Farewell to Canada

Our Ontario adventure has come to an end and we are back on the road! Actually it is bittersweet, we really enjoyed our summer at Pasha Lake Cabins and will truly miss Chad, Michelle and all our other local and “weekly” friends up there.

Bear season ended on a high note going 8 for 9 and 9 for 9 the last two weeks, one of which was a monster topping the scale at 513#’s! Needless to say there were a lot of late nights skinning and processing bears. One of the last groups was the Herman crew from Illinois. They are a great group of guys who own a resort/campground and produce the TV show LakeLife on the DIY network. Everyone in their group got a bear but in my opinion the highlight was Norm who shot his out of a ground blind at 3 yards. He did not even know it was there until he heard it breathing 6’ away from him!

Barb even got in on the action! 

 We had to track a couple of bears that the hunters did not find right away, this can be both scary and dangerous. I can tell you from experience you do not want to walk up on an angry black bear after dark armed only with a flashlight! I had suggested to Barb that we could use Daisy as a tracking dog, we could just put her on the scent trail and if she came back we knew the bear was dead and if she doesn’t come back…….well, you get the picture. Barb failed to see the humor….

Before we left, my friend Joe and Greg came up for a few days of fishing. Joe has been up several times while this is Greg’s first time to the area. They spent their first day on Onaman Lake, I was not able to join them as I was fishing with a group from Toronto. When they got back to camp the smile on Greg’s face said it all. The first words out of his mouth were “I have never caught so many walleye’s over 20”’s!”. Day two of their visit was spent on Northwind Lake, although we did not catch a lot of big fish, the numbers were there. The next day we booked the “Pasha Lake Dream Trip”. This takes place on Lake Nipigon for monster walleyes and northern pike. Lake Nipigon is huge, 70 miles long and 50 miles wide! This is not a lake you take a 16 fishing boat with a 15hp motor so we chartered with one of the local guides. After a 40 minute boat ride we arrived at our first location on the Jackfish River. I am not exaggerating when I say you caught 18” - 20”walleye as fast as you could get your jig in the water. Too be honest it gets a little boring after a while as there is no challenge so when Gus asked if we wanted to move and try for some trophies we were all in!

We moved to the mouth of the river where the walleyes were not only bigger they had a beautiful blue tint to them. If fact, Greg caught his personal best at 27 ½ “’s! Next it was time for big pike! Being guys we had to try and outdo each other and see who could catch the biggest fish. Joe started it off with three in a row all over 36”’s. Greg took the lead with a nice 37 and then it was my turn with a 39 ½ . We each caught several more fish between 35 and 38 and it looked like I was going to have bragging right until Joe boated at 40 ½ ! Oh well, even if I don’t have bragging rights we still had a great day on the water.

Greg with a 27 1/2

Check out the blue tint on Joe's walleye

I had the lead for a while with this 39 1/2

 

So with our adventures behind, us Barb and I spent our last day there packing up while Joe and Greg went fishing. It is amazing how much stuff you amass when you are in one spot for several months.

Next up…. Ducks, bucks and working the farm fields of  North Dakota…..