Moosebunk

Shooting from a moving boat. That's everyday play in James Bay.

Was gonna say!!! Congrats.

Ummmm, not so much the crappies but... Winter is fun times.

Not sure under Cochrane Air about the up keep of their cabins. Heard good and bad. Recently they absorbed True North Air's camps. Previous owner kept his camps immaculate. If going back with them in future, maybe consider lakes that were once with True North...? For fly-in fishing for a week I'll be honest... that's OK but not really great fishing results you've posted. Cochrane Air has lakes that I know you could do 3 to 5 times those numbers for walleye in a week fishing just the sunset hour.

If the offer comes up again I'd join you Mike. Have fished those waters some too. This week just kinda stuck making a buck 1000 miles away.

Elliot Lake.... Hmmmm.... Doorstep to some great recreation??? Quality of life. Good luck with the planned changes.

Check one off the bucketlist. You're on a roll. What's next?

Can't see the pics at work but it sure reads like you had a banner day Dana! Nice dood! Go for the auroras while karma is good man!

Best wishes to Mrs. Blizz! Get well.

Ate a bass. Geesh! That's a catch.

Had the same tires. Carlisle Sport Trail... Wore out all 3 the exact same way within 4 years, rotating each tire through the shoulder-side or outside of the trailer. As eluded to on the tirewall, I ran them at 32psi as well, despite my Pop's saying that's too low a pressure. Anyhow, Princess Auto put Carlisle's on sale and the only difference between these worn out tires and what I replaced them with was the tires width. 1/2 inch less on the new Carlisle tires... and they didn't look as though they were quite as "tough." Running these new Carlisle tires at about 44-45psi, two years later and 4 lead-footed trips Ottawa to Thunder Bay and plenty more time on the road, they're hardly worn looking at all. Tire pressure I'm convinced is your issue here.

Great shooting Rob. Sitting here with my old hunting and trapping buddy Abel who hunts plenty too, he says they're nice ones!

They'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for some meddling kids. No way these guys were basket fishing Pros though... Cause them real Pros would have their fish baskets wrapped in Fishoflauge! See!!! Clearly they're not winners, nor very bright.

Lew... you'll have to come fishing with me up on Joe's Lake. Maybe with your luck we can jig up one lost wedding band. Kool find the knife dood!

Late June found this guy hanging around the side of the house... Today... They're crafty rodents. Bren snared the first, the momma. Today we got this one. Still thinking there's one more around. Critter ridder, moth balls, vinegar... nothing like that gets them gone. Even this trap it managed to get in and out of many times without setting off the door. Last fall it was skunks digging up the grubs over the septic tank and bed. Destructive but not as worrisome as a family of groundhogs burrowing around at the side of the house.

Great little 1000th post. Quality pics of perfect times. Thanks.

Just finishing a two week orientation to the hospital in 2000 and beginning a nightshift. Quite green still to nursing with only a little E.R. experience. No significant training at all to Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Trauma practices. Other nurse attending the ward patients... Ambulance drops a 21 year old man on the single stretcher in the E.R. He's been clothes-lined by a telephone pole guy wire doing about 80km/hr on his skidoo. Onto our monitor and checking responsiveness... One pupil reacts, the other doesn't. FTW!!? Check again, neither respond. Monitor shows a heartbeat, patient is pulseless. FTW!!? Call "CODE BLUE." (in Skat this means, security starts phoning on-call RN and anyone available at home and willing to come in and help) Four days of the month an MD comes to town, he happens to be in the Doctor's suite and is called in this time as well. Despite 50 minutes of effort we lose the man... likely to hemothorax.. or cardiac tamponade.. maybe combined with some other sort of hypovolemic shock. When I came out of the ER room the hospital waiting room and reception area was full with people. Probably 100 or more. As many as could fit in the doors. So many crying. The Catholic Priest soon arrived and a long ceremony took place on the spot. All the words he spoke were in Cree. The people sobbing... even howling some of them. The impact of this incredible. A mourning unlike anything I had ever witnessed, and extremely powerful in that moment... Couple days later the town laid that young man to rest. It was my first funeral in Skat. The Stores, School, Offices... EVERYTHING shut down during those hours. The entire community stopped to pay respect. The church exploded with people and the community channel broadcast the entire thing. From the church the Pallbearers carried the casket down the road to the grave site, while so many walked along with. It is always like this. Nearly 10 years later when my wife lost her sister, it was even more cogent... Despite hardships known from isolation, past repression and also, many peoples personal choices and attitudes as well, one thing which I have learned to really quite admire of the northern Cree culture through years spent is, the incredibly deep roots to community and family. My only wish would be that I could see it more often from even more people, and see this more often too from outside of tragedy and loss, and instead in everyday normal life.

That was great Mike. Quite enjoyed.

Yes Steve, the low-end junky seats would be my "only" complaint as well. Any future Lund purchase and the entire deal would be set in stone when I finally add, "and ohhhh yeah, at no extra cost you're going to put in your top of the line seats with an air-ride pedestal for the captain or, my business goes elsewhere." Boats like vehicles, the home, skidoo, trailer, cottage, etc., are big purchases. Just as much an investment as anything else, and unless you're so totally loaded you can throw money away, you protect all your investments. Those screws two or three times a year all get checked and tightened, especially before and after long road trips. The wiring below the splash well gets cleaned out when the bottom of the boat and bilge gets spray cleaned too. The boat inside and outs gets a couple washes a year, with wax. The carpets scrubbed of blood and dirt and extra mats cleaned too. Boots and shoes covered in sand and mud while camping, get washed before stepping in then wiped on the mat, cause who needs that crap getting below the flooring to hold moisture, mildew and cause corrosion. This and more is all simple stuff, simple as covering the boat when not in use. I know too many guys that wouldn't even consider one of these things to do in a years time... For some though, it's second nature and not even a chore at all. Your boat will thank you as it ages gracefully.

Meegwetch! Wa-chay or Wah-chay Just on the James Bay coast alone are three different dialects of Mushkego Cree. The R, L & N dialects. R is more east where the language changes most. Skat is N, Albany/Moose more L. My name in Cree in Skat is "Andano." Down in the Moose it's "Andalo." Money as an example too, shooneeyan or shooleeyan. Outside of the four in the healing cirlce (sage, sweetgrass, etc) feathers I find have a significant place in many ceremonies, as do other things from the land itself. One example of something my brother-in-law did for our Uncle Stan's burial, eagle feather in the casket, as well as bringing hockey bag loads of sand and earth from Lake River (north of Attawapiskat) several 100 miles south to Moose Factory so his uncle could be laid to rest first on this soil and sand of his favorite place on earth, before his grave was filled. That sort of ceremonial practice isn't just tradition to some, it's very cultural. Before 12 months is up since last fall, I'll have been back six times for work. Looking forward to working in Nunavut this fall or winter as well. Plenty people come and go from the north only staying short periods, it's easy to walk away that way. A decade and family later, time is too invested and I can't stay away. These places have their issues, but they are better natural worlds, often without the different issues more urban places have elsewhere. It's cool your path Rick keeps one foot on each side...

Seriously... Hmph!!! My Rebel is a 2010... good thing it made that cut off I guess as I'd be hard pressed to find one person I personally know that's trailered their boat more days and further than I have mine in the past 6 years. Let alone, put in the hours on the water in pretty well every kind of situation. Not a leak, original paint and pin-striping still looks great, all flooring vinyl and carpet still fully intact, bilge and livewell are the original, never have replaced a fuse, wire, or anything. Even all but one of the snaps for the cover are original and still holding strong in the track. Here it is looking perfect last week on it's second trip to Nipigon this year. Many boats can and will last, more often than not it's the thought and care they're given that keeps them living longer.

Love everything about this thread bud!

Haha!! Southern issues eh!!. However, it's still totally disgusting "angler" (should I say, people) behavior. My vote, shut it down a couple years while coming up with a serious plan to police any trash littering the shores, but don't shut it down for good. There's anglers not fortunate enough to fish the lake, who still pay into fishing, who should have a share in enjoying salmon their way.

We've got yotes across the road and a pack of eastern wolves that do frequent this area. Up north it was mainly timberwolves that weren't around in the Moose as much, but always around up in Skat. I get what you did Rick. Letting the dogs run them out of town, especially with your large, young family, is understandable. I'm sure you're a pet owner who loves your dogs as much as the next person, but this said, not all pet owners make the same choices, have the same expectations, or even love their pets the same. A long story from winter 2001... one of my first experiences with wolves. Back and forth with quitting smoking then, one day taking the cig break right out front the hospital doors I stepped into a crowd of about 40 people. My buddy Mike among them was furthest away, an off duty paramedic who lived next door, was leaning on his fence in tears. "What's going on," I asked a co-worker? "They're putting Mike's dog down." About two weeks prior to this my bother-in-law Joe knocked on my door during one March blizzard of an evening. He was tracking a wolf that had come into town, had already killed six dogs and fought numerous others. It was only just last seen fighting one of the biggest huskies in town, the next door dog, Niche. The two had it out inside the porch of my friends place, and when Mel opened her door to see this, she kicked the other "dog" in the arse and it took off. That dog was of course the wolf. Not 15 minutes after Joe left my place there were gunshots from the riverside, just down in front of the church, He caught up to the wolf and killed it. That wolf's head was sent south and a little over a week later it was reported back to Joe with NAPS that it been rabid. A big timberwolf, it slaughtered on it's own 10 or 12 dogs in town and was presumed to have come in contact or squabbled with 30 or more in total. With no way to control the pet population in Skat the number of strays or dogs loosely looked-after in the community was at a peak. Many communities in the north see cycles of dog populations that peak, until they are culled. And I've heard of some interesting ways that dog populations have been culled over the years... Because of this one wolf in Skat, the strays and any owned dogs that had contact with it, were to be destroyed. So I took two cigarettes on that break at work. Mike leaning on his fence balling while the NAPS officer chucked a dish of meat scraps down in front of his dog Spotty. On the chain, Spotty may have thought he was getting a treat, or maybe he thought little; as Mike later explained that his dog was in fact acting abnormal and it had been in contact with the wolf. Spotty leaned in for the food and was shot in the face. The bullet a little off the mark it got the dogs snout. The height that dog jumped into the air, the squeal like a pig noise it made while doing so, and then watching the animal try to bury it's own head into the ground is an image still as vivid in memory as the day it happened. It was over in a moment though, as the second bullet put the dog down immediately. I watched on, as the officer picked the dog up, hurled it over chain-link fence, clearing a ditch, and landing in the back of a pick-up truck with a box full of piled up dead dogs. 64 dogs were put down, some pets. Only a few owners paid the money to quarantine their animals properly, one of them my neighbor Mel who's big husky Niche survived that wolf unscathed. It doesn't take much in some places for things to get out of hand. In this case, just one wolf alone gone rabid wreaked havoc, and who knows what could have happened had it encountered any people that evening. Imagine too, the dogs not being culled afterwards, many turning rabid themselves. It's a no-win any way you slice it. It's not the first time nor will it be the last time for this kind of thing either, as wolves will hang close by some communities, to pick off stray dogs or anything else they can. Some will come in and take-out easy meals that are chained up too. And it could happen too outside any rural home or farm as well. Wonder what would have been said about this had I taken that smoke break outside the hospitals doors at Mt. Sinai, C.H.E.O. or some city place like that?

In last night from a real quick trip on and off the Nipigon and now catching up during a morning veg. Thanks Gordy! Your absolutely right, those pics are priceless to a gar and fish-nut like me. This fall it's planned they all get some more time out. The non edible part Joe I've heard the same. Believe that their eggs are toxic to other fish too. Millions of years of adaptation perhaps? But it'd be an interesting history to know exactly what uses the fish did have to our First Nations... Those scales could slice a few heads off. lol. Think so bud! Love me my girls. Thanks all.