I am writing reflecting upon another successful trip with Air Cochrane and stay at Nettogami Island. This year there were 3 fathers and 5 (god) sons and as tradition would have it one of the newbies caught the biggest fish, 40" northern pike. Long time northern Ontario and close friend John Shuman would catch the biggest walleye at 25". Also a long standing tradition, both were caught on a dark color Fish Tek lure , albeit this year both fish were caught on the smaller MSB, years past the big ones were always caught on the Fish Tek MSB-150.Day 1
We drove through Toronto with Black Hawk helicopters hovering in the air a world summit of the G-20 was taking place. There was a lot of teasing that Ben's mom was in one of them to keep and eye on him. We left Shu's house at 7:30 and arrived in Cochrane, Ontario at 8:00 pm. We made our annual mid-day stop at North Bay Don Cherry's for wings. In Cochrane we stayed at the Thriftlodge and enjoyed a dinner at the adjacent sports bar...a sports bar in the sense there is one TV with a baseball game.
Day 2
This AM saw crystal blue skies and I thought for sure we would be out soon after our 8:30AM meeting with Mark at the basecamp of Air Cochrane...but alas, once again it was a hurry up and wait event. The older boys and Shu agreed to fly out first as the same plane was to fly us out, but would have to make two trips. The plan was for them to set the camp up and to get the boats fueled up and ready to go....Jim and I felt obligated to minimize any possible distractions so we ensured that the fishing poles were not loaded on this first trip. While the first group was being flown in Jim, I, Josh and Trevor played euchre in the basecamp. Around noon the plan returned and flew us out to the island. It was about an hour flight, but I was re-assured to see we were in the very experienced hands of our pilot Ron whom I have flown with before. On our flight in Ron pointed out a forest fire burning 50 miles away Hands Andre and George are always a delight to talk to at the loading area. Andre gave us some pointers on fishing the lake adjacent to Nettogami.
Upon arrival to the island Trevor, Jake and Charlie greeted us at the dock waving boat paddles with short lines tied to jigs on the them. They were angry that the poles were not flown in with them, but they were excited that Shu had caught a 27" pike and Jake had a 22" walleye jigging with boat paddles while they waited for our plane to arrive. Apparently this was a fishing tip the pilot Ron had left with them when he dropped them off. Jim and I were perplexed as to why they would have been fishing when they were charged with getting the camp and boats set up?!?!?
The first day fishing witnessed Ben catching the first fish in our boat and Josh catching the largest pike at 30". The weather was very calm and sunny. That night we stayed out fishing till midnight so as to take advantage of the new moon, which was spectacular. The stars were minimal because at midnight the horizon still was orange from the sunset.
Day 3
The next morning saw the weather once again being nice with calm waters. Jake, Ben, and I headed up the lake to fish the narrows. Slow fishing in the morning for our boat landing about 20 fish, mostly pike. Fortunately big Shu caught a bunch of walleye and between all our boats we rustled up enough fillets for a shore lunch. At first I hoped to eat at the eastern point of the peninsula, but when we pulled up to it the air was ripe with a rotten carcass somewhere nearby so we promptly opted for the beach we ate on last year. Ben and I started the fire while Shu and Jake cleaned the fish. The Wilkes boat helped setup for lunch which consisted of fired peppers, onions, mushrooms and fresh walleye.....and it was fantastic. The water was lower than last year so we had more beach to work with. Jake and big Shu sat on their boat seats along the edge of the water soaking their feet when Jake abruptly yelled to Shu that a 5 inch leech was closing in on Shu's foot to which Shu promptly jumped to his feet and danced a fast paced foot jig that one can only describe as Shumazing. After lunch we all headed back to the cabin for rain gear as their was ominous looking weather approaching from the west that later we would learn was a cold front which would stay with us for the balance of our trip.
That evening we held our annual Lake Nettogami fishing contest by which the boat with the most total inches of fish caught in a two hour period would win. Big Shu and I were in a boat, Ben, Jake and Charlie in another, with the Wilkes comprising the third boat.. We headed to the place on the lake that produced well for us at the end of last year's trip. Taking advantage of a North-west wind Shu and I drifted over the roller coaster shaped lake bottom catching 150+" of fish in the first 30 minutes. This tranquil state of fishing utopia was suddenly interrupted by Charlie yelling at us while Jake drove their boat up to ours. Charlie complained that his fish had swallowed his lure and needed help getting it out. They were awed by our total fish count that I shared with them while big Shu removed the lure from the pike. Then Jake, with a devilish look in his eye, wished us well and told Ben to shove their boat off. This grin did not fade as he drove the boat 20 yards down wind from our boat where he stopped the boat and started fishing. Each boy promptly caught fish while drifting over our fishing hole!!!! They proceeded to always stay 20 yards in front of our boat, catching fishing, and quickly passed the 200"+ count. Shu and I shouted angrily at them, calling them unethical, and other such words that should not be printed in a public blog, and which only seemed to fuel their delight. Needless to say, when the two hours were up the boys contended to be victorious while Shu and I claimed it was a victory shrouded in controversy!
Day 4
On day 4, I think I was up early because everyone else was sleeping. In front of our camp I could see the whitefish rising on the mayflies that were all over the surface of the water. Two years earlier I had caught a whitefish on this lake and I had come prepared with a lightweight rod rigged with a popper hoping to have another opportunity to catch one. I hurriedly got dressed, bailed the boat out, and as luck would have it they vanished as soon as I arrived on the water. I know they are very skittish so I drifted the entire length of the bay with my popper a long ways out, but nothing happened.
Big Shu and I decided to portage to the lake adjacent to Nettogami. I called it Lost Lake as I do not think it has a name. The portage entrance is not very well marked and we were not sure how far of a walk it was so we carried our fishing tackle with us first. It was a wet, boggy, 300 yard-ish walk, which weaved through quite a few blow downs and we had to be careful not to tear our rain gear as we climbed under some of these trees. At the end of the trail were two boats flipped over, a motor with a red bandanna on it, and gas tank. There also was the charred remains of a stump that was obviously the center of a camp fire not too long ago and was amazingly still smoldering. Amazing because it must have rained 2 inches the night before and it must have been left by the previous fishing party. The boats looked very tired and it was difficult to determine which one to use. They were flat bottom Lunds whose hulls were pretty banged up and the transoms were very, very tired. In fact Shu and I had to rig up some extra boards to mount the motor on the transom as we feared the flexibility of the transom was such that the motor would rip it off. After much sweat we go the motor on only to find that the motor leaked gas out the back quite profusely, which is probably why there was a red rag tied on it, too bad that it had not been brought back to camp for repairs. So Shu and I removed it and went back to the boat where we had brought an extra motor just in case. We rigged up a paddle to carry the motor on which was the only way we could have carried the 9.9 Johnson outboard that far. By the time we got this motor rigged up we were more than ready to go fishing. Once in the water we could not go very fast as the motor would have clearly broke off the transom. As we pulled away from the shore we saw up the shoreline two more Lunds lying upside down on the brush. This lake was much deeper than Nettogami with several spots being over 30' deep and one place we marked was 46' deep. We fished the entire shoreline of this lake. One place we dubbed "Pike Bay" because we caught a bunch of 30"+ pike. This bay was perfectly calm as the bay was lined with trees including the point that extended into the lake making for a perfect block to the 20 mph winds that was churning up the lake. There was a loon's nest near the point of the bay and the mother loon made it very plain that she was not happy with us fishing there. We did mark several places of the lake that contained large schools of fish at 20'-30' of water. We tried some deep water crank baits as the wind made jigging impossible but come up empty. I am guessing they were schools of whitefish. As we drew near our launching site completing our loop of the lake, Shu pulled up a 25" walleye. A beautiful fish, it was in 4' of water adjacent to a drop off to 15'. This fish and all the other fish we caught on this lake was on a dark colored Fish Tek MSB 125 and MSB 50. We pulled the boat on shore and decided to leave the motor on the boat in case others from our group wanted to come. We did grab the extra gas tank that someone previously had left there and headed down the path in the rain passing the smoldering campfire on the way....with everything soaked from 24 hours of rain I could not believe this thing was still burning.
Day 5
The next day saw the weather being really difficult....20-25 mph winds, driving rain, and temperatures in the 40s. You could see your breath outside and the wood stove in the camp was roaring. I was glad the boys had split a bunch of birch wood the evening before. The wood stove on this this trip was burning more than on all the other seven trips I had been on previously, combined. It was cold. The boys were in knit hats, sweatshirts, and rain suits when we left to go up the lake to an area of Nettogami we dubbed "The Bowl". It was a 20 minute boat ride into the wind with Jake on the bow and Ben in the middle, both boys riding with their heads down and their backs to the bow permitting the driving rain and bow spray to glance off their rain suits. Once in the Bowl we attempted to use an anchor to hold us in position but the wind was too strong so I spent much of the time moving the boat to one end of the bowl in a position so as we could drift across the bowl. We
caught 25+ fish in two hours of fishing. A nice mix of walleye, pike, and blue pike. The conditions, however, made it impossible to stay any longer....blue lips and chattering teeth reminded me of the stern safety warnings I had received earlier from Ben and Jake's mothers respectively just prior to leaving for our trip. Once back at camp we played lots of "Austrian" euchre which is 4 on 4 euchre. The discourse around why big Shu dubbed the game Austrian shall remain in Canada as if it were written here it may cause an international incident. The Wilkes ventured over to the other lake and used the boat we had left rigged up from the day before. They had some luck. Jim was smart enough to figure out the chain in the stern of the boat, which I did not even notice, was to connect to the motor so it would completely fall off the back. Later in the day Big Shu and I were playing cards when Charlie, Ben and Jake returned from fishing. It was miserable wet and cold outside. I was surprised they stayed out that long. Charlie walked in first in his black/gold dripping wet rain suit with a grin on his face asking how many inches of fish Shu and I caught. I said 205" and he grinned saying they only had 160", yet he oddly seemed very excited about finishing behind us. Then Jake and Ben burst into the cabin, both wearing knit hats , glistening wet rain suits, and sporting mile long smiles. Jake shouted "Ben caught a 40 incher!" Charlie, who was laughing like a maniac, gave out a war whoop and sarcastically repeated they only caught 160 inches, but 40 of them belonged to one fish. Jake continued on excitedly with short, stammered statements about the three of them battling this monster, how it was fish to hand combat, how Ben muscled this beast while he (Jake) and Charlie kept the boat from flipping, and how he had to bear-hug the fish in the dip net in order to get it in the boat, and that once in the boat he and Charlie pounced on it to keep it under control. Ben followed Jake's statements repeatedly saying "It's true", it's true!" Ben proudly showed us the pictures of this mighty fish and the entire camp was abuzz with excitement. Ben caught it on the Fish Tek MSB, the true work horse of this trip. I think Ben wore a perma-smile for the rest of our trip. i was also really proud of how they successfully released this fish. Jake explained how he held it up right in the water moving it back and forth until the fish was revived and swam away. This, for me, marked that my son was now a full fledged fisherman and I was very proud of him.
After dinner I paid Jake $20 to help Big Shu and I carry the motor back from Lost Lake. He and Charlie helped us lug the motor back. A lot of work, but well worth it. At dinner the Wilkes cooked up their legendary fishing camp cuisine jambalaya. This has become a real highlight at fishing camp. That night I invited all interested to a 4 am fishing trip and I got muffled responses from the boys citing their need for rest after their heroic battle with Ben's monster.
Day 6
At 4 am Big Shu and I were up and the weather was not good. Probably in the high 40s, 30mph winds, and horizontal rain.....a little more than we were ready to take on. We went back to bed and I enjoyed reading my new book on the Mayflower, something I only seem to do while fishing in Canada. The balance of the day was spent speculating whether or not the planes would come due to the lousy weather. At 5:00 the first plane arrived and the pilot was uncertain if the other plan was coming so we flipped a coin to see who would go back and who might have to spend another night. Jake and the Wilkes went back in the first plane....the rest of us returned to the cabin where we played cards and planned for an evening fishing tournament. Then at 6:00 another plane arrived and we were back in Cochrane around 7:30. We drove 4 hours to North Bay, spent the night at a Ho-Jo's and the next day was Canada Day...ugh! It took us 3 1/2 hours just to drive through Toronto....next year Big Shu said we are to drive through Ottawa. On the way home I emailed Mark Jones and made reservations for next year, and added an extra day.
Special thanks go to my wonderful, beautiful, talented oldest daughter Hannah, who readily decided to edit and revise this piece after some slight persuading on my part.
