Shultz Lake 40 years later

An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Hello friends, I am sure many of you are aware that I have taken the last four weeks off due to the unexpected passing of my girlfriend, Michelle Chiaro. The experience you are about to read about was my first after her passing. In some ways, it was very difficult for me and in others it was very helpful to be with family and friends deep in the Canadian bush.

Saturday, July 2 High 72, Low 51

So today I turned 61. You can only get here by float plane and 40 years ago, in 1982, we stayed here for the first time. My friends Chris and Tammy Leblanc, along with others, own and manage Chimo Lodge and Outposts. They purchased it five years ago from Pete and Elizabeth Hagedorn. The Leblancs, www.josie@chimolodge. com, have endured a major forest fire, two years of Covid-19, another forest fire and the passing of their partner and lead bushman Daniel Wesolowski in this period of time. In closing on this subject, I was camp manager for this operation in the late ‘80s and a bushman for much of the ‘90s and this is where I started writing this column.

Today I would be in at the tiller of our boat and my brother Mike (he was here in ‘82) and lifelong buddy Jeff Moll would make up our team. Dick Schuster and his 30-year-old son Trent would be in another, and my brother Tom and his 12-year-old grandson Landon, who came up together from Denham Springs, La., would be in another.

The border crossing was not a problem because we had our Covid homework done and, just a reminder, you cannot bring night crawlers into Canada anymore. The fishing, what can I say, due to two years with no one on these waters due to Covid, the walleyes were bigger and easier to catch but we did not slam as many hogs as I thought we would. The new lure for this group, which would end up being a trip changer, would be the Rapala Rippin’ Rap in blue chrome. I am aware that this is not a new lure, but it was a change for our group and was absolutely a blast.

Generally, we troll with crawler harnesses, which are very effective, but tossing the Rippin’ Rap would prove to be a lot of fun and found us fish that I think we would have simply trolled over. Big walleye for the day, for the group was 24.5 inches, and the northern pike was 32. As usual, supper which was a fish fry, was served after midnight.

Last year the shoreline on about 80 percent of this lake burned. The cabin was saved because the MNR forest fire fighters put sprinklers covering the area and the moisture saved the cabin. Back in ‘95 we were here when about 50 percent of the shoreline burned and some of our gang was flown out by helicopter. The rest, including myself, stayed due to intense smoke. We helped rig up sprinklers and water pumps and it looked like we were all going to get cooked. Just in time a thunderstorm came and put out the fire, we had a major “we put it out shindig” with the fire fighters that night.

Wednesday, July 6 High 72, Low 52

The weather simply could not have been more comfortable for this trip with highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 50s and only one day of rain. That day was tough but manageable.

Today was the rain day and I would be with Trent. The rain was so powerful that we had to get out of the boat and just stand in a burnt out forest for a good hour while it came down. Mikey caught what would be the big walleye for the week with the blue chrome Rippin Rap. Tonight we played UNO and some people stayed up until the sun greeted the eastern horizon.

The following day Mike was my partner on this always incredible seven-day adventure and a good fish hit the Rippin’ Rap that I was tossing and it turned out to be a 39.5-inch gator which would be the big fish for the week in that category.

I started out this column writing about Michelle and I will end it that way. I went home to an empty house and a broken heart for the first time since the mid ‘90s. I deal with it one day at a time by staying busy, positive and with a lot of help from friends, neighbors and family.

Live for the day! Sunset