask her whats wrong.......she shows me her rod, still bending with the fish on the other end!! So, here we are, 2km from shore, with our sunglasses, hats and croc's on, treading water, both life-jackets still floating INSIDE the boat!! We start the slow swim back to shore.......

Half an hour later, we get to water shallow enough for me to stand in. First thing my wife does is LAND the Lake Trout which she kept on the line all the time!! Bailed all he water out, which took well over 30 minutes. A further 30 minutes later, we were back out in the middle of the lake fishin'!! Your legal limit for lake trout is 2 fish per angler PER YEAR!! So, we caught and released another dozen or so and kept the first one, a 10lb fish (4.5kg) for the braai!

UNFORTUNATELY, my camera was lost during that incident and is now laying at the bottom of Kingsmere lake.

After a quick bite, we paddled 2 hours along the edge of the lake and visited reknown Indian Nature writer, Grey Owl's cabin. The words, engraved in a plaque, says it all:

"Say a silent thankyou for the preservation of wilderness areas, for the lives of the creatures who live there and for the people with the foresight to realize this heritage, no matter how.’’

On the way back, we were priviledged enough to get a glimpse of a black bear scurrying through the forest!!


The following day we visited the Hanging Heart lakes. These are three lakes connected by a series of channels and leads to the Crean lake. We hired a 16' boat with a 30hp tiller motor and spent over an hour and a half just driving through the Heart lakes to get to the Crean lake. Once again, when you see the Crean lake, you're simply BLOWN away by he beauty of the place!! Clean blue water. It looks more like a sea than a lake. We fished some islands in the Crean lake, but the wind started blowing and we rather opted for the more protected Heart lakes. We spent about 6 hours fishing the 3rd Heart lake and we probably only fished 10% of the lake!! Fishing was PHENOMINAL!! We released over 30 Pike, some as big as 20lb's (9kg's) and caught also quite a few Pickeral/Walleye. My wife took a 12lb walleye (5kg's), which is a good size for that area.

The last day we spent exploring as many lakes as possible. I'm pretty sure that i could spend a life-time in that area and NEVER get to fish all those lakes!!

I've been to many places and have seen many beautiful countries, and have always maintained that South Africa is THE most beautiful place on earth, but after this, the Northern part of Canada, far surpasses anything i've experienced in terms of natural beauty!!


Luckily for me, the memory card was full and just before capsizing the canoe, i had changed memory sticks, so i do have some pic's!!

[miles]

Hooked up with a local angler here. He runs a bear camp up north and is also a fishing guide. Knows most of these lakes very well.

Spent 3 hours fishing today. Landed well over 50 pike/jackfish, with quite a few LUNKERS thrown in!! Great fun, but hard work!! Kept the largest one, as it was my buddy's sons largest fish to date and he was going to mount it!

Enjoy!!

[miles]

Added a couple of more species to the ever growing list......

GOLD-EYE. Caught them up to 1kg. Weird looking mouth. GREAT fun on light tackle, as they jump out of the water and tailwalk!!

[miles]

Just got back from another adventure.

For a change, the wife wanted to do the touristy thing and go sight-seeing. The rods and tackle get carted along anyways.....

First stop. "You MUST simply see Edmonton's Mall!! Its the largest in the WORLD!!" Now, my wife doesn't care much for malls, so i figured something was wrong when she insisted on me seeing the mall.

From the outside, the place looked rather drab, nothing like our Canal Walk or even Waterfront back home. So, whats the big deal with this place??

Well, when i walked into the entrance, the first thing i see is a old style ship, afloat in crystal clear waters with coral all around it!!

They have functions aboard, complete with dining tables!!

[miles]

Enough of all this mall stuff, lets hit the road.

Just before we get Jasper, we start getting these small and larger bodies of water that is CRYSTAL clear!! You can even see the fish, 500grams to 1kg size just swimming around!!

Plus some more water pic's!

[miles]

a few more....

[miles]

Oh well, enough of the wild animals.

The wife gets a bright idea, lets go river rafting!!

[miles]

Some more pic's....

[miles]

Last few...

[miles]

Back from the holiday and its weekend again!!

My wife's been wanting to eat some fresh trout, so i got charged with the duty of supplying fresh feesh! Ufortunately, she had to work, so i called up my fishin' buddy and together with his two sons, off we went.

First stop, the tackle shop. After buying some small spoons and flies, we got some ice for the cooler box. The owner of the tackle store enquires what we're going for and is soon laughing his head off when we mention trout......

Oh well, little does he know!! At the waters edge, the dam has become filled with an algae of some sort which made fly-fishing or even lure casting impossible. Your line would simply get clogged up with algae. No problem, we stwitched over to bait fishing. 4lb (2kg) line and ultra light tackle was the order of the day.

With-in minutes of casting in, LUKE, my buddy's 6 year old son goes tight on a 7lb rainbow trout!! On 2kg line, it was SPECTACULAR!! Fish leaping all over the place, LUKE screaming every time the fish jumped, total pandemonuim!!

We fished for 3 hours before a rainstorm hit us and we were forced to stop. Net result, 9 rainbow trout between myself my buddy and his one son, all between 5 and 7lb's!! Unfortunately, the older son lost 3, due to him forcing the fish. Needless to say, the younger one, LUKE, kept on explaing to his older brother on HOW to catch trout!! I doubt wether LUKE will EVER let his brother forget how he outfished him!!

Now for the twist in the tale. On our way home, we stopped at a friends of my buddy's place to pick-up some gear. At his house, we find the tackle store owner. "How'd the fishin' go" he ask's with a grin. "We caught a few small one's" i retorted. Have a look inside the coolerbox....... "F#ckin H#ll!!!" where'd you guys get those MONSTERS!! Needless to say, we told him of another lake, not far away, but that is DEAD and holds no fish!! Can't be giving away our secrets.....

An hour or so later, i'm at home, its still raining, so i brought out the small portable braai andput it in the kitchen. Braai'd mielies and trout!! Supper fit for kings!!

ps. if anyone knows how to fillet trout properly, with-out having that row of small bones in it, PLEASE advise me how!!

[miles]

Fished my first Canadian Competition!! Fishing in a river, which none of us three anglers had fished before, we faired quite well!! We ended up with the only boat catching their allotted 15 limit of fish, but unfortunately we didn't do so well at the scales. It was a largest fish takes first prize. My buddy got 4th place, i got 5th and our other partner took 6th place. Won some garden furniture and a gazebo and other odds and ends. Not too bad, considering we were the only entrants not from that area!! Unfortunately, it rained pretty much the whole day, so i didn't bother getting the camera out!

The HIGHLIGHT of the trip how-ever was seeing a Timber Wolf (Canis lupis)!! These wolves are fairly common in the desolate area's, but are RARELY seen. My buddy, who is a professional hunting guide, has only seen 3 Timber Wolves in his entire lifetime, and they were all in VERy, VERY desolate places. So, i was indeed VERY lucky to get some photo's of a timber wolf!!