Part 4 – from "3rd morning on Blue Lake" to "back from Robb Lake"

Part 4 – from "3rd morning on Blue Lake" to "back from Robb Lake"

The night was perfect clear. Before we got to sleep (I now remembered), Dave and I went outside, and looked at what seamed to be the light over lower Acton (from "married with children"). The night was so clear, and the moon was almost full, so the tree lines made everything dark, and on the lake itself, the white snow and the moonlight made it to look like someone turned the hockey arena's lights on…
Beautiful.

This morning we decided to wake for the morning runs. We did. Clair's alarm went on at 6:10, and by 6:15 Tim was the first one to make a good morning sound. I switched beds with Mark, so I was next to the door of the tent – next to the opening. I guess there was a small opening there, because I tried to get my boots on, but they were frozen as a rock. I guess I should have wondered why all the others hang the inner sleeves of their boots inside the tent. I got my spare shoes on, and stood for 5 minutes next to the ferniest with the boots on my hands, so they will unfreeze. They did, eventually. I guess I taught myself lesson #4: if you don't want something to freeze, hang it inside the tent. Dave got out and said: it's -22! I got the camera out, and took some pictures of that. I am sure that is the coldest I've ever been. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, thou. There was no wind, and the sun chased the cold away. Mark went to check the tip-ups we kept in the water all night. He came back with a small lake trout – the first live fish I saw out in the open. Dave took the fish later, and killed it. Killing a fish is quite a … unique experience – you need to bang his head against something. Bang it, and bang it hard. If you don't, he will suffer. Today we are going fishing in a different lake – on Robb Lake. We packed all the gear, beer, shore (sure) lunch, beer… There is a thing where you have to rock the snowmobile before riding, to release the tracks and skies, because they stick to the ground on long parks. We did that, and Gary went for a short round, just to heat his engine. He came back, and told me that the sunrise is just over the bend, and I should go take a few pictures. I did so, and Dave suddenly came over and said: "We are going over to that direction, so if you wanna' join us, it's that way". I pointed at the sunrise. Dave smiled, looked and turned around. I joined them to Robb Lake. On the way I got to see a tree break down, because Tim got it with his sled. It took us about 20 minutes to get there, but on Robb Lake it was beautiful. The morning mist still covered some parts of the lake. We had the whole place to our selves. When we came to where we're going to fish, everyone stopped at a different position. At the beginning I wasn't sure what they are doing, but I remembered the picture of Dave, holding a can of beer in one hand, his jigging rod on the other, and he is sitting on his snowmobile. They are stopping in where they are going to drill holes for jigging. I also stopped at a "random" position. We drilled some holes, and Tim went into the bush, to get some fire wood. I had the suckers driving with me, so I was in charge of spreading them around to the guys. We got the holes ready, and I set my tip-up in. as I was setting my other one, Dave screamed FLAG. That means that I need to run to my tip-up, and try to bring the fish out. Tip-up fishing goes like this:

1. A flag pops up.
2. Scream FLAG!!!
3. In case it's your tip-up that went, run over to it.
4. Look at the center of the tip-up. if it is spinning like crazy, it means you are most likely to have a catch.
5. Take your gloves off. You do not want them to get wet.
6. Move the tip-up from the hole, and place it on the side. Make sure not to lift it from the middle thing which spins, because then the fish will notice there is something "fishy" going on.
7. Hold the line with your hands. After a good run with the line, the fish sets the bait and swallows it.
8. Give a nice pull to the line, to set the hook better inside the mouth of the fish.
   
9. Keep on pulling the line. If the fish pulls back, let him – so the line will not break.
   
10. Once you see the fish in the hole, pull him to the top carefully. Make sure he does not use the sides of the hole to escape.
    
11. Once the fish is inside the hole, get your hand in there, and pull him out as fast as you can.
    
12. Move the fish away from the hole, so it will not jump back in.
    

That's the 12 steps of getting a fish out of a frozen lake, using a tip-up. So I sort of followed these rules. Part 11 Gary did for me. He was very surprised with my fishing techniques – The fish came in backwards. I got the hook in his mouth, but the fish got all tangled in the line, so when I pulled, the tail came first. Gary pulled him out, and then showed me the proper way of holding a lake trout – from the gills on the outside, and inside to the mouth. Then we had 2 more things to do – Kill the fish, and wrap him in old newspapers (make sure he is dead by boring him to death). Gary killed this one for me before I got my camera ready. We got some pictures of him. Gary then set 2 pieces of newspaper, and we rolled the fish inside. About an hour passed, a bait here and there, but no catches, until my honey hole worked again. The flag went up again. I ran over, moved the tip-up, pulled the line, and Gary was there again to assist. The fish once again came backwards. Gary was astounded. I explained that it's the same we do with camels: you have to tie its legs, or it will run away. This fish was bigger, so we got the lie detector out – the measuring tape, and measured – 25 inches. This time I got some pictures with the bastard. And then I had to kill him. It is not as easy as it sounds. They are slippery, and sometimes they still move. I gave him the first punch on the side of the ice hoger. He still didn't want to go. I got him again, and this time it was pretty nasty. I'm sure he is dead now…
Tim and Clair made fire on the shore. On second look, Tim noticed they made the fire next to a opening in the snow of what might be a bear den. I went over to look – I've never seen an opening of a bear den before, not to mention a bear den. I got there and took some pictures of the opening, and then Dave joined me, asking me where the opening is. I pointed at the ground, and he started digging it out. I asked his if he is not afraid of waking the bear, and he explained that there is not possible chance that we will wake the bear. And if we do, RUN. I talked to Gary about that later on. He said that as long as he outruns Dave, he has nothing to worry about. I guess he is right, because as much as I know Dave, he will run to the opposite direction – ramming the bear or something. So Dave dug, until he removed all the snow away. I got the camera in, and took 3-4 pictures, with flash, so we can tell what's in there. Dave got his head in there before, but couldn't see anything. I showed him the pictures, and he said that apparently it's just ground heat. We made some breakfast – Burgers and Cheese in buns, and some buns with pinnate-butter. Over breakfast I got to talk with Dave about religious restrictions Jews made for themselves – Meat and milk products are forbidden, and also pork, sea food… he asked me: "why on earth would you want to do that?”. I explained about the scientific side of it, and apparently someone knew about it, and wrote it in the bible, so everyone will follow. Because of that Jews were considered witches and warlocks – everyone else got sick, and Jews stayed healthy. After breakfast Gary took his slay to the bush. He drove up on Tim's tracks, but he got stuck in the middle – his machine is slightly bigger, and heavier, so he was caught in a big basin of snow. I heard his engine fighting to get out, and then I heard Tim yells to Gary: "I told you, you should get the VK", and Dave joined in. Gary kept on trying, and after a minute of so I saw him shoveling snow from behind the machine, so he can get himself out of the mess. I walked over, just to see and learn what to do in such a case. I learned that if your on your own, your best chances are if someone comes along and helps. I know for sure that if Gary was all alone, and he didn’t have anyone to help him, he would manage to get it out. Maybe even faster then what it took the both of us. He had a system going. We got it out by following these steps (which I learned after lesson #2):

1. Make sure you have comfortable holding places on the snowmobile. Remove fishing gear if necessary.
   
2. Lift the back of the machine, and set it on new ground.
   
3. Move the skies a bit, so they will not be locked in the position you were stuck in.
   
4. Get a friend to pull the skies while you drive out.
   
5. Make sure to plan the rout you'll go on carefully – so you'll not get stuck again (didn't happen).
   
6. Get the gear back on the sled.
   
7. Get back down from wherever you were stuck, and make sure to have a beer ready for your friend when he arrives (If you were stuck far enough, try to drink a whole can of beer before the friend comes back).
   

So we got Gary out, and got the beer out straight after. Then Gary and I talked about heading back – we still had to drive back to Iron Bridge, and we tried to avoid riding when it gets dark. Gary told that to Dave, but apparently we were all fed up with Robb Lake. Another thing is that the girls were supposed to be at the tent soon.

We packed all the gear. Every time someone lifted a tip-up and the flag you go up, you could hear Dave yelling FLAG, and laughing. We folded everything back, and drove back. The scenery is just amazing. On the way, close to the tent, we passed by a group, which apparently were Rick and his guys, which visited us the day before. At the tent a surprise was waiting for us.

I will tell you about it in the next Chapter…