Moosebunk

TO CATCH ARCTIC CHAR. My dream fish. A fiery red char thriving within the harshest of cold at the ends of the northern forests. Like a salmon or steelhead of age, an ocean strong fish but with roots tied to the tenacious and long-lived, lake trout, as well as the wildly beautiful speckle. Cannot wait to hold one again some day. THE ARCTIC LURE. A little publication which is wisely titled, although these fish themselves would be reason enough... Can’t imagine what it’s like for a man such as Larry who put his life into fishing and decades in the Arctic? Not a week goes by that I don't think of the Tree, and my visit was only just a glimpse by comparison... Gotta love the places fishing will take you. 2008 & 2011. Tree River, Nunavut. Bunk

BEARING UPRIVER THROUGH THE CURRENTS. BIRTHPLACE OF CHAR. About 10 miles upriver from the Arctic Ocean, and after passing through a series of rapids which have taken the lives of men, the majestic, "The Falls" roars. In the clear and icy cold pools below, the largest char in the world spawn each fall. FISHING THE TREE. Continued...

"OLD BAG IN THE CORNER" by Larry W. My buddies avoid my seat on the boards For every meal that we have in camp, And the young guys help me push out my boat, In the mornings down the slip-way ramp. The young fellows save the cigars they receive, And always bring them back to shore, From their boats after supper To my seat by the radio room door. They've named a place on the lake for me, A landmark all must pass, And I wonder now, just how long This connection with me will last. For now I stagger under the shore lunch box, When I carry it to my boat's cuddy, Yet sometimes I feel it lifted from me And stowed away by a younger buddy. And I don't suggest any fly out trips, Nor an overnight stay at some bay. Nor a thirty mile steam to a sure hot-spot, Nor a trip on a dark, windy day. I'm exempted now from the air cargo hold, "Leave the bags for a much younger man!" And the firewood run is no longer my job But I can help out the cook when I can. And far places that took me years to learn, Using maps, and compass and nerves. Are now fished by new guys with a GPS, Whilst they stare at the fish shaped like curves. They'll never have to tail Jimmy D or Reg Starr For miles in the Arctic's strong glare. Just a couple of numbers, two tanks of gas, And unless there is ice they'll get there. So it's easier now for me to retire, To accept someone else has my boat. To wish them success when they're on the water And not whine, nor be jealous nor pout. Yet I still can't unpack my old dirty bag, With it's pliers and long fillet knife. For as long it sits there, all set to go, They attest to an old bush guide's life. -End- In the not too distant past I have written a few words now and again which spoke of Larry. Bren and I met him on our first trip to Great Bear Lake in 2008. Larry was a big part of our experience in the Arctic. His stories, his demeanor... and a truly seasoned fishing and bush guide of 45 years from 1964 onwards, (and with 20 years spent angling for the world's biggest lake trout) one could probably say he was family to the fish Gods. He treated us to an other-worldly experience. Bren was smitten with the man, while I more in awe. A one-of-a-kind soul, and at the same time a man who chose a living which many an angler would aspire to have, living a lifetime on the water. Each autumn our copy of "The Arctic Lure" published through Plummers arrives in the mail. It was in this years issue the above words from Larry had been put to print. Retired I believe in 2009, 70 years of age, or so, I couldn't help but take some time to remember Larry, and to also relive some moments during what still remains the greatest trip of my life. With downtime here at home during a soggy day. The boat put away and Christmas lights up, before finishing what is the tradition of looking back on the fishing year at hand, I instead found myself leafing back through all the old photos of trips to Great Bear. More specifically, the Tree River. The Tree is just one of those places that has taken such firm roots in my soul. A week doesn't go by that the place and it's treasures aren't thought of. It's almost a curse to have visited the Tree, it haunts and continually pulls you to go back. A few of our photos not shown before online, along with some other unseen pictures sent along from two friends met and whom shared time on the Tree with Bren and myself, I thought to upload our extras, dust off the oldies and put together this pictorial of the five days fishing experienced while visiting a true heaven on earth, the remote and beautiful Tree River and home of the Arctic char. TREE CAMP. Simply perfect. Delicious meals, hot shower house, small tackle shop, guide cabins, guest cabins, and a main lodge for lunch and breakfast, all situated on the river's shoreline, 100 miles from the nearest town and five miles from the Arctic ocean. THE WILDLIFE. A barren tundra home to the Arctic wolf, muskox, caribou, grizzly bear, fox, ptarmigan, golden eagle, peregrine and many other animals, it's in the lakes and rivers which swim enormous lake trout, grayling, and the world's greatest runs of the anadromous and giant Arctic char. SETTING TO FOOT ON THE LAND. PLUNGING DOWNSTREAM TO THE OCEAN. Continued...

It's OK to poach sturgeon and post pics about it, as long as you're using it to sell experience or product.

It is a sweet ride that rig. Holy room to roam. Good to hear the gang got some R&R and and a fish or two. Looked dang brisk out there.

There are reminders in life like this thread is here Simon, that make me miss the north immensely. You big jerk!!! Sweet ride.

Shiners suck... and are harder to keep alive. Dace can actually breathe their own feces I think. Keeping minnows alive last year for about 6 weeks I put the minnow bucket in a bigger bucket and made sure the minnow bucket is too the top with water. Bucket into the garage next too the door, check on it daily, if freezing over bring it in until thawed, and repeat. Every now and again, go outside and fill a bucket or two with compacted snow. Let it melt inside, and then change out your minnow water if you couldn't do it on the ice while fishing. Minnows will last all winter, it's like feeding the fish in the fish bowl, your dog, or taking a daily medication. Routine. The bucket in a bucket is handy too, you won't loose water as easily or at all when carting the bucket in the sled onto the lake.

Great vid. And season. Man, that spot of yours sure coughs up alot of different species.

Geez doods!!! 5'11" and 200lbs. But yeah, people equate "moose" differently with the name than I do. Great having you two on board The Bomber for a day. For those at this site not in the know, Rob and Rob (Bassassins) are two infectiously fun and eager anglers, and recent friends whom after meeting this past year, have been out successfully enjoying new waters in Eastern Ontario together. Some great catches and even better and entertaining videos, it's hard not to appreciate the genuine kinship I think these two share, along with the excitement the have when hooking fish.

All the best for your uncle, Mike. You've been tearing up the steelies as always, but the wee lad stole the show!

Dang Pete!!! Good on ya for getting out there in the junk chop and cold. 50 pretty well! But understanding that it's your personal best and being honest about it is the only way to ever personally best it. Congrats! Fine fish.

Thanks. Laying all the fish on it should surely save scrub time. Thinking I might get a bigger bulkier one for next season. Go-Pro pics were fun this time around. Have the thing with me almost everytime out but rarely use it. Fall bassing is something that I only got into when moving home in 2009. Progressively trying to improve on the fishing from years before is a challenge worth taking. Smallies just make for a great days fishing. Ha! "FireChicken for Prime Minister," or "Save a bass, eat a FireChicken," it has all been said before me and now. lol. And that can be the reward in itself. An unseasonably warm day followed up with finding and catching fish, doesn't get much better. Thanks doods!

Tend to put less into gear than maybe I could, and more into gas and trips that get me to where the fish are. Buy more mid-range, good gear. Know enough people with tonnes of their money invested into expensive or massive amounts of stuff they rarely if ever use. What they'd have been better off investing in IMO, is actually going fishing. Won't be taking any NRX's and Stella's to the grave, only life and experiences. Quit stirring the pot Rich. lol.

Kudos to the kid!!! Have enjoyed this video before. In water that skinny, that big brown should have had a pretty good clue as to it's surroundings. Don't imagine it would have eaten just any bug poorly presented. If it took on a mayfly, that's wicked.

That was an over-powering video to watch this morning. Thanks bud! Incredible. Support "structures" helping with each step, it's just amazing to see how resilient and determined Jen truly is. And big time kudos to family and health professionals for their supportive role. You know we all wish the absolute best for her with this next battle Wayne. Jenny may be skin and not quite all her bones but she's made of steel in all our eyes.

Seems absurd. Those locals in that area are likely walleye lovers. Smallies compete with wallies at times in same habitats, and are more aggressive and apt to take over. Warming climate trends and they will have more of the upper hand as well. Maybe they're seeing a change to the fisheries there that they don't like... but to propose what they are, goes beyond too far. Interesting read Gerritt. Thanks.

That Fatfish should be great for space Mike. Have just the InstaShak 2-man 76"X76" and it's been "good enough" for me and a buddy or, me and two kids. LeB's has them on now and again for around $150 and although some guys might crap on HT, you could have two for the price of one. Going into my third year with mine, use it each winter, load it into the sleigh, on the quad, and backpack it out sometimes too. It's lasting fine so far. Easy to pop up, but yeah, if planning to move alot, the Clam is better.

It did!!

Quality and quantity. Great Quinte fishing right there dood!

Tough getting skis to chase with temps like that... even harder, doing figure 8's with your rod through the ice.

It'd be tough to be a parking cop... He must get blasted many times a day. Some of those doods really do go overboard though. Called the Fergie. First time using it. Pretty sure it's a 1/2 oz. Just kinda rip jiggin' it and it got slammed. Ahhh go easy on yourself Randy. You can catch 'em... if and when ya ever put that boat in the water.

http://www.ontariosasquatch.com/#/peawanuckar5/4521856335 Year before this, I had lunch on the diamond mine ice road while it watched me.

Can't escape karma doods! Can't run, hide or turn and fight it. It's a total go-with-the-flow cosmic crapshoot that keeps your world spinning 'round ya either in an forward pos or back neg. And some days she blows! Trucking through town at 8:30am. As usual all kiddies are rushing off to school, drive-thru is jammed, traffic is moving geriatric and there's no way to get parking within a half mile of the downtown Timmies. So I pull up to a spot that gets out of everyone's way and rush in for a coffee, I have to get the boat and truck up on half of the sidewalk. Problem solved... have done this countless times before, and the world can continue to turn. But yup... A Doink is waiting... Only zippin' my slip into the Timmies when the next lady through the door says, "I tried flaggin' ya down but youuuuu're fast. You're getting a parking ticket." "Expletive!!!" I says... And rush out the door. "Dooooood!!! C'mon! W.T.H!!? Five minutes in the Tim's!!! I pull out of everyone's way here with the boat!!!" "You're on the sidewalk." Doink Traffic Cop Extra-ordinaire says. "You're not out of the way of the kids using the sidewalk to go to school." "THEY CAN GO AROUND! They've got half the sidewalk! I'm like five minutes getting a coffee." "You're parked on the sidewalk" and Doink hands me a ticket... "YOU'RE ___ expletive ___ RIDICULOUS!!!" yells I into Doink's face. So I leave my rig there anyways and go get my coffee, now $25 in debt. Hoping the next time I see him is at triage in the ER!!! Cruising away I take a sip of my Joe. BLAHHH!!! Why Gawd??? Double Double with milk, how hard is that??? How does two cream no sugar register in someone's head when you ask for a double double with milk. Arrrrrrrghhhh!!! Basically the drive to the launch I'm half fuming. Steam coming out my ears, Devil horns growing out of me noggin'. Just about there I pull off for my turn and find the access gated.......... ( do I need to put an expletive here? ) Plan B there is. No probs. I got a good back-up. Arriving at the lake the launch was a wee bit shallow so I pushed The Bomber off the bunks and got adrift a little. Rocking the boat in some weird way it just shimmied towards shore and when I thought it was about close enough I leapt off the bow. I suck. Getting old or something... because I suck. And I missed the shore and got a big right foot soaker. Parking ticket. Gated launch. Crap coffee. Soaker. Only been awake about two hours and hating life this day. So while parking the truck I get to trying to calm myself down. Thinking that what will come next is, I'll be cruising down the lake and hit something that rips my skeg off, or... karma will have mercy, it will switch, and I will slay fish. It did switch. Took a couple hours... but it did. It was a slay. Quiet inland lake, search mode first, as I have probably never fished bass nor for certain this lake quite this late in fall. Found them grazing in 44C in a couple of areas. The smallie fishing was "Off da Hook!" Boat likely away for the winter and long rods waiting for their turn this week. The ice cometh man!!! End.

When they changed the chassies on the Renegade and most Skidoo's for 2004 there were some notable differences from my 2003 old style Renegade to the new Renegade. Fortunately I did get the chance to ride a 2004 (or maybe 2005) and compare a little. The newer Renegades really felt a little more like trick bikes. To me, they'd respond more to any leaning, in both hardpack or powder. Even though a smaller feel, shorter seating and more compact look, they'd dig into powder a little more too I found. The new Chassies really had jump on the giddy-up. The old chassie shaped much like the front end of a Seadoo kinda rode up higher though, had room for a passenger and felt a little more stable overall. Both are cool, and IMO if buying that kind of sled ever again, I'd go back to Skidoo. Never reached top end on the newer Renegade but with a 145 track and 1 3/4 inch lugs on the old it did top out for me at 187km/hr on the ice road. May have got a km or two more out of it, but it was spooky going that fast on ice. In powder, my buddy Stevie Z was impressed when his 1000 Apex with 2 1/2 inch lugs topped out at 117km because it is so big it digs a trench, while the Renegade did float up higher and cruise by him at 136km/hr. By about 5000km I think with most Skidoo's on average, you begin to worry about engine issues starting up. Mine around 4500 started running too rich because of a hose issue leaking extra fuel back into a carb. What should have been an easy fix I thought, seemed to involve a few trips back to the shop. Other than that, with regular maintenance the Renegade did me well. It was excellent overall on fuel mileage, surprising friends of mine that would ride with me. It had big Bomby balls and for a 600 gave my friend Jer's 700 Polaris Classic and Howie's 800 Summit a good test. Be sure to test drive, and even let idle for a good long time to make sure it holds an even RPM. Make sure you get to start it from a cold start to see how difficult or not it may be, and if there's any little specific tricks that the sled prefers you do. If satisfied, go for it. Renegade's are stylin' bikes.

Wicked stuff Dana. Enjoy seeing the old pics... and congrats on the new one.