Friends and fishing across the border

By Roger Sabota, Rhinelander Daily News, July 25, 1997

What happens when eight longtime friends spend a week in three boats and a resort cottage on a large lake in northwestern Ontario, Canada? This question can have numerous answers but they each contain the three–letter word, “fun.” My longtime friend, Clyde Owens, who now lives in St. Germain and I have joined the “Osseo Jinx” on this fishing trip for the past 13 years. We normally spend most of our time jigging for walleyes and enjoy a “Jinx” prepared shore lunch each afternoon.

Our destination is always Halley’s Camp on a huge impoundment of the English River. The Halley’s own the camp where we stay plus two outpost camps on the large flowage and have the only rentals in the area. They also own a flying service and numerous fly-in remote camps across northern Ontario.

We arrived early Monday morning after spending a night in Kenora and immediately set about getting boats ready, moving into our cabin and obtaining fishing licenses. Our first stop, once on the water, was on several shallow rock bars, which seem to rise abruptly out of 70 feet of water to a depth of about nine feet. The bar Clyde and I anchored on is filled with large rocks and reminds me of a Hodag’s back. My first cast produced a bite and a 24-inch northern, not what we were looking for. Of course, Clyde hassled me and reminded me that we were fishing for walleyes for lunch. His first cast produced a 17-inch walleye that was placed in the live well for shore lunch. The harassment intensified.

Each boat has a C-B radio in it so we can keep in touch and tell each other where the walleyes are biting.

Normally, we each overeat during the first shore lunch of the trip and last week was no exception. After fishing for 15 minutes there were enough walleyes in the wells even to handle the appetites of eight fellows who had thought about a “Jinx” shore lunch for 12 months.

About 1:15 p.m. we heard the “Jinx’s” voice over the radio with the message that each of us were waiting to hear. The message was, “Anyone who is ready for shore lunch meet me on that rock northeast of us.” It is always a challenge to anchor the boats in a position so that we can step onto the rocky shoreline but yet so they will not rub on the rocks. Once the boats were secure the process of preparing a shore lunch began.

Clyde and I “filleted” the walleyes and washed them. Tom Cornelius, Dan Krueger, Duane Frey and the “Jinx’s” older son, Troy, sliced potatoes and onions. The “Jinx,” Tom Twesme and his younger son Mark, built a fire and set our large frying pan on the tripod. This year our son, Craig, was unable to join us and we each had a fillet for him. Over the years we have been taking this trip we have enjoyed our shore lunch break and have learned a lot about the trees and brush of Ontario from Dan. We are constantly amazed at how much Dan knows about the variety of trees and plants we see.

One afternoon our three boats were anchored quite close together on a shallow bar. This bar came up out of 102 feet of water and topped out at 10 feet. The walleyes were biting very well and each of us was catching them regularly. All of a sudden Duane was reeling in a walleye when a large northern grabbed it. For the next hour or so each of us had walleyes grabbed by northerns. Frequently, they would hang onto the walleye and allow themselves to be reeled right up to the side of our boat before they would let go. Many of the walleyes had deep gashes in their sides from the sharp teeth of the northerns. On two different occasions Dan was reeling in a walleye that was being followed closely by a very large walleye looking for an easy meal. None of us had an idea of what caused the feeding frenzy but we sure enjoyed watching it.

One morning we were anchored on a mid-lake bar watching an electrical storm moving to the north of us as we caught walleyes. The storm was moving closer to us and we began talking about the need to get off the water. The “Jinx” threw out a long cast and shouted, “Hey, you guys. Look at my line. It is floating four feet above the water.” Just after that Tom Cornelius threw out a long cast and his line hung up about 15 feet above the water. While we were watching Corny’s line, Mark said, “My rod is humming.” We decided that with that much electricity in the air we better get off the water. For the next hour and a half we watched a lightning display that would rival most fireworks displays.

On our last day of fishing we had to contend with strong winds and very rough water. We were able to catch walleyes almost every place we could hide from the wind. Corny again was rough on the band-aid supply after he fell on broken glass, trying to get out of a boat onto a rocky shore. We agreed that next year his activities would be curtailed on our last day in camp.

Fishing and hunting in Ontario is changing and will most likely continue to change. First, Ontario has stopped the spring bear hunt that most likely will never re-open. This year we can no longer transport live leeches across the border. Size restrictions on fish are becoming much more restrictive than they were even last year. It is likely that in future years we will not be able to bring any walleyes home from Ontario.