Adventures... West of Quetico
by Bryan Whitehead
Fathers and sons alike retired to their tents and hammocks for afternoon naps. I went to work cleaning up the campsite, washing dishes and started to make some of the prepackaged desserts for dinner, using the coolers to chill the mixture.
Mid afternoon brought the crews out and once again the fleet of canoes left the camp heading to all parts of this large Canadian lake. Shore fishing had slowed, so we began to fish deeper with the leeches. In my boat, I was forward and my buddy was aft running the motor. My oldest son Brent who was probably nine at the time, was perched on a tackle box in the middle of the canoe. We entered a quiet bay with sheer rock walls and house sized boulders lying in the dark water. My friend had just tied a leadhead and a large leech onto my son's delicate ultralight setup. Brent was told to cast over towards a particularly large boulder.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw it. A giant Northern - 40-45 inches is my best guess - was rocketing toward my son's bait like a torpedo on final approach. Steve yelled at him to flip his bail NOW! In the second it took for Brent to process the command, it was over. The ultralight rod bent almost in two, the end snapped and his line was parted - the Northern, annoyed by the tug, slapped his enormous tail on the water, soaking all of us. It was over. Brent looked up and said "What happened?" Fishing stories to tell for years.
The evening fishing picked up and the dinner of fire grilled steaks was complemented by golden fillets, fresh salads and chilled desserts.
After cleanup, the boys chased around the island until it got too dark to safety move about. A bonfire on the point was ignited and we huddled close in the gathering crisp spring evening. By 10:30 or so it was quite dark - but suddenly one of the older boys saw totally astonishing Northern Lights begin to light up the sky. Red, green, gold, yellow the colors were a luminous riot as bands and swirls shifted across thousands of miles of sky in split seconds. This sight transfixed children and adults alike until late into the evening.
