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One thing with an ever evolving schedule is that some seasons fish by happenstance will just fall out of rotation. Picking some spring and summer species to target while home in the valley, it has always been a given that gar and lakers are going to be at the top of that list, a little crappie time will conveniently slip into the mix too. But this year I missed out on some Lake Ontario steelheading, brown trout and laker fishing, which had been thoroughly rewarding 2015 and prior. Unfortunately April had to give way to work and that trout boat sailed on without.

May fishing proved quite interesting. The oddest weather, little hiccup with the Yammy, the worst bugs, floods, winds and rains, it was a wonder amidst the apocalyptic conditions that any time on the water was had at all. Coupled with trips to Nipigon and Great Bear Lakes, two daughters graduations, some E.R. work and a weekend away with Bren, June through end of July was a rat race running off in all directions, so I’ll get chasing here…

A regular visitor each year, Simon is waiting and willing to drive north for a day or two to of Ottawa River gar fishing. This June he couldn’t have chosen any more difficult conditions. Day one we had it all. High winds, rain, cloud and cold, it totally suckled donkey fruit out there. Totally! And to actually catch any fish was a surprise… but he did!

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The second garound came on his third day. Expecting calm winds it was still calling cool and cloudy. We set off in the morning only to find the fish weren’t going to bother getting out of bed until noon. Regardless, after waiting it out we spotted enough and popped a few. Before one better fish could escape us, the hook got driven home.

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The day which was inbetween called for chance of rain, windy and real cold, but clearing and settled later on. Lakers open I made the choice to try a little trolling and jigging through the morning then switch to crappies as the climate improved. Despite our big breakfasts and hot beverages I was shivering through the early hours. Shivering! Simon seemed OK…

As the day progressed it did warm some. Exploring new locales and checking into proven spots too, the crappies were sporadically biting here and there. By late day we handled quite a few but it certainly hadn’t been crazy. Cruising along a new shore come evening, the float dropped into some much better than average fish, salvaging an otherwise long and sorta slow outing.

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That three days in a row finished a first quick week on the water. Simon said his goodbyes but I am certain it won’t be long and we’ll see each other again.

The second week in June began on a Monday with a call to my buddy Mike. With another miserable day forecasted his best laid plans were to grab a couple cans of corn and go chase some carp. I’ll admit to being less than enthusiastic about this at first but, while Mike and I drove and then had brunch on route to the fishing grounds, his excitement soaked into me. It had been eight years since last targeting these goldfish salmon and it was high time it be done again. A short few hours on the water and we each got to reel one in. End of the afternoon I was happy he convinced and took me out. Had a fun time.

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Before leaving on the tenth to Nipigon the last couple home outings of June would be solo shots for gar. Over two unusually hot days the Ottawa was polluted thick with fish, and many were bigguns. The first morning I must have set into a half dozen around the fifty mark, but after measuring three in a row at 49-inches, I just shook some others off knowing that they were about the same. Once or twice did some gar bigger than those get sighted although one got the slip while another shook the hook. Convection winds come afternoon wreaked havoc on best practice but at some point through it all I managed one to the boat which reached a photo worthy length.

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The following day was better. Fish were out, it was a scorcher and giants were roaming. Through the morn I sadly lost two quality fish and one was a real contender for a mid 50 or better. Not the girth you’d hope for but just a real anaconda gar. Later afternoon I stumbled on another…

This big fish hit, spit the lure and in a flash took off. The water was so thick with mud though, that even when the fish torpedoed out of sight it left a mudline wake on the calm surface that was easy to follow. Hunting now, we reconnected about twenty yards away where the stalking began.

An eternity seemed to pass. I could look around and see our trails zig-zagging from the shallows out the depths and back. Criss-crossing mudlines and even a few donuts blown. The fish constantly swimming forward while I peppered casts past it, sweeping the lure across its nose.

If traveling a straight line and I was to figure a guess, that fish and I convoyed with one another for several hundred meters at least. From where we started shallow, to where we went deep then back to shallow again, it was a hundred meters in a straight shot easy. But we’d been all over the map… and even once I had lost track of the fish for a good few minutes too.

It was a classic big gar scenario really. Not only the patience and persistence required, but after so many casts the fish just finally deciding enough is enough and lashing out to crush the lure. Just like that my best of the season came to the gunnel. The longest fish to ever grace the boat so far.

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Those two days solo felt overdue. The gar season this year would be a shorter one but that was as much by choice as it was conditions simply out my hands. The Go-Pro aboard and set to shoot continuous photos, while setting up for timer shots with a couple gar there were some different kinds of pictures captured. It isn’t easy getting the shots sometimes and so after this season it has been decided that the 50-inch photo mark will be raised to 51 next year, when going it alone. Suppose that’s gonna spare a couple more fish some extra agony in their defeat.

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Nearly four weeks would pass until fishing out on the home waters again. Nipigon with Stevie Z was wild, incredible as always, but then end of the month was special too. Leah graduated elementary school and will be off to highschool next year, a right of passage for our second born. She is certainly growing up and staying funny. But watching my eldest daughter graduate highschool with honors, so nervously excited opening letters from accepting universities through the previous weeks, that was all rather surreal. Knowing and accepting that her time with us at home teeters on her own decisions now, feeling awestruck, proud, sentimental and rather shocked with how beautiful a young woman she is becoming, (and appeared to be in her prom dress) it is now her time to shine. If we did anything right by her she will continue to shine bright.

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So it was Independence Day, the fourth of July when the Lund got wet again, and I couldn’t wait to have this company come aboard. So extremely overdue, Margie, aka Fish-Hawk’s long time Wolfe and her son Tyler were making a special day trip for gar. It was perfect! Probably close to fifteen years Margie has been a champion of kindness and grace, an online friend, a great support, a wonderful person and passionate angler. Our day was obviously going to begin with a big warm hug.

But Tyler was along too. Pretty much the same age as my oldest daughter, many have watched this boy fish, grow, fish, grow and become one tall young gentleman that he now is today. A child raised for a number of years as a member inside a small, social, internet family, his fishing has often been on display. The power of connection through online mediums has always astounded me in different ways. Tyler and Margie are a fine example of the good by which the www. can enhance that journey. Magic was going to happen in The Bomber this day… even despite waking at 5:00am in the morning sorta ill.

Not long on the water at all, Margie caught her first gar. This nice fish set the pace for her and Tyler to take turns boating more. I would only watch on as the time would pass far too quickly. Gar newbies always help remind what it was like the first few times I fished them myself. There is nothing else quite like it. Unique, totally cool, truly exciting, these two fished awesomely.

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Quality fish were caught but they didn’t come without some work. Much of the day the numbers seen were down. It was actually one of the latest dates I may have even targeted these fish but being such a long spring they were still around. Come mid afternoon we found a pod quite stacked up in some back murk and mire, and being that it was Tyler’s turn he made no mistake when sniping this one from the corner of his eye. A perfect single cast and thankfully a good stick, this fish gave Ty the gar fight of his life. It was another long, long, fish that once in the boat had everyone anticipating the tape. Tyler’s best gar measured 55.5 inches. Unreal for a first timer! He and Margie were over the moon. Definitely a day we will all never forget.

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Several weeks later; after a bunch of other fishing you’ll see ahead plus a trip to Great Bear Lake with Brenda, on a whim my Yammy mechanic texts and I answer back, “you wanna go fishing muskie or gar Sunday?” He answers yes… and then gar!

Bruce is a good lad raised up a short generation behind me at the same highschool in the valley. Turned out we both new plenty of the same folks, same places and had relatively equal views on what we find more important in fishing, boats and people. Solid company and a good dood that by the end of the day I could call a bud.

But shit did we ever have to work for fish this day. Officially the latest by a calendar mile I’d chased gar, it would be a stretch to say we caught site of more than a couple dozen all hot, exhausting damn day. The first came quick and easy in the morning and that thankfully put a smile on Bruce’s face, but after that it was hours of drought.

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On route back to the launch around 4:30pm or so, last chance I pulled into one rare corner we hadn’t yet checked. Not overly optimistic and neither one of us really caring of the result by this point, it just so happened a big girl crossed our path heading to the deep. A knee-jerk cast that miraculously hit the mark and Bruce finished up juggling a crazy gar on fire that could have been dancing with chickens, a mongoose and trumpeting elephants under a circus tent. Chaos and excitement all ending in Bruce’s total jubilation. Tell me that’s not a happy man in this photo. Gar season done… exclamation point!

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Days after Margie and Tyler had been aboard, on a quiet Thursday I slipped away solo for a morning of laker jigging. Everyone’s favorite local summer-time grease hole and a far too busy weekend tournament water, midweek is about the only time I’d bother to show. On this particular day the fishing completely blew my mind!

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These chosen half dozen pics just scratch the surface. In four hours I was treated to 26 to 29 (kinda fumbled the count) excellent lakers. Just three were small fish as two were caught back-to-back nearing the end of my time. Most were in the five pound range but a solid number would have likely been 7-10 with a couple overs. Just insane it was a fish on nearly every drop. That evening I convinced Leah and Brenda for her day off to come out the next morning.

Again it was intense. Another 26 fish exactly in four hours. Having to be at work at 3:00pm we were off the water by noon then out to lunch, all of grinning happily. The girls had a couple doubleheaders as did I with either of them. Leah had never experienced jigging this easy, doing everything herself. She also caught the most cool looking super dark laker we had ever seen. A real blackfish! It was one of those family mornings all to perfect.

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Stuck at work the Saturday, come Sunday Mikey and I snuck out for an evening muskie fish. We did catch one, Mike did! The fish was probably a mid forty but was incredibly skinny and beat up. Wondered if it had just spawned minutes earlier or been hit by a boat. His vehicle needing some work in the garage early next morn, we dropped it off ahead of time and I lent him the truck. Next morning he was back in the driveway bright and early because I had to give him a taste of the laker bite. No weekend traffic we had the place to ourselves. Game on!

Started slow. Again only had five hours to fish for the early afternoon was stormy. First two hours we’d managed a half dozen or so maybe, and we moved around a lot. Then suddenly around 10:00am it turned on and we were both cleaning grease easy. Finished up another 29 fish morning. Incredible! A memorable morn with Mike.

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Could hardly believe it all though. About thirteen hours and over eighty lakers caught. That kind of fishing is like arctic waters kinda fishing… but it was for that reason I had to kiss it all goodbye for the season. Days later Brenda and I boarded a plane to Yellowknife then onward to Great Bear Lake & Plummer’s Arctic Circle Lodge. Same kinda daily numbers there, except that the average lake trout there was an Ontario pig. It is all relative though, the home waters proved they can be exceptional and equally rewarding to fish.

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Returning from the north there were just two short weeks to squeeze in some family time, local work and a few outings to fish. The girls and I took a day for ourselves, Summer choosing the breakfast spot, Leah picking the afternoon events. It is pretty much an annual for us to revisit The Chutes for a picnic, hike and swim. Time well spent.

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Finished with grey trout, I did take that one day with Bruce for gar but otherwise, it was muskie on the mind. Had to think a little of the last time I ever fished skis in July or August. The answer pretty sure, was never. Always been a fall venue with a couple opener cracks. A nice Friday evening forecasted and Bren off work for the day, we left mid afternoon to try our luck.

She picked her lure from a few choices, I picked mine, and away we trolled. It was July 28th and our eldest daughter’s 18th birthday. She was out celebrating with friends after we had all shared a pancake brunch at Wheelers. A great day by all accounts, made even better when Brenda reeled in her first fifty inch muskie to join the big fish club. Her fish was a pricey one, but worth it. She quite likes fishing for muskies now.

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We returned immediately the next evening so I could have a turn. Nice!!!

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The Sunday fell to that final gar fish but come Monday I convinced Mikey with an early BBQ dinner at my place first, to then jump aboard and we get out on this hot bite. Last three outings was batting 3 for 3 and felt confident we could knock another out of the park. Worked out beautifully when this ripper peeled the line. Long and lean, super mean, a tooth got into my palm which has left a month long scar so far. Love them skis though!

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And that be it. Summer days fishing on the home turf. Sitting waiting for a plane out of Nunavut today, as I finish writing this one up the mind is already excited to begin the next. August lake trout and arctic char from the tundra, spoiled even more by all the amazing sites from our Canadian arctic. Just around the corner it is coming… but so to is plenty autumn time ahead to enjoy much, much more of our awesome fishing in the valley.

Thanks for docking here at B.O.A. awhile…

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