Tuesday, June 6, 2023

The End of an Era

There are a handful of places that have touched my heart like Pasha Lake does. Buckley Lodge, owned by our friends Mike and Mary Jo, Prairie Smoke Ranch owned by Dan and Jeanie who we visited last week, The Farm and our oasis in South Dakota. If I were to die today, these are the places I would like my ashes scattered. Places that are forever in my heart and hold special memories.

Our Pasha Lake adventures all started in 2005 when an employee of mine (Chad) came to me and said “I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news”. Preparing for the worst, I listened to what he had to say. “I am quitting, Michelle and I bought a hunting and fishing resort in Ontario.  “What’s the bad news?” I said.

That was 2005. Since then Barb and I have been up to Pasha Lake Cabins every year, sometimes 3 or 4 times a year (I guess we did miss 2016 when we went to Alaska). Our first year or two on the road we spent the entire summer up here fishing and just hanging out making memories that will last a lifetime.

We have become great friends with Chad and Michelle and have made other good friends. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Chad and Michelle sold Pasha Lake Cabins this past January. They did not want me to say anything at the time as they wanted the transition to go as smoothly as possible for the new owners. Enough time has now passed that I think it is safe to talk about it. As we drove up here this year, it broke my heart to drive past that familiar sign between kilometer 4 and 5 on the 801 knowing neither Chad nor Michelle were there. I could not help but think back on some of our fondest memories, here are a few pictures of those times. 

Mark, showing me where the fish are.
Daisy and I chill'in
Hiking into a remote lake

Two Bob's out on the water

Michelle and Chad at Fish Fry
And my favorite picture of all our Pasha adventures, Barb in her happy place....
Barb and I drove several kilometers further and took a right into the start of a new era. New memories. They will not replace those of the past 17 years at Pasha Lake but start new ones on Paint Lake as you see, Chad and Michelle kept several acres of heaven up here for their friends and family to enjoy. There is a cabin, totally off grid, complete with propane stove, fridge, head and even propane lanterns.

We are staying in our camper, no electricity, no water source and no place to dump our waste water. No guests to chat with, nothing to do but relax and fish. A totally new concept for us.  It should be an interesting few weeks.

But it got interesting even before we got here. Since leaving The Farm, Barb and I have been driving separately. Dakota and I in the truck, camper and trailer. Barb and Zoey in the Jeep. We really did not need to but, since Barb stayed home with Forrest and family before coming to the farm, we had two vehicles and there was just not a convenient place to leave the Jeep so she followed me through Minnesota, all the way up here. The border crossing was a breeze. I pulled up to the checkpoint expecting the worst. After all, I had the truck, the camper and a 16’ trailer in tow. Surely they would want to search me. Nope, after a few questions he handed me back my passport and said “Have a great day!”. Barb, right behind me was not as lucky. I pulled over a few hundred yards up the road and waited for her. And waited, and waited. I finally got out to see what was going on only to see her walking Zoey alongside the Customs building. Yup, she got pulled over for inspection. And inspect her they did. They probed her like a test subject getting lifted into an alien craft. Everything out of the jeep, looking under the seats, opening suitcases, under the hood, even scanning things for powder (or drug?) residue. When she finally met up with me 30 minutes later she said they did not like the storage containers on top of the luggage rack. To be fair, they are gun cases, so I do not blame them for searching her. Those containers were on the jeep when we bought it and have only contained fishing equipment but they wanted to search her nonetheless. She walked a little funny for the next couple of days but they did not find any contraband.

Those cases don't look suspicious at all, do they?

That night we stopped by an LCBO (liquor store) and Canadian Tire to stock up on supplies. We spent the night in Thunder Bay at the marina. The next morning we drove to our favorite Canadian destination, Tim Hortons! We had a breakfast of Tim Bits while I posted the last blog using their internet. Thank you Tim!

From there we headed to the city of Nipigon, through Beardmore and eventually past Pasha Lake Cabins to our new Ontario destination. Although we have been to this cabin before, we have never parked our rig there so we had no idea where to set up. Chad and Michelle were not going to be there for a few more days so we were on our own. With the help of a chainsaw, we found the perfect spot!

All set up on Paint!

Holy mosquitoes Batman, they were everywhere. I kid you not, every time we opened the door to go in or out anywhere from 20-50 mosquitos would enter the camper. This has to be in the top 2 or 3 worst mosquito years up here. Luckily, Barb has The Executioner with us. We have had that thing going on 7 years now and would be lost without it. Seriously, if you are going to travel in mosquito country, get an Executioner. There is not much more satisfying than the sound and smell of those nasty little buggers getting zap. Seriously, you can smell them when they go up in flames.

But we are here to fish, not complain about the bugs. Not having access to the boats Pasha has on several of the area lakes did pose a little wrinkle in our plans but we are full of ingenuity and soon had a canoe strapped to the top of the side by side and were off! Off to a remote 60 acre lake that we knew were packed with tasty walleyes just waiting for a minnow to be dangled in front of them.

Who would catch the first fish of our 2023 Canadian fishing adventure and bestow upon themselves bragging rights for the year? Who will catch the biggest fish of the day? Will I once again out-fish Barb in an embarrassing way? So many questions yet to be answered. For those of you who have canoed, you know it is all about balance and coordination. Barb and I are like a well-oiled machine when it comes anticipating each other’s moves. Even with our insyncness (yup, another new word), it was a little challenging fishing out of a canoe so there are only a couple of pictures.

It was not long before Barb stated the two words I had been dreading. No, not “I’m pregnant”, it was worse, much worse…. “Fish on!” she exclaimed. Landing a plump 18”er. Dang, there goes first fish bragging rights. Soon after, she said those words again. Another 18”er for the stringer. Enough of this, I maneuvered my end of the canoe along the weedline putting her and the front end of the canoe out in no man’s land (or no fishland). I caught the next 3 bringing our total to 5. She then caught another one which got off as I was trying to land it for her. “Really Honey, it was an accident, it just slipped off the hook.”

By the end of the day, we had 7 on the stringer and a few released. She may have bragging rights with the first fish (or two), but so far, I have bragging rights with the most and biggest at 23”. We were off to a good start on Day 1 of our adventure!

The next day, we drove over to Pasha Lake to buy some minnows and meet the new owners. A nice young couple with two small children. Victoria and Kenny kind of reminded me of Chad and Michelle 17 years ago. Young and eager to start their new business. Chad arrived later that day, he is staying in his trailer at Pasha Lake as he is helping them the first week or two of the season to help them get off to a good start. That day and the next, it was rainy and we did not get out. What did get out was more mosquitoes! We could not keep them out of the camper. Even with the doors and windows closed we could not keep them out.

Barb had had enough and was ready to pack it in. Seriously, I don’t think we would have made it another day. We went over to Pasha to visit with Chad. It is more open over here and with a breeze the mosquitoes were not as bad. We were telling Chad that we were probably leaving in the morning when Victoria said “We can make room for you over here”. And just like that, our summer vacation was saved. We have everything moved over in an hour or so.

Our new spot

Our next fishing adventure was on Northwind Lake using one of Pasha’s boats, probably our favorite lake. We drove directly to our honey hole and fished it for about an hour. Of course, no sooner had we put our jigs in the water and Barb  says “fish on” again picking up the first fish of the day but I followed suit rather quickly adding another one to the stringer. We went back and forth on the fish count until it happened. I got cold, and she got hot. I could not catch a fish to save my life, and she kept saying “Fish on” “Fish on”. Those words were really getting on my nerves. It was not fast and furious but she was catching one every 20 minutes or so.

We moved over to fish the side of a little island when…. “Fish on”, she hooked into a nice one. 23 ½”er, the biggest fish so far now belongs to her. We released it and started fishing again. Not 5 minutes later she hooks into another one. And this time the rod does not move, line is just slowly spooling off the reel. She finally gets it alongside the boat and I don’t think it will fit into the net. It did, but just barely. A hefty 28 ¼”er! I can pretty much kiss the biggest fish of the trip goodbye, that one will be hard to beat! I had had enough and switched jigs to the same color she was using. Now, I will start catching fish again!

We move to another spot, those two word kept rolling off her lips. She sounded like a damn parrot “Fish on”, “Fish on”. Meanwhile, my rod continued to be cold. While netting one of her fish, the jig got tangled up in the net so I handed her my rod asking her to hold it while I got the net untangled. You guessed it, “Fish on”. On my frick’in rod! I dropped the net, stood up and pushed her right out of the boat into the water. Well, that is what I did in my head. In actuality, I dutifully netted her fish and deposited on the bottom of the boat next to the other one I did not have time to put on the stringer yet. I think I caught 3 fish to her dozen or so. A totally humbling day.

So there ends our first week up here. A lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same as Barb is still out fishing me. I think I would have rather heard her say “I’m pregnant” instead of dealing with all this humiliation!

48 comments:

  1. If you think the Mosquitoes are bad, try the Black Flys. You'll be needing skin grafts where they bite you.
    The fish know who is the better angler, and that's why Barb is getting more than you.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. The black flies were bad the first day or two then they disappeared. But you are right, those are worse!

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  2. Way to go Barb…your big smile says it all! Sounds like such fun and I love the stories…all those memories! It would be perfect if the dang mosquitos would just relocate for a few weeks.

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    1. I am happiest when Barb is happy, so I just guide her to the big fish and let her catch them.

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  3. Nice story Jim. Hope you all have a very fun and relaxing time...and I hope this is not your last visit to Pasha Lake. New owners, but same ole lake, and same story of Barb out fishing you....

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    1. I know, it's not the same with Chad and Michelle but it doesn't mean we can't have fun up here. It's just different.

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  4. Well done, Barb! Give Jim a hug and tell him better luck next time Haha :)

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    1. Believe me, I get no sympathy at all. She just laughs at me.

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  5. What a hoot; sorry but”fish on” does get a big laugh.Enjoy your stay with old & new friends.Perhaps a “ thermocell” from that Canadian Tire Store would make life a bit mosquito free -all the best.

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    1. We have a couple of thermocells but we've never tried them in the camper. We'll have to give that a try.

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  6. Oh yes,forgot to congratulate Barb,probably hard to be humble when all those fish just line up & jump on the hook.Cheers.

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    1. It's the boats driver and guide that got her all those fish. All she had to do was catch them!

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  7. I loved this post! Well, I didn't really like the mosquito part, or the border check part. We've had the good fortune to be stopped at the border and thoroughly searched as we stood outside and watched.....No fun. I hope your "fish stories" are true and not just "fish stories"!

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    1. Sadly those fish stories are true and she did catch more and bigger ones than me. And one on my rod!

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  8. Time marches on my friend. Case in point. No matter how many high school reunions I go to, you can never relive those days. Like the last one I saw you at. I wanted to stuff you in a locker like the good old days. But I didn't. We've moved on. Barb makes fishing look fun. I may have to try it when I retire.

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    1. I'd believe that if I'd ever been to a class reunion. Too many traumatic memories.....

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  9. Whew--poor Barb at the border! Glad the fish are biting and you've found a place with less mosquitoes! I am a mosquito magnet--I feel your pain!

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    1. Barb is a magnet as well and has bad reactions so it is nice they are not quite as bad. Maybe only a 5 instead of an 8 or 9.

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  10. Yup ... poor Barb for having to catch all YOUR fish for you. Sounds like your Pasha Lake adventures will continue. And yes, those definitely look like rifle cases to me. No surprise you got searched. But what a great way to carry fishing gear!!

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    1. I guess had we known the jeep was coming up here we would have taken those off before we left home. We certainly will next time!

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  11. After reading your blog and a few others from "up thataway" - when I was in a store the other day I saw an Executioner (we used them on the boat) and almost bought it, lol. Whew! So many fish, yaba-daba-doo!

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    1. You shoulda bought it, ours is 7 years old and keeps on a zapp'in!

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  12. Always nice to be back at one’s “Happy Place.” Those are some fine looking fish and some of the most delicious on the planet! So nice Victoria made space for you guys. Your experience at the resort may work in your favour for future visits. Enjoy!

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    1. That was super nice of her. We hope to be back for many years to come!

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  13. is there anyone you do not know or are not friends with?!?! you are blessed with wonderful friendships and just as many memories!! i'm not sure if salt water helps with mosquito bites, we don't really have a mosquito problem here!! i enjoyed the pictures of your fond memories, barb is quite the fisherwoman. she has earned "fish on"!!

    you set up a nice camping area!!

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    1. We just bought the screened gazebo before heading up here, it is a lifesaver!

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  14. Barb definitely had a great time fishing. They look awesome, but how do you keep them fresh? A big chest with lots of ice? I'm sure you don't release all of them.

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    1. We release the big ones, keep some smaller ones for eating. Once they are filleted they get vacuum sealed and frozen.

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  15. What an adventure! I've never camped. The mosquitos are so bad here, I wouldn't want to! I don't know how you do it! I don't know what The Extinguisher is, but I'd like one!

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    1. I am beginning to think you might have the right idea about this whole camping thing!

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  16. I love your set up at the first location. Too bad about the mosquitos. I don't fish so here's a dumb question. Why do you release the big ones? Take care!

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    1. Two reasons; the first is that the bigger ones are usually females who lay thousands of eggs every year ensuring more fish for next year. The second is that we personally like thinner filets to eat that the thick ones from the fatties.

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  17. Go Barb!! Woo-hoo! (Sorry Jim. Steve knows your pain ;-). Sounds like great and tasty memories will be made! That Big’n sure was a beauty!

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    1. I think that was the 2nd or 3rd biggest one she's caught, it sure put a smile on her face!

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  18. Loved the pictures of the past years there. Your first camping area looked great, too bad about the flies and mosquitos, they can sure ruin a camping trip. Your spot by the water looks awesome! Love all of Barb's smiles :)

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    1. The first spot was secluded but horrible! We are much happier now and Barb can smile!

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  19. Wonderful to have those memories to look back on and look forward to making new, yet different, ones! I'd last 5 minutes with those mosquitoes - they love me way too much. Barb definitely has the fishing mojo - even with your rod :-))))) Sounds like lots of fun to come.

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  20. We are having fun, just with different expectations. It'll be interesting to see what the next few years bring.

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  21. I can imagine the mosquitos! Newfoundland is famous for the, for sure.

    Those are beautiful fish. It sounds like a great fishing adventure. Good luck!

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    1. The black flies have gotten better but the mosquitoes certainly have not!

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  22. What kind of fish were you catching?

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    1. There are a variety of fish up here but we tend to target walleye. We catch a few northern by accident but don't really care for those as much.

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  23. I almost missed your post and glad I checked my list. Hopefully you can still visit that campground at Pasha Lake in the future. Aren't you glad to have Barb help you fish ;-) Mosquitos sure can put a damper on outside activities. We have Walleye here too and no Mosquitos just saying!

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    1. I know you guys are east of here, just not exactly sure where you are? It has been a great trip and it was great to meet the new owners!

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  24. Those darn mosquitoes wreck everything. I remember you having to tape up every seam on your rig before because the mosquitoes were still getting in even with things closed. Definitely not for me. Congratulations to Barb!! She just has the touch. Hope you had better days after.

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    1. We've moved on. The mosquitoes got a little better but not a lot. We are now enjoying an area where they are just normal and not horrendous.

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  25. Looks like you two had a great time.. Thumbs up to Barb!

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