lesson on Jigs

I dislike these jacks. Whenever I catch one I try to get the hook out to let it go without touching the fish. If your finger gets close to the mouth they will bite you amd these teeth aren’t a joke to deal with. 

This is why we like plyers. 

That Jack took my jig sk I started using a red jig instead of our usual pink. 

I stopped catching fish for over a day and a half while Ron and Barb kept pulling them in. 

That damn Jack. I can only imagine how strong that bite is. 

I finally cut the red jig off and went back to pink. 

Twenty minutes later I was back in the running. 

Funny how they seem to like that colour the most. 

It was smoky out most of the time but we survived. 

We ate , drank and laughed a lot this week. 

A great place to be. These two are wonderful friends.

Ron is up every morning cleaning the beach before we wake up. 

This is our limit and we hit it every time we went out. 

We always let the big one’s go. They are the breeders and we want to keep them stocking the lake for the next decade. 

Like Ron has always said “ we have 10 more good years left in us “ and I want them to be full of fishing trips. 

I found some wifi

I stopped in West Hawk to visit with my old childhood friend Len. We’ve known each other for over 55 years. 

His camp burnt down this spring and they lost everything one has at a summer home. I know what it’s like to survive a fire so made him and his wife a new crib board. 

I left Len’s around 3:00 and headed to Malachi. The gravel road hasn’t been plowed for months and it shows. It was the worst ride I’ve ever done. I was going so slow that at one point I looked out the window and saw a fly pass me. 

I was timing it so that I would meet Ron and Barb at the Malachi landing but because of how slow I had to go they passed me about half way there. I had to drop at about 10 -15 kilometres an hour and the ride was about 20 kilometres long. When they were passing me Barb asked if i wanted/ needed a drink. YES PLEASE. 

 


Finally. When I got there we loaded the boat and headed out. 

I love this place. This is the little shore bunkie that I helped Ron build over the last two summers while here fishing. 

Our first morning out fishing. 

Yahoo

My first fish was a beauty. Ron did the net for me when I was pulling it in.

 


Barb had just bought a new stringer so we were all thrilled about that cuz the old one was having trouble keeping closed and the fish were  getting off. 

The new one turned out to be worse. 

The metal on it was totally letting go and my nice fish disappeared.   

My next big fish was also a beauty. 

We went back to the old stringer. 

This is one of the reasons I love coming here. 

My next fish was a big Jack. We hate Jack fish. The bigger broke my hook. 

Here I go again

For  almost the last 26 years I have gone fishing in North western Ontario with Ron and Barb. We missed last year thanks to Covid so this is my 25th year. For the first 12 or so years we went winter ice fishing as well. 

I left for this years trip on Thursday. The first night I stayed at carries boat and fidnishebthebdoors on the upper deck. They looked great when I finished. 

This give a lot of storage she never had before. 

I left the boat Friday morning heading for Winnipeg. 

We live in a beautiful province. 

The Rocky Mountains are beautiful. 

This never gets old. 

I stopped in golden to make my lunch. 

This is why I love traveling in our coach. The meals are the best. 

I also love out prairies. So gorgeous. First night with friends in Calgary (Bob and Brenda)  and then off to Winnipeg Saturday morning.   

I stayed at Karen’s place in Winnipeg Saturday nignt (big  drive) and went Sunday morning to visit our niece in Gimli. She’s such a nice person. I wish we saw her more often. 

On to Ron and Barbs for dinner and a good sleep. Tomorrow we all leave for their camp at Malachi for a week of fishing.   I had made a cribbage board for them just before I came. 

They seemed to like it a lot but on inspection I noticed that I had missed drilling out 10 holes. Sheesh. 

How did I do that I’ll never know. 

We leave for the lake tomorrow. It’s quite a bump into the camp. Gravel road and then boat. No internet or cell phone so hopefully I’ll have lots to post when I get out of the bush. 

I’m on my way to Ontario

This is my annual fishing trip that I’ve done for 25 years with my friend Ron. He has a beautiful cabin at Malachi lake with his wife that I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy with him for the last 2.5 decades. Over the years we’ve done the siding , levelled the floor with fresh footings, built a garage , outhouse , deck  and a cute bunkhouse on the waterfront. 

We’ve caught tons of walleye , eaten tons of great food and laughed so much that it should have been illegal to laugh that much. 

The first stop on this adventure is in Sicamous where I’m installing the new sliding bench  doors on Carries boat they turned out quite nice  

This is the sliding Door that I installed about three weeks ago and I’m quite happy with the way it turned out 

This is the port bench that I cut open last weekend

Hi


This is the starboard bench that I cut open last weekend

This is me finishing off the slider in my workshop today

Just about done. I had to cut the fibreglass on my tablesaw but I wore a respirator, glasses and ear protection. I hate fiberglass. I am so itchy tonight from it splashing  up on me as I cut it on the table saw.  

The finished product. Finally. I’m done. Now all I have to do is install it. 

Clamped in place and drying with clear silicone. It looks great. 


This is going to help a lot in the storage issues.

I love my workshop

Ruth and I went up to Carrie’s boat on Sunday for lunch and stayed for about one hour. The main reason we went was to cut some holes in the side benches by the captains chair. I needed to know the exact size of the holes  so that I could go home and make some sliding doors for easy access. About three weeks ago I made these doors for  under the flybridge controls and they made a huge difference to her storage situation. 

It was an ugly job cutting these holes because I had to lay on my side and control the Skil saw well having fibreglass sprayed all over me.

 Not fun. But I got it done.

I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was so itchy. 

These seats are on both sides of the captains chair. This will give her a lot of new storage.

Ruth made a pizza on the barbeque for the kids while I cut a hole in the bench seats. It took about an hour and then we left. I blew my knee out caring a 20 foot beam last week so luckily and thankfully Cary brought a in golf cart down on the dock to move me around.

After Jack. and I did that crib board last week I thought this might be a good hobby for me so I made another one for Ruth and myself. We’ve been playing crib every night since and it’s been a lot of fun. 

A lot of fun for her because she beats me every night. Oh well, I’ll get better at this game and then I’ll show her. 

The paper template was brutal. Hard to keep it all straight but it turned out acceptable. 

I saw these Metal templates on the Internet and got so excited that I bought one. This is awesome.

I had some scrap pieces of black walnut laying around my workshop and some white birch that I thought would look good together. And it does. I’m really enjoying making these crib boards. 

I made this one from a chunk of wood that was in my garbage bin. Ruth saw the live edge and said that it would make a nice crib board.. I wasn’t sure but I did it anyways and she was right. It’s likely the nicest one I’ve done so far.

I’ve had a busy two days. I love building with wood.

Another Busy Day

I have been thinking of making a few crib boards and thought this would be a good Grandfather/Grandson project for me and Jack. 

Yesterday we went into town to Lee Valley and bought a paper pattern for a crib board. 

Glued it onto a piece of walnut I had and using a punch we marked where the holes go. 

Here’s Jack drilling them out. 

 

It sure is nice to see him off screen for a change. 

I was installing the swing pin when a vein of rot in the lower board  broke open. 

Damn. 

Jack was going out with Ruth so I said I’d replace it by the time he gets back. 

Here’s the finished product. 

It looks pretty good for the first one. 

Jack can have this one for their boat. 

 It opens up on a swing pin and you have access to the cards and pegs. Pretty cool. 

After I got the board done I put a salmon on the smoker. I’d had it in a maple brine since last night. 

Hope it tastes  as good as it looks. 

Just a little more than two hours at 140 degrees and fairly heavy smoke it was done. 

I cut the corner off to see what it tastedlike and can honestly say that it tastes as good as it looks. 

I did get a few chunks of it after it cooled but Carrie and Ruth did a number on it. 

Makes me happy to see them enjoy something I cook as much as they did.