Gonna do something that hasn’t been done in a few years or more. A year end report! Anglers in the forums used to flood their favorite sites each year around this time. They’d give a blow-by-blow playback of how their season went, jamming reports with pictures and stories of their biggest catches and best moments. We all used to enjoy that… well, I know I did.

Why 2019 and not other recent years though… dunno? It was an absolutely incredible go but then again, I think that every season’s been the same. Blessed to live it I guess, got me thinking that must be worth taking pride in and sharing about it this way. So here’s a cheers, to my wonderful wife and to friends, who have all experienced special moments fishing and traveling alongside in 2019…
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The year started with work in Taloyoak and Gjoa Haven Nunavut. By mid February I came home on a six week break between contracts in the Arctic and it was then that some of the fishing season began. First stop was Calabogie 2019 for the annual fishing, feasting and fun that many have come to love over the past decade. Don’t even really need the fishing for this festive weekend but it certainly adds to it all.

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Before Bogie could end we left early, my wife had booked a week long family getaway for some sun down in Costa Rica. Staying at a little villa on the beach in Jaco, the girls surfed every day, we floated away on a whitewater rafting adventure, shopped the local strip, morning hiked in the rainforest, ate out each night drinking mojitos and magaritas and, I spent a day on the Pacific with Brenda in search of some deep sea fish. We didn’t catch much, but I did get to reel and hand-line in a nice sailfish.

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Upon returning I did little ice fishing in March. One trip taken that I quite enjoyed was a tour down to Shayne and Lori’s place to spend a few days on Lake Simcoe. The catching sucked for me and I dropped a big laker near the hole, but it was time well spent hanging with friends. Shortly after that roady, I was in the Highlands alone searching out trout when the Trapper Bravo suddenly just stalled out. The snowmobile was eventually dragged back to my truck and never did start again. End of the season right there.

Through late March and all of April work kept me up in Kugaaruk, Nunavut. A late start to spring, at home come early May water levels were high everywhere, a cold lingered long in the air and lakes too, yet I was just chomping at the bit to get fishing. Early on Lenny and I teamed up for a few nights traveling through and camping out in the highlands fishing specks, splake and bows. Using our quads, float tubes or a canoe, it was a great time getting into some fish before the blackfly season would arrive. This inland rainbow is the biggest and best I have ever caught in many years of trying. The excitement of that moment ran real high and of 2019 it may just have been this fish that was my favorite of all.

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Much more time than usual spent waiting for gar season to start, there was instead an unfamiliar pleasure in fishing other species. More trout, backwoods and open lake trout waters especially, walleye, carp and crappies to fish too. New friends Jesse. Mathieu, Wes, Luke and Doug, along with buddies Shayne, Tracey, Doug and Eric, the month punched a full card of visiting and fishing to do.

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Once gar were ready I knew it’d be a whirlwind short season for ’em. Expected to leave on two different trips in mid June and early July, gar fishing would equate to about 3 ½ weeks. Squeezing in seven outings total, eight fish over the trophy fifty inch mark would be caught and released. My best was a 55.5 incher, thick and over twenty pounds, a near record breaking size! But many of the other fish of the season would be good and healthy as well, fatties really. Some folks did come aboard for gar but it was a co-worker and friend Phil who enjoyed the best of it, catching a number of firsts.

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GAR REPORT – LOVING ALL THAT YOU GAR.
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Come June Brenda and I were off on our first fishing trip of the year. Friends Steve and Amelie would be joining us for much of that time, with camping, eating, drinking, pike, lake and brook trout all in the plans. This now annual couples trip has been one thing we’ve all come to look forward to, and 2019 was absolutely tremendous. The girls pretty much out-fished the guys all week. Brenda caught her personal best football sized brook trout, numerous trophy class pike into the mid forty-inch range and her first Nipigon lake trouts that weren’t small by any means. Amelie too caught the biggest pike of the week and her personal best, as well as catching numbers of lakers and specks. Doing OK I managed a mixed bag of everything while quite enjoying all the exploring that was done in Bambalam. And Stevie Z… well, he fell overboard once, then caught a big pike in wet clothes, spent much of his trip on his knees releasing Amelie’s fish but, he was a total beast to find good laker fishing out there in the blue zones and stay on ‘em! Just a great adventure really.

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NIPIGON REPORT – OUR “NIPI” GIRLS “GONE” WILD!
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When getting back home I was quick to begin preparations and packing for another fishing trip and a work with fishing contract following that. Little time to play in the valley, Brenda and I would soon fly away north to Great Bear Lake in the NWT. Staying at Arctic Circle Lodge, friends Lenny, Brody, Seth and his father Al, would join us. The deal with A.C. Lodge is, it’s self-guided fun on the world’s greatest lake trout waters.

During our time on Bear, Brody and Len would both catch their biggest lakers ever. Brenda too would hook and release her first over forty pounds, and I’d get one over that size as well. Seth’s dad Al would catch his personal best, Brenda and I would have one double-header for 59 pounds of fish, and between three boats somewhere around 700 to 800 lake trout would be caught and released. Well… except for the four we kept for dinner one night. I would love to make something like this an annual trip, but places like Great Bear aren’t always within reach. Maybe some day this gang will return again, but until then we’ll carry on with some real fond memories.

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GREAT BEAR LAKE TROUT REPORT – STROKE & PUTTS FISH PLUMMER’S ARCTIC CIRCLE,
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Can’t remember how many sleeps it was between Great Bear and my return to Nunavut for work, but it wasn’t many. A contract in Cambridge Bay, through the winter and spring I had found a willing pilot to fly and drop me off on the tundra to camp out at the Ekaluk River for five days. There was much that was needed in preparation of this, including some luck, and I’d have to say that this one experience was something interesting and quite unlike anything I ever expected.

The days on the Ekaluk were out of this world, quiet and still, and it affected me in quite a deep and meaningful way. While alone there, visitors actually did happen to drop by, and it was on the third day that I hiked on down the riverbank to meet a plane leaving someone myself and many people in fishing have come to admire. Aaron Wiebe of Uncut Angling by remote chance landed on the Ekaluk, and for a half day I had the pleasure of his company. He certainly added something to my experience and search for Arctic char and I hope, at least for his brief time, that he’d say the same as well. Nice to meet him and chat, Aaron would go on to catch the red char he was looking for, and I would eventually find the silver I wanted too.

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EKALUK RIVER CHAR REPORT – A NUNAVUT NOMAD V. QUEST FOR THE EKALUK.
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By summers end I was totally exhausted. Returned home to bed late August from a months work in Nunavut plus the Ekaluk and spent a week sleeping. Once raising my head from the pillow it was time to get started on my favorite fishing season of all, the fall. Not sure what the muskies were up to yet, Leah joined me for an evening troll and she managed to catch her first ever ski on one of my homemade spinnerbaits. That was something feel good for us both.

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But see, the original plan for early September didn’t actually include muskie. Well first of all, I long had the idea to take on Nipigon solo for a week. Camping in the boat, in safe harbours, with a freight load of fuel, food, camp and fishing gear, I’d search out the lake on a about a 400 kilometer loop route. After the Ekaluk though, there just wasn’t enough drive to solo so soon in a such a big way. So, I called Stevie Z and it happened he had some time off in September and we decided on a five day trip together. Nearing the dates Mother Nature decided against Nipigon entirely, yet the weather at home here was looking great for lake sturgeon and muskie. Having never caught either, Stevie drove the eleven hours to my place so we could spend five days chasing these local fish. While here he caught his first lake sturgeon but also several muskies. This one pictured was his first and biggest muskie to date, I know Stevie enjoyed himself.

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Seth… like, the Seth who had been at Great Bear Lake with our group earlier that summer, well he messaged one night inquiring about muskie fishing. Wasn’t long after he drove Fargo to Winnipeg, boarded a plane and landed in Ottawa. Having only ever caught a small muskie as a boy, we ground and pounded through two tough weather fishing days for nothing but, when the calm and sun came out on the final morning, he was rewarded with two great skis. One just happened to be staggeringly big, well over 50-inches, a personal best, an incredible memory and a fish that replica’d will be heading for his wall.

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At some point in the middle of muskie season Clive arrived from Toronto on a last minute call-out for company. Having only found time for one day of sturgeon fishing prior to his arrival, I wasn’t sure what to expect. We’d head out for a day of muskie and one for sturgeon, starting with the dinosaurs first. It would turn out to be the wise choice. Eighteen sturgeon were caught, Clive got a number of them having never caught a sturgeon before, and I got one fish too that was a great one to end our day and the season with.

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STURGEON REPORT – THE STURGEONEERS.
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The year would come to a finish fishing muskie. An early cold and snowfall tucked Bambalam away on November 17th, ten days after a final outing. Just couldn’t see it happening again, despite very much wanting to slide in a few Bay of Quinte walleye days and maybe just one roll of the dice down at 40 Acre Shoal. Brenda and I did however end our autumn with two nice fish each, both our best muskies of the year.

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MUSKIE REPORT – MATTERS OF MUSKIE.
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So looking back on 2019 I feel pretty good about it. The least number of days I’ve fished in any year through this past decade, to continue on catching such a great number of different species tells me I am still doing something right, despite slowing down some. But looking up at the pictures above what is really more impressive are my wife and friend’s catches. Brenda’s fish and fishing was truly magnificent this year, and so many others caught personal bests while living out new experiences too. Just so lucky to take part in all of it.

Guess that’s good reasoning why 2019 was compelling enough a 365 to resurrect the year end report. Hopefully 2020 will see more of the same.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
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Bunk.
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