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...