An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Back to the bush

Hello friends, Back in the late 80s and for several weeks each summer in the 90s, I was a bushman/ camp manager for Chimo Lodge and Outposts, Red Lake, Ontario, Canada. I worked for Pete and Elisabeth Hagedorn at any and all of their 11 fly-in locations, and in 1989 started the column that you are reading while I was camp manager. I originally called this column “North of the Border” and I would handwrite it no matter where I was. Pete would fly NPO or“November Papa Oscar,” his Cessna 180, to wherever I was in the bush; I generally worked alone. He then flew my column to Red Lake and would fax it to my publishers Dick and Molly Emerson, owners of the Poynette Press and Deforest Times Tribune.

When my old buddy turned 80, two things happened. He sold Chimo; until then he had been a full time pilot and bushman. I also started doing an annual trip for his birthday, which is April 2, and that is what this week’s column is about.

Sunday, March 31 – High 36, low 30 This four-day trip would include ice fishing every day and, just to let you know, there was 30 inches of excellent ice and the ice road at Red Lake was still open. Today’s adventure would be by truck for 30 miles and then off the highway for 26 miles by “bike” – Canadian for UTV. Just a bit of a brain fart on my part, but I thought this adventure was going to be for lake trout and that was how I was geared up. In reality, we would be fishing for walleye and also catching “jackfish,” northern pike, on Trout Lake.

Just the ride was worth the price of admission, which in this case was in Dale and Aileen Butterfield’s Polaris Ranger 1000. Dale Butterfield is retired from the gold mine and Aileen is basically addicted to hunting and fishing. Earnie and Kim Mesto would be in another bike and this day was full of adventure and laughs from the first minute.

As soon as we started fishing, or should I say Pete started jigging, it was immediate action as he was catching walleye in the 17- to 21-inch range fast and furious. I have two stories to tell you: First, the last time this gang was out here, Aileen lost a rod to a big fish as the fish pulled it in before she could grab it. Later that day, they were having a picnic several miles away when a local fisherman and his 7-year-old son pulled up on their snow machine. The fisherman told them that he had caught a 38-inch gator that was hooked to a jig pole. That pole was Aileen’s and that fisherman was a good half-mile from where they were fishing.

So today, we are laughing and catching fish when all of the sudden I had a very large fish on my “trout rod,” which I was jigging with my favorite Buckshot jigging spoon. In one lunge, this fish pulled my rod out of my hand and straight down the hole. I did a face plant/dive, smashed my lip, soaked my arm to the pit and lost my rod. Tuesday, April 2 – High 44, low 30 Eighty-six years ago today Pete Hagedorn was born in Germany and would be a young boy living in the horror story of World War II. Today, friends and family joined together at Pete and Elisabeth’s home on Red Lake, and five of us fished and laughed a lot. My good friends Doug Vandussen, Duane Riddel, Dale Butterfield and Pete Hagedorn would make up our hardcore team of ice fishermen in front of Pete’s house and there were several people inside preparing an excellent meal for this annual celebration. Even though Pete is as independent as it gets, Doug, Dale and Duane have his back. Back in the 80s I met Doug and Duane, as we were all in the business and Pete brought us all together.

Can’t wait til next year! Sunset

Mark Walters