Day 5

Fishing Day 3

The plan for day three of fishing was to go for large pike...as in 40" or more. We'd been catching smaller ones throughout our trip along with the three large ones during the shore lunch and then the one that got away from Louis/me. But the weather was not looking good. Although last night's storm had passed, more storms were forecast for throughout the day...for the next few days in fact. This was a large system that covered a good portion of Canada. In fact, I know a few other people fishing other parts of Canada that got hammered by the same storm. It was bad enough that other people were leaving early as the outlook for fishing seemed grim and they wanted to hit the road before the storms. Johnny and his brothers decided to leave early too, as they could not afford to take a chance of being caught in the storm and missing their flights back home.

Babe, Louis and I decided to stay and look for pike, even though the lake was choppy. The guide, Mike, said he knew of some sheltered bays where we might have some luck that weren't too far from camp, so we decided to give them a shot. We fished for about an hour under tough conditions...I landed the only fish...a small pike....and then the storm started raging again, rain came pouring down along with lightning, and we decided to play it safe and head for camp. Since I'm the only one that landed a fish, I can truly say I outfished Babe Winkelman...not something many folks can say LOL

After consulting with Mike, John (the owner of the lodge), and using the knowledge he's gained from a lifetime of being outdoors, Babe realized that any hopes of fishing for the next few days was out of the question...Mike and John pretty much agreed...the storms were too severe to head out fishing. With that decision made, Babe and his crew decided that they may as well leave ASAP also so that they could beat the storm and nightfall.

But there was one small problem...Louis and I had flown in and there was no way a plane could pick us up in this weather. So Babe offered to drive us back to our van in Fort Frances before going home himself. We had a nice conversation on the ride back ( a seven plus hour ride at that). I'm sure I bored him some as I tend to babble when I'm tired, saw some bears, some grouse, bald eagles, etc...talked about all kinds of things...from illegal immigration to hunting to hobbies (Babe loves music, golf and shooting pool in case you're wondering) to some of the charitites he does work for to how he met his current wife. He made sure my van would start before leaving and gave me his number and said I should call him when I made it home and if I ever needed anything....Babe is truly a class act!!