Grouse Hollow Journal for June 20, 2013

Grouse Hollow Journal for June 20, 2013 by Greg Koelker

I was saved by a Bear fan.  Friday night in Ft. Francis, Ontario, I got into a bar fight with some Viking fans.  I was holding my own, when a Bear fan came to my rescue.  Ok, my wife says I have to tell the truth.  The real story:  I went out to the truck to fetch my cell phone and there was a note on the windshield of my very clearly marked Packer fan green Ranger.  It read: “Found a black phone behind your truck.  Check the front desk.  Signed, A Bear Fan.”  The lady at the desk gave me the phone and took me to the lounge to point our my saviors.  Three nice guys - Bear fans all - from central Illinois.  I thanked them and bought them a round, shared email addresses so I could thank them again, and said good luck fishing.  Anyway, thanks again guys.

As I start this on Sunday morning (okay, midmorning really as it is so easy to sleep in up here), I am seated on the deck overlooking Cedar Lake in Ontario, Canada.  The sun is breaking through the clouds, making the waves glisten.  There have been loons wailing and chattering. Occasionally, I can hear a float plane or outboard motor in the distance, but mostly I can hear leaves in the breeze and eagles and loons and song birds.  We come here every year, and every year conditions are different.

On Saturday afternoon after hi’s and hugs with our old friends and hosts the Frostiaks, Ellen and I unpacked the Ranger into Cabin 2.  After a sandwich, Ellen put the cabin in order and carried our fishing gear down to the dock.  We loaded up our Northwoods boat with our fishing poles, bait cooler, and rain gear, and took off for Portage Bay.

Though the sun was out, the lake was feisty.  We bounced and splashed our way across Cedar Lake.  My right side was half soaked by the time we hit smoother water in the narrows leading into Portage.  I decided to try Ellen Bay for some walleyes.  We marked fish in the deep water of the bay, but nothing was hungry for what we had to offer I guess.  Along a rocky wall in Portage where we lost a fish basket full of walleyes and perch last year after it came untied from the boat, again we marked fish and Ellen hooked a decent smallmouth bass, but still no fish for the fryer.  We decided to do some sight seeing.

For the last few years, there has been a loon on a nest in Portage Bay and we decided to check out the loon point.  She was there - I assume it is the same one. The protective mother ruffled up her feathers to threaten us, but like every good mom she stood her ground to defend her young and never left her nest.  We snapped a couple pictures and backed off.
 
Shortly thereafter, we tried some slip bobbers with night crawlers to catch a fish dinner.  We tried jigging too. The perch were hungry, but mostly they were small.  Still we had fun, finally putting a dozen 10-inch perch in the basket along with a couple decent walleyes, more than enough for supper.

Ellen boiled some potatoes and I fried the fish for supper on our first night.  Later, I popped popcorn and we watched “Mama Mia.”  (We bring along a monitor and DVD player for evening entertainment.  There is no off the air TV though, nice.  Our cell phones work, but cost $0.89 a minute for out and in calls, but texting is free, and we used to really rough it, but the camp has had Wi Fi for a couple of years.)

On Father‘s Day morning, El fried sausage and eggs over easy for me before we headed out on the lake.  We motored to Musky Bay to hunt perch based on a tip from our neighbors, the Ross family of Glenwood City.  The story we got from Richard Ross the night before was that they really did well with perch in Musky Bay, but that a high school boy with them, a Cedar Lake newbie named Isaac had hooked a decent northern pike.  Just before he landed it, a big musky attacked the northern, taking most of it in its mouth!  When the boys tried to dip net the pair, the musky got wise and let the northern go and escaped, but they did land the northern.  (Isaac had never caught a northern, let alone a musky before.  Of course, he caught another musky on Sunday!)

Anyway, we started drifting with jigs and crawler chunks for bait and started to catch fish.  In fact we nailed ‘em.  Ellen and I caught maybe 50 perch and a dozen walleyes.   Most of the perch were smaller, some just above bait size, but we kept 16 10-inch perch and five walleyes, so we had the makings of a Father’s Day fish feast for lunch.

While we were frying fish, Tom and Jane Downs - the 2013 replacements for our usual camp partners Barb and Chuck Wright -  rolled into the camp - just in time for a fish lunch.

That afternoon, we took them to Grassy Bay to check a spot where got some perch last year.  While we anchored and jigged for perch in what was serving for a weed line, Tom and Jane started jigging and casting jigs tipped with green and black artificial rubber minnows for walleyes.  They had success, in fact they schooled us.  Ellen and I got a rock, while they put 4 nice walleyes in their cooler and tossed back 20 or more.  Thank goodness - fresh Canadian Walleye for supper - again!

Until next time, get out - the other day someone who read last week’s column, asked me how we could afford all the travel and adventures we have planned in retirement.  The answer - we are rich!  Okay, the truth is probably we  can’t afford them all right now, so we have planned for a lot, and we will have to save to pull them all off!  We are rich in the important things in life - love, family, friends, good dogs, and a great area to live; while it is necessary, money is not that important when you are looking out over a sunny lake in Canada.  More from Keystone Lodge next time. Enjoy.