It’s a frosty Saturday morning end of November. Sitting here in Kimmirut Nunavut on Baffin Island, the Arctic bay ice below my apartment window is receding with the falling tide. It’s a beautiful site, inspiring, and so feeling motivated I figured the right time to take a look back at all of autumns fish photos and put the season into words.

Understood ahead of time, September and October would be the two months of fishing this year that would belong entirely at home. Number one target, muskie, second to that, sturgeon, and from there on anything else that bites. Do love the spring, I think it is fall which has fast become the favorite season though, and muskie the favorite fish. Usually weather is nice enough to tinker in the garage, making new lures ti’ll the sun sets. On the water or in the bush, the days are warm, bug free and colorful… and even when times are blowing cold, it ain’t so bad either.
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Bren and I lucked into a warm spell to head out and try our luck for sturgeon. The bite was mixed and the dirty traffic high, but during an afternoon we plugged into a flurry of vacuums for several hours, and it was Bren who did most of the cleaning up. Honestly, she is a rockstar on sturgeon, timing more hooksets than me and flexing her muscles over and over against the toughest fighting fish. The biggest one this round though; need I remind her, it went to the Captain of the boat. A last hookset in the night stuck into one that would run so hard we had to lift anchor and lay chase.

Returning again for two more tries, I would take my friend Bruce to experience this fishing for his first time. Incredibly I think he nailed pretty much all of the big sturgeon, wearing himself out by days end. He was beaming one big ear-to-ear grin the entire time. Finally, Len and I returned having missed a chance to fish together the year before. On a real tough and windy day that had the boat blowing around 180 degrees on the spot, I was tempted to give up but then Lenny plucked a nice fish. We stayed, the wind settled a little while later, we worked hard for ‘em, and we actually finished the day with double digit numbers and some good big fish too.

Those three days would end the sturgeon fishing season and although I found the fishing harder than the previous years, to boat 29 dinosaurs with numerous fish exceeding 60 inches is still plenty good reason to keep at ‘em.
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One day out this fall Christine and I met up to try the bass. It would be just one of the one and a half days out targeting those cock-a-roaches this season. It was a good day in her SmokerCraft made best by her company. To more my pleasure than hers I think, it was better for catfish than it was anything else. It was fun.
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James “Meegs” Meger the man who makes the Meegs sent a message offering to try his new musky lures in testing. Very, very kind of him. I have to say, the regular pictures to my inbox got my own creative juices flowing. His paint jobs so incredible, stunning and so tasty looking it was hard not to want to eat his creations myself.
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But never working in wood and paint, I instead turn to the vice. Wire, lead, blades, fur and feather are the materials I like to play with. So I made a few different lures to try out for muskies as well.

The first spinnerbait was 2 ½ ounces weight and probably 4 to 5 ounces total. It’s made to cast or troll on the surface. The second spinnerbait is a giant of which I wrote a full, picture loaded story about the build. It’s 8 ½ ounces lead but 13 ounces total weight. It’s a six-bladed spinnerbait built on a wire form nearly double strength of the .062’s that are used in most all muskie inlines and spinnerbaits. It’s a monster at 15 inches with a full foot length of head to tail body. The back hook is a dressed 10/0 and the front an 8/0. The work took about 14 hours and the cost nearly $100 so I surely hope it fools a giant. Won’t be casting this beast, it’ll be a propwash runner or deep troller. In testing the depth curve for 75 feet of line out was about 14 feet down at muskie speed.
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My youngest girl has been quite taken with photography. This summer, she and her mother traveled cross Canada on the train from Toronto to Vancouver, taking in this country’s entire landscape west from our home here. Once in BC, Leah stayed behind with a friend in the Okanagan area to sight see and even go sailing. This fall we spent one autumn day together ATV’ing up in the Calabogie area where she got to be the photographer (for the most part) It was a great day, that even included a whiskey bar, drop-in story-swap with a couple old fellers at their hunting camp. They adored having Leah for company.
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The new boat has been incredible. There was a hiccup to start but thankfully I was away much of the summer and during which Lund and the dealership were able to work things out. The 90 Yammy purrs so quiet like my previous 60 had, and the extra 2 ½ feet length with wider and higher body made bigger water seem that much smoother and more manageable. The pilot’s chair on air ride surely helps with bumps too. Love the payload for camping now, the storage is awesome, and I even have a single tent and mattress that can pitch on the bow for a future solo Nipigon tour. At the gas pumps any tiller guys stare in awe at Bambalam, most usually commenting on all the space within the boat. “You could have a barn dance in that thing,” was probably the funniest remark coming out of Innisville. Couldn’t be happier seeing my favorite pairing come together again, the Yamaha with a Lund,

Two Lowrance HDS units now give better viewing and options. Sidescan was every bit as useful I thought it would be in locating structure and working it. The new Minnkota’s anchoring is also next level, in that spot lock doesn’t just keep the boat on a spot anymore, it locks the boats position/direction as well. Maybe that’s the way it was supposed to be, but it’s actually new to me.
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Big cold blows came early this fall and the shortened season left little time for Quinte eyes. End of October into mid November it was unreal how many days were shot due to winds, rains and snow. Unwilling to trailer the new boat through salted and slushy roads or play on a raging lake, Leah played hooky from school one day before Halloween to join me for a rather solid fish slay when the weather was right… man we had fun! About a week later Brenda came aboard as well. A first timer to Quinte, Bren liked fishing eyes and drum but end of her tour said she’d still rather fish muskie. She’s getting harder and harder to please my woman, but she’ll be back in the boat again for eyes, I can bet.
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First couple weeks into September the big muskie were elusive. While working to get on pattern, the earlier catches were generally smaller. Bren came out with me on the Larry one day though, after having misread a weather report calling 30 kilometer gusts. It was actually 30 knots. A rough and wet day we fished where we could and picked up three muskies. This would become an initial spark to open the gates into a full, fall, fish frenzy.

Next trip solo, as soon as the sun set the muskies were on the bite. The first came unpegged and it could very well have been the heaviest, the second a fat mid-upper 40-incher made the net but after a tangle up needed a quick release. The third fish was a biggun that pulled a tarpon leap beside the boat and spit the lure, she was probably 50-ish but skinnier. Finally, the last fish after one of the most spirited muskie fights I have ever had, came aboard in the darkness. No net it was an easy hand-land to measure and photograph quick.
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One evening Tia posted on her Facebook that she was looking for anyone to fish with the next day. It was around midnight when I dropped her a message to wake up to in the morning. Shortly after the noon hour we met for the first time in person, warmed up to one another and I had her aboard Bambalam. Tia had never caught a muskie before. That changed! Biggest fish of her life and a pleasure for us both.
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Enter Clive into the fall schedule. Out of nowhere he appears one late evening to overnight at my place. Next day we take off early for a long day planned on the Larry. Clive is no stranger to big fish with teeth, but over his 20+ years on the muskie chase he had yet to catch that elusive fifty incher. About 4:00pm, five minutes after changing out a proven producer for a rather obscure and forgotten lure in my tackle box, the reel sang a song he’d been hoping to hear for a long time. Clive gets his best!
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Solidly hooked after his first time aboard it was little surprise he wanted more. A last minute call asking for a second round I was totally game for his great company again. Not only that, it would seem he brings a good bit of luck with him too. A second 50+’er proved Clive was on fire.
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Everything this fall season was piecing together as hoped. Bambalam’s extra tools and space were coming in handy and the more time spent in the new boat the more comfort and confidence was result. End of the day it really is just a bigger, better version of “The Bomber.” Rarely did I drive it faster than, although Bambalam would do it if needed. The heavier 90 Yamaha tiller required a little more shoulder and arm strength to manipulate. At first it would give me a good dose of throttle thumb being that a lot of torque and push can lean heavy into hand, but by end of a couple months I strengthened to better condition. The added comfort from length, width, weight and space applying itself against energy spent and fatigue throughout a day of fishing, well the new Lund excelled. Bigger boat, bigger play really. The plush Pilot’s chair is such a worthy change too, I think that alone makes a huge difference if sitting a long time. All this said, it was just today while writing this report up that Alex who bought “The Bomber” off me this past spring replied to my message asking how his first season in the old boat turned out. Not a single issue, he couldn’t have been happier fishing in it.
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It truly is an exceptional practice and experience pitting yourself up against a most difficult fish to catch while on big water. It`s an apex predator which I think requires the best any angler has in their skills, intellect and luck, and that’s why you gotta love ‘em! I have thrown plenty Hail Mary’s to every kind of fish out there, with some occasional prayers being answered, but with skis that sorta shit doesn’t fly very often.

Last fall and through the winter while more closely examining the past 4 to 5 years of journal notes, I tried much harder this year to really maximize the right times, stick hard to specific approaches and also tweak a few things in lures and presentations. The final results I think ended up better than any thought, talent or luck could have asked for. Aboard Bambalam we crushed big fish together through the fall. And even when not hooking up, the number of sightings and near misses this fall went well beyond the norm. An angler always wanting to be better, I am quite proud of this season, especially so being that no one has handed me muskie on the Larry, ever! And the catches for myself, family and friends are a culmination of much study and effort, making each trophy catch a genuinely great feeling…
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Thanks for reading along through 2018. Some really adventurous stuff planned for next year, hope you’ll check in again.
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Bunk
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