January 2012

The first week of January, 2012. A great start to the new year.

It was a few days from a winter wonderland! The weather was nice and the snow hung in the trees as there hadn't been much wind....even the dogs enjoyed the snow! The old guide had us setup in his cosy ice fishing hut out on the big lake - Clearwater. He even had his underwater camera down one of the holes and it was amazing to see the trout  - and the good number of trout - cruising by like sharks. Enjoyed the ice fishing with good buddies..warm weather, hot coffee and lottsa lies...oops stories!

Can't wait for spring open water!........

Papa Dougy and Landon at the lake

The week went by fast with lots of things to do....swimming, boating and of course some fishing. Landon caught some nice walleye and pike and the fish fry that Papa Bert put on was exceptional!

We did some exploring... by boat to Snake Island... and hiking to the caves.....

On the rainy day, Landon tied his first flies and they were ready to be tested on the water.

All in all it was a great week, but it was time to say good-bye to London the black dog and the cabin.

The Old Guide puts on a fly fishing clinic!

Well......we used the same flies and technique but somehow he managed to outfish us again.....

June 21st was a beautiful day on the gin clear waters of Barbe Lake. The trout were gorging themselves on dragonfly nymphs and it was something to see the old guide match and catch!

One of those days on the lake!

The lake trout were biting, and the boat suddenly died!.....it's a good thing for good friends with big boats who can come to the rescue....but it was a nice day!

Trophy Rainbow Trout

June 10th was an exceptional day of trout fishing on Barbe Lake, 45 minutes from home base at Clearwater Lake. This 25.75" trophy trout was taken fly fishing on an olive fly imitating the native olive sticlkleback minnows which are active in the lake at this time of year.

Crystal Clear .... Clearwater Lake

Crystal clear water, good friends, great memories, solitude, beautiful native lake trout....what more could you ask for...

Clearwater Lake is located in limestone bedrock country which gives the lake its robins egg blue tint. It is one of only 3 'true blue' lakes in the world, the others being Lake Baikal in Russia (the largest freshwater lake in the world) and Lake Lucerene in central Switzerland. The excellent beaches have sands which have a percentage of garnet crystals brought from the Precambrian rock by southward moving glacial ice.

The shores of the lake are forested with white spruce and jackpine on the higher land, and forests of black spruce and tamarack on the lower areas.

Moose, woodland cariboo and brown bear may be seen. The lake is a haunt of the sportsfisherman who take trophy northern pike and lake trout.