Another Incredible Canadian Fishing Trip In the Books

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My two week fishing adventure to the North Channel of Lake Huron, for the 22nd time, began on Friday the 24th of May, when former Mustang, Ryan Anderson ’05, drove up from Charleston, South Carolina to hook up with me here in Alexandria and make the trek to Saulte Ste Marie, Michigan.  Following dinner and a good night’s sleep we picked up our provisions, crossed over to Canada, and arrived at the Blue Heron Resort at about 3pm on Saturday.  Two hours later we were on the water, with both of us catching a fish on our first cast – a major superstitious No-No.  However, the Fishing Gods smiled on us nonetheless and fifteen minutes later, I had boated a 33 inch Muskie.  

Schabs and Ryan Anderson
First Night Out 33 Inch Muskie
My Second of two Muskies on the trip
Ryan with a pair of first-week smallies

I/we were blessed with two weeks, where, while the weather was not always ideal, we were able to get out and fish every day and night session, despite getting rained on a few times in Week Two.  Ryan and I had ideal weather, and even fished a full day, which the weatherman had predicted to be a wash-out for days prior.

   We caught Northern Pike, Walleye, Muskies, and Smallmouth Bass.  Unfortunately, the Canadians micro-manage their fishing regulations and we were unable to keep enough walleye for a fish dinner on Week One.  Smallmouth are strictly catch and release, since they are still out of season, until June 22nd this year.  All of our smallies are caught, admired, sometimes photographed, and released unharmed.  I’m proud to say that in the six days that Ryan and I fished, to our knowledge, we didn’t kill a single fish. 

While still being far from 100% in my recovery from severing the Patellar Tendon of my left knee back on December 11th, I had some reservations about making the trip, knowing that I would struggle to negotiate the incline to and from the boat dock, the dock itself, and getting into and out of the boat, and then changing positions while in it.  Fortunately, Ryan and my brother Mark are big strong guys, who managed to get me to where I needed to go.  I did experience some lower back pain, and dropped back to fishing every other day on Week Two.  The show went on without me.

While it took some doing, I was able to maintain the front of the boat, and run the trolling motor throughout Week One. We keep daily counts of our fish caught, and averaged about 30 per day, and even 19 on a day when I put us into some dead water which had been productive last year.

While the picture of my right thumb is somewhat gross, it is a sure sign of how good the fishing was throughout Week One.
These are incredibly beautiful fish.
While they may have caught larger fish than we did, I assure you that no fisherman in Kentucky, Tennessee, or anywhere in the south caught more or had better overall fishing days than we did.

Ryan, who is the daddy to Sully, his one-year old son, left on Friday morning for the two day trek back to South Carolina, where he arrived home on Saturday at 4pm.  This was a trip that the two of us had talked about making for the past few years, and I am incredibly happy that we were able to pull it off.  I turned 77 years old over the two week span, and don’t know how many of these “adventures” I have remaining in me.

After a quiet "recovery" day on Friday, where I did some wash, and prepared for week two, the group above arrived Saturday about 12Noon and the party was on. They are from left to right, My brother Mark, his son Eric, Eric's boys Jackson and Lincoln (a member of Brossart's bass fishing team), Ryan Shelton's cousin, Randy Hater, Ryan Shelton, Andy Schabell (The Mayor), Noah Menkedick (who at 11 years old was making his first Canadian trip), myself, and Kevin Menkedick. Kevin and Ryan Shelton have been making this trip with me off and on, since the days of fishing with Nathan Seiter back in the early 2000's.
Our Fish Camp is located on the Spanish River, five miles from the North Channel of Lake Huron. Several of our members ventured forth out onto Lake Huron itself to discover new, productive fishing spots, and they found them.

In the picture at right, Lincoln, our Brossart State Tourney rep, teamed up with Ryan Shelton on his bass boat for some high speed positioning for some after dinner angling.
Muskies are known as the "Fish of 10,000 casts", but it doesn't take my brother Mark that long to catch a trophy muskie. He has caught one over 45 inches each of the last five spring trips he has made. While this would be the "fish of a lifetime " for most anglers, Mark said he would trade it in for a 21 inch Smallie, since he has caught so many Muskies. Around camp he is known as the "Muskie Magnet." They are a handful to catch, photo, and release, once caught. We happened to have our Muskie net on board, which made landing this one much easier, on both us and the fish. Mark caught it after dinner, in the rain, a stones throw from camp, on a buzz-bait while fishing for pike.
Here is Andy displaying a 27 inch Northern Pike, which was our largest of the trip, and is not all that big by Northern Pike Standards. If there was a letdown on this trip, it was the absence of quality Northerns, where 30 inchers used to be commonplace, and a 40-plus not all that rare. Perhaps the booming muskie population has something to do with it. We did catch quite a few pike in the 22-24 inch range.
Here are a pair of trophy sized 20/21 inch smallies that Mark and I caught upriver on the last day of the trip. We caught many in the 17-18 and 19 inch ranges, with the occasional 20, and three 21 inchers that I am aware of. I had one, that I was sure was 5 pounds, but my all-too-honest digital scale said 4 lbs, 7 ounces.
Mark will probably see this guy again, a few years,and twenty more inches from now.

Brothers Jackson and Lincoln Schabell display a pair of trophy sized smallies.  

While certainly not trophy class, the pacture above , and the others of doubles, attests to the bountiful fishery that exists here. This is of Eric Schabell and his boys Jackson and Lincoln, all showing off their just-caught smallies.
Life is tough for fish up there. Here is a picture of a Rock Bass that Andy caught on a Muskie plug.
This is a picture of the "Grub Graveyard" in Mark's boat at the end of Week Two. During Week One, Ryan only used two baits - A Yammamoto Grub and a Rapala Skitter-Pop (Surface), and I only used Yamamoto Grubs and a twin-tailed Fat-Albert grub. We also used Spinner Baits when the situation called for it.

No fishing trip to the Blue Heron is complete without a side trip to Lucky’s Snack Bar for Canadian Poutine.

Randy Hader (Left) and Ryan Shelton (Right) display two dandies.  Randy’s is a rare Canadian Largemouth, which are rarely caught this far north.  Ryan displays what might be the big smallie of the trip, without a mark on it. 

The occasional sighting of a bear, such as the one above who shadowed Ryan and Randy for over a half hour, or seeing a Moose thunder along the shoreline, or the many Bald Eagles which we see on each trip, remind us that we are indeed fishing in the Canadian Wilderness.
We eat well at Fish Camp. including a weekly Fish Fry. We also dined on Ryan Shelton's "Becoming Famous" Chicken Wings, Steaks on my birthday, Bill Hagedorn's Recipe Pork Chops, and camp staples like grilled Hamburgers, and Dinty Moore Beef Stew in Memory of Tony Holtz, who got us started on the Dinty Moore tradition on Drummond Island (Michigan) back in the late 70's. We also ate a group dinner at nearby Waterfall's Lodge which was first-class. We are indebted to Kevin Menkedick for picking up the check.
Outstanding sunsets are a bonus that goes with fishing out in the bay after dinner.

Over the two week period we caught hundreds of quality fish.  The fishing actually seems to get better each year, dating back to 1995 when I spent six weeks up there, and the biggest smallie that we encountered was 18 inches.  We do not fish on purpose for walleye.  When we did, trying to catch a few for dinner, and for Ryan to take home, we caught a few, but they were either in the slot (16″-22″) or exceeded 18 inches, which you are prohibited to keep up in the river.  The best way to describe our fishing, is “Sport Fishing”  catching whatever jumps on our hooks, and throwing back everything that we catch.  Most of the fishermen we encounter, and share our camp with, are walleye fishermen, sitting in boats all day drifting with jigs and worms for pickerel, the Canadian name for walleyes.  We not-so-respectfully refer to them as “Dew Worm Dippers.”

We are indeed blessed to be able to do this.  As I said earlier, I don’t know how many of these trips I have remaining, but I will always feel good about starting something that I know will be carried on by the others in our group, long after I am gone.  As I fish my favorite spots, I take solace in the fact that, unless the Great Lakes go dry, they will still be there for others in our group to continue to fish for the rest of their lives, and their kids, and their kids kids lives.  .I can only hope that you who enjoy fishing, get this opportunity before going over the rainbow to visit Dorothy and Toto.

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