Canada Part IV: Now What?

So you spend 18 hours of drive time, not counting eating, gassing up, changing drivers, practicing your Canadian accent, and admiring the distance between towns in Canada...fly a little and get settled (in heaven), now what?  


We ate, fished, ate, napped, worked, fished, ate, (sometimes fished again) and slept.  I'll cover fished and worked, even my genius bloggerheads can figure out the ate, napped, and slept part...two of them are the same and one is just a long nap! (okay, I'm an idiot).


Being providers for our clan, we all headed out to fish shortly after setting foot on terra firma.  Priorities you know, gotta eat!  The fish of choice here is walleye.  There are lake trout (way down deep), northern pike, and a few elusive other kinds of fish .  The northerns are very boney (lots of small bones that are hard to get when filleting them) and it is to much work to go deep... besides, this group is a quick reward stimulus kind of group.  Each outing starts with some prep work, especially the first one because you have to rig your pole and decide on your bait du jour.  Will it be an artificial lure? I think not.  I am going to give them something to sink their little teeth into (they really do have sharp little teeth, some not so little!).  Worms it is (or should that be worms it are?)!

Here Greg begins stringing up his weapon
of choice.

Once all preparation is complete and you have all necessary gear (pole, tackle box, worm box, sunscreen, rain jacket and pants, life preserver, snacks/drink, hat sunglasses, stringer, gasoline, fishing license, and in some cases your spouse, etc...) we divide up into our boats (with a 15 hp limit) and head to the spots that have been good to us in the past.  With any luck (for me skill has nothing to do with it) you get a strike and that same luck will bring you a walleye as seen below.  Once you catch a fish, sometimes you feel like striking a pose for your friends and family, also demonstrated below.

The red and white tape measure looking sticker on the
left side of the boat reminds you of the sizes of fish that
can be kept or thrown back.  Most of the fish I caught were
smaller than this.  Carol and Carole both caught ones 4-5
inches longer than this one...Go Girl Power!

Here, Rodney demonstrates the appropriate - check this out -
pose, to the boys back home.

Rodney has also mastered the humbling - size doesn't matter -
pose, which subtly states...I'm an equal opportunity angler.

Chuck show us the - fish witness protection program -
pose.

And inevitably some anglers get emotionally attached,
as Greg shows here with the - I'll show you my lips,
if you show me yours - pose. (this fish fell for it, some don't)

Here, I demonstrate the - okay I was after a walleye,
but got a northern, so I might as well get a picture of it,
even if it s a small one - pose.

And finally, the - I'm a stud, fishing alone in
a kayak, and accidently caught this bad boy and
I don't have anyone here to help me get a photo
of us together - pose... shows off your multitasking
adaptability skills as an angler!

Some fish while sitting, as demonstrated
by Bruce and Carol.

Some fish standing, a rather intimidating posture towards
the fish to show dominance.

Some choose a terrestrial approach, standing on rocks.

Some people (Carole) need protection while fishing,
from themselves.  This angler (Carole) sports a fishing
helmet that looks strangely like an engine cover, so as to
not scare the fish, yet other anglers in the area reported
aliens had landed and were quite taken by this whole
fishing thing.

Some anglers were all about the pose and didn't notice
a wall of water soon to ruin their day.

And some fish for meaning from the written word...
not sure why anyone would do that as opposed to
trying to get a sharp, curved piece of metal to pierce
the flesh of another living being's mouth, followed by
pulling them against their will to a place they cannot
breathe, only to let them go and do it again and again.

Like they say, "A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work."  I really don't consider myself much of a fisherman, but I haven't had a bad day of fishing yet, here in heaven.  All play and no work can make Jack a dull boy...no, maybe that's backwards, anyway, it is more than just throwing a hook in the water, it's fishing.

To be continued...

My Zen from the boat:  What you don't get from the pictures of fishing are the stories being told, the laughter so hard that tears roll down your cheeks, the quiet solitude, and the focus on that thin line that disappears into the water and what may happen at any given moment at the end of it.  It's not just about the catching, it's about the fishing.