cameron yellowback, lake trout, derby winner. he wasn't too far from our boat when he caught this poppa, or we weren't far from him. awesome though, cameron's rod broke reeling this sucker in and he ended up having to pull the line in with his hands. what a battle. the kicker is he caught it on a spoon i had loaned him. it obviously has to go down like that. good job cameron your my boy.

football and g's. these are my students and some pics from the developmental football camp we attended in thompson manitoba.

top) fish on.

second from top) paddling up god's river back into the community. simple and flat.

second from bottom) sun setting on the rez. everybody here has at least one trampoline.

bottom) weighing in for the derby. again, for the record i took second place. what is amazing about this is that so many people had such beautiful and big lake trout. the lake is truly a huge source of life and the abundance of fish is insane. on the flip side it is hard to imagine that some lakes in north america were probably once just as abundant. what happened? have our lakes been out fished and polluted that badly?

god's lake is huge and has over 50 tributaries that help contribute to the ridiculously high fish population, but there are big lakes in the south that should have more fish in them. artificial spawning has become a reliable means for lakes to sustain their numbers, sad.

top) alfred ross and i with a nice haul of lake trout. we caught these during the derby and did pretty well. i caught the big one on the far right and placed 2nd, winning a return ticket from god's river to thompson manitoba, and alfred placed 6th with the big one second from the right. behind us is is alfred's trusty truck named lucile, she is a total babe, but i get mad at her when she runs out of gas on winter roads. that happened.

bottom) mervin's tent down river at night.

top) i was fishing up a creek with nettie pogson, a high school teacher. we took the canoe out on the may long weekend and just nailed the pike, tons of fun. the pike feed in the shallows, and you can see their fins moving through the weeds so you know where to cast and just like that, fish on. often you can even see the fish moving towards the lure too so you know exactly when the fish is about to hit. i was feeling pretty good about all the fish i had been catching then i bumped into jaiden ross and his dad jeffery. jaiden pulled this bruiser up and my jaw dropped in total humility.

second from top) this is one of many pike i caught on the may long weekend, not the best shot, but who cares, you can see the fish and get an idea. i caught this one when i went out looking for walleye with alfred ross. the lake was still frozen over and we weren't able to get to where the walleye were so we fished jackfish creek instead.

second from bottom) i went out the next day to scope good spots for lake trout derby with mervin yellowback. it was cold out and windy, but we were able to find a spot where they were hitting. again the ice is still out there, but trolling along the edge of the ice seemed to be a good marker. i caught three and had a great fish fry.

bottom) fishing may long weekend with a neck-warmer and gloves.

top) the day's bounty: northern pike, two mergansers, two mallards, and a golden eye duck.

middle) the mergansers surprised me. i have seen lots of them before, but never close enough to make our their unique bills. with alligator like qualities it is easy to see how these ducks have the ability to catch and eat fish. the sharp jagged teeth would make it easy to grab and hold onto small aquatic prey.

bottom) i went camping with mervin yellowback, he has a new tent down river. hunting and fishing all day. we were ideally hoping to get into some low flying snow geese, but luck did not permit. the only snow geese we saw were flying really high in the night sky. i was content with that, it was beautiful to watch massive flocks with hundreds of geese crossed through a huge full moon. on the second day i caught a decent amount of northern pike and mervin and i knocked down 18 ducks and 2 canadian geese. all the birds were given to friends and communtiy members. it was a great weekend as the first signs of summer revealed themselves through weather and wildlife activity. duck in cree is 'sisip' and river is 'sipi'.

top) mervin plucking the duck.

middle) building a fire and getting ready to boil the duck.

bottom) burning any little down feathers off before we quarter up and boil the duck.

this was a little snack we had while we were hunting: first you pluck the duck, then you put it on the fire to get the remaining feathers, occasionally taking it of the flame to whip with a spruce branch, quarter, boil for 40 minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, eat. the immediacy of the whole thing is pretty wild. shoot, kill, cook, eat, shoot some more.

top) guns ready, sitting in the boat waiting for ducks to fly by. james, and wayne rideout are pictured here. mervin yellowback had left us to try and spook some birds into flying our direction.

second from top) mervin came back and started calling some geese in. even though it is hard to tell these pictures are taken from inside our boat which we have pulled up onto the ice and covered in spruce trees. we also have decoys sitting in the water in front of our boat.

goose is the number one bird that people go for, and goose soup is super popular, but a bit of an acquired taste. there was a special signing here in the community for an all weather road to be built and some people from winnipeg flew in. there was a big community meal and everybody was fed goose soup. the outsiders were at first excited for the clumpy goose broth with flour, but thier faces were priceless as they politely forced themselves to finish their bowls. i went by later to offer them seconds, they were quick to say no.

second from bottom) a shot of our boat/hunting blind and decoys. lethal.

bottom) i think i probably knocked these ones down as wayne doesn't have much of a shot, but he looks good holding them.

top) east end lodge, where neil lives. neil is a very interesting guy, he lives out in this cabin in the middle of nowhere and guards a fishing lodge in the off season. his place is a popular drop in center for hunters fighting the elements as he makes a mean cowboy coffee. he reads a lot of books, smokes a lot of cigarettes, and enjoys company when he gets it, a real bushman.

second from top) on a trip to east end lodge and after a coffee and cigar with neil, he took wayne rideout and i to his shed where he had a frozen wolverine carcass. wayne needed me to take a picture because he said it would be worth a thousand drinks in newfoundland. it was a very interesting animal to examine, strong wide paws, and thick rounded canines, not sharp, but exceptionally thick; you could imagine the crushing power their jaws would have. neil talked about how smart and difficult to kill they were.

second from bottom) i went for a long walk; the frozen lake was so extremely wind blown that i had no trouble making ground on the hard packed snow. no snowshoes required. this shot is of a little island that mainly housed dead birch trees.

i was recently reading an article on traditional canadian landscapes rarely being snow covered scenes, as it does not serve justice to the beauty of the canada's diverse environment. the article compared snow to a blanket covering what our landscapes should represent, i would call bullshit.

bottom) the magic school bus, formally a place for men working on the winter road to warm up. no longer in use. the front window has also been totally ripped off by a bear so i don't think people would really be able to get warm in the weather ol' jalopy. looks good.

top) max hastings with the biggest and only fish caught during the ice fishing derby, 1st place $500. i had one on earlier, but lost it. max was two holes down from me, and i truly believe that this was the fish i lost. the only thing worse than loosing a fish in a derby is loosing a fish that would have won you $500. i did however win a raffle aftwards and got $60, it helped take the pain away.

bottom) wayne sparkes, one of the high school teachers has spent a good amount of time up in the north. he wanted a picture of him fishing even though he wasn't actually fishing. i gave him my rod a snapped a few. the derby was not on a warm day, and the lake was whited out with snow drifts, but the whole thing was fun, tons of trash talking; as you can see nobody needs an ice hut. in the true north you embrace the cold.