Finally a Paddle!

Saturday, August 9,25 – 9:00am – Old Trail on Mission Road, Lac La Biche Lake

Lots of windy weather this year. We did make it out for a little paddle on July 5th, but mixed with busy schedules, our canoe trips have not been as often as we would like.

Today the stars aligned! 🛶 Finally out on the lake again! After reviewing the checklist (canoe & paddles…lesson learned from last time🤪) we met around 9am at Old Trail boat launch. It was an absolutely beautiful day; nice warm temperature and light fog hovering over almost still water.

There was only one other fishing boat with us heading out. We paddled at a good pace towards Plamondon Bay. What was odd about this stretch, were the white floating objects in the water. The first one we spotted was right on shore, so we paddled up to it, and discovered it was a fair size dead walleye. From this spot, we could see another 3 scattered along in the weed beds. In total, there were at least 10 we saw along this stretch. All walleye, larger, and untouched by birds and animals.

As we went along, chatting and enjoying the scenery, we spotted a Kingfisher along the willows. Not wanting to be photographed, we followed him for quite a stretch. There were lots of other birds today too; Great Blue Herons, pelicans, ravens, ducks, grebes, and a Bad Eagle.

A couple of fish jumped not far from the canoe, so we decided to cast a few hooks. 🎣
Just out from shore, it turns out the jack fish were hungry (if you say Northern Pike it sure sounds like you’re more of an angler 😁).
These were feisty little slough sharks. Jen caught the first one, barely hanging on by its fish-lip. The second one was mine, and I discovered I was not prepared to unhook this guy. Darn Jack, like to swallow the hook.😖 Since I’m always at the front of the canoe, I lacked room to bring the fish in to get my five of diamonds back. With a good grip on my rod, and leaving the fish close to the surface of the water, I slowly moved all my gear from the middle of the canoe (lunch, canoe back, shirt…) and was turning myself around.

Then I heard, “Can you move your fish?” I looked up to see Jen soaked from my fish splashing her. Way too funny. 🤣After a good laugh, and yes moving the fish, I finally got to unhooking my fish, and karma struck…big splash right in my face. 💦🤣💦

We caught a few more, deliberating over keeping a big one to eat, but deciding the effort to fix it was too much, we put the rods away and went ashore to stretch our legs.

On a newly cleared little spot with a tiny dock, we checked the rocky shore for treasures.
Seems like when rock hounding, certain rocks catch your eye. Sometimes they are stripy ones or small white ones, today the theme for me here were baseballs! Perfectly sized, all a beige colour, I found 5 good ones to add to my collection. Needing to be careful not to roll an ankle, we didn’t stay long here, it was time to work our way back.

We made a second stop at one of our favourite beach picking areas and were not disappointed in the finds here. For the 2nd time ever, we found pieces of pottery …and lots of them in different styles and colours. There were all colours of beach glass, some ancient fragments of bone, and of course, cool rocks too. The flock of seagulls on shore keep us entertained with their repetitive musical song the entire time. The fog had finally lifted, and the sun was shining bright.

At almost 2pm, and other plans for the day, it was time to head back. A light wind that helped us paddle as we made our way to the Old Trail dock.

Cant decide between musical lyrics that fit for today; either “Splish, splash, I was taking a bath.” or “Gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.”.. #sillysisters