I've been doing some guiding on the Nipigon River. I decided to give it another try now that I'm retired - and guess what, I love it. A dozen or so years ago I guided pretty steady on the Nipigon. I had a young guy named Dave Jackson helping me as well. He operated my 14-foot Alumicraft and I the 16-foot Princecraft. We had a few good years of guiding until I figured out that I had too much on my plate. Anyhow, three weeks ago I took a couple from New York city and it was a great experience. Over the two days they caught and released several trophy brook trout and we had some of my famous stir fry meals cooked on a wok over my single-burner Peak stove. Top that off with triple-threat chocolate cake and it's like Heaven.
I also guided a father-and-son team from Minnesota last week. We fished in the mother-of-all cold fronts and didn't boat a fish. We had some hits but unfortunately the storm that flooded many homes in Thunder Bay was a biggie and all wildlife was scarce.
I have some more guiding trips scheduled in the next few weeks. Hopefully by that time my new Princecraft will arrive. After guiding the folks from NYC I decided to bite the bullet and move up to a larger Princecraft. The one I have is awesome but it's just a little cramped for fly fishing. So once the new biggie arrives I'll sell the other one. It's only a year old and a very nice boat so it should sell fairly quick.
I've also been hanging with my old highschool friend Terry Kluke from Wabigoon. He and his wife Merrill own and operate Merkel's Camp on Wabigoon Lake. I fished with Terry back in the late 90's while doing the research for my book Ontario Blue-Ribbon Fly Fishing Guide. This prompted Terry to take up fly fishing and ever since he's been flogging Wabigoon for big pike and musky. He's managed to boat a 41-inch musky. You might think that's a monster but on Wabigoon that's child's play. Musky get very big in Wabigoon Lake. Perhaps even world-record big.
This spring I invited Terry to fish with me on the Northshore for steelhead. He took me up on the offer and we had a bang-up time fishing in the snow, sleet and cold on our rivers. Terry landed a couple of steelhead so now he's hooked. I reciprocated by travelling to Wabigoon (the 'Goon as we call it) to fly fish for post-spawn pike. I caught one in the "40-inch class" (actually a 39-incher that we tried to stretch an inch but it was too slimy) and also a chunky 37.
Once Terry and I got together the wheels in our 50-something brains started to churn. In fact smoke came out of our ears and other orifices as ideas started popping up. We talked about a fishing show, perhaps even our own outdoor show. Between the two of us there is a lot of outdoor knowledge floating around in our brains. But realistically a fishing show is a full-time calling so the next best thing is to appear as a guest on a fishing show. So I contacted Colin McKeown, producer of The New Fly Fisher. I appeared on the show about 10- to 15-years ago (the 90's are all a blur now) and I've kept in touch with Colin ever since. I also write for The New Fly Fisher magazine (e-zine) which basically replaced The Canadian Fly Fisher, which I also wrote for. In any event, Colin is coming tomorrow (June 05) to start filming at Merkel's Camp. I'm heading there later today and we'll be filming all week. It's exciting! Terry has been going like a two-headed cat in a cream can getting his camp all cleaned up. I heard he even painted all of his cabins. The man's a dynamo.
Once I get back from the show I'll be heading up to Makokibatan Lodge (Ma-coke-i-bat-an) on the Ogoki River to do some guiding for Wilderness North. I'll be guiding some fly anglers for brook trout and big pike. So at least I'll have lots to write about in the next month or so.
On a final note, my website is being redone by GoDaddy. I have to write the text and send them pictures when the dust settles from all the action.
On a final note, if you enjoy reading this blog I'd love to hear from you. I think you can leave a comment even if you're not a Google account holder. That would be nice because blogs are a shot in the dark as far as knowing if anyone gets any benefit from your work. I may be moving this blog over to my website once it's complete. But you'll hear more on that later. In the mean time - tight lines!
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