Climate change is killing us

Mostly this is what passes for a clear day now -- gagging smoke from forest fires.

On a clear day...

Here's something that's becoming rarer every day -- a clear day. 

Solar system installed; AC everywhere

With the help of our electrician brother-in-law, Ron Wink, we now have lights and outlets throughout the cabin. We are running everything off the system -- drills, power saws, grinders, you name it.

And, somehow, our cell booster is working better. It seems to have improved when we grounded everything.

Internet is slow but possible. I haven't yet tried voice. Texting is excellent.  We have not used the generator whatsoever.

Belay that seagull obituary!

When I went to empty fish guts on the rock yesterday evening I was met by a dozen gulls! And I swear, they had two vultures for wing men. 

I guess they all were just slow in getting up here. I knew air travel has been having its problems but this is ridiculous.

Finally a rain, fire danger falls

We had an all--night rain a few days back and may have got an inch altogether. The fire danger has dropped accordingly.

I used the wet day to fell a bunch of birches trees that were leaning over the new cabin. It was a slow process as I had to use a battery-powered winch to pull them toward a safe direction.

We saw a bear one afternoon right next to the cabin. Doc took off after it but returned readily when I whistled. Two days later a cow moose walked into the lake right beside the cabin and then swam around the side of the mountain towards our neighbour, Mike Miller. He just missed seeing it when he paddled his solo canoe over here for a fish dinner.

Brenda and I had actually gone fishing earlier that day and got three nice eater pike.

From all reports the fishing is great.

I think it likely the bear had killed the cow's calf and may have injured her as well as she seemed to be swimming unusually.

On a sad note, there don't seem to be the usual number of gulls. There are just two at the fish gut rock, not the usual dozens. They can’t even clean up the guts. 

Wonder if this is a result of avian bird flu?

Haven't seen any vultures either.

We have seen bald eagles flying but not at the gut rock.

There are the usual number of ducks and loons.

How did all the ticks get here?

In just a couple of years wood ticks have moved into this area. Whitetail deer are usually thought to be the transportation vehicles but that can't be the case here. Deer are still very rare.

Cell phone now works at cabin

It just took a cell booster and a 50-foot antenna.

The weather is hot and dry with low humidity which makes the heat tolerable but increases the forest fire danger. No local fires so far.

One opening weekend posed a dilemma

 As the opening weekend for fishing season approaches, Brenda and I can't help but think back to all the ones we went through as owners -- and before that -- workers, at Bow Narrows Camp. It was always a thrilling, exhausting, but totally memorable time.

The timing of ice-out with the season opener was what set the stage. The opener is a moveable feast. It is the third Saturday in May. So, it can be as early as May 15 and as late as May 21. Early openers always meant we were flirting with being still iced-in when the guests arrived. 

Sometimes we needed to fly from the Chukuni River in town over the lake ice to the open narrows in front of camp. Even in those situations we could usually get the staff into camp a few days ahead of the guests to get things prepared but at least once we all went on the same day. Dad, Brenda and I were the staff at that time.

You can imagine the chaos: water is not yet running to the cabins, boats are not in the water, motors are still in the storage shed, etc. The first priority was to get everybody out fishing. The next was to connect propane tanks so they could use their kitchen stoves. By that point it was dark. We gave everybody plastic pails to get water from the lake. 

The next day we slowly started getting the water system going. The problem was the main underground water line was still frozen in many places. This meant jury-rigging over-the top lines that would suffice until the ground thawed,  something that might not happen for weeks. It took days but eventually everyone had running water.

We had immediately tried to schedule a supply flight but were told all the fly-in camps were in a pickle. The lakes were opening up day by day and as soon as they did, all the planes were booked to fly-in those guests who had been stuck in hotels. Our supply trip would just have to wait.

Days went by and we were almost totally out of gas for the outboards. And worse, lots of the guests were forced to leave most of their beer supply in their vehicles when they had flown in. There just had been no room. The situation was becoming critical.

Finally, about mid-week we got a call from the airlines that they could get one Cessna 185 into our place. It was the smallest of the aircraft and could carry about 900 pounds. What did we want them to bring? 

We held a general meeting of the guests. Gas or beer or some of both? After a lot of discussion about the merits, they agreed -- fill the plane with beer. They could fish off the dock.

And that is what happened.

Limitations to the blog while at cabin

 If we can get the cell system working at the cabin this summer, please note that while I can post text and photos, I cannot detect and approve comments. If you make any comments they will be answered and approved whenever I return to Nolalu. This is just a limitation of blogging by cell phone.

We hope to leave for Red Lake in a few days now.

Update to World's Greatest Pike Lure

 If you want to contact lure maker Dwayne Kotala, here is his e-mail address:

dwaynekotala@gmail.com

First flower of spring near death scene

 

I can't identify this flower. Can you? Please leave comment.

The last of the snow patches are melted and so Doc and I can get around on our trails again. Yesterday evening we found a spot where three deer died. Two of the death scenes were right beside each other and while birds had scavenged the carcasses and other predators had scattered hair and bones all around there were also intact rib cages. This indicates these animals starved to death and were not killed by wolves. Wolves actually eat all the bones except the femurs and the skulls. I could also see a third pile of deer hair about 20 yards away, likely another starvation victim.

The deep spring snows that we seem to be getting all the time now are to blame, I would think. April is now a month to dread. It brings several storms of snows that might each leave a foot of heavy slush. For animals that barely made it through the long winter, it's the final straw.

Just a few yards from the death scenes I found these tiny flowers, the first of the season here. They are about three inches high, are purplish in colour, have hairy stems and no obvious leaves. They are a mystery to me. I cannot find them in any of my books.

What a fitting example of nature: death and life born anew.

World's Greatest Northern Pike Lure

 

Kotala pike jerk bait

The World's Greatest Northern Pike Lure -- that's quite a claim on my part so let me first state my own qualifications. I have thousands of hours of guiding experience, a similar amount of fishing experience, 26 years of operating a remote fishing camp in Northwestern Ontario and a 56-year history at the same camp. I also come from a family of northern pike fishermen. 

Now about the lure: it is a handmade wooden lure made by my neighbour Dwayne Kotala. He makes them in various lengths. The one above is about seven inches long. I have also used nine-inch models and five-inchers. This floating lure has internal stainless steel weights to give it the right attitude in the water.

It can be fished using two techniques. The best, in my experience, is to cast it out, pull it forward a few feet either by fast reeling or by just pulling back on the rod. The lure will dive a few feet while making exaggerated wobbles. I then let the lure float back to the top. It makes smaller wobbles as it floats to the surface.

This action looks exactly like a mortally wounded fish. 

The other technique is to just reel it steadily back to the boat. It will wobble all the way and will run about six feet deep.

I have never seen another lure catch so many really big northern pike. In some places and times on Red Lake, it seems impossible to get it back to the boat without it being nailed by pike that range 36-46 inches in length. Small pike seem to leave it alone.

There is one problem with the lure, however. Fish always engulf the entire thing and it is very difficult to extract from their toothy maws. My solution is to replace the two small treble hooks with very large single siwash hooks that face forward. This doesn't hurt the lure's action.

You can reach Dwayne by email: dwaynekotala@gmail.com

 

I would imagine the Kotala lure would be equally deadly for musky but I can't be sure since there are so few in Red Lake. 

I recommend you use a baitcasting reel on a fairly stiff rod with this lure. Keep the reel filled with a 30-pound braided like FireLine or SpiderWire. 

Best places to fish it are entrances to narrows, backs of bays, below rapids where walleye congregate.

It is especially effective in the evening when there is calm water.

Red Lake ice-out was May 10

At least, according to the Bow Narrows blog.  I have not heard from anyone directly.

What a nice break this spring has been in Red Lake compared to last year.

Sharpen those hooks! Fishing season is just a week away!

There are still bits of snow here in Nolalu even though we've had four days with summer-like temperatures.

It's time to fish or cut bait

 Metaphorically speaking, that is. I mean, don't go fishing yet because the season doesn't open until May 20. Nothing stopping you from cutting bait at this time though.

What I'm saying is, it's time to gaze into the crystal ball, throw a dart at the board, play a hunch, take a risk, stick your neck out and pick a date for ice-out in Red Lake.

So, here's my prediction: May 13. 

We got a clear image from space today on Worldview as you can see above. It shows no snow on the ground from Duluth all the way north to Northern Manitoba. You can find Red Lake by finding the larger zig-zag lake about three-quarters up. That's Lac Seul. Its northwest end points to Pakwash Lake. To its northwest is Gullrock Lake and to its northwest is Red Lake, the horizontal lake with the hammerhead on the west end partly obscured by cloud. Trout Lake is the large roundish lake to the east of Red Lake.

Incidentally, Nolalu is well off this image to the northeast. We still have a foot of snow in the bush here and several inches out in the open. Most of this came in two dumps during the past two weeks.

If you want to load the above image into your computer so that you can enlarge it for better resolution, click here.

Getting ready for solar system at cabin

We have ordered our solar system for the cabin at Red Lake. The plan is to install it in late-June after we have our cabin fully wired.

Maier Hardware in Thunder Bay will be our equipment provider. This is the same company that supplied us with all our electrical needs when we built our home in Nolalu, 40 years ago. Maier is a long-time supplier of solar equipment in the region and has extensive knowledge and experience about what is needed for a remote installation like ours.

There may be cheaper suppliers; however, my experience is that I have never minded paying for quality and always regret buying junk. 

We began by listing all of our electrical requirements to Maier's Dave Green. They were minimal. A cell-phone booster, the occasional use of a kitchen mixer, places for people to plug-in their computers and phones, CPAP machines for our friends and relatives. The biggest electrical consumer will be a washing machine but that won't be used every day and since we will dry our clothes on the clothesline, means we will be washing only on sunny days when solar power is plentiful.

At 3,000 watts our solar system is about as small as you can get without just buying some solar panels and charge controllers from Canadian Tire.

We already have a solar fridge and water pump. They are stand-alone units and won't be part of the bigger system. However, eventually the fridge will need replacing and when that time comes the new system is already designed to handle a standard Energy Star-rated home unit.

I can see it will take us awhile to get our heads around how to best use the solar system. Dave had asked if we were going to have a microwave or coffee maker. Of course not, we said, those things use too much electricity. Well, we still can have such conveniences, he pointed out. You just need to use them differently. For instance, rather than heating up leftover pizza in the propane stove oven -- something that might take 30 minutes and produce unwanted cabin heat in the summer -- we can pop it in the microwave for just a minute. A coffeemaker takes eight minutes to brew a pot. At that point we can pour the coffee into an insulated carafe and turn off the electricity-draining warming plate.

Thanks to LED technology, cabin lights are not even an issue. They take practically no juice.

We already have a water-treatment system that we have been using the last couple of years in the dockhouse. This uses filters and a UV light. We will move this to the big cabin. We filter just our drinking water which is kept in the five-gallon blue jugs. It takes about 10 minutes to fill two or three of these. For Brenda and me, that's enough for more than a week.

One of the things we have figured into the equation are electric fans for every person, especially for sleeping. These too don't use much power.

Our system is designed to produce the electricity we need most of the time but not in all circumstances. That would take a far more costly installation. In the fall when daylight is short or for extended cloudy periods, we will likely need to start the generator at times. This will both provide immediate power to the cabin but also will charge the solar system batteries in about four hours. The system will then be good for another few days without need of the generator. If sunny weather returns, we may not need the generator at all, even in the fall.

We can always use the generator for large power needs such as extended periods of using the air compressor and multiple power tools. Those things will run on the cabin system too, just not all day. The cabin system will easily recharge tool batteries and we have also purchased a cordless lawn mower.

The point is to drastically reduce our use of propane and gasoline -- fossil fuels -- and to preserve the peace and quiet of being in a wilderness area.

Watch Gussie catch walleye on plastics

Want to take a lot of the aggravation out of fishing for walleye this summer? You know what I'm talking about: dead minnows, worms and leeches, deep-hooked fish that die, etc. Walleye fishing would be so much more pleasant if you took live bait out of the equation.  

Here's how to do it. Watch BassMaster Classic winner Gussie (Jeff Gustafson of Kenora) catch walleye and bass on Lake of the Woods last summer.

And here's something that should ease Red Lake anglers worries about smallmouth bass becoming established in Red Lake: Gussie catches both fish in the same place.

Big forest fires could change ice-out times

 As I looked at the area with no snow on the Windy app and then the area that burned in forest fires in 2021 as seen on the Worldview app, I realized they are one and the same. Then came the epiphany: the reason there is no snow on the ground from Red Lake west to Lake Winnipeg is the same reason there is no snow in central Manitoba -- there are no longer trees to create shade that slows down the spring melt.

It takes a little practice to interpret the Worldview satellite photo but that smooth, dun-coloured area west of Red Lake is all a burn. Many of the places that burned in 2021 had also burned in 2018 and 2016 and earlier.

In reading 2022 blogs of canoeists who paddled Woodland Caribou Provincial Park -- the area west of Red Lake -- they tell how places with 3-5-foot new growth trees from those earlier fires burned again in 2021. Even the standing dead tree trunks from those earlier fires burned. There wasn't even enough wood to make a campfire. In lots of places even the soil burned leaving nothing but exposed bedrock.

As I speculated in this blog at the fall of 2021, I wonder if the treeless prairie is now extending all the way to Red Lake?

Woodland Caribou is the eastern half of the gigantic wilderness canoeing area west of Red Lake. The Manitoba western side is called Atikaki Provincial Park. Together they encompass millions of acres and just about all of it has burned, mostly in 2021.

Forests have an impact on weather systems. They slow the wind and retain moisture. Now that there is mostly wide open space between Red Lake and the Prairies, I think we can expect some big changes.

Trout Lake angler George Miller uses the end of snow on the ground as a start to the countdown of when ice-out will occur on Trout Lake. It happens roughly 30 days later.

This makes sense. Once the snow is gone the dark ground heats rapidly and makes the whole area warmer. So early no-snow dates caused by lack of trees should lead to earlier ice-outs.

Oh baby! Summer-like temps ruining ice

 Check out this photo of Howey Bay in Red Lake, yesterday, taken by Red Lake Marine's Sherry McCoy.

All the snow has melted off the lake ice.

Then check out the snow cover layer on Windy.com website and app. It shows Red Lake and areas all the way west to Lake Winnipeg being barren of snow.

I'm moving my ice-out date back to May 8.

And if you are wondering where the snow-line is in North America, look at this clear view from NASA Worldview today.

April 1-7 was awful, ice-out now May 15

The first week of April could easily have been the first week of March, weather-wise. There was zero melting and a big dump of snow. So, I have adjusted my ice-out slide rule accordingly. At this point, I would say it will be a week late or May 15.

Big fishing news: record trout, Smeltinator

 Just in case you haven't been plugged in, a lady from Red Lake caught a record lake trout through the ice this winter, apparently at Trout Lake. 

At 58 inches and 57 pounds, it was certainly an ice fishing record in Ontario.

Here's a link to the CBC news story.

And in other big news, a professional angler from Kenora won the Bassmaster Classic, the first Canadian to ever do so. Here's a link.

Red Lake anglers should take note that Jeff Gustafson, aka Gussie, won the tourney using his own Smeltinator jig. 

All fish, including walleye, in Red Lake key-in on smelt. There's a tip for ya!