lb - Community Shoppers, Inc.

COUNTYLIVING
HEATHER NOEL NELSON/
FOR WALWORTH COUNTY SUNDAY
At right, runners get ready at the starting
line of last weekend’s Turkey Trot to
benefit the Friends of Big Foot Beach
State Park in Lake Geneva. Below, Kit
Kocha of Burlington holds her medal for
being the top junior female
finisher in the mile run.
We approached this as the trip of a
lifetime. Three friends and I had been
planning this fly-in Canadian trip to
experience the remoteness of fishing on
a lake not accessible by roads.
I am a fishing enthusiast, as opposed
to an avid fisherman. Once a year, my
wife and I go Up North to catch pan fish
and bass. So a trip of this magnitude
was like comparing miniature golf to the
PGA.
There are several options available
when planning a Canadian fishing trip.
We settled on something called the
American Plan, which included a guide
for each boat, shore lunches to be prepared
by the guides and breakfast and
dinner at the lodge each day.
To be honest, I had my reservations.
Not only is the American Plan more
expensive, it went contrary to my sense
of adventure and independence. The
American Plan sounded like it was
meant for a bunch of aging pansies who
couldn’t even clean their own fish, much
less cook. And why did we need guides?
Shouldn’t we be able to assess the terrain,
use our electronics to view the bottom
structure and figure out where the
fish are?
◆◆◆
Flying over northern Ontario, one sees
only wilderness all the way to the horizons
— no towns, no homes, no highways.
We set down on Trout Lake; a huge
body of water stretching over 100,000
acres and dotted with more than 200
islands.
With virtually no manmade structures
or lights, endless shorelines of black
spruce and Jack pine, islands that vary
only in size, and areas where boulders
reach to within inches of the surface, it
quickly became obvious that only a fool
would come here without a guide.
We arrive ready to fish; tackle boxes
filled with expensive state-of-the-art
lures which, for the most part, we
wouldn’t use.
Two boats await us, an Ojibwa guide
in each one. My friend Doug and I head
for the farthest boat and climb aboard.
We figure the four of us and our guides
are the only ones in camp, but Marshal,
our guide, tells us we are the only ones
on the entire lake.
The next several days are as exhausting
as they are exciting. We wake up
with no alarms, put wood in the stove
and fight for the bathroom, while accusing
each other of snoring.
At 7 a.m., an old bell clangs, calling us
to breakfast where we plead, futilely, to
a young woman who serves us, not to
bring so much food. By 8 a.m. we’re on
the water, heading out in a different
direction each day. We catch and release
countless walleye, lake trout and northern
pike, some up to 40-inches long. It is
thrilling.
At midday, we meet up on the lee side
of an island, where Marshall and the
other guide, Al, quickly and expertly fillet
our fish, build a fire and throw
enough lard to clog a tunnel into a heavy
skillet, where they fry the catch. We
wash it down with some Labatt’s beer —
surrounded by pristine waters and
forests. For a fish fry, it doesn’t get any
better.
The trip will stay with me till the end
of my days. It heartens me to know that
there still are places of unspoiled wilderness
and beauty, where lakes require no
stocking and the native wildlife lives the
cycle it always has.
I am more complete for having experienced
it. I may not be able to see another
untamed region of the world that still
survives, but, like anything sacred and
ethereal, I need to know it exists.
Jim Black lives in the village of Walworth.
Walworth County Sunday Sunday, November 30, 2008 12A
❖ LIVING PICTURES: The spirit of holiday giving in East Troy.
Page 14A
SPECIAL PEOPLE SPECIAL PLACES
For a short time, nature as intended
JIM IM
BLACK LACK
COMMUNITY COLUMNIST
PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM BLACK
Jim Black, left, and Doug Mohr with a
stringer of walleyes.
Running for Big Foot Beach State Park
How you
help
Editor’s note: The Time is Now to Help
was founded by a local businessman who
knew extreme poverty as a child. With the
help of donations from the community,
The Time is Now is able to help local residents
in need.
Dear readers,
For the past several years, the Richard
H. Driehaus Charitable Trust has offered
to match
$30,000 in
donations to
The Time is
Now with an
additional
$30,000.
With the
extra $60,000,
we have been
able to help
many in need.
Every dollar
we received
goes to helping
our neighbors
in financial
despair.
Here’s how
the $60,000 was spent:
HELP
■ What: The Time is
Now can be contacted by
mail or online only.
■ Mail: P.O. Box 70, Pell
Lake, WI 53157.
■ Online:
www.timeisnowtohelp.org.
$14,240.55 for rent. We helped many
Please see Help page 13A