Getting through the Winter

I'm starting my 2010 posts with a look back. It's something I do quite a bit in the winter, when I'm stuck indoors, and the spring seems like it will never actually get here. I spend a lot of time looking over pictures of fish and trips from the past years. I was doing that today, and thought it would make a decent first post of the year.

The photos that follow are all from Athabasca this past August, and none are actually fish. Just pictures from the area. I hope you enjoy them.

And, Happy New Year.




A mayfly from Richards Lake






The "Tackle Box" on the inside of the boat - a rope!







A bad looking moose







The best shore lunch spot in the world







A full moon rises over the bay







The shadow of the float plane on the trees below as we left Richards Lake







Mushrooms at shorelunch







How does ANYTHING grow here?








More lunchtime mushrooms







Berries and Lichens







A weather beaten tree on a shorelunch island

Shallow lakers - in early August??

On the way to Poplar Point


Our third day - Tuesday - came clear and calm. The decision was made for us to go "west of Fond Du Lac" to try for lakers in the morning, and, based on the success or failure of the morning attempts, go for more lakers in the PM, or pike. Fond Du Lac is the village where all the native Deni guides live. They commute (by boat) daily to work as guides for Blackmur's. The area where we fish for lakers is known as Poplar Point, and is the end of the eastern arm of the lake, where the lake opens up into a freshwater ocean. When the waters are flat, as they were this morning, it is a 1 hour and 30 minute run, wide open, to reach Poplar Point. When the water is rough, it can be a very unpleasant 2 hour run - most of the time, trips to that end are postponed in bad weather. As you can imagine, the guides - with years of experience under their belts - are expert boat handlers.

This is the only element of the trip at Blackmur's that I find a little frustrating -when you fish the far away areas, your amount of actual fishing time is reduced due to the extending running times. When you factor in the run each way, and the shore lunch, you may only have 4-1/2 hours of actual fishing time left.


Typical day 3 laker


When we planned this trip, there was no plan in the works to do ANY lake trout fishing. Typically, in the first week of August, the lakers are seeking their comfort zone with regard to water temps by hanging in the 100 - 120 foot deep range. You can catch them by pulling a 3-way rig with 6 - 10oz. weights, but I don't care to do that usually. However, this year has been different. The cold water temps that have stifled the weed growth in the bays have had a different effect on the lakers - they never went deep! Cliff mentioned that some people in camp the week before caught lakers trolling lures on unweighted flat lines - that is unheard of for early August. Also, some of the lakers caught had been big ones - around 40". So - we decided to give a morning to the lakers.

The calm waters allowed us to get to the point a little bit earlier than anticipated, and the 2 boats rigged up and started fishing. I flatline trolled a T-55Flatfish while Andy opted for a spoon. We were into fish immediately. I could see that the other boat had fish coming in as well. Bottom line - the 2 boats combined for 20 lake trout in the morning. All about the same size - great eating size. One interesting sidebar: Billy was in the other boat and, in late morning, had still not landed a trout. Jim had 6 or 7. We got a call on the radio, and Billy noted that he was being "Wolfed" [referring, of course, to my last name, and the fact that I couldn't buy a fish for the first 2 days]. In the same breath, he asked to borrow a 3-way weight, as he had lost his on a snag!! The nerve! Of course, we gave him his weights, along with a Williams Whitefish spoon, and he caught 3 lakers in the next 20 minutes.


The beginning of a Fire Fish lunch



10 minutes later - Fire Fish is served!


Lunch was the fresh lakers, cooked as "Fire Fish". The Deni usually do this one per trip, using either pike or lakers. The side is taken off the fish, skin intact, and not de-boned. The pieces of fish are placed directly over the open fire on a grate, skin down, and turned once. The pieces are then cut so there is a section with bones and one without bones and the meat is peeled off the skin. It is so simple it's scary, and the meat is delicious. This shore lunch took place on a classic windswept rock at the mouth of a bay. It is so beautiful out there that words can't do the spot justice. The rock striations are vivid, the moss vibrant green, and you wonder how anything - like the few trees and shrubs - can possibly live there. The pictures don't do the area justice, but they're better than my words.

Misc. Shorelunch pics








The afternoon was spent looking for pike in the bays on the north side of the eastern arm. We had steady, if unspectacular, action. No trophies fell to our lures this afternoon, and the big fish of the day was actually my 36" pike. Every cast in these waters might result in a trophy pike but, on this day, we had to be content with the normal-sized fish and their aggressive strikes.

On a positive note (for me), we won our team bet - 70" to 60", reducing the lead to 2:1

Richards Lake, and the frustration (for me) begins

Andy's 42" pike from Richards Lake

Day 2 of fishing found our group of 4 flying out to Richards Lake. It's sort of an interesting concept to fly out to a different lake when you are on an enormous arm of the 9th largest lake in North America. But, Andy and I have fished Richards before and have both taken our Personal Bests on that trip (Andy's is 46-1/2"; mine is 46") We both consider Richards to be a "small-ish" lake, but everything changes due the perspective you have up north. When we were on the lake this past trip, we figured, based on width and length estimates, that the lake is around 7,500 acres. Plus - the only time it gets anglers is when Cliff flies groups in from his camp. It has extensive weedbeds in the lake - 2 rivers feed into it. It has a terrific population of pike, some of which are very big. It also has whitefish and walleye.

The weather was nice for the short (20 minute) flight on the Otter. We were dropped off, along with our guides, and en route to the weedbeds. The boats at the fly-out lakes are a bit smaller than the ones at camp but more than adequate. We got to our first weedbeds and started in. Billy and Jim started catching fish right away. Andy got one, and I missed one - a perfect start. Then - i went cold. I missed hits. I didn't get any hits. And, all the while, I watched everyone else catch fish. My reel broke - the sideplate of a new Abu Garcia Revo Winch fell off on a cast and fell into the lake. I was so pissed off I couldn't even see! Everyone was on a jerkbait bite. Jim seemed to be hooked up everytime I looked over at their boat. I knew the bait he was throwing, watched his retrieve to see if there was something different than what I was doing, and proceeded to duplicate it , and get next to nothing.

Billy's 44" pike

I don't want this to sound like I'm complaining, but the frustration I was experiencing was unlike anything I've ever felt. I've been in situations where I've been outfished but never really cared, even in tournaments. This, however, was terrible. I was on my favorite numbers / size pike lake in the world, everyone around me was catching fish, and I couldn't buy a hit. When I did get a hit - I'd miss the fish. It was the toughest morning on a great lake in my life. By lunch, I had landed 6 fish, nothing of any size. Andy had a 42-1/2" to take big fish of the morning.


Jim's 41" pike

Shore lunch has a way of making a person forget about everything that bothers them, even if it just happened that morning. I may be the first person to write about the therapeutic qualities of a shorelunch of fried pike, potatoes, onions, and beans, but my research shows a 100% success rate of getting people out of their morning funk!!

PM brought more fish - I even got a few. But nothing of size for me. Billy and Jim got a double-header of 44" (Billy - new PB) and 41" (Jimmy - new PB) while I watched and tried not to get bummed about my lack of success. I really DO love it when the people with me catch fish, especially big fish. I just like to catch SOMETHING while I watch them take pictures all day of their trophies!

We ended up catching around 135 pike on our fly-out on Monday. Not a bad day by any means, but a little low on the historical data for Richards. We (not that I had anything to do with it) got 3 over 40" that day. I still love Richards Lake but, on Monday, it didn't like me.

Oh yeah - we had an ongoing bet on this trip. Andy and I would add the lengths of our best 2 pike and Billy and Jim would do the same. Longest total wins for the day. Day 1: me and Andy - 68"; Billy / Jim - 80". We got smoked. Day 2 on Richards - Team Billy / Jim - 85". Team Joe / Andy - 74". Waxed again.