Just back from Ontario, Canada, where my parents and I went to Lake Vermillion and stayed at the Fireside Lodge. This goes to show that writers do more than just write! It was in fact a great place to also read in the evenings and scribble and listen to a lot more SILENCE then I ever have in Paris! Anyway, I had a fun week out in Northern Ontario. Lots of days out on the boat. I learned some valuable lessons, such as :
1) Hats sink --fast.
2) Sunburned lips can make you look like you got a free collagen treatment (unfortunately, I didn't get an Angelina Jolie body to go with)
3) Romaniam fisherman look like special forces combat troops
4) Rain gear--only keeps you so dry if it is going to really pour and pour and pour…which it did.
5) How to get a medium sized fish of my own in the boat (28 inches-long northern, as you see in the above pics, and a few 17 and 17.5 inch smallmouth bass—the smaller fat fish you see in the above pics) and net a big one (Dad's 39 inch which did this astounding full-body leap into the air about 100 feet from the boat after I had asked him how big it was and he had just said "not THAT big" and so I was holding the normal net and realized that wasn't gonna cut it--I had to use the big body net where you lean over the edge of the boat with it and, no, I did not fall in—and you see his pic aboe with the big fish) and how to NOT get in a really big fish of my own--dad called that moment "catch and early release"! Unfortunately, I had a little luck and unluck and had a few of those moments!
6) Knots, knots, knots--boat & dock knots, slip knots, square knots, anchor knots, hook knots, leader knots, not knots that then let the fish get away knots...
7) Weeds and rocks and more kinds of underwater weeds....a nuisance on and offshore, though in which the fish hide...
8) How to catch a musky--yes, I did! A tiger musky—it is in the pics above, looks like a northern but in fact fights different and has these nasty teeth! All my life I have seen very few people manage to get a musky, and once I saw my burly cousin Dave pulled off the dock in the rain in Wisconsin when he had hooked a musky—evidently a bigger one than I am holding here!
9) Once the weather is nice, mosquitoes in Canada are like an attack force! I even swallowed one myself, he was so anxious to get near me!
10) A muskrat is not a beaver, but they are CUTE!
11) Moose swim. I learned this, via a photo but despite this I did not see one. (frown and pout) I also saw very few people--all day on lakes and no people!!! Lots o' loons, though.
12) Hearty eating takes on new meaning up in Canada--and they say US portions are a surprise!12) LAYERS!!!: We headed out onto the lake around 7 h 30 every morning and if the weather wasn't too damned cold (the first few days I was in 5 layers! Including the plastic ones--2 pairs of socks, thick shoes, heavy jeans then 2-layered raingesar gortex pants over the jeans, 3 shirts (including the turtleneck) then a sweater and sweatshirt and then the big plastic raingear and windbreaker coat with hood, a hat and over it that hood. Wow, eh? What can I say, the pictures above will certainly be a sign of a new beauty look! Rugged girl 2007!
1) Hats sink --fast.
2) Sunburned lips can make you look like you got a free collagen treatment (unfortunately, I didn't get an Angelina Jolie body to go with)
3) Romaniam fisherman look like special forces combat troops
4) Rain gear--only keeps you so dry if it is going to really pour and pour and pour…which it did.
5) How to get a medium sized fish of my own in the boat (28 inches-long northern, as you see in the above pics, and a few 17 and 17.5 inch smallmouth bass—the smaller fat fish you see in the above pics) and net a big one (Dad's 39 inch which did this astounding full-body leap into the air about 100 feet from the boat after I had asked him how big it was and he had just said "not THAT big" and so I was holding the normal net and realized that wasn't gonna cut it--I had to use the big body net where you lean over the edge of the boat with it and, no, I did not fall in—and you see his pic aboe with the big fish) and how to NOT get in a really big fish of my own--dad called that moment "catch and early release"! Unfortunately, I had a little luck and unluck and had a few of those moments!
6) Knots, knots, knots--boat & dock knots, slip knots, square knots, anchor knots, hook knots, leader knots, not knots that then let the fish get away knots...
7) Weeds and rocks and more kinds of underwater weeds....a nuisance on and offshore, though in which the fish hide...
8) How to catch a musky--yes, I did! A tiger musky—it is in the pics above, looks like a northern but in fact fights different and has these nasty teeth! All my life I have seen very few people manage to get a musky, and once I saw my burly cousin Dave pulled off the dock in the rain in Wisconsin when he had hooked a musky—evidently a bigger one than I am holding here!
9) Once the weather is nice, mosquitoes in Canada are like an attack force! I even swallowed one myself, he was so anxious to get near me!
10) A muskrat is not a beaver, but they are CUTE!
11) Moose swim. I learned this, via a photo but despite this I did not see one. (frown and pout) I also saw very few people--all day on lakes and no people!!! Lots o' loons, though.
12) Hearty eating takes on new meaning up in Canada--and they say US portions are a surprise!12) LAYERS!!!: We headed out onto the lake around 7 h 30 every morning and if the weather wasn't too damned cold (the first few days I was in 5 layers! Including the plastic ones--2 pairs of socks, thick shoes, heavy jeans then 2-layered raingesar gortex pants over the jeans, 3 shirts (including the turtleneck) then a sweater and sweatshirt and then the big plastic raingear and windbreaker coat with hood, a hat and over it that hood. Wow, eh? What can I say, the pictures above will certainly be a sign of a new beauty look! Rugged girl 2007!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this little side-track from my usual "read my writing" blogs, and hope that you all have had a great summer, too!!!
2 comments:
That's it, Jen, show those mosquitoes who's boss.
Murderer!!!
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