2005-08-26 �

Canada 2: The fishing

If you didn't already read about the flight to Canada, you can read it here.

After we got to the lake on 7/30, we immediately unpacked our fishing gear, strung up the rods, made some drinks (or packed coolers with beer), signed our paperwork and made for the water. After getting the boat loaded and getting in, I fired up the boat and Joe and I hit the lake at full throttle! The smell of the bush (don�t be naughty) and that cool, lakey (it�s an adjective I just made up) breeze split my face with a grin 3 miles wide. I love that lake.

Chad went out with Phil and Curtis. We normally don't go 3 to a boat, but we only had a few hours to fish, so it was cool. A bit of fishing at the nearest trout hole yielded a few fish, Chad caught the very first fish of the trip on his first drop. BOOYAH! He later wrote about this precedent in the trip journal. His spelling: �First blud.� We all caught fish, but none of them were of noteworthy size.

After a little while, we got together on the lake and had a toast for our dear departed friend, Aaron van Driesum, who drowned in the lake last year. Aaron was a great guy, a great fisherman, and a lot of fun to play cribbage with. He died 10 days after we left last year. Anyway, Joe had bought a sixer of Western Light, which is what Aaron was drinking when we left. There were five of us, so we shared some tearful memories and chugged our beers while I dumped one in the lake for my homey.

Fishing and drinking, drinking and fishing, talkin� shit. That was most of the trip - that and a whole bunch of Cribbage. I actually won a lot too. Yeah!!!

A good portion of the trip was spent trolling for trout. Supposedly, the only way to catch the really big trout is to troll. The other way to fish for trout is called vertical jigging (gettin� jiggy wid it), where you drop a lure down into a deep part of the lake. The deep holes are where the trout go; they like the cold, black water for some reason. Then you reel up quickly and hope they�re interested in biting your hook. POW! You get a hit! Set the hook, let her run if she wants to, (most of the fish we pull up are females. Don�t look at me like that, I know the difference! No, it�s best not to ask how I know) Finally get her to the surface and go for the gill grab. There is much rejoicing. The smaller fish (3-5 lbs) will usually kick a few more times, trying desperately to hook you with your own hook. Stupid fish. Then you get the hook out and send the fish home, and hope she goes to find her daddy and tell him she just got beat up by some vagrant ruffians from the other world.

- Fast forward a few days �

Lots of WIND, COLD RAIN and BIG, BIG water. Joe and Phil went out early, since neither of them eat breakfast, and caught a few fish. Chad was alone in the boat for the first time that day. Holy shit did the weather suck! Honestly, in 5 trips to this lake, it was the worst weather I had ever seen there.

The rest of the trip was awesome too. I won�t bore you with the details, because they get pretty banal after a while. For instance: So I caught this fish and then let it go and then I caught 3 more and we had drifted past the hole so I started up the engine after I made a cocktail and we drifted over the hole again and I didn�t catch anything right way so I switched to this other lure and then I caught some more fish and then we didn�t catch anything so we decided to go to a different spot and then we caught more fish blah, blah, blah.

Get the idea? No? Well, here are some photos to reinforce it. By the way, they�re all of ME!!!!!!!!! Well, and some other things� Oh, and I didn't take any of these photos, even the ones that were taken with my camera! What a sleaze!

Deplane! Deplane!

The cabin

Captain Tim, navigating with the GPS!

Me and my rod

The pike I caught with my rod

And the grand finale *drum roll*�The trophy trout!!!

Memorable quotes from Lake Wignes:

Krista, speaking of the relationship between two other Scott Lake staff:
�I think she�s really happy with the T-bag�

Chad, after a two fish in a row got off his hook:
�What we have here is a failure to masticate.�

Me, speaking of the 16� boat with a bad or wrecked motor:
�That�s a tough ho to row.�

Jay, because he was jonesing and I was his tobacco daddy:
�Hey Tim, let�s smoke a Parliament.�

Joe, after I pointed out a fish belly-up in the water a few minutes after he had caught a really bloody one:
�It�s probably that one I hooked in the giney�

Joe, inquiring about a fish that Curtis thought he killed:
*Yelled* �Did you hook it in the giney?!� This still makes me laugh out loud.

Tim, upon getting dealt a poor cribbage hand by Chad: "Dude, you fucked me!"
Chad: "I didn't fuck you!"
Joe: "The DNA will tell"

Chad: "Come on pikies, come get some spoon-tang"

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Want to comment? Speak up! 3 Quips to Date

Alex - 2005-08-29 12:56:21
The only way to catch big fish is to troll (SP?). Unless you use TNT, and I hear thats illegal now.
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Cyndi Hughes - 2005-08-29 19:16:54
What am impressive "fishing" story. Good thing you had a camera to back you up!!! :) Tim you are a true story writer and am totally impressed with your ability to capture the moment on paper. Love ya like no other!!!
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e miller - 2008-04-08 23:21:56
I was happy to run into this off-hand looking for some other van Driesum info. Aaron was my nephew! Such a wonderful guy, we all miss him so much and are glad that there are so many other people that carry fond memories of him and his fishing talents (with or without the crazy hair) regards, Liz
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Last Five Entries

Goin' back to Cali - 2011-05-10
Healing - 2011-01-27
What if I hadn't done that? - 2010-11-10
Cousin Dave - 2010-09-13
Back to Spokane - 2010-08-25

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