First Canadian Fishing Adventure: 2003
When I was younger my grandpa, uncles and grandpa's friend would go up to Ontario for a week of fishing. I always wanted to go, when I was ten I finally got to go. This time however it was only my dad, my two uncles and I. Grandpa had to stay home for health reasons. We woke up at 2 in the morning and packed up the big 1993 Dodge Ram van that easily fit four people, our clothes, the food we took with us for a week and most importantly out fishing gear. It was about a twelve to fourteen hour drive from our house to the lodge we would be staying at. I slept most of the ride. We arrived at the lake, Big moose lake, connected to Little moose. Known for quality walleye, smallmouth and pike fishing.
Since there was only four of us we got one boat. Let the adventure begin, we stayed in a decent cabin, two room with four beds. The weather was spotty the whole trip. One day it was nice and sunny without a cloud in the sky, the next day it would be pouring. There are two distinct memories that stick out to me from this trip.
The first was when we pulled into a shallow bay around sunset, the weeds were poking up over the surface of the water, it was a very calm day. The bay was like glass reflecting the pine trees and the sky a burnt orange color. Before we threw out any casts my dad pointed to the shore and there standing there was a moose, probably around a hundred yards away. We slowly rowed closer to get blurry pictures on our throw away cameras. We then slowly and cautiously backed away and gave the moose a wide birth as we saw a young calf pop up from under the water near its mother. After getting a safe distance away from the moose pair we cut the motor and were casting for big pike, I was using a Cisco Kidd top water popper, silver and black with a fleck of red. After a few unsuccessful casts we reached the "last cast" phase of the night. The sun was disappearing behind the trees and we needed to get back to the docks. I threw out one last heaving cast as far as I could, it landed right by the weed line. I brought in the cisco steadily, its blades creating quiet a stir on the surface of the calm water. I wasn't watching for fish following and as I lifted the lure out of the water there was a mighty splash and tail of a huge pike is all I saw swimming away. I learned to change up the retrieve that night and to always keep you eyes right behind the lure incase something is tailing it.
The other memory that sticks out about this trip above is the storm that rolled in unannounced while we were on the water. It started out as a misty day with light rain. We headed out onto the lake and started fishing. We caught a handful of walleye. The rain started to get heavier, and the wind picked up. We were on the far end of the lake and the wind was blowing down the lake towards us. We decided to pull up the lines and race back to the cabin as the rain and wind were now pelting us. The four of us were rattled up and down as we crashed through the waves, some of them coming over the bow of the boat. We made it back to the cabin, wet and cold but most importantly we were safe. The next day we had heard someone from another lodge had capsized his boat.
It was an exciting first trip to Canada, and their were many many more trips after this one. We played cards, caught lots of fish and had a good time. The Canada fishing trips were always one of my summer highlights.