Ladies and gentlemen...Elvis has left the building: Ted (right) and Mr. Presley with our boat's last decent fish of the day

Today began overcast, much chillier and with 20-knot winds, which pretty much directed the plan for the day since a trip down to the Collin River, the Sneak Hole or the sand flats for lakers would have been bumpy at best. And so it was we fished Maurice Bay near camp, once again, for big northerns.

Not that we minded. In fact, we probably would have hit Maurice anyway, since it held out the best chance of topping our big fish for the trip. I almost did just that, too, early on in the day, when I tagged a beauty on a #5 blaze Muskie Marabou. I swear it was my 45-incher, but then again, I’m the only guy in the boat who saw it, so let’s make it a 50-incher.

Seriously, here’s the straight skinny on the trip’s big fish. Between Ted and I, we caught 30 pike longer than 40 inches (one 41-incher each on our fly rods, no less) and 27 lake trout topping 20 pounds. I’m not sure where else you can fish like such a king, but I do know this: I’m now completely spoiled when it comes to angling for numbers of big lakers and pike. It’s a good thing there’s no smallies here…

Well, it’s time to sign off and dig into our last big meal of the trip: ribs. So, now would be a good time to say a big thanks to all the folks here at Lakers Unlimited’s Spring Bay camp. Cheers all!

My fish is bigger than your...oops! One of our several double-headers

Nice pike: Ted with one of today's many 40-inch-plus fish

As I write this, I’m sitting on the deck at Lakers Unlimited’s Spring Bay Lodge with owner Jeff Perela, the guides and the five other guests, comparing notes on the day. All three boats, two anglers each, spent the bulk of today chasing northerns on Maurice Bay, just out front of the lodge. In the few days since our arrival on Saturday, the weed growth has exploded — and remarkably fast. Where before there were barren sand patches, there are now ever-expanding weedbeds, and they’re total pike magnets. We pretty sure, in fact, that the northerns are streaming in from outside the bay, attracted by the quickly growing, oxygen-rich environment. That’s one reason we spent the day on Maurice. The other reason is that Maurice is where Dave Drobny and Dwight Hottle caught the big pike in camp yesterday.

In the end, Ted and I caught some 14 or so 40-inch-plus northerns, plus an embarrassing number of teenagers. Honestly, we once again stopped counting, but based on a rough calculation, we easily brought in 90 fish between us. Still, we haven’t succeeded in our quest to catch a 30-pounder (and my personal goal of a somewhat more modest 45-incher). Nor have we managed to catch Hottle and Drobny. In fact, they pulled out even further in the lead today, when Drobny hammered home his personal best, a 29-pounder. Good going guys. But look out tomorrow — our last day.

As for playing poker again with those two sharks…

Trophy on the fly: Ted and Bryan (right) with Ted's 41-incher

Big pike in camp (so far): Dwight Hottle and his 27-pounder

Runner up: Dave Drobny and his 23-pound northern

Another morning of sunny, blue bird skies meant one thing: more pike on the fly. This time, we boated straight to a honey hole scouted out yesterday by Lakers Unlimited owner Jeff Perela and his two anglers, Americans Dave Drobny and Dwight Hottle. Their information was sound: Bryan put Ted and I on no end of northerns, which we were able to sight-fish in the shallows. I’ve never bonefished before, but it sure looked like the fishing-the-flats videos I’ve seen on TV. It was just awesome being able to cast to giant shadows and watching them turn and pursue our flies. In the end, we stopped counting after roughly 15 fish apiece, all caught with an hour. Best of all, Ted and I both brought trophy 41-inchers to the boat. Sweet.

Meanwhile, the fishing gods thanked Dave and Dwight, both of whom are Athabasca veterans, for sharing their hot spot with us. Dwight boated the big pike of the week so far, a 27-pound beast stretching the tape to 46.5 inches, while Dave notched up a 23-pounder. Well done, gents.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we’ll hit the pike again on the fly at the same spot — you just can’t pass up the opportunity to fish such a fly fisherman’s paradise.

Pike on the fly: One of my 20 northerns

Surprise catch: One of Ted's two eight-pound walleye

Guide pride: Me, Bryan and one of my 23-pound lakers

Today here at Lakers Unlimited started with clear skies and a hot sun. And so went the day, punctuated with frenetic interludes of high winds and driving wind. That’s Athabasca, they say. First off, we booted down to Collin River to hit northerns on the fly — my second time ever to throw thread, fur and tinsel at pike. Unlike my earlier hike to the skinny water near camp, however, this time the pike were, well, big (see photos). We didn’t hit anything over 40 inches, but I sure gave my new Sage nine-weight a good workout. And get this: I’m still on the first bunny leech I tied up back in Toronto.

Aside from my personal satisfaction of catching such awesome, wild fish on the fly (some 20 beauties each for Ted and me) the coolest thing of the morning’s session happened when we switched up to tin to troll back out of the river, just for fun. That’s when Ted nailed two eight-pound walleye — on a #4 Len Thompson Yellow & Red, no less. Now, we knew walleye inhabited the lake, and I’m pretty sure I’d seen some earlier up near the mouth of Collin, but it was still surprising when Ted caught the eight-pounders. Surprising because we had beat that same water pretty hard the previous day and all that morning, without tagging one walleye. Plus, it was high noon under clear skies — not exactly prime time for ‘eyes.

After pulling into the main lake and parking off for lunch (just sandwiches, so far; we haven’t wanted to take the time to stop and cook up shorelunch), we hit the lakers again thanks to Bryan’s wicked guiding. Ted kicked my butt, pulling in 13 fish, six of them over 20 pounds, on his hot pink T-60. I pulled up the rear with 9 lakers, two of which weighed 23 pounds. And from that tally, we recorded three double-headers, along with one triple after Ted released his first fish and picked up his spinning rod to drop down a big Bondi bait. Not bad for four hours of fishing. Too fun.

Fish on fire: One of our double-header moments

Today's big pike: Looks like I need to shave!

Day three here at Lakers Unlimited’s Spring Bay Lodge on Lake Athabasca did not disappoint. We hit the pike hard this morning for about three and half hours, putting five over 40 inches in the boat out of 60-plus fish in total. It was crazy good. I’m still waiting for my 45-inch plus monster, though. For lunch we booted out to the main lake and floated around eating sandwiches, then it was on to the lake trout: five over 20 pounds, plus another dozen or so in the teens, made it to the boat. And out of those, Ted and I scored three double-headers.

That’s a lot of quality fish, especially if you consider we had to cut things short when an ominous electrical storm rolled in. I say ominous because I started getting shocks in the boat, four in all from touching rods, the gunwale and Ted’s shoulder. Ted and Bryan thought I as BS-ing them until the tip of a rod started crackling like static on an AM radio. With thunder rumbling in the distance, that’s all the warning the three of us needed to hunker down in the bottom of the boat and book it back to camp.

Well, I have to cut this short, as the solar power here at camp is in short supply. Until tomorrow…

Lunker laker: My biggest trout of the trip so far

Leading pike: Ted and Bryan hoist Ted's 44-incher

"Night" fishing: Catching pike on the fly

I’m too tired to blog at any length, but I have to post just enough to tease my good fishing buddies and neighbours, Pat and Jon. Well, boys, yesterday here on northern Saskatchewan’s Lake Athabasca, my fishing partner, Ted Cawkwell, and I boated 13 lake trout topping 20 pounds (along with several teenagers). I got the big fish of the day, a 21.5-pound lunker. This was all pure bonus, since we had started out the day aiming to catch pike, which we also did: some 60 fish in all, the biggest of which were approaching 40 inches. But the weather cleared up nicely, so we took the opportunity to hit the big water on the main lake for a chance at the trout.

It’s a good thing we did go after the lakers yesterday, because today the forecast was for high winds, so we had to stick relatively close to camp. In the end, we caught no lake trout, but we did boat 12 big pike; Ted brought in the biggest one, a 44-incher we had spotted and nicknamed “Big Blue” due to the bluish tinge on its big shoulders. As for me, I lost what may well have been my goal for pike fishing-a 45-inch-plus bruiser-when my 30-pound braid snapped loudly above the leader. There must have been a nick. No mind: we still have five more days of fishing ahead of us.

As for tonight, we’re taking it easy here at camp (last night, we hiked several kilometres to a shallow river mouth to fly fish for hammer handles-my first-ever pike on the fly, eight in all, caught on the bunny leeches I’d tied up myself, no less). Before I sign-off for today, big thanks go to Bryan Parker, our kick-ass guide here at Lakers Unlimited, for his superb boatmanship, fish handling skills and good sense of humour. Hell, he even pinched off a pee midstream to unhook one of our many pike double-headers. Now’s that guiding.

My destination: the middle of nowhere, just the way I like it

I’m just heading out the door for the airport. This afternoon I fly up to Fort McMurray, Alberta, where I’ll catch a floatplane in the morning for Lake Athabasca. My destination is Spring Bay Lodge, run by Lakers Unlimited. The plan is catch my personal record pike (over 45 inches) and lake trout (more than 37 pounds). And to make things even more interesting, I’m bringing my nine-weight fly rod. I even took a crash course in fly tying to bring up my own streamers; thanks go to my associate editor Scott Gardner for the great lessons (and tying materials). Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting back up to the North and into some giant fish — for an entire week, no less. And please stay tuned: I hope to have satellite access, which will allow me to blog and post photos.

Opener success: Field editor Alan Davy (left), yours truly and Al's 22-pound tom

Well, I still have a wild turkey tag in my wallet. The spring season here in Ontario opened on Monday, and field editor Al Davy and I got set up before sunrise on his acreage near Port Sydney, Ontario.

Around 7 a.m., we had a hen come right in within gun range, but with no men were in tow. That wasn’t too surprising, since we hadn’t heard any gobbles. And so went most of the day: no tom talk.

Finally, at 4 p.m., we got our first gobbles. We kept calling, and within 10 minutes in came the first bird, albeit silently. I had the bead on it at 30 yards, but I couldn’t make out a beard, so I Iet it walk (for those not from Ontario, we can only shoot bearded birds here during the spring hunt). Clearly, it was male, but no beard is no beard.

The second bird soon followed, and he came to within 15 yards of us, staying hidden behind a large tree. He was swinging a nice chunk of rope. After about five more minutes, he finally popped out on Al’s side of the tree and-Bang!-Al had his bird, a 22-pound tom.

We had a few more gobbles, but couldn’t entice another turkey to come in. Day over.

Later, we checked Al’s trail cam over on the strut zone where we first heard the two birds gobbling. The turkey I passed up was on the camera; he had a barely discernable nub where his beard should have been. It must’ve been torn off in a fight or something. He was also a jake, so no mind: I’ve got my sights set on a tom this season

Yesterday, I joined Rob Pye from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters to check out some cow pasture and mixed hardwood stands just north of Orillia for the last four hours of legal hunting time. It was far too windy, though, and I didn’t hear or see a thing.

Did I mention I still have a tag in my pocket?

Cool fish: My first ever wahoo

Silver beauty: Jimmy Jack and a wahoo

This past Thursday, I joined my wife and three kids on a five-day getaway to Barbados (we head back to Canada today). The deal was she would write about the island’s offering for kids (Jackie works for Today’s Parent magazine), while I would cover off the fishing end of things.

One big problem (for me): Saturday and Sunday were the opening days of the Barbados Game Fishing Association International fishing tournament, and that meant most of this small island nation’s charters had already been seconded to the competition. In turn, that meant there were few available boats to take me fishing

The solution? Thanks to the BGFA’s president, Frank Armstrong, I was invited to join Brave Heart, a boat from St. Lucia that was short on crew. And so I ended up fishing the weekend with boat owner Jimmy Jack, a Scotsman (hence the name of the vessel), and his captain, Griffith David from St. Lucia, where Jimmy keeps his boat. In all, we logged some 19 hours on the water together.

At any rate, our two days out on the roiling Atlantic made for quite a tale, and one you’ll have to read about in an upcoming issue of Outdoor Canada. In the meantime, special thanks also must go to Maria Bovell, marketing executive with the Barbados Tourism Authority, for teeing me up with Frank Armstrong at the BGFA.

And, of course, thanks go to my new fishing buddies, Jimmy and Griffith, not to mention Frank Armstrong. You guys are top drawer. (And Frank, special congrats also go out to you and your associates for the BGFA’s 50th anniversary.

If anyone’s looking for a now slightly experienced crew member for next year, you know where to find me. Jimmy, you get first dibs.

Not the giant: one of my little fellas

A young 'un: Ted with a smaller Tobin northern

Tobin tubby: Kyle with the big fish of the trip

I’m sitting here in the Saskatoon airport, sun-burned and tired, but with fresh fishing stories to tell. We’re about to board, and I know I’ll be way too tired to post another blog once I’m back in Ontario, so here are the photo highlights. To be honest, the fishing was a tad slow for Tobin Lake (up north at Nipawin, Saskatchewan), but we had a great three days running-and-gunning. Kyle Grona got the big fish, a 21-pounder (pictured here), plus the second biggest (16 pounds) and the third (15 pounds), all proof positive as to why Tobin is renowned for producing massive northerns. I guess Kyle had the hot tip-ups! My old fishing buddy Ted Cawkwell and I followed up with the smaller guys, including three eaters (under the 27-inch slot). In all, we landed 15 fish and put up almost as many flags that didn’t produce. I swear I got the monster of the trip, but got stumped (literally) when my fish wrapped around a chunk of timber and broke off. Okay, looks like we’re about to board. Enjoy the snaps!