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SteelheadSchool
2010 Garden River Journal
By Don Dfishinfool Mathews
9-10-10 Day one Garden River
This morning was a busy one at my house. Four of
us hustled as we loaded trailers and trucks with tons of
fishing gear for our
three week adventure into the Canadian bush. This year I
have Jeff Novak, Chris Kazulen, and Jason Heinbaugh
along with me. The ride up was
pleasant and we made it from my house in NE Ohio in just
under 10 hours to Bens bait and tackle in Garden River.
When we pulled in we were greeted by our Native American
Outfitter Ben Belleau. Ben was smiling ear to ear
and he told stories of huge numbers of fish up at our
camp, so we wasted no time in getting out there.
I was concerned the ride out to camp might be muddy from
all the rain they have been getting but the roads were
in great shape this year.
Once we arrived at
the stream it was obvious Ben was right about huge
numbers of fish. Pinks were everywhere and pods of
fresh Kings were blowing by every couple of minutes. We
are in for a good time this fall.
Tying flies on the
ride up to the Garden
Ben and the guys
had done a great job of clearing out the openings for
the tents. He set the tents up about 100 yrds from
the river so there is no chance of flooding. They also
blazed a nice new trail down to the river for us..
He uses 10 by 20 portable garages as tents. They
are roomy, bone dry, but the best feature is there
amazing resistance to high winds. September can be
very windy on the Garden. Bring a wal-mart tent to
the garden and your going to get wet if it doesn't blow
away first. We got the tent finished just about
dark and it wasn't long after all the guys were snoring
away.
9-11-10
Today was a back breaker for Bens crew. They erected four
more sleep tents plus two dinning tents a cook tent and
a shower house. The guys worked there buts off all
day long. Some how they managed to avoid the urge
to grab a rod and fish. It is Chris's first trip
to the Garden. It only took a few minutes before I
was taking his picture with a nice 25 inch pinook.
The Crown flowed freely around the fire this evening.
Chris with his
first Pinook
9-12-10
I slept in until 9:00 this morning. I expected to wake
up to a tent of hung over guys but instead I woke up in
a empty tent. It seems everybody but me was out
fishin.. Hmm I must be getting old. All the guys did
real good fishing and reported the Ivory Bluffs area was
overrun by pinks and fresh kings were on the move
everywhere.
I must
admit that it is the best looking camp Ben has
had yet. All of the tents are wired with power and he
added a tent just for fly tying this year. He has
two private hot showers in camp. . Speaking of Bears I saw Elvis
this morning. Last year the guys saw a bear with a odd
looking bald patch on his side and they nick named him
Elvis. This morning I heard a loud splash in the river
and seconds latter Elvis appears with a nice Pinky still
shaking in his mouth. It only took seconds for
Elvis to devour the fish. Just about then he see's
me and hauls ass for the bush. The Bears on the GR
are not aggressive but we work hard making sure we don't
leave anything out for them to get into.
Jason with a male
Pink salmon
A bunch of fish on
the Garden River, Ontario Canada
9-13-10
What a day.
the fishing was spectacular. Chris landed Chinooks, pinks, pinooks, Coho, Steelhead, a brook trout and a Atlantic
today..!!! What a great lakes slam on the fly.
It's nice to see Atlantic Salmon in the Garden.
Last year was the first year we got one but there seem
to be quite a few around this year. The Atlantics
are fairly aggressive and like big flashy streamers
stripped or swung but the natives have been hitting them
on spoons while steelhead fishing. As for the
steelhead, their numbers seem to be up considerably
compared to past years. We have had a few in the eight
pound class. Oh yea the Brookie was a whopping four
inches but its colors were great and it was quickly
released. It was our first brookie from the Garden.
Most of the brook trout around here are taken in lakes
or feeder streams. Ben tells me at one time the
Brook trout fishery was awesome on the Garden but that
was before the salmon invaded their river.
Jeff Novak with a
nice Garden River Chinook Salmon
Chris with a 41
inch Garden river king salmon
9-14-10
The alarm went off at 4:00 AM and I was up past
midnight tying flies. It took about a pot of
coffee to jump start my batteries this morning. The ride
out the bush road seemed erie in the early morning fog.
I met up with 14 excited anglers at Bens shop this
morning and it didn't take long before our convoy was
under way for camp. When we arrived in Camp
Gilbert
had homemade biscuits, sausage gravy and eggs waiting
for us. After breakfast it was time to wader up
and catch some fish. It seems like someone was
hooked up all day long and the fish stories were flowing
all evening long. We had NY strips, Baked potato,
salad and blueberry pie for desert. After eating
too much I called it an early night at 10:00 but the
crowd around the fire were still going strong when I
turned in.
Beth on her first
day at the Garden River
Gary about one
hour after arriving in camp
Chris with one of
many
9-15-10
Wolves
everywhere..!! At least that's how it sounded last
night. I woke about two AM and they were howling
all around us. Must have been at least a dozen of
them. We have some infrared trail cameras out and
I hope to get some pictures of the wolves. They are a
very shy of humans and most of the time you only get a
glimpse of them before they disappear.
9-16-10
Torrential downpours hit the area last night.
rained almost two inches and river on rise. Holly
pulls eight pound Atlantic from Claypool. Quite a
few steelhead landed.
9-17-10 Another
night of heavy rain. Jeff and crew hiked to Ivory
Bluffs. Wolves howled heavy at night. Jason lands a nice
brookie.
9-18-10 Nice day
but windy fought tent ropes. Got out fishing. Wasted most of afternoon.
River high but crested and on the drop. Wolves
howling all day long.
9-19-10 Met new
group. Stopped at causeway but couldn't see many. Ben
see's Elvis up on the road. Hiked to Solitude Flats
found quite a few kings and get broke off by huge
Atlantic. Set out trail camera. Steak Dinner.
9-20-10 Help
Ben cut trail to lawnchair hole. MIKE ???? lands
10 Atlantics to 29 inches. Natives shoot a young bull
moose. Kings not spawning yet but quite a few staging in
holes bellow flats. More kings are showing up
daily but not many on gravel yet. Jason lands nine
Kings. Jeff lands three and biggest was 40 inches. I
land 27 inch pinook. ??? keeps a pair of nice
pinooks. A few Coho and Steelhead caught today.
Grilled chicken breasts, Garlic mashed potatoes.
9-21-10
A little rain last night but not enough to effect the
stream. We started the day with Pancakes, Homefries, Ham, toast, bagels,
Muffins, butter tarts, Orange juice and strong coffee.
After lunch Jason and myself drive out to meet Rick
Henninger the editor of the Fish-n-Field report. I
know Rick from my days at Rainbow Bay camp in Moffet
Quebec. Over the summer I talked Rick into joining us
for a few days of fishing. We left camp a little
early so we could re-supply the Honey Brown.
Somehow we end up with Jagermiester, Absolute, Patrone and Shnaps.
The first one we see when we get back is
MIKE ??? He has landed three more Atlantics since we
left. While we were goneJeff took a group of guys up
to dump truck flats and they find quite a few kings.
Once we were back we had a feast waiting for us. We started with Grilled chicken and Jallepeno Nacho chips.
Then we had Cherry wood
smoked sausage, Burgers, Brats, homemade Chili sauce,
Baked Beans, French Fries, fruit salad, Blueberry,
Rhubarb and apple pies. No one left hungry. After
dinner Ben and a few of the guys went out moose calling but didn't
get any awnsers.
9-22-10 What
a day..!! Perfect weather and lots of fish caught.
Mike ??? slayed the Atlantics once again today.
Last I heard he had landed 12 today. He kept a
beauty to get mounted. He also kept a real clean
40 inch king for the taxidermist. WE ARE OVER 50
ATLANTICS LANDED IN THE LAST SEVEN DAYS NOW. AMAZING..!!
Everybody was on the program today and a lot of fish
were caught. Poor Gilbert cut fish for hours this
evening. It was seafood night and we had fried perch,
crappie, shrimp, mac -n-cheese and fries plus a awesome shrimp scampi and salad for an
appetizer. It was Ricks first day in camp so we fished
several sections of stream so he could see just how good
the fishing is here on the Garden. He had a ball
fighting Kings and Pinks. Mostly pinks but
we did entice a few big gnarly Kings into striking. I
got four Kings out of one hole and all were over 38
inches. Hot fly was a bead head black bugger
size #6. The guys spin fishing did best on Firetiger spoons. With alot of the Kings still pre-spawn
even they wanted the hardware today. I used my
11'6" Hardy switch rod with a Skagit line and it
was perfect for swinging the big stuff.
Lets Go
Fishin..!!
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