In June, Jim Martin and I were among the six hardy souls who attended our annual walleye fishing trip to Canada. The weather and fish cooperated. Our largest walleye @ 28.5 inches was released as well as two 34.5 inch northerns caught while jigging for walleyes. We caught numerous walleyes above and below the slot of 18.1-20.9 inches to fill our limits as well as for dinners.
This year we had an uninvited visitor. Upon returning from our first day of fishing I left my cooler on the deck of the cabin. The following morning the cooler was among the missing. Folks working at the camp said that a black bear had been coming around at night and any food items left out would likely be gone. They told me about a clearing in the woods where they had found items in the past so I carefully followed a path to the clearing and while there were some items strewn around my cooler was nowhere to be seen. Two days later, Max one of the camp workers knocked on our cabin door and delivered what was left of my cooler.
He said he located our cooler along with the bear that he estimated to be over 300 pounds! Apparently the bear didn’t harbor any sentimental value for the cooler so it let Max take it! The bear also drank a gallon of frying oil which was probably a moving experience for it. From now on I won’t be leaving any chocolate covered peanuts in my cooler. The night before we left the bear had come back into camp and had pushed in screens on one of the other occupied cabins, the next day the bear was eliminated.
Fishing is always an adventure, we’ve already planned next year’s outing; of course to the same Fish Camp!