Moose-Mania!

I posted a couple of blogs in short order, so if you missed Shocked, Amazed and Confused, you can go back and read it here. 

Our generation, those of us 60+ or so, are the first to live the first half of their lives without cell phones and the second half with. Our kids will never understand what it was like not to have a cell phone always at hand, never live a life without text or messaging. Try to explain to them party lines and four-digit phone numbers and they look at you like you are from another planet!

 Yet, we to have succumbed to the digital era. As we traveled and camped throughout some of the remotest parts of British Columbia this week, we found ourselves without cell service. I also found myself checking my phone several times a day to see if we had service. Sad, but true. I missed my lifeline to the outside world. As we were camped at Inga Lake for two rainy days, I could not read blogs, I could not publish any comments that someone may have left on our blog, I could not check my voicemail and did not receive any text messages. 

Gone are the days when you do not know what is going on in the world; politically, nationally, or even with friends or family. Sometimes I long for those simpler days. What do they say?…Ignorance is bliss…. But, wait, we were living them now! No news, no drama, just enjoying nature and loving life. 

Then in the middle of one rainy day while reading a book, my phone started going crazy. Ding! Ding! Ding! A half a dozen text messages came through. One from my bro-friend Dave in Alberta, a couple from Chris at the farm, and a couple from neighbor Jim back home. I quickly grabbed my phone and was able to respond to a few of them before the signal was lost. Then I was again in no-cellville. 

We eventually moved on from that campground and got spotty cell service, then lost it again. Along the way we stopped and fished a couple of remote rivers and streams without success. We did see some beautiful scenery however!

Yes, there is still snow on the ground in some places. Many of the larger rivers are still running fast due to the snowmelt. I do not think that is helping the fishing situation at all. At one spot Barb was fishing just down river from me and I noticed her rod was bent like crazy! I looked like she had the monster of all fish on, but luckily for me, it was just a large log. Being the wonderful husband I am, I watched (and photographed) as she took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her pant and stepped into the ice-cold water to unsnag her lure. 

We made our way to Fort Nelson. A week ago, the entire town had been evacuated, population 3,400. Now, the fires are out, everyone has returned, and you would not know anything even happened, except the scorched landscape and a few burnt out dwellings and cars. (Diesel was $2.019/liter by the way) It could have been a lot worse. Thank God for Mother Nature and Wildland Firefighters. I don’t think there is a more physically strenuous job on the planet. I know I could not do it.

Speaking of diesel, since we crossed over into Canada we have seen prices anywhere from $1.46 (4.02 USD/gallon after conversion) to as high as $2.49 ($6.87 USD/gallon) 

We passed not one, by two of Barb’s scheduled overnight spots ending up at Tetsa Lake campground about 3:00 in the afternoon and spent the night near the highway. The next day, after stopping and fishing a few more spots, with no luck, we kept on a truck’in. 

We ended up at the Toad River Campground. It was not a planned stop, but when I saw they had Wi-Fi (I know!) and I needed to post a blog we decided to stop and spend the night. Let me tell you, if you ever pass by this way you HAVE to stay here! Talk about a cool campground. We parked our rig (site #14) and looked out over the lake to see not one, not two, not three, but 4 moose feeding out in the lake!

Barb did laundry, I worked on the blog, and Zoey watched moose out the window.  

Some were as close as 200 yards (182.88 meters) from the camper. 

At one point, one moose was walking through the water to another moose. 

When they got close together, one moose pinned its ears back. I have seen that look before from Barb, so I knew what was going to happen next. I just kept my finger on the shutter button and captured this series of pictures. 

Yep, pretty much the same result as me (I am on the right), I get whacked on the head and sent on my way. A little while later, this young bull came out for a photo op. 

So far, we have seen 6 moose, 3 bears and two stone sheep. The bears were along the side of the road but we did get this picture at one place we fished. 

And there was a lot of bear sign in that area as well. Looks like they were digging for grubs. The Stone Sheep were walking right along the road. 

Just before Toad River was Stone Mountain. No trees, nothing, just stone.....

We managed to get one hike in when we hiked Red Rock Canyon. We hiked 2 miles up the canyon before turning around and heading back to the truck.

Arriving at Muncho Lake, we were anxious to get fishing. Thus far, any fishing luck we’ve had has been in lakes. The rivers and creeks have skunked us. We quickly got our rods ready, chairs set up, lines in the water. Then we read our books, enjoyed the scenery and waited.

In 2016 I was the only one to catch a fish here and was hoping for a repeat to bring me to a 3-0 lead. Not insurmountable, but a commanding lead, nonetheless. Barb was the first one to get a bite as her line went taunt and the fish started tugging. But it was gone before Barb could set the hook. A few minutes later a fish was back tugging on her line, but again she did not get a hook set. I reeled my line in to make sure I still had bait on the hook and casted it back out. Our lines were just a few yards apart, surely, the next fish could not resist the tasty morsel at the end line. But again, it was Barb’s line the fish went for. This time the hook set was successful, and the fight was on! 

I ran to the camper to get the net was Barb fought the fish. She only had 8lb test line on her rod meaning any fish over 8lbs would surely break her line unless so fought it properly. The water is so clear here that you can see deep into the depths, and it was not long before we saw she had a lake trout on, maybe about 5lbs.

 

The fish would come up to the surface, then dive back down, repeating this 3-4 times, never getting close enough to shore for me to net it. I had taken my shoes and socks off as I would need to wade out to net it if she got it close enough to shore, 3 more times it came up to the surface, I would wade out to my knees each time hoping it would come close enough, but each time it just turned tail and headed for the depths. Let me tell you, this water was cold! Just a week ago when our friends Steve and Debbie were here, they said there was ice on it! I could only stand in it for 30 seconds at a time before needed to go to shore and warm my toes. 

Then, Barb’s line ceased to move at all apparently stuck around a log or rock, it was not moving. I took her rod in an attempt to get it free from whatever was holding it back, putting a little more force on the line than I was really comfortable with when all of a sudden the fish started moving again. I do not know if the line was really stuck, or if the fish had just settled on the bottom and became stubborn. Either way, the fight was still on! 

I gave the rod back to Barb, grabbed the net and continued to wait. By now, a good 5 minutes had passed, and we had gathered a crowd of 3 from the neighboring campsites. Barb played the fish like a pro as the fish continued to take more line out and Barb slowly gained ground on it. At one point, she was able to get it within feet of the net before it turned and swam back to the depths again. It was at this point I realized we had a problem. Remember that scene in Jaws where Captain Quint turned to the crew and said, “We’re going to need a bigger boat”? I turned to Barb and said, “We’re going to need a bigger net.” Apparently, the clear water was so deceiving that it made the fish look smaller than it really was. There was no way this fish was going to fit into the net!

I then started to get nervous as so many thoughts went through my head. “What if I screw the netting up and the fish gets off?”. “Should I purposely knock it off, so she does not catch the fish?” “Would I ever get breakfast in bed again?”. The next time she got it up near shore I waded in, managed to get the front half of the fish in the net, grab the tail with my other had and walk it to shore. Everyone was in awe, not of my netting skills, while they were superb, it was the size of the fish everyone was in awe of. This thing was a slob!  

Measuring 37” and weighing over 20lb’s this fish is by far the biggest lake trout either of us have caught. 

We had it fileted and one the grill within 20 minutes and were soon eating fresh trout lakeside. I fileted into ¼ sections; for a couple of different reasons. One, the whole filet would not fit onto the grill, or our freezer and two, it allowed us to share with our neighbors! Barb went over to the neighbor to our left and asked if he wanted some. He was an Albertan from Calgary. He in turn asked if we wanted a couple of beers. She declined, explaining to him that we do not drink. Ha! No, she actually came back with two beers as we were totally out! 

We shared another ¼ with our neighbors to the right, a young couple in their 30’s. He (Cory) is from eastern Pennsylvania, and she (Dagmar) is originally from Minnesota, just a few miles from where I grew up! We must have talked to them for over 3 hours as we ate and continued to fish. We had a lot in common with them.  They have been on the road fulltime for 11 months now and are loving life. At the end of the evening, we exchanged information with a promise to meet up again on the Kenai to do some more fishing. We made some new friends on the road! 

 The next morning, I awoke with the realization that there was no way I was going to catch the biggest fish on this trip, unless maybe there is a toad halibut in my future. On the bright side, I did get breakfast in bed this morning, so life is indeed good!

A huge thank you to Cory and Dagmar for letting us steal their internet this morning!