We had an adventurous “eat-what-you-catch” walleye fishing trip in Canada with Rick and Kurt. It was a very last minute trip for all of us. A week prior to the trip, Elson from Due North Outpost Camps inquired Rick’s interest to go fishing this year to backfill the available slot. We made our decision in one night and decided to tag along, not to mention the great discount given by Elson. This was Rick’s third fishing trip with Due North Outpost Camps. For the rest of us, it was our first trip to Canada.
We divided the things to bring and since everything must be flew in, there were quite a few things to bring along. Each of us was allowed to bring up to 125 lbs. Since Angelina and I had never fish before, we had our initial doubts on whether we would go hungry throughout the trip. We made a long 12-hour road trip to Armstrong, Canada, on Saturday. We stayed in Armstrong for a night to catch an early flight to our cabin the next morning. Our cabin was located at a very secluded area. Although the amenities were rather basic, there was also an outhouse, a fish house and four fishing boats. We used the lake water to shower and to clean dishes. A generator was provided to power the light bulbs at night.
Upon our arrival at our cabin, Rick gave us a quick Lindy Rig fishing lesson and we went fishing for our meals right away. We made a day trip to the “waterfall”, which was more like rapids, on the third day. At night, we played Euchre, a very confusing card game by the way… Kurt and I played to lose. On the fourth day, after fishing for the entire day, we laid down on the dock at night to watch the millions of stars illuminating the sky. We also witnessed a rather odd yet amazing lightning show from the distant for more than half hour. On the fifth day, we made a day trip to Savage Lake. Rick made an incredible “Jambalaya” dish for dinner by combining the leftover fried rice with the grilled fish. We spent the rest of the remaining trip days fishing nearby our cabin.
Kurt and I probably had more sinkers lost than fish caught on the first day or two, however, we caught plenty of fish after Rick pointed out our mistakes. Angelina had better luck in catching large walleyes, partly because she had an expert navigating the boat… not to mention she had a great first class fishing service from Rick. Our fishing license permits us to keep two walleyes between 13″ to 18″ per person per day for our consumption. We kept fish that were around 17″. Throughout the trip, we ate about 40+ walleyes and one northern pike. The frozen walleyes at Hy-Vee supermarket cost $15.99 per pound. The average weight for an 18″ walleye is about 2 lbs. If the walleye meat weighs about a pound, then we had eaten more than $600 worth of freshest walleyes in a week. We also saw plenty of wildlife: moose, bear (even though I was the only person who didn’t see it), beaver, squirrel, chipmunk, bald eagles, crane, turkey vultures, loons, ducks and seagulls.
We had a blast throughout the whole week. We truly enjoyed the whole lake by ourselves, the great sceneries, the great adventures, the freshest and tastiest walleyes and most importantly, the graciousness from the Haeflingers who had to put up with our antics (it was really more me than Angelina). Thank you, Rick and Kurt. It was definitely one of the most memorable trips we have done thus far.
A quick shout out to Elson and his family from Due North Outpost Camps: You guys gave an incredible top-notch service throughout our trip and we couldn’t ask for any better. Thank you for your generosity.
