Going east to fish

When I moved to B.C., I was amazed at the number of people who travelled from the Prairies, Central and Atlantic Canada to fish. I presumed that I would become a chinook, coho and steelhead fisherman. It didn’t happen.

I did continue fishing in streams for the first year or two. Then I was introduced to fly fishing for lake-dwelling cutthroat and rainbow trout. Last summer I “found” a lake new to me and was able to introduce five people to fly fishing: all of them caught fish, either on leech patterns or deer-hair dry flies. Trout, but no bass.

Enter our daughter, who said something like this: “Let’s go on a holiday together.” I told her that I wanted to do some bass fishing. Rachel came up with some suggestions near to where her sister, Lis, lived in Thunder Bay. We settled on two short stays in fishing lodges that were within an hour or two of Thunder Bay, including Kashabowie River Resort. I had pictured a cozy little plywood shack humming with mosquitos. What we got was a camp with about 75 campers – many who stay all summer – and a newly built “cabin” with as many conveniences as my home. And almost no mosquitos.

What else did we get at Kashabowie Lodge? We got a fine guide named Kyle who supplied everything: rods and reels, lures, a boat with a large outboard motor and an electric trolling motor. A comfortable seat. And lots of smallmouth bass. From about a pound to three pounds each and all caught on shallow-running lures, jigs, and topwater lures – excitement was the name of the game.

The company we keep

I loved fishing bass with Kyle. But it was the conversation, the camaraderie and the socializing that made the trip. Kyle’s wife Tracey is an amazing cook and a great conversationalist. It turns out that between her and Rachel, I was outmatched in storytelling. Suppers were amazing. There was a set menu, but Tracey modified it for me (a very picky eater). Enough food for two of me. Salads, main courses, desserts and just the three of us in the dining room.

Occasionally, Kyle would pop in and pry open a conversational spot to tell us that he was a Green Bay Packer fan and that he had fished in a walleye tournament off Door County, Wisconsin (my home area!). Then it was back to Tracey’s stories about Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Mexico; and Las Vegas. I squeezed in a tale about Vince Lombardi.

But maybe you want more details about the fishing. We used Ned Rigs, twitch baits and crank baits. There were also X-Rap-Pops and Shad-rap Rappalas. We even used a Whopper-Plopper, a topwater lure with a propeller at the back which must look like an edible canoe to a fish.

Whatever else you can say about fishers, they don’t lack imagination in naming lures. I suspect there is a scientific nomenclature to these things. For example, in the family of chuggers, we have a genus, a popper, and then a species, the X-Rap.

Back home in B.C., it was more trout on dry flies in little, inland lakes. But a piece of my heart lies with the Thunder Bay area, guides who became friends . . .and smallmouth bass in shallow water.