Happy New Year

And this one is a little bit special as it will be the first blue moon on New Year’s Eve since 1990.

Merry Christmas

Ice Fish Baby

Broken Paddle Lots for sale

FINALLY!

After jumping through hoop after bureaucratic hoop... (the developers, not me....lol)

I have been informed that the newest lots at Broken paddle are now available for purchase. A little birdie told me the asking price is $55,000.00 each. They are all a 1/2 acre in size and well back from the lake. As a matter of fact, unless I am mistaken, the lake cannot be seen at all from any of these lots. They had a waiting list of purchasers that they are now contacting to see who, after all these years (that would be several), are still interested in purchasing these lots. Those people, as I understand it, have first kick at the cat so to speak. Time will tell if any are still up for grabs.

I will post more info on this as I get the details.

I'm a fisherman

I'm a fisherman and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I fish all day
(He's a fisherman and he's OK
He sleeps all night and he fishes all day)
I catch some fish, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavat'ry
On Wednesdays I go quadding
And have battered fish for tea
(He catches fish...)
(He's a fisherman...)
I catch some fish, I flip and bump
I love to cast my lures
I put on protective clothing
And hang around sand bars
(He catches fish...)
(He's a fisherman...)
I catch some fish, I love my reels
Tackle and my rods
I wish I'd been a newfie
When there was still lots of cod
(He catches fish...)
(He's a fisherman...)

My apologies to Monty Python

I hate this time of year. Can't get the boat in the lake and the ice is too thin for my liking.

Lake Lots

UPDATE: 11/02/2009... Anyone?... Anyone at all? Come on off it. Someone out there has to know something... anything at all. Tid bit? Tim bit? Morsel? Crumb? Smidgen? Help us out here. And please, don't make me beg... oh wait....

I have received a couple emails of late asking me about the availability of lots at Fawcett Lake. Although it is my second home, I don't keep up with all the goings on or the politics. I know that there are lots at Broken Paddle that should be for sale but have been held up by the county for one reason after another. Anyone know what the latest is on this?

Anyone out here that can inform us as to what the status is at Fawcett Lake Resort and how their "renovation" is going and when they will be back up and running?

Are there any year round lots available for next spring at The Anchor Inn over at the west end of the lake?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

If you can answer these and many other questions regarding Fawcett Lake.... simply click on the "Tall tales (your comments)" and let us know. If that does not work for you, you can always email me at ... fawcettlake at gmail.com and I will post the information here in the near future.

Thanking you all for you help in advance

Tim

Snow Snow Snow

The ground is white, the roads are icy in spots.

Oh and....

Happy Thanks Giving Day!

And the poll says...

With only twenty votes recorded. Our little fishing poll revealed that most of you would rather keep smaller walleye than is currently required by law on Fawcett Lake. This tells me that the average reader here is smarter than the Alberta fish and wildlife biologists that make the laws. They are the silly folks who are forcing us that enjoy a meal of walleye every now and again to eat the breeders in the lake. This makes no sense whatsoever! Give yourselves a big pat on the back. Hopefully the law makers will give their heads a shake and make the right choice for next year and many more after that. Welcome to the 21st century Alberta fish and wildlife.

36 - 43 cm 8 (40%)
36 - 46 cm 6 (30%)
36 - 50 cm 5 (25%)
Catch and release only 0 (0%)
Keep things as they are 1 (5%)
Draws as on other Alberta lakes 0 (0%)

It's Friday, and you know what that means

See you on the fish side. Oops did I say fish?... I meant Flip. Have a great weekend!

Sunset

Why do I ever leave?



Oh yea.....

So I can pay the bills

Its that time again

Wish me luck!



And best of luck to all those out there that are going fishing too!

Another youtube video

We almost had a double header. Fortunately for you viewers, I was able to capture myself reeling in a walleye and then grab the camera to video Dave bringing in his just seconds later. Riveting video! OK, stop laughing now....



Definitely need a camera with sound. What Dave was looking at, and asking me about was what was on the walleye he caught. It had several baby leeches on it and a couple made their way to his hands. He had never seen this before and was kind of freaked out by it. WUS!

A fantastic weekend

You could not possibly ask for better weather at this time of year. The walleye and perch were biting on a regular basis. Here is my bro Dave catching a couple walleye.

Be kind, it is my first youtube video. It was taken with only a small Olympus Camedia D-535 digital camera.



Hopefully with a bit more practice, I can manage to improve the quality and maybe even look at getting an actual HD video camera with sound and all that good stuff.

Gone Fishing Part ... never mind...

It is Friday and that can mean only one thing.



Best of luck to all of you out on the water, no matter what lake you are fishing on.

Drive safe!

The fishing was great!

Unfortunately, I was not there. A bug snuck up on me and put me out of action for the past five days.

My brother did manage to get up to Fawcett lake on Saturday and wasted no time in letting me know how great the fishing was all weekend. My nose is still sore from all that rubbing. Other than a couple nasty evening storms, the weather was good too. Damn bug had really really bad timing!

Here's hoping that the great fishing continues through the rest of the season.

Fishing Poll

I have set up a small poll which can be seen on the top left of this blog. I have heard from some reliable sources that there will be a slot limit for walleye at Fawcett Lake next season. What I do not know is what the slot limit will be. If I was a betting man, which I most definitely am not, I would go with the 36 - 43 cm range. That would roughly translate to 14 1/4" - 17" for us old timers.

Please take a moment to chime in with your thoughts and vote too!

Thank you.

PS

The bridge is back in business.

Public Service Announcement

The bridge crossing the Athabasca river north of the town of Smith on highway 2A will be closed from Tuesday, August 25th to Sunday, August 30th 2009 for repairs. To access Fawcett Lake you will have to take highway 2A from the Mitsue Industrial Park near the town of Slave lake. This will add an hour or more on to your travel time from Edmonton. Do not take the Smith turn off! Continue north on highway 2

Also please note that 2A is a gravel road.

Zoom in on MAP to see details.

Gone Fishing

More to come after this short, way too short, trip to Fawcett lake.

Floating around Birch Island

Is There Anybody Out There?

I'm not asking, I'm just asking....

I want one!

The owner of this pick-up truck is a taxidermist in the Calgary area with a great sense of humour! I wonder if he has a road runner mounted on the front of the truck?

We get email

Well... one so far... LOL

Chris sent me an email with a couple of pictures of his first visit to Fawcett lake. I asked and received permission to post them here for everyone to enjoy.

The email

Tim

Here are a few shots we took of our first trip to Fawcett Lake and a little synopsis of the trip.

We had a flat on the tent trailer on the way up that weekend.Thankfully a good Samaritan helped us out. Turns out my tire iron from my car does not work on my trailer. Who Knew?

We got into the anchor inn resort to check in around 830. Very friendly folk up there. We stayed in camp spot #12 in the provincial campground and all i have to say is WOW!! Very secluded and the girlfriend loved the tall trees. Bring Bug Spray is all i can say.

We rented a boat for Saturday. What a beautiful day +25. I have a sportingly nice sunburn. Fishing was GREAT!! Caught a decent size pike the first 5 minutes out there and the fish were hitting all day. Only hit 2 walleyes all afternoon but I'm sure if we ventured out to different areas of the lake we would have had more luck. Just need more time. And renting a boat for more then 1 day might hurt the wallet a bit :(. I guess i should invest in my own.

Can't wait to go back. Anyways, just thought I'd send share a few pics and story.

The pics

My apologies

Things have been a little crazy on this side of the planet. Hopefully things will be back to normal for a while.

My holidays were filled with above average temperatures pretty much every day. The down side was that the catching part of fishing went from great at the middle of July, to terrible by the end of the month. It is starting to pick up a little now but still not what I am used to at this time of year at Fawcett Lake.

I don't have many fishing pictures to show you but I did manage to get some decent photo's regardless. As per usual... clicking on the photos takes you to the full size photo's. Simply use your browsers "back" button to return to this blog.

John caught a 24 inch walleye



Buck one



Buck two



Bored fish hound



Another fire close by







Mooses visiting in the back yard





Bald eagle above the Mink river



Plenty of pelicans on the south east side of Thistle Island



Fawcett Lake Sunsets











And that my friends concludes today's episode...

Finally, Friday

The Fawcett Lake Blog is on hiatus until August 4th, 2009, if not a day or two later.

I will be at Fawcett Lake for the next couple of weeks and have NO internet access up there. Besides, I plan on spending all my awake time on the water fishing!

As usual I will keep a bit of a daily diary and take plenty of photo's to post when I return.

See you on the flippin side...

Your comments are encouraged while I am gone... Please keep it clean.

I know I would

And I will be.... soon

We know you are out there

We have these big ol' eyes for a reason. They are better to see you with. On an average day, we get around twelve visits. Not bad for a new blog just starting out. Now if we could just get a few more of you visitors to click on and share your "tall tales" of fishing at Fawcett Lake, we would all be very, very, happy.
Don't be shy. Tell us your fish tales. click on the "Tall tales (your comments)" link and say hello at the least.

If you wish to share photo's and or have your own article appear on this blog, you can send them to:

fawcettlake at gmail.com

We would be more than happy to post that picture of the big walleye you caught or to have you as a guest blogger.

With all of your help and participation, we can make this little blog be the best place for everything "Fawcett Lake". And no, I do not make a penny off of this site nor do I ever want to. I am doing this purely for the enjoyment of sharing my passion with everyone out there.

National Fishing Week

July 4th to July 12th is National Fishing Week



Don't forget that on Saturday July 11th and Sunday July 12th you can fish in Alberta without the usual licensing requirements. LICENCE-FREE DAYS

Deer or Goat?

Back in the real world

Saturday 6/27/09

I fished twin peaks for most of the day. This area is usually a good spot for perch and therefore attracts walleye and pike alike. It is located between “Big Point” and “Birch Island” and covers a large area of water. It is easy to locate with a depth finder as the depth climbs quite sharply from 30 odd feet to less than nine feet. It then drops to 20 odd feet and then climbs back up to 9 feet. Finally it drops back to the depths of the lake. The water temp was pretty steady at 61.7 F. Air temp peaked at around 20 C. It was cloudy with sunny breaks with a wind coming out of the west, causing whitecaps off and on throughout the day. I caught numerous walleye and pike but no perch were found as I slowly maneuvered all over both peaks with my electric motor. The largest walleye was 48cm. Good thing I did not plan on having fish for dinner. I was using a 1/4 oz or 1/8 oz jig head depending on the depth I was fishing. I tipped the jigs with either; frozen minnows, live leeches, Berkley Gulp 4” minnows as well as the Gulp 3” crazy legs grubs. I have been using Gulp leeches since the fishing season opened and they have been working well, so I figured I would give these other Gulp products a shot.

The bulk of the walleye were caught at a depth of 16 to 21 feet of water, bouncing the jig off the bottom about 6 inches or so. The pike were all caught in shallower water closer to the peaks or as the jig was dropping down in deeper water at about 11 feet from the surface.

Sunday 6/28/09

Morning showers turned into a brief thunderstorm and then to a light steady sprinkle. When the sun finally came out, the wind began to increase in intensity out of the west creating huge whitecaps making it impossible for most to safely get out on the lake. Being at the east end of the lake has its downside!

Finally at about 10 PM, the wind died down. With any luck it will stay reasonably calm for the next few days.

Monday 6/29/09

The lake had a small chop when I looked out at 7 AM. YES! Fishing I will go. Had a quick shower, made some breakfast, ate, and guess what. Poof! The wind god hates me. The lake now has two foot whitecaps and it is getting worse.

Finally around 5 PM, the wind has subsided. I’m gone fishin’. Did not go far from home as I can see a storm brewing out west. Cruised into the bay just west of “Tim’s point”. Worked the western part of the bay just before “Big Point”. I found walleye in the 20 foot depth range. They ranged from 43 cm to a 55cm. Only caught 3 pike, which were all in the 60 cm range. At 7 PM I headed in to shore as the storm I saw brewing earlier was now getting too close for my comfort. Not to mention Roxy the fishing hound hates the rain and gets very agitated. I know it sounds strange. A lab that loves the water and will retrieve for as long as you can keep tossing her H2O ring into the water is bothered by rain falling on her. But it is true. I can’t figure it out myself.

Tuesday 6/30/09

Woke up to a calm lake. This time however it managed to stay calm while I showered and had breakfast. Gone Fishing!

9:30 – 4:30: Fished from Tim’s Point west around Big Point and over to Nick’s Nook. Manage to boat 44 walleye and 10 pike. 5 of the walleye were over 50 cm. The biggest one being 53 cm. Most of the walleye were caught on a jig tipped with a leech but a jig and minnow worked well too after I ran out of leeches. No worries, another ¼ pound tub is sitting in the bait fridge.

4:30 – 6:30: Supper and dishes… Gone Fishing! Did I mention I am a Fishaholic?

6:30 – 7:30: Well that didn’t last long. Barely made it out to Big Point and the wind started up. Within minutes it went from relative calm to two foot rolling swells, which are no big deal so I continued fishing. Caught two more small walleye and another pike. Then the nice rollers turned into 3 foot whitecaps and things started to get a bit hairy. Keep in mind I am in a 12 foot, narrow and shallow aluminum boat, a little 9.9 evirude for power. I also have a dog that is starting to freak out and wants to sit beside me even though there is no room for her. Not fun!

Today’s total : 46 walleye and 11 pike.

Wednesday 7/1/09

The entire lake is now open to fishing… and the weather sucks… again… wind, rain, basically a work around the cabin day. I hate it when that happens.

Thursday 7/2/09

Woke up and holy crap! Lake is calm, no rain. Sneak out to the boat wearing a Groucho Marks disguise. It worked. Gone fishing!

Fishing was slow. The ones that were biting were all on the small size. The largest I caught was 48 cm. I talked to a few other people out on the lake and most were experiencing the same.

Around 2:45PM we had a bit of excitement as the water bombers (Canadair CL-215) came in to the lake for the next hour. They appeared to be pounding a fire on the south side of the lake down at the west end not far from Anchor Inn Resort from what I could tell from way down at the east end of the lake. I know it was not far off as the bombers were making round trips every 6 minutes or so. I could see the sun reflecting off of the Cessna Caravan (C208B) “bird dog” circling and marking the spot for the “Ducks” ever so slightly.

http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/wildfires/fighting/airtankerstats.aspx

These are the planes you don't want to see anywhere near your favorite place.







During all the excitement, the wind picked up and the fishing got worse, if that was at all possible. But stubborn as I am I stayed out for a little longer hoping to start catching instead of just fishing. Managed to catch a few more but again nothing to write home about. Headed in for supper at 5:30 and was back on the lake at 6:30. Managed to bag a few more medium sized walleyes before the storm rolled in from the west forcing me off the lake at about 8:30. It did not last long and I probably could have gone back out around 9:00, but, I’ll give the fish a break, this one time.

Friday 7/03/09

Spent most of the morning and afternoon working on and around the cabin. Bro and his Girl friend showed up at 2:30 PM. I helped them get settled in and then had a bite to eat. Got out on the lake around 6:00 PM, stayed out until just about 10:00 PM. Fishing was not all that great to be honest. A guy from work joined us just as we got back in. He had never fished for fish with teeth before. Silly easterner.

Saturday 7/04/09

Fished the morning away. We moved all about trying all the usual fishing holes. Fishing was slow. We did catch a few walleye and even fewer pike. My bro managed to catch a large sucker and a nice perch as well.

Went back out after supper and again it was slow going. I could not figure out a pattern to catch decent walleye. Like all good fisher people, I blame the ever changing barometer the past few days for my lack of success.

Sunday 7/05/09

Last day. Damn that went by way too fast.

The four of us headed back out for one last kick at the fish. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Again fishing was slow. Finally, late in the morning we found walleye biting in 16 feet of water on the south west corner of Birch Island. We managed to boat a few the largest one going to the rookie. It was easily over the 50 cm range but as usual, we let it go to be caught another day. Early afternoon brought things to much slower pace. A snails pace to be honest. Moved again further east to no avail.

We finally packed it in just before 3:00. It was time to pack things up and head back to working and paying bills.

Two weeks from now I get to start all over again. But next time it will be 15 days of fishing instead of 9. With any luck, the weather will be here and the fishing will be fantastic.

One can only hope…

Nine days of fishin'

I am headed up to Fawcett Lake for nine glorious days of fishing and no work. There will be no new posts to this site until my return on July 6th or 7th. So far I have managed to fight the urge to get internet access up there. Hopefully when I do return, I will have a few tall tales to tell and a mess of pictures to post.

In the mean time. Play safe. Play fare. Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to take a kid fishing. Your comments are always welcome and encouraged. Please keep it clean...

Sittin' instead of Fishin'

I did not manage to get up to the lake to do some fishing over the past weekend. I sure hope that everyone caught a few for me.

Instead I was looking after my grandson who is all of 9 months old. I have already bought him two fishing rods and reels! None of those cheap "Spiderman" , "Scooby Doo", "Donald Duck" or any of that type of rods will ever be seen in my grandson's hand. Not if I have anything to do with it anyways.

I gave it a lot of thought and decided that the best rod and reel to start him off with would be a small "ice fishing" rod and reel. I picked up a "Rhino" combo unit for one main reason. They are virtually unbreakable! Perfect for a little fisherman who is just starting out. It will still give him a good feel for the fish biting and will handle even a large fish without the worry of it breaking. As a side bonus, he will have a good little ice fishing rod when he is a bit older and graduates to the Shimano 5 foot graphite rod and reel combo that was my second choice for him. It has a light - medium action and is combined with a Sahara SH1000FD reel. I will spool it up with 6 pound test "Berkley Trilene Fluorocarbon" line. Again, as he gets older, this will be an excellent ultralight rod and reel for him to have for perch, smaller trouts, grayling etc.

The other little one I am currently sitting is a 2 year old Yorkshire terrier that goes by the name of Muffin. She is more of a handful than my grandson is by far. Although my own Lab cross Roxy puts up with her, Roxy "the fishin hound" does not really like Muffin. Not one bit. Can you say jealous, nose is out of joint, no need to go any further here... Muffin belongs to my parents, and I am looking after her while my stepfather (Bert - AKA "The Mayor of Fawcett Lake") recovers a bit from having major surgery a couple weeks ago. For those of you who know Bert, he is doing quite well and recovering much faster than his surgeon/Doctor had expected. He is out of the hospital and back at home.

Happy Fathers Day

Who's who?

Just some random pictures of people fishing on Fawcett Lake, Alberta, on Saturday, June 12, 2009. Could it be you? If you care to view the full size image, simply right click on any of the pictures. Warning! They are quite large files.

Yes there is a boat there, way off in the distance.



My Brother with a very respectable walleye. It is still out there for someone else to catch again.



Birch Island and Mother nature provide the perfect frame. Is that a Northern Pike jumping behind the boat?



And a sunset...

Where there is smoke

There is fire...

And on Saturday and Sunday it was very obvious there was a large forest fire raging over towards Calling Lake. This is what we could see on Sunday looking out from our front porch at Broken Paddle Estates at Fawcett Lake.



Unfortunately for some strange reason, the pictures I had taken on Saturday while out on the lake did not turn out.

Go fish

Good girl!

A Fawcett Lake history lesson.

Before Fawcett Lake was named after Sidney Dawson Fawcett, a Dominion Land Surveyor, it was known to the locals as Moose Lake. To this day it is a very popular area for moose hunters. Back then the west end of the lake was an area used by trappers and hunters alike. In time, that area would find a whole new purpose, with a somewhat unexpected twist...

From the Atlantic Ocean to Fawcett Lake.

That is quite the trip for a submariner. But that is exactly what happened to some 50 odd German submariners who were lucky enough to be taken as prisoners of war. The alternative would have been the fate that most German submariners faced. A cold grave at the bottom of the Atlantic.

But why would they end up on Fawcett Lake of all places? The answer is quite simple. Cheap labour. Cheap meaning free. There was a sawmill at the west end of the lake operated by Swanson Lumber. They had a floating work camp out on the lake and used the POW's as laburers for the sawmill. The sawmill operated for several years and is the reason to this very day, when the wind gets wild, which is quite often, it will pull sawdust up from the bottom of the lake and toss it onto the shores.

The old cabin at the west end of the lake is the most notable remainder of the sawmill. If you look close, you can find other articles like large steel loops and chains that were used to secure the POW'S barges to the shoreline. Most items have been buried over time but a sharp eye can still find a few tidbits of history.

For more details, check out the following:

When the Germans came to Fawcett Lake

North to Slave Lake

Lost count

Unfortunately I did not manage to get up to the lake in time to do any fishing on Friday.

Saturday I traveled the lake from the docks in front of Broken Paddle to the deep whole west of Six mile point. The weather was cool. Water temp hovered right around the 54F mark most of the day. Still pretty dang cold for this time of year if you ask me. Small pike were abundant almost everywhere. The only place that I managed to catch a few walleye of any size was on the southern rocky point of Birch Island. 18 feet of water seemed to be the sweet spot. I did catch a few in shallower, but the fish definitely got smaller as the water got shallower. Still not a one over the elusive 50cm mark.

Sunday I stayed around the east end of the lake, working the point by the "orange" boundary marker for the first hour or so. Managed to land a few 17 inchers and many smaller walleye. Small pike again were abundant as well. Managed to survive the mini storm that rolled past dumping down some rain and hail for about 10 seconds. After that the wind changed directions. Then changed again and then one more time just for the heck of it. At one point the wind was blowing both from the south and from the west at the same time. In between all the wind changes I decided to head over to "blank" (no name that I know of) point. Basically the large point on the south shore where the lake widens out as you head west from Broken Paddle/FLR. Anywho... A fishaholics dream come true! As I was not really looking to keep any to eat, I had a great time here. As fast as I could drop another jig and minnow down to 18 feet I had another fish. Most times it would be a walleye and once in a while a pike would strike. I honestly can't tell you how many fish I caught. It was simply non stop. I went through two tubs of minnows and then tossed out a jig with a 3 inch "Gulp Alive" leech and they kept hitting that till it was shredded. It was a hoot! Would have been a great day to have a few younger kids with me. Definitely would have had them hooked on fishing forever.

Tell us your tales from the weekend...

The sign on the wall says it all. See you out on the water. Back Monday, unfortunately.

DAFS

Mom loved to fish. She could out fish the rest of the family most days. She had a nack that none of us could ever duplicate. That was before the stroke which left her left side paralyzed. For the first year we sat around trying to come up with a way to get her into one of the boats and out on the lake. We came up with several ideas but none were very practical. Then one day it dawned on us. Pontoon boats were just starting to become more popular on the lakes of Alberta. We looked around a bit and found an 18 foot Sweetwater that had a very open design that would not inhibit movement of a wheelchair around its deck. We removed one of the forward fishing seats which is now the designated disabled parking spot. By chance, the dock we have is very close to being level to the deck of the boat. A simple piece of 3/4 inch plywood is all that is needed to bridge between the dock and the deck of the boat.

The next issue was getting mom from the cabin to the dock. The road and pathway are both good ol' Alberta gravel. Not a very wheelchair friendly surface. We tried a couple different powered wheel chairs but they were slow and would constantly get hung up in the ruts and on large rocks along the way. There had to be a better way. I did a bunch of measuring and searching and finally found the almost perfect solution. A john Deer Gator™ CX Utility Vehicle from their compact series. The only modification we made was to the passenger seat. We removed the factory seat base and replaced it with a memory swivel that is used on seating in fast food joints. Added a locking pin to secure the seat while the vehicle is moving. We also added a arm rest that swivels up and out of the way on the right side of the seat. This we borrow from moms powered wheelchair as needed. We also added a seat belt for obvious safety reasons. The dump box on the back of the Gator holds all of their fishing gear, a cooler, and the non powered wheelchair in the folded position, which is easy to lift in and out of the box.

And there you have it. The best disabled adult fishing system out there. You can bet your bottom dollar it was worth the time, effort and every penny just to see the smile on moms face her first time out. That would be the same smile she still has each time she gets out on the water to catch a few walleye.

The Gator



The boat



The happy fisherwoman

The name game.

I have been heading up to Fawcett Lake for roughly 35 years. I rarely fish any other Lake. For the first couple of years my parents rented a cabin at Fawcett lake resort. Then they bought a small trailer and became "annuals" as they are known. Every few years they would trade in the trailer for a little bigger one. The last trailer they had there was a 35 foot park model with a single pull out. It was one of the first models to have that feature. Back then, when they said "pull" out, they meant it. No fancy motorized mechanisms. That trailer still sits on top of the hill at the resort. Sixteen years ago my parents bought a lot at Broken Paddle. The family would head up on weekends and work on clearing the lot, bucking up all the aspen and stacking it all around the property like a wall around a castle. My daughter cut her teeth on a 125 Susuki quad at the age of five. She would drive around in circles towing a set of harrows behind her. Eventually all her hard work made it possible for us to get out of all the mud and finally have grass. After clearing the lot, my brothers and I, with a little help from friends and other relatives, built a small cabin for the folks to enjoy in their retirement.

Now that you have a little bit of back ground, you are probably scratching your head wondering what this all has to do with "the name game". Over the years I have come to know some of the spots around the lake by names that the "old timers" referred to them as. Some of the names are not all that old or well known for that matter. I humbly point you to a small point on the western side of Broken Paddle that some refer to as "Tim's point" as I can be found fishing there more times than not. It is also where I caught the largest walleye of my life, a 28.5 incher. It is on the cabin wall if you don't believe me....LOL. Another example would be a spot that I refer to as "Nicks nook". Any guess as to why? If you said that Nick fishes that spot a lot then you would be correct!

So now you have an idea where this is going. I have made up a jpeg image of the lake with all of the names that I know of around the lake. What I am looking for is more names that people use to refer to specific places on and around Fawcett lake. I will update the image with the names as they come in to the comments Tall Tales (The scuttlebutt) section of this post. Anything to back up why a particular spot was given the name would be helpful. I'm going to refer to this as the "Fawcett lake project".

Let the fun and the arguing begin!

The Fawcett Lake Project

Click on the pic for the big picture

Last Updated: 6/05/2009

Windy Weekend

Managed to get out on the water at about 5 pm on Friday. Fished for about 4 hours. Managed to bring in 6 small pike, one baby walleye, and two over 17 inches but not big enough to keep. Water temp varied from about 55F when I first hit the water and slowly dropped to 49F by the time I packed it in.

The rest of the weekend was a write off due to the wind. Being at the east end of the lake can be a detriment when the wind gets going. Saturday the waves were close to four feet at their worst. Sunday was a little better but the wind was still howling making it unsafe for my little 12 foot aluminum. Then there was the rain, and the hail. All in all not a particularly nice or productive weekend.

Anyone out there have better luck than I did? How was it over at the west end? Don't be shy...

Gone Fishin'

Blogging will resume Monday. See you out on the water...

Got it covered

Fawcett Lake sunset

Bobber rig, Lindy rig, crank bait, 1/4 oz jig and 1/8 oz jig. A rod for every occasion. Now where are those walleyes...

Five fishin poles

He's a pro

Some of Bill Dance's not so great moments.



Makes my own bloopers seem very very mild...

Can't catch a fish

Reminiscing

simpler times...



I can see Andy and Opie walking down the road carrying their poles, heading on down to the fishin' hole...

Fish Peeve

I am a Walleye. More scientifically, sander vitreus vitreus, formerly Stizostedion vitreum vitreum. I am in the perch family, Percidae. I look like this...



I am NOT a pickerel! I do not belong to the family Esocidae. I am not related to the northern pike (Esox lucius)



or the Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy).



I do not look even remotely like the chain pickerel (Esox niger),



grass pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus),



or redfin pickerel (Esox americanus americanus).



Walleye are not pickerel. They are totally different fish.

I feel so much better now. End rant...