Some weeks back after just returning home from a Northern fishing trip, my buddy Ian and I were messaging back and forth when he asked a seemingly simple question… “Why Kesagami?”
Well, it might have been something I drank but, that evening memories of the Moose days and Kesagami came flooding to mind. Once responding to Ian’s inquiry, I remembered as I often do, how significant the old home of James Bay and times spent on the rivers and lakes were, and still are valued…
“It’s like going home man. It’s James Bay, the Mushkego and 10 years of me. Told myself too when leaving the north I’d always try and find time each year for a walleye and pike trip because, those are the fish I really learned my fishing with. Kesagami is a numbers pike fishery that houses giants, and it is an insane numbers walleye fishery too. Attawapiskat, Nipigon and Kesagami, all unique and amazing scenery, all fish quite differently, and all special. When we choose to go to Kesagami it’s pretty much completely ours, and when I asked Grant to pick a place this summer when he was to be healed of his cancer, he chose it. No objections here, Kesagami is amazing.
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FRIENDS & WHISKEYS.
Grant aka Slop, Huddy aka Sluddy, and Mikey aka Roland Martin, all assembled at my place the eve before departure. Some drinks and pizza, a little gear weigh-in and a few laughs, we were all passed out by 10:30pm knowing that 3:30am and the nine hour drive to Cochrane was coming pronto.
Being that it was a Sunday and we motored half our way north through the early hours of the morning, we reached Cochrane in super time. Instead of a usual sunrise flight, it was agreed with our outfitter (and pilot) Maurice to take-off in the afternoon. The day before, Maurice had his daughter’s wedding to attend, so we cut the dood some slack. Ha!
Touchdown on Partridge Lake came around 4:00pm, and stepping off the plane we were greeted on the dock to a warm westerly breeze. Inside the cabin while unpacking, Maurice went over the ins-&-outs of the fridge, stove, generator and shower before finally hitting the skies home.
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As the Chronzy would say at this point in his show… “paradise.”
We hit the BBQ for some quick burgs, flipped a couple boats into the lake, fixed on the new Yammy Sixers, then blazed into the sunset for some walleye shopping at “The Grocery Store.”
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Somewhat exhausted from our travels, we under-spent and came back early for a planned nightcap with a few friends we smuggled in. Whiskeys MaCallan from Scotland, Bushmill from Ireland and Wiser the Canuck were in da house. Betchya can guess who were who’s buddies for the week???
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A KICK IN THE ARSE.
With the exception of Sluddy Huddy we’re a few lads sorta outta shape. Tired, crusty eyes were forced to pry open that next early morn as I had to get up, put the coffee on and make the gang breakfast.
A little later start, we were then faced with the 400 yard portage that would take us from Partridge over to the boat cache on Kesagami Lake. Loaded down with much gear, weak ankles, pot bellies and crooked old man backs, we shuffled over the rugged terrain like mules in mudpits.
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A rather wee bit of a greyish sky, our boats fished together for the day. Starting midlake near our access point we all found that the overcast weather was putting the pike down, but the eyes sure didn’t mind the climate.
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Maurice flew in overhead while we were out probing around Fossil Island. Our overweight (beer) had arrived. Winds building some from out of the south I asked the guys if we should travel to calmer shores along the bottom of big Opimiskau Bay. They were game.
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Having never really been to that particular part of the lake before, we were headed for a little of the unknown. The actual bowels of that bay a mystery.
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A couple spots on route to check first, Mikey found an eager biter which he in turn eagerly wanted photographed with a little extra deceiving EAP (extended arm pose for any non-fishing family readers or lost anglers) The toothy sinister grins say it all don’t they?
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Once nearing the shores of Opimiskau we set on a short troll to prospect our way along. The wind which was out of the south had been dying off during our pleasure cruise, and once we neared our destination a sudden cold, crisp north wind rippled the waters from a completely new direction. There was an eerie calm before the storm… but then Mike started banging around in the boat looking for rain gear.
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As Mikey and I watched feeding terns swoop down on baitfish at the mouth of a feeder creek dumping into Opimiskau, we were startled to find the boat had drifted too shallow by the push of quickly building waves. Turning back to meet Grant and Huddy, I found myself apologizing while explaining we better high-tail it out of the south and head to the north. We were now exposed to a 15-20 kilometer fetch and a storm was brewing fast. The boys agreed to follow and so we shot out of the south and took our pounding as we headed to the north end of the lake against the rising chop. I was again thoroughly impressed with how well 14 1/2 foot Naden boats handle rougher water, but Mikey’s nads in the tsunami seat suffered some bruising.
Up north we peppered some bays into the early evening yet came up rather shy of any decent pike. We started our day fishing in T-shirts but now under all of our layers of clothing, could see our breaths in the cold air. A retreat to the calmer seas of Partridge Lake for some warming walleye hooksets under a promising sunset was the final play. Surf & turf, beer, whiskey and cheesecake would refuel our fires before bed. Heartburning good!!!
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COLD FRONT TORNADOS.
One thing about Kesagami is it could be considered another planet. Seriously, there’s no accurate weather stations, no other astronauts or scientists probing around the land there figuring things out, and certainly no cell service and operator to direct your call. Try punching in Kesagami Provincial Park to Wikipedia and all you get is the middle finger emoticon.
When the BIG lodge is shut down and all the softies are gone, it’s just us in our boats at the mercy of Mother Nature and any other devine interveners. In that vast worldscape you’re like just a singular-celled organism adrift in the Pacific.
Our expected forecasts were pretty much shot second day as well. In the past for winter weather I have used Kapuskasing’s forecast if the winds are mostly west, Cochrane if south and Moosonee’s when out of the north. Summer weather… humidity, convection winds, blah… But really, the elevation from James Bay to Kesagami in just 50 miles or so rises from sea level to 900 feet and this alone changes things dramatically many times over. At the southern tip of the Hudson & James Oceans, the weather is often unpredictable too, chuck in the jet stream which often dives southward when hitting Hudson, and any originating southern warm fronts colliding with Arctic air masses or cool temps off of James… well, I’m no meteorologist so it’s kinda retarded for me to hypothesize about. Anyways…
Huddy’s and my turn to share a boat, Roland Martin guiding Grant in the other. It was a cold morning with variable skies pretty much all day but not knowing any better we went pike fishing. Haha! Actually, from the boat cache we thought things were looking up for a moment…
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… but this didn’t last and was the longest ten minute window of sun allllllllllllllllll day.
The earlier morning fish was tough again and I will blame it on the cold front because I’m a jackarse and just that confident in myself. But no, there were times on this day with Huddy that I really began to question everything about our approach and locations for the pike, but seeing that the cabbage was a good green in most places we couldn’t reason against simply continuing to pound proven weedbeds. What I knew we had not been given yet were the better pike weather conditions. Pike can always be caught in garbage at any time but, usually cold fronts, overcast, rain and intermittient big winds from differing directions rarely play well into the sulky summer moods of those sight hunting northerns. In other words, I wanted the sun to blaze, winds to drop or just make up their mind on a direction, and especially a stable weather front to take hold, before making up my mind that we were or were not in trouble. A full moon too for good measure would be wicked…
But Huddy, Mike and Grant around noon began collecting other evidence to consider weighing in on… the forage.
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Yes, the forage was all there. If it wasn’t in the weeds it was still nearby and shallow. The surface temps on the lake were probably cooking somewhere around 70+F (warm enough we waded comfortably and swam in two feet of water to wash up) but, below that surface it had to be prime cool, especially if whiteys were hanging around in 5 to 6 foot depths.
Finally before lunch Grant cracks the case with a great fish… and I hope he writes about it online too.
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At 9 1/2 feet tall with a cheese locker the size of an oil drum, one can only imagine the gargantuaness of Grant’s pike’s awesomeness. A truly magical fish conjured from the “bage” (said like… “Bahj” referring to cabbage weed) with extraordinary rod wizardry.
We met up mid afternoon for tea and crumpets on some piece of shoreline from heaven, before then proceeding to a nearby island in order to sip walleye off a rocky shoal. It was a very productive and proper engagement.
Come prime-time the gang moved back in a couple different bagey (referring to bage (est. and said as, bahj) referring to cabbage) and worked different baits for the northern esox. When the sun would take just a moment to peer around clouds for an extended period the results were…
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The skies were trying to clear and we could tell, but the fish were still making us work. I was chucking a home-made in-line buck and slow skurfing it up high over the bage when a KER-GULP happened!!! Huddy sighed a quick, “why do they always hit your lure,” as my rippin’-long, arm-cranking, battle ensued. “Because Huddy, I’m a good fisherman,” I did boast.
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A great shouldered slobby northern to finish the day on.
After walking back to Partridge the evening sky was clearing nicely. Needing to stay behind and cook supper, the fellas set off to the Grocery Store for a sunset slay.
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Upon their return, Grant’s favorite, Walleye Tornados were served.
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TAKING IT UP THE BAGIBOU.
This was day 3 for the big lake, day 4 of the trip. My little journal notes…
– F’n killer tough pike fishing until the grocery store walleye.
– Analyzing the bage and pike all day.
– Nap in Otter and bathing in Kesagami.
– Lasagna and salad.
– Warming SW wind switch to NE wind late evening and new cold front.
– Terrible unstable weather and short pike windows.
And there was one other thing of note… THIS!!!
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Grant’s and my first day in the boat together proved to be another tough go on the pike. We had all hit the hay the night before under a starry sky but woke to a high ceiling of whispy like cover, that through the day tossed in more and more fluff monsters. It siznuckled bizalls that’s fo’ snizzle. But, as we were touring around plucking some nibbler eyes up around Windigo we made the executive decision to try out some new bage in an old and under-investigated shallow, sandy bay. Upon making a loopy-drift across and through said sandy bage bay, out of me sight-seers I caught one of Ontario’s more rare beasts… a bull woodland caribou. Instant brain-boner I was out of the boat and walking to the beach for pictures.
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There’s Grant anchored light years away… I yelled back to him, “WHAT IF THE BULL CHARGES ME!!!???”
But it didn’t. Instead I got pretty dang close (maybe 60 feet) to this rather tame and beautiful animal before it decidedly snuck off into the bush and somehow disappeared without a trace through the thickest coniferous jungle-junk. Walking up on that caribou gave quite a rush… and standing there on the beach a moment to soak it in was pretty surreal.
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The “rest” of the day belonged to Grant. HaHa!
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After a good siesta for some and a shrub scrubbin’ for others, the gall darn pike sent us packing empty handed. Still… after that kind of day experiencing some good times and convo with some friends, how could one be “grouchy?”
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One couldn’t be “grouchy” at Kesagami because an end of day trip to the Grocery Store will always see to that.
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KESAGAMI FISHING.
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In and around the late 50’s with trapping and hunting poor in the Kesagami area and a significant decline in beaver, the OMNR closed the season on beaver. Some families residing there moved (or were moved) to new traplines elsewhere, yet, there were likely some few who remained behind to possibly take work with a commercial fishery which began in 58 and remained running until 1966. There was also once a Kesagami Band of the area, but at some point it must have assimilated into the larger Cree Bands of the region.
In 1967 a commercial outpost camp was built and finally a large fishing camp in 68-69. At the time, the OMNR (or those in charge of fisheries studies) first proposed the idea of slot sizes for harvested fish on Kesagami, but when that came into effect and what the catch limits were, I couldn’t tell ya. And so through the 70’s and 80’s visiting anglers and Native harvests continued status quo, and the Kesagami Lodge outfit at some time became ownership of the Moose Cree before eventually failing to profit.
But, one thing fisheries biologists already understood back then, was how fragile pike, but more importantly (as preferred food source) walleye populations are in the slow growth northern regions. Years later through studies done in the late 90’s and 2005, it was formulated that, a Kesagami walleye reaches maturation at 9.5 years of age and during it’s prolonged lifespan can attain a late life to 30.6 years. A lake Erie walleye by comparison reaches maturation at 2.7 years, grows quickly and has an expiry date of around 9 years of age. To think, an Erie fish is more often than not fish food before a Kesagami fish loses it’s teenage virginity.
Because of reasons such as this, when new Kesagami Lodge owners took the reigns of the main lodge from the Moose Band in the 90’s, they wanted to push for catch and release of all pike, walleye under 16-inches to be kept for shorelunches only, and single-barbless hooks. Because of them, because of better handling methods of trophy fish becoming more mainstream, because of little-to-no Native and commercial harvests in that day and beyond, and lastly and probably most importantly because Kesagami has limited access due to it’s Provincial Park status, over the past decades the lake only serves to fish better and better each year. A few guides, other anglers and myself will attest to that… and the lodge itself boasts fish caught into the 50+ inch range over the past years.
This was no 50-incher… but still an average beauty for Roland Martin to kick off the morning on Day 5 of the trip.
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Downer pike skies all over again, we had no choice but to just continue on beating the bage and holding faith that the bulk of our intended quarry were simply holding tight-lipped below us. If there was any consolation for our efforts, it came in the form of spiney-finned golden bars.
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Yet Mikey is a worker, and I mean a real worker. An angler who leaves nothing behind. He managed to coax out a number of pike here and there when others were struggling. And as we all fished through the week, occassionally a really big 45+ would show itself by following a lure to boatside.
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The day before we were swimming and now it was back to fleece jackets and hoodies. By midday the gang met up again at our usual shorelunch spot to hatch new plans while we mowed down on turkey wraps, or ham & cheese or smoked meat sandwiches. On this particular day, we also needed to clean a few of those ancient walleyes for our next two dinners.
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Rested up and back on the bage, later that evening a favorite bay coughed up one goody for one lucky angler…
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Ahhhh yes… a slender rod bender of a pike… good karma!???
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Or so we thought… the bite turned off and we made haste back to camp early.
Over on Partridge overcast-like weather doesn’t exist. While on the main lake it was always looming around and gettin’ in your face and stuff. Buzz killin’ the pike action. But really, it’s just that the later evening around 8-9pm that things seemed to often settle down, except Huddy and Grant those Grocery Store freaks!!!
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We put some quick beats on the eyes as per usual before our boat needed to bail early so I could get the feast on the BBQ. Tonights menu… (and it almost didn’t happen until Mikey found us that perfect mid-size eater) … Cedar smoked plank pike and walleye smothered in maple garlic buttered scallops. It was OK.
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THE SUN CAME OUT!!!
Birds chirping during a 5:08am watering of the raspberry bushes is a good sign, and after a hearty french toast breakfast it was quite noticeable there was a spring in our steps along the portage over to Kesagami. Each day that little portage got easier, and I kinda wished that it could become my morning commute to work for the rest of my life.
Mike and Grant were heading south to look for the Shappiro giant of our past trip, while Huddy and I were off to some offshore beds in search of pike blankets in the east at Kentucky Bay. We all knew it was the day we had been waiting for all week, and if you saw the old report August 2010’s “Backdoor Hijack” you’d see that there were a good few more days on that trip with more sun and blue skies that helped bump up the numbers.
For the morning the fish were biting pretty good. Best all around action we’d seen that week actually. Everyone had been hooking up with various size fish, as we had found out during our daily lunch hour pow-wow.
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Having found that the 1-3pm period of the day was probably the slowest overall for both fish species, we often took a little time to just totally chill. Recharging the batteries before beating the pike bage and then Grocery Store for another six hours was a welcome idea.
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On all the trips I’m probably most guilty of pushing a fast pace. At nights we’re often getting down around midnight or thereafter, and by 6:00-7:00am I’m usually up first cooking breakfast while the others grab another hour or so of shut-eye. After breakfast and the making of lunch, we’re fishing anywhere from 8:00am to 10:00pm, and this goes on for seven days. This trip our energies were all over the map, and so again, that afternoon down-time helped serve us all in various ways.
Back on the hunt usually around 3:30 to 4:00pm, fishing together this day we spent a couple hours in one bay before switching over to a couple more hours in another. With the right timing, it proved to be our best evening (heck, best day) of the week.
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Mikey Roland Martin was fishing a weedbed with Grant off a point at the mouth of the bay when he tagged his best of the week. Huddy and I were deeper in the bay’s bage watching from afar while speculating that the guys must have found some sweet action outside the bay. We were all right, especially Mike.
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But inside the bay and about the same time Mikey was into his great fish, Huddy and I both sent out casts over a thickening bage pocket landing the lures about 10 feet apart. My lure smacked, reel engaged, and the sound of a toilet flushing followed by a heavy weight on the line was an instant consequence. Double setting put an exclamation point on things, and after a gnarly tug-of-war I had my big fish of the week. A total brick of a pike.
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It’s a pike fishing experience like this when it happens, which keeps people returning to Kesagami year after year.
There was a definite sigh of relief on my part. Although we had moved some really big fish through the week and caught a few trophy class 40+ as well, that off and on bite had me wondering all week if we were right with what areas we were working. This evening of day six proved we were A-OK.
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As the sun set back on Partridge the boys stayed behind at camp to cook the supper. A welcome change, the guys were great about it, as having been camp cook for all the other meals it was nice to have a night off. So, because of missing a couple nights at the Grocery Store I snuck away for a turn…
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Here’s a short video filmed during the sunset, it’s called Private Eyes.
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The fellas came through with a dynamite meal. Been a long while since I’ve eaten the cheeks and had eye fillets that perfectly cooked. Lotsa lemon and it was scrumptiously belly-fillin’ good. Just a most wicked awesome day fishing.
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CATCHING STUFF.
Huddy was a newcomer to this kinda trip. All week long a smile stretched across his face while he patiently adapted to pike fishing and our style of a vigorous fishing experience. Although a trophy pike eluded the man this time around, one thing we could all admit to was, he certainly hammered on great numbers of walleye all week. We knew he enjoyed the eyes so much that it came as no surprise when he opted to take the final afternoon and evening off from pike fishing, so he could fill a large Ziploc full of blueberries and take extra time boating walleyes.
There was something to be said of the Partridge and Kesagami walleyes too, they are everywhere and pretty much bite all day long. Thank goodness for them, for when the gators were stubborn you could always count on fun fishing for the many walleye in the lakes. Aggressive golden spirit lifters and tasty morsels when need be, each day we all took several opportunities to just enjoy their nature. On this final day fishing, things didn’t change…
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… but… things did actually change again though. The pike got tough for us again.
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Roland Mikey Martin found he could no longer take coming up empty handed so he tried his luck at “fly-fishing” which landed him an entirely new species. Grant and I watched on in awe. You gotta check this out… but it’s a rather loud video.
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Video – Fishing Arctic Tern
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Roland’s little experience was cause for some big laughs. I’d never seen anything like that happen before, and for Mikey it was a new one too. No harm done to anything during the making of the video.
From 4:00 to 8:00pm the three of us minus one Huddy, fished the tried, tested and true spots we knew and had caught fish on. During those hours we raised a couple but unfortunately couldn’t get any giants to commit. With about 45 minutes of pike fishing remaining we came together for a decision, keep at the pike or, end on a high note with some eyes back at the Grocery Store. Majority ruled and so we pulled the chute and made haste for Partridge.
What was the result of this decision??? Check it out… Pure fun!!! (again another quiet audio so to hear Grant ya got turn it up)
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Video – GIANT Walleyes
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You know you’re just plain spoiled rotten after enjoying a sunset walleye bite like that. Last summer, Grant’s health had us and himself all worried these kinda days for him with his friends could be much harder to come by. What a difference a year makes though, and I was surely glad to share the boat with him again… and Mike and Huddy for that matter.
Trips like this are always worth every ounce of planning, time and effort to live. Like really, over-the-head walleye and dozens of double-headers in a week… Gotta be kidding right???
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HEY HO!!! LET’S GO!!!
The slave driving camp Nazi had ’em all up for breakfast and chores at the gluteal-crack of, just in time. It was the day of departure and before jumping on the plane we had to “leave it as we found it.” But, that’s impossible really… I mean, “to leave it as you found it.” Because, that cabin on Partridge Lake being a home base over the years for many traveling angler souls, has a bubble of fun infinitely encompassing it. There, alone in the wilderness, it has it’s own little microsphere of other worldly goodness that steals a persons week in a flash, yet leaves them with memories eternal. When the trips end nears departure time, most of us instantly begin imagining when they will return next to live Kesagami again. It can’t be left the same… never just “as it was found.”
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Then as the plane lands and a new group steps onto the dock radiating excitement, you realize, it’s a place for everyone and anyone to enjoy. You just gotta go.
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Video – Take Off Eh!
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Grant, Huddy & Mike, thanks again fellas. And to those tuning in as well…
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Kesagami 2012.
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Bunk
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