I have taken a 4x5 camera in several times. Once in late May in Quetico, camped near the portage trail landing on Olifaunt where the Pickerel River exits the lake, my buddies left me behind to play with my camera while they took advantage of the hot fishing (it's a "grand slam" lake--trout, bass, walleye and northerns). The bugs were bad, and I needed to load my film holders, which means sticking my hands in a changing bag for 5-10 minutes to load in the dark. Not being into head nets at that point, I set my bag up on a kitchen table-sized rock, set out a half-dozen citronella candles in a circle around it, dosed myself with DEET, and stuck my arms in the black bag. At that point the first group we'd seen in several days came up the portage trail, which bordered our camp. I'll never forget the startled looks on their faces--I think they must have thought I was conducting some kind of voodoo ritual. No one spoke...they did a couple double-takes and were gone.
This is the same trip I caught a bat whilst fly-fishing at dusk.

Posted by Springer on February 09, 2001 at 22:18