It’s all planned out in the winter. I think for all of us fishing begins before each year in our thoughts. Slow afternoons in the office or long dark nights under lamp light, sitting with a calendar, pen and several different colored high-lighters I will considerately piece together the coming seasons. In neon yellow first marks all the work, January through to May, a contract mid summer and finally early November into December, all set aside for the Arctic. The full moons circled in blue, annual stat holidays in green then finally in pink or orange I’ll underline the fishing dates I look to enjoy. The mind often wanders off during this process, sliding into fishing past and building hope of enjoying fishing futures…

2024 work began in Nunavut’s Kivalliq region up on top of Hudson Bay. The northern most community there, in Naajuat I settled down for a longer 45 day contract at a newer hospital built along the coast. Great apartments, great views and a nice rolling, snowy landscape, cold winters there are windy but, at least short beams of a little daily sunlight peek over to warm the spirits.

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I would come to find all the staff in the hospital there very nice, very good with me. Many in town who visited with me were also a pleasure to work for. The older I get it seems the more people in my line of work tend show kindness and respect. Luckily I was on this contract alongside a good friend as well, to have that company always helps pass the days away. Having some projects to chip away at also shortens any down time.

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LINK: Sutton River Fishing Guide Mapbook.
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One disappointment I found in Naujaat was an underlying dislike for Nurses. Posted at the arena, in the two grocery stores and at the airport were signs which basically said one thing in English, “if you want to complain about the Nurses call this number,” and something else in Inuktitut, “if you want to get the Nurses fired call this number.” It was insulting and in no way does this type of community attitude promote good relations! The population there is undergoing one of, if not the highest case counts of tuberculosis in Canada. Sadly, it is a community with far too many people who often refuse to care and take responsibility for themselves and instead look to blame anyone else they can. The Nurses and local hospital staff all work diligently putting their own health at risk to help, so it is appalling that some look to target their careers and livelihood.

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As the contract died off and I checked-in for my flight home, the local airport attendant chose to ask, “leaving so soon?” I replied, “yeah, my six weeks is up!” “Good” he says, “it’s not like you Nurses do anything anyways…” Funny because as said, I quite enjoyed the staff, my patient encounters, facility and even my short walks about the community, in truth I’d return there for that hard work. Only in a few other places these past 25 years have I encountered that level of obvious, deep contempt. I will go back there though, and try to help fix that… but for now I’ll lay Naujaat to rest awhile.

Stevie Z and I roll on out to northern Ontario each winter. Because of work, usually these are the only days I take anymore for ice fishing. By the time March rolls around, I’ll have not whet a line since November and be quite ready to get at ‘er. Just knowing that Black Betty and I will be hitting the road, trailer in tow pointed north is exciting. Getting to see Amelie and the kids along the way, Stevie usually falls in shortly behind me and we eventually meet up at the lake.

The eighth March trip I’ve certainly learned some tricks and some spots. The first four years I’d work to find and jig a few fish for hours and hours, days and days, and that era eventually smoked itself out. Stevie in more recent years has helped relight a fire, working hard with me to relocate, search and begin catching fish again. We’ve had some tougher seasons and some great ones too but one thing is for certain, we’re on ‘em! There is nothing better to target through the ice than big, aggressive lakers.

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The time home always flies by so fast. About twenty days with Bren and ten on the road to fish, after it’s over I’m back up to Nunavut for what is often the longest contract of any year. March through all of April I’d join friends again for a contract at the very top of the world in beautiful Grise Fiord.

The 51 days there and extra delays home were all very worth it. I just feel welcome in Grise. Everyone there is great with the hospit, great to see and although the clinic work is oftentimes slower than most anywhere else, sometimes we do get busy with tough cases under challenging conditions.

During the down time we exercise, play cards, watch plenty Netflix, cook, have group dinners and otherwise I spend even more effort plotting and planning the fishing days yet to come. The one other thing we sometimes do is take the skidoo out for short runs around town, or take a hike. When doing so I love to photograph this amazing Arctic community, the mountains and icebergs there too. Grise Fiord is special, the people special, the vibe very, very quiet most days around the hospital until it isn’t. People down south could never imagine the logistics of providing all facets of healthcare from the most remote community in North America.

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Once spring arrives at home I’m raring to get in the boat. This season I started with crappies and on my way to the lake was in awe at how far advanced the trees and lakes already were. Water temps nearly 10F above normal, lily pads already up in some shallows, leaves on the trees and black flies in full swing, usually I’d have two to three weeks of fishing done before these conditions would present.

On the river it was different too. Very low levels to start with, it was odd how cold the water was and would remain. Weeks would go by chasing gar, the levels would hardly fluctuate and that temperature continued to stay frigid. Not only this, the gar were very scarce, much more so than usual. It almost seemed like the fish were long gone and done from hanging about their spring locations. It was just odd though… because that would usually take warmer water, weed growth and even lower levels to set a stage for summer fishing patterns that usually have gar scatter.

Anyhow, some good times were had fishing about half as much as usual. Scored many 50+ inch fish and Chrish and I enjoyed some outings together as well. One day in specific was pretty cool as together Chrish and I managed to land what very well could have been a Canadian record gar, had it been kept.

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LINK: A Canadian Record Gar Release.
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Set off on a solo roady north. Not at all the plan, StevieZ and Amelie suffered a major family setback for the summer and so Bren stayed home in hopes that they may be able to join us later in the season. The “couples trip” plan aborted, I packed up and went alone.

On the water just an evening and one full day following, I set out very far across the lake to make camp in the morning and fish the rest of the day. At about 51 miles from the launch while moving from one trout spot to some pike, the engine sputtered in an all too familiar way. After finishing a quick two hour session hammering giant northerns, worried a little I began the ride back to camp earlier than planned and sure enough I was immediately smacked with engine troubles. Limping to my site, still very far offshore, I tried trouble shooting that evening and next day set off into the wind for another stupidly long run to fish trout again. The engine issues only got worse. It seemed like the fuel pump was giving out and so come later that afternoon I idled many hours through surfing and sputtering back at slow speeds on a building chop and winds, to limp back to camp again. Next day I remained camp bound trying and testing the main to fix, all the while using the InReach to receive many weather reports for hopes of a safe escape back to the launch. That trip to land, it would take much of a day on the main or kicker traveling at best 6mph to make it back. I ended up being the fuel pump the entire trip, squeezing the bulb to feed the main motor gas until the big Yamaha had done enough. The 6hp Suzuki finished the job.

A nine or ten days planned to camp out and fish was reduced to about 1 ½ days… but man, did a lot of great fish get caught in that time.

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LINK: A Solo Roady North VI. A Road To Recovery.
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The motor ended up out of commission for weeks. The inconvenience of this would have been terrible had I not been blessed to have a good friend and awesome mechanic at (shout out) to CP Marine in Carleton Place, looking into it. In the meantime, it just so happened that I had scheduled my Arctic work contract weeks earlier than normal, so the boat wasn’t really needed.

Arriving in Cambridge Bay early July there was a little expectation to fish. A new septic tank to replace at home, a shed to shingle, garage floor to repair and possibly that outboard motor to replace, I went north with mostly work in mind.

As the weeks went on there came to be two and a half days to escape and fish arctic char. Finding an ATV to use, having done my homework I knew there were several places I just had to go. It turned out incredibly, I discovered great numbers of big, silvery, sea running char and experienced the time of my life catching, releasing and keeping one fish under my limit to fill a cooler with nearly thirty pounds of ready-to-eat deboned fillets.

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LINK: A Nunavut Nomad X. Breaking Ice For Silvery Sea Arctic Char
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While in the Arctic the boat issue was fixed. Not the motor at all, instead some fuel lines just needed replacing. For the remainder of the year the motor would run flawlessly.

Arriving home to a heat wave with nothing but time on my hands to get away, I told Bren that I planned to quickly meal prep, repack the camp gear and get back on the road to up north again. The weather up there on the big lake looked mint all week with the hottest temp a decent 28C. Alone for the second solo run I had mostly lakers in mind.

Found an offshore campsite and fished hard in the blue zones when winds would permit. Seven days to hammer the first few gave good windows for jigging lakers and I was able to find big pods to hook up with. I managed about 20 to 21 hours of fishing time for the greys over the span of 4 ½ days but sadly the remainder of the trip was cut short due to a massive cold, rainy front that would have kept me very wind bound to camp. Forced to pull chute early and leave, having caught and released 85 lakers, numerous fish over 20 pounds and a near 30 in such short time, I was okay going home with that.
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LINK: A Solo Roady North VII. Tuning Up The Big Greasy.
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Had it not been for missing my wife and a family wedding to return home to, I may have just stayed out camping alone the rest of the summer. I did go home though, and the family all came together for my cousin’s marriage celebration, and that was a wonderful day for us all.

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Bren was finally on vacation and she was willing; I think even wanting, to get away fishing with me. StevieZ and Amelie were sadly still down and out though, again not able to join us. But, we hit the road anyways and ended up back on Nipigon to be joined by friends Keith and Darolyn, Kallie and Craig.

What an enjoyable trip for us all. The fishing wasn’t as good as usual but it was consistent enough. The specks were biting well, the laker bite slower and the pike… well, we didn’t try for ‘em. What we enjoyed most was the company, campfires, meteor showers and a fireball in the night sky, great food, card games, old country music and fresh air. I know Bren just liked being away, even though she had a lot on her mind with work.

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LINK: Nipigon A Dreaming!
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Once returned home we were only around for a number of days before heading to the cottage. The fall months I’ve enjoyed retreating more and more to the shores of the St. Lawrence River where I can chillax easy between bouts of grinding hard for muskies.

This fall I’d started off with hot days and the family spending more time there enjoying that weather with me. For shorter stints on the water I’d go out fishing but otherwise take in more time with them and laying under a tree in the hammock too.

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As the days began to cool a little myself and girls would all sneak away to Lake Placcid New York for a quick fall foliage, family fun getaway. That area is something else, even the drive up through the mountains, along winding roads passing by crystal clear little lakes stocked with trout, I thought to myself, what an anglers paradise this appears to be. Once we reached our destination, the days were filled with hiking, sight-seeing and plenty of photo ops. The time was short and sweet.

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The latter half of the muskie season I invited Dan, Clive and Chrish to come stay but only the first two would make it. The October bite was pretty good, caught a number of big fish and kept the overall tally climbing. It wasn’t quite as relaxed, the hours spent climbed with company visiting but, I’d just had nearly the week off with the New York trip and Thanksgiving so I was pretty game to get hard at it.

This season I challenged myself to be more consistent and I was. Happy with the efforts in how I chose to approach time and the fishing, some great muskies hit the net, including a 56-incher that for anyone who knows muskies knows, that is truly a remarkable catch. Also ended up hoisting a 54.5 and 54 as two of the last fish for the season, and one more 54 earlier season. The 54.5 had awesome girth that surely placed it in the forty pound range, the other late fall 54 had some great girth too but I didn’t take time to measure her waistline.

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LINK: A Fall Muskie Challenge.
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When all was said and done the 2024 season left me both relieved and surprised. With the boat troubles and spring projects the number of fishing days were the lowest they have been in over 15 years. There were some times I didn’t quite expect to experience the things I did, like up in Cambridge Bay for those char or, during the first and second Nipigon trips when despite being cut short on time, the fishing was just amazing. Then the muskie season, cutting back a few days and certainly some hours in the days yet still catching as well as I did, that felt good. The overall results, the trophy catches of a number of species, I don’t really know if all of that was totally deserved, but that’s fishing, that’s why we love it! Keeps ya guessing, challenging, and getting out there, we never stop learning and surprising ourselves.

The fishing ended but the final 2024 work contract was all set to begin. Having been off since late July I was looking forward to getting back up north, very ready and this time to beautiful Arctic Bay.

… About a week before departure my Aunt suffered a major health setback, was admitted to hospital, rushed to surgery and afterwards placed in an ICU on life support. In very short time my Uncle, his sister, my mother and father, Brenda and myself were bedside with her during the very early hours of one morning when she passed away. It was a very big blow to us all and it surely took any desire and energy away from leaving home. I stayed behind an extra week with family, delaying the contract to Arctic Bay but eventually had to go.

Time slips by so fast and at any moment can be taken away, try your best to make the most of every bit of it…

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Above is the only picture from Arctic Bay this trip, in the light if you look real close you’ll maybe see something, or maybe, you won’t..? For one, I didn’t really want to be there after all and two, there’s no sunrise that far north, only a bit of twilight every day around noon, to go along with cold and darkness. Friends and family who message, call, just touch base while away in Arctic Monk Bunk mode, I appreciate that greatly, you shine some light in… And so as I sit in a quiet lamp light and finish this year end report I’m reminded how fortunate I am to have time, good health, to have some warmth and light, fishing, friends and family in my life, and some great memories that I can always share here.

Coming alive in 2025!
Big fish, tightlines, everyone be nice and play hard.

Bunk.