Chuck’s Corner
By Chuck Warner

“Hey, what gives?” a friend asked. “I stopped at your office a number of times last week and no one was in.”

Guess not. I was fishing.

Now, I haven’t been fishing too much this summer. So, when friend Lyle Katzenmeyer stopped in and asked if I’d like to go with him and some friends on a Canadian trip it didn’t take long to answer. Sure.

Along with Willis Laraway of Longville, his sons, Dean of New Ulm, and Steve of St. Cloud and Steve’s 12 year old, Mike, we left last Wednesday on a 720-mile trip to The Old Post and Village on Lake St. Joseph in Ontario. There are a variety of roads in Canada and think we traveled on about all types during the six-hour Canadian drive.

The trip itself was quite interesting. Many, many picturesque lakes and streams, lots of woods, numerous wildlife… and, yes, a few detours, too!

Lake St. Joseph is better than 60 miles long and has more than 154,000 acres. It’s really a reservoir. The dams have been open all season, yet the water level is up five feet. Now, it must take an awfully lot of water to raise the level that much, especially with the open dam. So, yes, they have received their just share of rain this year.

The Old Post and Village is located on the site of a 200-year-old Hudson Bay Trading Post. Once know as “Osnaburgh House,” it was established on the shores of St. Joe in 1786. Back in those days, it was a center for trading to and from James Bay. Until it was abandoned in 1963, it was active in fur trade. John Grace secured the property in 1987, when the road from the south reached the area, and began restoring the post and village.

For more than 30 years, I’ve been taking Canadian fishing trip in Ontario, Manitoba and North West Territories. Been to some pretty nice camps, too. But nowhere have I experienced as good shore lunches as those whipped up by Phil Grace, John’s brother. Phil was our guide. He knows the lake very well, got us to the right spots, helped us select the proper lures and baits, and helped land the big fish.

And he really shined when it came to making shore lunch. Not content serving just fried fish, fried potatoes and cream style corn. Phil had a variety of ways of preparing fish and quite a number of side dishes to go with the fish.

Fishing? Did we get the big ones?

We devoted our four days of fishing to jigging for walleyes. This is barbless-hook, catch-and-release fishing. We’d keep enough fish for shore lunch and the four we each could take home. Maximum length is 18 inches. Kept count one noon and during the hour Phil was on shore fixing lunch the six of us boated 56 walleyes. We caught over 100 walleyes longer than 21 inches, the largest being 26. The catch-and-release program appears to be working as practically all the big fish caught were quite fat and all had great color.

Occasionally, a northern would hit. We were using 6-and-7-pound test line. Most of us tied the jig heads directly to the line without benefit of leaders. So quite a few of the larger northerns didn’t make it into the boat. But Mike proved to be the top fisherman as he did hook, get to the boat and keep a 37-inch northern on his line until Phil could jump into the other boat and grab the 17-pounder and wrestle it into the boat for pictures.

Along with shore lunch, the breakfasts and dinners at the lodge were “out of this world.” No doubt, because one’s appetite really improves with lots of sunshine and fresh air, the food was judged first rate in every aspect. Grilled pork chops, New York steaks, prime rib and baked ham, along with fresh baked apple pie and ice cream, put one in the mood for a long winter’s nap.

Did I like the trip? Yes. So much so, in fact, that I’ve booked a trip for four leaving Sept. 11. I was told the big northerns should be hitting by then.

Just hope Phil will be available to guide me again.