Written Saturday, July 6, 2013

…..I can’t remember the last time I did this

Today I’m getting into a canoe and paddling over to and around Salt Cove to go fishing. I think the last time I did this I was a child. I remember liking the experience, even putting the worms on the hook. Today I think we’re fly fishing, so we’re not using live bait.

D keeps saying we’re going to catch our dinner. I know there are fish in this lake but because it’s so big the only fish that I’ve ever seen caught were with a net. I’ve bought some great lake trout from the local fishermen. Until this week I’d never seen fish caught with a fishing pole. Both D and her daughter went out earlier in the week and came back with a 14 inch bass, well that’s what we think it was. 

The only other time that I’ve ‘caught’ a fish in Georgian Bay happened several years ago. I didn’t use a net or a pole. In fact I just picked it up off the beach. D and I were walking along the shore when we spotted this beautiful fish. It was dead but the eyes were still clear, there was no odour and there were no marks on the fish itself. We just happened to have a plastic bag with us so I picked it up and took it to my neighbour to see what he thought of our find.

W was amazed at the size of this lake trout. We took it back to his cottage and he brought out his scales. It weighed in at 8 pounds. He opened it for us and gutted and cleaned it and cut it into numerous steaks. The flesh inside was clean and we couldn’t see anything wrong with it. We debated why it ended up on the beach and the best scenario that we could come up with was that it had been trapped in one of the fishermen’s nets, died in the trap trying to escape and then was washed ashore with the waves.

That night we shared our ‘catch’ with W and his family and we invited cottage friends over for a feast. My favourite saying of the day came from our friend C from down the beach when she told all her neighbours that she was going for a dinner of ‘road kill’. That lovely fish fed over 10 people and we all lived to tell the tale.