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Pompano
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Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Up North - is like Down Baja
| Quote: | Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Thank you for sharing pictures of your dad, pompano. And before I go I wanted to perhaps take you back down memory lane to that canoe trip you took as
a young man through the canadian wilderness with your best friend. |
Igor, that canoe trip I took with my lifelong amigo was truly one of our epic trips. We began doing 'let's go!' trips together in our early teens and
eagerly read everything we could on the outdoor subject of 'adventure in the wilds'. Eric Severeid "Canoeing with the Cree" was and still is one of
my favorite reads, along with "Spirit of the North" by Sigurd Olson, who I also had the honor to meet in the 70's, plus Farley Mowatt's. '"Lost in the
Barrens', People of the Deer, A Whale for the Killing, The Franklin Expedition, Perry at the Pole, Alexander Pope's diary, etc"...all sit in my
library amid other volumes of early exploration and survival in the Far North.
Frequently, during a quiet moment of contemplation on a canoe trip, Olson would read brief passages of poetry and prose scrawled on small scraps of
paper for inspiration and peace of mind. Similarly, Spirit of the North is the ideal wilderness companion, passionate, authentic, and
deeply reverent of the natural world. I am quite sure it would be of interest to anyone who loves the beauty of Baja, also.
Your voyage with Alex brings back many memories of great trips with my father..canoeing, rowing, running rapids, portaging, and being taught the finer
points of catching fish with a fly instead of a worm...why not to take more than one fools hen for supper...long days and short nights watching the
aurora borealis with loons and wolves for music. Hard to describe these father-son events, but they are life-shapers...and savers.
Along with our early trips to Baja, my childhood friend Randy and I have traveled the world together over the last 50 plus years since our first
forays. That particular canoe trip across 1100 miles of wilderness Canada just confirmed our passion to see more of nature's wilderness before it
disappeared. Each year since then we have alternated choices on where to explore. Together like modern-day Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, we've
trudged the Kyber Pass, ate bread baked in camel dung ovens, been kicked by mules, chased by demons..and other fun stuff like that....
This is the duo..from college days to early signs of dufferage. We are now looking a lot like our late fathers....
.
Minnesota's Rainy River and other canoe routes:
Ken, your description on canoeing must have put you in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness and Quetico Park. A truly magical place
where no motors are allowed..only canoes. I have paddled it many times and thrill to the fight ofsmallmouth on a clear reef. I
liked it so much as a child that later I got a cabin on the Rainy River in NE Minnesota...part of an active canoe route from eastern US and Canada to
the western and northern routes that the early French voyageurs paddled in the fur trade days of 16th-18th century America. Amost every day in the
summer some eager canoeists paddle by our riverside cottage on their way to thier own adventures. River otters and Canadian honkers keep them
company. Lucky buggers, I think I'll stow away next summer.
The Ontario border is just across the river from our place....an entirely open border..defined by respect and good manners.
A great place to teach grandkids how to fish is right off that dock. Right after the Sunday paper, that is...
Walleye dinners!...ummm. Berries like you said..I make a terrific Dutch oven 'compage' for breakfast with wild
blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. But hey, everything tastes great on a remote northern island, right? Shore Lunch is my
middle name!
This is what's on the menu..Walleye!
And..if you are lucky like we were...you will find a convenient convenience on your island! What?..maybe not so lucky for the gals?
Sweet clover planted here would do wonders!
Speaking of eating...I got a huge kick out of this billboard in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Toontown). This would NOT go over well at PETA
headquarters!
Igor..remember my secret tundra fishing hole?
Trout pond building plans at work Up North...first this:
Then this:
.
Thanks again Igor, for this great thread and now much fun it is to take a kid fishing. And especially for those fighting northern pike! Puts a grin
on everyone's face!
Even us older kids...
[Edited on 10-31-2008 by Pompano]
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Natalie Ann
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Registered: 8-22-2003
Location: Berkeley
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What a fun thread this continues to be!
This fathers and sons thing - 
Igor - The bottom half of your face and the bottom half of Alex's face match perfectly! Well, except for the mustache.
Baitcast - If that little boy is you - the one with the handsome father - well, there's quite a resemblance there, too.
Pompano - You were a cutie of a kid and I so much see you in your dad's face.
And Ken Bondy - Well, Ken, I can barely notice your kids for looking at the younger version of you. You were a bit of a hottie - no?!
Actually the kids look very much like their dad - whole buncha good looking kids.
Igor - The canoe pix are really beautiful. The vertical one that we'd talked about - it does seem to carry a mood most pleasant and
tranquil, while the canoe adds that sense of adventure. I especially like the bark on that tree. And of course that 2nd canoe picture is a favorite
of mine, also.
3digitKen - Thanks for sharing such good memories of your canoing adventure. It sounds heavenly.
And now I see that Roger has added more words and pix on another trip.... posted while I'm typing this. Need to get back and catch up with that one.
With the possibility of sounding like Tiny Tim.... thank you, contributors, thank you every one.
Nena
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
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baitcast
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Location: kingman AZ.
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Natalie Ann that is me in the late 30,s,and yes he was a looker and a outdoor man of the first degree.
And the fish we were holding were Mackinaw as they were called in those days,lake trout today.
Rob
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Skipjack Joe
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Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Wow! I get to work this morning, turn on the computer, and see this. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Roger, for a great post. There is so much
information there it will take me a while to digest it.
A couple of things though:
This thread really shows how valuable pictures become with age. Just the aging process itself makes an image grow more and more valuable. I see that
in your pictures, and Ken's, and baitcast's. Those old images are now priceless. And yet when you took them they just seemed so unimportant. It just
goes to show you how important it is to just go around and shoot what seem to be meaningless pictures. I have realized this recently and am no longer
storing my 'pretty pictures' in our albums as I know they won't withstand the test of time.
I really enjoyed your recount of your lifelong fishing buddy. I think a very good thread would be just that: fishing buddies. Everyone seems to have
them. I've got a lifelong friend, Vlad, whom I've known and fished with since I was 11. We met in the back of truck on the way home from a scouts
meeting back then. During our lives we've been friends, fought to the point of not speaking to one another for 4 years, and back to friendship - and
always the fishing was there. Even our kids I think have finally realized that our friendship has been really special. I know that in these next few
years Alex will start such a friendship and am always wondering who it will be.
Warning: The fact that your pike is bigger than ours has not gone unnoticed.
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Iflyfish
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What great pics and wonderful memories! I rember my first Northern, in Minn, Turtle Lake, six years old, about three pounds, braught it to the boat,
those HUGE teeth, fear/excitement, thrilling, absolutely thrilling, it's why I keep going back, and back, and back.
Keep em coming!
Iflyfish
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Skipjack Joe
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Pompano
Even us older kids...
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Ouch!
I am told that you can somehow take a picture supporting your fish with a doll's hands and really impress friends. 
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beachbum1A
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Location: Punta Banda, BC
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Excelent thread! Made me dig around to find a couple to post from one of our summer canoe trips into northern Ontario, up near Jame's Bay.
We's usually catch some Walley or Pike during the day, fillet them out and put the fillets into some Zip Lock baggies.
Then put them under the seat (in the shade) on the bottom of the canoe, so the coolness of the water would keep them till dinner tme.
Better than Walley though, was the one time we caught what the Canadian's call "Speckled Trout" up one of the rivers feeding into a large lake. Darn
they were good!
Just do it!
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beachbum1A
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Almost forgot: here's a "Proper Privy" that we thought would be great if you had company coming! LOL
Just do it!
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Skipjack Joe
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Keaton, examining a maple leaf:
- Isn't nature incredible?
Allen:
To me, nature is... I dunno,
spiders and bugs and,
big fish eating little fish.
And plants eating plants
and animals eating...
It's ...., it's like an enormous restaurant.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Igor...
I keep coming back to your thread and reviewing all these exuberant posts. They are the 'lure' that makes this place more fun to visit..at least for
me....adventure, family, quality times, good nostalgia.
Now as the those huge NORTHERN PIKE..(the Baja Sharks Up North)....picture yourself in this situation:
You are casting from your tippy canoe..
...you get a good strike!..
... and bring this nice 8lb pike alongside, being careful to not rock too much...
..then ALL OF A SUDDEN GODZILLA EMERGES...
and inhales your catch....brrrrrrrr.
Where we will be fishing this summer, this actually happens frequently. Swim at your own risk...
.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Skipjack Joe
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Roger,
Last night, when we saw this post on our laptop, Alex told me we absolutely had to get one of these. But I wanted to see it on the big screen at work
before replying.
All I gotta say is , wow! That has to be the baddest guy in all of North America. It looks like he isn't even hooked. Just doesn't want to let go.
I've caught lings like that. They just hold on to the rockfish and you just scoop them up with a landing net. I don't think a landing net would have
worked for this big boy. It looks like he's been chewing on the pike for a while.
That musky looks like he's well fed, too. Could be anything in that stomach: ducks, beavers, muskrats ... It's my understanding that these fish reach
legendary proportions and are part of mythology of the northern tribes.
No doubt about it. For Minnesottans and outdoorsman in central Canada getting one of behemoths must be like .... like getting a blue marlin off BCS.
More so, actually.
Have you seen "Grumpy Old Men". Well, I thought it would have been better if the prize fish they both lusted for would have been a musky instead of
that grandaddy catfish.
Thanks for resurrecting this old thread. I thought there was more to this subject than what was said.
P.S. Getting that fish must have been one of the highlights of your fishing career.
[Edited on 3-16-2009 by Skipjack Joe]
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Skipjack Joe
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Looks as though I was wrong about that pike you posted, Roger.
I got an email from a friend of mine with that picture. It's now the world record pike of North America. I just assumed it had to be a musky to be
that big. I suppose since he netted it, though, (he got both pike with the same landing net) it won't qualify as an angling record.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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World Record Pike? Who knows?
| Quote: | Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Roger,
Last night, when we saw this post on our laptop, Alex told me we absolutely had to get one of these. But I wanted to see it on the big screen at work
before replying.
All I gotta say is , wow! That has to be the baddest guy in all of North America. It looks like he isn't even hooked. Just doesn't want to let go.
I've caught lings like that. They just hold on to the rockfish and you just scoop them up with a landing net. I don't think a landing net would have
worked for this big boy. It looks like he's been chewing on the pike for a while.
That musky looks like he's well fed, too. Could be anything in that stomach: ducks, beavers, muskrats ... It's my understanding that these fish reach
legendary proportions and are part of mythology of the northern tribes.
No doubt about it. For Minnesottans and outdoorsman in central Canada getting one of behemoths must be like .... like getting a blue marlin off BCS.
More so, actually.
Have you seen "Grumpy Old Men". Well, I thought it would have been better if the prize fish they both lusted for would have been a musky instead of
that grandaddy catfish.
Thanks for resurrecting this old thread. I thought there was more to this subject than what was said.
P.S. Getting that fish must have been one of the highlights of your fishing career.
[Edited on 3-16-2009 by Skipjack Joe] |
Yes Igor, that monster had all of us pike (and musky) fishermen green with envy. Guessing that one went to mid-50's at least. My biggest pike was a
30lber I took while canoeing the Churchill River. It followed my Mad Mouse surface bait back to our canoe and it really excited/scared me when I saw
that huge head gliding along right underneath my lure...then WHAMMO! Oh, yeah, Alex will have a ball with those.
Actually, that opportunity of netting both predator and prey fish presents itself quite often with pike. They're a lot like certain birds, easy to
lure. You can tell Alex that if you spend enough time at pike fishing in Canada or Lake of the Woods inlets and flows that this event will happen.
Just have a camera ready! That's a 36" pike this big guy was trying to eat.
On canoe trips through pike waters, I've seen these bruisers take swimming mallards (ducklings are just a mere snack).
Hah..I loved 'Grumpy Old Men', a great comedy about ice fishermen on Mill Lacs in Minnesota. That was/is my background in ND, MN,
and Canada. If you have never had the experience of fishing through 2 feet of ice, sitting in a icehouse in the middle of a full-blown northern
blizzard, wondering if the sun will ever appear again, then you are A LUCKY GUY! This is a crazy sport and centers mostly on what wierd contraption
you can nail together for your fishhouse. More a social event than about fishing, the houses get clustered together, snowplows create streets,
fish-name streetsigns are erected, some folks run street lights from their gensets,TV antennas grow from icehouse roofs, pot luck dinners, weddings,
(a couple of funerals)...all in all, it's a real hoot..
.
Walleye is the prize fish in this type of fishing. This new Saskatchewan record walleye was caught at Lake Tobin by this Catholic priest. He
credited his catch to saying a fishing prayer. If you plan to do much more Canada lake fishing, I would highly recommend this lake on the
Saskatchewan River flowage..one of the best regions for record walleye and pike. Also great hunting..ducks, geese, sandhills, moose, elk, deer, bear.
I go there every September-October.
.
While walleye are hands-down the most sought after fish for the pan, these pike are also prized. This is a smallish one I pulled through the ice in a
1971 blizzard that kept us snowbound in the fishhouse for 4 days.
.
One of my heaters was propane-fed and it was sooo cold that the propane would not gasify, but laid as a liquid at the bottom of the tank. The
boiling point of propane is -42 Celsius or -43 F. It got to -60 F during that storm....without any yuppy wind chill factor. Brrrrr..now that's cold!
Good thing I built that fishhouse to withstand bitter temps. 12' X 20' X 8' high, carpeted, 2" insulation, 2 sources heat (one wood-burner), poker
table, 12 fishing holes, 1 spearing hole, 2 full-size bunk beds, and plenty of provisions. Refridgeration was NOT needed.
.
| Quote: | Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Looks as though I was wrong about that pike you posted, Roger.
I got an email from a friend of mine with that picture. It's now the world record pike of North America. I just assumed it had to be a musky to be
that big. I suppose since he netted it, though, (he got both pike with the same landing net) it won't qualify as an angling record.
|
Same info here, Igor. I get a lot of fishing mail and it seems that fish has "Frequent Flyer Miles", Its from Europe, 3 or 4 Canadian provinces, and
most of the Mid-west and northern states!! Lots of folks swear that monster pike was caught on Rainy River, Ontario (where I hava a cottage), others
say Michigan, or Saskatchewan, or Holland, or Italy, or Norway..the list goes on. You know how the story-telling goes. Wherever it came from, it's remarkable. The stuff of legend.
Fisheries Canada said that the fish was caught in Rainy lake Ont. they did not know if the fish was caught in the Canadian side or the American side
but it was documented and the wieght was 45.6 lbs. The North American record for northern pike caught was in the state of New York at 46.2 lbs. In
June, Stan Pokrywka of Regina Sask. caught a 47.5 lbs. 55.5 inch northern in Miround lake near Pelican Narrows. If you want more information on this
catch go to Saskatoon Star Phoenix july 8 2008 and look under 'Lunker lives to fight another day.'
Musky are slightly different than pike. Here's an easy chart to study.
.
.
What musky look like:
.
.
Here's the pike colorations:
.
And some of the lures you use to catch musky...AND large pike.
.
This photo shows typical big pike (and musky) habitat to check out. Weedy bays off deep water and river inlets.
.
The one huge difference between pike and musky is thier location. Generally: Musky are found in southern Canada from Ontario eastwards. In the USA
from NW Minnesota eastwards and as far south as Ohio. Some other stocking efforts are paying off in western and southern areas.
.
Now...did someone mention that best tasting fish of all...THE WALLEYE?
.
A long time ago...
and nowadays..still my favorite eating fish. And a lot of fun to catch!
[Edited on 3-19-2009 by Pompano]
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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