Four Star Hotels – are you listening? (Pay attention!!!) At 6:15 am Katie puts a pitcher of hot coffee at our cabin door. What a grand way to wake up. As expected, breakfast is wonderful, huge and ively. Sad to say it is absolutely ruined because Bart has brought everyone Tennessee “T” hats and when I enter everyone, including the staff, is wearing one…….so ugly a scene. This leprechaun fights the tide and refuses to wear one. Nonetheless a group photo on the dock is taken – 12 orange T hats and one Irish leprechaun hat are officially recorded for posterity.
One of the nicest parts of the trip is spending time with Eric and David. They are polite and articulate and blend in well with all of us old farts. Sadly, though, they do succumb to pressure and wear the obnoxious orange hats. I get Eric as my boat mate for the day.
Much of the conversation is about all of the damage found when the lodge was opened in early June. A black bear tore out a kitchen wall and tore up the pantry. Stored staples like rice, sugar, flour, etc. were spread everywhere. In addition, the ice was on the lake was 8 ½ feet at spring/early summer and removed a lot of the boat docks. They had their hands full getting things ready and repaired for first guests a week prior to us. By the way – everything in the lodge was either harvested from the forest or flown here (4-wheel ATC, generators, etc.) either inside or strapped to a float plane (small boats, hot tub, etc.). It now costs $4,000 per trip for the floatplane so everything here is costly – gas for boats; $15 per gallon, $1 per can for beer or pop to fly in, etc.
We all buy Canadian fishing licenses and lots of expensive lures and accessories. I discover “spreaders” – reverse pliers to force open northern pike mouths to extract hooks. We man the boats and the competition is engaged. Eric and Hoop decide to stay away from other boats and the result is we catch more trout and fewer pike than some of the other boats. Many of the trout are very striking – red fins and markings from the fresh water shrimp in their diet. Our most momentous decision was to fish away from the boats and it works out well. Despite being Mark’s son, Eric is good company and we have a great day.
Mark has organized a “fishing derby” so we all kicked in $40 as mandated.
This is a very outdoor sports oriented competitive group and bragging rights are very important. “ball busting” is also nonstop – especially the Veneer Group but even moreso the Tennessee/Irish/Penn State football bans.
Eric and I have a great day (5 pike/5 trout for Hoop and 8 pike/6 trout for Eric). The winners were:
· Most pike – Mark (41) - $130
· Most trout – Brent (8) - $130
· Largest pike – Bart (40”) - $130
· Largest trout – Hoop (26”) - $130
The competition made the day special although we made a group decision not to repeat each day. Mark knew, however, that a competition would make the week more interesting. By group consensus $40 apiece was again levied for 2 prizes for the week – biggest trout and biggest pike.
Two Canadians from the Fish Ministry are also with us (Loren and Susan) and they are teaching us about Wellesley Lake. We learn that the 60 square mile lake (11 long by 6 wide) is one of Canada’s healthiest; with only one lodge, no roads, catch and release policy and 3-month season it is famous for trophy sport fish. They net and record size and age of the various species 12 hours a day (we think they more than earn their pay).
Time pases fast and we are shocked when midnight comes to the fire pit and most of us are still awake. Constant daylight really disorients our body clocks.
"Papa" Bull Moose
Our fearless leader in action
My 1st catch - A "baby" trout
Wellesley Lake is often "glass"
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