Over the years I have logged many fishing days to the website here, at various fishing forums, on social media and a few times within printed publications. Though one place where absolutely every experience has been recorded are in two books at home which make up my personal fishing journals. Not a day, nothing has ever been missed over the past two decades, each outing accounted for and never to be lost.

As another year draws to a close I go back into those books to complete this chapter, and remember. 2023 finished with over 100 days on the water with friends, family, alone, and all the while chasing some of the best fishing memories of our lives… And yet as I flip the pages turning ever further back in time, I will eventually come to a longest pause on a year which truly stands out as probably the greatest year of my fishing life. It was 2008…

January arrived with our honeymoon in Costa Rica. Just recently married during the late summer of 2007, we had to wait to finally get away for ourselves. This would mark the first time Bren would ever visit this incredibly beautiful and friendly country, creating a love affair for both which would see to us returning there a number of times in our future.
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This being one of my stories though, our honeymoon could not go without some kind of fishing. While away Brenda and I booked a day of offshore, deep sea fishing, and a half day inshore. The inshore was meh! Nothing I can recall really stood out other than a scenic boatride. However, on our offshore day we reached the Pacific Ocean’s continental shelf where the depths plummeted suddenly from 400 feet to 2000+ and we were into fish. The first for me was a wahoo of about 55 pounds. Said to be the third fastest sportfish in the world, it was a very quick ten minute high action battle to land. Bren too reeled one in, a beautiful mahi mahi which we’d keep part of for supper. It was the second fish inbetween those though that was a dream come true, almost unexpected bucketlister for me. A blue marlin! Without going into great details I will say, this fish, of about 8 to 10 feet long, said to be 400 to 450 pounds was the fastest, strongest, biggest, most intense fish I have ever caught. Nothing compares! My adrenaline was so high during the fight I may have shook for hours afterwards and, in no way do I ever need to catch another one. It’s enough!
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The winters back home in Moose Factory were always rather cold and fresh for fishing until mid March arrived. It was then when Bren and I with the odd friend along would make our annual fly-in day trips to Kesagami Lake. For any unfamiliar, Kesagami is an Ontario Provincial Park Trophy Pike and Walleye Lake that is restricted of any access by vehicle. Only First Nations peoples of the area can snowmobile in, otherwise one does have the choice to walk, ski, or fly and land on the frozen lake. That’s what we used to do, fly each winter! Some of my fondest ice fishing memories happened while there on that lake ice fishing. Great anticipation cane with every trip, we would rarely see another soul on Kesagami and we’d often just be dropped off for a day alone to catch dozens of walleyes and many pike in the 30 to mid 40-inch range. It was so much fun and in 2008 we lucked out with some great weather and big fish outings. Kesagami was my favorite place to visit back then, somewhere I would often dream and write about.
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At home through the Moose River break-up in May, all fishing and exploring that spring was some of the best I’d ever had. In the high waters after ice out, Bren and I would escape far upriver together for some nights out camping and days traveling for fish. Couples alone time is always welcome when you have young children. While out of town that spring we had one particular trip when I landed the heaviest walleye I’d ever caught in the north, it put me over the moon. On the same outing, for the first time I’d find a number of brook trout in one of the reaches of the North French River. A new friend at the time, the “Agent Stevie Zebco” and I shared our first fishing experiences together, starting off with “Mission Fishin’ Impossible.” I caught the biggest pike the Moose River would ever give me. On a solo weekend trip… well, a close encounter with a black bear sniffing my ear would surely be a scare to never forget. After long winters the spring on James Bay is so welcome once it arrives.
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I lived during 2000 & 2001 on a small fly-in, First Nation’s community in Northern Ontario. It’s where I met Brenda actually, and a place I consider to be rather dear. Much growth with work, who I am, who and what I love today, took roots while trying to find myself there. Attawapiskat is a beautiful place. The James Bay lowlands is a unique and naturally rich part of the world, and for a budding angler like me, an interesting, new and motivating environment to explore and grow my fishing. While there did I ever suck though! Would read and read and study fishing through those two long winters only to fish so hard and fruitlessly come May thru October. Locals with boats who could get away upriver would often return and tell me of their times catching enormous pike, bountiful big walleye and searun brook trout, but around town I couldn’t catch much at all. I fantasized about fishing the Attawapiskat and even one day found myself in a boat, with two friends, out of town and hooking into pike. The problem was in the catching, I couldn’t do it! My gear, my experience and preparation still left me unmatched, a number of times big pike just broke me off or ran me out of line into the big river currents. Seven years would go by when finally I would have another chance.
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Summer vacation came in early August. Bren and I would embark on what was likely the most special trip of our lives. Having never gone away on a “fishing” trip before, Bren was about to experience a pinnacle for any and likely all adventurous anglers of this earth, a trip to Plummer’s Arctic Lodge. For the week she and I would be treated to some of the finest lake trout fishing, incredible arctic scenery, and my ultimate dream catch, the Arctic char. Our first time away together to such a place, on Great Bear Lake and with a fly-out to Nunavut’s Tree River, we experienced miracles and memories words can’t hardly describe. This unforgettable trip changed a lot for me, for us, and it reshaped to some degree my entire life’s path, plans and expectations. Since that first visit to the Arctic, it never let me go, and it keeps pulling me back.
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But a crazy thing happened right after Plummers! The afternoon ending that trip I actually landed back in Ottawa, drove to my parents in Perth, repacked some things and that evening jumped into a friends truck to drive the 18 hours up to Lake Nipigon. Yes, from Great Bear and the Tree, immediately to Lake Nipigon and, for the very first time as well! Needless to say, much like the Arctic had done, so to would Nipigon. Never have I been the same since! Nipigon is a magical, mystical, magnificent, inspiring Lake and fishery as well. Three of us would spend a week, meeting up with some other friends too, and we would all go on to catch beautiful, big brookies and a few robust pike and lakers, all the while exploring big waters and camping out. Nipigon feels like the most remote, unspoiled place imaginable yet, you can drive right up to its door. Since that first tour in 08, I have revisited more than thirty times… it is that special to me.
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Autumn would arrive and so to would a number of opportunities to spend time with my girls, Brenda, and my new good friend Stevie. I remember some days on the Moose River when Summer and Leah had tonnes of fun pulling in fallfish and the odd small walleye, and the same with Stevie and that Zebco Rhino combo of his too. All the seal sightings that season, some of my best ever wildlife photos were captured. Writing was going quite well at the time too, had a number of publications for the year. Sadly, Bren’s sister would pass away up in Attawapiskat but through paying our respects and celebrating her life, we would, as a family, for the first time have the chance together to return to Attawapiskat, spend time with loved ones, reconnect with others and find some family moments out on the land. I guess we looked for a silver lining at the time, returning there to Attawapiskat and being amongst so many folks in community showing love and support to us, it was very heart warming.
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Blessed… there have been many good years of fishing and memories made. I love where it has taken myself and others close to me, and I get excited for where my imagination for fishing may take me next. It is somewhere always outdoors and adventurous, often planned and looked forward to. It honestly keeps me inspired, motivated to get after it! And when each memory is finally all said and done, and the pen put down after scratching more ink into the books, I think they’re always chapter well lived… Go back through the report here if you like and try the links to the full stories, there’s ALOT more to it.

2008 was a really great one! A year full of so much new travel, experiences, friends, family and exceptional fishing.
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Thanks for going back in time with me here at Bunks!
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