Give me Strength..

So I have finally got a couple of days off work.
I just put three 12-12 shifts in the can and got about 4 hrs sleep last night.
I am wiped.
I awoke this morning to find out that Ella has come down with something and she is laid up on the couch with a fever....
Nice!
Winter has decided to rear its ugly head once again and even though this has been a relatively soft winter...especially after last years meatgrinding horror show...this latest snowy round has me a wee bit down and out...

Aves first toboggan run Feb14 2010 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

My youngest daughter loves it however...

Spring can't come soon enough....
It could very well be that another Stuhan trip is the medicine that I am looking for....

I Wonder If Tim Hortons Is Hiring???

Interesting day at work last shift in....

I can't say too much about it other than the fact that it is the kind of thing that you look forward to but when it happens things can get heavy in a real hurry...

I wonder if I will ever get used to the idea that this shit really exists?

I guess I'd better.

Salmon Part II

...You know?...
I do miss the Salmon.

I miss the trips to the river in Full Shitrat regalia...Jello cured Skeins the size of golf balls...giant k9 like teeth on fish that are half rotten and that have morphed into something out of a science fiction movie...

I recall a trip to the Bighead in Sept where I went 0 for 11 on giant salmon and drove all the way home smiling!!

My father in law and I used to chase the salmon around on that river during an annual family trip to Collingwood.

He used to just love it...

I used to have all kinds of skein left over from the open water boat stuff of the late summer and the nasty old boots would literally chase the giant skein balls once they hit the water.
There needn't be any subtlety to the drift...and Gerry was all over it!!!

This picture he has on a shelf in his sun room ....much to his wifes chagrin.
;o)


I remember an afternoon with JDA at Inverhuron watching a big old fella with no eyes left still trying desperately to defend his turf and secure his right to mate with the ladies present.
I love sex ...but if I had to go to that kind of bother?
There used to be a brilliant Coho run at Sauble falls and some of the males were as red as tomatoes..


World class fishing...


I haven't seen one there in some time.


Lots have taken a run trying to pay tribute to the trials of the migrating Salmon...
The relentless heroism of the fish returning to its natal stream...and all that ....it is almost cliche.
I have neither the energy or the skills to wax poetic about the stinky old river rats...
..But I do know that one day this past fall I stopped my hike to watch two lonely old Kings do the dance and my heart went out them...
Dislocated and now struggling....
It was sad and beautiful
The Alewife problem is gone...well done....maybe too well done.

Salmon

Last night Jason (Jackass) and I got together for some Skeeters Chicken Wings and Beer.
It had been too long..
Life can do that to you if you are not careful. It is tough to keep in touch when life is a warzone and I really hope things settle down enough in the near future for us to pick up somewhat where we left off.

I miss the fishing we used to do together.

Back when we were all a tight knit group J-Mike talked me into buying a boat with him....he used to talk me into a lot of shit.....all of which usually turned out to be a lot of fun....and invariably had us in and out of the matrimonial doghouse.
This boat purchase was no exception...taxed with the hairy eyeballs we'd get from wives and inlaws...
I miss the boats.
We had some catching up to do last night and it made me realize how much I missed his company.
Over coffee this morning I decided to take a trip down memory lane.
Some of the pictures had me laughing out loud.
Fuck I have aged...

Here is a picture of our first boat...LOL...
If I remember correctly boat,motor and trailer cost us $300.oo.

All of our Boats were Christened "The Blind Squirrel".....
As in "even a blind Squirrel will find a nut if it looks long enough".....


Well maybe at the beginning but towards the end we really had our shit together ...so much so that we smoked the Izumi team in the Tournament of Champions....
I think we came in 11th out of fifty or so boats...
Not too shabby.
;o)
...oddly enough this first boat leaked.
LOL
Come to think of it all of our boats leaked....but then thats why god gave us bilge pumps....and CBs...
:oO
Here is our second boat.


I think that this boat was my favourite even though it almost sank on us out at the shipwrecks....geesh ...there is an irony there I had never considered before!
LOL
I got the biggest salmon of my life in this boat and I will never forget it.
I had just put our first line down as we were pulling out of Port Credit..
Pop goes the rod and it just starts singin....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz....
By the time we got the boat turned the linecounter read just under 500 ft!
Screamers indeed.
I have tried like hell to locate the picture and I haven't given up either.
I had dug it out last year because I was sure that it was going to make the TOP TEN list but decided at the last minute to leave the salmon out of it.
It was an oinker that went just under 22 lbs....
Fun stuff.
The biggest fish we ever took in any of thses boats was a King from Lake Ontario.
We'd arrived at Bluffers to the thickest fog anyone had ever seen.
Rather than exercise common sense we went out anyway....Fuck it...we had the GPS...what else did we need!

This is a pic of Jason on the bow....you can't see two feet into the distance.
we hammered fish that day and that fish was just a hair under 30LBS.
Dumb ...but made a great story.
Over a two - three year period we went through 5 boats upgrading each time.
Here are the photos..and to be honest I can't be sure of the chronology!


Memory is a funny thing.


The last boat we drove deep into Quebec for only to run into an irate Francophone that could barely communicate to us that he'd expected to be paid in US funds!!!
Always drama and always a story...


Man I hope that fucking guy is dead.
Life...
We finally got the boat of our dreams just in time for kids to come along and place all of this on the back burner.


Distant memories now...but very good ones.
At some point I will own a boat again.

I have been thinking a lot about salmon lately...mostly because we were counting on Jeff Stuhan for some roe!!!
...and were bitterly disappointed.
That stuff was awesome this year and I have just under one trip left of it.
The poor old salmon don't get a whole lot of respect and I remember the quest to find a loose one at the beginning of every season.
It was never too hard...they were everywhere.
When I am with roe and on the prowl for Steelies I don't miss them much.
Do you remember how the rivers used to stink in the fall?
If not just make a trip to the Oak or Dirty B in late Sept/OCt....
There are still few Tules kickin about down at this end of the lake but it will never be like it was....
And ...anybody who has had a high teens fish take a bait in early spring will never look down his nose at the KINGS again.
Heres to em...