The Fishing Bet

This is a great video about some friendly competition between father and son on a fishing trip. As a group of fathers, Northstar Expeditions approves!



www.loonislandoutdoors.com

A Fishing Tip For Us

As canoeists, we don't bring minnows or live bait with us on our trips. It would get stinky real fast. Here is an article from Outdoor Canada that we could make some use of.

http://outdoorcanada.ca/22340/blogs/on-the-water-online/using-artificials-when-fishing-for-walleye

Caught The Big One!

Here's a technique to know for when we catch our bow-mate instead of the fish.  Check out the video.  I wonder which NSE member will let me practice on them?

 

Now That's The Way to Cook!

I recently came across this on the West Cost Paddler forum and I think that it's the cat's ass!

It's a battery powered rotisserie!

Photo used with permission.

Brilliant.  If a kayaker can find room in his hatches for this, I'm sure we can find some room in the canoe to add it to our kit. It can't weigh nearly as much as the hot tub did!

Fishing in Missinipe Area

I came across this today while searching for information about Bartlett Lake. It's an article on the Churchill River Canoe Outfitters website about fishing in the Otter Lake region. A number of lakes are mentioned including what fish you might expect to find and where. A good resource for those of us who canoe and fish in the neighbourhood.

Rod shows off a walleye destined to be our breakfast.

Coming Home

Jay's hobby was fishing. He spent all his weekends near the river or by the lake, paying no attention to weather. One Sunday, early in the morning, he went to the river as usual. It was cold and raining, so he decided to return back to his house. Jay went inside and headed to his bedroom, undressed and lay near his wife. The lights were off and he snuggled up behind her. She didn't even turn around. "What terrible weather today, Honey," he said to her. "Yes, she answered. "And my idiot husband went fishing."

Wear A Sweater

Four married guys go fishing. After an hour or two on the water, the following conversation took place. Rod: "You have no idea what I had to do to be able to come out fishing this weekend. I had to promise my wife that I will paint every room in the house next weekend." Jay: "That's nothing, I had to promise my wife that I will build her a new deck with a hot-tub." Rob: "Man, you both have it easy! I had to promise my wife that I will remodel the kitchen for her, again." They continue to fish when they realized that Bryan has not said a word. So they asked him "You haven't said anything about what you had to do to be able to come fishing this weekend. "What's the deal?" Bryan: "I just set my alarm for 5:30 am. When it went off, I shut off my alarm, gave the wife a nudge and said, "Fishing or Sex" and she said, "Wear a Sweater."

Fishing For a Sale

A keen country lad applied for a salesman's job at a city department store. In fact it was the biggest store in the world - you could get anything there. The boss asked him, "Have you ever been a salesman before?" "Yes, I was a salesman in the country" said the lad. The boss liked the cut of him and said, "You can start tomorrow and I'll come and see you when we close up."

The day was long and arduous for the young man, but finally 5 o'clock came around. The boss duly fronted up and asked, "How many sales did you make today?" "One," said the young salesman. "Only one?" blurted the boss, "most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale worth?" "Three hundred thousand dollars," said the young man. "How did you manage that?" asked the flabbergasted boss. "Well," said the salesman "this man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one and a huge big one. I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast. I said he would probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty foot schooner with the twin engines. Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn't be able to pull it, so I took him to the car department and sold him the new Deluxe Cruiser."

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, "You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?" "No," answered the salesman "He came in to buy a box of Tampons for his wife and I said to him, 'Your weekend's shot, you may as well go fishing.'"

Runnin' From the CO

Bryan and Rod were out fishing at their special eddy below Robinson Falls when out of the bushes jumped the Conservation Officer! Immediately, Bryan threw his fishing rod down and started running through the woods and hot on his heels came the CO. After about a half mile through the raspberry bushes and underbrush, Bryan stopped and stooped over with his hands on his thighs to catch his breath and the CO finally caught up to him. "Let's see yer fishin' license, boy!" the officer gasped. With that, Bryan pulled out his wallet and gave the CO a valid fishing license. "Well, son" said the CO, "you must be about as dumb as a box of rocks! You don't have to run from me if you have a valid license!" "Yes sir," replied Bryan, "but my friend back there, well, he don't have one... "

Fish Kisses

How do you kiss a pike? ............

... Very Carefully

Snakes & Frogs

A man went fishing one day. He looked over the side of his boat and saw a snake with a frog in its mouth. Feeling sorry for the frog, he reached down, gently took the frog from the snake, and set the frog free. But then he felt sorry for the snake. He looked around the boat, but he had no food. All he had was a bottle of rye. So he opened the bottle and gave the snake a few shots. The snake went off happy, the frog was happy, and the man was happy to have performed such good deeds. He thought everything was great until about ten minutes passed and he heard something knock against the side of the boat. With stunned disbelief, the fisherman looked down and saw the snake was back with two frogs!

Under-Ice Fish Finder

Speaking of ice fishing, these guys take their dedication for finding fish under the ice to a new level. Impressive.

2009 - Robertson Falls via the Montreal River

Montreal River Day Trip + Churchill River, Missinipe to Robertson Falls - September 3-7, 2009

(Photos throughout are by Rob and Bryan, click the links to see the full sets.)

Back in August Bryan ran the Montreal River with 4 other friends - 5 guys in 3 canoes. You can find the report of that trip here, and some pictures here. Paddling the Montreal was so much fun that NSE should head there a couple weeks later as part of our annual canoe trip. It is also rather unusual to have sufficiently high water levels to be able to paddle the river in September. So, with our plans still rather vague ("let's head north, somewhere, with canoes!"), we were rather easily able to incorporate this new element into our trip. We decided to paddle the Montreal as a day-trip before continuing north to paddle to the east end of Otter Lake near Robertson Falls for the remainder of our trip.

A little belt tightening to make sure it all fits. Just about loaded & ready to go.

We left Saskatoon Thursday (September 3rd) afternoon, loaded as usual with two canoes atop Rod's vehicle, and the gear packed into every nook and cranny. The canoes too carried their share of the load, with life jackets and some of the dry bags secured in under the seats and thwarts. Our first stop, besides filling with gas, was in Duck Lake for Bannock Burgers to go from the Trapper's Cabin. For the uninitiated, the Trapper's Cabin Bannock Burger is no mere greasy 1/4 pounder. The freshly made bannock is substantial, and contributes a remarkable amount of heft to the burger. One of these with a few fries and I guarantee your hunger will be satiated.With stomachs full, we continued northward, stopping in PA for some fresh provisions (salad & such), gas, and one last quick stop at the LBS. Jay & I popped into the liquor store to pick up just one or two small extras, I was thinking a mickey of something to sip on by the fire. We came out with a 40 of rum, and a bottle of Jack Daniels. That's in addition to the booze we already had on board, which was substantial.

Rod & his co-pilot, Jay 

Later that evening, we arrived in the Montreal River Picnic Grounds. With the tent set up and time on our hands, we decided to get a nice fire going to relax by. We were all tired from our busy work-weeks, but decided to have one night cap of rum by the fire. I don't recall who was pouring, but while Rod was pouring the last of the third round he casually mentioned that was the end of the bottle. That came as something of a surprise to learn that it was now 2 am, and we had each drank a full 10 ounces of rum in three drinks. Whoops. Finally, we headed off to the tent for the night, or at least 3 out of 4 did. Rod chose to sleep under the stars that night, having set up his sleeping pad near the tent.

The next morning we quite reluctantly got up for our first day of paddling, and what a day it would turn out to be. The first thing we noticed was that Rod had gone missing in the night. It turned out he got cold at some point so crawled off to sleep in the Land Rover. I had prepared a quick and easy to eat breakfast for the group ahead of time - I think it was probably banana bread or something. I think coffee was also prepared ahead and contained in a thermos or two. (For some reason I'm having some trouble remembering the details here.)

As before, we ran the section of the Montreal River between the picnic grounds along the highway, to the Highway 165 bridge, a distance of about 40 km on the water. The one catch was the lack of a shuttle vehicle. Being a group of 4, we find it much cheaper to stuff 2 canoes, 4 guys, and several days worth of food and gear into a single vehicle rather than driving two vehicles the several hundred km to the put-in. However, we came up with a simple solution - bikes! The put-in and take-out are only 22 km from each other by road, a very manageable distance for fit young men like ourselves. So, after crawling out of bed at the crack of 8 am, and somewhat hampered after the "rum incident" of the previous night, Jay and I grabbed a quick bite of breakfast then headed off with the vehicle and our 2 bikes to the take out. We were a tad short on water for the ride back, but Rod was very generous to share the liquid out of his leather wine skin. Too bad it turned out to be Jagermeister that he added to our only water bottle. The other two were left to implement the other half of the plan - to pack up the tent and gear and make ready the boats for our run on the Montreal. After stashing Rod's vehicle in the ditch, Jay and I hopped on our bikes for the return trip. The first obstacle was to climb the big hill out of the Montreal River valley. The road back is gravel and sandy. While not too bad for riding, the soft surface certainly requires some extra effort. The trip took us about an hour and we were very happy to be on the pavement for the last couple of kilometers.

Once back at the picnic grounds we stashed the bikes in the bush, then got everything ready that we thought Rob & Rod were going to do while we were away (something about them being in the outhouse for an hour and a half). Finally on the river, we enjoyed our downriver paddle on the Montreal. Like before, the rapids carried us along farly swiftly and was fairly easy to negotiate. The theory that aluminum sticks to rocks while royalex slides right over was put to the test, and confirmed. Rumour has it that Rod and Jay almost ran into a spot of trouble after running there canoe up onto a midriver rock. At one point we startled a moose out of the bushes along the river and it swam half-way across in front of us before turning back and disappearing into the bush. The rapids were lots of fun, particularly the long continuous stretches in the latter 3rd.

A flatwater section of the Montreal

Jay & Rod

The Roughrider canoe

Moose!

Bow-cam!

A narrow part of the Montreal = fun paddling

The end of our run on the Montreal, this is the Highway 165 bridge

Once back to the vehicle, we loaded up and continued north, stopping in Air Ronge/La Ronge as usual for gas. Although we had the food with us to make supper, we decided to grab the giant bucket of chicken (and gravy, and popcorn shrimp, and pasta salad and coleslaw) and eat supper on the road in and effort to buy us more paddling time.

It was about 7 pm by the time we were loaded and underway from Missinipe on Otter Lake. There was a fair wind on Walker Bay as were loading the canoes and when we initially launched, but within a few minutes the wind died and the evening was calm, warm and sunny. Our intention was only to paddle as far as we felt inclined. As we passed each campsite we assessed it's merits, our energy, and the current conditions and invariably decided to keep paddling. In this manner we continued across the entire lake, eventually reaching our goal of the campsite in the channel at the east end of Otter Lake where we stayed five years earlier. We were treated to a beautiful sunset as we paddled, and beautiful full moonrise. A few clouds rolled in to obscure the moon and it quite dark for the last few kilometers of paddling, with the bright moon peaking out on occasion. We were well armed with a gps, compasses, our maps, and a general knowledge of where we were going so had no problems negotiating our way amongst the bays, islands and channels of Otter. In fact, I would often refer to the gps to confirm position, only to look up and determine that the best route was to follow Jay's canoe which was ahead due to not bothering with the technological toys. (I was vindicated though when I had to direct them toward our final channel.)

The last of the wind diminishes leaving only ripples as we paddle on Walker Bay

Rod & Jay on a very calm Otter Lake getting near sunset

Jay often tells us how much he shines but we don't usually believe him

By the time we had reached our camp spot that night we had completed what amounted to a marathon day for NorthStar Expeditions:

• 22 km cycling
• 40 km paddling the Montreal
• 15 km paddling on Otter
  

At 77 km, we travelled about 60 km farther than we have on any other NSE travelling day to date.

We camped for the next 3 nights in the same spot on Otter, a nice well-used campsite in the channel not far from Robinson Falls. Our first full day on Otter was spent touring to the northeast corner of Otter to First North Falls and beyond.

There are 4 channels that flow out of Otter Lake. The most southerly was just a few hundred meters to the northeast from our campsite and is a narrow channel that seems almost runnable. It is joined at the bottom by another narrow channel that exits the lake closer to Robertson Falls. The third is the wide drop that forms Robertson Falls, 2km straight east of our campsite, as the crow flies. All three of these outflows join in a small unnamed lake below Robertson before flowing into Mountain Lake via Twin Falls. Six and a half kilometers to the east-northeast is the North Falls channel. North Falls is divided into two drops, referred to as First and Second North Falls. Although we had wanted to get to the North Falls channel, this was the first time that we had actually gone through the channel, having only seen it from the bottom previously.

The weather was cooler with a stiff wind out of the west. We decided to take advantage of the wind and set sail towards First North Falls. That was an adventure in itself. Rod & Rob held the sail, while Jay & I kept us heading toward our destination with some expert ruddering. There was also a certain amount of beer juggling and an emergency dropping of the sails to swing around and pick up the "man overboard" (or wayward can of beer, if you prefer). As we approached our destination I decided to read the route description, which clearly dictated that we go around the north side of the island just in front of the falls, lest things go badly for us. Unfortunately, as we read that we were sailing just to the south of the island. Not to worry though, our sailing expertise allowed us to avoid being drawn into the chasm of oblivion Otherwise known as First North Falls.

We spent some time taking a few pictures and fishing below the First North Falls before heading off down the channel towards Second North Falls. This latter falls is more of a large ledgey rapid and is avoided by portaging across an island in the center of the channel.

Panorama view of a portion of First North Falls looking toward Otter Lake

Another view of the top of First North Falls

Bryan posing

Rob, Rod & Jay pose for the camera

These falls rock

Rob gets some photographic assistance

He does look like he could use some help, no?

Another North Falls rock

The bottom of First North Falls

View from the pool below First North Falls

After our time at First North Falls we continued on down through the channel to Second North Falls and portaged across the island into Mountain Lake. We paddled SW about 5km to the bottom of Twin Falls which, like last time, was a raging torrent with the area below a mass of confused water. We managed to pull a few pickerel out of these turbulent waters for our supper. By the time we had portaged off of Mountain Lake and around Robertson Falls, we had paddled an 18.3 km paddling day. So much for a slow day of fishing and relaxation after the long day before.

 Rob & Rod fillet the day's catch.

Hands move so fast they are a blur.

Jay contemplates another losing hand of Kaiser. Wait, I think he was my partner for this game so he must have won this one.

Sunday was Game Day! For years we had been missing the Labour Day Classic between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. This year we decided to do something about it. I had secretly brought along a portable satellite radio on which to listen to the game. Rob and I had also brought along our Rider jerseys, ball caps and t-shirts. At the appointed kickoff time, while fishing a quiet bay near our campsite, we pulled the radio out of the dry bag and set it up in the canoe lashed to the yoke, donned our rider gear and put on the game. We handed a couple of ball caps over to the other canoe who were surprised to be able to listen to the game 400 km from the nearest radio tower broadcasting it. It was great! The only tiny glitch was that we messed up the timezones and tuned in during the 3rd quarter. But, we were rewarded with a Rider win at least (Winnipeg - 14, Saskatchewan - 29). The day was spent lounging in camp & fishing the area. Unfortunately, the fishing was only moderately successful.

Rapids in the channel adjacent to Reid Island and near our campsite

Fishing in the rain

That night I decided to try out my new bear bangers & flares (I purchased a kit containing both). The bangers and flares are shot using a "pen launcher" and although I had been carrying them for a couple of trips, had never tested them. I was confused at first between the flares and bangers, apparently misreading the labels. I launched what I thought was a bear banger over the water in front of our channel amidst the rain and lightning. It launched with a substantial bang went rather high and fell as a bright glowing ball of fire into the trees across the channel.  I thought at first that it was rather bright and high for a bear banger, and I thought there was supposed to be a delay before the bang. Testing what I thought was a flare next, it soon became clear that I had things reversed as this one launched a much shorter distance (still substantial) and went off with an even louder bang. The power behind both of these things were substantial and don't think I'd want my kids playing around with them. I also think I'd reserve their use as a last resort.  Incidentally, I chose that particular time to do the test launch because with the lightning and low cloud cover it was unlikely that someone would see the flash of the flare and launch a rescue mission. Also, The rain provided some fire suppression for which I was grateful as the glowing orb fell in amongst the trees across the channel.

Monday was time to head home. We started the day of with a nice batch of cinnamon rolls for breakfast then packed up and paddled the 15km back to Missinipe in fair conditions, the sun finally emerging. 

Rolling out a biscuit dough for cinnamon rolls

A water bottle makes a good rolling pin and the bottom of the canoe makes a good work surface. 

Loaded with butter, brown sugar and raisins

Breakfast is ready

Gorgeous day for the paddle home

Refreshment break on Otter Lake

Our weather for the trip was mediocre: moderately warm and mostly overcast with some stiff wind, though the wind had little effect on us, or was in our favour. The best weather was seen during the paddle home. Most of the rain that fell on us occurred during the evening of our final night. The total distance paddled during the trip is estimated at over 90 km. Add in the bike ride and that's a total of 112 self-propelled kilometers! The water levels were much higher than normal, a fact which allowed us to paddle the Montreal in September, a couple months later than usual. We can expect the Montreal River to have been running somewhere between 20-25 m3/sec; certainly it seemed comparable, if not a bit higher, to the level when I paddled it a couple weeks earlier. On the Churchill, the recorded values during our trip were 590 m³/sec; 17.6°C; 2.55 metres. (Peak was ~Aug 6 at 2.84 meters or approximately 730 m³/sec. See this earlier post for more information on water levels.)

A bit of rain, a fair bit of wind, but reasonably warm

I don't have the graph for the particular time were on the Montreal River, but it's pretty easy to use your imagination and extrapolate out a week or two.

Water level and water temperature recorded at Otter Rapids

Costly Fish

Bryan & Jay travel 580 km to try out a new fishing spot. They buy a variety of bait and tackle and rent a canoe. After a long day of fishing, the two fishermen return to Corner Rapids. Bryan pulls their only catch from the leader, a scrawny pike. He says, "Boy! This fish cost us about $175!" Jay replies "well, then it's a good thing we didn't catch any more!"

Holidays

What has big sharp teeth, a tail, scales, and a trunk? ....................... A pike going on holiday.

2005 - Hayman Lake

A version of the following was previously published on pawistik.blogspot.com.
Hayman Lake, Churchill River Trip - June 2nd-5th, 2005 - #5 in our annual NorthStar Expeditions guys trips.

We have yet to write a proper "report" for this trip. However, here are some things to note if we ever do a write-up:

• The bloody Devil Portages
  
• The portages had been trashed by wet weather and the Sask Centennial Canoe Quest which had gone through that spring.
  
• The collapsing pack-frame
  
• I had used an old external frame backpack, stripped down, to carry a food barrel or maybe the super-heavy duffel bags. Unfortunately, it fell apart part-way across one of the Bloody Devil Portages.
  
• The hot-tub
  
• We brought a hot tub with us on this trip. Across 2km or more of portage. Muddy, long portages. And, we did it without Jay even noticing we had a hot tub along.
  
• OK, so the hot tub turned out to be not so hot. Mk II will be better!
  
• The engineering genius that is Rod
  
• Submersible stoves and other incredible feats of ingenuity.
• Our buddy who visited and creeped us out
  
• Don't worry, we confused him more than a little too.
  
• Our bushwhacking adventure
  
• We bushwhacked in to one of the lakes on Twolake Island. It was a grand adventure, full of thorn bushes, hordes of mosquitoes, a scenic little lake, but no fish.
  
• Butter-flavoured Crisco shortening stays firm in warm temperatures and goes much farther than margarine does.
  
• The wave-train of Sluice Falls that extended so far out across the small lake below the falls and above Farside Rapids that we had to paddle over half way across it in order to safely cross over to the carry spot beside Ric's Falls.

View Larger Map

The photos are all courtesy of Rob.

Another year of high water on the Churchill River, evidence to go with the above graph:

Getting ready to hit the water:

Beer & lunch break along the portage:

Little Devil Rapids:

Rod getting the hot tub ready:

The heat is supplied by an aluminum "submersible" stove made by Rod. It's fed through the rectangular opening on top.

Waiting for the hot tub to warm up:

One of the issues we had was that the aluminum stove floated, just like Rod's aluminum canoe. We tied rocks to the bottom to keep it from tipping over and putting our fire out (again).

Golf balls on the stove legs keep them from poking holes in the tub bottom:

Jay feeds the fire:

Another issue we had with the stove was due, largely, to the small size which required us to feed it with very small sticks. The fire never really seemed to get roaring with it's own momentum. This could have been made worse by it being submersed  in cold water.

Still waiting:

Bryan gets brave and tries out the tub:

Jay's turn in the tub:

Rod tends the other fire:

Clark Falls on the Weaver River where it flows into the Churchill River at Hayman Lake:

Rod and Jay fish at the base of Clark Falls:

Jay with some fish Bryan probably caught:

Bryan with a fish Rob had caught a day earlier and which had escaped:

Better weather at Clark Falls (must have been the second day):

One of the locals:

Part of the neighbourhood:

Jay and Rod relax at our island campsite:

Surf City on the way out:

Rod and Jay coming through Surf City:

Lunch break on Barker Island during the paddle home:

Scouting Mosquito Rapids:

That's the end of the trip!

Follow up note - I found this in our e-mail records while searching for something else. Jay was commenting on our gear list and had this to say:

The only suggestion I would have is that we try to cut back on something, as we were very tight [in the vehicle] last year.  Maybe just one tent and a couple blankets??

Ummm...., yeah sure Jay, we'll cut back all right, and we'll just throw this inflatable pool and stove in too.