2022 is one of those years some might surely like to forget. Covid, inflation, restrictions, politics, injustice, lockdowns, truckers and more, most Canucks have been exhausted while idling nauseously in various states of the gloom and doom smothering all around us. Immunity from hazards has not been easy to find…
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First the pandemic and following panic-demic, two hands around our throats many I believe through early 2022 felt suffocated to near death. There were times I know I did. There were days emotion got the better of me, got the better of others and I tried to be as much of a rock for them and myself as I could. This went on especially during the early winter while in Kimmirut, Nunavut.
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Video. Kimmirut on a walkabout!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6k7ICpQro4&t=15s
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The first few months of 2022 was sadly a sort of awakening. Canada reaching a boiling point, I’d more deeply sense some of the hurt and frustration friends had, the anger many were feeling and, come to believe that Covid had been billed and built into something far worse than what it turned out to be. We didn’t initially know, many wise tried to be careful, but in my opinion ongoing restrictions and mandates were taken too far. More harm than the actual viral pandemic would cause, did our Government and the people’s divisions throughout it all. In the face of adversity, there were many who failed to be inclusive, thoughtful and considerate. Some friends on both sides of the coin were often overly self righteous, unforgiving and ignorant through social medias and just like all others living through that crap and more, I wasn’t immune to the effects of having to make choices in order to get on with life as best thought.
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To be at work actually giving and helping and even saving the odd life along the way, it was not at all cool nor healthy to log on to what is my entertainment and social media of friends and read not one, but many posts attacking the Nursing profession and all of healthcare in general. I actually saved comments from someone who made me wonder if I should go to the police. And if I saw one more time some “friend” calling out to other “friends” to “educate themselves, open their eyes, wake up,” or naming and blaming others as “stupid, blind sheep,” well, that low behavior became an incessant annoyance enough for me to eventually right them off. I have faults and am known to complain sure, but to be as extreme as to repeatedly call for the death of all healthcare workers, be so ignorant as to spread hate or, be so selfish and senseless as to perpetuate fear from the comforts of your living room during a time of honest suffering for many in our world well, those are not faults of mine.
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A silver lining came with the first and only ice fishing allotted for 2022. With the agent StevieZ along for a tour we took a drive north to slay giant laketrout. It was an incredible trip that pained me greatly. My back was completely out just before leaving, there was nearly a week I was couch-ridden before departing and Bren had me soaking in scalding Epsom salt baths to try and fix it up. Everything was a chore, especially the four days of driving. This round of back trouble worried more than usual cause it wasn’t letting up nor was it in quite the same area I have suffered before. Friggin’ SI-joint for sure and I know exactly the triggers that set it off. Some heavier pain killers than I’d normally take and a serious reduction in trip whiskey consumption, the mornings up north fishing were tough to just get out of bed. Oddly, once moving around some and the meds kicked in, I’d get through the ice hut hours okay, especially fine actually, even handling set-ups and take-downs as usual. But those early morns and late eves once idle, I paid a price, and around that time too, I gave birth to one shitty mindset that I’m an old man now.
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Stevie and I pounded out a total of 44 fish. Him 24 and me 20 with a near Ontario record sized ling in the count and several lakers over 20 pounds. That big ding-a-ling though, holy shit was it exciting seeing that come up the hole. I love something different and those fish certainly are to me. Definitely one of “my” top three fish, maybe two fish for 2022.
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Video. Nearly Ontario Record “HUGE” Ling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bNYztT4I7Q&t=11s
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Video. A Mighty Ice Lake Trout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_2mHUJlDWQ&t=26s
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Video. Last Minute Rocket Laker!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8u9xUaQeKk
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Video. Long Lean Laker Lovin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ugWW7uG6s
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Back to work in Grise Fiord right after the ice fishing trip, I took on a sort of a new job up there. Asked to work without another RN, choosing instead to have only an LPN with me. Usually a quieter town, the hope was to have the time there to learn the supervisor role while on the same contract continue on with nursing duties and, take all the on-call and overtime for myself. The back still bothersome then, I made it fine to the highest arctic community in North America and by end of day two was taking a beating with high-acuity case work over the following several weeks. Pulled through several 24+ hour patient shifts and long range medevacs while trying to keep up with all the administrative work and dysfunction going on with that.
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To make matters worse, as the rest of Canada was lifting restrictions, the town finally received its first Covid positive… and then all Hell broke loose. Everyone pretty much came in contact and most if not all households fell ill. I didn’t get it but half the small staff did and that left me wearing even more hats in the office. The LPN assisting me, she got it too and for a week went off work. But guess what though, no one died. No one was hospitalized. A couple homes that chose not to vaccinate suffered the worst of the symptoms for the longer durations but otherwise, within a couple weeks the most isolated, under-serviced, tight-knit community of incredible people survived like they always do. But it didn’t mean that the load was any easier… it was a tough contract with a tonne of overtime and some short windows for sight-seeing. Was glad to finish up winter’s work come May, felt a little PTSD’d out from that one. Save lives and compartmentalize, the nature of it.
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Video. Flying into Grise Fiord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXAlKA5upbI&t=46s
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Full Length Video. Grise Fiord Lookabout!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otMJaYXiHuM
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At home the back was pleasantly much improved. The shower busted when in Grise Fiord I had been forced to take a bath every morning, some evenings too. The soaks, days gone by, and resuming a bit of gentler stretching and exercise smoothed out the aches. It was spring now, the beginning of fishing season, big vacations and outdoor living. In the Ottawa valley, Covid seemed to be in the rearview. As much as some folks hated the truckers just then getting on their way home, I personally think they helped move the Government bullshit mandates and restrictions along. Without some honking and their push-back, all those corrupt dickwads may have never ended it.
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For the next weeks I got to gar, crappies and some trouts abouts. My pally Chrish came aboard Bambalam for a taste of all those things. Having never crappie fished before, when we finally got on ‘em one day it turned into real good fun. He slammed some photo worthy PB’s and I got to take home the fillets. Around laker opener we snuck out to pop a few of those topside too. Love the laker game, a lot! Leah joined me one morning for an unforgettable splake run, she is the best splake luck there is. Did some lure building cause that’s good evening downtime in the garage before the mozzies get too thick. But mostly, I plied the waters for spookier gar managing to do alright sticking some needle-toothed dinos. Chrish and Christine both joined in and caught some as well. Spring was a happening right as it should.
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Pumped the brakes on all the at home fishstevities so Bren and I could take a trip rip up north to pamper as campers and do fun stuff outdoors. StevieZ and Amelie would be ready to partake a short time after we’d arrive. As always, the big water brought big fish and bigger skies. Sometimes the winds and waves held us back a little more than we would have liked but at least we didn’t have it as bad as Amelie who couldn’t get out all. Stevie showed up alone, Covid back home got into her before she could get away to join us. That sucked!
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But frig we still had a good time! Stevie was in and out of either his boat or ours and we made the best of it. Fishing was hottest before he arrived and the weather turned more shitty, and yet we all got some pike, eyes, specks and maybe, maybe, maybe lakers too? For Bren one of our speck days was lights out, and with me, I caught a couple pike that were out of this world thick! On top of that, in just a couple short hours during two outings, we hammered walleye to the tune of like 70 and 100 fish. Every trip up there is different and yet it’s so constant in fishing that timing is everything, location is key, experience is golden and confidence a must. But it is always Mother Nature that gives the final say.
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Got home pretty tired out but had made a choice to rent a small cabin for five nights and get away for some after-opener, muskie hunting. Bren didn’t feel like being on board with any part of this, which was kind of a bummer. Chrish too was booked up guiding and had been out for a good week and more putting the pounding on ‘em as always does. He’d boated a ridiculous number of fifties in the first 9 or 10 days despite telling me it was a tough go. And he was right, cause my next five days solo suckoloed totolo assolo. If memory serves I picked up four fish, 48-incher the best, none over the fifty, and any spring confidence I had going in was good and shattered. Perhaps better to just stick with the fall bite..?
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Thank God for laker love! Moody with the muskie and rather gar’d out, when a friend of mine from Nunavut came down I wasn’t sure he’d be OK with chasing greys considering he and I several times had shore-casted to ‘em to the tune of like, a hundred caught in a single day. But Jordan was cool with the plan and so we went. Well shit, he and I boated 41 lakers and had a banner half day. Over the span of seven more mornings with friends Jason, Nathan, Rob and both Bren and Leah, my kiddo and I at noon on the final outing would catch and release number 250. That’s fawking sick laker fishing, it was insanely good times out there, everyone had a blast and it certainly restored my happiness and the lost confidence from earlier in the month. Here’s a few!
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Most work done over the winter there still needs to be some halfway pay come in for the needed float. Usually mid summer, I try to cherry-pick the perfect four week contract. Has to be an arctic town with enough staff that there will be days off call duty, and the place needs to have arctic char close enough by or, provide some sort of transportation or opportunity to get to them. Bottom line, I’ll work like a dog short-term, maybe not sleep 40 hours, bend over backwards to time my off-calls just right, pay cash for an ATV rental, beg, steal or borrow and call in favors, just to have that chance to fish. The summer of 2022 it just so happened I got Covid and was put on isolation at work over my first weekend chance but, the second weekend the stars aligned as everything worked out perfectly.
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On the right wind, under the right skies and at the exact expected time, I managed a whole Saturday off call to enjoy one of the most amazing and memorable days of char fishing an angler could ever ask for. From 9 to 5, what a way to make living! About 35 char were caught and almost all were released, but yet I kept a limit for the day to include in a total take home. What was best were all the big, bright colored bucks hammering the lures. Man, some of the char were so brilliant! I’d never caught pure strain char quite of this size, and to do so back-to-back all day long, only resting to gut and store fish, eat and drink, it was the greatest fishing of 2022 and right up there in the top of all experiences I have ever had. The sixth hook-up for that day but first fish caught, it was the prize of them all. Char are often the fish of my dreams.
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Full ARCTIC CHAR REPORT found here…
https://bunksoutdoorangle.com/a-nunavut-nomad-viii-the-ivitarulik-redemption/
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Short video of a great char click here…
Beauty Red Arctic Char.
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I left the northern community rather out of sorts. Absolutely elated was one feeling, completely exhausted the other. I pushed myself hard through a Covid illness and some very busy day and on-call night shifts. When arriving home it would have been good to sleep a week but instead I had a million things on the to-do list and plenty preparations to make before heading on another fishing trip. Just a rough life!
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Chrish was joining me to camp out with StevieZ and Amelie on a second northern tour. It was something he was looking very forward to, and when I offered it was something I felt he’d enjoy. We set out on the road for like twelve days and got into positively the best fishing I know he’s ever had for lakers, specks and pike, and some of the best I have ever had too. While away Chrish took personal bests in all categories, our numbers were off the charts for specks and lakers and, Stevie, Am and especially Ben caught awesome specks too. Ben catching a true giant! It was a great trip and we left the fishery totally ruined again. Ha!
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For the fall I decided to rent a cottage again but this time for about five weeks. The muskie season with friends and family was the plan, and so rather than drive every day, sleep in my truck sometimes, dine at Tim Hortons, brush my teeth in a boat, bathe in a livewell and not be able to accommodate anyone easily, it just made more easy and comfortable sense to get a place.
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The fishing was… OK. Did well at the right times, suffered through some others, size was up, numbers down, had to work harder for ‘em, learned some things, appreciated any company and boated some bigguns. Having grown up on the water Bren really enjoys being on it, she finds a real peace with it, and so it may end up being our next big move in life. Myself, well obviously I am obsessed with fishing enough that it’s impossible not to want to be on the water. With much of our fall time dedicated to muskie now and, Bren really liking that fishing too, I can envision plans to one day have easier big muskie water access, with walleye, gar, bass, etc., be a goal for us. Would be happier aging, to just roll onto the water for a few hours at a time rather than having to travel and dedicate entire days to fish. But of course, I would still take plenty summer vacation time north for lakers, specks, pike and such, and maybe squeeze in some arctic char here and there as well. Some life goals to work towards anyways.
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But back to this muskie fall gone by, I had Seth from North Dakota fly up for a weeks stay. We crushed it everyday. My buddy Brody came over from New Brunswick a short while, we did not crush it, losing several muskies to straightened hooks and misplays. Bren of course was out some of every weekend with me and stayed most of a full week too at one point. She struggled for a decent ski this year. But otherwise, a couple other guests to be guided had to cancel, Chrish and I got out a time or two and once included a day of sturgeon, my friend Dan came along for day and new bud Mackenzie came aboard a couple times as well. Sadly, a boat issue that is all sorted out now, cost me about the last two and half weeks of fishing season I had remaining, and so be it, everything wrapped up earlier than expected and work came sooner than planned.
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The past years have not been years of much reason. Society has been on edge, strong feelings running higher than ever. Blame, opinion, anger, etc., often at the forefront of how people and even friends are choosing to “socialize.” “Dyscopia” at an all time high, fragility amongst ourselves and throughout our society seemingly ever more commonplace. Nowadays lines get drawn in the sand far more often. And albeit this is a rather sad reality, I pretty much came to accept it by the end of 2022. Call me “complacent” maybe I’ll answer “more comfortable” or to be clever, “actively seeking asylum.”
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The past while has kind of lead me to see what values in and of people I better identify with, and searching out those kinds of answers makes one anything but lazy. As time passes, I often want to shoulder less burdon and carry on better by learning what virtues and behaviors from people are more helpful, positive and uplifting. That takes awareness, thought and energy, and an ability to often be ugly with yourself too. For like everyone else, me and you and very often me again, all have some imperfections that need attending and improvement. Self reflection and a striving to be better is something each of us should commonly be doing, it isn’t just something for others. Life is always a work in progress.
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2023 the focus is more on bettering me and caring less for people and things that shouldn’t matter, caring more for those who truly do matter. I want to hold all loyal and honest whom I love, with more respect and appreciation, maybe in return receiving some of that same good vibe too. Need to try harder to re-polarize any self negativity into positivity, or at the very least, harness any energy into things constructive or motivating. Basically I want to try and be better and I may as well say it here now, because these are the stories to tell and look back on. My words that measure the man and mark the times… and certainly show off some caliber of fish! 😉 Thanks for reading these deep thoughts that came to mind.
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The final fall days at home I luckily had Leah with me for a short while as she was on a reading break from University. We played in the Highlands together for a special date outdoors. Summer too came by when she could, and near Halloween visited. Perfect to have both my girls home with me while I cooled down from a significant muskie fever then total breakdown.
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Before too long I took work up in Coral Harbour Nunavut for a month then made it back for Christmas amidst all the terrible weather and flight delays. Did pretty good with the luck on that one though, many weary and disappointed travelers. Happily at home for the holidays, I had Leah with me again but for a couple weeks this time. We just chilled everyday away and then Summer stayed for five days too, and made some extra evening visits. Despite the year’s troubled start with days of singing the blues, in the end all the travel, fishing and family time would make for a fine finish. Reviewing this report I am reminded that life appears to be really goooood, fishy and fun, just have to always keep on seeing it that way. Looking forward to the year ahead.
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Thanks to any who shared in the good times of 2022.
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Bunk
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