FISH

Fishing is not a matter of life or death ...

it's way more important than that!

Most folks don't know the true pleasure of fishing. It's not just catching the fish, it's the enjoyment of all that surrounds that endeavor. The elements of nature including weather, birds, botany and wildlife all play a significant role in taking in an entirely fulfilling experience. Of course, if you can add an element of companionship with someone that enjoys this activity, well as George says, "It just don't get any better than this".

We returned to Twin Bears in Kennebeck, Ontario for our 4th year in late September 2011. It was another terrific trip. Very nice weather, cool mornings and pleasant daytime temperatures. While we didn't get any big fish, we caught and released our share.


A view of the Montreal River from on top, near our cabin.	A view from the river up to our cabin. Dottie is on the porch.
Beavers are abundant along the river and in Indian Lake. Here we see a nights work.	Same cutting with a bundled up Dottie in forefront.
Same cutting, but on day #2 when tree came down to begin main structure of a new lodge.	Finished homestead of a Beavers endeavor.
A typical weedy shoreline, with Dottie doing her Greta Garbo look.	White Birch are found in abundance in the area and stand out on a sunny day.
Traveling on the Montreal River offers many scenic views.	Many of the dead trees along the river remain.
A quiet bend on creek going to Spring Lake.	The entry to Spring Lake from the creek that actually flows into Montreal River.


In 2011 we fished mainly Spring Lake as it was more active than Indian Lake.	While it was unusually warm for this time of year, the color was starting to appear on surrounding hills of Spring Lake.

Spring Lake is exactly that, a spring fed lake. Water clarity is excellent and free of tannins and iron stain. This shows down into the water about 8-9' in Cabbage weeds that are favorite haunts of Pike.

In previous years we spent most of our time fishing the Indian Lake area of the river, which took about 20 minutes to travel. It's a large bay that opens and is surrounded along the edges by heavy plant growth. In front of these reed type weeds, which grew in about 2-3' of water, were thick cabbage weeds in 6-10' depth. These were the preferred locations of the Pike this week, just in front of the cabbage, for the bigger ones.

One of the treats was the appearance of Bald Eagles. We had sightings almost every day in 2008 and on one particular day, 6 were spotted. Several days, around noon one Eagle would schedule himself for a visit and after a fly-over would perch himself on nearby trees. We suspect if a fish was returned to lake in a damaged condition, it would provide lunch for him. We're happy to say we didn't provide lunch for the Eagles. He wasn't tame by any means but he did allow himself to pose for photo ops. In 2009 the sightings were less, but we did observe them on 2 occasions.

Again, we stayed pretty much with Pike all week. The trick wasn't finding Pike, it was in finding the larger Pike. By-in-large we probably caught bigger fish the previous year. When we took out our Mepps #5 spinner baits and our "5 of Diamonds" and "Fire Tiger" Daredevle spoons, we caught quite a few fish daily. Below you can see a couple of happy anglers. The fish that the "young" man is holding below was on the last day in 2008 and weighed about 14-lbs. and was of course released to grow bigger for us next year.

In 2011 we had a most pleasant visit in unusually warm (near 70 degrees) day time temperatures. We didn't take many pictures unfortunately. Again we didn't catch a "Bubba" but many smaller Pike came to visit our lures and then be returned to the lake. Several new additions in structures and critters had been added by Rick and Janet. They now have a miniature pony named "Rocket" roaming the area. Janet thought it would be nice to train it to pull a cart for the grandkids. Rick thought it would be nice to hook a cart to it and haul bears out of the woods after hunts. You need not have just come from a Mensa meeting to know who will win out in making this decision. We're sure the grandkids will enjoy the cart and Rick's ATV's will do nicely in hauling bear carcasses, thank you very much! An oddity we witnessed in 2011 was watching a small Red Squirrel actually swim across Spring Lake. Why? Who knows? But he must have had a good reason to subject himself to the vulnerabilities of being snatched by a Bald Eagle or made lunch by a Pike. We never knew squirrels would take to water and especially to cross such a wide span.

The camp was again well kept and our cabin was very nice, with spacious and well furnished kitchen. They provided many extras including radios and microwave. Rick and Janet had added some nice extras during the winter. Electric heat was provided for in bedrooms and they even had a wood stove in kitchen for additional comfort. It should be noted very little heat was required during our stay as it was usually warm, but on early morning awakening, the electric base board heat felt good. Proof of the coolness in 2009 can be see above as "Nanook of the North" enjoys her lunch on the lake.

Max again showed to be the one in charge at the camp as he would come and check out each visitor and would accompany and "protect" Janet about the camp. Rick demonstrated the training he had put into Max by showing us that he could "smell" food and not eat it until told to. Max made a daily stop at our cabin door to collect his entitled "cookie". In fact this year Max decided "if one is good, stopping twice is better". We also enjoyed visiting Whiskey Jacks in the evening, who "allowed" us to share treats with them.

Again Janet and Rick proved to be such great "accommodators" and went out of their way to make sure we had another excellent week. We value their friendship and look forward to our next trip in 2012, which we reserved before we left.

The only negative we experienced on one of our trips home was in 2009. It's a 14 hour drive from Columbus to Twin Bears. Going up we generally take a motel for the night before, to insure when we arrive we are rested and ready to go. However, on the trip back we drive straight through. This time we spent almost the entire trip home, driving through heavy rains and very windy conditions. The high bridges at Hamilton and St. Katherine proved a little more excitment than we would have liked. But once home we pretty much remembered the good parts of a very fun week with Rick and Janet.

Should you want to go Canada and have a really great experience, go to Twin Bears Resort and check out their excellent web site. We'd be happy to have you call us for any additional information we might be able to share about our fine experience. (614-882-9464)

Fishing is not only about going to Canada, which we try to do annually. It's about catching and releasing really nice fighting Channel Catfish here at home. Primarily we take the old Pontoon boat out early in the morning or late evenings for a chance to give exercise to these beauties that dwell in Hoover Reservoir in Columbus, OH.

Here's examples of Fish Ohio Cats that was caught, kissed and released during the 2010 season. To learn more of the techniques we use, see the link below for "Reservoir Fishing For Channel Catfish ".