I’m a little backed up on the journals – sorry. By the time we get in at night, I’m so exhausted and I just want to go to bed. We’ve been pretty busy this week.
Wednesday I set my alarm for 5:30 and we were on the lake by 6. We headed for Island Bay, which is in the southwest part of Lake Temagami. It’s a 40-minute boat ride down the lake – about 20-25 miles. We were almost to Island Bay when we saw lightning in the clouds. Not good, especially when you are in a boat in the middle of the lake. So we turned around and headed home, back up the lake (the Northeast Arm). The storm chased us the entire ride back, and if it weren’t for our head start, it probably would have overtaken us. I filmed lightning strikes, about 2 minutes apart. When I get back to the states with quick and reliable internet connection, I’ll post the videos.
the inverse of "storm chasers"
We got back to the cottage and watched the storm from our deck. It passed quickly, and we were wondering if we could have docked the boat at the Marina and just waited it out. At the time though, it looked like it was going to last a long time; there were no breaks in the clouds. It was a nice boat ride anyway.
After a nap and some breakfast we went in to town to run errands. We stopped by Temagami Outfitters and I spent some time talking to Justin, the young guy who worked there, about the canoe trip Stacy and I took in July 2007. We talked about canoeing in the Temagami region and how great it was and I even routed out a couple of loop trips for the future. Stacy, are you ready?
It rained off and on the whole day. Before the outfitter we were in Dad’s talking to Jim. The sun was shinning when we went in and about 5 minutes later it was down pouring (right into the open car windows)!
Jim had some minnows for us, which I think was just something special since we’ve been asking about them. They were great! Anticipating that they would die at any moment, we took them over to Caribou and still fished for bass off the rocks. We spent a couple hours there, with one break in the car while the rain passed. It was mostly uneventful. Just when we were about to leave, we would have a bite and then decide to stick around “for another 10 minutes.” Dad caught two bass that we kept, so it wasn’t a total wash.
a rainbow at Caribou after the rain
There was activity in other places though. We caught a small bass that unfortunately didn’t make it. He swallowed the hook and was bleeding too much. We threw him into the water and he lay motionless belly-up. It’s always sad to lose one that way; we always feel bad. But, as Dad pointed out, he’ll become a meal for something else – all a part of the food chain. Indeed that was the case as a couple of seagulls immediately circled overhead. They knew the dead fish was there and wanted it. Problem was, it was sort of wedged in a rock cove, too close to shore (and us) for the bird to swoop down and grab it. The seagulls spent the next hour trying to get it, even sending in their baby after it! When we left, I climbed down the rock with the net and got the fish and threw it further out in the water. Right away the seagull swam over to it, snatched it up, and flew away. He didn’t even say thanks!
The other activity was a visit from a snapping turtle while we were fishing. It was so cool! I’ve never seen a turtle at Caribou and he just hung around in the water for a half hour or so. I fed him a dead minnow and he seemed to enjoy that. Again, I have video footage of all of this, which will have to come later.
the snapping turtle checking us out!
We left Caribou and took the boat to Island 4 for an hour or so. We caught a couple of little fish – bass and maybe a walleye, but we didn’t keep anything.
Overall it was a great day, despite being chased by a storm.
Fish Count (Keepers):
2 – Bass (Dad): Wednesday, Day 5
where: Caribou
bait: minnow
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